Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super: performance analysis

We continue with a PC graphics legend, Crysis 3, accompanied by two newer titles: Far Cry 5 and Ghost Recon Wildlands. Our test rig remains identical of course, consisting of a Core i7 8700K running at an all-core turbo speed of 4.7GHz. This is paired with two 8GB sticks of 3400MHz DDR4 supplied by GSkill, with all titles running from super-fast SSDs to ensure each test runs smoothly throughout. To ensure that the power-hungry 8700K doesn't overheat, a Gamer Storm Castle 240mm AiO liquid cooler is used.

Depending on how you view this page, our performance metrics are presented in one of two ways. If you're reading this on a mobile device, you'll get a table with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements. However, if you're on a desktop or laptop, you get the full-blooded Digital Foundry experience. Play the YouTube videos to see frame-rate and frame-time metrics running in parallel to the video (you can even navigate around the video with the graphs adjusting to match). Beneath that you'll see our barcharts, dynamically generated from the frame-time metrics - mouse over for various stats and press the mouse button to swap over to the more useful percentage differentials.

All performance data is derived from video captures of each graphics card - no internal metrics here, the gold standard in analysis comes from measuring what's actually emerging from the video output of the GPU.

Crysis 3

Crysis 3 remains the oldest title in our benchmark suite, using a vintage rendition of the CryEngine that doesn't support many of the latest technologies that can boost performance on more modern GPUs. That means last-gen cards are relatively stronger here, so we expect to see the likes of the GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 perform better against the GTX 1660 Super. That is what we see in the final results, with the GTX 1070 and Vega 56 both leading the 1660 Super by a solid 12 percentage points at 1080p. However, the GTX 1660 Super is still a big upgrade over the original GTX 1660, with around a 16 per cent advantage at all resolutions.

Far Cry 5

While the GTX 1660 Super has boasted around a 15 per cent performance advantage over its predecessor in most games we've tested to this point, there are some games where that improvement is more meaningful than others. Take Far Cry 5 at 1440p, for example. Here, that faster GDDR6 memory pushes the standard GTX 1660's average of 56fps to a much more comfortable 65fps using the Super card, allowing you to max out a 2560x1440 60Hz monitor without touching a single setting. The GTX 1660 Ti is even faster, with a 67fps average, but the Super card seems to offer the best value for money.

Ghost Recon Wildlands

We test Ghost Recon Wildlands at ultra settings, a ridiculously challenging graphical preset that means that not even the RTX 2060 falls shy of achieving a 60fps average. However, the GTX 1660 Super again performs well compared to its predecessor, with a 14 per cent advantage that nearly rivals that of the GTX 1660 Ti. There are similar scenes at 1440p and 4K, although we recommend sticking with the more reasonable high or very high presets if you're going to attempt actually playing at these resolutions.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 1660 Super Analysis

• Introduction, Hardware Breakdown
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey/Unity, Battlefield 1 - Performance Analysis Part 1
• Crysis 3, Far Cry 5, Ghost Recon Wildlands - Performance Analysis Part 2 [This Page]
• Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, The Witcher 3 - Performance Analysis Part 3
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super - the Digital Foundry verdict