ZOTAC GTX 660 2GB Review Video Card   Page 1

Reviewer: Chris Ledenican Article Publish Date: 9/20/2012

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

 

 

Just last week Nvidia released the GTX 660 and GTX 650, finally rounding out the entire Kepler family and like all the other graphics cards in the series they were received well. Unlike their predictors though both cards are based on a new Kepler GPU, but since we are examining the GTX 660 we are focusing specifically on the GK106.

 

The GK106 GPU block is similar to the GK104 core in most respects, but it comes with only 960 CUDA cores, and utilizes a mixed density memory module operation, allowing the board to support up to 2GB of memory instead of a mere 1.5GB. The memory bus still runs on a 192-bit interface though, which is going to prevent the card from running games at resolutions beyond 2560x1600 at any playable level, but since the memory is clocked at 6Gbps they GTX 660 can still rip through virtually any game at 1080p.

 

The model we are examining in this review was sent to us by ZOTAC, who has taken a slightly different approach to their design, which is due to ZOTAC using a scaled down version of their Dual Silencer heatsink. The smaller size really makes this one of the more interesting models we have tested, as both the EVGA and MSI models measured between 9” and 9.5”, while the ZOTAC model is a mere 7.5”. The cut down dimension don’t take away from the performance though, instead is just makes this model better suited for smaller form factor cases.

 

Even with a custom thermal solution and overclocked frequencies the ZOTAC GTX 660 sits right at the $229 MSRP level of a reference GTX 660.