GTX 660 vs GTX 660 Ti vs GTX 670 vs GTX 760 vs GTX 960 benchmarks

[Artas1984]

Greetings! Grab some nachos, cola or anything else for that matter..

Welcome to the NVIDIA battle of mid-range graphic cards! Since September of 2015 i've been acquiring and then selling these graphic cards, having tested them in between on my test bench. The purpose of this test for me was clear - having seen GTX960 benchmarks, i was not happy that the card was compared to only the stock reference versions of GTX760, GTX670 and GTX660 Ti - giving a false impression that some custom overclocked GTX960 was superior! Wrong! How about comparing custom GTX960 OC with custom GTX 760 OC, custom GTX670 OC, custom GTX 660 Ti OC - now that is what i call fair, because let's face it - few people these days obtain stock reference video cards...

Let us greet the combatants of this battle!

MSI GeForce GTX960 OC



I've linked the 2GD5T version, though it' is actually a reference cooler version card with core clock clocked to 2GD5T standarts - 1178 MHz.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX760 Windforce OC



This Windforce OC video card comes with core clock of 1085 MHz.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX670 Windforce OC



This Windforce OC video card comes with core clock of 980 MHz.

Asus GTX660 Ti DirectCU II TOP



The DirectCU II TOP version comes with core clock of 1137 MHz.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX660 Windforce OC



The Windforce OC video card comes with core clock of 1033 MHz.

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TEST SETUP

Intel Core i7 3770
Asus P8Z77-V LX
Crucial 2X8 GB DDR3 1600 C8
Windows 7 Pro X64
NVIDIA Forceware 355.82

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I have tested 19 games on 1980x1080 resolution with maximum settings on, but custom AA - disabled in some heavy games like Crysis 3 and Witcher 3 to make FPS "play-able" at all, set to fast filter based AA or set to real MS AA if the game performs well enough... Some games have build-in benchmarks, but for others i use Fraps custom 15 seconds benchmark. The screenshots represent the actual testing place.

Minimum, medium and maximum FPS are displayed for each card. However, only the medium (average) FPS will be the leading factor to display the fastest video card first! If several video cards display the same medium FPS, then it is the minimum FPS that counts next.

VIDEO PRESENTATION:

Let's begin!

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Alan Wake American Nightmare



GTX960 is on par with GTX760, the former actually scoring less minimum FPS, but more on average.

Batman Arkham Origins



Batman does not like GTX960? The performance is seriously disappointing here when compared to GTX670.

Battlefield 4



Battlefield 4 feels like a well optimized game.

Bioshock Infinite Burial at Sea



Are you in the know that GTX960 and GTX660 Ti perform almost identically in Rapture?

Company of Heroes 2



GTX960 inspired by glorious chants of the red army takes the lead - for a game that is one of the most demanding RTS games, this is a crushing victory!

Crysis 3



I knew GTX960 will loose to GTX670, but i never expected GTX660 Ti pull this one up!!!

Far Cry 3



This benchmark will obviously will be a struggle between GTX670 and GTX960...

F1 2013



This can only be explained like this: GTX660 Ti TOP has the most and highest clocked cuda cores of all the video cards, memory bandwidth is not important here...

FEAR 3



GTX660 Ti and GTX960 are at the same level of performance, but...

Hard Reset



This benchmark should be tested as many times as needed to display the best FPS out of all.

Hitman Absolution



It's getting pretty obvious that GTX960 is a match for GTX670, while GTX660 Ti is a match for GTX760.

Lost Planet 2



For an older game like Lost Planet 2 the performance of GTX960 is excellent and unexpected!

Max Payne 3



That is huge statement by GTX960!

Metro Last Light Redux



I knew this would happen, all the benchmarks of GTX960 in the internet indicated so.

Serious Sam 3



Serious Sam 3 is the most graphically customisable game i've seen with literaly a titanic-full of options, and yet the raw power of GTX670 is preferred.

Starcraft 2



Notice something BIZZARE? GTX660 outperforming GTX760..

Syndicate



Syndicate is easy going and very balanced on video cards, yet even this older game prefers the newest GTX960 on top.

Watch Dogs



One would think that the low memory bandwidth of GTX660 Ti and GTX660 bottle-neck the cards in Watch Dogs or is it something else, but GTX960 has even less memory bandwidth, so i guess the new color and pixel compression algorithms of GTX960 actually work here. We are talking about abysmal performance of GTX660 Ti and GTX660 - WTH level like...

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt



Yes, it should be no surprise that GTX960 is the fastest video card in Withcer 3, all the internet is full of benchmarks confirming it.

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PERFORMANCE SUMMARY (average FPS)



As you can see, based on the average FPS, one could say that GTX960 OC and GTX670 OC are on the same league with 100 % performance mark, GTX760 OC and GTX660 Ti OC are on the same league with 90 % performance mark, and GTX660 takes it's modest place with about 75 %.

I wanted to include GTX460, but this test took too long anyway, so i must update my drivers and not wait for more NVIDIA "reinforcements".

 

[Artas1984]

Well, i guess everyone is ok with the fact that GTX660 Ti scores 30 FPS in Watch Dogs and GTX760 scores 61 FPS despite the fact that in most of the games GTX660 Ti had the advantage? What's going on down here? Can anybody confirm?

 

[xorbe]

Yeah clearly that game is not representative of the typical relative performance. Thanks for the charts! You might want to toss the images onto imgur as a backup source, since photobucket likes to block after too much bandwidth.

Reviews are notorious for comparing latest card overclocked vs old stock cards. TPU generally includes a non-overclocked bar on the charts.

 

[Frick]

I'm just pleased to see my 760 keeping up pretty well. The results seem inconsistent though.

 

[gpu2016]

DOTA 2 - Heroes of the Storm benchmarks??

 

[L.ccd]

Can't believe this comparison got so little attention/feedback! It convinced me to get a used 660 ti (60€) instead of a 960 (200€) to play games while waiting for the mid-range Polaris/Pascal GPUs to be released this summer. Thanks a lot for taking the time to put it together.

I would have loved a GTA V comparison at high settings (with FXAA & no MSAA) but from what I've seen the 660 ti does pretty okay with this game anyway.

 

[deemon]

hehe my old 670 still good enough

 

[LightningJR]

Very cool thanks for that.

Not trying to shit on people who bought the 960 but it's a poor performer for it's price. AMD has the R9 380 for the same price and it's superior.

One failing of NVidia is their huge gap between the 960 and the 970, AMD also has that covered with their 380X. A lot of people can't afford the high price of the 970 so if they don't go with AMD they have to go to the 960 which is a bad choice since you can get a used 670 for half the price. There's also the wide gap between the 980 and 980ti... AMD has the NANO/Fury for that gap. Good business practices for AMD.

 

[peche]

and... 680 why not?
was thinking about replacing my old 680 with a budgetish 960 ..

 

[rruff]

Not trying to shit on people who bought the 960 but it's a poor performer for it's price. AMD has the R9 380 for the same price and it's superior.

Not really. If you OC both the 960 beats the 380 on average, since it has a lot of headroom while the 380 is closer to max. W1zzad tested a bunch of 960s and a 20% performance boost over reference is typical. VRAM will run at 8K MHz which helps with the bandwidth limitation. They also consume less power (which is $).

and... 680 why not?
was thinking about replacing my old 680 with a budgetish 960 ..

But why?

 

[Liquid Cool]

I would have liked to see the gtx 560 ti on that list of cards you tested.

I also wanted to thank you for all of your hard work.

Good stuff....,

Liquid Cool

 

[Frick]

Very cool thanks for that.

Not trying to shit on people who bought the 960 but it's a poor performer for it's price. AMD has the R9 380 for the same price and it's superior.

So much this. Everyone just defaults to Nvidia. Many of the 960's are just €20 behind the 280X even.

 

[L.ccd]

and... 680 why not?
was thinking about replacing my old 680 with a budgetish 960 ..

You'll be looking at a 15-ish% drop in performance. It will also draw much less power, but in any case that will be a downgrade. If you really want the lower power draw & noise and can trade your 680 for a 960, why not, but I would never advise anyone to actually shell out money to replace a 680 with a 960.

Wait for the Polaris/Pascal mid-range if you want more performance with lower power draw at a fair price.

