AMD Radeon 880M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Comparison
AMD Radeon 880M
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS
Analysis: AMD Radeon 880M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
The AMD Radeon 880M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti occupy different worlds: one is a 15 W integrated processor from 2024, the other a 120 W discrete card from 2019. The benchmark data shows a decisive split—the GTX 1660 Ti wins 8 of 10 head-to-head tests, but the 880M takes a massive victory in Vulkan and a clear lead in 2D graphics. The average benchmark score tells a surprising story: the 880M averages 8436, beating the GTX 1660 Ti’s 7723, yet the GTX 1660 Ti holds a higher percentile rank at 41 versus 43 for the AMD part. This inversion stems from the 880M’s enormous Vulkan outlier, which inflates its average while the GTX 1660 Ti’s wins are more consistent across traditional DirectX workloads.
Where Each One Wins
The GTX 1660 Ti dominates every DirectX-based benchmark in the head-to-head set. Its largest margin comes in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where it scores 1061 against the 880M’s 535—a 49.6% advantage. It also leads in PassMark DirectX 9 (190 vs 97, a 48.9% gap), DirectX 10 (66 vs 31, a 53% gap), DirectX 11 (103 vs 73, a 29.1% gap), and DirectX 12 (51 vs 32, a 37.3% gap). The GTX 1660 Ti’s PassMark G3D score of 12871 crushes the 880M’s 7615, a 40.8% lead, and its Geekbench OpenCL score of 51029 beats 31285 by 38.7%. For compute workloads, the GTX 1660 Ti’s PassMark GPU Compute score of 5226 tops the 880M’s 3719 by 28.8%. In short, any workload that relies on DirectX rasterization, legacy APIs, or general-purpose compute belongs to the NVIDIA card.
The 880M wins are narrower in count but striking in magnitude. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 40006 absolutely dwarfs the GTX 1660 Ti’s 5827—a 586.6% advantage, the single largest delta in the entire comparison. This suggests the 880M’s RDNA 3.5 architecture has exceptional Vulkan driver efficiency or hardware acceleration that the older Turing card simply cannot match. The 880M also takes PassMark G2D with 969 versus 804, a 20.5% lead, indicating superior 2D desktop and UI rendering performance. These wins point to specific niches: modern Vulkan-based games or applications, and 2D productivity tasks where the 880M’s integrated design and newer architecture shine.
The Verdict
For gamers and users running DirectX-based titles, the GTX 1660 Ti is the clear choice. Its 49.6% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 40.8% lead in PassMark G3D translate to consistently higher frame rates in the vast majority of PC games, which still predominantly use DirectX 11 or 12. The GTX 1660 Ti’s 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth give it a structural advantage over the 880M’s system-shared memory, which is bandwidth-dependent on the host system. For any user prioritizing traditional gaming performance, the data leaves no ambiguity—the GTX 1660 Ti wins.
The 880M is the pick for Vulkan-centric workloads and 2D-heavy usage. Its 586.6% Vulkan lead is not a marginal edge but a generational gap, suggesting that Vulkan-native applications or games running through translation layers will perform disproportionately better on the AMD IGP. The 20.5% G2D advantage also makes it the better choice for desktop productivity, web browsing, and office work where 2D rendering dominates. Additionally, the 880M’s 15 W TDP versus the GTX 1660 Ti’s 120 W means it fits into thin-and-light laptops without a discrete GPU, making it the only option for those systems. The 880M’s higher average benchmark score (8436 vs 7723) and better percentile rank (43 vs 41) reflect its strength in these specific areas, even though it loses the majority of individual tests.
Head-to-Head Benchmarks
The most lopsided result is Geekbench Vulkan: the 880M scores 40006 against the GTX 1660 Ti’s 5827, a 586.6% delta. This is not a close contest—it is a complete mismatch in favor of the AMD part. No other benchmark in the dataset comes close to this margin. The second-largest win for the GTX 1660 Ti is PassMark DirectX 10 at 53%, followed by 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 at 49.6% and PassMark DirectX 9 at 48.9%. These three tests show the GTX 1660 Ti’s dominance in legacy and modern DirectX rasterization alike.
