Acquired an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER!

Previously, I had built a minimum-spec 3D PC gaming environment using a GTX 1050—roughly equivalent to a PS4.

The next step was to build an environment where Monster Hunter World: Iceborne runs comfortably, and hopefully, one that can also handle the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds smoothly.

Things moved a bit faster than expected, but I managed to score one!

I was keeping a watchful eye on Yahoo! Auctions when I spotted an HP-branded graphics card listed simply as '1660S.' With zero bids, I decided to place a bid, and no one else bid until the end, winning it at the starting price.

I was a bit nervous because the description mentioned something like 'might not work,' but when it arrived, it came in its box and the fan and heatsink were completely dust-free—super clean. Is this an unused item? It was probably an optional add-on for HP PCs. The Yahoo! Auctions title and description were definitely botched.

Just as expected, the GTX 1660 Super easily ran Monster Hunter World: Iceborne at FHD (1920x1080) and 60 FPS. Tinkering with a PC for the first time in about 20 years is so much fun. I ended up making a super cheap gaming PC, though I still have some tough work ahead.

Before the card even arrived, I realized my next step would require a graphics card with auxiliary power, so I hurriedly prepared an extra power supply for it (which is generally quite irregular at this stage) so I could test it right away.

I had somewhat anticipated this and was already planning to prepare a power supply. The materials included an ATX power supply I had stripped from an old PC body when I bought the GTX 1050, plus a 6-pin to 8-pin GPU adapter cable I found while browsing at Hard Off. It cost 300 yen, and though I hesitated, I grabbed it just in case. I always wondered why one of the COM pins wasn't connected; it seems to be wired in a pattern where even though it's an 8-pin, it can only supply the 75W of a 6-pin. Makes sense. Though I wish the 12V wiring was yellow instead of red—so close.

And this time, I was wondering about the 1660 Super. The required power is 125W, and since 75W is supplied via the PCI Express slot, the required auxiliary power should be 50W. Therefore, a 6-pin supplying 75W should be enough, but for some reason, the 1660 Super's auxiliary power connector is an 8-pin. By that logic, it should have been a 6-pin. It was a bit of a mystery, but the conclusion is that unless you connect the COM wiring for an 8-pin 150W setup (connecting 5 of the 8 pins to ground), it wouldn't run properly. So cards with auxiliary power probably run entirely on the power coming from the auxiliary line.

I removed the useless DVD drive to place the additional power supply here.

The extra power supply (left, with the cover removed)—ready and waiting, bring it on, 1660S!

The arrived graphics card came in a sturdy box. Since there are no manufacturer logos or product names on it anywhere, it's likely a graphics card prepared by HP as an option for expanding their own PCs. That's probably why there wasn't much of a description in the Yahoo! Auctions listing, which is how I managed to grab it cheap without anyone else biting.

The 1660 graphics card has arrived (right) and it's extremely clean—not a single speck of dust. Could this actually be an unused item? The 1050 I got previously was packed solid with dust between the fan and heatsink.

In terms of size, it's full-height, but it doesn't extend very far backward, making it compact. This looks like a perfect fit for a Fujitsu ESPRIMO. There was a little bit of oil on it, and a sticker was cut. I wonder if that happened during handling.

It takes up two slots vertically, and as expected, the heatsink and fan portion overhangs the connectors below. The 1050 was a low-profile card so it barely managed to avoid interference, but since this board is full-height, it completely interferes with the LAN connector. I anticipated this, and to work around it, the options were either to shift the PCIe slot position of a riser card by one slot or remove the LAN port.

Since I wanted to test it quickly this time, I temporarily removed the fan and heatsink from the graphics card, installed it in the PC, and decided to run my evaluation.

Card installed! I took off the heatsink and placed it to the side just so some air would hit it. Is this okay? Absolutely do not try this at home. I kept touching it to check if it was getting too hot, but in the end, this setup didn't go well—while taking time to install drivers and such, it suffered from thermal throttling and kept crashing.

First, I tried booting up without turning on the external power supply. A picture appeared—score! But there was some noise around the screen, and a message popped up telling me to connect the external power supply. Good to know it gives a clear message; I heard some graphics cards won't display anything at all.

Turn on the external power supply! To turn on an external power supply, you short the pin with the green wire and the pin with the black ground wire on the power connector. Like this, poking precision tweezers into the connector holes to create a short. Be careful, because if you mess up, you might get a snap or a zap, burn something out, and ruin everything. It takes quite a bit of courage.

Supplying power to the auxiliary connector brought up the Fujitsu logo. This is a win!

Yes, the image displayed correctly. Victory!

Drivers recognized successfully. The 1660SS was indeed a 1660 SUPER. Victory!

Because I had removed the heatsink fan, it failed to output video due to heat, hung up, and had me running back and forth reinstalling drivers via remote desktop, but things stabilized once I properly attached the heatsink fan and supplied 150W with the 5 COM pins connected for auxiliary power.

A few days later, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is running smoothly too. 4K at 60 FPS. Pretty much hitting the mark.

So smooth.