Zotac GTX660Ti AMP! Review
Conclusion
Published: 16th August 2012 | Source: Zotac | Price: £269.99 |
Conclusion
All of the problems that affect the GTX660Ti as a concept when we summarised our thoughts in our Gigabyte Windforce review remain here. It's still either far too expensive, or not powerful enough. We've often commented upon how manufactures end up over-saturating the marketplace with endless varieties of graphics cards that are all too close in performance and price to really make them easy to recommend.
What we need is a dirt-cheap base model for those who play Farmville and watch DVDs. A midrange card for the majority of people who have a couple of hundred to spend, and then an all-singing, all-dancing model for those who wont settle for anything less. We don't need 10 models of the same thing all a few pounds apart. We often compare hardware to the car industry and we'd be wise to take their business plan. You can't buy a Fiesta with a 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 etc etc sized engine. There is a small economical one, one that will sell by the bucketload, and a powerful one.
So what is the difference between the AMP! and the Windforce? The most obvious, and by far the most important, is the design of the cooler. Whereas Gigabyte appear to have reached into a hardware lucky-dip and bolted on whatever they had in their hand, Zotac have designed a cooler that perfectly fits the PCB of the card it's being attached to. Although it's purely aesthetic, we are visual creatures. It looks better, and that means a lot to us. The biggest surprise is how tiny the card is. We've tested, and this will fit onto a mini-ITX board. If it was any shorter we'd expect it to have a Napoleon Complex.
The Zotac also comes out of the box with a bigger overclock on the GDDR5, although in our testing this had a negligible benefit. It also only overclocked to the same levels as the Gigabyte, and our results pretty much backed this up. Only in the synthetics did the Zotac take a noticeable lead and even then it's only noticeable when compared to the tiny variances in the gaming results.
So all in all there isn't much to choose between the cards. Both are cool, both are quiet, and both perform identically. The only genuine difference is in the looks where we think the Zotac AMP! has the clear upper hand, and so we're glad to award it our OC3D Gamers Choice award.
Thanks to Zotac for supplying the GTX660Ti AMP! Edition for review. Discuss your thoughts in the OC3D Forums.
Most Recent Comments
7970=680>670>7950>660ti>7870>7850
^^ IMOH
Also price difference between the 660ti and 670 is next to nothing, no reason not to save a few extra £ up and go for the 670 or save some money and grab a 7950.
You also didn't say what tesselation? disabled/normal/extreme ?
OC 7950 smokes the OC 7970? wtf?
I bought a GTX570 and it cost £240 then, it still costs £220 now!
The GTX670 came in upwards of £350 and they are still over £300.
The sweet spot for these cards I believe is around £250 at launch.
Then a little while later, when prices begin to fall, the special editions come around and they can charge a bit more.
You mentioned the importance of aesthetics in your review Tom. On that note I would bring your attention to your graphs. I find them difficult to use. I'd like to see the reviewed card in a different colour to make it stand out and maybe group the cards according to type and have the best at the top. And yes I have to agree, some of the results did seem a bit odd, the reference GTX670 in BF3 beating the MSI for example.
That aside, a very good and Prof review as always.
Keep up the good work.
|
Originally Posted by Kyle
should i get this one or the EVGA one?
|
Which EVGA one? normal Ti, Ti SC or Ti FTW?
I must say the orange fans on this ones do look good.
CSS Valid
The second of our reviews of the new GTX660Ti is courtesy of Zotac, and their AMP! model.
Continue Reading