NVIDIA GTX 1660 SUPER And 1650 SUPER Promise An Entry-Level Boost
NVIDIA's Turing GPU architecture has definitely put PC graphics cards on a new level, especially when it comes to data crunching capabilities need both for graphics as well as AI and machine learning. But while NVIDIA's RTX cards are all the rage on the high-end, some gamers might not need all that power and the literal and thermal costs it comes with. Some might need an almost inconspicuous gaming partner that has some secret superpowers behind the scenes. That seems to be the message that NVIDIA is giving with the launch of the new GTX 1660 SUPER and 1650 SUPER boards that get their powers via faster memory.
As the "SUPER" part of their names suggests, these two cards are souped-up versions of the pre-existing GTX 1660 and GTX 1650. Like their predecessors, both cards already boast of the benefits of the Turing architecture, particularly its Turing Encoder on NVENC. That in itself already promises 15% more efficiency compared to NVIDIA's previous Pascal architecture, making even these 10-series cards ideal for live streaming games.
What makes these cards "SUPER" though could be a matter of debate. Really the only thing that has changed is the use of GDDR6 VRAM but that in itself is already a huge game-changer. Running at 14 Gbps on the 6GB GTX 1660 SUPER and 12 Gbps on the 4GB GTX 1650 Super, this latest-gen memory enables low-latency, high-response gaming that no gamer should be without.
That said, the types of gamers that these cards are aiming for are those that swear by 1080p resolutions, no matter what hype manufacturers are trying to push onto the market. The GTX 1660 SUPER is actually capable of 1440p visuals but might require a bit of tweaking, especially with the game's graphics quality settings.
In other words, these two are squarely aimed at the entry-level PC gaming market, for gamers that want to jump onto the latest and probably last Turing-based basic cards before NVIDIA moves on to its next architecture. They come just in time for the holiday season, too, with the NVIDIA GTX 1660 SUPER retailing at $229. Availability of the GTX 1650 SUPER, on the other hand, starts on November 22 for a still undisclosed price.