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

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data for this matchup is remarkably one-sided, with the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q decisively outperforming the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 in the single shared test. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q scores 11088 points, while the GTX 1660 manages only 1065 points. This represents a delta of 90.4% in favor of the newer card, which is a staggering margin that underscores the generational gap between these two products.

The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s score of 11088 places it in the 50th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rivals including the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q at an identical 11088 score (0% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 550 at 11075 (0.1% ahead), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER at 11047 (0.4% behind). Meanwhile, the GTX 1660’s score of 1065 in this specific test is unsurprising given its older architecture, but its average benchmark score across all tests tells a different story. The GTX 1660 achieves an average benchmark score of 11680, which places it in the 51st percentile of all GPUs — actually slightly higher than the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s 50th percentile ranking.

This apparent contradiction deserves scrutiny. The GTX 1660’s average score of 11680 is derived from a broader suite of benchmarks, including Geekbench OpenCL at 47850, Geekbench Vulkan at 50137, and multiple Passmark tests (DirectX 9 at 177, DirectX 10 at 61, DirectX 11 at 79, DirectX 12 at 49, G2D at 776, G3D at 11646, and GPU Compute at 4963). The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q, by contrast, only has the single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result available in the data, which may not fully represent its capabilities across other workloads.

In the head-to-head comparison, the GTX 1660 wins zero tests, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q wins one. The delta of -90.4% for the GTX 1660 in the Steel Nomad test indicates it is over 90% slower than the newer card in this specific DX12 workload. This is a massive performance gap that reflects the fundamental differences in architecture, memory subsystem, and compute capabilities between the two.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 has an average benchmark score of 11680, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has an average benchmark score of 11088. The GTX 1660 also holds a slightly higher percentile ranking at 51st percentile versus the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s 50th percentile.

Q: What is the performance difference in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q scores 11088 points compared to the GTX 1660’s 1065 points, yielding a delta of 90.4% in favor of the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q. This means the GTX 1660 is approximately 90.4% slower in this specific benchmark.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 1660’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT with an average score of 11627 (0.5% behind), the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M at 11528 (1.3% behind), and the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT at 11842 (1.4% ahead). The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q at 11088 (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 550 at 11075 (0.1% behind).

Q: What memory configurations do these cards use?

A: The GTX 1660 features 6 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 192-bit bus with 192.1 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q features 96 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor count?

A: The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, while the GTX 1660 has 6,600 million transistors on a 284 mm² die. The transistor density is 122.9M per mm² for the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q versus 23.2M per mm² for the GTX 1660.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same DirectX version?

A: No, they differ. The GTX 1660 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear picture for different use cases. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is the definitive choice for professionals requiring massive compute throughput, given its 109.7 TFLOPS FP32 performance, 96 GB of GDDR7 memory, and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. Its single benchmark result of 11088 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 demonstrates strong raw graphics performance, and its 188 RT cores and 752 tensor cores make it suitable for ray-traced and AI-accelerated workloads.

However, the GTX 1660’s broader benchmark suite reveals that it is no slouch in legacy or compute tasks. Its average benchmark score of 11680 actually exceeds the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s average of 11088, and its Passmark G3D score of 11646 indicates solid general 3D performance. The GTX 1660’s 51st percentile ranking versus the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s 50th percentile suggests that, in aggregate across all tested workloads, the older card holds its own surprisingly well.

For gamers or users on legacy software, the GTX 1660’s 5.027 TFLOPS FP32 and DirectX 12 (12_1) support may suffice, especially given its end-of-life status and lower power requirements. For professionals working with massive datasets, 3D rendering, or AI workloads, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s 109.7 TFLOPS FP16 performance and 752 tensor cores make it the only viable option in this pairing.

The decision ultimately hinges on workload. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q wins the single head-to-head benchmark by 90.4%, but the GTX 1660’s average scores across multiple tests suggest it remains competitive in specific scenarios. Users should prioritize the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q for modern, demanding applications, while the GTX 1660 remains adequate for less intensive tasks.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ substantially across nearly every specification. The GTX 1660 operates with a base clock of 1530 MHz and boost clock of 1785 MHz, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has a lower base clock of 1035 MHz but a higher boost clock of 2280 MHz. Memory configurations are vastly different: the GTX 1660 offers 6 GB GDDR5 at 2001 MHz (8 Gbps effective), while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q provides 96 GB GDDR7 at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective).

Compute resources show a similar gulf. The GTX 1660 has 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs, whereas the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q features 24064 shading units, 752 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q also includes 188 RT cores and 752 tensor cores, which the GTX 1660 lacks entirely. Pixel rate is 85.68 GPixel/s for the GTX 1660 versus 437.8 GPixel/s for the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q, and texture rate is 157.1 GTexel/s versus 1,714.6 GTexel/s.

Power and physical specifications also diverge. The GTX 1660 has a TDP of 120 W with a 1x 8-pin power connector and a suggested PSU of 300 W, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has a TDP of 300 W with a 1x 16-pin connector and a suggested PSU of 700 W. The GTX 1660 measures 229 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 35 mm in width, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is 267 mm long, 111 mm high, and 40 mm wide. Both are dual-slot cards.

Interface and display outputs differ as well. The GTX 1660 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 and provides 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q uses PCIe 5.0 x16 and provides 4x DisplayPort 2.1b. The GTX 1660 was released on 2019-03-13 and is end-of-life, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q was released on 2025-03-17 and remains active.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is profound. The GTX 1660 is built on NVIDIA’s Turing architecture using the TU116 chip, fabricated on TSMC’s 12 nm process. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q employs the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB202 chip, manufactured on TSMC’s 5 nm node. This process shrink enables the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q to pack 92,200 million transistors onto a 750 mm² die, versus 6,600 million transistors on a 284 mm² die for the GTX 1660. The transistor density increases from 23.2M per mm² to 122.9M per mm².

The GTX 1660 belongs to the GeForce 16 generation and lacks dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores, relying instead on its 1408 shading units for all compute tasks. Its FP16 performance of 10.05 TFLOPS is achieved via a 2:1 ratio relative to FP32, indicating that FP16 operations are not natively accelerated at full rate. In contrast, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q belongs to the Blackwell PRO W (x000) generation and includes 188 RT cores for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and 752 tensor cores for AI and deep learning workloads. Its FP16 performance of 109.7 TFLOPS matches its FP32 output at a 1:1 ratio, meaning the card processes both precisions at full throughput.

The memory architecture differs fundamentally as well. The GTX 1660 uses GDDR5 with a 192-bit bus, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q uses GDDR7 with a 512-bit bus. This yields a bandwidth of 192.1 GB/s versus 1.79 TB/s — a nearly tenfold increase. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s 96 GB memory capacity is sixteen times larger than the GTX 1660’s 6 GB, making it suitable for massive datasets and high-resolution textures.

The GTX 1660 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), which lacks some of the latest features found in DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) supported by the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q. Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, but the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s PCIe 5.0 x16 interface offers significantly more bandwidth than the GTX 1660’s PCIe 3.0 x16. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q’s predecessor is Workstation Ada, while the GTX 1660’s predecessor is GeForce 10 and its successor is GeForce 20.