Introduction

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 660 was released just a month 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. 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.



MSI's GeForce GTX 660 HAWK is a highly customized version of the Geforce GTX 660 and comes with several features for enthusiast overclockers like dual BIOS, with the second BIOS being optimized for liquid nitrogen use, and voltage measurements points for voltmods.

The GPU clock has been increased by over 100 MHz, which will provide a nice performance boost. Unfortunately, memory has remained at the default speed of 1500 MHz.

Packaging

Contents

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Driver CD + Documentation
• DVI adapter
• 3x Voltage Measurement Cable
• 2x PCI-Express Power Cable

The Card

The card uses MSI's Twin Frozr cooler which we have seen before on many cards from the company. It is a proven concept that works well. On the back, MSI has installed a transparent plastic dome that houses the "GPU Reactor": an extra PCB that improves voltage stability.


The GTX 660 HAWK requires a bit more than two slots in your system because the GPU reactor adds some height onto the back of the card.


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

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


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


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.