Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Desktop Graphics Card Review
Reasonably priced Turing offering! The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a Turing-based mid-range GPU. However, the GTX 1660 Ti does not feature the much-sought-after features of the RTX series such as DLSS and Raytracing. Nevertheless, the GTX 1660 Ti is still a good choice, if you do not wish to burn a huge hole in your pocket. You can learn how well Zotac’s GPU performs by reading our review.
The Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a mid-range graphics card that has 1536 shader units and 6 GB of GDDR6 VRAM. This is why the GTX 1660 Ti is primarily suited for 1080p gaming. Zotac’s GPU is very compact and measures only 17.3 cm (~6.8 in), which is why it can be installed in very small cases. Zotac’s GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Twin Fan is compliant with Nvidia’s reference specifications for the GTX 1660 Ti, which means that Zotac has chosen not to overclock this model. Therefore, the maximum boost clock amounts to 1770 MHz, whereas other models of the GTX 1660 Ti can boost their core clocks higher than 1800 MHz.
In terms of connectivity, the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti offers three DisplayPort 1.4 outputs as well as an HDMI 2.0b port. In addition to drawing power from the PCI-E slot, the GPU also requires an 8-pin power connector.
GPU Specifications in Overview
Specifications
GTX 1650
GTX 1660
GTX 1660 Ti
RTX 2060
RTX 2070
RTX 2080
RTX 2080 Ti
Manufacturing process
12 nm
12 nm
12 nm
12 nm
12 nm
12 nm
12 nm
Shader units
896
1.408
1.536
1.920
2.304
2.944
4.352
Texture units
56
88
96
120
144
184
272
Tensor cores
-
-
-
240
288
368
544
RT Cores
-
-
-
30
36
46
68
Base clock speed
1.485 MHz
1.530 MHz
1.500 MHz
1.365 MHz
1.410 MHz
1.515 MHz
1.350 MHz
Boost clock speed
1.665 MHz
1.785 MHz
1.770 MHz
1.680 MHz
1.620 MHz
1.710 MHz
1.545 MHz
Memory interface
128 Bit
192 Bit
192 Bit
192 Bit
256 Bit
256 Bit
352 Bit
Memory Bandwidth
128 GB/s
192.1 GB/s
288 GB/s
336 GB/s
448 GB/s
448 GB/s
616 GB/s
Memory Size
4 GB GDDR5
6 GB GDDR5
6 GB GDDR6
6 GB GDDR6
8 GB GDDR6
8 GB GDDR6
11 GB GDDR6
TDP (in watts)
75 W
120 W
120 W
160 W
175 W
215 W
250 W
The Test Bench - Based on the Ryzen 7 2700X
Our test bench is based on a current AMD platform. The Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi serves as the motherboard. The CPU, which is known as the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, offers a lot of performance. The system is cooled by an all-in-one water cooler from Be Quiet (Silent Loop 280mm). The 16 GB of 3400 MHz RAM comes from G-Skill. The Acer Predator XB321HK does not represent a bottleneck, thanks to its 4K resolution. We are very grateful to AMD for providing us with the above-mentioned system.
Case
Corsair Carbide Air 540 ATX Cube
CPU
AMD RYZEN 7 2700X
CPU Cooler
Be Quiet Silent Loop 280mm
RAM
G-Skill Sniper X 16 GB DDR4 3.400 MHz
Motherboard
Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi
Monitor
Acer Predator XB321HK 4K
SSD
ADATA SP900 M.2 SSD
HDD
2 TB Western Digital (for gaming)
Operating system
Microsoft Windows 10 Professional 64-Bit (Version 1809)
Drivers
Nvidia 425.31
A look at the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a powerful, mid-tier, Turing-based, desktop GPU. The GTX 1660 Ti relies on the TU116 chip with 1536 shader units, 48 ROPs, 96 TMUs and a 192-bit-wide memory bus (clocked at 6 GHz, effectively 12 GHz, bandwidth: up to 288 GB/s). The notebook version of the GTX 1660 Ti is 10 to 20 % slower due to a lower TDP.
The TU116 chip and other Turing-based GPUs are produced using the 12-nm manufacturing process. However, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti does not offer the latest features such as DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and Real Time Ray Tracing. Nevertheless, there are some architectural improvements when it comes to floating point and integer performance. These operations can now be carried out simultaneously. Other notable features include Adaptive Shading, unified cache, DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) as well as H.265 encoding and decoding (PlayReady 3.0).
At Full HD resolution, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti performs somewhat worse than the GeForce GTX 1070, but significantly better than the GeForce GTX 1060. Therefore, it is best-suited for Full HD gaming. However, it can run less demanding titles in 1440p.
The energy consumption of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti amounts to 120 watts. The older GeForce GTX 1060 also has a TDP of 120 watts.
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The Core Clocks of the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
The Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti offers the same base core clock as Nvidia’s reference model (1500 MHz). The maximum boost clock is 1770 MHz. The VRAM comes from Micron and operates at an effective frequency of 12 GHz.
Synthetic Benchmarks
The synthetic benchmarks reveal the position of the GTX 1660 Ti in Nvidia’s product stack. It fills the gap between the GeForce GTX 1060 and the GeForce GTX 1070. The GTX 1660 Ti cannot compete with the GeForce RTX 2060, because the latter GPU is faster than the GTX 1070. When compared to competitors from AMD, the GTX 1660 Ti is roughly on the same level as the Radeon RX 590. The GTX 1660 Ti cannot keep up with AMD’s Vega-branded GPUs.
