Reviews - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 graphics card

[Terbinator]

AT wrote in their review that it appears the cards are binned on faulty SMX units, not clockspeed. Possible explanation for the performance being all over the show.

[Tarinder]

I can give you a bit more insight into the GPU Boost frequencies of a partner card. We have a KFA2 GTX 670 EX OC card in atm. It is clocked in at a default 1,006MHz core and 1,085MHz GPU Boost, based on NVIDIA's average frequency-adjusting speed.

However, tested inside a Corsair 600T chassis with the ambient temperature at 24°C, we can log the frequencies in each of our real-world games and then present them to you. The following core/shader clock is the one that is running the majority of the time in the following games, though it does drop just a touch when dealing with particularly intensive gaming sections.

AvP

1,188.9MHz

Batman

1,175.8MHz

Battlefield 3

1,188.9MHz

Crysis 2

1,188.9MHz

Just Cause 2

1,175.8MHz

Shogun

1,175.8MHz

What you can see from these results is that the GPU Boost is far more aggressive than NVIDIA alludes to, to the tune of being around 100MHz higher. This is the reason why the GTX 670 benchmarks so well; it bombs past its nominal GPU Boost, which equates to an 80MHz uptick over default. Memory speeds remain at the default 6,008MHz. Compare this with a stock GTX 680 and the in-game speeds are higher for this second-rung partner GPU.

Now considering that the card we have is being sold by retailers across the country it is unlikely to have been cherry picked. We can't know this for sure until we receive an identical card from the stock of a retailer, absolutely, but the feeling is that NVIDIA's declared GPU Boost frequency for the GTX 670 is way too conservative. Indeed, as you will see tomorrow, this partner-overclocked GTX 670 is as fast as a stock GTX 680.

Bottom line is that the highly aggressive nature of GPU Boosting on GTX 670s makes them an even better buy, though, on the flipside, you may not have too much scope to manually overclock the card much further.

[Terbinator]

You should really do (if you have the time/resources) an in-depth guide on the boosting 'feature'.

Someone asked me what i could squeeze out of my reference Gigabyte GTX680 on the Aria forums and i said to him i hadn't bothered looking due to how unpredictable it is. I've seen my card hit 1300MHz (another dude claims he hits around 1350), give or take, under Batman: AC, yet, in that early 670 thread on overclcokers.net they're saying 1300MHz is the best you can hope for with a balls to wall clock for a 680.

In addition to that, playing something as graphically frugal as League of Legends keeps my card at 1006MHz, yet it runs at a near constant 1058MHz in BF3 - in terms of extra TDP/clocking headroom being available, you/I would expect those results to be the other way round.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

IIRC hardware.fr tested two cards and they could get upto a 5% difference in framerates (in other cases the difference was negligible). Not huge but it does probably explain why some reviews show the GTX680 and HD7970 being closer together and others showing a much larger difference.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Nice looking card - it seems many people wasted money on their GTX680 cards though.

how did u work that out?

edit:
So any point getting a 680gtx for £100 extra?

for £100 extra i can buy a waterblock plus throw the rest of the funds for charity for teh same price as a 680gtx.

Im all for high end gear but not if their is an alternative thats £100+ cheaper and only 1-2fps slower

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Still a bit pricey in absolute terms, but when compared with other cards it's pretty good in relative price.

Seems nvidia have done it again with the GTX670. I don't understand why they don't make the cooler shorter though, they could make it 6.5" by the looks of things and then it'd be the best SFF graphics card!

Look at the PCB of the GTX560SE:

http://www.techpowerup.com/162296/ZO...TX-560-SE.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/162342/In...-Pictured.html

It seems the general layout of the GTX670 PCB looks similar.

I suspect the cooler could be shorter. However,a larger cooler probably is needed since it seems the GTX670 does boost clocks quite a large amount.

However,it does raise the possibility of a single slot version with a reasonable length cooler.

how did u work that out?

edit:
So any point getting a 680gtx for £100 extra?

for £100 extra i can buy a waterblock plus throw the rest of the funds for charity for teh same price as a 680gtx.

Im all for high end gear but not if their is an alternative thats £100+ cheaper and only 1-2fps slower

I assume you are overclocking if you are using water cooling?? I suspect from what Tarinder says the GTX680 probably will gain more performance from overclocking due to less agressive core boost. Of course an HD7970 probably would also be worth considering too especially if they start hitting nearer to £300 to £325.

