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Review: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 and GTX 650

Posted by By Robert Dow and Harrison Grovy on September 26th 2012 | Discuss
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: nvidia graphics aib 3d opengl gforce developers computers kepler

Introduces its Mainstream and Performance players

Nvidia rounded out their Kepler line of GPU AIBs last week with the introduction of the GeForce GTX 660 and the GeForce GTX 650. 

Nvidia controls 59.3% of the Desktop Graphic Add-In Board Market with its partners shipping more than 8.75 million units in Q2. Although the Enthusiast segment always garners most of the headlines due to the cutting edge technology, gaudy frame rates, and ­prices, the Enthusiast segment only represents 4.7% of the market. The Mainstream and Performance segments make up over 88% of the market. Those segments represent the real sweet spot for AIB manufacturers. 

The PC gaming hardware market, which was facing an uphill battle in years past against the XBox 360 and PS3, is now gaining more and more traction. Steam (the popular game site) is averaging more than a million visitors a day. Ted Pollak, JPR gaming analyst, forecasts a 10% CAGR on hardware expenditures through 2015 as well. The PC gaming industry is looking up with software vendors finally catching up to the hardware technology. Fall releases such as Assassin’s Creed III and Call of Duty Black Ops will undoubtedly force late adopters into the DirectX 11 market. As of now, a majority of PC gamers still have not upgraded to AIBs that can run DirectX 11. 

If you are still holding onto a ­DirectX 10 card, it obviously means you are not an early adopter and therefore looking for a mainstream card in the mainstream price range. PC gaming is once again gaining in popularity and is a main driving force for the purchase and upgrade of a graphics add-in board; however, video editing, photo editing, music mixing, graphic arts, website design, etc., are just as popular if not more so in terms of compelling a user to purchase a graphics board. 

With prices at $229 and $109 for the GTX 660 and GTX 650, respectively, Nvidia hopes to appeal to these mainstream gamers as well as entertainment-focused end users.

We compared the GeForce GTX 660 to its big brother, the GTX 670 (selling for $400 on various sites) as well as the former Performance standard-bearer for the Fermi class of GPUs, the GTX 460. The GTX 670 and GTX 460 are AIBs that require two 6-pin connectors with max power consumption of 170W and 160W, respectively, while the GTX 660 consumes 140W at maximum. Consumers are demanding higher resolutions than previously, so we tested are cards running at 1920 x 1080 always running with 4X anti-aliasing or 8X. 

We observed a full 99% improvement for the Kepler GTX 660 over the Fermi Performance card, the GTX 460, in Crysis 2 and a 66% performance boost in 3D Mark and a 83% boost in Dirt 3 at 1920 x 1080 8X AA. The more you push the GTX 660, the better it looks compared with previous-generation cards. 

Overall we saw a 89% performance gain from the GTX 460 to the GTX 660 with the GTX 670 registering a 28% performance gain over the GTX 660. The chart above shows the GTX 660 earning the best P3 Mark scores. The P3 Mark is JPR’s internal measurement and calculates three variables: performance, price, and power.

Due to its impressive performance for its segment and thrifty consumption of power, the GTX 660 scored quite high.

What do we think?

Overall, we were really impressed with the GeForce GTX 660; it will face some competition from AMD’s Ra­deon HD 7850, but the AIB is a welcomed edition to the performance segment. When it comes time for those late adopters to trade up, Nvidia will have a card for them.—R.D.