Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC 6G Graphics Card Review
The GeForce GeForce GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC is a midrange graphics card based on the Nvidia 12nm “TU116” silicone graphics processing chip containing 1408 CUDA cores and clock speeds at 1530MHz boosting to 1785MHz. If these specs sound familiar, it’s because they are the exact same as the GTX 1660. Well if that the case, what makes the GTX 1660 Super different from its non-Super counterpart? The answer is: the memory subsystem. The GTX 1660 Super comes with 6GB of the newer and faster GDDR6 memory clocked at 14 Gbps. Unlike Nvidia’s RTX cards, the 1660 Super does not support raytracing but does support other “Turing” architecture features such as adaptive shading, concurrent integer and floating-point execution, and features unified cache.
Today we will be reviewing Gigabyte’s take on the GeForce GTX 1660 Super: The GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC. Gigabyte was able to increase the boost clock from 1745MHz to 1860MHz and added their premium Windforce triple-fan cooling solution. These upgrades come with $20 increase over the $230 Founder’s edition card making the GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC $250 at the time of writing.
Unboxing & First Impressions
The Gigabyte 1660 Super Gaming OC box remains true to previous Gigabyte offerings.
The front to the box has the usual gigabyte mechanical eye, Nvidia GeForce branding, text showing support for Turing shaders, GDDR6 memory, Directx12, and Nvidia Ansel logo.
The back of the fox features illustrations of Gigabytes WindForce 3x cooling solution, RGB fusion 2.0, and the protective back plate. On the right, one can see the ports available in the back of the card as well as the minimum system requirements.
The GPU comes in an anti-static plastic bag and is firmly secured in anti-static foam.
The graphics card itself is premium looking and feeling! The Gigabyte GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC truly looks like a premium GPU way above its price! This is thanks to the triple fan design and the thick backplate.
The GPU is mostly black with grey accents and Gigabyte branding throughout.
This is a double slot card that measures approximately 11 inches (280 mm) long and 4 inches (110 mm) wide.
Display connectivity options include:
- 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
- 1x HDMI 2.0b
Furthermore, the 1660 Super Gaming OC uses a single 8-pin power connector and does not support SLI.
Specifications
| GTX 1660 TI | GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC | GTX 1660 Super | GTX 1660 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | TU116 | TU116 | TU116 | TU116 |
| CUDA Cores | 1536 | 1408 | 1408 | 1408 |
| Base Clock (MHz) | 1500 | 1530 | 1530 | 1530 |
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 1770 | 1830 | 1785 | 1785 |
| Memory Clock | 12 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 8 Gbps |
| Memory Type | 6GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 128-bit |
| MSRP | $275 | $250 | $230 | $220 |
Features
The Gigabyte GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC features Gigabyte’s Premium WindForce 3x cooling solution. This includes 3x 80mm blade fans, alternate spinning fans, 3 composite copper heat pipes, heat-pipe direct touch and 3D active fan functionality. Taken together, this cooling solution should result in great dissipation, lower overall temperatures, and higher boost clocks. Don’t worry though, we will put it to the test to verify these logical improvements.
The alternate spinning feature has the center fan spin in a different direction than the 2 outer fans. This allows Gigabyte to incorporate a triple fan design which achieves higher cooling efficiency, without turbulence which would otherwise degrade the cooling capacity and increase overall noise.
The 3D active fan feature is Gigabyte’s take on adaptive cooling. This simply means that the fans will slow down or ramp up based on the temperature of the card. This is a highly underrated feature, especially if you don’t use headphones while gaming.
The GTX 1660 Gaming OC is also compatible with Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion 2.0 software. This is where you should go to customize the RGB lighting on your card.
Finally, the GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC features a sturdy backplate that is not usually found in midrange cards. The backplate not only protects the back of the card but also aids in heat dissipation.
Temperature Testing
For temperature testing we will compare different 1660 Super variants as well as other graphics cards in both idle settings and under heavy load.
The graphics cards were tested in the same system featuring a 9900K and 16 GB of ADATA XPG RAM. The ambient temperature was kept at 22 °C through all the tests.
As you can see, in idle settings the GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC stays 45°C, which may seem relatively high when compared to other offerings. However, due to Gigabyte’s 3D fan active fan feature, the fans were completely stopped! The only other GPU tested that supports adaptive cooling was the MSI GTX 1660 Super Gaming X, which achieved a higher idle temperature of 49°C. I have no doubt that if the fans were running, the Gaming OC’s temperature would at the very least be comparable to the other offerings tested.
Under load, the GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC maintained the lowest temperature of the cards tested!
Gaming Performance
Testing setup for gaming performance:
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master
- CPU: Intel Core I9 9900K @stock settings
- Memory: 16GB of ADATA XPG Spectrix D60G DDR4-3200
- Power Supply: Seasonic Prime TX 1000
- Storage: ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G NVME 1TB
Battlefield V – Ultra Quality at 1080P and 1440P
Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Highest Preset Quality at 1080P and 1440P
The Witcher 3 – Ultra Quality at 1080P and 1440P
Overclocking
Manual overclocking allowed us to push our Card to 2070 Mhz (+120 MHz) on the core and to 15500 Mhz on the memory! This may not seem like much, but it bumped our average FPS around 5%. While overclocked, the load temperature went up slightly from 63°C to 66°C.
Conclusion
The GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC is the best 1660 Super variant we have tested! It offers performance that rivals the GTX 1660 Ti, which goes for $275, $25 pricier than the Gaming OC. The GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC also offers great cooling for this price point, maintaining the lowest load temperatures of all the 1660 Super variants tested. If you are in the market for a 1080P gaming midrange card or even a 1440P card, we highly recommend the Gigabyte GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC!