Review of the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X 6 GB Graphics Card.

ZAH Computers Tech Editorial

ZAH Computers Hardware Research Desk

NVIDIA has introduced the GeForce GTX 1660 graphics card, reinforcing its strategy of offering Turing-based GeForce GTX models that do not support ray tracing but provide enhanced performance in standard raster graphics. Priced, the GTX 1660 Ti, released last month, significantly outperformed the similarly priced and newly launched Radeon RX 590, demonstrating the capability to run any game at 1080p with maximum settings and at 1440p with minor adjustments. However, at this price level, the GTX 1660 Ti does not serve as a direct successor to the current mainstream market leader in sales, the GTX 1060 6 GB. This role is now assumed by the GTX 1660. Priced, the GTX 1660 is designed with cost efficiency in mind, allowing NVIDIA the flexibility to reduce expenses further should AMD introduce competitive offerings in this market segment, such as the anticipated "Navi." This graphics card is constructed from the same 12 nm "TU116" silicon as the GTX 1660 Ti, albeit with a reduced number of CUDA cores and a slower memory configuration of 8 Gbps GDDR5, as opposed to the 12 Gbps GDDR6 found in its counterpart. Consequently, NVIDIA aims to provide a product that is slightly superior to the GTX 1060 6 GB and any competing AMD products in this category, ensuring it can still achieve Full HD gaming at maximum settings.

In our reviews of the GTX 1660 Ti, we elaborated on the "TU116" chip, which is based on the "Turing" architecture. This chip omits the RT cores and tensor cores, retaining only the CUDA cores, which offer the same instructions per cycle (IPC) and clock speed enhancements as other cards in the RTX 20-series. The GTX 1660 is primarily aimed at the vast demographic of gamers engaged in online multiplayer e-Sports, who require a graphics card capable of delivering performance at Full HD resolution, and potentially at elevated refresh rates. NVIDIA developed the GTX 1660 from the "TU116" silicon by deactivating 2 of the 24 streaming multiprocessors, leading to a total of 1,408 CUDA cores and 88 texture mapping units (TMUs). This configuration surpasses the specifications of the "Pascal" architecture-based GTX 1060 6 GB. The graphics card features 48 raster operation units (ROPs) and utilizes a 192-bit GDDR5 memory bus to support 6 GB of memory, effectively maintaining the rendering and memory architecture from previous models. Presenting the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X, which stands as the company's high-end model utilizing this GPU. It is equipped with the Twin Frozr 7 cooling system, includes a backplate, features an idle fan-stop function, and comes with factory-overclocked performance levels.

	Shader Units	ROPs	Core Clock	Boost Clock	Memory Clock	GPU	Transistors	Memory
GTX 1050	640	32	1354 MHz	1455 MHz	1752 MHz	GP107	3300M	2 GB, GDDR5, 128-bit
GTX 1050 Ti	768	32	1290 MHz	1392 MHz	1752 MHz	GP107	3300M	4 GB, GDDR5, 128-bit
RX 570	2048	32	1168 MHz	1244 MHz	1750 MHz	Ellesmere	5700M	4 GB, GDDR5, 256-bit
RX 580	2304	32	1257 MHz	1340 MHz	2000 MHz	Ellesmere	5700M	8 GB, GDDR5, 256-bit
GTX 1060 3 GB	1152	48	1506 MHz	1708 MHz	2002 MHz	GP106	4400M	3 GB, GDDR5, 192-bit
GTX 1060	1280	48	1506 MHz	1708 MHz	2002 MHz	GP106	4400M	6 GB, GDDR5, 192-bit
RX 590	2304	32	1469 MHz	1545 MHz	2000 MHz	Polaris 30	5700M	8 GB, GDDR5, 256-bit
GTX 1660	1408	48	1530 MHz	1785 MHz	2000 MHz	TU116	6600M	6 GB, GDDR5, 192-bit
MSI GTX 1660 Gaming X	1408	48	1530 MHz	1860 MHz	2000 MHz	TU116	6600M	6 GB, GDDR5, 192-bit
GTX 1070	1920	64	1506 MHz	1683 MHz	2002 MHz	GP104	7200M	8 GB, GDDR5, 256-bit
RX Vega 56	3584	64	1156 MHz	1471 MHz	800 MHz	Vega 10	12500M	8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
GTX 1660 Ti	1536	48	1500 MHz	1770 MHz	1500 MHz	TU116	6600M	6 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
GTX 1070 Ti	2432	64	1607 MHz	1683 MHz	2000 MHz	GP104	7200M	8 GB, GDDR5, 256-bit
RTX 2060 FE	1920	48	1365 MHz	1680 MHz	1750 MHz	TU106	10800M	6 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit