Gtx 660 max overclock: OC: Power, Temperature, & Noise

GTX 760 Details

As Nvidia went over the details of the GTX 760 I was sitting comfortably with a nice view of the ocean while on vacation. They went over some of the details that we spoke about on our forums a few weeks ago with PC gaming being a big focus for a lot of the developers at GDC this year. They also showed us where the GTX 760 will fit in their product lineup. As you can see below the GTX 760 is replacing the GTX 660 Ti and we will still have the GTX 660 and below. Something they don’t normally show us is their product lineup for the future, as you can see below this will be the last launch until at least the fall. I would guess that Nvidia would like to see AMD bring out its new cards before they continue bringing out the 700 series. All of the GTX 600 series cards have adjusted in price to fit their new placement in the product line as well.  

Now that we know where the GTX 760 goes in the product lineup, let’s take a look at its specifications. As you can see below the GTX 760 is very similar to the GTX 660 Ti. I put together a table showing the specifications between the GTX 660, GTX 660 Ti, and the new GTX 760. As you can see the GTX 660 Ti actually had more CUDA cores than the card that replaces it. They did however bump up the clock speeds as well as give the GTX 760 more voltage to support those clock speeds as well. On the memory side of things they have moved from a 192 bit interface to a 256 bit interface for a little more bandwidth. It will be interesting to see in our performance sections how the improved clock speed and memory bandwidth will perform against the lower CUDA cores.

Just like the GTX 770 and GTX 780 the GTX 760 does still have Boost 2.0 and along with that the new adaptive temperature controller that eliminates a lot of the quick fan speed adjustments that end up making a lot of noise. Nvidia has figured out that it is the big changes in fan speed that make fan noise so noticeable, slower more controlled fan speed changes will still keep things cool while being less noticeable to the end user.

Here is a full specification breakdown of the GTX 760 as well

• EVGA GTX 760 Superclocked w/ACX

• GTX 770 SLI Results

(Update #8) GeForce GTX 660 Ti Graphics Cards Roundup

I have prepared a complete list of all known GeFprce GTX 660 Ti cards that will be released on August 16th.

The lists contain various models, including 3GB variants and those based on non-reference PCB.

GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics card is based on GK104-300-KD-A2 GPU, which has 1344 CUDA cores, 112 TMUs, and 24 ROPs. All cards are using a 192-bit memory interface. There are however few cards with 3GB of memory. The price varies from $299 to $429.

UPDATE:
#1 Added Inno3d Lineup
#2 Added Galaxy GC Lineup
#3 Added EVGA Lineup
#4 Added Palit Lineup
#5 Added Gainward and Palit Details
#6 Added Galaxy Lineup
#7 Too many changes to mention
#8 Added ZOTAC and POV Lineup

Review and testing of the video card Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC GECID.

com. Page 1

::>Video cards
>2014
> Palit NE5X660S1049-1060F

15-05-2014

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Taiwanese company Palit offers two solutions based on the mid-price 28nm NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (Kepler) graphics processor, but they differ not too much. nine0003

We tested the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC (NE5X660S1049-1060F) video card with 2 GB of GDDR5 video memory, the key feature of which is factory overclocking. The regular version of the Palit GeForce GTX 660 (NE5X66001049-1060F) without the prefix «OS» in the name costs a little less and uses the same PCB design and cooling system as the overclocked model, but operates at frequencies recommended by engineers NVIDIA for the reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 video accelerator. In this review, we will try to find out whether users should expect a noticeable performance boost due to factory overclocking in the case of the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC (NE5X660S1049-1060F)? But first, let’s look at the specification table for this video card.

All prices for Palit+NE5X660S1049-1060F

The reference design NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 graphics adapter has a base GPU frequency of 980 MHz and can be up to 1033 MHz in NVIDIA GPU Boost mode. Thus, the factory overclocking of the graphics core of the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC video card was 26 MHz (+2.65%) for the basic and 39 MHz (+3.77%) for the dynamic mode. As for the memory chips, their effective frequency was increased by 100 MHz (+1.66%) in accordance with the recommendations of NVIDIA engineers. nine0003

Packaging and Contents

The Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC (NE5X660S1049-1060F) comes in a medium sized cardboard box with a traditional Palit style. On the front side of the package, the manufacturer indicates some characteristics of the graphics adapter, and also draws attention to the key technologies that it supports (NVIDIA 3D Vision, NVIDIA SLI, NVIDIA GPU Boost).

The reverse side of the package also contains some important information. Here are the basic characteristics of the video accelerator in 12 languages ​​(including Russian), and there is also an advertising description of some technologies (DirectX, NVIDIA TXAA, NVIDIA PhysX). Below are the basic requirements for the system in which you plan to install the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC. Note that the power supply in such a computer must have a power of at least 450 W and be capable of delivering 24 A through the 12 V line.

The graphics accelerator and bundled accessories are neatly packaged in an extra heavy cardboard box, with minimal chance of accidental damage under normal shipping conditions.

The delivery set of the video accelerator Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC (NE5X660S1049-1060F) is optimal for a product of the middle price segment. It includes:

• quick installation and operating instructions; nine0245
• disc with drivers and utilities;
• DVI↔D-Sub adapter;
• power adapter from two 4-pin peripheral to one 6-pin PCIe power connector.

