Introduction

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In early 2008, NVIDIA's GeForce 9600 GT, armed with a mere 64 shader units, 16 ROPs, 512 MB of memory, and an inviting price-tag, rattled competitor AMD's Radeon HD 3800 lineup. It allowed gamers to achieve playable framerates with cranked up visual details that were, until then, not possible with graphics cards in its price-segments. From that point on, NVIDIA realized it could gain a substantial market share in the sub-$250 price-segment, hovering around the $200 price-point, if it creates a GPU that can handle high-resolution gaming with a fair amount of eye-candy enabled. Continuing its legacy, NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 250, GeForce GTX 460, and GeForce GTX 660 are each successful products. In August, NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, a GPU that achieved a nice price-performance index in the $250-300 price-range. NVIDIA's next logical step would be to create a GPU that does the same with the $200-250 price-range. Enter the GeForce GTX 660.

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Unlike its "Ti" cousin, the GeForce GTX 660 is not based on the GK104 silicon from which several other GPUs, such as the GTX 670, GTX 680, and the dual-GPU GTX 690, are derived. The GTX 660 is, instead, based on the new GK106 silicon, which makes its desktop debut today. The GK106 is a physical downscale of GK104, which retains all its features, including component hierarchy, but has fewer numbers of them. The GK106 silicon is smaller, with a die-area of 221 mm² and transistor count of 2.54 billion (compared to 294 mm² and 3.54 billion of the GK104). The GK106 is built on the same 28 nanometer silicon fabrication process. A smaller chip results in reduced power draw. A case in point is that the GeForce GTX 660 needs power from just one 6-pin PCIe power connector; the GTX 660 Ti needs two of them.

As mentioned before, components on the GK106 maintain the same hierarchy as on GK104, and the two provide the same exact feature-set. The chip is based on NVIDIA's successful GeForce Kepler architecture. While GK104 packs eight graphics processing clusters (GPCs), with a total of sixteen streaming multiprocessor (SMX) units, holding 192 CUDA cores each, amounting to a total of 1,536 CUDA cores; the GK106 packs three GPCs, and five SMX units, totaling 960 CUDA cores. It's interesting to note that NVIDIA created a GPC with just one SMX unit, if the block diagram is anything to go by. Perhaps the chip really does have six SMX units, but it's kept out of the block diagram, perhaps to help harvest the chip better.
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The GK106 silicon packs a total of 960 CUDA cores, with 80 texture memory units (TMUs), 24 raster operations processors (ROPs), and a 192-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. As with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, NVIDIA set 2 GB as the standard memory amount for the GeForce GTX 660. A 192-bit wide memory interface, populated with six memory chips of the same 2 Gbit density, should, typically, result in a memory amount of 1.5 GB. NVIDIA populated two of the six 32-bit wide paths with two piggy-backed 2-Gbit chips each, for a total of eight 2 Gbit memory chips and 2 GB of memory. The 25% narrower memory-bus width shouldn't worry you because NVIDIA uses 6.00 GHz memory clock speed, resulting in a memory bandwidth of 144 GB/s. The GPU core is clocked at 980 MHz with a GPU Boost frequency of 1033 MHz.

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ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 660 is a close-to-reference implementation of the NVIDIA GTX 660. It uses a PCB that matches that of the NVIDIA reference design and a custom cooler by ZOTAC. The card comes with just a tiny overclock out of the box, but ZOTAC does not charge a higher price for that and the custom cooler.

