GeForce GTX 1660 vs Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) with GeForce GTX 1660, including specs and performance data.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)
2015
1 GB GDDR5
3.69

GTX 1660 outperforms Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) by a whopping 720% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking710182
Place by popularitynot in top-10052
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data48.76
Power efficiencyno data17.46
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2017)Turing (2018−2022)
GPU code nameSurface BookTU116
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date1 October 2015 (9 years ago)14 March 2019 (5 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$219

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores3841408
Core clock speed954 MHz1530 MHz
Boost clock speed993 MHz1785 MHz
Number of transistorsno data6,600 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data120 Watt
Texture fill rateno data157.1
Floating-point processing powerno data5.027 TFLOPS
ROPsno data48
TMUsno data88

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 x16
Lengthno data229 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount1 GB6 GB
Memory bus width64 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed5012 MHz2001 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data192.1 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

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 Connectorsno data1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
HDMI-+

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Optimus+-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectXDirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.012 (12_1)
Shader Modelno data6.5
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data1.2
Vulkan-1.2.131
CUDA+7.5

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark 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.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 3.69
GTX 1660 30.27
+720%

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.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 2577
GTX 1660 21064
+717%

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.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 2076
GTX 1660 14164
+582%

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.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 11380
GTX 1660 81755
+618%

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.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 123411
GTX 1660 570753
+362%

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:

Full HD28
−193%
82
+193%
1440p5−6
−880%
49
+880%
4K3−4
−800%
27
+800%

Cost per frame, $

1080pno data2.67
1440pno data4.47
4Kno data8.11

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
−491%
65−70
+491%
Battlefield 5 8−9
−1138%
95−100
+1138%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
−813%
73
+813%
Far Cry 5 7−8
−871%
65−70
+871%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
−670%
75−80
+670%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
−686%
160−170
+686%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
−1144%
112
+1144%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
−650%
100−110
+650%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
−1018%
123
+1018%
Battlefield 5 8−9
−1138%
95−100
+1138%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 8−9
−738%
67
+738%
Far Cry 5 7−8
−871%
65−70
+871%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
−670%
75−80
+670%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
−686%
160−170
+686%
Metro Exodus 6−7
−1783%
113
+1783%
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
−778%
79
+778%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 14−16
−686%
110
+686%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
−327%
60−65
+327%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 10−12
−491%
65−70
+491%
Battlefield 5 8−9
−713%
65−70
+713%
Far Cry 5 7−8
−871%
65−70
+871%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
−700%
80−85
+700%
Forza Horizon 4 21−24
−367%
98
+367%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
−280%
57
+280%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3−4
−700%
24−27
+700%
Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8
−686%
55−60
+686%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 3−4
−967%
30−35
+967%
Battlefield 5 6−7
−650%
45−50
+650%
Far Cry 5 4−5
−775%
35−40
+775%
Far Cry New Dawn 6−7
−650%
45−50
+650%
Forza Horizon 4 2−3
−8600%
170−180
+8600%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1−2
−700%
8−9
+700%
Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
−650%
30−33
+650%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2−3
−850%
18−20
+850%
Battlefield 5 2−3
−700%
16−18
+700%
Far Cry 5 2−3
−750%
16−18
+750%
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3
−700%
16−18
+700%
Forza Horizon 4 2−3
−2400%
50
+2400%

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 71
+0%
71
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 59
+0%
59
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 58
+0%
58
+0%
Hitman 3 69
+0%
69
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 306
+0%
306
+0%
Metro Exodus 144
+0%
144
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 227
+0%
227
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 42
+0%
42
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 47
+0%
47
+0%
Hitman 3 67
+0%
67
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 287
+0%
287
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 214
+0%
214
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 37
+0%
37
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 49
+0%
49
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 40
+0%
40
+0%
Hitman 3 59
+0%
59
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 93
+0%
93
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 95
+0%
95
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 29
+0%
29
+0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 81
+0%
81
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 27
+0%
27
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 34
+0%
34
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 24
+0%
24
+0%
Hitman 3 39
+0%
39
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 67
+0%
67
+0%
Metro Exodus 59
+0%
59
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 67
+0%
67
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 187
+0%
187
+0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 53
+0%
53
+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Hitman 3 21
+0%
21
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 63
+0%
63
+0%
Metro Exodus 44
+0%
44
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 35
+0%
35
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 15
+0%
15
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 17
+0%
17
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 10
+0%
10
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 36
+0%
36
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 12
+0%
12
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 26
+0%
26
+0%

This is how Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) and GTX 1660 compete in popular games:

  • GTX 1660 is 193% faster in 1080p
  • GTX 1660 is 880% faster in 1440p
  • GTX 1660 is 800% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Forza Horizon 4, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 1660 is 8600% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • GTX 1660 is ahead in 28 tests (39%)
  • there's a draw in 44 tests (61%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 3.69 30.27
Recency 1 October 2015 14 March 2019
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 6 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 12 nm

GTX 1660 has a 720.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, a 500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 133.3% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce GTX 1660 is our recommended choice as it beats the Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) in performance tests.

Be aware that Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5) 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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NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)
Maxwell GPU Surface Book (940M, GDDR5)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
GeForce GTX 1660

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


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Questions & comments

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