The following set of interfaces is provided for outputting images from a video card to a monitor, plasma panel, TV or projector:

• 1 x DVI-I;
• 1 x DVI-D;
• 1 x HDMI; nine0245
• 1 x DisplayPort.

With a DVI-to-VGA adapter included, most users should have no trouble connecting a display device in the most common usage scenarios. Separately, it is worth noting the support of the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC graphics adapter for 4K Ultra HD resolution (4096 x 2160), which is becoming more and more in demand.

Design and components

The Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC video card has an overall length of 210 mm and a height of 112 mm (measured in our test lab). At the same time, the length of its printed circuit board is 173 mm (according to information from the official website). As you can see, it is noticeably more compact than its reference counterpart (length 241 mm), which significantly increases its compatibility with various system cases.

During testing, we did not dismantle the cooling system, since we have already seen a similar PCB and CO heatsink design, for example, when considering the Palit GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST OC video card, also based on the 28-nm NVIDIA GK106 chip, or rather its slightly simplified version. It should be noted right away that the general arrangement of elements on the textolite and the organization of the power stabilization system for the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC graphics adapter generally repeats the design of the «reference» sample. The VRM module is made according to the 4 + 1 phase scheme (for the graphics core and memory chips, respectively) using the ON Semiconductor NCP539 PWM controller5G, which is found in many entry-level and mid-range gaming graphics cards from Palit. Also, traditionally, Taiwanese developers have used an affordable, but high-quality element base with an extended service life.

The presence of a connector for connecting an SLI bridge allows you to combine two adapters based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 graphics processor for joint operation. -pin connector, which is located on the side of the board. Connecting and disconnecting the cable does not interfere with anything. nine0003

The heart of the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC graphics accelerator is the NVIDIA GK106 (Kepler) chip manufactured in compliance with the 28nm process technology. Its version for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 contains 960 universal shader processors (or CUDA cores in NVIDIA terminology) and 24 ROPs. We repeat that the frequencies of the graphics core are slightly increased compared to the «reference» indicators and amount to 1006 MHz for the basic mode and 1072 MHz with the NVIDIA GPU Boost function. Data exchange with memory is carried out through 192-bit interface. The rest of the characteristics are shown in the «screenshot» above.

The memory, with a total capacity of 2 GB, is assembled using eight microcircuits of 256 MB each, and half of them are soldered on the reverse side of the textolite. Samsung K4G20325FD-FC03 chips are used, which, according to the documentation, are designed for an effective frequency of 6000 MHz. As we mentioned a little higher, due to the factory overclocking of the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC video card, the memory has a frequency of 6108 MHz, which is 100 MHz higher than the nominal. nine0003

Cooling System

The cooling system for the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC graphics adapter occupies two expansion slots and consists of two aluminum radiators, as well as a plastic casing with a built-in 92mm fan to blow them. The heatsink installed on the GPU is pierced by two copper heat pipes with a diameter of 6 mm, which do not contact the GPU directly, but are soldered to the copper base-heat sink. A second small aluminum cooler is provided to remove excess heat from the power transistors in the power circuits, which is especially appropriate for an overclocking solution. nine0003

In the process of determining CO efficiency in practice, we first conducted a test with automatic fan speed control. At maximum load, the temperature of the graphics core was 72 degrees, and the cooling system worked at 46% of its capacity. The generated noise level can be subjectively described as «below average».

After the forced increase in the speed of rotation of the blades to the maximum, the generated noise became more noticeable, but did not exceed the conditionally comfortable level for the daytime. The temperature of the GPU in this mode decreased by 14 degrees, which indicates a good «margin of safety» of the proprietary CO. nine0003

In idle mode, the frequencies of the core and memory are automatically reduced, which means that the heat dissipation of these elements also decreases. The GPU temperature in quiet mode is only 27 degrees, and the cooling system is almost silent.

In general, the original cooling system used in the Palit GeForce GTX 660 OC showed decent efficiency among similar solutions, while remaining quite quiet in operation.

Test

GeForce GTX 660 [in 6 benchmarks]

NVIDIA
GeForce GTX 660

• PCIe 3.0 x16 interface
• Core clock 980
• Video memory size 2048 MB
• Memory type GDDR5
• Memory frequency 6.0 Gbps
• Maximum resolution

Description

NVIDIA started GeForce GTX 660 sales on September 6, 2012 at a suggested price of 229$. This is a desktop video card based on the Kepler architecture and 28 nm manufacturing process, primarily aimed at gamers. It has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory at 6.0 Gb/s, and coupled with a 192-bit GDDR5 interface, this creates a bandwidth of 144.2 Gb/s.

In terms of compatibility, this is a two-slot PCIe 3.0 x16 card. The length of the reference version is 24.1 cm. An additional 1x 6-pin power cable is required for connection, and the power consumption is 140 watts.

It provides poor performance in tests and games at the level of

10.19%

from the leader, which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

GeForce RTX
4090

Compare

General information

Information about the type (desktop or laptop) and architecture of the GeForce GTX 660, as well as when sales started and cost at that time. nine0009 Value for money

To obtain an index, we compare the characteristics of video cards and their cost, taking into account the cost of other cards.

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Features

GeForce GTX 660’s general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. They indirectly speak about GeForce GTX 660’s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results. nine0028