MSI GTX 1660 Super Gaming X review – Super Super, Super-quiet or just Super Hot?

1 - Einführung 2 - Teardown und Analyse 3 - Benchmarks bei 1920 x 1080 (Übersicht) 4 - Benchmarks bei 2560 x 1440 (Übersicht) 5 - Leistungsaufnahme im Detail 6 - Temperatur, Takt, Infrarot 7 - Lüfter und Lautstärke 8 - Zusammenfassung

I just had to separate the tests because the MSI GTX 1660 Super Gaming X is different from the three "normal" test patterns. Apart from the price of 280 Euros, for which you can get a simple knitted and unsuperted Ti with more shaders, MSI has really cut the sandbox shovel and tried to bake the biggest cake. Then you have even 10 watts more into the BIOS for the maximum power limit than most competitors have done and delivers the card with a higher, preset power limit with more clock. I will then have to ask myself today what they offer in real added value up to EUR 40 extra.

If the card runs faster despite inflated jaws, while remaining significantly quieter and not burning, you could think about it as long as you don't use closed headphones and you don't care if the PC is tubed like a shot deer. So the whole thing will end in a trace search, for which I have to put together various test puzzle blocks. And so be it…

I had already described it in the launch article: There are no such many options for the red counterpart from the AMD shelf, because both the Polaris card in the form of the Radeon RX 590 (182 to 250 Euros) and the Vega56 (from 217 to 300 Euros) are both mi In the meantime, EOL (although still widely available) and thus almost a decoration compromise due to a lack of alternatives. According to the board partners, the new RX-5500 series will not come until December, so that Nvidia can now play any gap filler halma with itself. So any of the three GTX-1660 variants will be able to top AMD's small navi with certainty. And that Jensen's spies have always proved a super-näschen when it came to performance assessments, we now know enough.

Optics and haptics

The approx. 869 grams of heavy card measures in its length 24.8 cm gross from the outer edge slot bezel to the end of the radiator cover. It is 4.2 thick (plus the 5 mm for the backplate on the back) and 12 cm high (from the top edge of the motherboard slot to the top edge of the radiator cover). The anthracite-coloured radiator cover is kept in the usual MSI-Edge style and quite restrained. It only gets colorful with electricity, because translucent plastic strips have been incorporated, behind the RGB LEDs, which can also be controlled by software

Front

Back

Bottom

Top

End

Slot Panel

Front Bottom

ISO

Box

The slot panel has one HDMI and three DisplayPort ports, more than most competitor cards. The backplate is made of brushed aluminium and is also screwed to the cooling frame from the front. For the rest I have the complete tear down in text and picture.

Technical data and comparison maps

The variant with reference clock we see at the bottom left. However, MSI sets the boost clock to 1830 MHz like all other competitors and the power limit by 5 watts to 130 watts ex works. The maximum limit is raised to 140 watts, after all.

At the end of this introduction, the maps of the new generation and those of the old generation in direct tabular comparison:

Test system and measurement methods

I have described the test system and the methodology in great detail for years and therefore, for the sake of simplicity, I now refer only to the following list. The evaluation software is self-programmed.

If you are interested, the summary in table form quickly provides a brief overview: