ZOTAC GTX660 Ti AMP! Edition Review

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX660 Ti is now officially released. Today we will put the ZOTAC AMP! Edition through its paces and pitch it against all current GPUs.

Product on Review: ZOTAC GTX660 Ti AMP! Edition 2GB GDDR5
Manufacturer and Sponsor: ZOTAC
Street Price: £265 At time of review

Four months ago saw the introduction of Kepler, NVIDIA’s latest architecture which brought the performance crown back to NVIDIA. A month later and the GTX670 was unleashed. Both cards have proven themselves to be leaders in their respective performance tier. 3 months may not seem like a long time but in terms of PC graphics cards it seems like an age to wait.

So here it is, the latest NVIDIA Kepler instalment to hit the shelves and perhaps the card that completes the GeForce line-up capable of running today’s best games at the most popular of resolutions: The GTX660 Ti. We’ve seen how fast the GTX680 and GTX670 are, how power efficient the new cores from NVIDIA are yet for many, cost has been prohibitive so to rectify this and to ensure every gamer has the chance to sample the new architecture advances NVIDIA have made over the past year, they have created the GTX660Ti.

Traditionally, the ’60 series have been the mid-range card that offers the best bang per buck so we have high hopes the GTX660 Ti can continue this trend as both the GTX460 and GTX560 GPU’s have been excellent performers for the money in the past.

Today’s sample hails from ZOTAC as there are no ‘reference’ designs. With manufacturers given a free reign on their own designs it remains to be seen who will top the charts but we are off to a very good start with the ZOTAC card we are reviewing today let me tell you that much. ZOTAC have been in the game for 6 years now and have a proven track record of making some of the fastest graphics cards around with their AMP! editions. Overclocked and custom cooled always get plus points at Vortez but when those features come at little extra cost (fingers crossed), the ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! could well be a force to be reckoned with…

About ZOTAC

Established in 2006, ZOTAC is the world’s largest and most innovative manufacturer of graphics cards, mini-ITX motherboards and mini-PCs. ZOTAC system components, and mini-PCs can be found in all continents around the globe.

Derived from the terms “zone,” for being distinct in the PC components and systems business, and “tact,” for our superior skill, experience, quality and manufacturing capabilities. Combined, “ZOTAC,” represents technological strength and experience blended with a fresh approach on the industry’s ever-changing needs.

ZOTAC entered the market with an expanded lineup of NVIDIA® GeForce® based graphics cards, which included the passive-cooled ZOTAC GeForce® ZONE Editions and class leading overclocked ZOTAC GeForce® AMP! Editions, in addition to the standard GeForce® series lineup. ZOTAC has since expanded its focus to include motherboards, mini-PCs and innovative accessories worldwide.

ZOTAC products are manufactured to the most rigorous quality standards that combine world-class quality control, reliability, features and performance with superior end-user and channel support.

Specification

Built upon the same GK104 GPU used in the 690/680 and 670 models, the GTX660 Ti retains the Kepler moniker and deservedly so because the GTX660 Ti utilises the same amount of CUDA cores as the GTX670. Coupled with 2GB of GDDR5 you could be forgiven for thinking there was very little to choose from between the GTX660 Ti and its bigger brother, the GTX670 and to be honest you would be right in thinking that – even the default reference clock speeds are the same.

The difference between the two comes down to memory bandwidth. The GTX660 Ti has a its memory interface reduced 192-bit from 256bit on the GTX670. All is not lost though because the GTX660 Ti’s memory controller supports mixed density memory module operation allowing NVIDIA to cram a 2GB frame buffer onto the board. This will inevitably lower the performance below that of the GTX670 however the GTX670 is not the GTX660Ti’s adversary. The AMD HD7870 is and here is how the two cards stack up against one another:

The reference clock speed of the GTX660Ti is 915MHz which equates to around 980MHz ‘Boost’ clock speed, 20MHz short of AMD’s 1GHZ Edition HD7870. The GTX660Ti’s memory is clocked at reference to 6008MHz data rate compared with the HD7870’s 1200MHz with the ZOTAC’s memory weighing in at 6608MHz. Power draw of the GTX660TIi is however a good 40W less than the HD7870. The figures don’t lie though and on paper at least, the HD7870 appears to be the faster card. How this will transpire in real world use we will see later in the review.

ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! Edition Specification
The ZOTAC has both memory and core clock speeds increased over reference to 1033MHz (1111MHz Boost) and memory to a whopping 6609MHz QDR. This should see ti easily surpass the HD7870 and even give the higher specced HD7950 a good run for it’s money.

With the AMP! Edition clocked so high from the factory we are curious to see how much ZOTAC left in the tank for manual overclocking; something we will investigate later in the review.

Let’s take a look at the features of the GTX660Ti…

Features

SMX
Kepler GPUs feature our next-generation Streaming Multiprocessor, SMX. To improve performance, SMX features substantially more shader, texture, and geometry processing units, while the double speed processor clock present in prior GeForce GPUs has been eliminated in favor of more CUDA cores operating at the lower-speed graphics clock. This change dramatically improves Kepler’s performance per watt.

GPU Boost
GPU Boost dynamically adjusts the GPU’s clock speed automatically based on GPU operating conditions. Dedicated hardware circuitry constantly monitors GPU power consumption. GPU Boost automatically adjusts clocks to achieve the maximum possible clock speed while remaining within a predefined power target. GPU Boost operates completely autonomously with no game profiles and no intervention required by the end user, providing an instant performance boost to gamers.

Anti-Aliasing
NVIDIA FXAA technology harnesses the power of the GPU’s CUDA Cores to reduce visible aliasing. It is applied with other post-processing steps like motion blur and bloom. For game engines making use of deferred shading, FXAA provides a performance and memory advantage over deferred shading with multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA). FXAA reduces but does not completely eliminate shader aliasing. FXAA’s chief advantage over traditional MSAA is higher performance. In many cases, FXAA can be applied at a cost of 1ms per frame or less, resulting in frame rates that are often 2x higher than 4xMSAA with comparable image quality.

TXAA is a new film-style AA technique that’s designed to exploit GeForce GTX 690’s high texture performance. TXAA combines the raw power of MSAA with sophisticated resolve filters similar to those employed in CG films. TXAA is available with two modes: TXAA 1 and TXAA 2. TXAA 1 offers visual quality on par with 8xMSAA with the performance similar to 2xMSAA, while TXAA 2 offers image quality that’s superior to 8xMSAA, with performance comparable to 4xMSAA.

NVIDIA 3D Vision
NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ technology is a combination of Graphics Processor Units (GPU), specialized 3D glasses, software, and certified displays and projectors that deliver an immersive 3D experience on your PC or workstation. For a complete list of system requirements for NVIDIA 3D Vision Technology

NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround
NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround expands your field of view across three 3D monitors for Breathtaking panoramic gaming. At an ultra-wide resolution of 5760×1080, games like Battlefield Bad Company 2 have to be played to be believed.

CUDA
CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel computing architecture that enables dramatic increases in computing performance by harnessing the power of the GPU to speed up the most demanding tasks you can run on your PC.

SLI
NVIDIA SLI technology links multiple GeForce GPUs together for dramatically improved graphics performance. With over 1000 supported applications and used by over 94% of multi-GPU PCs on Steam, SLI is the technology of choice for gamers who demand the very best.

NVIDIA PureVideo
Blu-ray and HD DVD movies are bringing a new level of movie-viewing experience; with high-definition image quality far surpassing standard-definition DVDs. NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD2 technology provides unsurpassed Blu-ray and HD DVD movie picture quality.

Dual Link DVI
Dual-link DVI convertible output supports Video/Audio signal integration through DVI to HDMI interface, which drivers resolution of a digital display up to 1920×1200 or higher.

PhysiX
PhysX™ is designed specifically for hardware acceleration by powerful processors with hundreds of cores. Combined with the tremendous parallel processing capability of the GPU, PhysX™ will provide an exponential increase in physics processing power and will take gaming to a new level delivering rich, immersive physical gaming environments

Packaging & Accessories

Box Front

The front of the box is typical ZOTAC design with the now trademark matt black and orange design so familiar with ZOTAC products. The sticker toward the top left shows that this is one of the products which include Borderlands 2. AMP! Edition is emblazoned across the mid section with a double barrelled Dual Silencer figurine toward the right-centre.

