[SOLVED] Thoughts on the 1660 Super? Budget of <$250

[poguesquadron]

I see that an EVGA 1660 Super is currently selling for $240, which fits nicely in my budget. I've never spent more than this amount on a graphics card (my last card was an RX480 4GB around 3 or 4 years ago).

I plan on doing some gaming on my 1920x1200 monitor (when I can find the time), but my wife and I have traditionally played a lot on our TV. Our current TV is 65", and we sit about 10 feet away from it. I do love gaming in higher res when possible (we own an XBox One X), but a game like Spider-Man on PS4 still looks absolutely incredible, so I'm sure that we'd be fine with 1080p or 1440p.

With a GPU budget under $250, can I do any better without shopping on the pre-owend market? I should mention, I do have a $50 gift card at Best Buy. I'm not sure that I want to use it to just add $50 to my budget though. I just say this because being able to get something at Best Buy would allow me to save some money. I might just use it when I buy my RAM. If Best Buy could price match something on Amazon for an online in-store purchase, that would also be preferable. Thanks in advance! I copied and pasted the GPU survey below.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This week or next.

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: It's been FOREVER since I've done some more serious gaming on a PC. My current PC was built 9 years ago, and since then I've played a ton of games on it. Notable PC games I've played include Splinter Cell: Conviction, Civ 5, Civ 6, Fallout 3, Final Fantasy XIII, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and many others. Basically - back in 2011, if there was a game on PC, I got it on PC instead of getting it on XBox 360. Lately? Since we own an XBox One X and PS4, we've done most of our gaming there. With this new PC, I'm looking to give Final Fantaxy XV another shot (gave up on it on PS4), and I heard that Horizon Zero Dawn is hitting PC soon, which is pretty exciting. Those two games are the kinds of games I'd like to play at either 1080p or 1440p.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: This GPU will be for a new build, but currently I still have a PC from 9 years ago. It has a Core i5 2500k cooled by a Hyper 212 Evo, and an RX480 4GB card. I believe this PC has a CX650 from Corsair.

My new build will be a Ryzen 5 3600, and am looking at the Corsair CF600 (since it's for an ITX build in the Lian Li TU150).

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: 16GB of Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro RAM. CPU cooled by the Noctua U12S. Case is Lian Li TU150.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg, Amazon, or Best Buy. I do have a $50 Gift Card at Best Buy, but I don't want to exactly use it as an excuse to add $50 to my budget. Just saying that being able to purchase a component there would be handy since I have a GC there.

PARTS PREFERENCES: No preferences really. I used to have an XFX HD6950 for the first 5ish years of my old computer. I liked it but it was a little loud. My current RX480 4GB is from PowerColor.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe. I don't want to introduce too much heat to my ITX case, but if it means anything, there will be a Noctua U9S assisting with cooling on the CPU side.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Current monitor is 1920x1200, but I'd love to upgrade to 1440p at some point.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Looking for something under $250 that will look great on a 65" TV from about 10 feet away. Types of games I'd be interested in playing are FFXV (and maybe FF7 if it hits PC?), Horizon: Zero Dawn, and others. On the XBox side, I've been playing Jedi: Fallen Order. So yeah, graphics wise I'm looking at pretty standard AAA type games. I'd like to play at 60fps at 1440p but I understand this card may only be able to do this with certain games.

 

[delaro]

Without the gift card and until AMD gets around to launching those lower-end GPUs.
Asus TUF Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Super $229

With the Gift Card.

EVGA - SC ULTRA GAMING NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
$299 - $50= $249+ Taxes

Using the BestBuys policy on price matching.

EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti XC $279

$299 - $50= $249+ Taxes - $20 price matching "$229"

Excellent value at $229 for a Ti You should always price shop and look at store policies on price matching.

Check clearances on that case though since that would be a bugly limiting factor.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I would get the 1660 super on your budget. If you stretched the budget to 280, I would get the 5600xt in that case.

I have the 1660 super, and it's not a high end card, but it's decent. Same performance as a gtx 1070 roughly. The 1660 super is only about 3-5% slower than the 1660ti. So unless you get the ti on some kind of great great sale, I wouldn't bother with it.


So in my mind, under 250, I would purchase the 1660 super. Under 300, the 5600xt. It was nice on the super to max bf1 at 1080p. It looks good on that.

 

[delaro]

I would get the 1660 super on your budget. If you stretched the budget to 280, I would get the 5600xt in that case.

I have the 1660 super, and it's not a high end card, but it's decent. Same performance as a gtx 1070 roughly. The 1660 super is only about 3-5% slower than the 1660ti. So unless you get the ti on some kind of great great sale, I wouldn't bother with it.


So in my mind, under 250, I would purchase the 1660 super. Under 300, the 5600xt. It was nice on the super to max bf1 at 1080p. It looks good on that.

XFX - AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT RAW II PRO is the only version Best Buy sells "Exclusive" $299 "$249 + Taxes with a gift card". I didn't include it because he asked for under $250. "The RAW II is a limited run so at some point it will be replaced with the more commercial Thicc which can be priced matched down to the range of a 1660 Super.

The question is why to suggest a super when you can get a TI for the same price.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

In that case, if the super and ti are same pricing, yes get the ti. If they are normal pricing, then I don't feel the ti is worth 50 more.

But if the budget were stretched slightly then the 5600xt. But yes if the ti is same pricing as the super or close, get that.

 

[poguesquadron]

Thank you all so much for the replies. I actually feel bad for asking because as it turns out, I had a bit more on that gift card than I thought! I decided to put what was on their towards RAM, since I could probably get a better price on a GPU elsewhere. I've also gotten some permission from th wife to put that extra money towards upgrading something, so I may be looking into something like a 2060 or 2060 Super. Guess I have a bit more research to do! Thanks again for all your feedback.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

No problem. If she decides to limit your budget the 1660 super is still decent. But really, check out the 5600xt. Also check on the 5700. Those would be strong competition to the 2060.

