Nvidia lastly lifted the lid on their new GTX 1660 graphics card yesterday, which is the infant sibling to their additionally recently-released (and newly-crowned best graphics card champ) GTX 1660 Ti. But what distinction does that ‘Ti’ moniker really make, and is it price spending the additional £60 / $60 on it? To discover out, it’s time to take a look at some tasty graphs.
GTX 1660 vs GTX 1660 Ti: Specs
In phrases of total specs, the large distinction between these two playing cards is the kind of reminiscence they arrive with. While each playing cards have the identical Turing TU116 GPU sitting on the coronary heart of them, the Ti’s 6GB of quicker GDDR6 reminiscence means it might chew via game information rather a lot quicker than the non-Ti model’s 6GB of GDDR5 reminiscence. Indeed, whereas the GTX 1660 has a reminiscence bandwidth of 192GB/s, the Ti’s is a whopping 288GB/s.
The GTX 1660 additionally has fewer CUDA cores than its Ti sibling (1408 vs 1536), that are a bit just like the cores you get in your CPU, however for graphics calculations. However, the one space the place the GTX 1660 trumps its Ti sibling is its GPU’s base and enhance clock speeds. Whereas the Ti’s GPU has a base velocity of 1500MHz and a lift of 1770MHz, the common GTX 1660 is clocked at 1530MHz and 1785MHz respectively. Or at the very least they’re in line with Nvidia’s reference specification, which third occasion producers typically tweak and tune to their liking to attempt to eek out a bit of additional efficiency from them. As a consequence, some playing cards you see on sale may very well be quicker these specific figures, however sufficient about teensy spec variations – let’s speak teensy frames per second variations as an alternative!
GTX 1660 vs GTX 1660 Ti: How we check
You know the drill by now. Just like my GTX 1660 Ti vs GTX 1060 and GTX 1660 Ti vs RTX 2060 articles, I’ve put every card up in opposition to my basic games benchmarking suite at 1920×1080 and 2560×1440 resolutions to see how they carry out throughout totally different graphics high quality settings.
The games in query embrace Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Metro Exodus, Final Fantasy XV (with Nvidia’s fancy HairWorks, TurfEffects, VXAO and ShadowLibs results turned off), Monster Hunter: World, Total War: Warhammer II, The Witcher III and Forza Horizon 4, giving us a pleasant unfold of massive blockbuster games from the final couple of years proper as much as current day.
Paired with my Intel Core i5-8600Okay CPU and 16GB of Corsair Vengeance 2133MHz RAM, I’ve seen what every card can do on each High and Ultra settings at every decision and brought a median body charge (both from their very own built-in benchmarks or from my very own repeated handbook gameplay exams) to see how they stack up in opposition to one another.
To assist me, I’ve bought Gigabyte’s GeForce GTX 1660 OC and the Asus GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Phoenix editions, that are each on the decrease finish of their respective value brackets of £200 / $220 and £260 / $280 respectively. This ought to hopefully give us a good suggestion about what to anticipate as a baseline for every card, in addition to a transparent image of what that further £60 / $60 will actually get you.
GTX 1660 vs GTX 1660 Ti: 1080p efficiency
Starting with how every card performs on Ultra settings at 1920×1080, you’ll be able to see from the graph under that each playing cards put in a fairly good efficiency right here. Metro Exodus apart, even the GTX 1660 is hitting a clean 50fps generally right here, whereas the GTX 1660 Ti nudges issues a bit larger to a cushty 60fps or above.
Personally, I’d be fairly pleased with the common model of the GTX 1660 right here if I used to be in search of a card to solely play games at 1920×1080, as I’m undecided you’d really discover the distinction in velocity simply by taking a look at them aspect by aspect. A decrease common does, after all, imply that the GTX 1660 is extra susceptible to dipping into barely extra juddery territory when issues get a bit powerful – Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, for instance, had a few sub-25fps dips after I ran the GTX 1660 via its inner benchmark, whereas the GTX 1660 Ti saved its Spartan sandal socks up nearer to 30fps. On the entire, although, each had been fairly clean and secure all through and delivered a superbly playable expertise total.
