NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is a Turing-architecture graphics card built on TSMC's 12 nm process, featuring 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. With an average benchmark score of 14286, it sits at the 55th percentile of all GPUs, placing it in a competitive mid-range segment where its performance is nearly indistinguishable from several close rivals.

Who Should Consider It

The GTX 1660 SUPER's benchmark profile suggests it is best suited for 1080p gaming with high detail settings, rather than pushing higher resolutions. Its DirectX 12 score of 50 in PassMark is notably low, indicating that modern API workloads may not be its strength, yet its overall PassMark G3D score of 12699 shows solid traditional rasterization capability. For gamers targeting 1080p with high refresh rates, the card delivers a balanced experience, as evidenced by its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1278 — a moderate result that reflects competent but not flagship-level performance.

The data implies that users with 1440p monitors should temper expectations, as the 6 GB VRAM and 192-bit bus may become limiting factors in texture-heavy titles. The card's Geekbench OpenCL score of 62664 and Vulkan score of 59933 suggest it handles compute tasks reasonably well, making it a viable option for light content creation or productivity workloads alongside gaming. However, the low PassMark DirectX 9 score of 189 indicates that legacy titles or older APIs will run poorly, so users heavily invested in older game libraries should look elsewhere.

Enthusiasts seeking maximum settings or ray tracing will find this card insufficient, as it lacks dedicated RT cores and tensor cores entirely. The GTX 1660 SUPER is best positioned for budget-conscious 1080p gamers who prioritize stable frame rates in esports titles and mainstream AAA games over cutting-edge effects. Its end-of-life production status means it is a legacy purchase, but for those building a system around 1080p resolution, the performance metrics remain relevant today.

Power and Cooling

The GTX 1660 SUPER carries a TDP of 125 W, which is modest by modern standards and suggests that a capable air cooler is sufficient for thermal management. The card is dual-slot in width, measuring 229 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 35 mm in width, making it compatible with most mid-tower cases. Power delivery requires a single 8-pin connector, and NVIDIA recommends a 300 W power supply unit, which is a low barrier for system builders.

The 12 nm process node and 6,600 million transistors on a 284 mm² die result in a transistor density of 23.2 million per square millimeter. This architecture draws a reasonable amount of power relative to its performance class, and the 125 W TDP means that even modest PSUs can handle the card without issue. The dual-slot design with a single 8-pin connector keeps installation straightforward, though users should verify their case has adequate clearance for the 229 mm length.

Cooling expectations are straightforward: the 125 W TDP generates manageable heat, and the dual-slot cooler design should maintain acceptable temperatures under load. The lack of a dedicated power connector beyond the single 8-pin simplifies cable management, and the 300 W PSU recommendation leaves headroom for a typical CPU and peripherals. For those upgrading from older cards, the power requirements are unlikely to necessitate a new PSU unless the existing unit is exceptionally weak.

Benchmark Performance

The GTX 1660 SUPER's average benchmark score of 14286 places it in a tight cluster with several rivals, with deltas of less than 1% separating them. Against the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11, the card is 0.2% behind (deltaPct -0.2), a negligible difference that falls within typical run-to-run variance. Similarly, the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics matches the performance almost exactly, with the GTX 1660 SUPER trailing by 0.2%. The AMD Radeon Vega 11 is 0.5% ahead, and the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT leads by 0.7% — all margins that are effectively ties in real-world gaming.

This near-parity is striking given the architectural differences. The GTX 1660 SUPER's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1278 and PassMark G3D score of 12699 indicate consistent rasterization capability, but its PassMark DirectX 11 score of 104 and DirectX 9 score of 189 reveal a significant regression in older API performance. The DirectX 12 score of 50 is particularly weak, suggesting that the card's Turing architecture does not excel in modern API overhead-heavy scenarios.

In compute workloads, the Geekbench OpenCL score of 62664 and Vulkan score of 59933 show that the card handles general-purpose tasks competently, while the PassMark GPU Compute score of 5076 confirms this trend. The FP32 throughput of 5.027 TFLOPS and FP16 of 10.05 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) provide context for these results, though the lack of tensor cores means AI accelerations are absent. The pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s are solid for the segment, but they do not translate into decisive wins over the rival integrated and discrete solutions.

FAQ

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT?

