Palit GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti 2GB JetStream Overclocked Video Card Review

Palit released the new NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti under its most recent JetStream label. We check out what it's all about.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: Palit
16 minutes & 8 seconds read time

Introduction and Package

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NVIDIA's new GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti GPU is looking to be a great new model and we saw MSI do an awesome job with the it out of the box and an even better job when it came to overclocking the new model from NVIDIA.

With the ability to attack the model straight away, though, we're going to see companies offer us fancy versions from the get go and in the coming weeks we should see more and more.

Today we've got another GTX 660 Ti on hand and this time it comes from Palit. The launch of the GTX 600 series brought with it the new JetStream series which has done an excellent job of impressing us so far. Today we intend to find out if the new mid-range model from NVIDIA enjoys the same benefits that the GTX 670 and GTX 680 did when it came to being part of the new JetStream series.

The first thing we need to do is check out the package and see what's going on as far as the bundle is concerned. Once we've done that we'll take a closer look at the card itself and see how the JetStream cooler looks on the new GTX 660 Ti before we take a look at the specifications and the overclocking ability. Once we've done that it will be time to move into our testbed, cover the cards that will be included in our graphs today and then see what's going on with the performance.

Package

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Palit GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti 2GB JetStream Overclocked Video Card Review 04

The box design is very similar to the other JetStream models we've seen and when opening it up we get a strong explanation of what's going on with this series and the benefits it brings.

Of course the biggest highlight is the cooler which is a dual fan design with optimized air flow.

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Palit GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti 2GB JetStream Overclocked Video Card Review 06

The other side of the box gives us a look at the card while turning the box over gives us a run down on some of the more GTX 660 Ti specific features.

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Moving inside the box you can see we've got very little going on starting with a quick installation guide on the left, dual Molex to 6-pin PCIe power connector, DVI to VGA and a HDMI to DVI connector to round off the connectivity side of things.

The Card and Specifications

The Card

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Checking out the card you can see the design is very similar to other JetStream models we've seen with that massive cooler present and two large fans. We've got an awesome black and gold design and behind the fans you can see the large heatsink and a number of copper heatpipes present.

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Palit GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti 2GB JetStream Overclocked Video Card Review 10

As we start to move around you can see we've got power provided by a dual 6-pin PCIe setup while closer to the front we've got two SLI connectors which give us the ability to run up to three of these video cards at the same time.

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Looking at the I/O department you can see we've got two Dual-Link DVI ports alongside a DisplayPort and HDMI connector to round off the connectivity side of things.

Specifications

As you'd expect the Palit GTX 660 Ti JetStream is overclocked out of the box and looking below you can see we've got a default core clock of 1006MHz which in turn gives us a boost of 1085MHz.

This is up on the reference 915MHz / 980MHz setup. As for the 2GB of GDDR5 that's also been bumped from 6008MHz QDR to 6108MHz QDR. Not a massive bump, but it's at least something, especially since we saw MSI choose to leave the memory clock alone on its Power Edition model.

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Since we already looked at an out of the box overclocked card from MSI we'd figure we'd take the time to see how we could go overclocking this card today. Looking above you can see the core came in at 1096MHz which gives us a boost clock of 1175MHz while the 2GB of GDDR5 was pushed up to 6600MHz QDR.

This is a nice overclock and we should see some strong gains over the reference clocked version.

Benchmarks - Test System Setup

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We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASUS and Corsair.

There's no need to go into a huge amount of detail here as we have our testbed information listed above. As for the cards in our graphs today we'll be of course including the overclocked Palit GTX 660 Ti JetStream which is running at 1175MHz on the core and 6600MHz QDR on the 2GB of GDDR5 memory.

Along with that we've also got the reference clocked GTX 660 Ti, GTX 660 Ti Power Edition from MSI along with the GTX 670 and GTX 680 reference clocked cards.

On the AMD side of things we've got the Radeon HD 7870, HD 7950, HD 7970 and the new HD 7970 GHz Edition.

Let's get started!

The FPS Numbers Explained

When we benchmark our video cards and look at the graphs, we aim to get to a certain level of FPS which we consider playable. While many may argue that the human eye can't see over 24 FPS or 30 FPS, any true gamer will tell you that as we climb higher in Frames Per Seconds (FPS), the overall gameplay feels smoother. There are three numbers we're looking out for when it comes to our benchmarks.

30 FPS - It's the minimum number we aim for when it comes to games. If you're not dropping below 30 FPS during games, you're going to have a nice and smooth gaming experience. The ideal situation is that even in a heavy fire fight, the minimum stays above 30 FPS making sure that you can continue to aim easily or turn the corner with no dramas.

60 FPS - It's the average we look for when we don't have a minimum coming at us. If we're getting an average of 60 FPS, we should have a minimum of 30 FPS or better and as mentioned above, it means we've got some smooth game play happening.

