So how TUF can a graphics card be? Well, the Asus TUF gaming series of graphics card isn’t really describing how TUF the graphics card is, but rather a collaboration between ASUS and several major PC-component manufacturers. They call it the the TUF Gaming Alliance. Manufacturers include trusted brands Antec, Apacer, Ballistix, Cooler Master, Corsair, Deepcool, Enermax, G.Skill, GeIL, ID-COOLING, In Win, Scythe, SilverStone, T-FORCE, and XPG and many more. TUF Gaming products are rigorously tested for stability, durability and compatibility. There you go … now you know what TUF Gaming is all about.
Today, we’ll be taking a quick look at the Asus TUF Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 OC (6GB GDDR5) Graphics Card. It’s targeted at the mainstream gaming market for users who wants stability, durability and compatibility … all for an affordable price. The CPU is overclocked to boost speed of 1845 MHz (default 1785 MHz) and comes with 1408 CUDA Cores and 6GB GDDR5 ram, with a memory speed of 8 Gbps on a 192-bit memory bus.
To be honest, I can’t see anything special about the TUF Gaming series from Asus, apart from its compact size and a nice camouflage design. There’s no RGB LEDs or no metal backplate, however it does come with 2 x dual-ball bearing fans, DVI output, HDMI and Displayport.
Here’s a quick comparison between the GeForce RTX 20 series, GTX 1660 Ti and the GTX 1660 (default clock speeds)…
| GeForce RTX 2070 | GeForce RTX 2060 | GeForce GTX 1660 Ti | GeForce GTX 1660 | GeForce GTX 1060 | |
| Architecture | Turing | Turing | Turing | Turing | Pascal |
| CUDA Cores | 2304 | 1920 | 1536 | 1408 | 1280 |
| Frame Buffer | 8GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5 |
| Base Clock Speed | 1410 MHz | 1365 MHz |
1500 MHz | 1530 MHz | 1506 MHz |
| Boost Clock Speed | 1620 MHz | 1680 MHz | 1770 MHz | 1785 Mhz | 1708 MHz |
| Giga Rays/s | 6 | 5 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Memory Speed | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 12 Gbps | 8 Gbps | 8 Gbps |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 Gb/s | 336 Gb/s | 288 Gb/s | 192 Gb/s | 192 Gb/s |
| Power | 175W | 160W | 130W | 130W | 120W |
| DX12 Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Vulkan API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
We’ll start by saying thanks to Hornington Computers for supplying the review sample. For those who don’t know what the Asus TUF Gaming series is all about, here’s a little blurb taken from their website …
TUF GAMING SERIES
TUF Gaming is the all-new force for those who demand superior durability, dependable stability and great value in PC gaming. We’ve created an extensive range of motherboards, laptop and desktop PCs, cases, keyboards, mice and headsets, with many more exciting innovations on the way.
Every TUF Gaming product is rigorously tested for stability and durability, loaded with gamer-pleasing features, and exhibits unique and distinctive style. We’ve also teamed up with major component manufacturers to form the TUF Gaming Alliance, a burgeoning ecosystem of products that guarantee compatibility and aesthetic harmony.
TUF GAMING ALLIANCE
TUF Gaming Alliance is the marque of collaboration between ASUS and major PC-component manufacturers, including trusted brands like Antec®, Apacer®, Ballistix, Cooler Master®, Corsair®, Deepcool, Enermax, G.Skill, GeIL®, ID-COOLING, In Win, Scythe, SilverStone, T-FORCE, and XPG. A growing range of compliant parts, from PC cases and power supplies to CPU coolers and DRAM, guarantee both compatibility and aesthetic harmony. We’re also continually increasing our partnerships to make the TUF Gaming Alliance ever stronger, and require that components carrying the marque are tested to standards that are higher than the industry standards — for better compatibility, stability and durability.
As you are aware, Nvidia recently announced that all GTX 10 and 16 series can support ray-tracing via DXR in their next driver update. It will be interesting to see how well DXR ray-tracing will compare to native ray-tracing support found on the RTX 20 series.
We already reviewed the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X, and we thought it was a decent pretty card that offered good features and acceptable gaming performance. With a lower boost speed of 1845MHz, I’m expecting the Asus TUF Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 OC to fall behind the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X, but should produce adequate performance for gamers on a budget.
Let’s start by taking a look at the specifications and features in our next page …
You can buy the Asus TUF Gaming GeForce GTX 1660
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