NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Comparison

# Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data contains a single shared benchmark result between these two cards: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. In that test, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q scores 11,088 points, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER scores 1,278 points. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q wins by a massive 88.5% margin, a delta that reflects the generational chasm between a 2019 mainstream card and a 2025 workstation flagship.

To put that single result in context, the GTX 1660 SUPER’s average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 12,986, placing it at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs in the database. Its closest rivals in that average are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12,940, 0.4% ahead) and the AMD Radeon RX 580 (12,928, 0.4% ahead), while the NVIDIA Tesla M2090 trails by 0.7% (13,075) and the AMD Radeon 740M trails by 0.9% (12,870). The GTX 1660 SUPER is effectively bracketed by mid-range and older high-end parts, with no single rival more than 1% away.

The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q, by contrast, has an average benchmark score of 11,088 from its single recorded test, sitting at the 50th percentile. Its nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q (identical 11,088, 0% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 550 (11,075, 0.1% behind), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER (11,047, 0.4% behind), and the AMD FirePro W4300 (11,225, 1.2% ahead). These rivals are all far below the RTX PRO 6000’s tier in raw hardware, which suggests the 3DMark Steel Nomad score does not fully capture the workload-specific strengths of this workstation card.

The head-to-head delta of 88.5% in favor of the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is the single most decisive figure in this comparison. No other benchmark is shared between the two cards, so the analysis rests on that one result plus each card’s individual benchmark profile. The GTX 1660 SUPER has ten recorded tests, including Geekbench OpenCL (52,490), Geekbench Vulkan (57,102), Passmark G3D (12,699), and Passmark GPU Compute (5,076). The RTX PRO 6000 has only the one 3DMark score, making direct cross-card comparisons beyond that test impossible from the available data.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test is a demanding modern DirectX 12 workload, and the 88.5% gap there is consistent with the architectural and memory advantages the RTX PRO 6000 carries. A score of 11,088 versus 1,278 is not a marginal difference; it is a factor of roughly 8.7 times in raw frame throughput, which in practice means the RTX PRO 6000 will complete the same rendering task in a fraction of the time. For the GTX 1660 SUPER, that kind of deficit against a flagship is expected, but the magnitude is worth noting for anyone comparing these two as potential purchases.

# The Verdict

The data points to one clear conclusion: the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is categorically superior in the single benchmark where both cards appear. The 88.5% win in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 is not a close contest, and no other shared test exists to suggest the GTX 1660 SUPER could close that gap elsewhere. If the only question is which card produces higher performance in a modern DirectX 12 workload, the RTX PRO 6000 is the answer without qualification.

That said, the two cards serve fundamentally different purposes. The GTX 1660 SUPER is an end-of-life product from the GeForce 10-series era, released in 2019 with a 53rd percentile standing among all GPUs. Its benchmark profile shows balanced results across older DirectX versions: Passmark DirectX 9 (189), DirectX 10 (65), DirectX 11 (104), and DirectX 12 (50), alongside a strong Passmark G2D score of 805. This is a card that was designed for mainstream gaming at 1080p, and its numbers reflect that positioning.

The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is an active workstation product, released in 2025, with a 50th percentile standing that likely underrepresents its capability in professional applications. The 3DMark Steel Nomad score alone does not capture its 96 GB of GDDR7 memory, its 188 RT cores, or its 752 tensor cores, all of which point to workloads like AI inference, ray-traced rendering, and large-scale data processing where the GTX 1660 SUPER has no comparable feature set.

For a user whose priority is legacy DirectX 9 or DirectX 10 gaming, the GTX 1660 SUPER’s recorded scores (189 and 65 respectively) are its strongest showings, but those tests are not available for the RTX PRO 6000, so no direct comparison exists. For any modern workload, the RTX PRO 6000’s 3DMark result is the only shared evidence, and it is decisively in its favor. The verdict is therefore simple: the RTX PRO 6000 is the dominant performer in the one test where they meet, and the GTX 1660 SUPER offers no recorded counter-evidence to challenge that.

# FAQ

Q: Which card wins in the only shared benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q wins 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 with a score of 11,088 against the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 1,278, a delta of 88.5% in favor of the RTX PRO 6000.

Q: What is the GTX 1660 SUPER’s average benchmark score and percentile?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 12,986 across ten tests, placing it at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs in the database.

Q: What is the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s average benchmark score and percentile?

A: The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has an average benchmark score of 11,088 from its single recorded test, placing it at the 50th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER is within 1% of its nearest rivals: the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.4% ahead), the RX 580 (0.4% ahead), the Tesla M2090 (0.7% behind), and the Radeon 740M (0.9% ahead).

Q: How does the RTX PRO 6000 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX PRO 6000 is within 1.2% of its nearest rivals: the RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q (0% delta), the Radeon RX 550 (0.1% behind), the GTX 1650 SUPER (0.4% behind), and the FirePro W4300 (1.2% ahead).

Q: What is the launch MSRP of each card?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has a launch MSRP of 229 USD, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has a launch MSRP of 8,565 USD.

# Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The GTX 1660 SUPER uses the TU116 chip on a 12 nm process, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q uses the GB202 chip on a 5 nm process. The GTX 1660 SUPER has 6,600 million transistors on a 284 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 23.2M per mm²; the RTX PRO 6000 has 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, for a density of 122.9M per mm².

