Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G Review

With the silicon from the just-launched GeForce GTX 1660 Ti even warm, Nvidia is keeping the fabrication lines rolling full tilt with another new mainstream GPU, the GeForce GTX 1660. Priced starting at $ 219 for base models, the GeForce GTX 1660 is well cheaper than the base versions of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti ( $ 279, a difference of $ 60 ) but offers many of the same benefits. The key one ? The muscle to play democratic multiplayer titles at 1080p resolution above 60 frames per second ( federal protective service ), even above 100fps in some cases. The inaugural GTX 1660 tease we tested, Gigabyte ‘s $ 219 GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G, is the GTX 1660 in fairly stripped kind, but it provides solid performance and makes a very well mainstream promote from previous-gen video cards like the GeForce GTX 960, GTX 1050, or GTX 1060 .

Gamers on a Budget, Gather ‘Round

Like the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, the GeForce GTX 1660 is a mainstream waypoint between low-end Nvidia cards like the GeForce GTX 1050 and the a lot pricier GeForce RTX line. The card carries all the benefits that Nvidia made with its throw to the Turing architecture, while leaving behind the specialized Tensor and RT cores that give the GeForce RTX agate line of cards their higher prices .
You Can Trust Our Reviews
Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buy decisions. ( See how we test. )

Reading: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G Review

Two Fans, Two Times the Cool
Based off the lapp TU116 Turing chip as the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, the GeForce GTX 1660 is, for the most part, a scaled-down interpretation of the Ti batting order, with one luminary difference : the use of GDDR5 memory, alternatively of GDDR6. ( Both cards have 6GB. ) This downgrade does n’t seem to affect the throughput of the memory ( both families of tease are rated to run at a firm 192.1GBps ), but it is curious that Nvidia is taking such a big step back in this department however. beyond that, however, the GeForce GTX 1660 is functionally about identical to the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, save for some critical downgrades in the boost-clock frequency, the power pulmonary tuberculosis, and the number of CUDA cores available to render on .

Old Against New: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 vs. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

To give a frame of reference point for how Nvidia has stepped up its game from the previous generation of Pascal GTX cards, here ‘s a 1:1 comparison of the Gigabyte version of the GeForce GTX 1660 I have on hand here for review against the reference batting order of the GeForce GTX 1060 …
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC vs GTX 1060 Founders Edition
The GeForce GTX 1660 is launching for $ 30 less than its harbinger did back in 2016, but it features many substantial improvements to the architecture that are reflected in importantly fast results in our benchmarks tests below .

Nvidia Against AMD: GeForce GTX 1660 vs. Radeon RX 590

As Nvidia continues to steamroll through the GPU grocery store with new Turing-based cards, it ‘s besides shoring up a position as the measure drawing card ( AMD ‘s early sweetness spot ) with cards like the GeForce GTX 1660. here ‘s a look at it versus the citation specification of the Radeon RX 590, AMD ‘s most comparable tease. In terms of real-world price, though, the GTX 1660 at $ 219 or a little more falls between most models of the Radeon RX 590 and the older Radeon RX 580 .
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC vs Radeon RX 590
The GeForce GTX 1660 beats out the Radeon RX 590 both on monetary value and in performance, despite having less available memory and a smaller memory bus width. For more contingent on how memory plays a part in 3DMark results, head on over to our deeper-dive comparison of the GTX 1660 versus the AMD RX 590 for a full explanation. As you ‘ll see in our benchmark tests below, in a few tests the Radeon RX 590 manages to keep tempo, but on the whole, Nvidia has cemented its cred as the leader in the value-centric mainstream GPU grocery store ( at least, in theory, until AMD ‘s next-gen “ Navi ” -based cards drop erstwhile later this year ) .

Gigabyte’s GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G: The Walk-Around

As a infrastructure card, the Gigabyte GTX 1660 OC 6G is predictably minimal in every sense of the son, from its invention to its specification to the lack of add fall anywhere on the menu …
One-Connector Power
The circuit board itself measures 8.8 inches movement to back, which makes it a effective burst for most medium-sized background chassis, and it could tied fit into a MicroATX subject if you laid all your cables mighty. It requires precisely one eight-pin ability connection from your PSU .
Passive Cooling Saves on Power
No Frills, All Fun
On the chase edge, we found three DisplayPort 1.4 slots, american samoa well as one HDMI 2.0b. No DVI or VirtualLink ports here, as Gigabyte aims to cut down on costs by besides cutting down on the number of connectors on the I/O backplane .
DVI On the Way Out

Let’s Get Benching!

personal computer Labs ran the Gigabyte card through a series of DirectX 11- and 12-based celluloid and real-world benchmarks. Our test rig is equipped with an Intel Core i7-8700K processor, 16GB of G.Skill DDR4 memory, a solid-state boot drive, and an Aorus Z370 Gaming 7 motherboard .
For our benchmark results, we wanted to focus some of our efforts ( in an all-new testing regimen ) on the esports abilities of the GTX 1660, as much of the crush from Nvidia with this calling card and the GTX 1660 Ti has centered around its ability to push 1080p on-line multiplayer games ( like those in the hyper-popular “ battle royale ” music genre ) to their highest possible frame rates .
We besides ran the GTX 1660 through the rest of our standard benchmarks, which test a calling card ‘s abilities to handle AAA games at the highest possible quality settings. With the GeForce GTX 1660 being the budget-focused card it is, we were n’t expecting it to smash any records in this department, and graded it on a crook with that in mind .