Box Rear

The Rear of the package features a line diagram of the card along with a contents list written in multiple languages below.

Box Inner

Removing the outer sleeve, we are greeted with a glossy black box and upon opening this we finally get our first glimpse of the card which is held fast in place by a rigid foam bracket.

Accessories

The accessory list is short but sweet enough as it includes a free game of high quality (Borderlands 2). Also included are a pair of twin MOLEX-6pin PCIe power adapters and a VGA-DVI adapter. Three pamphlets are also included should you be unsure of the product you have bought or more pertinently, how to install it.

First Look

Card Top

The Twin Silencer dominates the cards appearance with two bright orange fans proudly on display hovering over what appears to be an aluminium finned heatsink shrouded by a black metal ‘open’ style frame.

Black PCB

The rear of the cooler shows off what has to be one of the best silk screened PCB’s in the business as the matt black PCB really is matt black. Not dark brown or deep blue but plain old black – just how we like it. Obviously, there is a wealth of soldering and perhaps most interestingly a couple of memory modules which is rare in today’s GPU production.

I/O Backplate

The I/O backplate of the card features a twin DVI ports, HDMI and a display ports along with a small vent not that it’s required in all honesty as the majority of hot air is exhausted back into the case.

Profile

The cards profile is very small with it measuring just 175mm long (185mm including shroud). Despite its diminutive size, 3 copper heatpipes hint at the performance/heat this heatsink will have to deal with.

Power Ports

The card is powered by two 6pin PCIe power adapters. NVIDIA claim a TDP of around 134W for a reference design however, I would expect the TDP of this card to be slightly higher due to it being overclocked from the reference specification. A 450W PSU with a 24AMP rating is recommended by ZOTAC for this GPU.

SLI

Unlike many mid range graphics cards, the GTX660Ti allows for a multi(3+) GPU setup thanks to the twin SLI tabs.

Overview

The ZOTAC GTX660Ti is a very attractive piece of kit. The typical black and orange theme of ZOTAC once again works very well with this graphics card. The card is double PCI size which is a shame but what the card sacrifices in height, it makes up for in length because at just 18.5cm long, it will be perfectly suited to mATX builds.

Let’s strip the card down and take a look at the ZOTAC PCB design…

Closer Look

Heatsink

The Heatsink is made up of three sections. The top section is the fan shroud which holds the fans. These hover over the aluminium finned heatsink array which is welded to 3 copper heatpipes on top of which there is a solid copper base plate.

Baseplate

The heatpipes are soldered to a baseplate rather than having direct contact. The baseplate is full copper though which should ensure very good heat transfer. The contact between the core and baseplate was very good with an adequate amount of thermal interface material (paste) being used.

Naked GTX660Ti

The PCB looks odd due to its length and perhaps more so because the twin power ports are at opposite ends to the VRM. The core, like other Kepler models, is exposed and it is partially framed by 6x256MB memory modules with a further 2x256MB to be found on the rear of the PCB.

Voltage Regulation Module

The voltage regulation is a 4+2 affair. Each of the four GPU chokes are matched with 3 MOSFETs with the two memory inductors having a MOSFET each.

Memory

The each of the memory modules hail from HYNIX with the product code of H5GQ2H24MFR RDC we know this is rated to 6.0Gbps at 1.5v.

Core

Finally we see the core of the ZOTAC GTX660Ti. Mirroring the GTX670’s GK104 core, we can expect great performance from the sliver of silicon so without further ado it’s time to put the graphics card to the test…

Test Setup

With the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

Some of the components for our test bench were kindly donated by CORSAIR who provided the majority of components without whom we would not have been able to bring you this review so a big thanks to them.

