As it became known from AMD's speech at Computex in May, and then at the E3 gaming exhibition, in July the company will release video cards based on Navi chips, which, although they do not claim to be the absolute leader in performance among discrete accelerators, should compete with quite powerful offers. "Green" class GeForce RTX 2070. In turn, NVIDIA, as rumors say, is going to arrange a major update to the GeForce RTX family, and we will also be able to confirm or refute these assumptions pretty soon. Be that as it may, the market for high-performance graphics cards is ready to bubble up again.
But while the boiling point is inexorably approaching, all the most interesting things are still happening in the field of more affordable devices priced at $ 200-300. Due to the new video cards of the GeForce GTX 16 family, NVIDIA intends to push AMD out of the niche, which was chosen by the top models of the Radeon RX 500 series. branded . However, Polaris has clearly seen its best days, with even the GeForce GTX 1660 outperforming the Radeon RX 590 in gaming benchmarks, and the energy efficiency difference between the red and green chips seems insurmountable today. The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, in turn, has become a serious threat to the Radeon RX Vega 56. And let's not forget that ΠΈ capable of real-time software ray tracing, and for undemanding games at 1080p resolution, itβs pretty good.
In this situation, AMD has no choice but to reduce the prices of video cards with Polaris and Vega chips, so much so that even NVIDIA partners are now forced to sell the GeForce GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Ti at a significant discount - at least that's what happened in Russian retail. As a result, the buyer of an inexpensive video card has a huge selection of offers for every taste and budget, but itβs not so easy to make a decision, because there are no clear leaders and outsiders in terms of performance per ruble in this price category: all NVIDIA and AMD devices lined up in a ladder according to their price and features. In addition, if we take into account not only the most affordable options for a particular GPU, but also accelerators with better cooling systems and serious factory overclocking, then the price ranges of competing devices and even neighboring models of the same company overlap.
We started our acquaintance with the GeForce GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Ti with , in which the advantage of new NVIDIA chips is combined with an affordable price. Maybe this is the best choice, or is it worth exploring more sophisticated options first? Let's try to understand this issue using the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC as an example.
Specifications, scope of delivery, prices
GIGABYTE traditionally leaves the best examples of accelerators on a particular GPU for its "premium" AORUS series, while under the GAMING brand, offers with intermediate characteristics are concentrated. With the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, it turned out exactly the same - the AORUS GeForce GTX 1660 Ti variant has unsurpassed clock speeds, but the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC is not too far behind the leader. Compared to the reference specifications, the manufacturer increased the Boost Clock - the average clock frequency under gaming load - by 90 MHz (from 1770 to 1860), and in real conditions we will surely see a result in the range of 1900-2000 MHz. The AORUS modification can only offer an additional 30 MHz beyond the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC.
At the same time, the video card operates within the power reserve increased from the standard 120 to 140 W. This is no less important for successful overclocking - both factory and by the user - than a given frequency-voltage curve. But the bandwidth of the RAM, as usual, was left in accordance with the reference parameters - 12 Gb / s per bus contact.
| Manufacturer | NVIDIA | GIGABYTE |
|---|---|---|
| Model | GeForce GTX 1660 Ti | GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMINGOC |
| Graphics Processor | ||
| Name | TU116 | TU116 |
| Microarchitecture | Turing | Turing |
| Process technology, nm | 12 nm FFN | 12 nm FFN |
| Number of transistors, million | 6 600 | 6 600 |
| Clock frequency, MHz: Base Clock / Boost Clock | 1500/1770 | 1500/1860 |
| Number of shader ALUs | 1536 | 1536 |
| Number of texture overlays | 96 | 96 |
| ROP number | 48 | 48 |
| Number of tensor cores | No | No |
| Number of RT cores | No | No |
| RAM | ||
| Bus width, bit | 192 | 192 |
| Chip type | GDDR6SDRAM | GDDR6SDRAM |
| Clock frequency, MHz (bandwidth per contact, Mbps) | 1 500 (12 000) | 1 500 (12 000) |
| Volume, MB | 6 144 | 6 144 |
| I/O bus | PCI Express 3.0 x16 | PCI Express 3.0 x16 |
| Performance | ||
| Peak performance FP32, GFLOPS (based on maximum specified frequency) | 5437 | 5714 |
| Performance FP64/FP32 | 1/32 | 1/32 |
| Performance FP16/FP32 | 2/1 | 2/1 |
| RAM bandwidth, GB/s | 288 | 288 |
| Image output | ||
| Image output interfaces | DL DVI-D, DisplayPort 1.4a, HDMI 2.0b | DL DVI-D, DisplayPort 1.4a, HDMI 2.0b |
| TBP/TDP, W | 120 | ND |
| Retail price (USA, without tax), $ | 279 (recommended) | ΠΡ 300 |
| Retail price (Russia), rub. | 22 990 (recommended) | From 21 368 |
Curiously, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC is the only modification of the device in the GAMING family that GIGABYTE has released to the market. As a rule, NVIDIA partners accompany each overclocker model with a simpler accelerator with the same design, but reduced clock speeds, and it always happens that only the most overclocked version can be found on sale. But this time we have no reason to complain, because the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING simply does not exist without the letters OC in the name.
