Who has bought the Nvidia 670 cards

[Boge]

Actually with a bit of care I just managed to get the tape off the paper lables without causing too much damage. A couple of corners lost but the info is still all there. Right. I'm off to mess around.............

 

[OCPete]

Actually with a bit of care I just managed to get the tape off the paper lables without causing too much damage. A couple of corners lost but the info is still all there. Right. I'm off to mess around.............

Your lucky then. My sticker disintegrates when i try to remove the tape.

Nevermind. Roll on play time tonight when i get to install it!

 

[straxusii]

(as a side note if you compare the 480 and 680 performance at 2560x1600 then it shows a 52% speed increase over 2 generations which doesn't sound like all that much but then 400->500 series wasn't really a massive change.)

A generation change is only when the die shrink occurs for me so 8800->280->480->680

I did a comparison before but basically 480->680 is the worst gain in recent times, even 280->480 was better

 

[bhavv]

 

[MichaelM]

A generation change is only when the die shrink occurs for me so 8800->280->480->680

I did a comparison before but basically 480->680 is the worst gain in recent times, even 280->480 was better

What about going from 470 -> 680

 

[Stoner81]

I am absolutely amazed that the GTX480 is still a decent card after all this time and even more so with these new cards out. At this rate the time for me to upgrade will be after Haswell and the GTX8xx cards are out (or whatever nVidia do ).

Stoner81.

 

[Sasahara]

A generation change is only when the die shrink occurs for me so 8800->280->480->680

I did a comparison before but basically 480->680 is the worst gain in recent times, even 280->480 was better

I'll point out the 680 isn't the top end of this generation, if there wasn't production problems and the GK104 being so good we'd have the GK110 which should be a huge jump over the 480/580.

 

[Kelt]

i dont think they have
remember the 680 is massively overpriced due to demand

the real price should be 380-400 not the 460+ it is currently
the price of the 670 will probably be around 300-320 and im sure there will be loads of people happy to pay an extra ~£80 for a 680 over a 670

Spot on. The fact that the Gigabyte was originally at £315 elsewhere tells you what these should have been priced at.

 

[bhavv]

Since the GTX 480 aka the Fermi Microwave Grill, most improvements have gone into increasing performance while also lowering power consumption, the result being this:

Spot on. The fact that the Gigabyte was originally at £315 elsewhere tells you what these should have been priced at.

They are $399 in the US, and still are after selling out fast.

 

[Vegeta]

Should I go from a GTX 480 to a GTX 670? It bothers me how hot it runs and i'd like BF3 to be a bit more stable. And in laymans terms whats the differences between small pcb anf lon pcb cards?

 

[OptimaLnrg]

Should I go from a GTX 480 to a GTX 670? It bothers me how hot it runs and i'd like BF3 to be a bit more stable. And in laymans terms whats the differences between small pcb anf lon pcb cards?

The longer pcb is the same pcb that manufacturer uses for their 680.

it *may* give you you better overclocking results. It seems on average to swing that way so far. Maybe the 670 reference pcb has a lower voltage limit? Can't say without someone taking it to bits and examining the power delivery.

 

[Vegeta]

If it just for overclocking for which I cba anyways i'm better off getting the cheapest one right? Although I would like it to be cool and quiet.

 

[andybird123]

the voltage is the same, they are all locked to 1.175v max on the GPU core
the only difference seems to be the better cooler and possibly hand picked chips on the more expensive ones

 

[andybird123]

The longer pcb is the same pcb that manufacturer uses for their 680.

it *may* give you you better overclocking results. It seems on average to swing that way so far. Maybe the 670 reference pcb has a lower voltage limit? Can't say without someone taking it to bits and examining the power delivery.

I'm not so sure, there seems to be a spread of low clocking long cards and a few high clocking small cards, there doesn't seem really to be a firm pattern one way or the other, they all seem to be able to hit 1200ish with a few cards hitting high 1200's completely stable, one of those is the EVGA SC which is a reference pattern card, and the formal reviews of windforce and KFA EX OC I've seen both say 1250ish

 

[OptimaLnrg]

I'm not so sure, there seems to be a spread of low clocking long cards and a few high clocking small cards, there doesn't seem really to be a firm pattern one way or the other

As with any overclocking it's a silicon lottery.

If the voltage is the same there's probably little difference tbf.

If I was getting one I'd go for the long pcb version just so I don't have cables all over the place

 

[Vegeta]

I don't see the point in paying £40 extra for a better cooler when a Zalman cooler they typically bring out better than all 99% of the coolers designed by the manufacturers is better at a price of about £40 max.

What is this nvidia boost thing aswell? Back in my day (ha) you overclock your card or you don't. Is it auto overclocking? Does it find the most stable overclock by itself without you having to anymore? If so how accurate is it?

 

[OCPete]

As with any overclocking it's a silicon lottery.

If the voltage is the same there's probably little difference tbf.

If I was getting one I'd go for the long pcb version just so I don't have cables all over the place

Not sure thats quite right in my experience. Keeping the chip cooler can help with overclocking even at the same voltage. Heat is one of the factors that prevents a chip running at a given speed. For example my 480 was only a fair overclocker with the referance cooler, but as soon as i slapped a Zalman on it and cooled it right down for the same stock voltage it would clock a lot higher.

Thus for the same stock voltage and the same quality GPU (non binned) should clock higher on a non-referance card if the enhanced cooler does indeed work.

If you get a binned chip with the more expensive non-referance cards then the difference will be even more.

 

[Reaper123]

Well i think if you spend too much time wondering if the product can be found elsewhere cheaper and whether its worth the money you ll never make a decision. Am not saying you shouldnt do your homework but for the people that bought the gtx 680 at a much higher prices there is no point in regretting your past choices, just be happy with what you have. I was initialy planning on waiting a few days before i finish my exams to start ordering the components for building a new rig. However i found myself obsessing with finding the best performance/value deals and spending too much valuable time on reading reviews instead of studying. I ve been doing that for almost 2 months now...Therefore i decided it was better to just go along with it, order everything and stop worrying about all the minor details. I just ordered an i7 3770k , the phanteks cooler and the windforce GTX 670, power suppy and ssd came today whereas the mobo came yesterday. I wonder how many times faster will my new setup be compared to my Dell Studio 1737 laptop lol (Dual Core T9400, 4 gb 800mhz ram, onboard hd 3650 mobility dell version, almost 4years old )Hahahahha

 

[OptimaLnrg]

Not sure thats quite right in my experience. Keeping the chip cooler can help with overclocking even at the same voltage. Heat is one of the factors that prevents a chip running at a given speed. For example my 480 was only a fair overclocker with the referance cooler, but as soon as i slapped a Zalman on it and cooled it right down for the same stock voltage it would clock a lot higher.

Thus for the same stock voltage and the same quality GPU (non binned) should clock higher on a non-referance card if the enhanced cooler does indeed work.

If you get a binned chip with the more expensive non-referance cards then the difference will be even more.

I'm just talking about the type of pcb (670 ref vs 680custom) itself in response to Vegeta.

I guess I should've been clearer, lol. My bad.

Also people should note I did say *may* help overclocking headroom, because I have no idea about the power delivery on 670 ref board. I know the voltage is hardware limited on most 680s slightly above what the software will cap it at.

Tbh I'm just interested, because I already have 680s on order.

 

[andybird123]

IF Nvidia fix the X79/pcie3.0 problem I might get a 670, and I will probably water cool it with a GPU only block (and passive sinks on everything else)