Zotac shows the more affordable face of
NVidia's Kepler GPU
Video card numbering is confusing. Having
seen the low-end NVidia products, and the GTX 670, I was ready to be convinced
that the new GTX 660 series cards would plough a line between the excessive
pricing and performance of its top cards and the rather less impressive but
affordable lower specification hardware.
Zotac
GTX 660 2GB
The wiggle-room here is that there are two
levels to the 660 series: a baseline card represented here and a 'Ti' model
that's much closer to the 670 series in performance terms.
These shouldn't be confused, because in
terms of what GPU specification is on offer they are quite different, and so is
the pricing.
The first thing that struck me about this compared
to other 600 series cards was how small Zotac made it. It's very compact, able
to fit into almost any enclosure. It also runs quite cool, with the 28nm
fabrication of the GK106 'Kepler' derived GPU and dual 80mm fans combining to
make this a quiet experience even in times of extreme video stress.
In terms of output, it's well covered, with
dual DVI (DVI-I and DVI-D), HDMI and a full DisplayPort port. And, supposedly
they all work at the same time.
Zotac
GTX 660 2GB
My benchmark selection is currently
limited, and I need to get some newer games, but the underlying data tells me
that the GTX 660 is a good 20% more powerful than the HD 7850 and about 60% of
what Zotac offers with its pre-overclocked GTX 670 AMP! design. How much you
might be affected by the reduction of stream processors in the GK106 entirely
depends on the nature of the titles you have, as the biggest hit seems reserved
for those that use PhysX and, by association, DirectCompute.
What's critical is that for all the
alterations Zotac made in the GPU, it didn't stuff this card by attacking the
memory bandwidth it offers. 144GB/s is enough to handle most titles in 1080p re
solution with the detail settings at high. And with Kelper GPU comes re source
cheap anti-aliasing modes that make the image quality even better. It's a
potent demonstration of how much better the Kepler is than the Fermi was. It's
fast, does more with less power and delivers noticeably more practical
solutions.
The only genuine problem that I've noticed
with the GTX 660 is the single SLI edge connector on the top, meaning it will
only work with one other and not in a triple SLI pack.
Other than stylish good looks, Zotac hasn't
contributed massively in other respects here, as this unit isn't
pre-overclocked. In the box is a DVI to VGA adapter, a six-pin PCIe from a
Molex power line and a coupon for TrackMania 2 Canyon, should you be interested
in stunt driving.
With an RRP of $304, this card is a good
$96-112 less than the Ti models, but it does have a billion less transistors in
the GPU. It all comes down to what performance you're looking for and what
you're prepared to outlay.
That's a call I'll let you make, but it's
designed to take on the AMD HD 7870 cards, and they're generally more expensive
than this. In performance terms, even with nearly 30% less stream processors
than the GTX 660 Ti, this card is still something of a minor monster.
What's truly exciting here is that video
card makers are now aiming to dominate the middle ground of gaming performance,
which seemed abandoned at one point. The Zotac GTX 660 won't attract the
hardcore gamer, but it's a substantially more desirable card than those designs
below it and the AMD cards in the same price bracket.
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Details
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Price: $304 MSRP ($288 Ebuyer)
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Manufacturer: Zotac
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Website: www.zotac.com
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Required spec: PCI Express 16x slot, six-pin
PCIe power line, 450W PSU or bigger, 2GB RAM. 330MB HDD space
Verdict
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Quality: 8
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Value: 8
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Overall: 8
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