Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti OC Windforce Review

The Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti OC Windforce is an extremely capable video card which can power through the latest Direct X 11 games without breaking a sweat. Nvidia released the reference clocked GTX660 Ti to target AMD's HD7950, but Gigabyte's overclocked version is capable of playing at the same level as AMD's HD7970. This is a heck of an achievement considering the price point difference.

While Nvidia customers will have to wait until later this week for a new generation sub £200 gaming solution, the GTX660 Ti has rocked the performance charts, claiming top spot in the £250-£300 sector. It may have taken Nvidia some time to offer a challenge, but the GTX660 Ti has certainly been worth the wait.

As we mentioned in the previous GTX660 Ti review, the Direct X 11 performance in 3DMark 11 is particularly noteworthy. A score over 9,000 points is commendable and slightly higher than AMD's HD7970 GHZ Edition. Gigabyte's overclocked settings help push performance to a new level.

Nvidia have also managed to deliver great power efficiency results, while controlling heat dissipation. This is supported by the excellent Gigabyte twin fan Windforce cooling solution which offers enhancements over the reference solution. Under gaming load, core temperatures rise to 69c, this is not quite as impressive as the Asus GTX 660 Ti CU II TOP, but still well within safety parameters.

Gigabyte have focused on maintaining a non aggressive fan profile, which ensures that noise emissions are never a concern. The fans generally spin around 1,600 rpm under load, which is fantastic and suitable for those wanting to build a low noise, performance system.

While every card will vary, our sample had plenty of headroom available on the core. We managed to overclock the core from 1,033mhz to 1,137 mhz, almost a 10 percent clock increase.

The price point of the Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti OC Windforce is aggressive, ARIA in the UK stock the card for £255.54 inc vat, which is lower than many other of the performance GTX 660 Ti's cards currently available.

Pros:

• excellent overclocked performance.
• further headroom on the core via software tools.
• quiet.
• good value for a performance solution.

Cons:

• Those waiting for a sub £200 nvidia performance solution need to wait a few days longer.
• weak bundle.

Kitguru says: At this price, this card should be on the final shortlist for a 1080p+ gaming system.

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