Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti overview: Turing rising from the RTX ashes with the Asus Phoenix

The Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti, the worst saved secret in PC {hardware}, is now right here and we’ve acquired the GPUs to show it. Specifically this Asus Phoenix OC card and one other ROG STRIX GTX 1660 Ti, displaying completely different ends of the mainstream Turing spectrum, and with very completely different PCGN suggestions too.

Yes, the 16-series has launched. After the 20-series. With the GTX prefix as an alternative of RTX. With this being the primary in a brand new vary of GeForce graphics playing cards it’s onerous to not really feel a bit like GPU expertise is in retrograde. But, after the lukewarm reception the 20-series graphics playing cards acquired for his or her introduction of real-time ray tracing and AI-assisted imagery, it’s not shocking to see the mainstream Turing chips stepping backwards by way of next-gen tech.

But that’s to not say these Turing GPUs aren’t with out their graphics enhancements over the last-gen Pascal graphics playing cards. You could also be dropping the RT and Tensor Cores, however there may be nonetheless sufficient within the new 16-series silicon to offer your games a real efficiency enhance.

The pricey ray tracing and AI tech made the RTX GPUs each huge and costly. And with out sufficient normal rendering assist within the mainstream chips essential to take advantage of them, each next-gen options have been nixed to make the GTX Turing playing cards reasonably priced.

Screen queens: The best gaming monitors on your new GPU

That all makes full sense, and the change from RTX to GTX within the newest Turing nomenclature is all we actually wanted to indicate the shortage of its devoted silicon. Nvidia clearly thinks us easy people who wouldn’t perceive {that a} GTX 2050 could be completely different to an RTX 2060, although, as a result of it has determined to create the 16-series.

And why name it the 16-series? Well, in line with Nvidia it’s “because it really is closer to the 20-series than it is to the 10-series, so that’s what the ‘16’ is meant to convey.”

Riiiiiight.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti specs

The new GTX 1660 Ti makes use of a very recent Turing GPU, however one particularly created for pure rasterised rendering efficiency, and never for the burgeoning world of real-time ray traced results that Nvidia has been pushing with the 20-series GPUs. As I stated, the TU116 GPU on the coronary heart of the GTX 1660 Ti comes with out the luxuries of the RT and Tensor Cores of its bigger, dearer siblings.

That’s a sensible play within the mainstream phase, the place worth is king and you have to get the utmost normal efficiency out of your silicon with out losing die area on extraneous results that received’t run easily on a lower-end GPU anyhow.

There are 1,536 CUDA cores within the new TU116 GPU, nonetheless primarily based on the present 12nm FinFET expertise Nvidia has been utilizing for all its different Turing-based GPUs. The reference clock of the GTX 1660 Ti is rated at 1,500MHz base and 1,770MHz enhance, however the mildly overclocked Asus Phoenix model we’ve been testing is available in at 1,775MHz and runs fortunately at 1,800MHz all through our testing.

The far dearer STRIX model, nonetheless, sits fairly at 1,950MHz because of its hefty cooling, regardless of having the identical rated clock speeds.

The GTX 1660 Ti additionally comes with the identical GDDR6 reminiscence the Turing technology of graphics playing cards launched. To start with it appears like there can be 6GB of GDDR6 in place, however there have been experiences of GTX 1660 Ti playing cards with 3GB GDDR6 registered with the EEC. About the potential existence of 3GB 1660 Ti playing cards, nonetheless, Nvidia has stated to us: “that’s not true. The 1660 Ti will be 6GB GDDR6, and that’s the only option for this product.”

The emphasis there being on the ‘Ti’ half, so it’s very potential the rumoured GTX 1660 and GTX 1650 will ship with completely different reminiscence configurations.

Because of all the additional RTX gubbins pulled out of this newest Turing GPU it’s far smaller – some 57% – than the subsequent rung on the ladder, the RTX 2060. It is although some 42% bigger than the GTX 1060 chip it’s ostensibly changing.

