It turns out all the rumors and leaks were indeed true. Nvidia has officially launched the GTX 1660 Ti GPU, which promises to deliver the performance and efficiency necessary for modern gaming, but without stepping into the high price range of the RTX series.
The next-generation, midrange Turing-based GPU is now available worldwide, with prices starting at $279. As previously rumored, it features 1,536 CUDA cores, 6GB of GDDR6 memory running at 12GBps, and a boost clock of 1.8 GHz with additional support for overclocking. While the 1660 Ti still doesn’t come with support for Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS,) Nvidia promises it delivers increased power efficiency over the Pascal-based GPUs of as much as 1.4 times. Running with a power envelope of only 120 watts, Nvidia also claims the GTX 1660 Ti can “deliver the best performance-per-watt of any GPU in its class.”
Compared to the last-generation GTX 1060 6GB, the new GTX 1660 Ti is up to 1.5 times faster in gaming performance. Nvidia backs that up by noting gamers can get up to 120 frames per second when playing at 1080p resolution in games like Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Apex Legends.
Custom versions of the GTX 1660 Ti will be available through Asus, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Micro-Star International, Palit, PNY Technologies, and Zotac. Several early reviews for the new GPU have already surfaced online, and they praise its overall balance, efficiency, and the ability to be overclocked.
“With more than two-thirds of current gamers still playing on GPUs that only have the performance — or lower — of a GTX 960-class GPU that came out in 2014, the GTX 1660 Ti delivers up to 3x performance, making it an excellent and cost-effective upgrade for those who want to enjoy dramatically faster framerates in their favorite titles,” said Nvidia.
The GTX 1660 Ti has been one of Nvidia’s most leaked GPUs, with box art, performance specs, and PCs powered by the new card showing up online over the past several weeks. Now that it is official, it is yet another option for gamers who are looking for gaming performance on a budget. In the days before launch, pricing on AMD’s Radeon Vega 56 dropped to just $279 as part of a sale on Newegg, a move that many believed was aimed at getting ahead of the announcement of the GTX 1660 Ti.
