Results
Test System
- Core i5-8600K @ 4,8 GHz
- Asrock Z370M Pro4
- G.Skill Flare-X DDR4-3200 CL14
- Crucial MX300 SATA3, 525 GB
- NZXT Kraken X62
- NZXT Source S340
The newcomer GTX 1660 has an average lead of around 11% to the older GeForce GTX 1060 and is basically tied to Radeon RX 590, edging it with a slight 2% lead. Meanwhile it is about 15% slower than the more expensive GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. The thing is however that it is not just smoot sailing through the tests. GeForce GTX 1660 has somewhat bigger lead against GTX 1060 in the single player titles we tested, with the notable exception of The Division 2, that is probably an issue of the early drivers or because of memory starving. In the multiplayer games the difference was much lower, with the exception of Apex Legends. The opposition against Radeon RX 590 is also not that easy, as GeForce GTX 1660 manages to loose in Strange Brigade, Apex Legends and especially in The Division 2. That reinforces the idea that probably some of the problems lie in the massively cut memory bandwidth of the card.
In the end the tested models GeForce GTX 1060, GeForce GTX 1660 and Radeon RX 590 are currently essentially at the same price. That means spells the end for GeForce GTX 1060, as GeForce GTX 1660 is somewhat faster than it and uses new architecture with more promise for the future and Radeon RX 590 is faster, despite being more power hungry, but there is the option to buy it with 3 games included. That last part in our opinion makes it worthy to consider against GeForce GTX 1660.
Against GeForce GTX 1660 Ti the power balance is trickier to consider as GeForce GTX 1660 offers basically the same performance to price ratio if we only count the price of the individual cards. So if you are on hunt for only the graphics adapter, then it depends on how much you are willing to spend. However we personally lean towards GeForce GTX 1660 Ti as it offers sometimes quite substantial performance improvement. And also if you are searching for a whole new system, then the clear winner is again GeForce GTX 1660 Ti as the price difference get diluted in the overall price of the system, but the performance difference stays.
Conclusion
So despite the fact that we were quite enthusiastic for GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, the situation for its younger sibling is not so clear cut. If you have a hard cap at say 250 euro for the graphics it is definitely worth considering, however the competition from Radeon RX 580 and RX 590 is quite serious if we take into account the game bundle with them. If you don’t have a hard cap on the money spend we feel that GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the better choice.
What is sure however is that this is the end for GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB, at least if it stays at the current price.
