Another GK104 Option for $299
NVIDIA has yet another GPU based on the GK104 Kepler chip for us today – the 660 Ti 2GB at $299!
If you missed our live stream with PC Perspective's Ryan Shrout and NVIDIA's Tom Petersen discussing the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti you can find the replay at this link!!
While NVIDIA doesn't like us to use the codenames anymore, very few GPUs are as flexible and as stout as the GK104. Originally released with the GTX 680 and then with the dual-GPU beast known as the GTX 690 and THEN with the more modestly priced GTX 670, this single chip has caused AMD quite a few headaches. It appears things will only be worse with the release of the new GeForce GTX 660 Ti today, once again powered by GK104 and the Kepler architecture at the $299 price point.
While many PC gamers lament about the lack of games that really push hardware today, NVIDIA has been promoting the GTX 660 Ti as the upgrade option of choice for gamers on a 2 -4 year cycle. Back in 2008 the GTX 260 was the mid-range enthusiast option while in 2010 it was the GTX 470 based on Fermi. NVIDIA claims GTX 260 users will see more than 3x the performance increase with the 660 Ti all while generating those pixels more efficiently.
I mentioned that the GeForce GTX 660 Ti was based on GK104 and what you mind find interesting is that it is nearly identical to the specifications of the GTX 670. Both utilize 7 SMXs for a total of 1344 stream processors or CUDA cores and both run at a reference clock speed of 915 MHz base and 980 MHz Boost. Both include 112 texture units though the GeForce GTX 660 Ti does see a drop in ROP count from 32 to 24 and L2 cache drops from 512KB to 384KB. Why?
The only other major specification to change is the memory bus width: the GeForce GTX 660 Ti will have a 192-bit memory bus while the GTX 670 and the GTX 680 run at 256-bit. While the memory will still run at 6.0 GHz, the total available memory bandwidth drops from 192.2 GB/s down to 144.2 GB/s – a decrease of 35%. How that will play out in actual gaming will be shown on the benchmark pages but I can tell you that it altered performance more than I expected it to.
Here is the full breakdown of specifications as detailed above with other notable change seen in the TDP decrease of 20 watts.
For this launch NVIDIA didn't send us any reference cards and instead we got partner overclocked solutions from Galaxy, MSI, EVGA and Zotac. (We are going to follow up this week with a quick roundup.) Because of that, our pictures are going to vary from card to card and design to design, but we'll use the MSI option for our descriptions here.
The output configuration could vary but we expect all the GeForce GTX 660 Ti cards to include a pair of DVI connections, a full size HDMI and a full size DisplayPort.
Like the GTX 670, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti only requires a pair of 6-pin PCIe power connections.
3-Way SLI support continues here as well!
If you remember, the reference GTX 670s used a smaller length PCB and while our MSI and Galaxy cards for the GeForce GTX 660 Ti launch do NOT, the EVGA and Zotac options did, seen here.
For gamers looking to pick up a GeForce GTX 660 Ti right away, you might be stoked to find out that NVIDIA is including a copy of Borderlands 2 with MOST of the retail units. Considering how successful we expect this game to be, that $50-60 value really is great to see for a launch like this.
NVIDIA sent along this video that demonstrates Borderlands 2 OF COURSE with a PhysX emphasis – why not include it here to get you excited for the game?
nvidia has a beast of a video
nvidia has a beast of a video card with 660ti compared to 7950 even with an updated bios.
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All the retailers say there
All the retailers say there are non listed. I hope I don’t miss the wave before they oos :/
I am looking forward to the
I am looking forward to the upcoming price drops from AMD. Isn’t competition great!?
i cant wait till the
i cant wait till the fall/winter when amd releases the 8xxx series of cards then nv sits and waits for a year than updates its lineup
Low TDP, cuda cores, and the
Low TDP, cuda cores, and the MSI Twin Frozr looks promising to overclock. I might just move on from my 6970 to this card. 1344 Cuda cores should help in AE rendering.
How much more performous
How much more performous would you get if you have a gtx 670 and want to run that with the 660ti as sli
I doublt you can SLI a 660ti
I doublt you can SLI a 660ti and a 670 together, and a 660ti is about 5-10% less powerful than a 670.
no you SLI a 660 ti and a 670
no you SLI a 660 ti and a 670 because are different cards you dick, you can only SLI the same card but they can be different makes. e.g MSI and EVGA, but they have to be the same GPU!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkNgL9VpyfY&feature=g-all-u
For building an SLI-System
For building an SLI-System you need to use SAME GPUs.
2x GTX 670 OR 2x GTX 660 Ti.
