NVIDIA's new GTX 660 adds to the company's product stack by providing a fully featured gaming solution at the crucial price point of around $200. In terms of performance, the reference design sits right between AMD's HD 7850 and HD 7870. MSI has put an overclock out of the box on their TwinFrozr III board that helps the card gain 5% over the NVIDIA GTX 660 reference design, which is still 2% behind the reference HD 7870. Just like on the GTX 660 Ti, we see MSI's card deliver more performance at the same clock frequency than any other GTX 660 card from other manufacturers. MSI's special tweaking also shows in our overclocking results. Here, the MSI card delivers the highest overclocked performance despite reaching lower clock speeds. Overall gaming performance of the MSI GTX 660 Twin Frozr is enough for most titles at full HD with maximum details and anti-aliasing.
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 that beats anything similar AMD has to offer, especially when running multiple monitors or Blu-ray. HD 7800 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 HD 7870 requires two. While this might look more attractive for entry-levels PSUs, the actual power consumption is roughly similar. There is no real advantage to it besides reduced cable clutter.
MSI's TwinFrozr III cooler is well established with gamers now thanks to its good cooling performance. We also measured very low noise levels from the card in both idle and load, which is a selling point over the HD 7870. The GTX 660 has, generally speaking, a clear advantage in noise levels 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. MSI is asking $259 for their overclocked DC II TOP, which is the same as any other overclocked card tested today. This means, price/performance considered, the GTX 660 cannot beat the HD 7870, only to, at best, match it. I don't see a clear winner when comparing the GTX 660 with the HD 7870. Both will make you a happy gamer. The GTX 660 has lower idle power, better noise, and CUDA/PhysX. The HD 7870 has higher performance, better gaming power consumption, and ZeroCore power. Then there is the HD 7850 1 GB, which offers incredible price/performance for budget conscious shoppers. Overall, it's too close to call and future price-reductions will make the difference.