[jonathan_phang]

However,it does raise the possibility of a single slot version with a reasonable length cooler

I'm pretty certain that I saw a single slot version on one of the foreign sights (linked to in one of the other 670 threads). Would be nice to be able to get back to decent single slot cards too!

JP

[j.o.s.h.1408]

yes i will be OCing it mate.

[DDY]

Because the 670 PCB is as short as an ITX board; given a suitably sized cooler we could build a really small gaming rig.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

yes i will be OCing it mate.

It might be worth checking the HD7970 too as it seems to be decent for overclocking.

Because the 670 PCB is as short as an ITX board; given a suitably sized cooler we could build a really small gaming rig.

It seems there is a single slot GTX670:

http://www.techpowerup.com/165510/Ga...e-GTX-670.html

The cooler looks quite long.

I suspect,even though the PCB is short,the TDP is not low enough for a smaller cooler as the card still needs two PCI-E power connectors.

It looks like the AFOX HD7850 1GB is probably the only single slot card of reasonable length,which has decent performance.

[DDY]

I suspect,even though the PCB is short,the TDP is not low enough for a smaller cooler as the card still needs two PCI-E power connectors.

I was thinking along the lines of modding somthing 'suitable', perhaps a taller heatsink or water cooling, not put together in a conventional ITX case mind.

Remeber that ITX board with the reversed PCIe slot? I think that would be nice, especially if the GPU and CPU heatsink could fit in such a way they can be cooled with a single fan.

[HalloweenJack]

would love to see a compare of say HD 6850`s in CF or gtx 460`s in SLI

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I was thinking along the lines of modding somthing 'suitable', perhaps a taller heatsink or water cooling, not put together in a conventional ITX case mind.

Remeber that ITX board with the reversed PCIe slot? I think that would be nice, especially if the GPU and CPU heatsink could fit in such a way they can be cooled with a single fan.

TBH,going with a taller cooler or a water cooler also negates the space saved by going for a shorter card. You might as well go for a Shuttle or a larger mini-ITX case and shoehorn a much cheaper normal card into the case(once you added the extra cost of the water cooler) and add some soundproofing.

Even my modded G2 case with a full length HD5850 1GB is small but if anything you also have to accommodate a suitable PSU. A reasonable quality 400W SFF PSU is much bigger than a DC-DC PSU. Even the 500W PSU in my Shuttle is very small for its rated power but still takes up a decent amount of the length of my modded G2 case.

Also,cooling a GTX670 and a CPU off the same fan?? After I looked at more reviews of the GTX670(dependent on the review you read) I realised it has around HD7870 or HD7950 level power consumption - it is not that low power for the purposes you are talking about. The GPU is going to be significantly harder to cool than the CPU in this case. For its performance level however,the GTX670 does have excellent power consumption,but for shoehorning into a very small SFF PC,it is still too high IMHO. A Shuttle or a Sugo should be fine though. Now a Lian Li Q11 might be OK if the cooler was shorter but again there is the issue of expelling the hot air,ie, a dual slot blower cooling would be superior.

Even an HD7850 which produces less heat would be pushing it in a very small case,with a short single slot cooler. It is the reason why the single slot GTX670 cards are not that short.

When the GTX660 and lower Kepler cards are released,they would probably be a better fit for a single slot cooler IMHO,but,for a very small gaming system,ideally we would be looking at short PCB bus powered cards. I would like to see how the GK107 desktop derivatives look like.

[DDY]

CAT, you're no fun...

Just watch!*

*Once I win the Euro Millions because I'm not paying £330 for a graphics card

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

CAT, you're no fun...

Just watch!*

*Once I win the Euro Millions because I'm not paying £330 for a graphics card

You could make a scratch build with a case similar in shape to a Q7 or a Q11. The top part could be reserved for the reservoir and pumps. There are micro-pumps available(look on OcUK) but cooling the graphics card will be more problematic. The IB Core i5 CPUs can be had in 45W and 65W TDP flavours but the graphics card will be at least two or three times that.

Having said that it will be interesting to see the real world TDP of the GTX560SE compared to the GTX670.

The PCB of the GTX560SE is similar in arrangement and length to a GTX670:

http://www.techpowerup.com/161312/Ga...nchmarked.html

The dual slot cooler is quite short and should fit fine in a case like a Q11.

I suspect the GTX670 TDP is higher overall,but it does open the door open for a GTX670 Green Edition. Hopefully,the GTX660 can suffice with a short cooler like the GTX560SE.

[=assassin=]

Seems like a good card compared to competition, but still far too pricey for me.