Graphics cards on test:
ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! Edition

ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! Edition OC

MSI R7870 Hawk
EVGA GTX680 SuperClocked Signature
GIGABYTE GTX680 Windforce
NVIDIA GTX670
HIS HD 7870 IceQ Turbo
MSI HD 7870 Twin Frozr III OC
GIGABYTE HD7850 OC WindForce x2
ZOTAC GTX680 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD7870 2GB GDDR5
Zotac GTX580 AMP2! 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7970 Black Edition 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7770 Black Edition ‘S’ 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7750 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7770 1GB GDDR5
HIS HD7970 3GB GDDR5
XFX DD Radeon R7950 3072MB GDDR5
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7970 3072MB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX570 AMP! 1280MB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX570 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-448 Twin Frozr III 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-384 Twin Frozr III 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD6990 4GB GDDR5

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (305.37) were used with the ZOTAC GTX660Ti.

Motherboard: MSI X79 Big Bang X-Power II
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler – Corsair H100

Benchmarks
We have also updated our range of benchmarks to include the following games which will give the graphics cards a challenge and sort the wheat from the chaff. Each benchmark will be run at both stock and maximum overclock settings and utilise 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 resolutions along with AA at various levels (application dependent):

Battlefield 3
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Batman: Arkham City
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
DiRT 3
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…

Overclocking

Overclocking via NVIDIA’s GPU Boost was covered in our ZOTAC GTX680 review so I won’t go into detail here on the attributes and pitfalls of using this method to overclock a GPU. Suffice to say though it is effective and as we shall see below, can be used to great effect..

The reference card comes with the core clocked at a rather conservative clockspeed of 915MHz. This will however boost up to around the 980MHz mark depending on load conditions.

We raised the Power limit to 123 to allow for maximum overclocks but considering that the card is already pre-overclocked to 1033MHz were weren’t expecting miracles and this was the case as we only managed a paltry 30MHz over stock speed which resulted in a Boost speed. Memory overclocking fared slightly better with a 50(200MHz) boost over stock speeds which should go some way to eradicating the memory bus deficit.

Temperature, Acoustics and Power Consumption

Power Consumption

To test for power consumption we do not use anything too technical, just a wall meter which measures the total system power draw minus the monitor.

The Kepler range are much more efficient than the previous 5 series GPU’s and make the 4 series look like something from the industrial revolution in comparison to the GTX660’s inefficiencies. NVIDIA claim a 450W PSU will be enough to power this card and a moderate PC system and going off our results I wouldn’t argue with that claim as the card drew little more than 338W even when overclocked (full system power draw from the wall).

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we would normally run Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained however we found that this throttled the card and resulted in spurious results. So we set Heaven running continuously for 20 minutes and used this as a temperature result as the card did not throttle with this application.

Despite its size, the GTX660Ti still kicked out some serious heat, hitting the 70c mark. While this is nothing to worry about, I do have a few concerns about all of this heat being dumped back into the PC case as even though the heatsink will channel some hot air out of the rear of the card, because of its open design, much of the heat will escape back into the case only to be recycled so a case with a good amount of airflow will certainly benefit this GPU.

Acoustics

Some ZOTAC cards may look quiet but looks can often be deceiving so I am happy to report that on this occasion, the GTX660Ti AMP! Edition looks as quiet as it is. It barely reached a murmur even under full load so you would be hard pushed to hear this GPU over normal case fans.

Let’s move on to our suite of gaming and synthetic benchmarks…

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next instalment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the parking lot scene on Operation Sword Breaker. High and Ultra presets were loaded at both resolutions.

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (305.37) were used with the ZOTAC GTX660Ti.

Crysis 2

Crytek took an internet beating from its loyal fans due to the fact that they pandered to the console masses and dumbed down the graphics to DirectX 9. Fortunately, fans of the PC version of Crysis managed to force Cryteks hand and they have since developed a DX11 patch and have also enhanced the textures with added tesselation. It is for this reason that we have decided to include it in our suite of benchmarks.

To test the cards we used the Crysis 2 benchmark courtesy of Adrenaline with both the 1.9 patch, DX11 update and Hi-res texture pack. Settings were manually placed to Ultra, DX11 and tessellation enabled with the Central Park map being run 3 times per resolution benchmark test.

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (305.37) were used with the ZOTAC GTX660Ti.

Crysis Warhead

Following the success of Crysis, the stand alone expansion “Warhead” was hotly anticipated to bring more game play, more weapons, improved visuals whilst maintaining better performance, the latter being what gamers wanted most. After all how many people upgraded their rigs just to play this game… In the game, you play as the upbeat Brit Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes, chasing down a Korean nuclear warhead. Throw in some ice shooting aliens and we’re bound to have a great game. It sure delivered.

