MSI GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X & VENTUS XS Review

1. Introduction
2. Specs: TU116 vs GP106
3. Specs: MSI GTX 1660 GAMING X/VENTUS XS
4. Detailed Look
5. Test System Specs
6. Benchmarks - Synthetic
7. Benchmarks - 1080p
8. Benchmarks - 1440p
9. Benchmarks - 4K
10. Thermals, Power, Noise
11. Performance Thoughts & Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

NVIDIA is slowly filling out its GeForce GTX 16 series cards ahead of AMD's new mid-range Navi GPUs arrive. MSI once again solidifies itself with the GTX 1660 GAMING X and GTX 1660 VENTUS XS graphics cards.

Introduction

NVIDIA has been on a GeForce graphics card release spree, where this year we've already been introduced to the GeForce RTX 2060 and then weeks later the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti was released. Fast forward another few weeks and we have the GeForce GTX 1660, which is a cut down version of the GTX 1660 Ti and has some interesting changes to get its price point down to sub $250.

I normally have day one reviews of major graphics card releases but my sample turned up at around 4PM my time and the review was due a few hours after that. Today is a new day, filled with writing and benchmarking the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 in both GAMING X and VENTUS XS variants, in a few different resolutions.

The main competitor to the GeForce GTX 1660 will be the GTX 960 and those looking for an upgrade but can't quite afford the more expensive GeForce RTX 2060, as well as the Radeon RX 570/580/590 graphics cards from AMD.

Pricing & Availability

MSI sells its new GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X for $249 on Amazon while the GTX 1660 VENTUS XS costs $229, both are available now.

MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X 6G

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$299.00	$299.00	$299.00	$299.00	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/17/2024 at 11:41 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Specs: TU116 vs GP106

NVIDIA launched the mid-range TU116 GPU with the release of its GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, and uses the same TU116 for its new GeForce GTX 1660 graphics card. There are some changes to the CUDA core count, GDDR memory used, and more. You can see the specs in the chart below:

The slightly higher-end GeForce GTX 1660 Ti rolls out with 1536 CUDA cores while the new GTX 1660 packs 1408 CUDA cores, but the GTX 1660 has higher GPU clock speeds of 1530/1785MHz compared to 1500/1770MHz of the GTX 1660 Ti. Remember this is from a reference standpoint (and there is no Founders Edition card) while MSI has its custom cards overclocked out of the box.

One of the largest differences between the GeForce GTX 1660 and the higher-end GTX 1660 Ti is that the new GTX 1660 has 6GB of GDDR5 memory, versus the 6GB of GDDR6 on the GTX 1660 Ti.

Specs: MSI GTX 1660 GAMING X/VENTUS XS

MSI GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X

MSI, as usual, ramps up the GPU clock speeds on its higher-end GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X variant over the base spec line that NVIDIA has. We're looking at the TU116-based card rolling out with the same base GPU clock of 1530MHz but much higher boost GPU clock of 1860MHz over the 1785MHz base GPU clock.

The same 6GB of GDDR5 is clocked at 8Gbps on a 192-bit memory bus.

MSI GeForce GTX 1660 VENTUS XS

The MSI GeForce GTX 1660 VENTUS XS has its boost GPU clocks dropped a little over the GAMING X variant, at 1830MHz (down from 1860MHz) and uses a different cooler in the TORX Fan cooler over the higher-end TWIN FROZR 7 cooler on the GAMING X card.

It still has the same 6GB of GDDR5 at 8Gbps, with both cards using a single 8-pin PCIe power connector.

Detailed Look

MSI GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X

The new MSI GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X looks no different to the higher-end GTX 1660 Ti GAMING X, with it featuring the same TWIN FROZR 7 cooler and RGB lighting.

The packaging for the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X, on point as always, MSI.

The front of the card with the TWIN FROZR 7 cooler looking great.

I love, love, love the backplate on MSI's current flock of custom GAMING X graphics cards.

We have 3 x DP 1.4 connectors and 1 x HDMI 2.0 connector for I/O.

A single 8-pin PCIe power connector is all that's needed to power the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X.

MSI GeForce GTX 1660 VENTUS XS

The second MSI GeForce GTX 1660 we have here today is the VENTUS XS.

Here we have the box for the card, with a little less flashy-styling as the GAMING X packaging.

As I said in my review of MSI's custom GTX 1660 Ti graphics cards, I really dig the petiteness of the VENTUS XS cards.

There's a backplate on the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 VENTUS XS, but it's not as nice looking as the GAMING X card. Still, it's not like you sit there and stare at it, either... right?

We have the same 3 x DP 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.0 output connectivity here.

There's also the same single 8-pin PCIe power connector required on the GTX 1660 VENTUS XS.

Test System Specs

Our New GPU Test Rig

Welcome to the latest revision of our GPU test bed, with our system being upgraded from the Intel Core i7-7700K to the Core i7-8700K. The CPU is cooled by the Corsair H115i PRO cooler, with the 8700K overclocked to 5GHz. We've stayed with GIGABYTE for our motherboard with their awesome Z370 AORUS Gaming 7.

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We approached our friends at HyperX for a kit of their kick ass HyperX Predator DDR4-2933MHz RAM (HX429C15PB3AK4/32), with 2 x 8GB sticks for a total of 16GB DDR4-2933. The RAM stands out through every minute of our testing as it has beautiful RGB lights giving the system a slick look while benchmarking our lives away, while the Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 motherboard joins in with its own array of RGB lighting.

