MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GAMING X review - Introduction

MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GAMING X 6G review

For a few weeks now a GeForce 1660 Super was rumored as pre-Christmas season release. The time of embargoes now is behind us, the 1660 SUPER models get 6 GiByte GDDR6 running sweet 'n steady at 14 Gbps. The GPU will still be based on the very same TU116 with 1,408 shaders processors. MSI released their GTX 1660 SUPER GAMING X, a product with more a capable cooler as well being factory tweaked. The SUPER edition card comes with faster GDDR6 memory but remains to be a GTX 1660 in its pure essence. Aside from the factory tweaked products the base clock is the same as well at 1530 MHz with a boost clock of 1785 MHz. So the SUPER versions differ in-memory configuration only, compared to the non-super model. The graphics memory will run 14 Gbps GDDR6 

GTX, not RTX. The 1660 Series is based on the mainstream GPU called TU116. To make it an affordable solution The NVIDIA did not implement DX-R and DLSS features, which means there are no RT and Tensor cores on this GPU. It's a fall back towards the original shader design model. And that's where we land today with this review. The TU116-400 GPU has 1536 shader cores (aka CUDA cores / Stream processors) tied to 6GB memory. Released are the GeForce GTX 1660 and the 1660 Ti. The Ti variants have seen first launch wave and get GDDR6 12 Gbps graphics memory, the non-Ti was fitted with GDDR5 graphics memory in 6GB and 3GB configurations. In the year 2019 we, however, could never advise a 3GB graphics card. The 1660 series is making use of the Turing architecture and will not have Raytracing and Tensor cores, this is why NVIDIA dropped the RTX suffix back to GTX. New in this range is the 1660 SUPER, with a distinct difference compared to the regular 1660, the memory subsystem at GDDR6 at 14 Gbps, coming from GDDR5 at 8 Gbps.

	GTX 1060	GTX 1660	GTX 1660 SUPER	GTX 1660 Ti	RTX 2060
GPU	GP106	12nm FF TU116	12nm FF TU116	12nm FF TU116	12nm FF TU106
Shader cores	1280	1408	1408	1536	1920
Memory	6 GB / 3GB GDDR5	6GB GDDR5	6GB GDDR6	6GB GDDR6	6GB GDDR6
Memory bus	192-bit	192-bit	192-bit	192-bit	192-bit

As you can observe, compared to the RTX 2060, the GTX 1660 Ti has got to deal with fewer shader processors, which is substantial. The reference frequencies, however, are spicy, with a reference boost frequency up-to 1770 MHz and the factory tweaked models running into an up-to 1850 MHz domain. The new cards, (if priced right) can become NVIDIA's new moneymaker, as they should offer very decent gaming performance in the 1080p and 1440p resolutions. NVIDIA is not distributing a reference design card to the media. Ergo, the reviews you'll see are mostly based on AIB partner cards.

MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GAMING X 6G

Obviously, MSI will offer several SKUs. Having smaller TU116 silicon with close to 6.6 Billion transistors it doesn't run very warm. The cooler applied is offered in a dual-slot TWIN FROZR 7 design. The card comes fitted with one PEG (PCI Express Graphics) power header (8-pin). MSI applies their latest iteration of the TWIN FROZR 7 cooler for the GeForce GTX 1660 which makes use of two 9 cm TORX 3.0 fans which combine the advantages of both traditional and dispersion fan blades to generate huge amounts of airflow. The new trims on the traditional fan blades create concentrated airflow for higher air pressure while also reducing noise. It's an attractive product with good cooling and acoustic performance. The card offers one HDMI port and three DisplayPorts. There is no DVI and/or Virtual link (USB) connector. This Turing 116-300 GPU empowered product keeps that GPU at roughly 60 to 65 Degrees C marker depending on game load whilst remaining virtually silent. The GDDR6 memory has been not been tweaked, the ICs are stock 14 Gbps (effective clock-rate) but can be bumped upwards towards the 15 Gbps region with the flick of your fingers as we'll show you in the tweaking chapters. For it's the latest series MSI applies a gunmetal grey & black look combined with very nice Mystic Light RGB. Meet the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER from MSI.