Testing was done using Framebuffer’s Crysis Warhead benchmarking tool. The tests were configured to DirectX 10 at Enthusiast levels. Each test on the Ambush map was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (305.37) were used with the ZOTAC GTX660Ti.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum, sending players soaring into Arkham City, the new maximum security “home” for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, this highly anticipated sequel introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe, as well as a vast range of new and enhanced gameplay features to deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.

The results below were obtained from the built-in benchmark utility from the game.

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (305.37) were used with the ZOTAC GTX660Ti.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Skyrim is not a direct successor to the very popular Oblivion. Instead it takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The non-linear playing that made the Elder Scrolls such a popular series does however make a return along with the beautiful scenery the encompasses the world of Skyrim.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the drop down passage to Riverwood. V-sync was disabled to allow fluctuating (higher the 60) FPS for these runs. It is however recommended that v-sync is left enabled during normal gameplay due to the games dynamics.

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (305.37) were used with the ZOTAC GTX660Ti.

DiRT 3

As players race to elevate their global standing, DiRT 3 is back delivering mud, sweat and gears world over: from the intense weather-beaten rally stages of Europe, Africa and the US, to executing performance driving showcases and career challenges where car control is pushed to spectacular limits.

The in-game benchmarking tool was used to test performance. All the display settings were set to the maximum available and DirectX 11 was applied. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (305.37) were used with the ZOTAC GTX660Ti.

Metro 2033

Based on the novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any games out now, making it the ideal benchmark for those looking for the best graphics card.

The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Metro 2033, configuring the settings to High and making use of DirectX 11. The frontline scene was looped 3 times for each configuration. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Futuremark 3DMark 11

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. The benchmark was run in both Performance and Extreme presets.

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (305.37) were used with the ZOTAC GTX660Ti.

Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (305.37) were used with the ZOTAC GTX660Ti.

Conclusion

Clearly, the GTX660Ti is a very good card. It cut through all of our benchmarks with ease at 1920×1080 resolutions. It even performed better than expected at 2560×1600 but as with most mid-range cards this resolution sometimes proves too much for the card to adequately handle at playable framerates – at least enjoyable ones! The GTX660Ti managed to often surpass not only it’s direct competitor, the AMD HD7870 but also the HD7950 too which is no easy task. The GTX660Ti, like the more powerful GTX670 and GTX680s begins to falter as the resolutions and filters are increased with the lead diminishing or even vanishing completely. To be fair to NVIDIA, they are aiming the card to perform at today’s most popular resolution of 1920×1080 and it does this very well indeed.

The ZOTAC card we had on review today was very quiet thanks to the double fans and copper heatpiped heatsink which kept temperatures (even when overclocked) under control. It wasn’t totally quiet though and as with most phonic testing, sound/volume is subjective but I would claim you would struggle to hear it under load above moderate speed case fans.

My only concern is the price. At £265 the GTX660Ti isn’t far from the superior GTX670 and again, quite closely priced to AMD’s HD7950. While the GTX660Ti can hold its own against the HD7950 at 1920×1080 resolutions, the extra GB of RAM and faster memory controller on the AMD card may prove to be the better buy for those running at higher resolutions. NVIDIA pitch the GTX660Ti against the HD7870 though, and as we have shown, the GTX660Ti is the faster card by a fair margin so it is ‘job done’ in that respect.

Overall then, it is hard to fault the GTX660Ti. Unless you are looking to pair the card with a 30″ monitor it is unlikely you will struggle in any of today’s games and if you crave even more power in the future then NVIDIA have added tri/quad SLI (motherboard dependent) support. With this in mind, I have no hesitations of awarding the ZOTAC GTX660Ti our Silver award – taking into consideration the price/performance ratio you will be hard pushed to find a faster graphics card at this price point for today’s most popular resolution.

Pros:
– Kepler Architecture
– Factory Overclocked
– Quiet
– Comparatively cool
– Free Borderlands 2 game

Cons:
– Begins to struggle at the highest resolutions
– Cost