EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC review

Product Showcase

So EVGA are back at is as well with their SC edition of the GeForce GTX 660. Obviously they'll offer multiple models/SKUs as well but the one submitted comes factory overclocked.

The card comes deliverd at your doorsteps at core clock frequency of 1046 MHz and has a boost frequency of 1111 MHz. The effective memory data rate (192-bit) is 6008 MHz which follows the reference standard. The card has been equipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory.

When we look at the PCB we do see that EVGA follows the reference PCB design, and there is nothing wrong with that really.  A clean layout with proper component selection and the a black tone PCB.

For the SuperClocked edition EVGA  is using a reference model cooler which works pretty okay with the GK106 silicon. The noise levels are fairly hard to measure and the cooling performance very acceptable. We'll show you that in our tests of course.

But lets walk through the product guided by photo's.

Alright, here we have the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC (SuperClocked) edition, the 2GB SKU (stock keeping unit) and its packaging. Overall a nice looking card some dark and carbon tones. Let's look at the card from several different viewpoints.

The card is equipped with the GK106 GPU that harbors the Kepler GPU architecture. You get the basics like the graphics card, PEG converter cables, manual and a demo and driver CD, though bundles will vary with AIB/AIC partners.

EVGA clocks this card at a nice 1046 MHz baseclock, with a 1111 MHz Boost/Turbo clock and the memory is running at 6008 MHz. This factory tweak positions the card close to the performance level of a reference GeForce GTX 660 Ti. For your reference, the reference baseclock is 980 MHz.

The card will come with two GB of graphics memory, which is definitely enough if you are a hardcore gamer with a monitor resolution of 1920x1200 and plenty for a product in this price range.

EVGA  gives the card two DVI connectors (dual-link), one HDMI and a DisplayPort connector (full size). We like that huge air exhaust as hot air can be vented outside the PC much better this way.

And as you can see there is little room left on the PCB, but overall a clean design. . The card is PCIe gen 3.0 compatible. Going from PCIe Gen 2 to Gen 3 doubles the bandwidth available to the add-on cards installed, from 500 MB/s per lane to 1 GB/s per lane.

You can see one SLI connector, the 660 (non-Ti) series is allowed to work with up to two cards in SLI mode. For proper scaling and little driver issues as possible we always recommend to stick to 2 cards in multi-GPU mode anyway. We'll show you SLI results in our article of course.

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