Introduction
Now we’ve always had this narrative of how COLORFUL is doing really good on their iGame line but we’ve never really had the chance to review anything outside their iGame series. Now their iGame lineup is spectacular and most often than not, really cements their position as the hometown king of China’s graphics card market. But how’s their entry level look like? We’ve recently reviewed the COLORFUL RTX 2070 SUPER Advance OC-V, now that’s kinda entry-level but still iGame but for today, we have our wish granted.
Today we’ll be taking a look at the COLORFUL GTX 1660 SUPER Battle Ax. Now this is particularly a newer sub-series for them, but pretty much just a naming scheme to distinguish a product from another. We’ve seen this cooler before from COLORFUL and there’s really nothing special going on with this card. That said, the GTX 1660 SUPER has always been my favorite non-RTX card. For whatever reason, its more powerful than it should and usually performs above the original GTX 1660 as well as the GTX 1660 Ti making it quite competitive above its weight class.
That said, this review is in support of our previous video where we checked out if a 1660 Super is good enough for high-FPS gaming.
In this review, we’ll cover more about the upgrade of a possible GTX 1660 SUPER owner and we take older cards like the GTX 1050 Ti and Radeon RX570 and see how far a GTX 1660 Super goes against those cards. We also compare it to the RTX 2060 just for reference for those still second guessing if they should go RTX.
We’re debuting two new upgrades to our benchmarks with this review. First, we have our Powenetics power testing platform which allows undisputed accuracy when it comes to power measurement as well as a new Intel 10th-gen test CPU. All the cards have been retested just for this test so all our data is updated.
Read on!
About the COLORFUL GTX 1660 SUPER Battle Ax
The COLORFUL GTX 1660 Super Battle Ax is the company’s entry level card design for the GTX 1660 SUPER. It shares the stack with COLORFUL’s entry-level model the 6G-V and the higher model is the triple fan iGame 6G-V card.
The card itself is pretty much stock with reference clocks at 1530Mhz base and boosts up to 1785Mhz.
Video Summary
Test Setup and Methodology
Processor: Intel Core i9 10900K
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3600 32GB
Storage: WD Blue SSD 1TB SATA
PSU:Â Seasonic Platinum 1050w
Cooling: Corsair H150i Pro 360mm AIO
Monitor: ROG PG27UQ 4K 144hz HDR1000
VGA: COLORFUL GTX 1660 SUPER Battle Ax, ZOTAC GTX 1050 Ti, ASUS ROG Strix RX 570, ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 2060
For a full-hardware workout, visit https://benchmarks.ul.com for our system warm-up and stress test of choice.
For benchmarking methodology please see our game benchmark method guide.
CapFrameX
We’re working with CapFrameX to deliver this review to you. Right now, we’re exploring the viability of CapFrameX from a data collection and presentation perspective and we’re giving it the trial-by-fire approach by using it on this review. This gives us a feel of the workflow as well allowing us to show our readers if the charts are usable enough for sharing and at-a-glance analysis of laypeople. We’ll have a dedicated article for CapFrameX once we’ve done more reviews and have built up the database. So far ease-of-use could need improving as once heavily populated with data, filtering results and filtering GPU SKUs is hard.
Since this is a GPU review, we benchmarked the area of the games that put heavy load on the GPU.
All our test runs are repeatable, click the links below for area and details. Read our benchmarking methodology.
- DOTA2 – Kiev Major Grand Finals Game 5: OG vs Virtus.Pro (54:05 – 55:05)
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: FPS Benchmark Workshop Map
- The Witcher 3 – Woesong Bridge
- Grand Theft Auto V – Palomino Highlands
- Rainbow Six: Siege – Benchmark Mode
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Kuwaq Yaqu
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019 – Fog of War
- Monster Hunter World: Iceborne – Wildspire Waste
- F1 2020 – Benchmark Mode
See our Youtube playlist for benchmark sequences.
Note: Some proprietary technologies of NVIDIA like PCSS, HBAO+, and HairWorks work on AMD GPU’s BUT to maintain uniformity amongst GPUs, these have been turned OFF.
You can click on any of the benchmark charts enlarge. You can also move forward and backwards to quickly navigate through our charts via gallery view. For this test, only the out-of-box normal mode will be tested.
DOTA 2
Note: JUNE 2020 – DOTA2 has recently implemented a transition from DirectX9 to DirectX11 and new install of the game will prompt users to switch from DX9 to DX11. With that said, we are testing DOTA2 in DX11 from now on.