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Detailed Tech Specs

• CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K @ 5GHz
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO
• MB: Z370 AORUS Gaming 7
• RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) HyperX Predator DDR4-2933
• SSD: 1TB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
• SSD: 512GB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
• PSU: InWin 1065W PSU
• Chassis: In Win X-Frame
• OS: Windows 10 Pro x64

Additional Images

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Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike - 1080p

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3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark Fire Strike - 1440p

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark Fire Strike - 4K

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark TimeSpy

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3DMark TimeSpy Extreme

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Heaven - 1080p

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

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Heaven - 1440p

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Heaven - 4K

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Benchmarks - 1080p

1080p Benchmarks

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EA and DICE put everything they had into Battlefield V which runs the latest version of the Frostbite engine, and really stretches its legs in terms of graphics quality and squeezing the most from our cards. It's one of the best looking engines and best looking games on the market, until the new slew of games launches over the coming months, that is.

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Overwatch is one of the most popular games on the market, from legendary game developer Blizzard. It's a game that looks great but doesn't require a huge amount of GPU grunt, but it's tested for another reason: high-FPS for enthusiast/professional gamers. Overwatch in our testing is to provide a two-fold result: first, it's a popular esports title and second it gives us a look at what we need to run it at 1440p for 144/165Hz displays and at 4K on those new 144Hz HDR G-Sync displays.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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Benchmarks - 1440p

1440p Benchmarks

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EA and DICE put everything they had into Battlefield V which runs the latest version of the Frostbite engine, and really stretches its legs in terms of graphics quality and squeezing the most from our cards. It's one of the best looking engines and best looking games on the market, until the new slew of games launches over the coming months, that is.

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Overwatch is one of the most popular games on the market, from legendary game developer Blizzard. It's a game that looks great but doesn't require a huge amount of GPU grunt, but it's tested for another reason: high-FPS for enthusiast/professional gamers. Overwatch in our testing is to provide a two-fold result: first, it's a popular esports title and second it gives us a look at what we need to run it at 1440p for 144/165Hz displays and at 4K on those new 144Hz HDR G-Sync displays.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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Benchmarks - 4K

4K Benchmarks

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EA and DICE put everything they had into Battlefield V which runs the latest version of the Frostbite engine, and really stretches its legs in terms of graphics quality and squeezing the most from our cards. It's one of the best looking engines and best looking games on the market, until the new slew of games launches over the coming months, that is.

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Overwatch is one of the most popular games on the market, from legendary game developer Blizzard. It's a game that looks great but doesn't require a huge amount of GPU grunt, but it's tested for another reason: high-FPS for enthusiast/professional gamers. Overwatch in our testing is to provide a two-fold result: first, it's a popular esports title and second it gives us a look at what we need to run it at 1440p for 144/165Hz displays and at 4K on those new 144Hz HDR G-Sync displays.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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Thermals, Power, Noise

Thermals

MSI keeps things a single degree cooler with the GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X over the GTX 1660 Ti GAMING X at 64C, a smidge over the 60C mark that would see the fans not spinning at all.

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Power

Power consumption is impressive for the card, with our entire system consuming only 172W average. If we compare this against the likes of the Radeon RX 590 at 290W, we see NVIDIA continuing to do amazing things here with their GPU architecture when it comes to performance per watt.

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Noise

With the fans on auto I couldn't hear the card making much noise at all under gaming loads, and when under 60C the fans will disable completely for absolute silent use.

Performance Thoughts & Final Thoughts

Performance Thoughts

NVIDIA continues to utterly dominate with GeForce graphics card releases and the new GeForce GTX 1660 is yet another winner. AMD has nothing to compete with this constant barrage of releases until it gets Navi out the gate, but NVIDIA will easily drop its prices and compete on even better footing in a few months time.

As for performance, we're looking at a great card at 1080p for even games like Battlefield V where we're seeing 103FPS average, not far away from the RTX 2060 and it beats the RX 590 easily.

Overwatch runs like a champion on the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X with a mighty 141FPS average, so gamers with 1080p 144Hz displays that play Overwatch will be right at home. Other esports titles like Rainbow Six Siege see similar performance with a huge 149FPS average, so again 1080p 144Hz monitor owners that need an upgrade over their older GTX 960/970/980 will be right at home here.

Final Thoughts

NVIDIA is filling out its GeForce range of graphics cards in a manner that at every $50-$100-$150 price point there is something for everyone. We now have the GeForce GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Ti that fall below the RTX 2060. From the RTX 2060 we have the RTX 2070, RTX 2080, and RTX 2080 Ti. There's literally something for everyone from NVIDIA right now, at all price points.

The advancements that Turing delivers alongside the use of the 12nm node mean that NVIDIA has a price/performance beast, as you can see from our benchmark charts, but also a power-sipping beast that doesn't jump out and use 300W of power, either.

MSI continues leading the charge with a great custom GeForce GTX 1660 in its new GAMING X and VENTUS XS offerings, with our cards performing at just above 60C which means the cards are only just getting hot enough for the fans to spin. MSI's GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X sports the company's awesome TWIN FROZR 7 cooling technology with great use of RGB lighting and higher out of the box GPU clocks, with plenty of room to move for OC while doing it in style.

The smaller VENTUS XS performs close to the same as the GAMING X variant, but does so in a much smaller package so for mini-ITX rigs it would be a perfect upgrade that brings you up to a 2019 GPU with performance that matches.

In finishing, if you're a 1080p or 1440p gamer you will want to take a look at the GeForce GTX 1660, especially if you don't have the money to go up to the GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 2060. AMD's current flock of Radeon RX graphics cards are still using constantly refined Polaris GPU architectures and don't match up to NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 16 series cards unless you find them ridiculously cheap.

MSI's new GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X is the perfect card for esports games, with Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, and Apex Legends all performing beyond expectations on the TU116. You won't be disappointed with the price, the performance, or the power consumption numbers here whatsoever.

The next step from here? NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 1650 that is right around the corner.