GTX 660 GPU Z SERIES

The 200 series was split between 3 different architectures (G9x, GT200, and GT21x), and the 400/500 series was split between Big Fermi (GF1x0) and Little Fermi (GF1x4/1ењ†/1x8). In breaking down GK106, itвЂ™s interesting to note that this is the first time since 2008вЂ™s G9x family of GPUs that NVIDIAвЂ™s consumer GPU has had this level of consistency.

This also means that GK106 is only 2mm2 larger than AMDвЂ™s Pitcairn GPU, which sets up a very obvious product showdown. Meanwhile the reduction in functional units has had the expected impact on die size and transistor count, with GK106 packing 2.54B transistors into 214mm2. This also means that GTX 660 ends up looking a great deal like a GTX 660 Ti with fewer SMXes. Design-wise this basically splits the difference between the 8 SMX + 32 ROP GK104 and the 2 SMX + 16 ROP GK107. A fully enabled GK106 in turn is composed of 5 SMXes вЂ“ arranged in an asymmetric 3 GPC configuration вЂ“ along with 24 ROPs, 3 64bit memory controllers, and 384KB of L2 cache. NVIDIA has had a tremendous amount of success with the GTX 560 and GTX 460 families, so theyвЂ™re looking to maintain this momentum with the GTX 660.Дiving right into the guts of things, the GeForce GTX 660 will be utilizing a fully enabled GK106 GPU. GTX 660 is designed to come in between GTX 660 Ti and GTX 650 (also launching today), bringing Kepler and its improved performance down to the same $230 price range that the GTX 460 launched at nearly two years ago. GK106вЂ™s launch vehicle will be the GeForce GTX 660, the central member of NVIDIAвЂ™s mainstream video card lineup.

So the arrival of GK106 comes as a pleasant surprise amidst what for the last 6 months has been a very small GPU family. Even so, we have to admit that until a month ago we werenвЂ™t quite sure whether there would even be a GK106 since NVIDIA has covered so much of their typical product lineup with GK104 and GK107, leaving open the possibility of using those GPUs to also cover the rest. GK106 offers a more modest collection of functional blocks in exchange for a smaller die size and lower power consumption, making it a perfect fit for NVIDIAвЂ™s mainstream desktop products. With GK104 at the high-end and GK107 at the low-end, the task of filling out the middle falls to NVIDIAвЂ™s latest GPU: GK106.ДЄs given away by the model number, GK106 is designed to fit in between GK104 and GK107. Now nearly 6 months after the launch of the first Kepler GPUs вЂ“ and 9 months after the launch of the first 28nm GPUs вЂ“ NVIDIAвЂ™s situation has finally improved to the point where they can finish filling out the first iteration of the Kepler GPU family. In the intervening time they have launched products like the GK104-based GeForce GTX 660 Ti to help bridge that gap, but even that still left a hole between $100 and $300. As a result of this capacity constraint they have had to prioritize the high-profit mainstream mobile and high-end desktop markets above other consumer markets, leaving holes in their product lineups. Since Q2 the message in financial statements has been clear: NVIDIA could be selling more GPUs if they had access to more 28nm capacity. As our regular readers are well aware, NVIDIAвЂ™s 28nm supply constraints have proven to be a constant thorn in the side of the company.

Gtx 660 gpu-z