A few GTX 680 questions

[AssaTM]

Hey all, i'm looking to update my graphics card and i've decided to go with an Nvidia card as i'd like to get into using 3D vision in the future, so I decided the 670 or 680 is probably best for my needs. I game at 1920x1080 and i'd quite like the card to be able to play most games at, at least 60fps for the foreseeable future, but I wanted to ask was how does a reference 680 run the likes of Battlefield 3 and Crysis 2 with a slight overclock nowadays? are they consistently over 60fps on both or how low does the FPS dip? from the benchmarks etc I can see that they average around 60fps but that doesnt really tell the story of how far it can dip below that FPS in a large firefight or with a lot on screen etc, so I was just curious on if people recommend a reference 680 or if I should go for a custom PCB 680? if I buy a reference one then it will be watercooled so any noise/heat issues wont be a problem at all thank you for the help, it's hugely appreciated

 

[Gregster]

With my 680 reference EVGA, I play 64 man MP at over 60fps with a clock boost of 150mhz.

 

[Rusty0611]

With my 680 reference EVGA, I play 64 man MP at over 60fps with a clock boost of 150mhz.

+1

I very rarely drop under 60fps, if ever to be honest. Everytime I bother to load FRAPS up I never notice a number under 60. This is with max settings @ 1080p in BF3.

Overclock settings in signature.

NB: These overclock settings provided around 10 FPS more for me. Really good IMO.

 

[AssaTM]

Ahhh thats great to hear as I was worried since I want the card to last a while I may end up needing to buy a modified GTX 680 to maybe get a bit more juice out of it, but it sounds like the reference 680 will be just fine as there wont be many games that push it as much as BF3 or Crysis 2, thank you for the help guys

 

[neilo67]

+1

I very rarely drop under 60fps, if ever to be honest. Everytime I bother to load FRAPS up I never notice a number under 60. This is with max settings @ 1080p in BF3.

Overclock settings in signature.

NB: These overclock settings provided around 10 FPS more for me. Really good IMO.

did you need to change voltage at all with those setting ? will it go higher do you know ?

 

[Rusty0611]

did you need to change voltage at all with those setting ? will it go higher do you know ?

Voltage is automatically controlled so no changing it from my end. I wish I could change it as there's more there to get at on my card if I could alter it

 

[OptimaLnrg]

^ max voltage on reference / most non-ref pcbs is 1.175v in software, 1.21v by hardware limitation

 

[Gregster]

Ahhh thats great to hear as I was worried since I want the card to last a while I may end up needing to buy a modified GTX 680 to maybe get a bit more juice out of it, but it sounds like the reference 680 will be just fine as there wont be many games that push it as much as BF3 or Crysis 2, thank you for the help guys

Your welcome and good luck

Voltage is automatically controlled so no changing it from my end. I wish I could change it as there's more there to get at on my card if I could alter it

This realy winds me up. The card is far better than we are seeing and yet I can't push it further because of the stupid voltage control. I hate it.

 

[neilo67]

Voltage is automatically controlled so no changing it from my end. I wish I could change it as there's more there to get at on my card if I could alter it

thanks will be getting mine tomorrow

 

[OptimaLnrg]

1.21v by hardware limitation

source for this btw:

http://www.overclockers.com/guide-to-nvidia-gtx680-modifications/

NVIDIA limited the voltage range to max 1.21 V by hardware, having MSB VID6 and VID7 tied to 1 and 0 by hardware (direct connect to power and ground by trace). So if you want VID more than 1.21 V, then need to cut VID6 connection to VCC and manually connect to GND. Because VID7 is already tied to GND, I just shorted those two pins together with piece of thin wire.