The GTX 1660 Ti’s smallest win is PassMark GPU Compute at 28.8% (5226 vs 3719), indicating that while it is faster in compute, the gap is less severe than in graphics. The 880M’s G2D win of 20.5% (969 vs 804) is its only other victory besides Vulkan. The overall pattern: the GTX 1660 Ti wins by 28.8% to 53% across eight tests, while the 880M wins by 20.5% and 586.6% in two tests. The 880M’s average score benefit comes entirely from the Vulkan outlier, which skews its average upward despite losing the majority of tests.
FAQ
Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?
A: The AMD Radeon 880M has an average benchmark score of 8436, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti averages 7723—a difference driven almost entirely by the 880M’s massive Vulkan score.
Q: How large is the Vulkan performance gap?
A: In Geekbench Vulkan, the 880M scores 40006 versus the GTX 1660 Ti’s 5827, giving the AMD part a 586.6% advantage—the largest delta in the entire comparison.
Q: Which GPU performs better in DirectX 12?
A: The GTX 1660 Ti wins in both relevant tests: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (1061 vs 535, a 49.6% lead) and PassMark DirectX 12 (51 vs 32, a 37.3% lead).
Q: What is the 880M’s advantage in 2D performance?
A: The 880M scores 969 in PassMark G2D versus the GTX 1660 Ti’s 804, a 20.5% lead that indicates better 2D desktop rendering.
Q: How do the two compare in compute workloads?
A: The GTX 1660 Ti leads in PassMark GPU Compute with 5226 against the 880M’s 3719, a 28.8% advantage, and also wins Geekbench OpenCL with 51029 versus 31285, a 38.7% lead.
Q: Which GPU has the better overall percentile ranking?
A: The 880M ranks in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs, while the GTX 1660 Ti ranks in the 41st percentile—a narrow edge for the AMD part despite losing most head-to-head tests.
Architecture Differences
The 880M uses the Strix Point chip built on RDNA 3.5 architecture, manufactured on TSMC’s 4 nm process. It packs 34,000 million transistors into a 233 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 145.9M per mm². The GTX 1660 Ti uses the TU116 chip on Turing architecture, built on TSMC’s 12 nm process with 6,600 million transistors on a 284 mm² die—a density of just 23.2M per mm². The 880M is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 15 W TDP and no power connectors, while the GTX 1660 Ti is a dual-slot discrete card with a 120 W TDP and a single 8-pin power connector.
The 880M features 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, 16 ROPs, and 12 ray tracing cores, with a base clock of 400 MHz and boost of 2900 MHz. The GTX 1660 Ti has 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, with a base clock of 1500 MHz and boost of 1770 MHz. The 880M’s pixel rate is 46.40 GPixel/s and texture rate is 139.2 GTexel/s, while the GTX 1660 Ti achieves 84.96 GPixel/s and 169.9 GTexel/s. The 880M’s FP32 performance is 4.454 TFLOPS with FP16 at the same rate (1:1), whereas the GTX 1660 Ti delivers 5.437 TFLOPS FP32 and 10.87 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). The 880M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and includes ray tracing cores, while the GTX 1660 Ti is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) with no ray tracing cores. Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.
Specification Differences
The most consequential difference is memory: the 880M uses system-shared memory with no dedicated VRAM, while the GTX 1660 Ti has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. The 880M’s memory bandwidth is system-dependent, whereas the GTX 1660 Ti’s is fixed. The GTX 1660 Ti’s bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x16, while the 880M uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The 880M’s display outputs are portable-device dependent, but the GTX 1660 Ti offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a. The GTX 1660 Ti is 229 mm long, 111 mm tall, and 35 mm wide, while the 880M has no listed dimensions as an IGP. The GTX 1660 Ti lists a suggested PSU of 300 W, while the 880M has none. The 880M was released on 2024-07-14 and is active in production, while the GTX 1660 Ti was released on 2019-02-21 and is end-of-life. The GTX 1660 Ti has a launch MSRP of 279 USD. The 880M’s predecessor is the Navi II IGP, while the GTX 1660 Ti’s predecessor is the GeForce 10 series and its successor is the GeForce 20 series.