The Witcher 3 frame time performance (ultra preset)
The Witcher 3 frame rate (ultra preset)
The Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti does much better in the gaming benchmarks than in the synthetic benchmarks. Here, it handily beats the GTX 1060 and is much closer in terms of performance to the GTX 1070. In some titles, the GTX 1660 Ti manages to beat the GTX 1070. AMD’s RX 580 and RX 590 are about 10% slower than the GTX 1660 Ti. However, there are large swings in performance from title to title. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 beats the GTX 1660 Ti in most games and battles it out with the GeForce RTX 2060.
All in all, the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti offers good performance and can run all current games in 1080p on the highest settings. Somewhat older or non-demanding titles such as "FIFA 19" or "Overwatch" are playable in 4K.
We use the video game titled "The Witcher 3" to examine how well the graphics card performs under load. We run the game on ultra settings and record both the frame rate and the frame time. There are no drops in performance, which means that the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is suitable for long gaming sessions and that its cooling solution is working well. At an average frame rate of 62 FPS, "The Witcher 3" should feel buttery-smooth and stutter-free. The frame time performance is also good.
The Turing-based GPUs prove to be better than Pascal-based ones, when it comes to compute performance. Here, the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti always beats the GeForce GTX 1060 and can trade blows with the GTX 1070 in certain applications. The top performers are still the same; the GeForce RTX 2060 with the Radeon RX Vega 56 following it closely.
Both the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and the GeForce GTX 1060 have the same TDP of 120 watts. However, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is considerably faster than the GTX 1060, which means that Zotac’s GPU is more energy-efficient.
When idle, the system draws 68 watts. During our stress test the average power consumption reached 233 watts and the peak energy consumption was 250 watts. However, these numbers cannot be attributed solely to the GPU. The power limit of the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti can be increased by up to 10 %. Doing so leads to a commensurate increase in power consumption. With the power target (PT) increased to 110%, the average power draw amounts to 247 watts.
We use "The Witcher 3" to measure the energy consumption during gaming. Here, we see a power draw of 235 watts, which is comparable to what we saw during the stress test (PT 100%). The Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti consumes the least amount of power among the GPUs in our comparison chart. With 243 watts, the GeForce GTX 1070 is very close. However, that GPU was benchmarked with a more energy-efficient processor.
We did not observe any thermal issues. The temperatures reached 74 °C (~165.2 °F) during our stress test (power target: 110%). During normal use, the temperatures peaked at 72 °C (~161.6 °F) (power target: 100%). The fans span at 1550 RPM and therefore were barely audible. The graphics card does not produce any abnormal noises such as coil whine.
System power draw (at idle)
System power draw (Furmark PT 100%)
System power draw (Furmark PT 110%)
System power draw (The Witcher 3 on ultra)
Stress test with Furmark (PT 100%)
Stress test with Furmark (PT 110%)
Power Consumption - 1920x1080 The Witcher 3 ultra (external Monitor)
A little bit more performance can be squeezed out of the GPU through overclocking. In order to achieve greater overclocking potential, we raised the power limit from 100 to 110%. Doing so increases the TDP up to 132 watts.
We were only able to increase the core clock by 100 MHz and the memory frequency by 800 MHz. This led to a significantly higher memory bandwidth of 326.4 GB/s and a maximum boost clock of up to 1870 MHz.
We can see the results of manual overclocking reflected in the benchmarks. Here, the GPU performs about 5 to 7% faster than in standard mode.
This result is quite good, given the fact that the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti does not feature a factory overclock. The maximum power target has a lot to do with how much overclocking potential a GPU can offer, which is why many board-partners choose to customize it. That being said, if the GTX 1660 Ti were factory-overclocked, it would surely have a lot less overclocking potential.
After the launch of Turing-based GPUs, the Pascal-based graphics cards are starting to run out of stock. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a Turing-based video card without Raytracing or tensor cores. The GTX 1660 Ti also does not support DLSS, because this is where Nvidia decided to draw the line between the GTX and the RTX series. We received a sample GPU from our partner Zotac, because Nvidia does not produce its own version of the GPU under its Founders Edition brand.
At the time of publishing this review, the GTX 1660 Ti retails for 280 Euros ($314) in online stores, which means that it costs about the same as the GeForce GTX 1070, if you can find it in stock. Of course, we are talking here about new GPUs, not second-hand ones, which you can get at very low prices on eBay and other similar websites.
In terms of performance, the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti slots in between the GTX 1060 and the GTX 1070. The 6 GB GTX 1660 Ti is beaten by the GTX 1070. However, the GTX 1660 Ti is still a good GPU for 1080p gaming, because 6 GB of VRAM is still good enough for such resolutions.
Among sub-300-Euro ($336) GPUs, the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti offers great gaming performance and currently does not have any real competition.
When it comes to energy-efficiency, the GTX 1660 Ti has an edge over the GTX 1070. This is why the GTX 1660 Ti is not such a bad choice for those who are looking for a sub-300-Euro ($336) GPU. The prices of AMD’s offerings such as the RX 580, RX 590 and the Vega 56 have been cut significantly, and these days the RX 580 and the RX 590 cost less than the GTX 1660 Ti. However, these two RX video cards are not as fast as the GTX 1660 Ti. The Radeon RX Vega 56 can beat the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, but the Vega 56 is a lot more power-hungry.
We can recommend getting a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti if you can buy it for less than 300 Euros ($336). Those who are willing to shell out more than 300 Euros ($336) will be much better off getting an RTX 2060, because it is about 20-25% faster than the GTX 1660 Ti. Switching from a GTX 1070 to a GTX 1660 Ti makes absolutely no sense.
If you are planning to build a PC from the ground up, then a Turing-based GPU seems like a very reasonable option, because Turing-based video cards are sure to perform better in future titles than Pascal-based GPUs.
Benchmarks of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (benchmarks were conducted independently)
Benchmarks
Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
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