In contention for the most popular game on Steam and the biggest competition in eSports: DOTA 2 is powered by the Source 2 engine. The game is fairly light on low to medium settings but maxed out, with heavy action on screen especially during clashes, can really stress most systems. This is a game where frame times matter as responsiveness is very important in high-stakes competition. We’re looking at consistently low frametimes in this game for the best experience
Our test uses actual game replay, using the segment from game 5 of the Kiev Major 2017 Grand Finals between OG and VP. The clash during the 54:05 to 55:05 of the game is a nice example of how much a system will get punished during intense team fights in DOTA2.
You can watch the replay of the actual game used in the benchmark here in Youtube or download the replay file here for your DOTA2 client: Game 3149572447. (save it to your DOTA2 replays folder)
API: DirectX11 (default)
Best-Looking slider setting (Ultra)
FPS_MAX 240
Vsync OFF
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, popularly known as CSGO, competes for Steam’s most popular game. It has found a resurgence in its popularity and has recently peaked in 2020 in the number of players that play the game. Based on Valve’s Source Engine, the game received major asset overhauls during the years since its inception nearly 10 years ago. Still, it’s a light game and can be played on fairly lighter systems but the competitive scene for CSGO has seen average players demand high FPS from their systems thus gaining favorable standing with GPU vendors just from the demand for higher FPS alone. CSGO is a game that can easily go past 500FPS on enthusiast systems on maximum settings. We’re including CSGO as requested by our community.
API: DirectX9 (default)
Maximum In-Game Settings
Texture Streaming Disabled
Vsync OFF
F1 2020
The latest iteration of the F1 series from CodeMasters features support for DirectX 12 as well as more photorealistic graphics than ever. Now heavily featured in the official F1 esports scene, much attention has been given in the development of this game particularly for added realism.
API: DirectX 12
Settings: Ultra High
Vsync: OFF
We’re aware of the curious behavior of the RTX 2060 in this test and our other sample runs show the same within acceptable deviation. This will be addressed in a future article but as this is a new game we’re still working on, we may have overlooked some things but this is definitely not Vsync since you see the pattern follow the tests curve pattern near the end.
Grand Theft Auto V
The fifth and most successful installment to date in the highly controversial Grand Theft Auto series brings a graphical overhaul to the PC version of GTA V which many have lauded as a superior approach in porting a console game to PC. Featuring large areas and detailing, GTA V is a highly challenging application in terms of scene complexity.
Our benchmark uses a run from Palomina Highlands running through a lush area to a remote road all the way to a neighborhood in our car to simulate multiple scene changes.
API: DirectX 11
FXAA Off
MSAA 4x
TXAA Off
Very High settings
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Motion Blur disabled
Advanced Graphics enabled
Vsync OFF
Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019)
Call of Duty Modern Warfare is a reboot of the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare storyline, set in a different world where you, along with Captain Price have to stop the world from going to war. Call of Duty Modern Warfare reignites the franchise by introducing full crossplay support where Xbox and PS4 players can play together with PC players. On PC, the game features a new engine pushing photorealism for COD far beyond what their older engine is capable of. The new engine also introduces raytracing and the AI is designed to perceive light as well. With a revitalized multiplayer arena, the game will require fast frame rates.
API: DirectX 12
Render Resolution: 100%
Texture Resolution: High
Texture Filter Anisotropic: High
Particle Quality: High
Tessellation: All
Shadow Map Resolution: Extra
Particle Lighting: Ultra
DirectX Raytracing: OFF
Ambient Occlusion: Both
Anti-Aliasing: Filmic SMAA T2X
World Motion Blur: Off
Vsync: OFF
Shaders Installed before benchmarks*
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Easily Capcom’s most successful game to date. Available in both consoles and PC, Monster Hunter World ranks in Steam’s top played games for the platform. The 2020 Iceborne update for PC brings the game to new PC frontier, introducing DirectX 12 support. The game features rich graphical detail settings and an Ultra HD texture pack for highend gamers. MHW’s features fast-paced action with traditional RPG farings and has captured a new market thanks to the transition from portable.
Our benchmark for this game uses an expedition track in the Wildspire Waste Southwest Camp (Area 1) and finishes in the Rathian nest at Area 12 in the caves. This run gives us runs from barren area, to watery area with lush vegetation to a cave which replicates the varied nature of exploration and monster combat in MHW.
