The GeForce GTX 1660 is the cut-down variant of the GTX 1660 Ti that Nvidia released earlier this year. It offers 2 less SMs for a total of 1408 CUDA cores compared to the 1660 Ti at 1563. The GTX 1660 also offers GDDR5 memory as opposed to its bigger brother’s GDDR6, ultimately lowering its price point at $219 USD.

Our card for this review is the ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition. A simple yet rather cute looking GTX 1660 with a single fan and a higher boost clock at 1850MHz. It is as basic as it looks with normal display options and features in tow.

Technical Specifications

GPU
Model Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660
Cores 1408
Core Clock 1530MHz
Boost Clock 1850MHz
Architecture Turing
Manufacturing Process TSMC 12nm
TDP 120W
Memory
Memory Clock 2000MHz
Memory Bus Width 192-bit
Memory Capacity 6GB
Memory Type GDDR5
Connectivity
Display DVI-D, HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4
Power 8-Pin
Dimensions
Length 6.85in
Width 4.76in
Height 1.54in
Weight 750g

Packaging and Accessories

The GeForce GTX 1660 Phoenix OC comes in your usual ASUS packaging. It’s a simple budget oriented colorbox, really. Nothing’s special about it.

  • Driver DVD
  • Installation guide

The card comes with the usual documentations. I tired my best to look for more but this is just it.

Design, Layout and Build Quality

The ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 Phoenix OC is a dinky card. Styling is pretty much basic which is a nice contrast compared to their ROG offerings.

ASUS GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition (3)

The back is devoid of any form of protection. Although to be fair, the exposed matte-Black PCB is a thing of beauty. The thing is also around 7 inches short, making itself an addition to the growing number of SFF system compatible cards.

ASUS GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition (7)

Power on the other hand is provided by a single 8-pin connector with a matching pair of status LEDs at the top.

ASUS GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition (5)

Cooling option is again rather basic. We have a single 90mm fan here on top of an aluminum heatsink. Though simple, the GDDR5 chips under the card are actively cooled as well. A nice touch from ASUS.

ASUS GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition (4)

There are only 3 display options to choose from: A DisplayPort, an HDMI port and a single DVI-D port. In exchange, ASUS made sure that there is enough room for a proper ventilation.

ASUS GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition (6)

Test Setup and Methodology

The system performance shall be evaluated by various benchmarking tools and applications. We are testing this system with the high-performance settings enabled at the OS, with the default UEFI configuration. Background processes such as anti-viruses and third-party applications are disabled as well. Outlined below are the applications and benchmark tools for reference:

Test System Specifications
CPU Intel Core-i5 6600K
Motherboard ASUS Z170-A
Cooler Noctua NH-L9i
Memory ADATA Premier DDR4
GPU ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1060 OC
Storage Crucial BX200 480GB
Case Thermaltake Core P3
PSU CORSAIR RM850X
Display DELL U2715H
OS Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

TEMPERATURE, POWER AND NOISE:

  • Aida64 Extreme Edition – Stability Test

SYNTHETIC PERFORMANCE:

  • 3DMARK 2013 – Firestrike Presets.
  • Luxmark – OpenCL benchmark.
  • Aida64 Extreme Edition – GPGPU Benchmark

GAMING PERFORMANCE:

  • Overwatch – Ultra Settings, Render Scale 100%, V-SYNC off
  • Battlefield 4 – Ultra Settings, V-SYNC off
  • DIRT: Rally – Ultra Settings, V-SYNC off
  • Project CARS – Maximum Settings, V-SYNC off
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Ultra Settings, FXAA off, V-SYNC off
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Ultra Settings, HairWorks off, V-SYNC off
FPS values are recorded by FRAPS in-game using a linear route or gameplay for consistency. The results includes the Average FPS and 1% Minimum FPS. The 1% Minimum FPS represents the negative spikes or drops in-game sufficient enough for a gamer to notice. If the game doesn’t support FRAPS, we will use the in-game benchmark tool available.

Temperature, Power and Noise

The graphics card thermal figures are taken during a 15 minute idle and a 15 minute load via the AIDA64 Extreme Edition Stability Test. The ambient temperature is checked at 27°C (±1°C), with values extracted via HWiNFO and GPU-Z.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (1)

The total system power consumption are taken during a 15 minute idle and a 15 minute load via the AIDA64 Extreme Edition Stability Test. The measurements are taken by a watt-meter.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (2)

The graphics card noise levels are taken during a 15 minute idle and a 15 minute load via the AIDA64 Extreme Edition Stability Test. The ambient sound level is 34dBA (±1dBA), with measurements taken by a sound level meter situated exactly 12 inches away from the card.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (3)

Temperature wise, the ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition managed to offer a good cooling performance. Power consumption on the other hand is similar to the GTX 1060, while noise is just excellent.