Synthetic Benchmarks

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra

synthetic benchmarks can be good predictors of real-world bet on performance. Futuremark ‘s circa-2013 Fire strike Ultra is hush a go-to for simulating 4K-based bet on. We ‘re looking only at the graphics subscore, not the overall grade .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra
On first gear glance, the results we got from 3DMark ‘s Fire Strike Ultra test would make you think that, clearly, the Radeon RX 590 is the better bet. But sustain read, and you ‘ll see how that narrative soon gets flipped on its head .

3DMark Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme

This is Futuremark ‘s DirectX 12-enabled benchmark for predicting the performance of DirectX 12-enabled games. It uses major features of the API, including asynchronous calculate, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 3DMark Time Spy Extreme
again, Gigabyte ‘s version of the GTX 1660 does n’t look to be pulling ahead in the areas it should, even getting beat out by the older ( and cheaper ) GTX 1060 .

Unigine Superposition

Our last synthetic benchmark is Unigine ‘s 2017 release, Superposition. This benchmark does incorporate beam trace, but it ‘s done in software, not hardware, and frankincense does n’t utilize the ray-tracing ( RT ) cores of the RTX 20 series in these charts .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 Unigine
It ‘s here, in the Unigine Superposition test, that we finally start to create a service line for what to expect in our real-world bet on tests. The GeForce GTX 1660 pulls ahead of its predecessor, the GeForce GTX 1060, and it besides posts its first gear winnings versus the Radeon RX 590 at each test resolution .

Real-World Gaming

The comply benchmarks are games that you can actually play. The charts themselves detail the settings we used ( typically the highest in-game preset and, if available, DirectX 12 ) .
A quick bill : Though most of our game tests are maxed out in graphic fidelity to push the cards to their terminus ad quem, multiplayer bet on is all about maintaining the best balance between graphic fidelity and ensnare rate. As such, we ‘ve kept the test sequences for Apex Legends, CS : GO, and Rainbow Six : siege tuned to the best combination of necessity improvements in settings ( higher anti-aliasing and lower shadows, for example ), while silent trying to keep frame rates for 1080p games above that coveted 120Hz or 144Hz mark for high-refresh monitors. Playing at the more common 60Hz is a cinch with these games using a card of this quality .

tail of the Tomb Raider

Square Enix ‘s most holocene title in the Tomb Raider franchise is our first gear real-world screen. This game is well-optimized for the personal computer platform, but very demanding at its higher ocular quality settings .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 SoTR
Because Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the few games that ‘s made to showcase Nvidia ‘s engineering directly, it ‘s no surprise to see the AMD Radeon RX 590 get left way in the dust at 1080p on this quiz. ( It was a lot closer at the two higher test resolutions. )

originate of the Tomb Raider

The 2015 harbinger to Shadow of the Tomb Raider is still a great benchmark .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 Rise of the Tomb Raider
The scores shifted a bit in the Radeon RX 590 ‘s favor on this test, but the GeForce GTX 1660 silent came out nontrivially ahead of the GTX 1060 Founders Edition .

Far Cry 5 and Far Cry Primal

The fourth and fifth installments in the Far Cry series are based on DirectX 11, but calm demanding. We ‘re looping the benchmark charts together here since the games play out similarly in a proportional sense .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 Far Cry 5
Gigabyte GTX 1660 Far Cry Primal
The Far Cry titles are where the GeForce GTX 1660 starts to settle into its run as the victor GPU over AMD ‘s aging technical school. The results are right on equality with what Nvidia advertises as the benefits over the GeForce GTX 1060, and they besides fall in pipeline with the numbers posted by MSI ‘s overclocked GeForce GTX 1660 Ti .

Final Fantasy XV

We ‘ll take a respite from fps-based benchmarks for Final Fantasy XV .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 FFXV
As is normally the casing, the contest between comparable AMD cards and the GeForce GTX 1660 was n’t even close on this test, but that ‘s due to Nvidia working therefore closely with Square Enix during the work of porting FFXV from PS4 to PC. Like-priced Nvidia cards will probably always win this one, no matter what AMD serves up.

World of Tanks Encore

This is another non-fps-based benchmark that ‘s available as a barren download. It ‘s not super-demanding, but it ‘s still a reliable test .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 World of Tanks
We were actually expecting things to be a morsel closer on this test between the GeForce GTX 1660 and the older GeForce GTX 1070, but considering that the GTX 1070 besides topped the GTX 1660 Ti in this examination, it ‘s no surprise that the GeForce GTX 1660 fell further behind the lapp arch .

