10-30-2019, 04:17 AM
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/msi-g...-x/37.html
Quote:NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 1660 Super is more of an incremental update than a radical redesign of the GTX 1660. While the GTX 1660 used GDDR5 memory, the GTX 1660 Super has GDDR6, which ticks at much faster speeds, too, increasing memory bandwidth by 75%. NVIDIA also priced the GTX 1660 Super much more aggressively, at $230 MSRP, to preempt AMD's Radeon RX 5500, which is expected to launch later this year.
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We do know that AMD's Radeon RX 5500 comes with 8 GB of VRAM, whereas the GeForce GTX 1660 Super only has 6 GB. This will definitely become an important factor, mostly for marketing, to reel in less tech-savvy buyers, as upcoming consoles will have more VRAM than before and scaring people that what they buy today won't be enough tomorrow has always worked. However, our performance data shows that even the aging GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB doesn't see any significant performance deficits because of its 3 GB of VRAM—even at the highest settings with 1080p. The 4K results confirm that lack of memory will lower FPS, but 4K is unplayable either way on the GTX 1060 because of the lack of shading power; the same will be true for the 6 GB on the GTX 1660, so don't worry about that.
Turing has impressed everyone with its power efficiency, and the GTX 1660 Super can deliver here, too. Being based on the same TU116 GPU as GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Ti, we've not been expecting anything else. Both older cards are a little bit more efficient, which is probably because the high-clocked GDDR6 memory on GTX 1660 Super draws a bit more power, but overall, the PSU requirements are minimal. This is an important factor because NVIDIA wants people to upgrade their prebuilt gaming PCs, too, and these often come with weak power supplies of questionable quality. Less than 150 W in gaming should be no problem for any PSU, and they all include a single 8-pin power connector, too. MSI increased their card's power limit a little bit, up to 130 W, which is only a 5 W increase. I would have wished for more as that would have yielded additional performance, because NVIDIA's Boost algorithm would boost higher for longer. The card's heatsink could certainly handle the extra heat.
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NVIDIA's GTX 1660 Super reference pricing is $230, which is surprisingly competitive in the current landscape. This puts the card on the same price/performance level as AMD's Radeon RX 580 and RX 590 and dials up the heat on AMD and its board partners. I'm really looking forward to seeing what their new Radeon RX 5500 "Navi" card can bring to this price segment. MSI is asking for another $30 for their Gaming X, which I think is reasonable; you get a much better cooler, more monitor outputs, and a small performance increase for it. NVIDIA's new pricing kind of obsoletes the GTX 1660 Ti, which is currently $275 and doesn't really bring much to the table to justify the extra cost. Maybe NVIDIA could lower its price to $250 to clear existing inventory and then end-of-life the card. The next-fastest NVIDIA SKU, the RTX 2060, is $340 now, which leaves quite a big hole in the product stack, so maybe we'll see yet another card to fill this void at around $300, or AMD could try to capture it with an upcoming Radeon RX 5600. It looks like the $200–$300 market segment is suddenly going to become very interesting.