ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1660 Ti review (Page 32)

ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1660 Ti review

Graphics cards 1048 Page 32 of 32 Published 2019-02-22 15:00 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Conclusion

Final words and verdict

NVIDIA pulled a rabbit out of its hat to cope with the disappointing RTX sales. The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and lower SKUs (yes they will be released), are interesting. The performance sits in that GTX 1070 / Radeon Vega 56 range with some wins and losses here and there. At a price of 279 USD that really is not a bad proposition. So that's a good thing. Problem is that we have no idea how the retail price will develop. The 279 USD models are the stripped down cheapo cooler versions. The cards like tested today can be put in the market for a tenner or two more, but really it should stop there as this card may not be more than 299 USD for a premium model IMHO. I am not bothered by the 6GB configuration, as really, this is a Full HD / Quad HD card, and there the 6 GB is sufficient. However there is talk about a 3 GB model, and really, just no ...

When we focus in at the AIB product then, ASUS has a lovely offering at hand with the new STRIX revision of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. This 6GB card offers proper performance and is boosting to 1860 MHz right out of the box. And that gives it say a 4% advantage over the reference specification. NVIDIA, however, is not releasing a reference model card. Neither will there be GPU distinction with A models etc. Tweaking wise there's plenty left. We do think that all cards will have that 10% OC bracket that really, is by NVIDIA design. At 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 or something close you'll see really decent game performance, it, however, will not be a card suitable in the Ultra HD range for all modern game titles. As mentioned, the 6 GB graphics memory is sufficient. In terms of multi-GPU setups, NVIDIA does not allow NVLINK based SLI for this series.

Aesthetics

It's a good looking card (albeit I do feel STRIX is overdue for a more drastic design change), the factory tweak is really nice. It sits in the upper segment, was made a little darker to look at, and that works for me. The RGB lighting effects are funky to see. That LED inclusion that has been done subtly and can be configured in any manner you prefer with AURA SYNC software, the choice is yours. While I always will remain skeptical about backplates (they potentially can trap heat and thus warm up the PCB). The flip-side is that they can look better and can protect your PCB and components from damage and, well, they can look nice as they can have a certain aesthetic appeal. I have to admit, this is looking very nice but looks are always personal, of course. So in the end, on looks, you certainly get that premium feel of detailed aesthetics and quality.

Cooling & acoustic levels

The card tops out at roughly only 60 Degrees C while gaming, that's in silent mode, sweet! So that's not bad at all, the acoustics I'd rate extremely silent, we doubt you'll ever hear the card once mounted into a chassis. In Idle the fans do not spin btw. We've heard no noticeable coil whine. But I do want to note that any graphics card at a high-enough FPS can make some coil-whine.

Overclocking

We've been able to push just over 10% of extra perf out of the card compared to the reference specs. Both traditional overclocking, as well as the OC Scanner reached roughly that level. The combination of memory, power and voltage settings will bring you a proper overclock. Once you've applied it, you get a few percent more performance. Nice to see is that we have been able to reach roughly 14.5 even 15 Gbps on the memory, and that does help.

Concluding

We feel the new GeForce GTX 1660 Ti series is definitely something the industry needs. Most consumers have put RTX card on hold due to the sales price of the range, which is very steep. The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti certainly addresses the issue of offering a more competitive product. It offers GeForce GTX 1070 performance (mostly slight above it) at what should be a far more interesting price. NVIDIA however, is in a split as they also have to face the reality that this is a product that performs at a product and a feature level they've been offering for a long time now. So who is going to step up from the GTX 1000 series? Well, anyone with a GTX 1050 or perhaps 1060. But for that last product group, the performance increase isn't heaps. So for the 1660 Ti series to become successful, the price needs to stay below the 299 USD domain, period. ASUS delivers a terrific product here with that excellent cooler and dark style as well. It's really silent in silent BIOS mode. The performance between perf and silent mode really is close to NIL, so we ran that silent mode even then the card is chilling at 60 Degrees C on the GPU, nice. Literally, there's nothing we could improve on the card. It is that nice aside from maybe an aesthetic update. The price, however, looks to be 339,- in Euros; which seems a bit high. We do hope that will settle at a 300 EUR marker.