Synthetic Performance

3DMark 2013 is a suite of benchmarks catered for the gamers and enthusiasts. The total system scores from each presets will be used.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (4)

LuxMark is an OpenCL cross-platform benchmark tool. The software has become one of the most popular OpenCL benchmarks over the past years.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (6)

The Aida64 Extreme Edition GPGPU Benchmark is designed to measure GPGPU computing performance via different workloads. Every benchmark methods are designed to work on up to 16 GPUs, including AMD, Intel and nVIDIA GPUs, in any combination.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (5)

The 3DMark Firestrike results shows that the GTX 1660 is a faster card than the GTX 1060 at 1080P. LuxMark and AIDA64 on the other hand also showed that the card is faster by a good amount.

Gaming Performance

Overwatch is Blizzard Entertainment’s critically acclaimed First Person Shooter, running on a custom game engine utilizing the DirectX 11 API. Settings are set to Ultra with a Render Scale set to 100%.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (7)

Battlefield 4 is Electronic Art’s popular First Person Shooter, running on the Frostbite 3 game engine developed by DICE utilizing the DirectX 11 and the Mantle API. Settings are set to Ultra.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (8)

DIRT: Rally is CODEMASTER’s take on the rally racing game genre. It utilizes the EGO game engine with support for the DirectX 11 API. Settings are set to Ultra.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (9)

Project CARS is Slightly Mad Studios’ latest simulation racing game, running on the Madness game engine utilizing DirectX 11 support. Settings are set to maximum.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (10)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda’s critically acclaimed Action Adventure RPG. Skyrim utilizes the Creation Engine with DirectX 10 support. Settings are set to Ultra with V-SYNC turned off.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (12)

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is CDProjekt RED’s award winning Action Adventure RPG. The Witcher 3 utilizes the REDengine 3 with DirectX 11 support. Settings are set to Ultra.

GALAX RTX 2060 Benchmarks (11)

Gaming performance wise, Nvidia made sure that the GTX 1660 is truly a faster card compared to the GTX 1060. That’s at least when it comes to the 1080P and 1440P benchmarks and with the exception of the older games on our list.

Software, Lighting and Special Features

The ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition comes with a number of bundled software. That includes the GPU Tweak II which is an all in one tuning and optimization solution.

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2080 OC Features (2)

The XSplit Gamecaster is also a part of the bundle too, with support for GPU Tweak II overlays. I am not sure how long you could use the license for this one though. WTFast and ASUS QuantumCloud also comes bundled with the card as well.

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2080 OC Features (4)

Final Thoughts

The GTX 1660 in the form of the ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition is indeed a faster card compared to the GTX 1060. It managed to outpace the former midrange champion at both 1080P and 1440P but with a price point of $219 USD. That’s considerably low compared to the GTX 1060’s $300 USD MSRP upon its release. Power consumption is unfortunately also comparable but other than that, the card just darts where it should.

Product stacking wise, the GTX 1660 actually slots within the range of the GTX 1060 even after 2 years. That said, the card is not really geared towards the GTX 1060 owners but rather, built to appeal for those who have a former midrange champ like the GTX 970 and or an equivalent model.

As for this specific GTX 1660 model, ASUS managed to create something basic, yet appealing at the same time. We have a card that we could technically install on any system due to its tiny form factor. Plus, it had a proper gaming performance and a cooling solution that you would otherwise expect from a model with a beefier cooler.

TechPorn Awards 2018 (1)

ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 Phoenix OC Edition
  • PERFORMANCE - 9/10
    9/10
  • BUILD QUALITY - 8/10
    8/10
  • FEATURES - 7/10
    7/10
  • AESTHETICS - 8/10
    8/10
  • VALUE - 8/10
    8/10
8/10

Summary

ASUS managed to create something basic, yet appealing at the same time with the GTX 1660 Phoenix OC. It is a card that we could technically install on any system due to its tiny form factor and has proper gaming plus a cooling performance that you would otherwise expect from a model with a beefier cooler.

Pros

  • 1080P performance
  • 1440P capable
  • Cooling solution
  • Dead silent
  • SFF compatible
  • Price point

 

Cons

  • Power draw
  • Bundle could be better

3 Comments

  1. john
    June 20, 2019
    • Shawn Pelletier
      July 7, 2019
  2. Andy
    August 15, 2019

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