 

[Tomgang]

Interesting stuff. I had to the end of 2014 two GTX 660 TI in sli. Good cards but there fate where sealed by there low Vram (2 GB on my versions). I all most every time in many games hit a wall cause of the vram, so they had to go. GTX 960 is to week and is not a great card to run in sli cause of low memory bandwidth this can cause majer performence drop i high resolution in some game. GTX 980 TI at the time whas not on the marked yet and GTX 980 SLI too expensive and AMD cards is no go for me. So i ended up with two GTX 970 in SLI and thanks to there great oc headroom they can be oc close to GTX 980 SLI stock performence.

But here is a screenshot of my system whit the two GTX 660 TI in sli.

 

[xorbe]

Basically 460 / 560 / 660 / 760 / 960 family hasn't gone anywhere fast.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Well I giggle... I guess I am a graphics card atheist... I have used them all I guess...
Tseng, Trident, S3, Matrox, 3DFX, Kyro, Permedia/3DLabs, VIA, ATI and nvidia... even intel 740 lol

Fix me if I have skipped one...

They are all with their flaws like any thing made by human hands... being pro nvidia or AMD makes me lol each time... both camps have their problems.

These budget cards are cheap, but have a very short life span and really lower resale price after a year. If you take a beefy flagship or second best, its good for a year+ longer... so the savings are a bit sour using these mid range cards... I would like to have a console then... same fidelity and horsepower really... I took a 7970 more than 3 years ago... and the card still spanks them all, a bit stupid from a consumer point of view ain't it?

 

[peche]

But why?

680 is a great card... the question is why wasn't tested ....

You'll be looking at a 15-ish% drop in performance. It will also draw much less power, but in any case that will be a downgrade. If you really want the lower power draw & noise and can trade your 680 for a 960, why not, but I would never advise anyone to actually shell out money to replace a 680 with a 960.

Wait for the Polaris/Pascal mid-range if you want more performance with lower power draw at a fair price.

thanks for the comment! ill keep that 680!

These budget cards are cheap, but have a very short life span and really lower resale price after a year. If you take a beefy flagship or second best, its good for a year+ longer... so the savings are a bit sour using these mid range cards... I would like to have a console then... same fidelity and horsepower really... I took a 7970 more than 3 years ago... and the card still spanks them all, a bit stupid from a consumer point of view ain't it?

Pretty much on the point, you even get more money when selling a 680-670 or even 760 than selling a 960...

 

[Frick]

I wouln't call $200+ cheap. And it entirely depends on what your goal is. Me I'm an avarage gamer at best, so the 760 isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Also I got it for free.

 

[LightningJR]

Not really. If you OC both the 960 beats the 380 on average, since it has a lot of headroom while the 380 is closer to max. W1zzad tested a bunch of 960s and a 20% performance boost over reference is typical. VRAM will run at 8K MHz which helps with the bandwidth limitation. They also consume less power (which is $).

You have a point with the power consumption, i'll give you that.

I looked at the overclocking of the 380, it's quite impressive as well, the 960 on average do not beat the 380 when both are overclocked, they actually trade blows.

The VRAM bandwidth limitation is unfortunate, it does overclock well but the 128bit bus kills it and unless you can get 12k-14k Mhz on it it's the 960's downfall.


I am an NVidia fan myself but I think the 960 is not a good purchase, I would go AMD if I couldn't afford better. Especially since the 380X is $40 more and smokes it.

 

[Vayra86]

You have a point with the power consumption, i'll give you that.

I looked at the overclocking of the 380, it's quite impressive as well, the 960 on average do not beat the 380 when both are overclocked, they actually trade blows.

The VRAM bandwidth limitation is unfortunate, it does overclock well but the 128bit bus kills it and unless you can get 12k-14k Mhz on it it's the 960's downfall.


I am an NVidia fan myself but I think the 960 is not a good purchase, I would go AMD if I couldn't afford better. Especially since the 380X is $40 more and smokes it.