120 FPS - The new number that we've been hunting down over recent months. If you're the owner of a 120 Hz monitor, to get the most out of it you want to get around the 120 FPS mark. Moving from 60 FPS / 60 Hz to 120 FPS / 120 Hz brings with it a certain fluidity that can't really be explained, but instead has to be experienced. Of course, if you're buying a 120 Hz monitor to take advantage of 3D, an average of 120 FPS in our benchmark means that in 3D you will have an average of 60 FPS, which again means you should expect some smooth gameplay.

Benchmarks - 3DMark 11

3DMark 11

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/

Buy It Here

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world's most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC's gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

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When overclocked we can again see awesome performance out of the GTX 660 Ti.

At both presets we see numbers that outperform every video card here including the GTX 680 and the new HD 7970 GHz Edition.

Benchmarks - Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Version and / or Patch Used: 2.5

Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com

Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//

New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

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Heaven sees some good boosts in performance, but as we've seen when we've tested other GTX 660 Ti based cards, the gains aren't as strong against the other NVIDIA models due to the smaller memory bus.

Benchmarks - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx

Product Homepage: http://www.hawxgame.com/

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft. The game is the sequel to Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., released in 2009.

The game begins with Colonel David Crenshaw participating in a routine patrol mission in the Middle East. After halting an insurgent attack, a volley of missiles is fired at the Air Force base that Crenshaw was stationed at, with one of the missiles disabling Crenshaw's aircraft, resulting Crenshaw being in enemy captivity. A joint strike force composed of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and a Ghost Recon squad executes an operation to rescue Crenshaw. In Scotland, Royal Navy Pilot Colin Munro encounters an unidentified passenger aircraft that explodes from an on-board bomb when undergoing training exercise. In Russia, an air force squadron led by Colonel Denisov and Captain Dmitri Sokov engages separatist aircraft but is ordered to retreat from the region after numerous Russian military installations have been attacked.

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While not really needed here we can see some strong gains across the board which see the Palit GTX 660 Ti JetStream when overclocked come out ahead of the HD 7970 GHz Edition at all resolutions.

Benchmarks - Mafia II

Mafia II

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.2kczech.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.mafia2game.com/

Buy It Here

Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games. The game is set from 1943 to 1951 in Empire Bay (the name is a reference to New York's state nickname "The Empire State"), a fictional city based on San Francisco and New York City, with influences from Chicago and Detroit. The game features a completely open-ended game map of 10 square miles. No restrictions are included from the start of the game. There are around 50 vehicles in the game, as well as licensed music from the era.

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Mafia II numbers across the board are strong and you can see we're sitting at a similar level to the GTX 680 again.

Compared to the AMD side you can see we're ahead or between the HD 7970s, depending on the resolution.

Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1

Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/

Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."

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Lost Planet 2 numbers are great with some really good FPS being seen across the board.

Like we've mentioned before, though, the best come at the highest resolution when comparing the stock GTX 660 Ti results which sees 63 FPS compared to the overclocked Palit card here which gets a super strong 76 FPS. This is a number that is ahead of all the other cards here.

Benchmarks - Aliens vs. Predator

Aliens vs. Predator

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/

Product Homepage: http://www.sega.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/

Aliens vs. Predator is a science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Rebellion Developments, the team behind the 1999 original PC game, and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The game is based on the Alien vs. Predator franchise, a combination of the characters and creatures of the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise. There are three campaigns in the game, one for each race/faction (the Predators, the Aliens and the Colonial Marines), that, while separate in terms of individual plot and gameplay, form one overarching storyline.

Following the storyline of the campaign modes comes the multiplayer aspect of the game. In this Multiplayer section of the game, players face off in various different gametypes in various different ways.

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While we've indeed got some nice gains and overall strong numbers, we continue to see 2560 x 1600 under Aliens vs. Predator be a struggle for NVIDIA based cards.

1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1060, though, sees some fantastic performance.

Benchmarks - Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.0.2

Timedemo or Level Used: Dark Tower

Developer Homepage: http://www.eidos.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.justcause.com/

Just Cause 2 employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in Just Cause. The game is set on the other side of the world from the original Just Cause, on the fictional island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Panau has varied terrain, from desert to alpine to rainforest. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist, aiming to overthrow the evil dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and confront his former mentor, Tom Sheldon.

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Just Cause 2 performance is great across the board with playable numbers at all resolutions.

We're ahead of the GTX 680 in this case, but you can see, as we climb the resolution table, the HD 7970 GHz Edition manages to come out ahead thanks to its superior higher resolution performance.

Benchmarks - Metro 2033

Metro 2033

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.4a-games.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.thqnordic.com/

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.[3] In March 2006, 4A Games announced a partnership with Glukhovsky to collaborate on the game.[4] The game was announced at the 2009 Games Convention in Leipzig;[5] a first trailer came along with the announcement.[6] A sequel was announced, currently titled Metro: Last Light.

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Metro numbers at 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050 look good coming in around the same level as the GTX 670.

Moving to 2560 x 1600 we see unplayable numbers while again the HD 7970 GHz Edition is the only model that's able to give us that 60 FPS number we want for a solid gaming experience.