<table class="tputbl hilight" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<caption>
GeForce GTX 660 Market Segment Analysis
</caption>
<tr>
<th scope="col"> </th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 650</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 560</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon<br>
HD 6870</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br>
GTX 560 Ti</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br>
HD 6950</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br>
GTX 570</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 6970</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 7850</th>
<th scope="col"><strong>GeForce <br />
GTX 660</strong></th>
<th scope="col"><p><strong>ZOTAC <br>
GTX 660</strong><strong></strong></p></th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 7870</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 580</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 660 Ti</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 7950</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Shader Units</th>
<td align="right">384</td>
<td align="right">336</td>
<td align="right">1120</td>
<td align="right">384</td>
<td align="right">1408</td>
<td align="right">480</td>
<td align="right">1536</td>
<td align="right">1024</td>
<td align="right"><strong>960</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>960</strong></td>
<td align="right">1280</td>
<td align="right">512</td>
<td align="right">1344</td>
<td align="right">1792</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">ROPs</th>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">40</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right"><strong>24</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>24</strong></td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">48</td>
<td align="right">24</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Graphics Processor</th>
<td align="right">GK107</td>
<td align="right">GF114</td>
<td align="right">Barts</td>
<td align="right">GF114</td>
<td align="right">Cayman</td>
<td align="right">GF110</td>
<td align="right">Cayman</td>
<td align="right">Pitcairn</td>
<td align="right"><strong>GK106</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>GK106</strong></td>
<td align="right">Pitcairn</td>
<td align="right">GF110</td>
<td align="right">GK104</td>
<td align="right">Tahiti</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Transistors</th>
<td align="right">1300M</td>
<td align="right">1950M</td>
<td align="right">1700M</td>
<td align="right">1950M</td>
<td align="right">2640M</td>
<td align="right">3000M</td>
<td align="right">2640M</td>
<td align="right">2800M</td>
<td align="right"><strong>2540M</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>2540M</strong></td>
<td align="right">2800M</td>
<td align="right">3000M</td>
<td align="right">3500M</td>
<td align="right">4310M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory Size</th>
<td align="right">1024 MB</td>
<td align="right">1024 MB</td>
<td align="right">1024 MB</td>
<td align="right">1024 MB</td>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">1280 MB</td>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right"><strong>2048 MB</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>2048 MB</strong></td>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">1536 MB</td>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">3072 MB</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Memory Bus Width</th>
<td align="right">128 bit</td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">320 bit</td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right"><strong>192 bit</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>192 bit</strong></td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right">192 bit</td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Core Clock</th>
<td align="right">1058 MHz</td>
<td align="right">810 MHz</td>
<td align="right">900 MHz</td>
<td align="right">823 MHz</td>
<td align="right">800 MHz</td>
<td align="right">732 MHz</td>
<td align="right">880 MHz</td>
<td align="right">860 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>980 MHz+</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>993 MHz+</strong></td>
<td align="right">1000 MHz</td>
<td align="right">772 MHz</td>
<td align="right">915 MHz+</td>
<td align="right">800 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Memory Clock</th>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1002 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1050 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1002 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
<td align="right">950 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1375 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1200 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>1502 MHz</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>1502 MHz</strong></td>
<td align="right">1200 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1002 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1502 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1250 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Price</th>
<td align="right">$110</td>
<td align="right">$165</td>
<td align="right">$170</td>
<td align="right">$200</td>
<td align="right">$200</td>
<td align="right">$259</td>
<td align="right">$380</td>
<td align="right">$200</td>
<td align="right"><strong>$230</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>$230</strong></td>
<td align="right">$250</td>
<td align="right">$430</td>
<td align="right">$300</td>
<td align="right">$300</td>
</tr>
</table>

Packaging

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You will receive:

Graphics card
Driver CD + documentation
PCI-Express power cable
DVI adapter
TrackMania Canyon coupon

The Card

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ZOTAC uses a compact cooler on their card, which results in kind of a cute look. The small form factor might come in handy with building a small form factor gaming rig.

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The card requires two slots in your system.

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Display connectivity options include two dual-link DVI ports, one full-size HDMI port, and one full-size DisplayPort. You may use all the outputs at the same time.

An HDMI sound device is included in the GPU as well. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible and includes HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies support. The DisplayPort outputs are version 1.2, which enables the use of hubs and Multi-Stream Transport.

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The card has a single SLI connector, which allows a dual-GPU SLI configuration with another GeForce GTX 660.