Memory is another major split. The GTX 1660 SUPER has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth and 1750 MHz memory clock (14 Gbps effective). The RTX PRO 6000 has 96 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth and 1750 MHz memory clock (28 Gbps effective). That is a 16-fold increase in memory capacity and roughly a 5.3-fold increase in bandwidth.

Clock speeds differ in both base and boost. The GTX 1660 SUPER runs at 1530 MHz base and 1785 MHz boost. The RTX PRO 6000 runs at 1035 MHz base and 2280 MHz boost, meaning the RTX PRO 6000 has a lower base clock but a substantially higher boost clock.

The compute resources are dramatically different. The GTX 1660 SUPER has 1,408 shading units, 88 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The RTX PRO 6000 has 24,064 shading units, 752 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. The RTX PRO 6000 also has 188 RT cores and 752 tensor cores, while the GTX 1660 SUPER has none of either.

Power and interface specifications also differ. The GTX 1660 SUPER has a 125 W TDP, a 300 W suggested PSU, and a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. The RTX PRO 6000 has a 300 W TDP, a 700 W suggested PSU, and a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface. The GTX 1660 SUPER uses a 1x 8-pin power connector, while the RTX PRO 6000 uses a 1x 16-pin connector.

Display outputs are another point of divergence: the GTX 1660 SUPER offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RTX PRO 6000 offers 4x DisplayPort 2.1b. Both are dual-slot cards, but the GTX 1660 SUPER is 229 mm long, 111 mm high, and 35 mm wide, while the RTX PRO 6000 is 267 mm long, 111 mm high, and 40 mm wide.

# Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is generational. The GTX 1660 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture, released as part of the GeForce 16 generation, which did not include ray tracing or tensor cores. Its FP32 performance is 5.027 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 10.05 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio). The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q uses the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, from the Blackwell PRO W (x000) generation, with FP32 at 109.7 TFLOPS and FP16 at 109.7 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio). The FP32 figure is roughly 21.8 times higher, and the FP16 figure is roughly 10.9 times higher.

The RTX PRO 6000’s 188 RT cores and 752 tensor cores are entirely absent from the GTX 1660 SUPER, which means hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based tensor operations are not available on the older card. The GTX 1660 SUPER supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RTX PRO 6000 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), a newer feature level. Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Pixel and texture rates reflect the raw throughput difference. The GTX 1660 SUPER has a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s. The RTX PRO 6000 has a pixel rate of 437.8 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,714.6 GTexel/s, approximately 5.1 times and 10.9 times higher respectively.

The process node difference is significant: 12 nm for the GTX 1660 SUPER versus 5 nm for the RTX PRO 6000, both from TSMC. That explains the transistor density gap (23.2M vs 122.9M per mm²) and contributes to the RTX PRO 6000’s ability to pack far more compute into a similar power envelope relative to its capability. The GTX 1660 SUPER is end-of-life with a predecessor in GeForce 10 and a successor in GeForce 20; the RTX PRO 6000 is active, with a predecessor in Workstation Ada and no successor listed.

# Where Each One Wins

The GTX 1660 SUPER wins in the domain of legacy DirectX workloads, based on its recorded benchmark profile. Its Passmark DirectX 9 score of 189 is its highest legacy DX result, and its DirectX 11 score of 104 and DirectX 10 score of 65 both exceed its DirectX 12 score of 50. For users running older games or applications that rely on DirectX 9, this card shows its strongest relative performance. Its Passmark G2D score of 805 also indicates solid 2D graphics throughput, which can matter for desktop environments and older software. The GTX 1660 SUPER’s 53rd percentile standing and its proximity to rivals like the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile and RX 580 (both within 0.4%) suggest it remains competitive in its own mainstream segment, but that segment is defined by older titles and less demanding scenarios.

The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q wins decisively in the modern DirectX 12 benchmark, with its 11,088 score in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. That single result is the only shared test, and it is not close. Beyond that, the RTX PRO 6000’s architectural features point to wins in workloads the GTX 1660 SUPER cannot even attempt: hardware ray tracing via its 188 RT cores, tensor-based AI processing via its 752 tensor cores, and massive memory capacity of 96 GB GDDR7 with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. The GTX 1660 SUPER has no RT cores, no tensor cores, and only 6 GB of GDDR6 memory. The RTX PRO 6000’s FP32 throughput of 109.7 TFLOPS versus the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 5.027 TFLOPS means any compute-heavy task, from scientific simulation to machine learning inference, will favor the RTX PRO 6000 by an enormous margin.

The use-case split is therefore clean. The GTX 1660 SUPER is the card for legacy DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 gaming, for 2D desktop workloads, and for users who need a small, low-power (125 W TDP, 300 W suggested PSU) card with a 229 mm length and single 8-pin connector. The RTX PRO 6000 is for modern DirectX 12 Ultimate workloads, for ray-traced rendering, for AI and tensor-based compute, and for professionals who need 96 GB of memory and PCIe 5.0 bandwidth. The RTX PRO 6000’s 300 W TDP and 700 W suggested PSU reflect its workstation-class power demands, and its 267 mm length and 16-pin connector require a more robust system. In every category where the two cards overlap in a modern test, the RTX PRO 6000 wins by an 88.5% margin; in every category where they do not overlap, the RTX PRO 6000’s specifications indicate capabilities the GTX 1660 SUPER simply does not possess.