Apex Legends

Apex Legends is the newest, most arouse battle royale on the planet, and it ‘s gaining adherents by the millions. So we figured, if you ‘re upgrading your rig or buying a whole fresh one to get in on the phenomenon, you should have a full idea of what kind of operation to expect on that foremost bang, justly ?
Gigabyte GTX 1660 Apex Legends
Though we were n’t able to hit the Holy Grail of 144fps during our Medium-preset tests of Apex Legends in 1080p, we ‘d imagine that, with just a few settings turned down from there, the GTX 1660 OC 6G would have no problem keeping up with your 144Hz admonisher ‘s refresh rate at that same resolving power. ( For more detail around performance with this uber-popular game, see our analysis of The Best Graphics Cards for Apex Legends. )

buffet hit : global offensive

One of the oldest, so far still most popular, on-line games around the globe, Counter strike : ball-shaped Offensive is the latest in a long line of titles that have changed about nothing about their core gameplay since 1999 … and gamers would n’t have it any other way. The engine is considered one of the best optimized in all of personal computer gambling, which makes it easy to see major gaps in any one card ‘s abilities versus another ‘s .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 Counter Strike Global Offensive
No surprises here. Counter strike : global Offensive will run at high gear frame rates on anything that is n’t an actual bread-burning toaster, so if you have a 240Hz monitor running at 1080p, the GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G will still give you about 40 more frames of breathing room before it tops out .

Rainbow Six : siege

ultimately there ‘s Rainbow Six : Siege. Despite the bet on languishing in bugs and server problems during its first class, Ubisoft has worked hard on its rival to CS : GO to make it one of the most highly played games on the Steam platform, with 45 million players and growing as of early 2019 .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 Siege
This is another fast-paced bet on that ‘s been highly optimized by its developers, though even with their help, the GeForce GTX 1660 hush was n’t able to get to 240fps on the high preset in 1080p. That said, medium or low settings should have no problem boosting you up to wherever you want to be, in club to match your monitor ‘s refresh rate .

Just a Touch of Overclocking

normally, this is the section where we ‘d discuss the overclocking potential of a calling card, but unfortunately, in the casing of the Gigabyte GTX 1660 OC, we were chained to the ship’s company ‘s proprietary Aorus Engine to handle the task .
Aorus Engine performed buggy with this circuit board. Simply trying to adjust the fan accelerate could cause the whole program to freeze up, and it even made personal computer Labs ‘ stallion testbed crash to BSOD on two occasions. When I could get an OC profile to save and apply, the app would again hang and prevent me from launching standard benchmarks such as Fire Strike Ultra in 3DMark or the benchmark of Far Cry 5 .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 Overclocking

That said, between the crashes and lockups, I did manage to get in one 3DMark screen before anything crashed, with an add 175Hz to the hike clock and 250Hz to the memory clock. The results were roughly 7 percentage better than the master hunt, which is fairly criterion for third-party cards that already have some kind of overclocking done out of the corner .

A Bit of Temperature-Taking

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G features two fans with triangular blade edges, which according to claims create a more tied flow of air across the entirety of the heatsink … that is, if they ‘re running at all .
Gigabyte is convinced enough in the heat-dispersion capability of its heat slump that unless you ‘re running a game or movie that truly kicks the GPU into gear, both fans stay off until their services are required. This is designed to cut down on the make noise degree of the GPU, and the card was able to keep itself relatively chill ( 50 degrees C ) during normal activity such as network crop or typing out this very revue .
For our more formal thermal testing, we ran the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra Stress Test for 10 minutes, and tracked the progress of the temperatures throughout … .
Gigabyte GTX 1660 OC 6G GPUZ Heat Data
Things did get a bit hot under the GPU collar than expected, with the wag topping out at 71 degrees C during extremum warhead times .
then we ran our FLIR imaging test …
Gigabyte GTX 1660 6G OC FLIR
As you can see, most of the heat generated by the menu was soaked up by the metallic plate attached to the binding and radiated outward in a smooth radiation pattern from that central reference .

The 1660: An Nvidia Win for the Mainstream

precisely as the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti made purchasing AMD ‘s Radeon RX Vega 56 cards look like a poor respect, Gigabyte ‘s GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G puts the competitively priced AMD Radeon RX 590 in a pickle. That AMD wag may come with a couple of good bundled games for a specify time, but it would seem that AMD might be compelled to make a price move on the RX 590 to stay on pace. once again, Nvidia is succeeding in filling out a holistic and balanced GPU line for gamers … and the rush for second put is n’t all that close .
Meet the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660

The Gigabyte GTX 1660 OC 6G could have been a spot more overclockable and good a short flashy in design for our tastes. But what it lacks in flare, it more than makes up for in authentic 1080p gaming operation on a budget .