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Pictured above are the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods, etc., please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

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ZOTAC's dual-fan cooler uses a copper base and two heatpipes to keep the card cool.

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Once we remove the main heatsink assembly, we see two smaller heatsinks. One provides cooling for the memory chips on one side of the board and the other removes heat from the voltage regulation circuitry.

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The card requires a single 6-pin PCI-Express connector. This power configuration is good for up to 150 W of power draw.

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The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Samsung and carry the model number K4G20325F0-FC03. They are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective).

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ZOTAC uses an OnSemi NCP5395 voltage controller on their card. It does not provide software voltage control via I2C or any monitoring features.

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NVIDIA's new GK106 processor is produced on a 28 nm at TSMC, Taiwan. The transistor count is 2.54 billion.

Test System

<table class="tputbl">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Test System - VGA Rev. 21</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th width="120" scope="row">Processor:</th>
<td align="center">Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.7 GHz<br />(Ivy Bridge, 8192 KB Cache)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td align="center">ASUS Maximus V Gene<br />
Intel Z77</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td align="center">2x 4096 MB Corsair Vengeance PC3-12800 DDR3 <br />
@ 1600 MHz 9-9-9-24</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td align="center">WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td align="center">Antec HCP-1200 1200W</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Software:</th>
<td align="center">Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Drivers:</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">NVIDIA: 304.79 Beta<br />GTX 660 Ti: 305.37 Beta<br />GTX 660: 306.23 Beta<br />ATI: Catalyst 12.7 Beta</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Display:</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">
LG Flatron W3000H 30" 2560x1600<br />
3x Hanns.G HL225DBB 21.5" 1920x1080
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Benchmark scores in other reviews are only comparable when this exact same configuration is used.

All video card results were obtained on this exact system with exactly the same configuration.
All games were set to their highest quality setting unless indicated otherwise.
AA and AF are applied via in-game settings - not via the driver's control panel.

Each benchmark was tested at the following settings and resolution:

1280 x 800, 2x Anti-aliasing. Common resolution for most small flatscreens today (17" - 19"). A bit of eye candy turned on in the drivers.
1680 x 1050, 4x Anti-aliasing. Most common widescreen resolution on larger displays (19" - 22"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
1920 x 1200, 4x Anti-aliasing. Typical widescreen resolution for large displays (22" - 26"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
2560 x 1600, 4x Anti-aliasing. Highest possible resolution for commonly available displays (30"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
5760 x 1080, 4x Anti-aliasing. Typical high-end gaming multi-monitor resolution. Very good looking driver graphics settings.

Alan Wake

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Alan Wake, released in 2012 for the PC, is a highly successful third-person horror shooter that revolves around the adventures of novelist Alan Wake who has to battle the "darkness" which takes over living and dead things. Alan's signature flashlight is used to strip the forces of darkness of their protection, making them vulnerable to conventional weapons.

The engine of Alan Wake uses DirectX 9, but features complex lighting effects, making it a quite demanding title. We benchmarked with the highest settings possible.

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Batman: Arkham City

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Batman is back on the LCD screen with Batman: Arkham City, a sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum, by Rocksteady Games and WB. It was released on the PC platform in November. Batman is imprisoned in Arkham City, an infamous district of the DC Universe that contains the scum of Gotham, most of whom Batman helped put in there. In order to get out, he must go through scores of baddies and encounters many of the iconic supervillains along the way - he's not entirely alone.

Batman: Arkham City uses the same Unreal Engine by Epic as Batman: Arkham Asylum does, but, it has, thanks to the engine's modularity, been overhauled and outfitted with the latest technologies, including a graphics engine that takes advantage of DirectX 11.

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Battlefield 3

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Arguably one of the most anticipated online shooters in recent times, Battlefield 3 is the latest addition to some of the most engaging online multiplayer-shooter franchises. It combines infantry combat with mechanized warfare including transport vehicles, armored personnel carriers, main battle tanks, attack helicopters, and combat aircraft - pretty much everything that goes into today's battlefields. Infantry combat is coupled with role-playing elements which make the experience all the more engaging. It also has a single-player campaign that adds a few gigabytes to its installer.

Behind all this is a spanking new game engine by EA-DICE, Frostbite 2. It makes use of every possible feature DirectX 11 has to offer, including hardware tessellation and new lighting effects, to deliver some of the most captivating visuals gamers have ever had access to. Not playing this game on the PC is a grave injustice to what's in store. Faster PCs are rewarded with better visuals.

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BattleForge

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BattleForge, a card-based RTS, is developed by the German EA Phenomic Studio. A few months after the launch, the game was transformed into a Play 4 Free branded game. That move, and the fact that it was included as a game bundle with a large number of ATI cards, made it one of the more well-known RTS games of 2009. You, as a player, assemble your deck before the game to select the units that will be available. Elemental force choices can come from the forces of Fire, Frost, Nature, and Shadow to complement each other.

The BattleForge engine has full support for DX9, DX10, and DX10.1. We used the internal benchmark tool in DirectX 11 mode with the highest settings possible to obtain our results.

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Civilization 5

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Sid Meier's Civilization V (or Civ 5 in common jargon) is the latest addition to the franchise of masterfully crafted real-time strategy games that let you play God to a nascent civilization of your choice all the way up to the space age. Civilization V uses large 3D worlds that are procedurally generated and takes advantage of the hardware tessellation features offered by DirectX 11 to exponentially step up the complexity of cities, models, terrains, and objects. This generation of GPUs can be expected to handle large texture loads that come with such eye candy.

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Crysis

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After the tremendous success of Far Cry, the German game studio Crytek released their shooter Crysis in 2007. The game was by far the most hyped and anticipated game in 2007, and forums were full of "Can my system run Crysis?" threads because of the high hardware requirements of this game. Just like in Far Cry, the plot evolves on a small island with a thick and richly detailed jungle world. A lot of attention has been given to small details like accurate physics. When you, for example, fire on a tree trunk, it will shatter and the tree will fall over and leave a stump behind. Enemies in a car can be stopped by shooting the tire of the car. The game graphics are, even today, top notch, yet the game still runs well on most computers.

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Crysis 2

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Crysis 2 takes the player into an alien-infested New York City. The game adds a tactical options mode that allows several ways to attack a heavily infested enemy location. The new Nanosuit 2.0, that the player uses, offers more freedom in ability use; multiple abilities can, for example, be used at the same time. To better accommodate a given play style, weapons can be customized with silencers, laser sights, or even a sniping scope.

For rendering, Crytek's CryEngine 3, which comes with reduced system requirements compared to the first Crysis game, is used. Since Crysis 2 is a multi-platform game, with major development focus on the console, the graphics on launch day were only DirectX 9. DirectX 11 functionality was added later in a patch. We used the DX11 version and the high-res texture pack for our benchmarking.

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Diablo III

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Blizzard's Diablo 3 is the latest release in one of the most popular action RPG series of all time. You, the hero, will experience epic adventures on your journey to defeat Diablo, the master of Hell. Diablo 3 set the record for the fastest-selling PC game - selling over 3.5 million copies on the first day of its release. It was also the most pre-ordered game on Amazon.

Blizzard's DirectX 9 engine provides the player with an isometric view on the action. The game has been tuned to run well on most computer systems to let as many players as possible experience the game. We tested Diablo 3 running at the highest image-quality settings.

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Dragon Age II

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Dragon Age II is the second game in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise and was released in March 2011. You will be able to pick your hero, named Hawke, from several classes and grow him over the course of the adventure. Gameplay takes you through a linearly narrated story of Hawke's rise to become the legendary "Champion of Kirkwall".

BioWare's Lycium Engine has support for DirectX 11, using tessellation, advanced dynamic lighting, and camera effects like depth of field. We benchmarked the DX11 version with details set to the highest possible.

