GeForce GTX 1660 vs 960M
Aggregated performance score
1660 outperforms 960M by 244% based on our aggregated benchmark results.
General info
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in performance ranking | 455 | 171 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | 43 |
| Value for money | 1.43 | 25.03 |
| Architecture | Maxwell (2014−2018) | Turing (2018−2021) |
| GPU code name | N16P-GX | Turing TU116 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 12 March 2015 (9 years ago) | 14 March 2019 (5 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | no data | $219 |
| Current price | $799 | $252 (1.2x MSRP) |
Value for money
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
GTX 1660 has 1650% better value for money than GTX 960M.
Technical specs
General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 640 | 1408 |
| CUDA cores | 640 | no data |
| Core clock speed | 1096 MHz | 1530 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1202 MHz | 1785 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,870 million | 6,600 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 12 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 75 Watt | 120 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 47.04 | 157.1 |
| Floating-point performance | 1,505 gflops | no data |
Size and compatibility
Information on GeForce GTX 960M and GeForce GTX 1660 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.
| Laptop size | medium sized | no data |
| Bus support | PCI Express 3.0 | no data |
| Interface | MXM-B (3.0) | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 229 mm |
| Width | no data | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | 1x 8-pin |
| SLI options | + | no data |
Memory
Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.
| Memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 6 GB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 192 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 2500 MHz | 8000 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 80 GB/s | 192.1 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
Video outputs and ports
Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.
| Display Connectors | No outputs | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort |
| VGA аnalog display support | + | no data |
| DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support | + | no data |
| HDMI | + | + |
Technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| GameStream | + | no data |
| GeForce ShadowPlay | + | no data |
| GPU Boost | 2.0 | no data |
| GameWorks | + | no data |
| H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder | + | no data |
| Optimus | + | no data |
| BatteryBoost | + | no data |
| Ansel | + | no data |
API support
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_0) | 12 (12_1) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.5 |
| OpenGL | 4.5 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | 1.1.126 | 1.2.131 |
| CUDA | + | 7.5 |
Synthetic benchmark performance
Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.
Combined synthetic benchmark score
This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.
1660 outperforms 960M by 244% based on our aggregated benchmark results.
Passmark
This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.
Benchmark coverage: 25%
1660 outperforms 960M by 244% in Passmark.
3DMark 11 Performance GPU
3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.
Benchmark coverage: 17%
1660 outperforms 960M by 300% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.
3DMark Fire Strike Graphics
Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.
Benchmark coverage: 14%
1660 outperforms 960M by 225% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.
3DMark Cloud Gate GPU
Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.
Benchmark coverage: 14%
1660 outperforms 960M by 169% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.
GeekBench 5 OpenCL
Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.
Benchmark coverage: 9%
1660 outperforms 960M by 433% in GeekBench 5 OpenCL.
3DMark Ice Storm GPU
Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.
Benchmark coverage: 8%
1660 outperforms 960M by 132% in 3DMark Ice Storm GPU.
GeekBench 5 Vulkan
Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses Vulkan API by AMD & Khronos Group.
Benchmark coverage: 5%
1660 outperforms 960M by 529% in GeekBench 5 Vulkan.
GeekBench 5 CUDA
Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses CUDA API by NVIDIA.
Benchmark coverage: 4%
1660 outperforms 960M by 409% in GeekBench 5 CUDA.
SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 maya-04
Benchmark coverage: 3%
1660 outperforms 960M by 679% in SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 maya-04.
SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 sw-03
Benchmark coverage: 3%
1660 outperforms 960M by 695% in SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 sw-03.
SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 snx-02
Benchmark coverage: 3%
1660 outperforms 960M by 406% in SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 snx-02.
SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 catia-04
Benchmark coverage: 3%
1660 outperforms 960M by 277% in SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 catia-04.
SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 creo-01
Benchmark coverage: 3%
1660 outperforms 960M by 17% in SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 creo-01.
SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 mediacal-01
Benchmark coverage: 3%
1660 outperforms 960M by 1029% in SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 mediacal-01.
SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 showcase-01
Benchmark coverage: 3%
1660 outperforms 960M by 308% in SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 showcase-01.
SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 energy-01
Benchmark coverage: 3%
960M outperforms 1660 by 209% in SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 energy-01.
Gaming performance
Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.