GTX 670 + 660 Ti is not able to run in SLI-Mode.
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660ti SLI is about a 20%
660ti SLI is about a 20% performance increase from a single 680
Gtx 660 ti sli is in some
Gtx 660 ti sli is in some cases even more powerful than the gtx Titan
how does sli scale on this
how does sli scale on this card? will it be worth it towards highly oc’ed 600$ cards?
Hi, i play in a 25′ Monitor,
Hi, i play in a 25′ Monitor, and i’m going to buy a 660Ti When the 660Ti goes “Cheap” here in Brazil ( A Lot Expensive here : ), but the question is i can Run the 660Ti i have risk of lose the 660ti With a 400w Power Supply ? with a core i3 2120 and 8 gb Kingston Memory ? Thank You. And Sorry for The bad english, i’m Training.
What brand PSU is it? A
What brand PSU is it? A seasonic, thermaltake, or corsair 400w PSU likely would be okay, but the 660ti like a 450+. Other than that, your next upgrade would likely be a Quad Core i5, but even then the difference would be marginal between an i3 and an i5.
I Have a Corsair, but i was
I Have a Corsair, but i was seeing that probably i will need to change my power suplly, i have Corsair 400CX, that only have a 6 pin connector.
Will faster GPUs help
Will faster GPUs help productivity with Folding at Home?
If you use the GPU-Client it
If you use the GPU-Client it will. The faster the card, the more points you’ll get.
But in Folding@home the Radeons are much faster, then the GTXs.
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Question for
Question for Tom:
——————–
Do you think the 660 has been nerfed enough so that overclocked versions won’t exceed a more expensive 670? Because that was a real problem with the 670 vs 680!
——————–
at lower rez like 1080 don’t
at lower rez like 1080 don’t think would take much OC to get it to around 670 speed, but that disabled memory controller is a ~25% memory bandwidth hit which would be a pretty size-able OC to get that back. I would say it could get in 670 ball park. This card was aimed at single monitor people.
wish i haddent bought a hd
wish i haddent bought a hd 7850
Why the 660Ti is between the
Why the 660Ti is between the 7870 and 7850 check out a real review on TomsHardware.com
Unless I missed it in my
Unless I missed it in my rather quick glance at this review (which has been discarded because of this fact), you should have included the 560 Ti. Did you just assume that no one was interested in the increase of power between the generation gap?
Should have used the 560 Ti, 570, and a 670 as a bench mark competitor – this review is useless with out it.
560ti is marginally faster
560ti is marginally faster than the 470.
You missed it, because its
You missed it, because its quiet obvious with as close as the 660ti performs to the 670.
And that comparison probably in the works anyway….
what Catalyst version you
what Catalyst version you used for the test?
12.6 for AMD, 305.37 for
12.6 for AMD, 305.37 for NVIDIA. Article updated!
Can this one card be used to
Can this one card be used to drive an HD TV, and 3 monitors in or out of eyefinity? I want to display a TV on on screen and have 3 monitor computing, not hardcore gaming but along those lines. I don’t play many games, but I’m looking for a card that can do this. I currently run 3 heads off of a 6950/70 and run the TV off the z68 gigabyte iSSD mobo. THe current setup works, but I’m looking to upgrade…
I am planning a build which
I am planning a build which will use 3 660ti’s in a 3 way SLi configuration so I should find out just how much of an improvement that makes in the next year. Your next question is why? Well I am not as interested in the performance gain as I am interested in getting at cheap GPUs. I am building the computer as mainly a GPU compute platform its ability to serve as a gaming platform is a perk. I am looking to take advantage GPU processing capabilities for GIS work.
interesting, what type of
interesting, what type of data?
*HELP* Can it handle 3
*HELP* Can it handle 3 monitors???? *HELP*
it can handle 4, 3 at once
it can handle 4, 3 at once for gaming and one on the side
It’s my understanding that a
It’s my understanding that a 660Ti is a crippled 670gtx on a 192bit bus. So why? can these cards not SLI? surely the 670 would reduce its bus speed down to 192. before you go saying whats the point (I picked up a 660ti for £80 Black friday on Amazon) two 660ti’s beat a 670gtx in most youtube benchies.
I’m going to buy gtx 660 ti
I’m going to buy gtx 660 ti but,I don’t know which version of gtx660ti is the best. I’m thinking about gigabyte gtx660ti 3gb (gv n66toc 3gd)
As of right now, the HD 7870
As of right now, the HD 7870 is $80 less than the 660 Ti on Newegg. I don’t think that $80 is worth the performance difference at all.