Notebookcheck

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M is an upper mid-range, DirectX 11.1 compatible graphics card that was announced in the first quarter of 2012 for laptops. As of this writing, it is the fastest Kepler-based GPU built on the GK107 architecture and is manufactured in 28nm at TSMC. The graphics card uses a 128-Bit wide memory interface with GDDR5-VRAM.

Architecture

The Kepler architecture is the successor to the Fermi architecture that first appeared in laptops with the GeForce 400M series. The GK107 Kepler core offers two shader blocks, called SMX, each with 192 shaders for a total of 384 shader cores that are clocked at the same speed as as the central core. Although more shader cores are available in the Kepler architecture as compared to the Fermi design, the Kepler shaders are still expected to be up to twice as power efficient. However, due to the missing hot clock of the shader domain, two shaders of a Kepler chip are of similar speed to one shader of a Fermi chip (as the latter was clocked twice as fast). PCIe 3.0 is now supported by the mobile Kepler series and an optional Turbo mode can automatically overclock the Nvidia card by a theoretical 15 percent if the laptop cooling system allows it. The implementation of this boost mode is done in the BIOS, but it is ultimately dependent upon the manufacturer of the laptop.

Performance

Thanks to the GDDR5-VRAM, the gaming performance of the GeForce GTX 660M is well ahead of the GT 650M DDR3 and on par with the AMD Radeon HD 6950M. Even the older high-end Fermi-GPU GTX 570M is only slightly faster. Therefore, current games as of 2012 run moderately well in 1080p resolution and high details. Only a few very demanding games, such as Metro 2033 or Crysis 2, may need reduced graphical settings for smoother gameplay.

Features

The improved feature set now includes support for up to 4 active displays. Furthermore, high resolution monitors of up to 3840x2160 pixels can now be connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a if available. HD-Audio codecs, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, can be transmitted via bitstream mode through the HDMI port. However, as most laptops will feature Optimus, the integrated GPU will likely have direct control over the display ports and may limit the feature set available by the Nvidia Kepler cards.

The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK107 core and offers hardware decoding of HD videos. Common codecs such as MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264 and VC1/WMV9 are fully supported up to 4K resolutions while VC1 and MPEG-4 are supported up to 1080p. Two streams can be decoded in parallel for features such as Picture-in-Picture. Another novelty is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed by the NVENC API.

The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 660M should be best suited for notebooks 15-17 inches or greater.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce GTX 600M Series
GeForce GTX 680M SLI (compare) 2688 @ 720 MHz2x 256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
GeForce GTX 680MX (compare) 1536 @ 720 MHz256 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 675M SLI (compare) 768 @ 620 MHz256 Bit @ 3000 MHz
GeForce GTX 680M (compare) 1344 @ 720 MHz256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
GeForce GTX 670MX SLI (compare) 1920 @ 600 MHz2x 192 Bit @ 2800 MHz
GeForce GTX 675MX (compare) 960 @ 600 MHz256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
GeForce GTX 675M (compare) 384 @ 620 MHz256 Bit @ 3000 MHz
GeForce GTX 670MX (compare) 960 @ 600 MHz192 Bit @ 2800 MHz
GeForce GTX 670M (compare) 336 @ 598 MHz192 Bit @ 3000 MHz
GeForce GTX 660M 384 @ 835 MHz128 Bit @ 4000 MHz
CodenameN13E-GE
ArchitectureKepler
Pipelines384 - unified
Core Speed835 MHz
Memory Speed4000 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory2048 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
technology28 nm
FeaturesOptimus, SLI, PhysX, Verde Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement22.03.2012

Benchmarks

3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Score 1280x720
10200 Points (17%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Graphics 1280x720
12861 Points (7%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Score 1920x1080
1703 Points (6%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Graphics 1920x1080
1751 Points (4%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Ice Storm Standard Graphics 1280x720
113363 Points (15%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
min: 2307     avg: 2544.9     median: 2543 (7%)     max: 2727 points
+ 11 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
min: 2087     avg: 2327     median: 2369 (5%)     max: 2414 points
+ 9 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark Vantage
P Result 1280x1024 +
P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024 +
3DMark 2001SE - Standard 1024x768
46020 Points (48%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
min: 35347     avg: 39387.3     median: 39449 (21%)     max: 41898 Points
+ 7 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
min: 18640     avg: 20551.1     median: 19535 (37%)     max: 23933 Points
+ 7 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 06 Standard 1280x1024 +
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
min: 31     avg: 32.6     median: 32 (14%)     max: 33 fps
+ 6 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
SPECviewperf 11
Siemens NX 1920x1080 +
Tcvis 1920x1080 +
SolidWorks 1920x1080 +
Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080 +
Maya 1920x1080 +
Lightwave 1920x1080 +
Ensight 1920x1080 +
Catia 1920x1080 +
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
min: 6     avg: 7.2     median: 7 (100%)     max: 7 points
+ 7 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
min: 6     avg: 7.2     median: 7 (100%)     max: 7 points
+ 7 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64Bit +
ComputeMark v2.1 - Normal, Score 1024x600
566 Points (2%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Titanfall

Titanfall

2014
low 1024x768
60  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
49.3  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
39.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
20.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Thief

Thief

2014
low 1024x768
46  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
30.7  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
26.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
13  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Assassin´s Creed IV: Black Flag

Assassin´s Creed IV: Black Flag

2013
low 1024x768
57.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
45.3  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
26.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
13.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
X-Plane 10.25

X-Plane 10.25

2013
low 1024x768
82.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
38.4  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
18.7  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
10  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Call of Duty: Ghosts

Call of Duty: Ghosts

2013
low 1024x768
75.1  fps    + Compare