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Hard Reset

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Developed by Flying Wild Hog, a studio that prides itself with the fact that its creation is PC exclusive (bless them), Hard Reset is a first-person shooter that's set in a future cyberpunk setting of a dystopian world. It reintroduces many of the gameplay mechanics that have made classics such as Quake wickedly fun to play and that are sorely lacking in today's tactical military shooter, thus creating a 'void' for Flying Wild Hog to fill.

The game uses the studio's in-house Road Hog Engine, which isn't particularly heavy on new-generation DirectX features, but can still be taxing for some GPUs.

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Max Payne 3

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Max is back! The long anticipated third release in the Max Payne series is the first game developed by Rockstar, which took over the title from Remedy Entertainment. In this first-person shooter, using an over-the-shoulder camera view, you battle the bad guys using game-changing features like Bullet Time or Last Stand. The maps have scenic locations taking the player to places like New York, Sao Paulo, and Panama.

The Max Payne 3 game engine uses DirectX 11 with tessellation and very detailed textures. We tested the game with details set to the maximum possible.

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Metro 2033

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Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter game that is set in a post-apocalyptic Moscow - inside the metro system as the name suggests. You will fight mutants or other humans who want to take away your shelter. The game has many gameplay elements similar to STALKER; the engine also has similar features. This is because two STALKER engine programmers left GSC Game World and started their own company which made Metro 2033.

The engine has support for all the latest eye candy like DirectX 11 and tessellation. Unfortunately, it leaves a less than satisfactory impression, making it a candidate to surpass Crysis for the highest hardware requirements. We tested the game in DirectX 11 mode with details set to "Very High".

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Sniper Elite V2

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Sniper Elite V2 is a tactical shooter letting you play the Battle of Berlin during early May 1945. You are an American elite sharpshooter who is located behind enemy lines to stop the German V-2 rocket program. Gameplay does not only focus on full frontal assault, but also requires elements of stealth and patience to gain the upper hand. Sniper Elite V2 features a complex ballistics simulation, forcing players to account for factors including gravity, wind, velocity, bullet penetration, and aim stability.

Sniper Elite V2 uses DirectX 11, including tessellation, contact hardening shadows, and DirectCompute-based effects, including anti-aliasing.

For our testing, we used the Sniper Elite V2 benchmark tool, in DX11 mode, with highest settings and super sampling disabled.

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STALKER: Call of Pripyat

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STALKER: Call of Pripyat continues shortly after the events of the prequel STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. The player is one of many stalkers who are attracted by the Zone in hopes of finding fame, wealth, and artifacts. Over the course of the game, you meet Strelok, the protagonist of the first STALKER game, and team up with him to progress through the Zone.

An updated X-Ray Engine 1.6 powers the game. It supports DirectX 11, using DirectCompute Shaders to improve shadow rendering and tessellation to improve model quality.

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StarCraft II

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StarCraft II, released in July 2010, is a sequel to Blizzard's award-winning strategy game StarCraft. In the 26th century, three species, namely, Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg, are at war. The campaign takes you through many missions on different planets where you have to face various enemy factions or, sometimes, several of them at once. StarCraft II features a similar number of units - some of them new - as the original game. Due to the massive success of the first game, Blizzard chose to focus a large aspect of the game on multiplayer combat through Battle.net. The campaign serves as a good introduction to units and concepts – the real action is in competitive multiplayer combat.
The StarCraft II engine supports only DirectX 9, but several patches have improved rendering quality and available options considerably. We tested the game using a recorded 1 vs. 1 multiplayer replay in the late-game phase. Please note that StarCraft II is very CPU limited on high-end cards, especially on lower resolutions, so you may not see much scaling between some cards. StarCraft II does not support multi-monitor gaming, because it would provide an unfair advantage in competitive multiplayer as a larger portion of the map would be visible.