But, whereas the RT and Tensor Cores are (probably) gone, Nvidia continues to be going to offer all the brand new options it launched within the newest technology of GPU outdoors of the ray tracing and AI-based silicon. Nvidia has added devoted silicon into the SM to course of FP16 operations, the kind of duties usually handled by the Tensor Cores, so it’s not unattainable to assume the GTX 1660 Ti may in the future have entry to one thing just like the DLSS characteristic enabled on the massive boy Turing GPUs. The Tensor Cores, in spite of everything, are successfully simply mixed-precision FP16/FP32 cores optimised for deep studying duties.

With primarily the identical Turing shaders in place which means the TU116 will nonetheless utilise concurrent execution of floating level and integer operations – the place the Pascal structure has to park one to hold out the opposite – and can provide assist for the movement and content material adaptive shading options too.

Modern game engines are those which is able to profit essentially the most from these adjustments as an increasing number of integer operations are being requested of immediately’s graphics silicon.

The instance given is of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the place for each 100 operations the GPU has to tackle 38 are integer primarily based and 62 are normal floating level directions. On the GTX 1060 its GPU must undergo these 100 operations in sequence, whereas the Turing chip contained in the GTX 1660 Ti is ready to run these on the similar time.

In impact the place the GTX 1060 is operating 100 directions the GTX 1660 Ti solely must run 62. That’s fairly a saving and is a part of the explanation the Turing shaders provide extra efficiency than their Pascal forebears.

The GTX 1660 Ti’s TU116 chip additionally retains the identical unified cache structure utilized by the remainder of the household, which supplies it an enormous quantity extra throughput, and capability, throughout the entire chip in contrast with the Pascal technology. Check out our full Nvidia Turing deep-dive for the thin on the structure’s core options.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti benchmarks

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti efficiency

The gaming efficiency of the GTX 1660 Ti, particularly this diminutive Asus Phoenix OC version, exhibits Nvidia’s newest Turing as probably one of the best mainstream 1080p gaming card round proper now. While you’ll be able to nonetheless discover the RX 580 for round $200, nonetheless, AMD does nonetheless have some name on that title for the extra price-conscious crowd.

For essentially the most half this GTX 1660 Ti ties with the GTX 1070, and in some instances, equivalent to with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, it even surpasses the dearer Pascal card. And with the overclocked, super-cool STRIX the occasions the place the GTX 1660 Ti GPU outpaces the 1070 happen much more usually. Though you do must pay over the chances for the privilege.

That efficient parity with the GTX 1070 additionally signifies that, most of the time, the GTX 1660 Ti provides the most recent Polaris GPU, the RX 590, a swift kick within the pants. It’s solely the notably AMD-favouring Battlefield V benchmark the place the Radeon card has some sway. We do, nonetheless, must deliver the RX Vega 56 into the dialog too contemplating AMD has pushed to temporarily slash the prices on choose variations of that GPU to compete.

You can, proper now, get MSI and Sapphire variations of the Vega 56 for across the similar worth because the GTX 1660 Ti. And that’s a a lot nearer battle, with the 2 playing cards buying and selling blows throughout our 1080p benchmarking suite. But the worth drop received’t final for lengthy and has simply been enacted to attempt to spoil the Nvidia launch occasion.

The story is way the identical at 1440p, the place the GTX 1660 Ti playing cards present an identical degree of dominance over each the Radeon RX 590 and Vega 56 GPUs. The story is much less clear at 4K the place the AMD playing cards’ larger reminiscence capability provides them a bit extra of an edge at that demanding decision. It’s nonetheless in no way a clear sweep for the Radeon GPUs with the Nvidia playing cards nonetheless capable of put up a formidable exhibiting in a very good few 4K benchmarks.

Where the Asus Phoenix model of the GTX 1660 Ti does battle, nonetheless, is if you have a look at the relative thermal efficiency. Because of the small-scale heatsink and single-fan cooler the Asus card will get hotter than another card in our looped Metro Exodus benchmark stress check.

