RX 590 vs 1660 Ti
This article is going to compare the RX 590 against the GTX 1660 Ti in order to determine which of these mid-range graphics cards is the best bet for your money so that you can improve your gaming visuals for a better overall experience.
AMD/Nvidia
As gamers, we’re likely all well aware of the war that’s currently being waged between AMD and Nvidia, arguing over who produces the better graphics cards for gaming purposes. In terms of high-end performance and 4K quality, there’s no doubt that Nvidia comes out on top, but what happens when you look towards the more affordable end of the market?
AMD produced the RX 590 pretty swiftly after releasing the RX 580, and it offers an improvement on this and the earlier RX 480 graphics card which came out a year earlier in order to compete with the GTX 1660 Ti. Likewise, the Ti is a more advanced version of the GXT 1660 GPU, so the two GPUs we’re looking at in this article have that in common.
It’s a battle between two graphics cards with the absolute most to offer from their respective series, but as well as being at the top of their game, can one of these GPUs top the other?
This article is going to compare some of the most important features that you should consider when thinking about upgrading your GPU, including architecture and advances in this technology, cooling solutions, size and dimensions, VRAM memory, and, of course, resolution and frame rate speeds per second. With these in mind, we were able to determine a winner between these graphics cards, and we hope that you do, too.
Architecture
Just like the GTX 1660, the GTX 1660 Ti is equipped with Nvidia’s Turing 12nm TU116 architecture, but with a 9% increase in the number of CUDA cores.
It was the first in its family to feature the newer Turing architecture, and in order to compete with AMD’s share of the mid-range market, it lacks the RT and Tensor cores of the RTX series GPUs which helps to keep the price of the graphics card down.
Instead, it has 1,536 CUDA cores, which is more like 3,720 cores if Nvidia is to be believed about the 50% boost that is provided by their Turing architecture. Comparably, the RX 590 has 2,304 stream processors which is still a good amount for gaming.
The AMD RX 590 is based on their 14nm Polaris architecture, which has the benefit of a year’s development compared to the earlier RX 580 and RX 570. It comes clocked at 1,469 MHz and can be boosted up to 1,565 MHz, which isn’t that much of an extension beyond its non-overclocked abilities.
The GTX 1660 Ti is therefore a much better option if you’re thinking about overclocking your GPU so you can push it even further than its stock capabilities. It’s only slightly faster than the RX 590 at its base clock speed which is 1,500 MHz, but it has a much higher boosted speed of 1,830 MHz proving that the Turing architecture is worth the hype.
Cooling
The GTX 1660 Ti is decked out with some pretty sweet thermals, with pads that line the top of the plate which improves the circulation meaning the hot air is pushed from the unit into the sink assembly and away from the components. It’s effective, but it’s also pretty loud.
During our testing, the highest temperature the GTX 1660 Ti reached was 61℃. The RX 590 runs much hotter and can peak at around 82℃ before stabilizing at approximately 78℃, which is still a good 10 degrees higher than the RX 590, despite being almost as noisy.
To compare them, the RX 590 makes a maximum fan noise of 42.5 dB and the GTX 1660 Ti makes a maximum fan noise of 45.6 dB, so there’s not much between them. In terms of power draw, it’s reversed, and the former has a larger TDP of 175 watts whereas the latter only has a TDP of 120 watts, therefore it consumes less power.
Dimensions
It might not be the most exciting factor to consider when you’re looking at buying a new graphics card, but knowing the dimensions of the GPUs you’re thinking about getting will help you make sure that it’s going to fit comfortably on your board before you fork out for it.
There’s not a drastic difference between these two graphics cards, but the RX 590 is the slightly longer GPU of the two. It has a length of 241 mm where the GTX 1660 Ti measures just 229 mm long, but it shouldn’t really make much difference unless you’re seriously struggling for space.
In terms of display outputs, the GTX Ti has 1 x DVI, 1 x HDMI, and 1 x DisplayPort. The RX 590 lacks a DVI output port but you gain 2 DisplayPorts as it has 3 of these in total.
Resolutions and Frames Per Second
At 1080p it delivers a fantastic 96.3 frames per second on average, even reaching over 100 frames per second on certain titles, and rarely dropping below 90 frames per second.
The RX 590 still achieves high results and consistently pushes upwards of 80 frames per second then settling around this mark, but its Polaris architecture isn’t quite enough to keep up with the GTX 1660 Ti and you do notice the difference, especially with modern titles.
The gap between them is still pretty wide at 1440p, and the GTX 1660 Ti maintains its lead with 71.7 frames per second while the RX 590 drops to below 60, giving us an average of 58.0 frames per second. It’s at 4K where we start to see both cards struggle.
With an absolute herculean effort, the GTX Ti can just about manage to provide playable frame rates averaging around 42.5 fps, but neither graphics card is really designed to be played at this setting. Of the two, however, the GTX 1660 Ti is more likely to give you some success when playing less demanding games.
Ray Tracing?
Without the dedicated RT and Tensor cores of the RTX series, the GTX graphics cards are essentially missing the star quality of their Turing architecture.
However, they’re still a step up from the Pascal architecture that came before in the form of the GTX 10-series GPUs, and they’re high-powered enough that they can handle the demands of ray tracing technology which you can download via an Nvidia driver.
The RX 590, on the other hand, will be much slower, although it too can technically support this technology. You can expect to see a drop in frame rates that falls well below 40, and the graphics will be nothing like what you would experience with one of Nvidia’s RTX GPUs.
VRAM
The battle of capacity is won by the RX 590, which has made leaps and bounds from the 4 GB it provided in the past, and now offers gamers a generous 8 GB of memory storage. It has a 256-bit memory bus interface that runs at a speed of 8 Gbps for silky smooth frames.
Comparably, the GTX 1660 Ti has just 6 GB of memory storage. It isn’t that much less than the RX 590, but what’s really important is that the GTX 1660 Ti runs on the newer and more advanced GDDR6 memory type. This is much more energy-efficient than its predecessor and will work to provide smoother graphics performance and seamless imagery on your screen.
Final Thoughts
The GTX 1660 Ti quite clearly takes the lead in a number of areas, and it outperforms the RX 590 at almost every turn. Whether you’re interested in high frame rates to keep up with the fast-paced gameplay in your favorite titles or you care more about testing out the new ray tracing technology from Nvidia, if you can afford it, the GTX 1660 Ti is your best bet.
However, if you’re looking to spend a little less on your GPU, the RX 590 is still a powerhouse mid-range graphics card that can deliver great frame rate speeds and hold up reasonably well when you push its performance a little further.
Not convinced that either of these is the right GPU for you? Check out some of our other articles – we’ve reviewed several AMD and Nvidia graphics cards across abilities for you to compare, so if you want to see how the RX 590 stacks up against the original GTX 1660 instead, or how the GTX 1660 Ti fares alongside the newer RTX cards, then you can!