My review: GeForce GTX 670 vs. GTX 680

[Mr. Damir]

My 670 showed up today, so I decided to install it, pack up my "old" 680 and send it off to the lucky ebay buyer. I've recorded some videos for you guys to watch, and will post pics.

The setup:








Video Review:

Part 1:

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Part 2:



Part 3:



Stock 670 3DMark11:
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3436626;jses...qeqcx9l6utu77h

Overclocked 670 3DMark11:
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3435891;jses...v1id30y0d9nrfn

Overclocked 680 3DMark11:
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3428150;jses...11dckupy47qzjz

Stock 680 3DMark11:
don't have it saved, but it was in the video.


Basically, it's a pretty damn good card. In stock form it boosts up to 1215MHz, and when OC up to 1280MHz, stable. The GTX still beats it in the 3D Mark 11 score byabout 900pts. but in real life they're pretty much close

[Hostile]

I wish it had $150 laying around so I could sell my 6870s and have enough to pickup a 670.

[Egilbe]

Why the downgrade?

[Minker17]

The 670 costs less and there is really very little performance difference between the two. Kind of like how you could buy a Sandy Bridge i7, but you really got the best bang for buck from the i5-2500k.

[Mr. Damir]

It's not a downgrade, it's more like getting another GTX680 that performs slightly slower or same than another 680.... but for $120 less.

[Egilbe]

ok, so why buy the 680? I understand it's a 10% performance boost for 25% more money.

[Minker17]

The 680 came out before the 670.

[Egilbe]

The 680 came out before the 670.

Yeah, i know...

[Mr. Damir]

Yeah, i know...

The 680 was faster and cheaper than the 7970 by about $50-70. Then 670 came out and it was cheaper than both 680 and 7970, while slightly beating 7970 and pretty even with 680.

Why keep the 680 at this point?

[Vision33r]

I think most GTX680 got screwed by Nvidia. The GTX670 is not only cheaper, it is every bit as fast and more efficient and better optimized.

Sure, there are benchmarks that the 680 will beat the 670 but not by much and with driver updates it should match it.

I'm not getting a 670 because I think the initial batch are too close to the reference design and not as good as upcoming ones that will feature better cooling designs.

[O_G]

I think most GTX680 got screwed by Nvidia. The GTX670 is not only cheaper, it is every bit as fast and more efficient and better optimized.

Sure, there are benchmarks that the 680 will beat the 670 but not by much and with driver updates it should match it.

I'm not getting a 670 because I think the initial batch are too close to the reference design and not as good as upcoming ones that will feature better cooling designs.

Nvidia cheaped out and went with heat pipes instead of a vapor chamber. The 580 has a vapor chamber, which is more efficient than a heat pipe cooler. The dual card has vapor chambers. If the 680 were to have a vapor chamber cooler it would be able to beat the 670 more readily.

[BRealistic]

Yo dawg. I saw you liked cooling fans on your graphics card....

[Vision33r]

1100MHZ/1200MHZ Core Clock speed. Full of Win here.

[Big Morgan]

Did you sell me my slightly-used Gigabyte GTX 680 OC?

Bought one on Ebay on the 13th.

Yo dawg. I saw you liked cooling fans on your graphics card....

By all accounts cooling will directly relate to overclock potential on the GTX 6xx series cards. The drivers will (essentially) downclock the card if it gets over 70* C.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/...cking_review/1

You can't go wrong with either of these cards. For me, by the time I talked the gf into letting me spend $400+ on a GPU going to $500+ wasn't an issue so I might as well.

[Max Rebo]

Yo dawg. I saw you liked cooling fans on your graphics card....

The 3-fan stock cooler is great. I wish they all came like that. I immediately replaced the single-fan shrouded cooler on my GTX 570 SC (like on the 680 above) with an Arctic Cooling Accelero 3-fan cooler. Huge difference, and much quieter, too. It was a major undertaking just to remove that stock cooler, though. I forget the exact number, but I think there were well over 20 screws to remove. Ugh...

Damir: How does the stock cooler on the 670 perform? I would assume equivalent to a similarly-designed aftermarket cooler, but you never know.

[Mr. Damir]

The 3-fan stock cooler is great. I wish they all came like that. I immediately replaced the single-fan shrouded cooler on my GTX 570 SC (like on the 680 above) with an Arctic Cooling Accelero 3-fan cooler. Huge difference, and much quieter, too. It was a major undertaking just to remove that stock cooler, though. I forget the exact number, but I think there were well over 20 screws to remove. Ugh...

Damir: How does the stock cooler on the 670 perform? I would assume equivalent to a similarly-designed aftermarket cooler, but you never know.

The stock "reference" cooler on the 670 performs slightly better than a reference 680 card, due to less heat.
The average load temps for the cards are:

670= 67-72c
680=67-77c

670 Windforce=59-69c
680 Windforce=62-70c

After 70c on either card, the thermal throttling will downclock the cards by 13MHz or more depending on temperature. So it's important to keep the case cooled, and maybe look into aftermarket cooling like Artic Cooling. If you hit the thermal throttling too high, the card downclock itself all the way down to 705MHz, in that case, restarting the PC is best.