At the time, I didn't want to spend almost 300. But then again, my wife doesn't yet know about my 1660 super. Might be a while on that. At least I just sold my RX 580 for almost 100 dollars though.

 

[delaro]

Thank you all so much for the replies. I actually feel bad for asking because as it turns out, I had a bit more on that gift card than I thought! I decided to put what was on their towards RAM, since I could probably get a better price on a GPU elsewhere. I've also gotten some permission from th wife to put that extra money towards upgrading something, so I may be looking into something like a 2060 or 2060 Super. Guess I have a bit more research to do! Thanks again for all your feedback.

Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB RAW II Video Card ($379.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $379.99

Overall faster than a 2060 Super and $20 cheaper at the moment.

RAM upgrade?
16GB.. moving past 16GB seems more for bragging rights than actual usage in gaming terms, you end up with a cavernous amount that never gets utilized even with heavily multitasking.

Ram speeds in Gaming
3000mhz-3600mhz is only a minor jump most of the time, this is an upgrade to think off when you have maxed out everything else and want that extra 4-5fps more. There are some games where you see a larger difference but those are far and few between, your money could be better spent on the GPU in this case unless you have 2133 or 2666mhz then I could see the upgrade worth it.

 

[UltronXavier]

If you've got the money then a 2060 or 2060 super would be overkill for 1080p but would be able to handle gaming at 1440p if/when you decide to upgrade. I suggest you wait a few months to make you decision, like me - Nvidia Ampere will be announced soon and it will obviously drive prices down of the current gen cards or will offer some tempting new options.

 

[poguesquadron]

If you've got the money then a 2060 or 2060 super would be overkill for 1080p but would be able to handle gaming at 1440p if/when you decide to upgrade. I suggest you wait a few months to make you decision, like me - Nvidia Ampere will be announced soon and it will obviously drive prices down of the current gen cards or will offer some tempting new options.

Perhaps I'll stick with the cheaper card for now, because as I said, if I go with a nicer card, I'll probably have to spend another $80 replacing my current 50ft HDMI cable and hub for the TV. If the 2060 and 2060 Super drive down in price this year then I could always look to sell the 1660 Super. Thanks for the advice. I could possibly put some extra into the fans or an additional 2.5" SSD.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

It's really not a bad gpu. About the same performance as a 1070.

 

[Phaaze88]

Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB RAW II Video Card ($379.99 @ Amazon)

I'd suggest completely avoiding XFX's RX 5700/XTs. [They supposedly fixed a certain 'THICC' card with the revised Ultra Thicc version, but I've yet to see a review on that.]
They dropped the ball on those cooler designs; they all run stupidly hot.
There's a reason it, and a few other RX 5700/XT gpus are being sold as low as they are.
-XFX DD Ultra
-XFX Thicc II
-Msi Evoke OC: the later batches supposedly have fixed the memory pad issue... while the cheaper ones probably do not have the fix.
-Asrock Challenger D OC
-Asus TUF Gaming X3
-Asus Dual EVO OC
-Asus Strix Gaming OC: they even screwed up on their own premium model: https://www.youtube(dot)com/watch?v=H7lnBCFnBok

Those cards are best avoided. People looking to buy one shouldn't have to fix these things themselves.

 

[delaro]

I'd suggest completely avoiding XFX's RX 5700/XTs. [They supposedly fixed a certain 'THICC' card with the revised Ultra Thicc version, but I've yet to see a review on that.]
They dropped the ball on those cooler designs; they all run stupidly hot.
There's a reason it, and a few other RX 5700/XT gpus are being sold as low as they are.
-XFX DD Ultra
-XFX Thicc II
-Msi Evoke OC: the later batches supposedly have fixed the memory pad issue... while the cheaper ones probably do not have the fix.
-Asrock Challenger D OC
-Asus TUF Gaming X3
-Asus Dual EVO OC
-Asus Strix Gaming OC: they even screwed up on their own premium model: https://www.youtube(dot)com/watch?v=H7lnBCFnBok

Those cards are best avoided. People looking to buy one shouldn't have to fix these things themselves.

That's from a 3 hours session using that very card"RAW II", it runs cooler than many of the other 5700 XT's I have installed most of those hit 108°C+. Tomorrow I will toss some Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on and play around with undervolting and fan profiles to see if it makes a difference but even as is the card doesn't seem to throttle.

 

[Phaaze88]

That's from a 3 hours session using that very card"RAW II", it runs cooler than many of the other 5700 XT's I have installed most of those hit 108°C+. Tomorrow I will toss some Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on and play around with undervolting and fan profiles to see if it makes a difference but even as is the card doesn't seem to throttle.

Huh, I'm seeing mixed faces on that model. Perhaps a QC issue?
-bad temps
-runs fine, but default fan curve just sucks
-bad temps, even with a custom fan curve
-undervolting is a workaround for the high temps
[I just ignore the ones complaining about loud fans. Over 2000rpm, what are they expecting?]
🤷‍♂️

 

[delaro]

Huh, I'm seeing mixed faces on that model. Perhaps a QC issue?
-bad temps
-runs fine, but default fan curve just sucks
-bad temps, even with a custom fan curve
-undervolting is a workaround for the high temps
[I just ignore the ones complaining about loud fans. Over 2000rpm, what are they expecting?]
🤷‍♂️

Shrugs Works fine as is but I still changed all paste and pads and customized the fan curves, the end result is no better or worst than anything on this list. All of these are well within AMD's tolerance, I won't bother with undervolting since it's running cooler now than the R9 390 it replaced.

 

[Phaaze88]

Carry on, then!