MSI GTX 1660Ti Ventus XS OC Edition Review

Conclusion

We hate to keep harping on about it but budgetary considerations are such a huge part of why you would be looking at a GTX 1660Ti to add to your system, we have to start with a discussion on the pricing.

This 250-350 section of the graphics card market is unquestionably the hardest fought of the whole range. If you’re spending much less than this then it almost doesn’t matter what you buy as you’re largely be using it as something that can play Stardew Valley or Warcraft, rather than as the centrepiece of a gaming behemoth. Equally if you find that money is no object at all and you can break the bank buying flagship models then again it doesn’t matter too much as they will all make your jaw drop at a thousand paces. This area though, the meaty midrange, is extremely closely fought. You have to make decisions between having a great version of a lesser architecture, or a louder hotter version of a better GPU. Or maybe even going for an older card that still gets the job done. The possibilities and choices are almost endless and how happy you will be and which direction you lean depends largely upon your own requirements.

When the GTX 1660Ti first appeared we reviewed the models at the top end of the price spectrum which abutted the bottom end of the RTX 2060 range, and in that case it’s quite difficult to see why you wouldn’t go for a card which has a similar level of performance but also has the Tensor and RT cores that bring visual splendour to the latest titles. But then we also looked at the ASUS Phoenix which compromised performance a little to hit the pricing sweet spot. If that whetted your appetite or added the GTX 1660Ti to your possible build list then you’ll be pleased to know that the MSI Ventus XS OC Edition takes that low pricing attractiveness, and the high performance attractiveness of the Gaming X et al, and combines them into a card guaranteed to pique the interest of anyone who wants to be able to play all the latest titles at popular resolutions without having to sell a kidney to do so.

The TORX 2.0 fans have been a part of MSI’s coolers for a good length of time and are well known for their longevity and their capacity to move a lot of air without deafening you in the process. Beneath them is a full PCB length heatsink which, whilst it doesn’t have the same fin density of MSIs famed Twin Frozr coolers, is still more than capable of keeping the card frosty as we saw in our temperature graph. Great cooling capacity means that the card can maintain its peak GPU Boost overclock at a higher level for the entire duration of your gaming exploits and the performance we saw throughout our testing backs this up. Okay it doesn’t quite hit the same heights as the Strix or Gaming X, but then it’s much more affordable. It definitely bests the ASUS Phoenix as the better cooler pays dividends.

If you’re on a limited budget and want to buy a card which combines the powerful Turing GPU with a quality cooler and looks that better the affordable price tag then the MSI GTX 1660Ti Ventus XS OC Edition should be at the top of your list. It takes the Nvidia design ethos of the GTX 1660Ti – great performance in popular resolutions at a low price – and exceeds every requirement.

    

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