Best 680 GTX (Factory OCs)

[Arthur Hucksake]

Hi folks,

Looking to replace my 570 SLI for a single 680 GTX for a number of reasons, but I am not a fan of overclocking graphics cards. CPUs i'm happy to, graphics cards not so much. (Bad experiences)

Therefore, I am looking for the best possible factory OC'd card. This way i'm more confident of getting a decent VRM plus it's less hassle.

Got my eyes on the MSI 680 Lightning (but I wouldn't get most out of it, no self OCing) and the Zotac AMP! edition.

Is there any in particular you would recommend?

 

[Arthur Hucksake]

Pulled the trigger on a Gainward Phantom 680 GTX.

 

[pgi947]

Either the KFA2 LTD OC or Lightning, both come with out of the box high boost speeds.

 

[arc@css]

Love the OP's name. Teehee...

 

[Gregster]

As an EVGA owner and a MSI Lightning owner, the lightning is the only choice. It clocks easily above my already high clocker EVGA.

 

[Kaapstad]

As an EVGA owner and a MSI Lightning owner, the lightning is the only choice. It clocks easily above my already high clocker EVGA.

+1

The MSI lightning is a very nice card I almost bought the GTX 580 version about a year ago.

 

[tonschk]

Either the KFA2 LTD OC or Lightning, both come with out of the box high boost speeds.

+1, I am just waiting to see this KFA2 LTD OC in to "this week offer"

 

[Arthur Hucksake]

I bagged a Gainward Phantom 680GTX for £420 in the end. Now that nvidia have forced MSI to disable the Lightnings main touted features, it didn't seem logical.

 

[whyscotty]

I bagged a Gainward Phantom 680GTX for £420 in the end. Now that nvidia have forced MSI to disable the Lightnings main touted features, it didn't seem logical.

Interesting-

Where does it say that about the MSI Lightnings?

Will be good to link that info

 

[IC3]

Gigabyte so far in my experiance best cooling and lowest noise produced

 

[Arthur Hucksake]

Interesting-

Where does it say that about the MSI Lightnings?

Will be good to link that info

Have a look at this.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2259776&page=3

There's more threads littered about.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1039124537

I sort of see where nVidia are coming from though.

Older versions had a different bios that seems to allow full control, but newer versions of Afterburner are phasing it out. Bit of a kick in the balls if you ask me, was a touted feature is being removed by nVidia.

I spent a fair while looking at reviews for this card and it was my initial choice, until I did some digging.

 

[pgi947]

Sounds like its only at software level, should be easily worked around IMO

The voltage regulators and the LN2 BIOS remain the same, seems more something implemented into AB.

Is Kepler really THAT fragile on the voltage front? Seems overly cautious on Nvidias part.

Edit: Remember MSI/AMD/Whoever removed 'unlocked clocks' for AMD cards in later versions of afterburner, a separate .dll file is required to fully unlock clocks. Could be a similar thing for the green team?