Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Twin Fan 6 GB Review (Page 32)

Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Twin Fan 6 GB Review

Graphics cards 1048 Page 32 of 32 Published 2019-04-12 17:42 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Conclusion

Final words and verdict

The Twin Fan edition from Zotac is a bit of a run of the mill kind of card?, but there's nothing wrong with that. The performance while baseline/reference, easily is tweaked towards heights that the premium AIB cards also offer. The cooling is fine and while not absolutely silent, ist is at a very normal level. And that is what the MSRP products are all about. The looks are okay, there's no RGB was implemented. Anyone that hasn't upgraded towards a bit of an affordable mainstream solution might be compelled and attracted towards the GeForce GTX 1660. If you come from the 900 series say a GTX 970, then 1660 might be a viable alternative. The cards will be a notch faster than the 1060 6GB series at roughly the same or even lower price. The 1660 non-Ti, however, is clearly positioned against the competitions Radeon RX 590. The basic models will start at 219 USD and we expect prices in the 199 pound and 229 EUROS range here in the EU (depending on the country). With the GTX 1660 you do get up-to-snuff with the latest Turning architecture, just not tensor and RT cores. So in the 1920x1080 and maybe even 2560x1440 most games will run fine, alongside improved power consumption.

Aesthetics

As stated the card does not come with fancy RGB options and does not have the mega hyper cooler. If you look at the photo above you can actually see the aluminum fins. That's said, for the base MSRP product this really isn't a bad looking card IMHO + the small form factor is a big plus for many.

Cooling & acoustic levels

The card tops out at roughly only 65~66 Degrees C while gaming. So that's not bad at all, the acoustics I'd rate as normal to silent, we doubt you'll hear the card once seated inside a closed chassis but you can hear some airflow whir. We doubt you'd hear it when seated inside a close chassis though. 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

Much like any NVIDIA product these days, we've been able to push roughly 10% extra perf out of the card compared to the reference card. Both traditional overclocking, as well as the OC Scanner, reached just above 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 percents more perf. This card is somewhat memory bandwidth limited, so tweaking there can really boost your FPS.

Concluding

NVIDIA needs a mainstream graphics card that will bring the cash flow back, the GTX 1660 might just be priced right for many. But will it offer enough perf to make a substantial difference? That's more complicated to answer of a question as you think it would be. I do not find the GTX 1660 a massively faster product than the GTX 1060 but it certainly is a nice performing card. Truth be told, of the GTX 1660 Ti was priced at 219 then that would have been the proper cash-cow for NVIDIA. The reality is also that most consumers have put RTX cards on hold due to the sales price of the range, which is very steep. The GeForce GTX 1660 certainly addresses the issue of offering a more compelling product. So who is going to step up from the GTX 1000 series? Well, anyone with a GTX 1050 but not 1060. So perhaps the GeForce GTX 1660 is an interesting enough card for GeForce GTX 960/970 owners that are looking to upgrade. The Zotac card ticks all the boxes you need for even a compact build and also is spot on the MSRP price at 219 USD. For that money, you get decent performance and features with decent looks. Temps are fine, perf is fine and the acoustics normal. The 6 GB of graphics memory seen over 8 GB really isn't a hindrance either as long as you stick to that resolution. Looking at it from a competition point of view, the card positions itself at the Radeon RX 570 and even 580 cards. Once again please let me reiterate, the Raytracing and AI feature like DLSS, of course, have been stripped away. The product as-is is good, the power consumption of the 1660 series, by the way, is really good. If you are in the market for a long overdue upgrade coming from that 900 series, this could be it. I'm included to steer you towards the 1660 Ti though, but that product only makes sense under a 299 USD/EUR price range. The Twin fan edition offers okay aesthetics and baseline performance combined with normal cooling levels, acoustics and very healthy tweaking potential on top of that factory tweak. What's really nice though it has all these variables housed inside a very compact design, and that is worthy of a recommendation as these are really handy to use add-in cards if priced right.