Average FPS across all PC games
Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:
| 900p | 95
−216%
| 300−350
+216%
|
| Full HD | 36
−139%
| 86
+139%
|
| 1440p | 15
−220%
| 48
+220%
|
| 4K | 13
−115%
| 28
+115%
|
FPS performance in popular games
Full HD
Low Preset
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 14−16
−407%
|
71
+407%
|
Full HD
Medium Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 25
−128%
|
55−60
+128%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 12−14
−354%
|
59
+354%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 38
−147%
|
90−95
+147%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 24−27
−367%
|
112
+367%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 14−16
−314%
|
58
+314%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 28
−257%
|
100
+257%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 27
−252%
|
95
+252%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 35
−277%
|
132
+277%
|
| Hitman 3 | 21−24
−400%
|
110
+400%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 18−20
−356%
|
82
+356%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 14−16
−387%
|
73
+387%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 24
−288%
|
93
+288%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 14−16
−420%
|
78
+420%
|
Full HD
High Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 19
−200%
|
55−60
+200%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 12−14
−223%
|
42
+223%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 31
−203%
|
90−95
+203%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 24−27
−254%
|
85
+254%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 14−16
−236%
|
47
+236%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 25
−268%
|
92
+268%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 25
−256%
|
89
+256%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 31
−297%
|
123
+297%
|
| Hitman 3 | 21−24
−309%
|
90
+309%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 18−20
−239%
|
61
+239%
|
| Metro Exodus | 12
−375%
|
57
+375%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 14−16
−167%
|
40
+167%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 19
−311%
|
78
+311%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 24
−325%
|
102
+325%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 14−16
−340%
|
66
+340%
|
Full HD
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 11
−418%
|
55−60
+418%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 12−14
−185%
|
37
+185%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 26
−262%
|
90−95
+262%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 14−16
−186%
|
40
+186%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 23
−274%
|
86
+274%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 23
−257%
|
82
+257%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 25
−292%
|
98
+292%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 14
−307%
|
57
+307%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 14−16
−93.3%
|
29
+93.3%
|
1440p
High Preset
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 12−14
−338%
|
57
+338%
|
| Hitman 3 | 14−16
−307%
|
57
+307%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 14−16
−167%
|
40
+167%
|
| Metro Exodus | 7−8
−371%
|
33
+371%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 6−7
−317%
|
25
+317%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 11
−336%
|
48
+336%
|
1440p
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 8
−313%
|
30−35
+313%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 4−5
−575%
|
27
+575%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 17
−288%
|
65−70
+288%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 4−5
−500%
|
24
+500%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 15
−293%
|
59
+293%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 15
−293%
|
59
+293%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 18
−322%
|
76
+322%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 8−9
−388%
|
35−40
+388%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 4−5
−375%
|
19
+375%
|
4K
High Preset
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 6−7
−433%
|
32
+433%
|
| Hitman 3 | 8−9
−288%
|
31
+288%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 8−9
−37.5%
|
11
+37.5%
|
| Metro Exodus | 3−4
−567%
|
20
+567%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 5−6
−220%
|
16−18
+220%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 4−5
−500%
|
24
+500%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 10
−250%
|
35
+250%
|
4K
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 5−6
−300%
|
20−22
+300%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 4−5
−275%
|
15
+275%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 3
−1100%
|
35−40
+1100%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 1−2
−900%
|
10
+900%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 7
−329%
|
30
+329%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 6
−417%
|
31
+417%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 10−11
−400%
|
50
+400%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 2−3
−500%
|
12
+500%
|
This is how GTX 960M and GTX 1660 compete in popular games:
- GTX 1660 is 216% faster than GTX 960M in 900p
- GTX 1660 is 139% faster than GTX 960M in 1080p
- GTX 1660 is 220% faster than GTX 960M in 1440p
- GTX 1660 is 115% faster than GTX 960M in 4K
Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:
- in Battlefield 5, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 1660 is 1100% faster than the GTX 960M.
All in all, in popular games:
- Without exception, GTX 1660 surpassed GTX 960M in all 68 of our tests.
Advantages and disadvantages
| Performance score | 8.78 | 30.19 |
| Recency | 12 March 2015 | 14 March 2019 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 6 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 12 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 75 Watt | 120 Watt |
The GeForce GTX 1660 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 960M in performance tests.
Be aware that GeForce GTX 960M is a notebook card while GeForce GTX 1660 is a desktop one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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