Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti launch date, specs, and efficiency

The GTX 1660 Ti is the newest Turing-based graphics card to come back out of the Nvidia GeForce skunkworks, however the first to ship with out the ‘Holy Grail’ of graphics know-how: real-time ray tracing. That would be the reasoning behind the naming swap from the 20-series playing cards launched behind the RTX prefix to the brand new GTX playing cards sporting the 16-series designation.

The inexperienced workforce filling out the decrease orders of its newest GPU technology with GTX 16-series playing cards is certain to occur… even when this GTX 1660 Ti has nonetheless to be formally introduced by Nvidia. That hasn’t stopped the brand new card’s existence from being confirmed, nevertheless, as benchmarks, product packaging, and Amazon listings have all leaked up to now week or so.

It’s taking place and if the newest leaks are to be believed it’s taking place quickly. So, what will we learn about this cut-down Turing GPU, and when will we be capable of get our arms on the primary real mainstream graphics card within the newest Nvidia lineup? No, the RTX 2060 doesn’t rely as ‘mainstream’ it doesn’t matter what Nvidia would possibly such as you to imagine.

We’ve collated all the newest information, rumours, and leaked benchmarks to provide the full image of the brand new GTX 1660 Ti, and allow you to know whether or not it’s one thing it’s essential to be fascinated about when you’re trying to choose up a brand new graphics card any time quickly.

Vital stats

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti launch date
The newest leaked Amazon itemizing particulars a February 22 transport date on the GTX 1660 Ti, which might appear to be a fairly honest wager as to the precise launch date of the brand new Nvidia graphics card.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti specs
According to all of the rumoured specs we’ve heard about to this point, the GTX 1660 Ti will arrive sporting a brand new Turing-based TU116 GPU. With 1,536 CUDA cores inside it the brand new 12nm Nvidia silicon is reportedly targeted purely on conventional rendering, eschewing the RT and Tensor cores of the 20-series.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti efficiency
We’ve uncovered contemporary 3DMark Time Spy benchmarks which present what look to be GTX 1660 Ti playing cards present process testing. The benchmarks place it simply above the GTX 1070, and properly past the GTX 1060. That appears to be supported by Final Fantasy XV benchmarks, although that could be a notoriously untrustworthy benchmark…

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti value
The Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti is reportedly going to ship with a $279 MSRP, however we’ve heard nothing about potential Founders Editions or the like. Chances are Nvidia will comply with the same mannequin to the RTX 2060 launch with solely a regular reference clock, leaving companions to ship costly overclocked variations themselves.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti launch date

The February 22 transport date given by the Gigabyte listing, which has now been faraway from Amazon.co.uk, is probably the most concrete suggestion we’ve seen relating to the GTX 1660 Ti launch date.

The first rumours of a launch had a fairly extra romantic, post-Valentine’s Day really feel with recommendations that the cardboard would go on sale on February 15. But that day handed with no new GPU dropping by our letter field, sealed with a loving kiss, and so we’re extra assured in regards to the Feb 22 launch date.

We’re nonetheless unsure if that’s going to be a full launch, with all of the producers being weapons-free to flog reference and manufacturing unit overclocked variations from day one, however we in all probability don’t have lengthy to attend to seek out out…

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti specs

The new GTX 1660 Ti is about to make use of a very contemporary Turing GPU, however one particularly created for pure rasterised rendering efficiency and never for the burgeoning world of real-time ray traced results Nvidia has been pushing with the 20-series GPUs. As such the TU116 GPU reportedly on the coronary heart of the GTX 1660 Ti will come with out the luxuries of the RT Cores and Tensor Cores of its bigger, costlier siblings.

That’s a sensible play within the mainstream section, the place value is king and it’s essential to get the utmost normal efficiency out of your silicon with out losing die area on extraneous results that gained’t run easily on a lower-end GPU.

We nonetheless don’t know the precise specs for the GTX 1660 Ti, however from all of the rumours, listings, and leaks we’ve acquired a fairly strong concept about what’s going into the brand new chip.