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Total War: Shogun 2

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Set in 16th century feudal Japan, Total War: Shogun 2 takes the player on a quest for domination to conquer and unite the warlords of Japan. Moving away from the European setting of previous Total War games, the game is now designed around the principles of the brilliant Chinese general Sun Tzu and his book The Art of War. Gameplay switches between real-time battles, during which units on the battlefield are controlled, and turn-based strategy, which focuses on diplomacy, economy, and production management. Taking control of a castle involves several different stages which adds more complexity to the warfare in Shogun 2.

We benchmarked using the highest settings possible in DirectX 11 mode, which was added via a patch after release.

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The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

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This isn't just a game, but a masterpiece. It is a very large sandbox game that rejects the quality-quantity inverse proportionality. By genre, TES: Skyrim is a role-playing game. It combines some of the best elements of older titles in the franchise with some new sandbox elements to churn out an extremely engaging and addictive game. It makes use of Bethesda's Creation Engine that isn't visually intensive in that it doesn't use taxing graphics features. Instead, the game's presentation itself, with large open worlds, ends up taxing your hardware. Faster GPUs result in smoother gameplay with most eye candy turned on.

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3DMark 11

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3DMark 11 is the very latest benchmark test from the house of Futuremark, which has given out some of the most comprehensive benchmark applications for PC enthusiasts and gamers. 3DMark 11, as the name might probably suggest, makes use of the Microsoft DirectX 11 API and puts every feature of it at its disposal to use, creating astonishingly realistic visuals. In the process, it evaluates DirectX 11-compliant GPUs and lets gamers know what to expect from upcoming games that make use of the API in terms of visual realism. The tessellation and depth-of-field tests are particularly of interest here. 3DMark 11 has no proper support for multi-monitor configurations.

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Unigine Heaven 2.0

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Unigine Heaven was one of the first demos that supported DirectX 11. Heaven is a technology demonstration for the Unigine engine which supports DirectX 9 through 11 and OpenGL. Version 2.0 adds more scenes and, optionally, more complex tessellation features. Although there is some controversy surrounding the benchmark, questioning whether it is an accurate representation of what to expect from future games in regard to DirectX 11, we still decided to use this test to get an insight into the potential of future gaming.

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Power Consumption

Cooling modern video cards is becoming more and more difficult, especially with users asking for quiet cooling solutions. That's why engineers are now paying much more attention to the power consumption of new video card designs. An optimized fan profile is also one of the few things that board vendors can do to impress with reference designs where they are prohibited to make changes to the thermal solution or components on the card.

For this test, we measured the power consumption of the graphics card only, via the PCI-Express power connector(s) and PCI-Express bus slot. A Keithley Integra 2700 digital multimeter with 6.5-digit resolution was used for all measurements. Again, the values here reflect only the power consumption of the card measured at DC VGA card inputs, not of the whole system.

We chose Crysis 2 as a standard test representing typical 3D gaming usage because it offers the following: very high power draw; high repeatability; is a current game that is supported on all cards because of its DirectX 9 roots; drivers are actively tested and optimized for it; supports all multi-GPU configurations; test runs in a relatively short time and renders a non-static scene with variable complexity.

Our results were based on the following tests:

Idle: Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1280x1024, 32-bit) with all windows closed and drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle mode until power draw was stable.
Multi-monitor: Two monitors connected to the tested card, both using different display timings. Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1280x1024 32-bit) with all windows closed and drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle mode until power draw was stable.
Average: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200, Extreme profile, representing a typical gaming power draw. Average of all readings (12 per second) while the benchmark was rendering (no title/loading screen).
Peak: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200, Extreme profile, representing a typical gaming power draw. Highest single reading during the test.
Maximum: Furmark Stability Test at 1280x1024, 0xAA. This results in a very high non-game power consumption that can typically be reached only with stress-testing applications. The Card was left running the stress test until power draw converged to a stable value. On cards with power-limiting systems, we disabled the power-limiting system or configured it, if possible, to the highest available setting. We also used the highest single reading from a Furmark run which was obtained by measurements taken faster than the power limit could kick in.
Blu-ray Playback: Power DVD 9 Ultra was used at a resolution of 1920x1200 to play back the Batman: The Dark Knight disc with GPU acceleration turned on. Playback started around timecode 1:19 which has the highest data rates on the BD with up to 40 Mb/s. Playback was left running until power draw converged to a stable value.