It additionally seemingly has to work a bit more durable than the STRIX model to maintain cool too, because the higher-clocked Asus GTX 1660 Ti consumes much less energy, whereas nonetheless being extra chilled. But each present that Nvidia’s Turing GPUs retain the effectivity lead over AMD’s GPU architectures as each the Radeon playing cards devour much more juice from the wall throughout gaming masses.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti verdict

The GTX 1660 Ti is nearly inevitably going to be one of many best-selling Turing GPUs of this technology. Its mixture of worth and efficiency is strictly what was wanted from Nvidia to assuage the ray tracing naysayers, gnashing their enamel in regards to the ultra-expensive 20-series playing cards.

It delivers GTX 1070 efficiency for nearly GTX 1060 pricing. Thankfully, regardless of the GTX 1660 Ti being a companion launch with out reference playing cards from Nvidia, group GeForce has realized its lesson about letting the AIBs unfastened with high-priced overclocked playing cards at launch. There are a number of GTX 1660 Ti playing cards on the $279 (£260) MSRP and this Asus Phoenix OC is without doubt one of the sweetest. It’s perhaps not one of the best due to the restricted cooling capability of the tiny chip chiller, nonetheless.

I’m eager to take a look at the remainder of the competitors, particularly the likes of the Zotac and PNY playing cards with twin-fan coolers, however the mini-ITX Phoenix continues to be capable of produce efficiency that places it close to the highest of the category in relation to the sub-$300 GPU market.

AMD has tried its greatest to place the silicon kitty among the many sky rats by decreasing the worth of the RX Vega 56 simply forward of the GTX 1660 Ti launch, nevertheless it’s a little bit of a brief smokescreen at greatest. There are simply two SKUs being given a worth reduce, and I’m not satisfied that when the primary batch is out of inventory – which they’re in a whole lot of locations already – they’ll get replenished significantly rapidly, or stay at that lowered worth for lengthy. AMD would have killed off the RX 590 in any other case.

Most RX Vega 56 playing cards are far dearer than even the aggressively dear STRIX GTX 1660 Ti, which successfully leaves the RX 590 as the one long run AMD card to face off towards the brand new mainstream Turing GPU. And realistically it struggles head-to-head with the reference-priced fashions of the GTX 1660 Ti.

At $279 (£260) the brand new Nvidia card is just a bit dearer than the RX 590, and customarily gives superior gaming efficiency. You will be capable to discover exceptions so you’ll be able to say the RX 590 is the sooner card, however on common you’re trying on the Nvidia GPU being round 11% sooner throughout our check suite, even with this small-scale Asus model.

Right now, with the RX 580 playing cards nonetheless out there for round $200, AMD is ready to provide one thing for avid gamers on a extra strict finances. And the proposed GTX 1650 goes to must go some to beat the RX 570 on a worth/efficiency footing too.

We are, although, beginning to see the pricing of the Polaris GPUs begin to edge upwards, as inventory begins to say no forward of the AMD Navi mainstream refresh on account of occur in the midst of this 12 months.

The overclocked STRIX, with its superior cooler permitting it to stay to an impressively excessive 1,950MHz, does publish generally a lot larger body charges than its diminutive sibling, however can also be too far north of $300 to make any sense. At that worth it’s knocking its head towards the RTX 2060, which is a far superior card. Seriously overclocked iterations of the GTX 1660 Ti then are going to be very troublesome to suggest.

But at the usual MSRP the Asus Phoenix GTX 1660 Ti is the GTX 1060 substitute that we’ve been chasing since Nvidia began down the Turing path. It’s perhaps been too lengthy coming – we are able to blame the oversupply post-cryptocrash for that – however there may be lastly an reasonably priced mainstream GPU that simply may wrestle management of the sub-$300 market away from AMD’s Polaris playing cards.