Introduction

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 660 was released almost exactly one year ago. It 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. Back in the day, the card made waves.

Unlike its "Ti" cousin, the GeForce GTX 660 is not based on the GK104 silicon from which several other GPUs are derived, including the GTX 670, GTX 680, and the dual-GPU GTX 690. The GTX 660 is, instead, based on the GK106 GPU, a physical downscale of the GK104 using the same 28 nm process as all other recent NVIDIA GPUs.



MSI's new GeForce GTX 660 GAMING comes with a big name. We've reviewed nearly every MSI "GAMING" graphics card in the recent months, and they impressed with low noise levels, decent performance, and affordable pricing.

My guess is that sales are going great for MSI, which is why they decided to release a SKU based on the GK106 GPU for which no GeForce 700 variant has been announced yet.

At around $210 for MSI's overclocked GTX 660 GAMING, pricing seems a bit high. The cheapest GeForce GTX 660 is available for $190. MSI is then asking a $20 price premium for the GTX 660 GAMING we are reviewing today.

Packaging

Contents

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Driver CD + documentation
• PCIe power cable
• DVI adapter

The Card

Visually, the GTX 660 GAMING looks like any other MSI GTX 700 GAMING card. The card is 26 cm long and 12.5 cm high.


Installing the card requires two slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include two DVI ports, one HDMI port, and one DisplayPort. You may use all outputs at the same time, so triple-monitor surround gaming is possible with one card.

The GPU also includes an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible, which includes HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies support.


A single SLI connector allows you to combine up to two GTX 660 cards in an SLI configuration.


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.