Soullessone21's MSI 660Ti PE Review

[Soullessone21]

Author: Soullesone21
Date of Review: 8/16/2012
Review Item: MSI N660Ti PE 2GD5/ OC Edition
Warranty: 3 Years
MSPR: $309.99 Reference 660Ti MSRP: $299.99


MSI over the last few years has stormed the North American with award winning products and industry leading warranties. They have also lead the enthusiast crowed with one after another of the top gaming cards on the market.

While other brands push their prices higher and higher for non- reference MSI asks for little more than $10 for a seriously feature rich graphics card with more than a few freebies.

Conclusion

With an extremely feature rich and silent design the MSI 660TI PE is a game changer for its price point. It comes with everything even including the hands down most talked about game of the year Borderlands II.

When MSI talks about their Military Class of Components the PE of the 660ti is what will always come to mind from this day on. The card is hands down the best quality I have ever come across and its silent operation and extremely stable nature makes it every mainstream to high end gamers dream card

Pros
• Extreme build quality that shows from its extremely strong and flex free PCB board to its Military grade Capacitors
• Cool, I cannot say that enough it runs Ice cold at maximum stress tests for 4 hours it never moved past 69c
• Near Silent operation, the fans never in any of my tests moved beyond 55% and kept a dB of less than 20
• FREE GAME and what a game BORDERLANDS II due out this fall

Cons
• Small Driver issues that cause many tests to crash at random
• Blue LED’s on the card are very distracting when its right beside your head
• Afterburner constantly crashes but future updates may resolve this
• No Borderlands II in the box but maybe this fall that will change

A Closer Look- Unpacking




Always nice and clean Packaging from the top contenders


Very informative pull away on the front


Well packed to prevent any shipping damage


Dvi to VGA, 2 dual Molex to 6 Pin GPU Power adapters
Driver Disk with Utilities
Quick guide and full user guide


Dead Sexy card inside DVI-I, DVI-D,HDMI w/Audio, and Display Port


Clean cables with a dual 6 pin GPU power connectors and dual SLI connections for 3 way SLI




No Backplate but a thinker PCB board limits any flex





MSI 660TI PE (LEFT) Asus CUII670 (Right)



The New Testing Rig

• Bitfenix Shinobi XL Windowed White
• Thermaltake TR2 RS 850W
• Intel i7 3770 3.60Ghz
• 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1866
• MSI Z77A-GD55
• Windows 7 Pro 64Bit All updates

GPU’s

• MSI N660Ti PE edition 2GB DDR5 (Driver 340.87)
• Asus 670 CUII 2GB DDR5 (Driver 304.87)
• Asus 7870 CUII 2GB DDR5 (Driver 12-8)

Testing

First test is 3DMark 11 Performance Preset

On the Performance Preset the 660Ti PE nearly caught the 670 CUII an already stock overclocked GPU

Second test 3DMark Vantage Performance Preset

Again the 660Ti PE is nearly able to beat the 670CUII where the Asus 7870 CUII is left in the dust

Third test Unigine Heaven Max Settings 1080P

Here the Asus 670CUII commands a steady lead in both High FPS and Low FPS

Fourth test Resident Evil 5 DX 9 Max Settings 1080P

The Amd Drivers in both DX9 and older seem to work far better then the Nvidia ones

Fifth test Resident Evil 5 DX10 Max Settings 1080P

Here the 660ti PE leaps ahead of its near competitors even running the test on 2 other rigs got the same extreme results

Sixth test Lost Planet 2 DX9 Max Settings 1080P

On DX9 the 660Ti PE falls far behind but older DirectX is rarely needed in today's high end gaming

Seventh test Lost Planet 2 DX11 Max Settings 1080P

Again the MSI 660Ti PE stomps the competition with far high average FPS in DX11 environments

Temperatures throughout testing and after 4 hours for FurMark

The 660Ti notably does not ever hit 69C or above. Though it does run hotter than the 7870 CUII I will note that both Asus CUII cards fans ran at 75-80% throughout testing and even at idle were audible. Where as the MSI 660Ti PE's fans never hit over 55% and even when forced to go higher the fans never became audible in a near silent room.


Final Thoughts

With the MSI 660Ti PE 2GB edition coming in at a price of $309.99 and its almost equal Asus 670CUII coming in around $419.99 the over $100 gap to performance makes the 660Ti PE a great card for anyone wanting a 1080P 60FPS GPU. With the lower price point you can spend the extra $100 on a much needed SSD.

Another major buying feature of the 660Ti PE is the fact its build quality is well above industry standard, with its Dust removal features and near silent operation even after hours of stress testing this is hands down my new favorite price conscious gaming card. MSI even went above and beyond with voltage features and extremely well encased caps and coils giving the card the feeling like it will out last any of its competitors.

The MSI Nvidia 660Ti PE is a must and for sure what many of the 560ti fans have been waiting for.

If your feeling the need to upgrade your aging card or if you just feel the need for a near silent rig Soullessone21 fully recommends you look no further then the MSI 660Ti PE.

[sswilson]

is it the 15'th already??? ;)

[Soullessone21]

Originally Posted by sswilson

is it the 15'th already??? ;)

You Got it :P

and be nice this will be my first one where I had to play with the other teams gear

And work around finding a new job haha

[Skyllz]

I dont know what this is about but... Borderlands 2 is coming out only in Sept, the rest is not important.

[Soullessone21]

Originally Posted by Skyllz

I dont know what this is about but... Borderlands 2 is coming out only in Sept, the rest is not important.

It's related :P no joke

[Skyllz]

Originally Posted by Soullessone21

It's related :P no joke

[Ravenor]

gtx 660 review?

[Fudd Rucker]

Id think it was myself, looking around last night and a few popped up on various sites for sale bundled with BL2. Cant wait to see a review for the 660, if its as good as it sounds on paper thats what will be going into my itx box.

[Skyllz]

Just saw that... but I already bought BL2 on steam :lol:

[Soullessone21]

Testing and results in about an hour gotta get to work

Edit

time to nap through my meeting :P