Nvidia launched GeForce GTX 1660 as a low-budget alternative to the GTX 1660 Ti. While its performance was nowhere near as that of the Ti, the price-to-performance ratio was spectacular. PC Gamers could enjoy a 1080p-resolution gameplay at high settings. And now Nvidia have unveiled the GeForce GTX 1660 Super. At only $10 more expensive than the GTX 1660, it offers a performance close to that of the 1660 Ti. This is mostly thanks to a new 14Gbps GDDR6 Memory Clock.
In this article we will be reviewing Nvidia’s latest graphics card. We will be looking at everything from the price to the features and chipset. So without further ado, let’s get started!
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super: The tl;dr review
With a price-tag matching that of the GTX 1660 and performance matching that of the GTX 1660 Ti, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super is set to establish itself as the first-choice among entry-level graphics cards in the market. Here are the things we liked and didn’t:
Things we liked
- Is an affordable graphics card
- Is an excellent graphics card
- Has good thermal performance
Things we didn’t like too much
- The number of ports available may seem restricting to some
- It has no RT cores
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super: Features & Performances
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super is a TU116 GPU like its predecessors. Like the GTX 1660 it has 1408 CUDA cores. This is slightly less than that of the GTX 1660 Ti which has 1536 CUDA cores. But the GTX 1660 Super makes up for this with an upgrade in its video memory with a resulting boost in its memory clock. While the original GTX 1660 offered a GDDR5 video memory with a memory speed of 8Gbps, the GTX 1660 Super offers a GDDR6 memory with a speed of up to 14 Gbps. This speed is even higher than that of the GTX 1660 Ti and is the same as that offered by the RTX 2080 Ti, the most expensive GPU in Nvidia’s current stack.
But no need to get too excited here. Unlike the RTX 2080 Ti (or any other card of the RTX-20 series), the GTX 1660 Super does not have RT and Tensor cores. What this means is that you will not get a pretty picture if you try enabling ray tracing in the games you are planning to play. But to be fair, of course the GTX 1660 Super is no match for the RTX-20 cards. Neither the GTX 1660 nor the GTX 1660 Ti have RT and Tensor cores either. And this is well reflected in the prices of these cards.
Power & Ports
The GTX 1660 Super requires quite a bit of power to run. It fits into a 8-pin PCIe power connector and draws a whopping 127.4W by itself. So it makes sense to have at a power supply of at least 500 watts in your system.
One of the few drawbacks of this card is the limited number of ports. With most of the vendors, the ports are limited to a DisplayPort 1.4, an HDMI 2.0b and a DVI-D. While this will be sufficient for most users, if you’re planning to attach a lot of displays to this card, this could be something you might want to consider.
Real World Performance
CUDA cores and Clock Frequencies don’t mean anything until they’re well tested in real world scenarios. It has been tested with various games and the results are in. In Time Spy, the popular DirectX 12 benchmark test for PCs, the GTX 1660 Super was 14% faster than the GTX 1660, and just 5% slower than the $50 more expensive GTX 1660 Ti.
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super is an entry level card, meaning it is suitable for 1080p gaming. So it is no surprise that it failed to impress at 1440p tests. It did manage to go up to 54fps in Middle Earth: Shadow of War, but with Metro: Exodus, the frame-rate fell down to 32 fps. Of course, if you’re playing games of a PC, you’d expect 60 fps to be the standard.
But at 1080p, the GTX 1660 Super is an absolute beast. It averaged 79 fps with 1080p at Ultra settings in Middle Earth: Shadow of War. In Metro: Exodus, the count was an average of 41 frames per second. In contrast, the GTX 1660 averaged 38 fps while the GTX 1660 Ti averaged 44 fps.
To summarize, the GTX 1660 Super seems to perfectly bridge the gap between the GTX 1660 and the GTX 1660 Ti. Too perfectly, one could argue. Both of the GTX 1660 Super’s predecessors could end up being obsolete.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super: Price & Release
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super hit the shelves on October 29. There are several vendors offering this graphics card, the likes of ASUS, EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte and ZOTAC. The price starts at $229. Most vendors are currently offering two versions of the card, one with a slightly higher Boost clock frequency than the other. The GTX 1660 Super cards with the higher frequency are being sold for $249. What this means is that the GTX 1660 Ti could soon become obsolete since the GTX 1660 Super is offering similar performance for $50 less.
Our Verdict
Our final verdict of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super is that it is the best graphics card out their right now for 1080p gaming. It is only $10 more expensive than the original GTX 1660 and has a performance level matching that of the GTX 1660 Ti. If you’re in the market for a great entry-level graphics card in 2019, this is the card to get. Of course, AMD will be releasing the Radeon RX 5500 soon. But it’s still going to be pretty tough the beat the performance-for-price value of the GTX 1660 Super.
1660 Super: How It Compares With Its Predecessors
Let us take a quick look at how the Nvidia GeForce GTX Super compares with its close relatives, the GTX 1660 Ti and the GTX 1660:
CUDA Cores
- 1660 Super: 1408
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti: 1536
- GTX 1660: 1408
Memory Clock
- 1660 Super: 14Gbps GDDR6
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti: 12Gbps GDDR6
- GTX 1660: 8Gbps GDDR5
Core Clock Frequency
- 1660 Super: 1785MHz
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti: 1770MHz
- GTX 1660: 1785MHz
Boost Clock Frequency
- 1660 Super: 1530MHz
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti: 1500MHz
- GTX 1660: 1530MHz
Total Graphics Power
- 1660 Super: 125W
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti: 120W
- GTX 1660: 120W
Single Precision Performance
- 1660 Super: 5 TFLOPS
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti: 5 TFLOPS
- GTX 1660: 5 TFLOPS
Launch Date & Price:
- 1660 Super: October 29, 2019 (starting at $229)
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti: February 22, 2019 (starting at $279)
- GTX 1660: March 14, 2019 (starting at $219)
All three cards have the same number of Render Output Units: 48. They have the same amount of VRAM: 6GB, and the same Memory Bus Width of 192-bit. They are all TU116 GPUs, meaning they are based on Nvidia’s Turing architecture. The chips are produced using TSMC’s 12nm process, have a die size of 284 mm² and have a transistor count of 6,600 million.
Is Nvidia’s Product Stack Getting Messy?
It may be time to start talking about how messy Nvidia’s current product stack is getting. The Turing architecture and the RTX 20 series were both launched in September 2018, just 13 months ago. Nvidia has since launched 12 different GeForce SKUs, the recently launched ‘Super’ cards being the latest in the line. Of those 12 SKUs, two have officially been discontinued: the RTX 2080 and the RTX 2070. That still leaves us with 10 different options. But how did Nvidia end up with this mess?
Like we mentioned earlier, the release of the GTX 1660 Super sort of makes the original GTX 1660 & the GTX 1660 Ti irrelevant. It is only $10 more expensive than the GTX 1660, while being $50 less than the 1660 Ti. And for the price, it offers a performance level matching that of the GTX 1660 Ti. What this results in is the two previous models becoming obsolete in the market demand.
Back in 2016/17, during the days of the GeForce GTX 10 series, there was a similar mess, only 8 SKUs high. But to be fair to Nvidia, they are offering a wider price range. Here are the SKUs currently offered by Nvidia and their respective starting prices:
RTX Series
- RTX 2080 Ti: $999
- GeForce RTX 2080 Super: $699
- RTX 2070 Super: $499
- GeForce RTX 2060 Super: $399
- RTX 2060: $349
GTX Series
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti: $279
- GTX 1660 Super: $229
- GeForce GTX 1660: $219
- GTX 1650 Super: TBD
- GTX 1650: $149