You are very right about that 960. It's the worst mid ranger in a few generations of Nvidia cards. Low resale value, VRAM bottleneck (just like 660ti, just watch this same series of benches with newer titles in two years and it will suffer the same fate, falling off considerably, and the 670 will increase its lead further) and similarly priced (if you can still find one) to a GTX 770 which is essentially a 680 on steroids. There is just no real sweet spot anywhere with the 960. And that's just looking at Nvidia offerings exclusively, never mind the much stronger AMD alternatives both at, and slightly above the price point.

Power consumption... that argument always makes me laugh. It's a non issue, and even if it IS an issue, we are talking about an actual difference of maybe 3-5 eur/dollar per year with really intense gaming - like 4+ hours per day. In which case any card at this price point is a bad purchase imo, because with that time investment you really gotta look at 104 silicon even if just for resale value.

Interesting stuff. I had to the end of 2014 two GTX 660 TI in sli. Good cards but there fate where sealed by there low Vram (2 GB on my versions). I all most every time in many games hit a wall cause of the vram, so they had to go. GTX 960 is to week and is not a great card to run in sli cause of low memory bandwidth this can cause majer performence drop i high resolution in some game. GTX 980 TI at the time whas not on the marked yet and GTX 980 SLI too expensive and AMD cards is no go for me. So i ended up with two GTX 970 in SLI and thanks to there great oc headroom they can be oc close to GTX 980 SLI stock performence.

But here is a screenshot of my system whit the two GTX 660 TI in sli.

Seems like we were in the same boat I ran 2x GTX 660 and even that combo had a VRAM bottleneck in SLI. The GK106 is crippled by its asymmetrical memory subsystem, it has the very familiar 1.5+0.5GB segmentation going on, just like GTX 970...

I swapped my 2x 660's for one 770 and while theoretically it would be 'similar', the 770 delivered a much smoother experience across the board. After that I knew I was never going to buy into asymmetrical memory again. And that's when 970 released, and I went towards 780ti second hand as an upgrade No regrets, and when I counted total expenses of this whole ordeal, I was still coming out cheaper than buying the single 780ti at launch

 

[LightningJR]

Power consumption... that argument always makes me laugh. It's a non issue, and even if it IS an issue, we are talking about an actual difference of maybe 3-5 eur/dollar per year with really intense gaming - like 4+ hours per day. In which case any card at this price point is a bad purchase imo, because with that time investment you really gotta look at 104 silicon even if just for resale value.

I don't bring up power consumption for the extra money it costs on an electrical bill (unless you talk about the 390X) I bring it up for all other reasons like the extra heat being pumped in to your case or room. The larger heatsink and fan required to keep it cool which sometimes means more noise. Also the possibility of needing a better PSU.. There's lots of upsides to having a more efficient GPU and only downsides to a less efficient one. (except for maybe LN2 overclocking)

 

[jboydgolfer]

I would have liked to see the gtx 560 ti on that list of cards you tested.

I also wanted to thank you for all of your hard work.

Good stuff....,

Liquid Cool

I had a zotac 560ti around 5 or so yrs ago that was won in an event, and iirc it was very capable, great card.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Well I giggle... I guess I am a graphics card atheist... I have used them all I guess...
Tseng, Trident, S3, Matrox, 3DFX, Kyro, Permedia/3DLabs, VIA, ATI and nvidia... even intel 740 lol

Fix me if I have skipped one...

They are all with their flaws like any thing made by human hands... being pro nvidia or AMD makes me lol each time... both camps have their problems.

These budget cards are cheap, but have a very short life span and really lower resale price after a year. If you take a beefy flagship or second best, its good for a year+ longer... so the savings are a bit sour using these mid range cards... I would like to have a console then... same fidelity and horsepower really... I took a 7970 more than 3 years ago... and the card still spanks them all, a bit stupid from a consumer point of view ain't it?

Hercules? (Prophet series)

 

[rtwjunkie]

Seems like we were in the same boat I ran 2x GTX 660 and even that combo had a VRAM bottleneck in SLI. The GK106 is crippled by its asymmetrical memory subsystem, it has the very familiar 1.5+0.5GB segmentation going on, just like GTX 970...

Yup! No one really noticed it back when 660 was current, because all that VRAM still wasn't being used. It does reveal itself now though!

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

with games getting more demanding, it's no surprise here. RIP for my 760.... COD is VGA BIOS failure after 3 years of use.