Asus GTX 660 Ti Direct CU II TOP Review

The GTX660 Ti is an important card for Nvidia as it is set to fill the gaping performance hole between £250-£300. At £270 inc vat the Asus GTX660 Ti Direct CU II TOP has certainly impressed us.

We don't have a reference Nvidia solution on hand to deliver direct comparisons, but the Asus GTX660 Ti Direct CU II TOP is certainly faster than the AMD HD7950 it is targeting. When we directly compare against the heavily overclocked Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X which we reviewed earlier today then it is a tight run battle. We would say it is a 50-50 split either way, depending on the game or benchmark being used.

That said, in regards to pure ‘value for money', it looks as if the Asus GTX 660 Ti Direct CU II TOP has the edge at £270 inc vat, as we would expect the Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X to cost around the £300 mark, or possibly a little more. While it has taken Nvidia some time to issue a challenge to AMD, the GTX660 Ti certainly hasn't failed to deliver.

I was particularly impressed with Direct X 11 performance via 3DMark 11, scoring 8,864 points. This is right in line with the AMD HD7970 GHZ Edition. An impressive feat, especially when factoring in the difference in pricing.

Nvidia have also nailed the board design in regards to power draw and heat dissipation. Obviously our review product offers key enhancements over the reference design, the Direct CU II cooling solution is fantastic and when under gaming load it can maintain a 60c thermal threshold with minimal noise emissions from the dual fans.

We only achieved a minor clock increase on pre-overclocked ASUS settings, pushing the core boost from 1,137mhz to 1,210mhz. This translated into a final 3DMark 11 score of 9,287 points – right in line with the Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition at the slower of the two bios settings.

I would have no hesitation in recommending this card to the Nvidia audience reading the review today. At £267.54 inc vat it is the fastest gaming card for the money.

Pros:

• Fantastic performance.
• This Asus GTX660 Ti outperforms AMD's reference HD7950.
• Quiet.
• runs cool.

Cons:

• If you want the best bang for buck around £200, then you have to wait a while longer.

Kitguru says: A high performance, well balanced gaming card. It delivers high value for money when factoring in the frame rate prowess.

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