Power consumption of NVIDIA's latest card in non-gaming states is excellent, especially multi-monitor and Blu-ray power is much lower than what AMD can offer.

During normal gaming, the card uses about 10 W more power than the HD 7870 at similar performance levels, which means the HD 7870 is more efficient for gaming, but the difference of 10 W is relatively small, certainly not big enough to swing the buying decision one way or the other.

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Fan Noise

In the past, users would accept everything just to get more performance. Nowadays, this has changed, and users have become more aware of the fan noise and the power consumption of their graphic cards.

In order to properly test the fan noise that a card emits, we use the Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound level meter (~$4,000) which has the measurement range and accuracy we are looking for.

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The tested graphics card was installed in a system that was completely passively cooled. That is, passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, and passive cooling on the motherboard and on a solid state drive.

This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified), the measurement was conducted at 100 cm of distance and at 160 cm over the floor. The ambient background noise level in the room was well below 20 dBA for all measurements. Please note that the dBA scale is not linear but logarithmic. 40 dBA is not twice as loud as 20 dBA. A 3 dBA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing perception is a bit different and it is generally accepted that a 10 dBA increase doubles the perceived sound level. The 3D load noise levels were tested with a stressful game, not with Furmark.

ZOTAC did a good job reducing noise levels of their GTX 660. The card is very quiet all the time, no matter if you are just browsing the Net or gaming. Compared to other GTX 660 cards tested today, we see small, higher noise-levels that are still much better than on most competing AMD cards under load.

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Performance Summary

The graphs on this page show a combined performance summary of all tests and resolutions from previous pages. Each graph shows the tested card as 100% and all other cards' performance as relative to it. A sixth graph summarizes all tests in all resolutions to calculate the total relative performance of the review sample.

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Performance per Watt

Using the relative performance scores from the previous page, and the typical gaming power consumption result, the following graphs show the efficiency of the cards in our test group.

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Performance per Dollar

You will love this graph if you are looking for the best bank for the buck. We looked up the current USD price of each card on the popular online shop Newegg and used that value with all relative performance numbers to calculate the Performance per Dollar Index.

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Overclocking

The overclocking results listed in this section were achieved with the default fan and voltage settings as defined in the VGA BIOS. Please note that every single sample overclocks differently which is why our results here can only serve as a guideline for what you can expect from your card.

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The maximum stable clocks of our card are 1110 MHz core (12% overclock) and 1730 MHz memory (15% overclock).

We see a high relative overclock with Zotac's GTX 660, since the card only comes with a meager 13 MHz overlock out of the box. Compared to other cards tested today, the ZOTAC card does end up a bit lower in maximum overclocking.

<table class="tputbl" width="500px">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="4">Maximum Overclock Comparison</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th width="210" scope="col"></th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Max. GPU Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Max. Memory Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Max. OC Perf.</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">ZOTAC GTX 660</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">1110 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">1730 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">54.5 FPS</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">ASUS GTX 660 DC II TOP</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">1155 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">1700 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">58.5 FPS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">MSI GTX 660 TF III</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">1115 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">1750 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">59.7 FPS</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Gigabyte GTX 660 OC</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">1125 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">1680 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">57.8 FPS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">HD 7870</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">1205 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">1520 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">59.6 FPS</td>
</tr>
</table>
Important: Each GPU (including each GPU of the same make and model) will
overclock slightly differently based on random production variances. This table
just serves to provide a list of typical overclocks for similar cards, determined
during TPU review.

Overclocked Performance

Using these clock frequencies, we ran a quick test of Battlefield 3 to evaluate the gains from overclocking.

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Actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 9.9%.

