Gigabyte GTX 1660 Gaming OC 6GB Graphics Card Review

Gigabyte GTX 1660 Gaming OC While Gigabyte's AORUS branding has always focused on the enthusiast and extreme hardware, Gigabyte still have plenty to offer at the more affordable end of the market. Under their stock name "Gigabyte", their GPUs often end up being some of the most competitively priced of each generation. With the launch of the GTX 1660 now upon us, it seems both they and Nvidia want to give us more affordable gaming cards. Why GTX 1660? The new cards may be somewhat similar to their GTX 1060 counterparts, but they're certainly not identical. They use a smaller fabrication process, use less power, generate less heat, and clock higher. That means more performance for those looking for an affordable brand-new GPU. At least on paper, I'm going to test them in just a moment to see how that pans out! Features TU116-300 Chipset1408 Cores88 TMUs48 ROPs6GB GDDR5 Memory192-bit Bus12nm FinFET Process Specifications For in-depth specifications, please visit the official Gigabyte page here. Packaging The box looks pretty much like every other Gigabyte GPU. That's not a bad thing though, it's a nice and clean design, with a stylish design on the box. It also details the RGB Fusion 2.0 support, Windforce cooler, and that the card is an OC Edition. Around the back, you can see how their latest Windforce 3X Cooler works, as well as their pure copper heat pipe design. There's also information on display outputs, the back plate, and more on the RGB tech. A Closer Look This isn't the most exciting card to look at, if I'm honest, but it's hardly ugly either. We've seen this cooler on plenty of Gigabyte cards before, and they haven't really changed much. It's designed to be very much functional, and I'm sure those triple fans will do a great job of cooling this chipset. Down the side of the card, there is a small RGB lit Gigabyte logo. Further back, you'll find a single 8-pin power connector. You can also see that the cooler and fans extend beyond the standard PCB. You can't really tell that the cooler is bigger than the card though, as there's a lovely full-size backplate keeping everything looking rather uniform. Plus, the backplate adds strength to the card, which is no bad thing either. Around the back, you'll find two DP outputs, and two HDMI outputs. This is great for dual monitors, as some of the other GTX 1660 only have 1 DP, 1 HDMI and maybe a DVI-D. How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test bench to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Graphics Card Test System Motherboard – Aorus Z390 Gaming MasterProcessor – Intel Core i9-9900K (Stock)RAM – Crucial Ballistix Gaming 32GB (4 x 8GB) 3000 MHzCPU Cooler – Noctua NH-D15SPower Supply – Be Quiet Power Zone 1000WMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Thermaltake Core P5 TGOperating System – Windows 10 64-bitMonitor – AOC 28-Inch 4K Gaming Monitor Additional Hardware Killawatt style electricity usage meter wall plugPrecision Gold N05CC Decibel meter Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. With our previous reviews, we used the “Medium or Normal” preset. However, as GPUs get faster, we’ve now moved that up to “High” profiles for all games, at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, as is FreeSync and G-Sync technologies or similar. Graphics card power usage set to optimised or balance, and the system power mode set to High Performance within Windows and the available GPU driver software. Identical settings are used for all resolutions unless otherwise stated. Games and Settings Used Shadow of the Tomb Raider DX12 High Preset1080p1440p2160pDeus Ex: Mankind Divided DX12 High Preset1080p1440p2160pGhost Recon: Wildlands High Preset1080p1440p2160pBattlefield V DX12 High Preset1080p1440p2160pBattlefield V DX12 High Preset (DXR Enabled) NVIDIA RTX Cards ONLY1080p1440p2160pMetro Exodus DX12 High Preset1080p1440p2160pMetro Exodus DX12 High Preset (RT, then RT and DLSS Enabled) NVIDIA RTX Cards ONLY1080p1440p2160pFar Cry New Dawn High Preset1080p1440p2160p Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download)FireStrike Ultra BenchmarkUnigine Superposition (download)4K Optimised BenchmarkHWMonitor (download)GPU-Z Noise Everyone has a reasonable noise level preference when it comes to comes to components on a computer. Some can handle all fans at 100% load to keep temperatures down; some want an entirely silent computer. To accurately gauge the noise output of a graphics card, we position a Precision Gold N05CC one meter above our open-air test bench and take an average reading at idle and load. Gaming noise levels are taken during a CPU vs CPU match a preset match in Soul Calibur VI. Power Consumption We take power readings during idle state with no background applications running. Then again at 50% completion of the Unigine Superposition benchmark, using the average as the final published result. Gaming power consumption is taken during a CPU vs CPU match a preset match in Soul Calibur VI. Temperatures We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered from Unigine Superposition after a 4K optimised run, confirming the numbers are accurate with HWMonitor. Furthermore, the ambient temperature is always kept +/- 1c from 21c. Gaming temperatures are taken during a CPU vs CPU match a preset match in Soul Calibur VI. Synthetic Benchmarks 3DMark FireStrike Amazingly, despite being on of the most affordable GTX 1660 cards, the Gigabyte model does really well here. It beat out the other three 1660 cards with a score of 2943 in 3DMark. 