Review of the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X 6 GB Graphics Card.

NVIDIA has introduced the GeForce GTX 1660 graphics card, reinforcing its strategy of offering Turing-based GeForce GTX models that do not support ray tracing but provide enhanced performance in standard raster graphics. Priced, the GTX 1660 Ti, released last month, significantly outperformed the similarly priced and newly launched Radeon RX 590, demonstrating the capability to run any game at 1080p with maximum settings and at 1440p with minor adjustments. However, at this price level, the GTX 1660 Ti does not serve as a direct successor to the current mainstream market leader in sales, the GTX 1060 6 GB. This role is now assumed by the GTX 1660.

Priced, the GTX 1660 is designed with cost efficiency in mind, allowing NVIDIA the flexibility to reduce expenses further should AMD introduce competitive offerings in this market segment, such as the anticipated “Navi.” This graphics card is constructed from the same 12 nm “TU116” silicon as the GTX 1660 Ti, albeit with a reduced number of CUDA cores and a slower memory configuration of 8 Gbps GDDR5, as opposed to the 12 Gbps GDDR6 found in its counterpart. Consequently, NVIDIA aims to provide a product that is slightly superior to the GTX 1060 6 GB and any competing AMD products in this category, ensuring it can still achieve Full HD gaming at maximum settings.

In our reviews of the GTX 1660 Ti, we elaborated on the “TU116” chip, which is based on the “Turing” architecture. This chip omits the RT cores and tensor cores, retaining only the CUDA cores, which offer the same instructions per cycle (IPC) and clock speed enhancements as other cards in the RTX 20-series. The GTX 1660 is primarily aimed at the vast demographic of gamers engaged in online multiplayer e-Sports, who require a graphics card capable of delivering performance at Full HD resolution, and potentially at elevated refresh rates.

NVIDIA developed the GTX 1660 from the “TU116” silicon by deactivating 2 of the 24 streaming multiprocessors, leading to a total of 1,408 CUDA cores and 88 texture mapping units (TMUs). This configuration surpasses the specifications of the “Pascal” architecture-based GTX 1060 6 GB. The graphics card features 48 raster operation units (ROPs) and utilizes a 192-bit GDDR5 memory bus to support 6 GB of memory, effectively maintaining the rendering and memory architecture from previous models.

Presenting the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X, which stands as the company’s high-end model utilizing this GPU. It is equipped with the Twin Frozr 7 cooling system, includes a backplate, features an idle fan-stop function, and comes with factory-overclocked performance levels.