NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 660 adds to the company's product stack by providing a fully featured gaming solution at the crucial price point of around $200. The reference design sits right between AMD Radeon HD 7850 and HD 7870 in terms of performance. Thanks to its overclock out of the box, the GIGABYTE GTX 660 Windforce OC gains 6% over the NVIDIA reference design, ending up just 2% behind the HD reference 7870. This is enough gaming power for most titles at full HD (1920 x 1080), with maximum details and anti-aliasing enabled.
Compared to the GK104 based cards, like GTX 680, 670, and 660 Ti, the new GK106 graphics processor offers significantly improved non-gaming power draw, which beats anything similar AMD has to offer, especially while running multiple monitors or Blu-ray. HD 7800 series is the winner when it comes to gaming power consumption despite NVIDIA having the better boost clock technology to improve performance per Watt. AMD also has ZeroCore power, which turns the card off while the screen is off, during, for example, overnight download sessions.
The GTX 660 just requires a single 6-pin PCI-Express power connector, whereas the HD 7870 requires two. While this might look more attractive for entry-levels PSUs, the actual power consumption is roughly similar and a single connector will only help reduce cable clutter.
Gigabyte's Windforce cooler easily keeps the card cool, and it does so with very little noise in idle. Gigabyte seems to have favored lower temperatures under load, which are super low with just 60°C. Unfortunately, this means that the card is also the noisiest while gaming. I prefer a more balanced approach to noise and temperature because there is little difference between 70°C and 60°C, but less noise is more appealing to most users. The GTX 660 has, generally speaking, a clear advantage in noise levels when compared to the HD 7800 Series. Temperatures are fine on all cards, thanks to the low heat output of the GPU.
NVIDIA's reference design price point seems a bit high with $229, considering the faster HD 7870 retails at $250. Gigabyte is asking $259 for their overclocked GTX 660, which is the same as any other overclocked card tested today. This means that price/performance considered, the GTX 660 cannot beat the HD 7870, only to, at best, match it. When comparing the GTX 660 to the HD 7870, I don't see a clear win for either product - both will make you a happy gamer. The GTX 660 has lower idle power, better noise and CUDA/PhysX, and the HD 7870 has higher performance, better gaming power consumption and ZeroCore power. Then there is also the HD 7850 1 GB, which offers incredible price/performance for budget-conscious shoppers. Overall, it's too close to call. Future price reductions will make the difference.