Fresh off the embargo, we have the ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Direct CU II 2 GB Graphic Card in our lab. What? No, this is NOT the TI version. This is the Non-TI.
The Card
I think the Asus cards look all too familiar, in fact they look EXACTLY the same for this case. Only 2 notable differences. One being the number of PCI-E power connector and the other one being the SLI Connector.
They’re so the same in all aspects, I couldn’t be bothered to take additional photos.
Dual fans as usual.
DirectCU II cooler, with heatpipes running along the length of the card.
DVI, HDMI and Mini-DisplayPort. All good for the latest in video output.
More details coming soon once the product link is available. 😀
Test Setup
The computer setup used for this review.
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K |
| RAM | Kingston Value RAM 4GB 1333 |
| Motherboard | MSI Z77A-GD45 |
| Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 101 |
| Monitor | 46″ LCD TV |
| Power Supply | Xigmatek NRP-PC602 600w |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64bit |
Below is the GPU-Z for the card.
The Performance
Metro 2033
Graphic Detail : AAA, 16 AF. No Physx
| Card | Average 1080p | Average 720p |
| Asus GTX 660 | 48.00 | 83 |
| Asus GTX 660 Ti | 54.00 | 88.5 |
| ASUS HD 7870 | 51.00 | 76.50 |
| Leadtek GTX 460 | 28.90 | 51.25 |
It’s very close to the performance of the Ti variant, you won’t feel the difference.
Lost Planet 2
Graphic Detail : Maximum
| Card | Average 1080p | Average 720p |
| Asus GTX 660 | 56.8 | 67.6 |
| Asus GTX 660 Ti | 62.00 | 66.8 |
| ASUS HD 7870 | 50.0 | 58.8 |
| Leadtek GTX 460 | 36.9 | 50.9 |
Same as the above, it’s so close you won’t feel the difference. The faster speed on the 720p test just shows they’re equal there, as you know framerate variances do occur on tests, and it’s not surprising the 660 with new drivers had already show some improvement.
Alien Vs Predator
Graphic Detail : Maximum
| Card | Average 1080p | Average 720p |
| Asus GTX 660 | 74.1 | 137.1 |
| Asus GTX 660 Ti | 84.1 | 157.7 |
| ASUS HD 7870 | 73.6 | 138.8 |
| Leadtek GTX 460 | 42.2 | 77.9 |
The performance gap is wider here, about 12% behind but at the framerate you get, it’s again something you can’t tell the difference.
Heaven 3.0
.
| Card | Average 1080p | Average 720p |
| Asus GTX 660 | 86.7 | 157.5 |
| Asus GTX 660 Ti | 101.7 | 177.1 |
| ASUS HD 7870 | 56.9 | 91.3 |
| Leadtek GTX 460 | 30.4 | 47.3 |
Operating Temperature
Furmark was used for graphic card stressing. Based on 720p preset.
| Card | Idle (°C) | Stress (°C) |
| Asus GTX 660 | 31 | 53 |
| ASUS GTX 660 Ti | 31 | 63 |
| ASUS HD 7870 | 29 | 80 |
Readings were taken when ambient temperature was around 25°C.
Conclusion
The RRP for the Ti version in the Malaysian market is about RM 1.2k for the Asus unit so I’m speculating that the non-Ti version will hover at around RM 1k. Comparing Asus’ nVidia range to AMD range, should the price of the non-TI variant be around that of the HD 7850 then it’s really going to be a choice over the AMD counterpart, price of HD7850 but much faster than HD7870 and consuming less power – why not?!?!
The 660 performs at around 90% – 100% of the 660 Ti, consumes lesser power (10 – 20w approx – *The 660 cards are 140w for reference models while the TI version is at 150w.* ) and costs less.
*For those interested, the 660 gave me 3/4 of the 660 Ti’s performance for [email protected] 960 CUDA cores vs 1344 CUDA cores.
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