Benchmarks - Dirt 3

Dirt 3

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.dirt3game.com/

DiRT 3 boasts more cars, more locations, more routes and more events than any other game in the series, including over 50 rally cars representing the very best from five decades of the sport. With more than double the track content of 2009's hit, DiRT 3 will see players start at the top as a professional driver, with a top-flight career in competitive off-road racing complimented by the opportunity to express themselves in Gymkhana-style showpiece driving events.

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Dirt 3 sees our overclocked GTX 660 Ti JetStream again perform at levels of around the GTX 680.

At the highest resolution, though, we can again see it's not enough to outperform the HD 7970 GHz Edition.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01

Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/

Buy It Here

The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

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We see big numbers across the board here as you'd expect and again some nice gains compared to what the reference card gives us.

Let's see what happens when we check out AA and AF performance.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF

High Quality AA and AF

While we test all our games with maximum in-game settings, turning on Anti-Aliasing (AA) and Antistrophic Filtering (AF) helps take the intensity of our testing to another level.

Here we see video cards go from playable FPS to an unplayable FPS and the real power houses continue to help break that 60 FPS mark we always aim for to provide a smooth gaming experience.

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Starting with Mafia II you can see some strong performance that sits the Palit video card between the GTX 670 and GTX 680. Like every other card here, though, 2560 x 1600 with AA and AF on isn't an option.

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Aliens vs. Predator sees some strong performance, but looking above, you can see the NVIDIA cards simply don't handle this game at all when AA and AF is turned on.

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Far Cry 2 numbers look good and you can see that with the overclock we achieved, it manages to bring the 2560 x 1600 minimum FPS to that 30 FPS number we need to see for a smooth gaming experience.

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Some good gains again compared to the reference clocked card, but not quite enough to bring us up to playable levels at 1920 x 1200, let alone 2560 x 1600.

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We see some nice gains again which see the GTX 660 Ti JetStream perform in line with the GTX 670. Unfortunately at 2560 x 1600 we see across the board all our cards struggle to bring playable FPS to the table.

Temperature Test

The temperature of the core is pulled from MSI Afterburner with the max reading used after a completed run off 3DMark Vantage and the Performance preset.

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When overclocked you can see the Palit video card runs at around the mid 70c mark under load. This is a little warm, but considering the overclock and the performance, you can see it lines up well against a number of other cards, which don't perform as strong.

Sound Test

Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

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On the noise front you can see we've got pretty strong numbers here with the Palit video card falling in the low 60 dB range under both idle and load.

Power Consumption Test

Using our PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a SSD hard drive is used with a single CD ROM and minimal cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.

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Power draw looks good coming in a bit over 400 Watts. The chances are you won't have any real problem running this video card with a quality power supply.

Final Thoughts

Palit have done a good job here with the GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti by offering a nice out of the box overclock in both the core and memory department and this is going to help it outperform the reference clocked options. And of course today you can see that thanks to the quality of the cooler, the overclocking potential on the JetStream option is really strong helping boost performance very well.

We shouldn't see a lot of reference clock cards pushed onto the market as we see companies do their thing to the GTX 660 Ti from day one. So if it comes down to a video card that you're not going to overclock yourself, then the out of the box clocks are going to be important for you. While Palit didn't do a lot with the memory clock, it's nice that they did choose to give it a slight boost.

The JetStream cooler has also proved itself extremely well again offering some good numbers and while running a little warmer, considering the strong overclock and the extra voltage running through the card, the numbers aren't something that worry us - especially when you see at times we're able to sneak ahead of the much more expensive GTX 680.

One of the areas I think the new model will really shine, though, is going to be SLI which is an area we haven't had a chance to look at. With a decent price tag for two we should see some excellent performance come out of a pair helping cement the model as a perfect option for 2560 x 1600 gaming when running in SLI dual graphics mode.

What is AMD going to do now? Well, we've seen the company respond with the new HD 7950 Boost model which will be the next video card to go in our testbed. It only hasn't because samples of this new NVIDIA model came in very last minute and not everyone is promoting it. We're really only seeing AMD partners push the new Boost model, which is much the same way we saw AMD partners push the HD 7970 GHz Edition.

In the end this makes a lot of sense to us as partners of both NVIDIA and AMD probably don't really mind which model you buy - as long as it's from them. It's going to be rather interesting to see how the new Boost model from AMD goes, though. What is also going to be interesting is the coming weeks which will see the launch of the GTX 650 and GTX 660. Can NVIDIA continue the strong push with these mid-range models or will moving below the GTX 660 Ti become a bit of a bore?

For now, though, if you're looking at spending around that mid $300 area this is going to be a really nice option for you as Palit has put together a great version of the new GTX 660 Ti. I suppose we just continue to wait, though, and see what other partners bring to the table as this price bracket is no doubt one of the most important for NVIDIA and its partners as it's where the real quantity is sold.

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Shawn takes care of all of our video card reviews. From 2009, Shawn is also taking care of our memory reviews, and from May 2011, Shawn also takes care of our CPU, chipset and motherboard reviews. As of December 2011, Shawn is based out of Taipei, Taiwan.

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