Power Consumption, Noise and Temperatures

As we approach the end of our benchmark, we analyze how the GeForce GTX 660 Ti performs in the power consumption, noise, and temperature departments. nVidia markets its Kepler chipset for its power efficiency. We’ll see how it stands.

At the idle state, i.e., just at the Windows desktop with no background programs running, the Radeon HD 7950 performs the best at 131W. Gigabyte’s custom design for its OC GTX 660 Ti variant has pinned its idle power consumption at par with the GTX 670. This card if more power-hungry than the other GTX 660 Ti-s. MSI does a good job of keeping its idle power consumption low, even with its higher than usual clock speeds. Zotac’s Amp edition is the odd one out, going a good 2 watts more than even the GTX 670.

The under-load numbers tell an altogether different story. The HD 7950 performs the best, but the real headline in this department is the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC (once again), using substantially lower power on-load than the Zotac and MSI variants, and more so, even performing better. Gigabyte’s custom design comes of excellent, as our results speak.

Gigabyte’s GeForce GTX 660 Ti OC, with its WindForce cooling technology, emerges strong yet again. Offering higher performance, with lower power consumption, this card is special, we have to say. EVGA’s GTX 660 Ti’s numbers are pretty bad, going at 77 degrees Celsius, a massive 12 degrees higher than the Gigabyte variant. EVGA’s temperatures are even higher than the GTX 670 and the 6950. It is hard for us to really recommend the EVGA board, which is priced higher and offers lower performance and worse cooling than its cheaper counterparts.

Last but not the least, we look at the noise levels. Blower-based EVGA struggles once again, which is surprising, because it uses the same cooler as the GTX 670, so it should, theoretically perform better. The Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti OC again performs very well. Its dual fan configuration is clearly a good design, managing noise with ease. 43.7 dB technically isn’t silent, but is still a good number.

The Radeon 7950 produces the most noise, and the noise is evident when you’re gaming on your computer. The tiny Zotac GTX 660 Ti Amp Edition also makes a considerable 50.2 dB of noise. We expected this, considering its smaller-than-usual size and heavy cooler.