NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q vs GTX 1060 – comfortable win for the Max-Q

Not a while ago there was a graphics card that was the go-to if you want a capable gaming laptop, without destroying your budget. However, one of the latest NVIDIA chips offers you very good performance at a relatively low cost and is easily manageable in terms of temperatures.

You can check out our Top Laptop Graphics Ranking to see these two graphics cards and many more.

Specs overview

The newer competitor of the bunch is built around the 12nm Turing architecture, while the GTX 1060 relies on a 16nm Pascal chip. In terms of CUDA core count, the GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q has 1536, whereas the GTX 1060 has 1280. However, the Turing graphics card works at a lower frequency – 1140-1335 MHz compared to 1404-1670 MHz on the older model. This helps it have a significantly lower TDP – 60W vs 80W.

Either of them is equipped with a 192-bit 6GB VRAM – GDDR6 for the GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q and GDDR5 for the GTX 1060, respectively. Due to the Max-Q design, however, both of them have the same Bandwidth – 192 GB/s.

Benchmarks

Synthetic benchmarks show around 10% advantage in favor of the GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q with the difference going above 20% in the Unigine Superposition benchmark.

Results are from the 3DMark: Time Spy (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)

Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)

Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)


Gaming tests

This pattern continues in AAA gaming, with the exception of the Rise of the Tomb Raider, where the difference is negligible.

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q88 fps81 fps76 fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 106073 fps68 fps63 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q109 fps55 fps36 fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060102 fps51 fps34 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q70 fps61 fps40 fps
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 106061 fps53 fps35 fps

Conclusion

Once again the Turing architecture has proven its worth and managed to grasp the win in this showdown. There is no “however” here, though, the GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q is better in every paragraph – performance, heat output and ability to be integrated into a smaller device.

All laptops equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q (6GB GDDR6)

All laptops equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB GDDR5)

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
2 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Error Code 1802
4 years ago

I have heard about this graphics card and finally, I came to know about the details for it. But it would be great to get the review of this which will be helpful in choosing whether it is suitable or not.