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GTX 660; who's got one?

Ketchup

Ketchup

Elite Member
I bought one last month, very impressed so far. Extremely quiet for the performance. Granted it is an upgrade from a 9800 GTX+, but still it is nice running everything with all the eye candy with AA turned on. I have never bought a card so close to the initial release date (it was actually released the day I was picking components) and I was impressed with how well the initial drivers ran the card. I am sure newer drivers will add some improvements, but all of my games are at least a year old and run fine.

I just installed the 310.33 beta drivers last night, but will have to wait for the weekend to see how they do.

The card should last me a few years anyway.

Who else has one?
 
LessThanDan said:
Funny you ask. I'll be getting one of these in the mail tomorrow, which includes a GTX 660:

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx

I know, I know... Dells! Pre-built! Boo! Hiss! But I'm excited. I'll test out BF3 and the new MoH first thing. Performance should be comparable with a 7870 AFAIK.
Click to expand...

Latest Intel chip, fast gpu, wireless built in, and small. What's not to like? I hope they kept it quiet. Since they are now owned by Dell, I'm sure they did. I always liked the Alienware cases.
 
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LessThanDan said:
Funny you ask. I'll be getting one of these in the mail tomorrow, which includes a GTX 660:

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx

I know, I know... Dells! Pre-built! Boo! Hiss! But I'm excited. I'll test out BF3 and the new MoH first thing. Performance should be comparable with a 7870 AFAIK.
Click to expand...

that's actually pretty decent its just that for the same amount of money you could have gotten a much better GPU if you assembled the PC yourself, but for that price its okay for a pre assembled PC
 
ketchup79 said:
Latest Intel chip, fast cpu, wireless built in, and small. What's not to like? I hope they kept it quiet. Since they are now owned by Dell, I'm sure they did. I always liked the Alienware cases.
Click to expand...

It's mostly a sidegrade from what I have now, but the tiny size, minimal power-usage, and low noise is what made me get it.

The Alias said:
7870 kills that thing
Click to expand...

Not really. Are you sure you're looking at the 660 model?

Even the gimped OEM version of the 660 is still competent compared to the retail 660.

pK40H.png


xcal237 said:
that's actually pretty decent its just that for the same amount of money you could have gotten a much better GPU if you assembled the PC yourself, but for that price its okay for a pre assembled PC
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With discount, the total price came out to $989. Which is not bad for pre-built.
 
xcal237 said:
that's actually pretty decent its just that for the same amount of money you could have gotten a much better GPU if you assembled the PC yourself, but for that price its okay for a pre assembled PC
Click to expand...

I just can't believe they only offer solid state in one model! Seems to me if someone wanted a nice small PC like that, you would definitely want a SSD, or at least have that option.
 
ketchup79 said:
I bought one last month, very impressed so far. Extremely quiet for the performance. Granted it is an upgrade from a 9800 GTX+, but still it is nice running everything with all the eye candy with AA turned on. I have never bought a card so close to the initial release date (it was actually released the day I was picking components) and I was impressed with how well the initial drivers ran the card. I am sure newer drivers will add some improvements, but all of my games are at least a year old and run fine.

I just installed the 310.33 beta drivers last night, but will have to wait for the weekend to see how they do.

The card should last me a few years anyway.

Who else has one?
Click to expand...


It's pound for pound best bang for buck video card out there. I got my Ti the 6xx series wasn't out yet. I love my card... Also it overclocks like crazy look at my sig ,, and memory OC. didnt touch voltage. gl
 
xcal237 said:
i know the 660 had lesser cores but why is that oem showing a higher core number i thought cores were counted by modules and that a 660 has 2 modules cut out or am i wrong?
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Maybe to counter-act the slower clock speed, slower memory, and less memory bandwidth. It could be the result of nVidia speaking to the manufacturers about what they wanted (OMG!)
 
You're the only person I've seen with one in his signature. I have been seriously considering one, but mostly due to its compact size. I think it's a combination of a price that was fair but not overly competitive and being late to market. Most people shopping in this price/performance range have had a few other choices for several months.
 
LessThanDan said:
Funny you ask. I'll be getting one of these in the mail tomorrow, which includes a GTX 660:

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx

I know, I know... Dells! Pre-built! Boo! Hiss! But I'm excited. I'll test out BF3 and the new MoH first thing. Performance should be comparable with a 7870 AFAIK.
Click to expand...

Those X51 models from Alienware are pretty cool little rigs. Small enough to put in a backpack, but still pretty capable.

The Alias said:
7870 kills that thing
Click to expand...

Actually, a GTX 660 (non-Ti) is pretty comparable to an HD 7870

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_660_Direct_Cu_II/27.html
 
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Termie said:
Most people shopping in this price/performance range have had a few other choices for several months.
Click to expand...

This is true, and a card I may not have waited for if my rebuild was timed a few months ago. Nvidia really wasted their time on this one, considering how long the Ti has been out.

So can I assume this is going unto the HTPC?