There are reportedly 1,536 CUDA cores within the new TU116 GPU, nonetheless based mostly on the present 12nm FinFET know-how that Nvidia has been utilizing for all its different Turing-based GPUs. Where all of the leaked packaging is speaking about ‘Turing Shaders’ we will be fairly assured that Nvidia remains to be going to offer all the brand new options it launched within the final technology outdoors of the ray tracing and AI-based silicon.

That means the TU116 will nonetheless utilise concurrent execution of floating level and integer operations – the place Pascal has to park one to hold out the opposite – and can provide help for the variable fee and content material adaptive shading options too. Check out our full Nvidia Turing deep-dive for the thin on the structure’s core options.

The GTX 1660 Ti additionally comes with the GDDR6 reminiscence this technology of graphics playing cards launched. To start with it seems to be like there will probably be 6GB of GDDR6 in place, however there have been studies of GTX 1660 Ti playing cards with 3GB GDDR6 registered with the EEC. So, who is aware of what bizarre, and undoubtedly not fantastic, configurations we’ll get post-launch.

There have additionally been noises a few GTX 1660 following this primary card – which appears possible given the ‘Ti’ suffix – in order that could possibly be the one getting the cut-down reminiscence configuration.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti efficiency

The greatest confirmations in regards to the GTX 1660 Ti playing cards’ precise existence is the truth that we’re beginning to see benchmarks leaking out. So far we’ve had Final Fantasy XV outcomes leaking out – that are about as dependable as a British Train pushed by Mr. Bean – figures from Ashes of the Singularity – a game which no-one has ever really performed – and potential numbers from 3DMark’s Time Spy benchmark – which isn’t even a game.

But nonetheless, these numbers all appear to have one factor in widespread: gaming efficiency that both matches or simply barely tops the body charges or index scores of Nvidia’s Pascal-based GTX 1070 card.

Given that we’re speaking a few new technology of GPU that’s kinda what we’d be hoping to see from the next-gen mainstream graphics card. It ought to arrive cheaper and quicker than the subsequent tier up from the equal card of the earlier technology, which was the GTX 1060.

That’s the way it ought to work, however other than the RTX 2060, that’s not how issues have labored all through the Turing vary of graphics playing cards. Now, I do know that with the 2060 title you would possibly suppose the GTX 1060 was its equal card, however the best way Nvidia screwed with the naming conventions of its newest vary – and evidently hasn’t completed but – the RTX 2060 was actually the direct substitute for the GTX 1070 due to its pricing.

It price the identical, however outperformed the GTX 1070 Ti, the subsequent card up within the Pascal stack. The remainder of the 20-series, nevertheless, price the identical because the earlier technology, carried out the identical in conventional testing, however added within the area of interest advantages of real-time ray tracing and DLSS.

The GTX 1660 Ti although seems to be to be following on from the RTX 2060, changing the GTX 1060 with GTX 1070-level efficiency.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti pricing

There have been numerous leaks all over the world of the large net which appear to recommend that the MSRP for the GTX 1660 Ti will probably be $279. We’ve additionally seen Amazon/Gigabyte leap the gun within the UK and record an overclocked card for £286. Obviously there will probably be overclocked variations of the brand new card, there all the time are, which is able to push that value north of $300 too.

Fingers crossed they don’t go a lot increased, nevertheless, as they’ll then begin to push into the RTX 2060’s pricing territory, the place its reference card is about at a $350 MSRP.

Read extra: The best gaming monitors to pair along with your new GPU

That GTX 1660 Ti value is somewhat increased than the reference pricing for the outdated GTX 1060. Sure, its Founders Edition was $299 (with none overclocking), however the usual MSRP for the traditional Nvidia Pascal card was $250. It’s a disgrace workforce inexperienced isn’t matching that this time round because it wants to start out shifting new playing cards if it’s to make up the present shortfall in gaming revenue that saw it drop some 45% over the last year.

It’s going to wish to ship an terrible lot of GTX 1660 Ti playing cards to make that up…