A: The RX 5500 XT holds a 0.7% higher average benchmark score (14389 vs 14286), a margin that is statistically insignificant in gaming performance.

Q: What is the card's memory bandwidth and how does it affect performance?

A: The 6 GB GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p gaming but may bottleneck texture streaming at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the GTX 1660 SUPER support ray tracing?

A: No, it has no RT cores or tensor cores, so hardware-accelerated ray tracing and DLSS are not available.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the GTX 1660 SUPER?

A: The launch MSRP is 229 USD.

Q: What APIs does the card support?

A: It supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, covering modern gaming APIs but with limited performance in older DirectX versions.

Q: Is the card still in production?

A: No, it is end-of-life, having been released on 2019-10-28.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The GTX 1660 SUPER has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, meaning it lacks hardware acceleration for ray-traced effects and AI-based upscaling. This places it firmly in the rasterization-only camp, which is consistent with its Turing architecture without the RTX feature set. The card supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, providing broad API coverage for modern games, but its PassMark scores reveal that DirectX 12 performance is weak (score of 50) compared to DirectX 11 (score of 104).

The absence of tensor cores eliminates DLSS capabilities, so users must rely on native resolution rendering. The 2:1 FP16 ratio (10.05 TFLOPS) indicates that half-precision compute is available, but without tensor cores, this does not translate into AI workloads. For games that support Vulkan, the Geekbench Vulkan score of 59933 suggests acceptable performance, though the OpenCL score of 62664 is slightly higher, indicating better compute optimization in that API.

Display outputs include 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a, which covers modern monitors but lacks the multiple DisplayPort connections found on higher-end cards. The PCIe 3.0 x16 interface is standard for the era, and the dual-slot design with a single 8-pin power connector keeps installation simple. Overall, the feature set is minimal but functional, focusing on traditional rendering without modern extras.

Memory Subsystem

The GTX 1660 SUPER is equipped with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory running at an effective 14 Gbps, across a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. This configuration is well-suited for 1080p gaming, where 6 GB is generally sufficient for current titles at high settings. The bandwidth figure is a key strength, as it exceeds what many competitors offer, but the 192-bit bus width can become a limiting factor at 1440p or 4K where larger textures demand more memory throughput.

At higher resolutions, the 6 GB capacity may be insufficient for texture-heavy games, potentially causing stuttering or reduced detail settings. The 336.0 GB/s bandwidth helps mitigate some of this, but the card's overall performance metrics suggest it is not designed for 4K workloads. The memory clock of 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) is standard for GDDR6, and the 192-bit bus provides a balance between cost and performance.

For 1080p gaming, the memory subsystem is more than adequate, with the bandwidth supporting high frame rates in most titles. The lack of additional VRAM beyond 6 GB means future-proofing is limited, but for its intended resolution class, the configuration is well-balanced. The pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s further indicate that the card is optimized for resolution scaling within its target range.

How It Compares

Against the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11, the GTX 1660 SUPER trails by 0.2% in average benchmark score (14286 vs 14314). This integrated graphics solution from AMD matches the discrete card's performance almost exactly, which is surprising given the GTX 1660 SUPER's dedicated memory and higher power envelope. The delta is within noise, meaning users would not notice a difference in practice.

The Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics is similarly matched, with the GTX 1660 SUPER behind by 0.2% (14286 vs 14315). This Intel discrete GPU, aimed at thin-and-light laptops, achieves parity with the desktop card, highlighting how far integrated and low-power solutions have come. The benchmark data shows no meaningful advantage for the GTX 1660 SUPER in this comparison.

The AMD Radeon Vega 11, an integrated GPU found in AMD APUs, leads by 0.5% (14286 vs 14352). The GTX 1660 SUPER's dedicated GDDR6 memory and higher bandwidth do not translate into a performance win here, as the Vega 11's score edges ahead. This suggests that the GTX 1660 SUPER's strengths lie elsewhere, perhaps in sustained load scenarios not captured by average scores.

The AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT is the closest discrete rival, with the GTX 1660 SUPER behind by 0.7% (14286 vs 14389). The RX 5500 XT's higher score indicates a slight edge, but the margin is small enough that driver updates or game-specific optimizations could reverse the result. The GTX 1660 SUPER's 6 GB of GDDR6 memory matches the RX 5500 XT's typical configuration, so the performance difference likely stems from architectural nuances rather than memory capacity.