ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Direct Cu II 2 GB

[W1zzard]

The ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II uses the cooling solution which we love most for its low noise in both idle and load. ASUS has also overclocked their board, which provides enough extra performance to match the AMD Radeon HD 7870.

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[dj-electric]

ohh ohhh.... i see what you did there AMD
Clever move, clever move...

 

[W1zzard]

ohh ohhh.... i see what you did there AMD
Clever move, clever move...

i dont. what do you mean?

 

[dj-electric]

I mean the price change announcement lately

 

[entropy13]

i dont. what do you mean?

Probably talking about the price cuts.

Even with the price cuts all it actually did (for the reference HD 7870 for example) is make it more competitive in the price/perf ratio (to the reference GTX 660), from the previous position of "barely competitive to non-ref GTX 660".

 

[W1zzard]

I mean the price change announcement lately

those are not yet factored into this review. I used retail pricing from Newegg (without any MIR crap)

 

[dj-electric]

Oh well. Still, things like this
ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5 Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2G...
look just like great deal.

 

[Ozpa]

I wish there was a round-up of all the 4 660s in one review so I could compare the cards easier, same with 660 Ti reviews.

 

[Casecutter]

Oh well. Still, things like this

Well not sure where reign from but last week I could've picked-up the Asus HD7870-DC2-2GD5 7870 2GB Card for $255; working a $10 off with coupon code, and -$20 rebate [Exp 9/30].

Buy that and OC it to 1260 MHz core (15% overclock) and 1620 MHz Memory (30% overclock) Like W1zzard got and you're in the GTX670 range for like $155 less!

The GTX660 pricing is out of bounds, from what it see they’re feeble on games at 1920x... for $250! Nvidia need the price cuts! So what if now the price for 7870 has moved down approximately 30%, AMD has been in the market 7 months un-contested them reducing price is expected…

The worst part, AMD is good to hold-fast now... the chance of seeing that Asus 7870 for $225 shipped… again anytime soon "for-get-a-bout-it"

 

[Delta6326]

Great review!

This is looks like a very good entry level gaming card this will get the job done for most people at 1080 or less. It's really almost like flipping a coin to decide on which GPU to get.

 

[Jeffredo]

Bought a GTX 670 a few months ago to replace my GTX 460 1GB. Probably should have waited for the GTX 660 since it would make more sense paired with my X4 980 BE (and would have saved me $150 or more). I know I'm bottlenecked right now. Oh well, guess I'm future proofed a bit more when I finally upgrade to an Intel platform in a year or so.

 

[bacan]

Great review as always but I noticed something really strange at Diablo 3 test. This card and MSI model scored almost 20-50% bigger score (at different resolutions) than the reference model while Zotac and Gigabyte scored similar. Is it some kind of an error or is it really true?

 

[brandonwh64]

W1z, I do not know if someone has asked this yet but will the GTX 650 be reviewed as well?

 

[Casecutter]

a very good entry level gaming

$250 entry level...

I do not know if someone has asked this yet but will the GTX 650 be reviewed as well?

Why it needs a 6-pin and doesn't best a 7750!

 

[Jeffredo]

Why it needs a 6-pin and doesn't best a 7750!

How about we don't want to take your word for it.

 

[DarkOCean]

Why it needs a 6-pin and doesn't best a 7750!

To have the possibility to achieve astronomical oc levels!

 

[Delta6326]

$250 entry level...


Why it needs a 6-pin and doesn't best a 7750!

Yes I consider the 650 and 660 Entry level 660 TI Mid, 670, 680 High end, 690 Enthusiast.

Also this beats the 7750...The 660 compares to the 7870.

 

[DarkOCean]

I consider the 660 a 7850 competitor, it cost more use more power and oc less.
They wolud make a very good choice for $199 but not for $230-$260 because people that want this kind of performance have already bought/have 7870,50 560ti etc so this card is not very attractive at this current price point.

