Galaxy’s GTX 660 arrives!

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i7-3770K reference 3.50 GHz/Turbo to 3.7GHz, overclocked to 4.8 GHz; HyperThreading is on, supplied by Intel.
• EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard (latest Beta BIOS, USB/PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x), supplied by EVGA
• 8 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 1866 Kingston RAM (2×2 GB, tri-channel at 1866 MHz; supplied by Kingston)
• Galaxy GTX 660 GC, 2 GB (Galaxy base clocks of 980/3004MHz and also overclocked, +70MHz/+190MHz and underclocked to reference speeds), supplied by Galaxy
• EVGA GTX 660 Ti, 2 GB reference clocks, supplied by EVGA.
• EVGA GTX 460 FTW, 1 GB reference design and clocks, supplied by EVGA
• GeForce GTX 570, 1.3GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia
• HIS IceQX Radeon HD 7850, 2 GB with custom cooling at stock clocks (860/4800MHz) and overclocked (1000/5000MHz)
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• 2 x 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200-12 HDDs; one for AMD and one for Nvidia
• Thermaltake ToughPowerXT 775W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Full Tower case, supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro CPU watercooler, supplied by Thermaltake
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD.

Test Configuration – Software

• Nvidia GeForce 306.02 Beta drivers for all GTXes. High Quality
• AMD 12.8 WHQL Catalyst drivers; latest CAPs. High Quality – optimizations off; use application settings
• Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
• Latest DirectX
• All games are patched to their latest versions.
• VSync is off in the control panel.
• AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
• All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
• Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
• Windows 7 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.

The Benchmarks

Synthetic

• Vantage
• 3DMark 11
• Heaven 3.0

• Left 4 Dead 2
• Serious Sam 3 BFE
• Alan Wake: Ameican Nightmare

• Crysis
• Far Cry 2
• Just Cause 2
• World-in-Conflict Soviet Assault
• Resident Evil 5

• BattleForge
• Alien vs. Predator
• STALKER, Call of Pripyat
• Metro 2033
• F1 2010
• H.A.W.X. 2
• Lost Planet 2
• Shogun II
• Civilization V
• Crysis 2
• Dirt 3
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Batman: Arkham City
• Battlefield 3
• Max Payne 3
• the Secret World

Before we get to the Galalxy GTX 660 GC’s performance charts, let’s look at overclocking, power draw and temperatures.

Overclocking, Power Draw, Noise and Temperatures

Overclocking the Galaxy GTX 660 GC is just as easy as overclocking the GTX 660 Ti, 670, 680 and 690. We were able to add an additional +40MHz for a total offset of +66MHz over the base clocks that Nvidia set for the reference GTX 660. On top of that, we were able to get +170MHz on the memory, about half what we achieved with the GTX 670 but only -20MHz less than what we got with the EVGA GTX 660 Ti.

We did not adjust the GTX 660’s voltage nor fan profile.  Temperatures were never an issue and the fan profile remained at stock which meant that the Galaxy GTX 660 is also extraordinarily quiet at maximum load – the fan profile rarely went over 40% and the temperatures remained under 60C under the most stressful conditions and highest load in gaming. Similarly, the HIS HD 7850 is also quiet and cool under load as it also uses custom cooling.

For our testing of the Galaxy GTX 660, we maxed the slider out at +110%. Likewise, we also max the PowerTune slider for AMD cards.

Let’s head to the performance charts and graphs to see how the Galaxy GTX 660 GC compares with the GTX 660 Ti as well as the last generation GTX 570 and earlier GTX 460 as well as against the stock and overclocked AMD HD 7850.