Metro 2033
And, the beatings just get worse with Metro 2033. Still, the three cards split the difference coming up with about 30 frames per second each in this still punishing benchmark. It’s worth noting thought that the GTX 480, which can still be found on the market for the same price, is more than 10 FPS ahead of the new GTX 660 Ti. Keep in mind, if Metro 2033 supported TXAA and FXAA, the cards would potentially offer a flip in the results. Either way, actual in game frame rates between our batch of GTX 660 Ti is very close and bests the card it replaces, the GTX 560 Ti.
Batman Arkham City
The GTX 660 Ti trio have no problems with part two of the GOTY. Batman Arkham City looks fantastic on all three cards. If you’re going to play this on your GTX 660 Ti, you can also try it with 3D Vision 2 with few adverse affects and very playable frame rates. We now begin to see the new GPUs surge ahead of older parts and all of which are within striking distance of the higher end GTX 670.
Stalker Call of Pripyat
Here, we see the trio provide ample frame rates for this oldie but goodie. Interestingly, the EVGA SC did fall behind about 6 frames which isn’t the end of the world by any means, but may point to an issue that isn’t simply driver related. Still, frame rate junkies may mind but gamers looking for EVGA’s nice rebates for a deal on the latest and greatest, won’t mind at all. It is here that we continue to see great improvements over the previous generation GPUs, some of which are in the same price point on clearance. All of which are tucked nicely behind the GTX 670.
Let’s see what happens in another FPS.
Battlefield 3
Yes, Ultra settings in Battlefield 3 will slap any GPU silly especially at 1080p resolutions. Overall, everything was smooth sailing throughout with any of the GTX 660 Ti as I get my war zone fix on. For a minute there, each card made me wonder if the GTX 670 OC was accidentally installed due to the close proximity of the frame rates to one another. The trio GTX 660 Ti again offer very playable frame rates. One thing you might have noticed is that despite the higher overclock of the GIGABYTE, the MSI still manages to best it in the last few benchmarks. It appears that the more stable voltage of the MSI is starting to play its hand.
Alien vs Predator Benchmark
Well, the trend continues. The GPU muscle and memory frequencies add up to strong frame rates overall. While not shown, overclocking these cards was practically pointless as it would only add about 3 frames extra. Frankly speaking, it’s just not worth pushing these lean and mean cards any further. Due to the age of this benchmark, you can see the older cards start to file in, but based on the majority of benchmarks, you can see that the newer the game, the better the new GTX 660 Ti performs.
Temperatures and Power Consumption
It’s been rather warm on the West Coast as of late, so keeping the lab temperatures under control have been a challenge. The ambient temperature was around 22C during the tests. The test system was covered in a DangerDen tech station. Power consumption wattage included the entire system under load.
I’d say this is all pretty par for the course. The EVGA reference cooler didn’t top 74C and was always too quiet to notice during regular 3D tests which is an outright pleasant experience. GIGABYTE’s Windforce cooler seemed to be spinning the same undetectable RPMs at all times but cooled a bit better. But, MSI’s Twin Frozr II was the coolest and almost as quiet as the Windforce thanks to its more aggressive design. However, on ocassions the cooler could be heard just over the 26dB CPU fans.
Finally, the GTX 660 Ti cards are not power hungry at all. The MSI GTX 660 Ti PE required the most power but it also features a more aggressive VRM than the rest. Granted, the ASUS Maximus V Gene is a somewhat lean gamer platform, but to be able to run one card and not top 250 Watts is awesome. It’s obvious that power gamers can run two GTX 660 Ti on a good quality 80PLUS Bronze or higher 650 Watt power supply without issue.