Since the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC takes the second place in terms of frequencies among analogues from the GIGABYTE catalog, it is not surprising that the video card costs noticeably more than the most affordable devices with GeForce GTX 1660 Ti specifications - in Russian stores for sure. So, prices for the GTX 1660 Ti start at $280, or 17 rubles, while for the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 293 Ti GAMING OC they ask for at least $1660, or 300 rubles. But with the mid-range GPU market suddenly tight, the GIGABYTE board came close to the notoriously more powerful offerings from AMD and NVIDIA. The simplest versions of the Radeon RX Vega 21 have dropped in price to $368 and 56 rubles, and the GeForce RTX 300 in dollar prices is still at a respectable distance ($20 and above), but is already available in Russia for an amount of 990 rubles.
On the other hand, the lower class graphics cards in which competition has intensified the most - the GeForce GTX 1660 without the Ti index and the Radeon RX 590 - cost much less than the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC. An NVIDIA model can now be snatched for $220, or 15 rubles, and an analog in terms of performance on the older Polaris chip for $090, or 210 rubles.
It turns out that the hero of this review is at the same time very expensive compared to his closest neighbors from below and catches up with the price of his neighbors from above. Under such conditions, you will have to study the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC very meticulously, which we will immediately do. But first, an on-duty remark about the package: in addition to the video card itself, the box contained only a brief installation manual and a software disk, which, of course, is no longer readable in most modern computers. It is also worth noting that the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC is accompanied by a three-year manufacturer's warranty, and if you register on the GIGABYTE website within one month after purchase, the service is extended for another year.
Design
"Untitled" version , on the example of which we got acquainted with the new NVIDIA model in February, well illustrates the modern practices of budget video construction. The TU116 GPU, for all its speed, turned out to be a rather cold chip with little demand on the power system. NVIDIA partners saw this as a signal for extreme savings on device strapping. In particular, many video cards have appeared with a simplified cooling system, where instead of a modern heatsink of a prefabricated design, a heatsink made of a milled aluminum blank with a lonely heat pipe is installed on the GPU. Such coolers are quite capable of removing heat from a chip with a power consumption of 120 W, but only at the price of not the best acoustic characteristics.
A quick look at the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC is enough to see the main difference between this model and simpler modifications of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, whether it be products of GIGABYTE itself or its many competitors - a complete cooling system with three fans and several heat pipes . The GPU heatsink here is blown by three impellers with a diameter of 75 mm, and the design is designed so that the middle fan rotates in the opposite direction with respect to the two extreme ones. Many manufacturers have now come to this decision, and for good reason - the orientation of the fans in the manner of closing gears helps to reduce the turbulence of the air flow, which means it increases the blowing speed. Up to a temperature of 60 Β°C, the cooler operates in a completely passive mode.
The manufacturer rates the GAMING series highly enough to equip these devices with LED illumination. The corporate logo on the side of the case can be customized to your taste and synchronized with other GIGABYTE components. In the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti model under the AORUS brand, there are also LEDs on the back surface of the PCB, covered with a metal shield. In the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC, the protective panel is made of plastic and has no backlight.
The casing of the video card covers the cooler from all sides, except perhaps for the mounting plate with video outputs and hiding the design features from the eyes. However, inside, under the fan unit, we were glad to find a full-fledged modern type radiator. The main role in the removal of heat from the GPU crystal is played by the side sections of the fins, strung on three heat pipes with a diameter of 5 mm. In the central part, where the tubes are pressed into an aluminum block with its own segment of fins, they are flattened out and cover most of the surface of the graphics chip. The heatsink also has additional projections to cool other hot PCB components - GDDR6 memory chips, as well as drivers, switches and voltage regulator chokes.
Printed circuit board
Judging by the empty spaces for two GDDR6 chips and two additional voltage regulator phases, the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC is based on another universal PCB that can accept not only the TU116, but also the more powerful TU106 GPU. Unlike the simplified GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 Ti we reviewed earlier, the GAMING-branded PCB is more spacious, but the full VRM configuration still includes 6-phase GPU power and 116-phase RAM. Two phases serving the GPU are missing here due to the low power consumption of the TU140 (the board is designed for a power consumption of XNUMX W in normal mode).
But the most interesting is not this. The specifications of the power supply system of the TU106 chip and other senior representatives of the Turing architecture always feature MOSFETs with an integrated driver (the so-called power stages), thanks to which it is possible to significantly reduce thermal power losses. In turn, TU116-based graphics cards that borrowed circuit boards from GeForce RTX models also took advantage of this. But on the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC board, we found a standard voltage regulator circuit from discrete components: a driver and two keys in each phase. However, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is not such a voracious device that we put this fact in a claim to the manufacturer. The voltage on the GPU is controlled by the uPI Semiconductor uP9512R PWM controller, which we have already seen more than once in the lower models of the GeForce RTX series, but in this case we cannot guarantee that the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC retained another distinctive feature of the updated VRM design of NVIDIA accelerators - the ability to turn off some of the phases at low load on the GPU - after all, there are already few of them here.
The board contains six Micron GDDR6 RAM chips marked 8ZA77 D9WCR. The bandwidth of 12 Gb / s per contact that they provide in this device is a regular indicator for them.
The video card has two DisplayPort connectors and a pair of HDMI for connecting monitors and TVs. The manufacturer abandoned the formally outdated DVI interface - there is not even a wiring for it on the printed circuit board.
Source: 3dnews.ru