Best Games for GTX 660

The GeForce GTX 660 is a 2GB Kepler card from 2012. NVIDIA ended Game Ready driver support for Kepler in 2021, it lacks full DirectX 12 feature support, and that 2GB frame buffer is a hard wall in modern titles. If you still have one in 2026, you are not buying new games to push it — you are picking games that respect its limits: DirectX 9 to DirectX 11, 1080p or lower, and modest texture budgets.

I have tested this class of hardware in spare rigs for years. The pattern is consistent: the GTX 660 is still usable at 1080p Medium in games from roughly 2007-2015, and excellent for indie and esports titles that are CPU-light or well-threaded. It falls apart with high-resolution texture packs, forced TAA + upscaling pipelines, and open worlds that stream more than 2GB of VRAM. Expect stutter, not just low FPS, when you exceed VRAM.

What the GTX 660 can actually do

At 1080p with Medium settings and no MSAA, a healthy GTX 660 (especially the 2GB GDDR5 models) will do 60 fps in Source engine games, older Unreal Engine 3 games, and most 2D indies. It will do 40-60 fps in GTA V, Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and BioShock Infinite with tuned settings. It will struggle below 30 fps in Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, and any current Unreal Engine 5 port. Those are not settings problems — they exceed the memory bus, shader throughput, and driver path of the card.

The two failure modes to watch: VRAM spillover and driver timeouts in newer DX12-only games. If a game requires DX12 Ultimate, Shader Model 6.6, or hardware ray tracing, it will either refuse to launch or fall back to a broken render path. Check Steam system requirements for “DirectX: Version 11” support. If a game lists only Windows 10/11 64-bit + DX12 with 4GB+ VRAM minimum, skip it on this GPU.

Best competitive and lightweight games

For a GTX 660 system, this is the safest category. League of Legends, Valorant (720p/1080p Low), Rocket League, CS:GO Legacy / Counter-Strike: Source, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 all run at 60+ fps if your CPU is at least a 2nd- or 3rd-gen i5. Valorant and Fortnite Performance Mode are playable, but do not expect stable 144 Hz — your 1% lows will be in the 40s in busy fights due to CPU and VRAM limits.

Minecraft Java Edition (without heavy shaders), Terraria, Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire, Hades, Hollow Knight, and Vampire Survivors are essentially perfect on a GTX 660. They use under 1GB VRAM and care more about single-thread CPU speed. This is where being honest matters: you do not need to upgrade to enjoy these. A used SSD and 8-16GB of DDR3 RAM will improve load times more than any GPU tweak for these titles.

Best single-player games that still shine

This is where the GTX 660 gives you the most value per dollar. The sweet spot is 2010-2015 AAA: Skyrim Legendary Edition, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3, Borderlands 2, BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider (2013), Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Portal 2, Half-Life 2 + Episodes, Mass Effect 2 and 3, Dragon Age: Origins, The Witcher 2, and GTA V.

GTA V deserves special mention because it was unusually well-optimized for 2GB cards. At 1080p Normal/High mix, FXAA on, Population Density down, and Grass on Normal, 45-60 fps is realistic. Skyrim with the stock HD textures (not the 4K community packs) runs 55-60 fps outdoors on High. Dark Souls: Remastered, Dark Souls II, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning also run well because their texture budgets were designed for Xbox 360 / PS3-era VRAM.

Avoid on this card: Red Dead Redemption 2 (playable only at 720p Low with stutter), The Witcher 3 (25-35 fps on Low, heavy foliage drops), Fallout 4 in downtown Boston (VRAM spikes), and any game with mandatory high-res texture streaming like Starfield or Hogwarts Legacy. They will launch on some systems, but traversal stutter makes them unpleasant.

Performance snapshot at 1080p

These are realistic targets with a clean Windows 10 install, 8GB+ RAM, and driver version 473.81 (last Kepler driver branch), not best-case YouTube benchmarks:

Settings that actually help on 2GB

Turn down textures first, not resolution last. On Kepler, dropping from Ultra to High or Medium textures often gains more smoothness than dropping from 1080p to 900p, because it stops VRAM spill into system RAM. Second, disable MSAA entirely and use FXAA or SMAA if available. 4x MSAA at 1080p can cost 300-400MB alone. Third, cap shadows and draw distance to Medium, and turn off advanced PhysX, HairWorks, and HBAO+.

Do not waste time with Windows “game booster” tools. What helps is capping FPS to 60 or 50 with RivaTuner to smooth frame pacing, running games from an SSD, and keeping background browsers closed. Chrome with 20 tabs can eat more RAM than Skyrim itself on an 8GB system.

When to keep the GTX 660 and when to buy RTX

Keep the GTX 660 if you mainly play pre-2016 games, esports on a 60Hz monitor, or indie games, and your power supply is under 450W or you have an older Dell/HP prebuilt. The card sips power (140W TDP, single 6-pin) and works without a PSU upgrade, which is its last real advantage.

Upgrade if you want to play anything from the last five years at 1080p High, use DLSS, or get current security and game drivers. Even an entry-level modern card is 3-4x faster with 8GB+ VRAM and full DX12 support. For 1080p 60 fps today, shoppers usually compare a budget RTX 4060 graphics card for efficiency and DLSS 3, versus a 12GB RTX 3060 graphics card if you want extra VRAM for texture-heavy games like Hogwarts Legacy or modded Skyrim Special Edition.

The trade-off is cost and power: a true RTX upgrade usually means a 550W+ PSU with proper PCIe power, and current driver support for Windows 11. If you are on a very tight budget and only need a stopgap for older games without extra power connectors, some buyers look at an efficient low-profile GTX 1650 graphics card search as a bridge, but be honest with yourself — for new AAA games that is also already limited, and an RTX card with DLSS will age far better.

FAQ

Can a GTX 660 run GTA V and Elden Ring?

GTA V yes, at 1080p Normal/High mix around 45-60 fps. Elden Ring no, not practically — it needs 4GB+ VRAM and DX12, and will stutter under 30 fps even at 720p Low on a GTX 660.

How much VRAM does the GTX 660 have? Is 2GB enough?

Most GTX 660s have 2GB (some OEM models have 1.5GB). It is enough for games up to about 2015 at Medium textures. Modern games that list 4GB minimum will exceed it and cause hitching when you turn the camera.

What drivers should I use for GTX 660 in 2026?

Use the final Kepler branch (473.xx). You will not get new Game Ready optimizations. If a new game requires a newer driver version to launch, that is a sign the card is no longer supported for that title.

What is the cheapest sensible RTX upgrade from a GTX 660?

For 1080p, an 8GB RTX 4060-class card with DLSS is the efficient pick if your PSU can handle it. If you play modded or VRAM-heavy games and can find one near the same price, a 12GB RTX 3060-class card trades some efficiency for more memory headroom.