API: DirectX 12
Graphical Settings: Manual (customized from High)
All variable settings set to High
Image Quality: High
Anti-Aliasing: TAA
Max LOD Level: No Limit
Volume Rendering Quality: High
Motion Blur: Off
DLSS and AMD FidelityFX: OFF
Rainbow Six: Siege
Nearly 4 years later and Rainbow Six: Siege has become a phenomenon after a lukewarm beginning. The massive shift in focus of the game sees it stepping into eSports territory and the excellent mix of gameplay mechanics, good design and a dedicated dev team has put R6: Siege in a position it couldn’t even picture during launch. Rainbow Six: Siege focuses heavily on tactical and creative gameplay and its vertical levels and highly destructible maps encourage players to be quick on their feet so the action is always going. Powered by Ubisoft’s own AnvilNext 2.0 engine which powers some of Ubi’s recent visual masterpieces, R6:Siege also feature excellent graphics and can get very taxing at high detail settings. The game also features an Ultra HD texture pack download for those that want higher resolution textures but will of course demand more from the system.
API: DirectX 11
Ultra Settings
Anti Aliasing: TAA
Ultra HD Texture pack not installed
Ambient Occlusion: SSBC
Vsync OFF
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the latest installment in the reboot run of the classic Tomb Raider franchise. The game follows the story set forth by the previous game which Shadow of the Tomb Raider short follows after. Technology-wise, the game uses the Foundation engine updated to meet the demand of developer Eidos Montreal to push the engine to its limits. The game supports DirectX 12 and is one of the launch titles to support RTX technology namely DLSS which launched a couple of months post-launch.
API: DirectX 12
Graphics Settings Preset: Highest
Texture Quality: Ultra
Texture Filtering: 8x Anisotropic
Anti-Aliasing: TAA
DLSS: OFF
Raytraced Shadow: OFF
Vsync OFF
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CD Projekt Red’s latest installment in the Witcher saga features one of the most graphically intense offering the company has to date. As Geralt of Rivia, slay monsters, beasts and men as you unravel the mysteries of your past. Vast worlds and lush sceneries make this game a visual feast and promises to make any system crawl at its highest settings. This game has found great resurgence in its playerbase thanks to the release of Netflix’ Witcher series.
API: DirectX 11
Frame Rate: Unlimited
Nvidia HairWorks: Off
Ultra Settings
Motion Blur: Off
Blur: Off
Anti-aliasing: On
Bloom: On
Sharpening: High
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
Depth of Field: On
Chromatic Aberration: Off
Vignetting: On
Light Shafts: On
VSync OFF
Temperature and Power Draw
To measure both power consumption and heat, we stress the video card and record the peak values for heat and wattage. We use default values on the cards and stress test them using 3DMark Time Spy in 20 loops to simulate gaming loads and this is where we also base our power draw. Our tool allows us to save a log of actual power draw and other metrics for easier data collection and averaging. We took 15 minutes of idle and load readings and averaged them which is what we present in the charts.
This review also marks the debut of our Powenetics power testing kit from Cybenetics. This tool allows us to capture power per component in real time including both the GPU, CPU and any SATA device we plug in. We’ll do a formal introduction soon. For now, this is pretty much a warm-up as we’re still getting the workflow ready but the initial GPU database is already being built and we hope to share this with everyone soon. For now, let’s stick with the graphs first.
Conclusion
So approaching this review from an upgrader’s standpoint, comparing the card from a GTX 1050 Ti or an RX 570, its quite obvious there would be a jump in performance. Now, the worth of performance here varies per user but again, in support of our Frames Win Games analysis, we do see acceptable performance in esports-inclined titles. In AAA games, we can see the impact of higher details but still, performance is acceptable.
For the most part this card performs decently and there’s really not a lot talk about as it is a value offering. And despite its older cooler, it does quite well, keeping our card under 70*C. There’s no lighting, no fancy fan implementations, no nothing. This is as simple as it gets and it does its job quite well. There is a backplate which is an ok addition.
So, against the pricier RTX 2060, the GTX 1660 Super may not have raytracing or DLSS but do know that if you play mostly esports games, a lot of these don’t really have support for raytracing or DLSS so you can save the money if you really don’t need that.
Focusing back on the COLORFUL GTX 1660 SUPER Battle Ax, let’s be honest its as vanilla as it gets. Performance is pretty much indicative of what a reference card should do so pretty much the point of this review is that if you’re looking a GTX 1660 SUPER and with supply shortage right now in some regions, some of you may be resorting doing the import route and you this funnily named COLORFUL card, do know that the data speaks for itself and it’s a quite a capable graphics card.
COLORFUL backs the GTX 1660 SUPER BATTLE AX with a 3-year warranty. We give it our B2G Recommended Seal!
Thank you for the review. I bought the non-Super version of this card recently and I’m also pretty happy with it!