Temperatures

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<table class="tputbl" width="404px">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="3">GPU Temperature Comparison</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th width="210" scope="col"></th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Idle</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Load</th>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">ZOTAC GTX 660</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">34°C</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">69°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">ASUS GTX 660 DC II TOP</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">31°C</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">66°C</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">MSI GTX 660 TF III</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">30°C</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">59°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Gigabyte GTX 660 OC</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">32°C</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">60°C</td>
</tr>
<tr class="lat">
<th scope="row">HD 7870</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">29°C</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">69°C</td>
</tr>
</table>
Important: GPU temperature will vary depending on clock speed, voltage settings,
cooler design, and production variances. This table just serves to provide
a list of typical temperatures for similar cards determined during TPU review.

Clock Profiles

Modern graphics cards have several clock profiles that are selected to balance power draw and performance requirements.
The following table lists the clock settings for important performance scenarios and the GPU voltage that we measured. We performed the measurement on the pins of a coil or a capacitor near the GPU voltage regulator.

<table class="tputbl">
<tr>
<th scope="col"></th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Core <br />
Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Memory <br />
Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">GPU Voltage <br />
(measured)</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Desktop</th>
<td align="right">324 MHz</td>
<td align="right">162 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.88 V</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Multi-Monitor</th>
<td align="right">324 MHz</td>
<td align="right">162 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.88 V</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Blu-ray Playback</th>
<td align="right">324 MHz</td>
<td align="right">162 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.88 V</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">3D Load</th>
<td align="right">993 - 1090 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1502 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1.075 - 1.175 V</td>
</tr>
</table>

The card uses NVIDIA's dynamic overclocking mechanism, which means it will dynamically adjust clock and voltage based on render load, temperature, and other factors.

For the graph below, we recorded all GPU clock and voltage combinations of our benchmarking suite for the 1920x1200 resolution. The plotted points have transparency - they can add up to indicate more often used values. A light color means the clock/voltage combination is rarely used; a dark color means it's active a lot.

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Value and Conclusion

<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>

ZOTAC's GTX 660 retails at NVIDIA reference design pricing of $239.

</td></tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>

Large performance increase over the last-generation
Reference design pricing
Compact form factor
Quiet
Small overclock out of the box
Low temperatures
Native full-size HDMI & DisplayPort output
Support for PCI-Express 3.0 and DirectX 11.1
Support for CUDA and PhysX

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>

Price too high to make it a clear winner
Just a small GPU overclock
No memory overclock

</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.9</th>
<td>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. The reference design sits right between AMD's HD 7850 and HD 7870 in terms of performance. ZOTAC's GTX 660 is a close to reference implementation of the GTX 660, which means it does not come with any major changes to the PCB design. Its clocks are essentially those of NVIDIA's reference design with a tiny 13 MHz bump. This little increase helps the card gain a 1% performance increase, nothing relevant in real life, over the NVIDIA GTX 660 reference design. No overclock out of the box means that overclocking will result in a bigger relative performance increase because the factory overclock does not eat into your manual clock headroom. ZOTAC's choice for a smaller cooler makes this one of the shortest, dual-slot gaming cards, which might come in handy in building a small gaming PC. Overall gaming performance of the ZOTAC GTX 660 is enough for most titles at full HD with maximum details and anti-aliasing enabled.<br />
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 when running multiple monitors or Blu-ray. The 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.<br />
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. A single connector here only helps reduce cable clutter.<br />
We've seen ZOTAC's cooler before on the GTX 660 Ti, and it does a good job at keeping the card cool. 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, based on all our GTX 660 reviews, 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.<br />
NVIDIA's reference design price point seems a bit high with $229, considering the faster HD 7870 retails at $250. ZOTAC is sticking with that price despite putting their custom cooler on the board and increasing clocks a little bit. Price/performance considered, the GTX 660 cannot beat the HD 7870 and can only, at best, match it. When comparing the GTX 660 with 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. 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.</td></tr>
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</table>