3DMark TimeSpy It did even better once again in TimeSpy, setting a score of 6001, putting it a few points ahead of the other GTX 1660 cards. It's also not too far off the GTX 1070, while also being way ahead of the VEGA 56 and RX 580. Unigine Superposition The results kept going strong in Unigine too. Here we scored 4353, putting it just behind the MSI GTX 1660 GamingX. Again, beating out the GTX 1060 and RX580 with ease. Shadow of the Tomb Raider All of the new GTX 1660 cards performed great at 1080p, scoring around 80 FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. At 79 FPS, the Gigabyte card is plenty playable here, and that continues to 1440p where it scored 53 FPS. 4K performance isn't ideal, but then again, we wouldn't expect it to be fast at 4K at this price range. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided While it is a little more depending than Tomb Raider, the Gigabyte GTX 1660 still scored 71 FPS at 1080p, and 47.2 FPS at 1440p in Deus Ex. Of course, you could easily drop down to medium settings at 1440p to get that above 60 FPS all day long. Ghost Recon: Wildlands Things fared a little easier in Ghost Recon though. We hit a very impressive 82 FPS at 4K, so you could comfortably go above the high graphics profile here. Furthermore, at 1440p, 58.8 FPS is so close to 60 FPS, we doubt you would notice. Overall, it made easy work of this one! Battlefield V A visually impressive game like this doesn't stand a chance on this card, right? Wrong! At 1080p, it blasted to 82 FPS with ease, and like in other games, that means 57 FPS at 1440p too. It seems 80+ and around 60 FPS for each resolution is to be expected for GTX 1660's! Metro Exodus Speaking of good performance, keep in mind that Metro Exodus is a monster. This is not an easy game to run well, especially at its extraordinarily demanding high profile. However, we still got 48.2 FPS at 1080p, the best of any 1660 card tested so far. Things went down hill from there. Perhaps stick to lower resolution and profiles for this game! Far Cry New Dawn To wash of the hurt of Metro's tough performance, Far Cry is here to soften the blow. The Gigabyte GTX 1660 scored a tidy 85 FPS at 1080p. It also broke that magic number by scoring 61 FPS at 1440p. 32 FPS at 4K is impressive too, if you don't mind the lower frame rate, and really love the extra pixels. Power Consumption It's not hard to see that the GTX 1660 is an efficient chipset. All four we've tested are the most efficient cards we've ever tested. Not only that, but they're using far less power than the RX-series and VEGA 56 cards from AMD, which they also beat in performance. Pretty impressive stuf! Temperatures That massive cooler is clearly doing a great job too, with the chip maxing out at just 63c. Perhaps a dual fan would have been enough? Either way, I can't complain at these figures. Acoustics Finally, we have the noise tests and at just 38.7 it's unlikely to ever bother you. An efficient chipset, and a triple fan cooler, means fan RPM never really need to get too high. Overclocking If there's one thing we've noticed about the GTX 1660 chipset, it's that it loves to overclock. I mean, you can really run the crap out of these things and they just keep on powering through. What's amazing is that we got a whopping 11-14% performance improvement. Furthermore, that only required an extra 7.44% of power, and a similar increase in noise. However, the card was still really quiet, and was actually freaking cool than stock! The fan did spin more, resulting in lower temperatures. I've never seen this happen before, ever. Either way, with that OC, 88 FPS is actually matching the performance of the GTX 1070 Ti and GTX 1080! How Much Does It Cost? The GTX 1660 range launches today, with prices ranging from £199.99 to £249.99 depending on the model you desire. The Gigabyte GTX 1660 Gaming OC comes in right in the middle, with a price of $239.99 in the US and £224.99 in the UK. Not bad, given it has a 1860 MHz Boost Clock, matching that of the more expensive MSI Gaming X (£249.99). Overview Gigabyte has played it pretty safe with this card, and it has paid off big time. They've basically used an off-the-shelf cooler design, which I suspect means they can keep costs down a bit. They've then delivered a card that has impressive cooling performance to match the boost clocks of the most expensive GTX 1660 cards but leaving £25 in your pocket. For those looking for big performance on a budget, it's a fantastic deal. The downside is it does look a bit boring from some angles, but to be honest, I don't think that really matters at this price range. Gaming All of the GTX 1660 cards have put on a great show for us this week. With few exceptions, we saw North of 80 FPS at 1080 using high settings. For the bulk of people buying this GPU, that will be the resolution they use. It stands to reason that 1080p Ultra will work great on some games too. For those feeling fancy and rocking a 1440p monitor, you're in luck. The card was happy to hit around 60 FPS with pretty much everything except Metro. Of course, drop the graphics a little bit, and you'll soon be golden there too. Impressive Upgrade Switching to 12nm has been a heck of an upgrade for the budget-GPU market. The power consumption, temperatures and noise levels have plummeted, while frame rates stayed very competitive for those upgrading aging hardware, or even building their first PC. For little over £200, you get a great brand-new GPU that's sure to entertain for a good few years. Gigabyte GTX 1660 Gaming OC 6GB Graphics Card Review