 

[Crap Daddy]

I consider the 660 a 7850 competitor, it cost more use more power and oc less.
They wolud make a very good choice for $199 but not for $230-$260 because people that want this kind of performance have already bought/have 7870,50 560ti etc so this card is not very attractive at this current price point.

In fact it is a direct competition for the 7850 same as the 660Ti was for the 7870 and the 670 for the 7950. But, due to the aggressive AMD price cuts that started when the 660Ti was launched these cards are compared with respective AMD offerings for the same price.

There is one more card missing, the 650Ti or whatever, which will feature also a GK106 and it will go against the 7770 (for those who have doubts the 650 is against the 7750). Probably NV still considers that these cards can be sold at these starting price points but they will have to play the game sooner or later and bring their better performance closer to AMD counterpart prices.

 

[W1zzard]

W1z, I do not know if someone has asked this yet but will the GTX 650 be reviewed as well?

yes. msi on the 17th, getting another card tomorrow which i'll try to post asap

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Looks pretty good. performs as the GTX660 should In between the 7850 and 7870. price is lacking at this point, but Asus DirectCU cards are always expensive haha.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I consider the 660 a 7850 competitor, it cost more use more power and oc less.
They wolud make a very good choice for $199 but not for $230-$260 because people that want this kind of performance have already bought/have 7870,50 560ti etc so this card is not very attractive at this current price point.

Um these GTX660s shit bricks all over the 560ti's. At this price point im pretty sure people have already gotten GTX660ti's or 670s and AMD cards so.

 

[Casecutter]

How about we don't want to take your word for it.

Well Toms didn't have much to say good and they're always progressive for the green.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297.html

Yes I consider the 650 and 660 Entry level 660 TI Mid, 670, 680 High end, 690 Enthusiast.

Also this beats the 7750...The 660 compares to the 7870.

$230 is really stretching what I call entry... to me $140-180, $200 tops! I would rather say a card for the cash-strapped mainstream gamer... and many of use today are.

Moving on the power/performance... looking at Peak: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200 (I sure wish W1zzard had included the reference 660 numbers also it's hard to figure a baseline). The Asus 660 OC shows 129W while FPS of 50.1 divide that we get 2.57. Reference 7870 is 115W / 47.8FpS = 2.40. I'll throw-out a watt number for what might be reference 660 of say 110W / 45.7FpS = 2.40. From that I'm seeing that the GTX 660 isn't actually any better in power use while running Crysis 2. Then I look at the performance/watt at 1920x (odd now W1zzard shows the reference 660 and as the same as OC’d Asus?) and the 7870 is 16% better. That’s significant and should have had a mention on the "thumbs down" just like not have a technology for "Long-Idle power down" aka AMD’s ZeroCore Power technology.

I get the impression as though Kepler has diminishing returns on small die size.

 

[Delta6326]

Well Toms didn't have much to say good and they're always progressive for the green.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297.html


$230 is really stretching what I call entry... to me $140-180, $200 tops!

Oh yes going by price I would like to see the 660 for around $180-200 and I think they will do this some time, because look at the gap between the 650 and 660 price.

Knowing AMD they will come out with a special 7850 GHZ Boost 3GB edition with a game and then Nvidia will just drop the price

For me personally I go by performance even if the company says for example "The GTX 780 is entry level..." But then it ends up being the fastest card I would consider it high end.

 

[Casecutter]

going by price I would like to see the 660 for around $180-200

I don’t think Nvidia will budge much under $200 till AMD gets closer to release their Sea Islands in a couple of months... definitely not 7mo's away.

Nvidia has a GTX655 on the GK106 coming (we know that) and I’d think it would need to be $160-170 making it just another wedge product. AMD already has a 7850 1Gb for $180, that will come down to $150 right quick as more AIB get them out. The 7850 will be at $180-210, while 7870 $220-250. Nvidia has now made both this 660 and 660Ti wedge offerings, and AMD is in a good spot they’ve no reason to move in the market segment.