Besides, if Ultra finally ends up being an excessive amount of for the GTX 1660, you’ll be able to nonetheless get pretty 60fps+ speeds by knocking the standard settings all the way down to High. I’ve disregarded Forza Horizon Four and The Witcher III right here, as they had been already hitting 60fps on Ultra, however that’s a fairly good set of outcomes, in case you ask me, as even Metro Exodus was tameable with its full tesselation, AF 16x texture filtering, HairWorks and Advanced PhysX all switched on right here (and you may at all times swap a number of of these off if you wish to push it barely larger).
The GTX 1660 Ti, after all, nonetheless affords an honest 10-15fps soar over its non-Ti sibling right here, however you’re solely going to really see in case you’ve bought a excessive refresh charge monitor at your disposal. For everybody else with a daily 60Hz monitor, I reckon the GTX 1660 is greater than satisfactory for the job right here, particularly when it means you’ll be able to preserve prices down to simply £200 / $220 as properly, as an alternative of spending nearer to £300 / $300 on one thing that’s in the end solely going to get you one other high quality establishing.
GTX 1660 vs GTX 1660 Ti: 1440p efficiency
Unless, after all, you’ve additionally bought a 2560×1440 monitor at your disposal, by which case you may wish to think about spending the additional on the GTX 1660 Ti right here. Admittedly neither card is especially snug on Ultra settings at this decision, however a body charge within the low 40s is sort of definitely going to be noticeably smoother than one within the mid 30s right here.
High settings, then again, is rather more doable on these playing cards – notably within the case of the GTX 1660 Ti, which is ready to hit an honest 60fps nearly throughout the board right here. The common GTX 1660, in the meantime, tended to settle extra across the 50fps mark, which once more is fairly first rate contemplating it prices a lot much less, however actually, you’re taking a look at Medium settings in order for you a correct, constant run of 60fps speeds.
Again, lots of people will in all probability be more than pleased with that type of efficiency within the right here and now, however I do fear concerning the GTX 1660’s total longevity as a 1440p card as games turn into much more demanding within the years to return. While it might do a fairly good job throughout Medium to High settings now, in a few years time, I wouldn’t be shocked if it ended up extra of a Low to Medium card as an alternative. The GTX 1660 Ti, then again, is simply prone to slip all the way down to Medium to High over long-term use, which I’d argue might be price the additional money on this case.
GTX 1660 vs GTX 1660 Ti: Conclusion
As a consequence, I’d in all probability come down on the aspect of the GTX 1660 Ti in case you’re after a card that may do each 1080p and 1440p gaming to a excessive commonplace, because it’s solely going to provide you higher future-proofing additional down the road. For these whose major concern is simply on the 1080p finish of the spectrum, nonetheless, I reckon the common GTX 1660 ought to do you simply effective.
You may argue it’s nonetheless price spending the additional money on the GTX 1660 Ti when you have a 1920×1080 monitor with a excessive refresh charge, as its further horsepower is sort of definitely going to make higher use of these further frames than the non-Ti model of the GTX 1660.
That’s to not say the common GTX 1660 can’t do tremendous excessive body charges, although. In Doom, for instance (which I didn’t embrace on the graphs above as a result of every little thing can already run Doom at stupidly excessive speeds), I noticed highs of 150fps on Ultra settings with the GTX 1660, which is greater than sufficient to your typical 144Hz monitor. As a consequence, the GTX 1660 ought to nonetheless be excessive refresh charge associate for much less demanding games, corresponding to Apex Legends, Fortnite and the like, however you’ll have to make do with Medium settings in order for you the identical speeds in immediately’s massive, graphics intensive blockbusters.
Either method, the GTX 1660 is a effective graphics card in its personal proper, and is my new best graphics card suggestion alongside AMD’s Radeon RX 580 for what you need to really purchase at 1080p in case you’re trying to preserve prices down as a lot as potential.