So far, the card idles at 27 - 28 and has topped out at 60. The fans idle around 1300 RPM and the highest I've seen is 1900. I configured the CPU fan to accelerated to top speed with the CPU's heat output, so I never hear the video card (and barely hear the CPU fan).
 
Right now I have 2 GTX 460 1GB. I'm still happy with them but I'm really being hampered with only 1GB of GDDR5. The GTX 660 2GB is more than 50% faster than 1 of my GTX 460 1GB at my native resolution of 1680x1050. Plus it has 2GB of GDDR. It's memory bandwidth is strangely small as it's about the same as 1 of GTX 460 1GB with the memory overclocked to 4400. I thought that because it only has 24 ROPS and mine has 32 the GTX 660 would be a clunker.

I guess Texel fill-rate is more important than Pixel framerate.

I'm buying 2 eVGA GTX 660 2GB That are already factory overclocked.

I think I can safely say that I won't need to ever upgrade my GTX 660s.
 
ketchup79 said:
This is true, and a card I may not have waited for if my rebuild was timed a few months ago. Nvidia really wasted their time on this one, considering how long the Ti has been out.

So can I assume this is going unto the HTPC?

So far, the card idles at 27 - 28 and has topped out at 60. The fans idle around 1300 RPM and the highest I've seen is 1900. I configured the CPU fan to accelerated to top speed with the CPU's heat output, so I never hear the video card (and barely hear the CPU fan).
Click to expand...

Yeah, unfortunately, my HTPC case is very limiting. Not only must the card be under 9.5" long, but I realized a few days ago after closer inspection that the PCIe power plugs must be on the end of the card, not on the top like all 600-series cards. There's less than 2cm of clearance between the top of the card and the side of the case. So the most powerful card I can fit in there is a 7850. I'll wait to see if they drop some more around Black Friday.

It's really a shame - there's simply no reason the reference 660, or the 7870 for that matter, couldn't be the size of the 460/560, since they use less power. And then Nvidia has to go and use the odd PCIe cable orientation to make matters worse for me (although admittedly better for some...)
 
Yeah I have one. Bought a gtx 660 off of amazon.com and put in my Alienware x51.

I can play all the games I have at max settings except Metro 2033 and Sleeping Dogs. I think its a memory bandwidth thing.

I sort of have this addiction to upgrade to the latest Nvidia gpu under $250 for my x51.
 
Norrec69 said:
Yeah I have one. Bought a gtx 660 off of amazon.com and put in my Alienware x51.

I can play all the games I have at max settings except Metro 2033 and Sleeping Dogs. I think its a memory bandwidth thing.

I sort of have this addiction to upgrade to the latest Nvidia gpu under $250 for my x51.
Click to expand...

What resolution are you playing at? My OEM 660 runs BF3 at ~70FPS on Ultra settings at 1080p, but with MSAA turned off. (Medal of Honor runs at 90 something. No sweat there.)

Sleeping Dogs runs at 60~ FPS on all ultra settings (with AA turned off). When I turn AA up though, it absolutely kills it. Like ~20 fps. So you're not the only one. AA is an absolutely massive performance hit in that game.

My X51 is running nicely, my only complaint is that it's not as quiet as I'd like it to be. Also, running at stock, my temps ramp up to ~82 C and it begins overheating. My framerate begins crapping out. It feels like it's throttling or something.

My solution was to set up a custom fan curve in MSI Afterburner. Now it barely touches 70 degrees under load, and I'm getting consistent performance. Downside is that fan speed ramps up to about 70%, so it's quite loud. Good thing I wear headphones.

What temperatures are you getting in your X51? I guess I can't expect it to be stellar, since the PC is so small and airflow likely isn't that great.
 
LessThanDan said:
What resolution are you playing at? My OEM 660 runs BF3 at ~70FPS on Ultra settings at 1080p, but with MSAA turned off. (Medal of Honor runs at 90 something. No sweat there.)

Sleeping Dogs runs at 60~ FPS on all ultra settings (with AA turned off). When I turn AA up though, it absolutely kills it. Like ~20 fps. So you're not the only one. AA is an absolutely massive performance hit in that game.

My X51 is running nicely, my only complaint is that it's not as quiet as I'd like it to be. Also, running at stock, my temps ramp up to ~82 C and it begins overheating. My framerate begins crapping out. It feels like it's throttling or something.

My solution was to set up a custom fan curve in MSI Afterburner. Now it barely touches 70 degrees under load, and I'm getting consistent performance. Downside is that fan speed ramps up to about 70%, so it's quite loud. Good thing I wear headphones.

What temperatures are you getting in your X51? I guess I can't expect it to be stellar, since the PC is so small and airflow likely isn't that great.
Click to expand...
My 660 gets up to 88c and the fans up to 61% when playing demanding games. Doesnt seem like its overheating or anything. My frames dont crap out when it gets hot.

I get over 60 frames on BF3.
 
I think the temp issue is coming from cooling. A retail version most likely has better cooling than used by OEMs. Which is funny because Dell (and others) usually loves silence above all else.
 
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