GALAX GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC
October, 2019Type
Graphics CardPrice
$249 USGALAX GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC Closer Look + Teardown
The GALAX GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC is a very compact graphics card and it looks to be a great solution for many gaming PCs and even the more small form factor designs. Even with such a small design, the GALAX GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC is a small beast which is expected to be a great performer at 1080p in the latest AAA titles.
The cooling shroud extends all the way to the back of the PCB and it requires a casing with good interior space for proper installation. You don't have to worry about installation as this compact graphics card would fit nicely inside almost any case you can think of.
The back of the card features a solid backplate which looks stunning and offers a premium look. The backplate rocks a matte black color with silver linings spread all over along with several cut-outs in a circular shape for venting out heat off the back.
The card has some unique patterns on the plastic shroud which rocks a brushed metallic finish and darker tones within the triangular design. There are some standout features of the shroud such as the GeForce GTX logo on the side and a 'What's Your Game' text which has RGB LEDs embedded on the other side for some stunning lighting effects.
I am back at talking about the full-coverage, full metal-based backplate which both card use. The whole plate is made of solid metal with rounded edges that add to the durability of this card. The brushed silver finish on the backplate gives a unique aesthetic.
Coming to the fans, the card features two 90mm fans. The fans do feature idle fan stop tech but GALAX hasn't stated or advertised that on their product page or even on the product box. There's full control offered in the Xtreme Tuner Plus software but the feature is enabled out of the box.
The fans feature 9 blades and double ball bearing design which equals smoother airflow and less noise output.
The fans stopped at 60C which seems to be the maximum threshold set by GALAX for their zero db fan technology.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, GeForce RTX 2060 and GeForce RTX 2070 graphics cards don't feature any NVLINK connector as they don't support Multi-GPU functionality. This has been done for many reasons as two lower-end cards have the potential to outperform a higher-end card in optimized titles which may end up cannibalizing its sales. The other is the optimization factor and we know that multi-GPU support isn't the best around these days so NVIDIA has only kept it for users who are willing to pay a premium on their higher-end cards.
With the outsides of the card done, I will now start taking a glance at what's beneath the hood of GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC. There's a large aluminum fin stack that runs all the way from the front and to the back of the PCB.
Talking about the heatsink, the aluminum fin block is comprised of 3x 6mm heat pipes which run all the way from the start to the end of the heatsink. The base itself is a solid copper-plated base plate, transferring heat to the heat pipes in a very effective manner.
The GALAX GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC has a single 8 pin power connector to boot. The card is rated at a TDP of 125W (reference TDP).
I/O on the GALAX GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC graphics card include a single Display Port 1.4a, HDMI 2.0b and a DVI-D output.
GALAX GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC PCB Teardown
GALAX makes use of a 3+2 phase PWM design which is a pretty standard but still, non-reference design.
GALAX GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC RGB Technology
You can fully customize the RGB lights to your preference using the GALAX Xtreme Tuner Plus application from GALAX's web page. Following is what the graphics card looks like when lit up.
Contents
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For 1080p gamers, streamers and eSports fans, the GTX 1660 SUPER EX OC from GALAX at $250 US is a serious option and a great mainstream contender to consider!
- More performance for the same price
- Almost as fast as the GTX 1660 Ti for less
- Faster Than The GTX 1660 6 GB and Radeon RX 590 8 GB
- Good upgrade from GTX 960 and GTX 1060 6 GB
- Great performance for 1080p Gaming Titles
- Great performance for eSports Gaming Titles
- Great thermals with GALAX's dual-fan cooler
- Great design with a brushed metal backplate
- Idle fan stop technology for lower noise
- Power efficiency further increased
- Support NVIDIA Adaptive Shading Technology
- Good driver support for GeForce products, compatibility with DX11, DX12, Vulkan, OpenGL titles
- Good Display Connectivity, support for VESA Adaptive-Sync
Pros
- 1845 MHz Profile only unlocked through proprietary Xtreme Tuner Plus application
- No RT Cores For Ray Tracing Support
- No Tensor Cores For DLSS Support
Cons
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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