NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 Video Card Review @ [H]

Nice cards. The small PCB really has me thinking that I should sell my 7970's that I was intending to water cool. With them, I could fit a 60mm thick radiator in my RV02 with enough clearance to do a push/pull setup and still have breathing room. Decisions, decisions.
 
I'm impressed that even with a lower 122% power target, it was still able to overclock to GTX 680 overclock speeds. I guess the lower power draw/heat from the chip makes the difference - the GPU Boost tech is really starting to shine for Nvidia.
 
So the real question here is will people be distracted by the 670 long enough so the 690 doesn't go out of stock instantly? Still on my quest for getting a GTX 690.

xoleras
a question for you. Has the AMD Catalyst 12.4 with the latest Batman patch improved in game performance in Batman Arkham city. I remember you telling me it has improved performance greatly. SKYMTL from hardwarecanucks is telling there is no improvement in the in game performance and that only the built in benchmark performance has increased. Please clarify.
 
All fixed and noted previously. Thanks. And always feel free to email me with issues as those will get corrected faster that way. - Kyle
 
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xoleras
a question for you. Has the AMD Catalyst 12.4 with the latest Batman patch improved in game performance in Batman Arkham city. I.

The drivers didn't affect performance, the Batman: AC *patch* fixed crossfire, while it was broken with previous Batman: AC releases. With the new patch I get 95-99% gpu usage on both gpu's. The patch was released early march - with prior releases of Batman GPU usage was low on GPU 2 and thus crossfire did not benefit much. That was fixed with the patch. As far as skymtl, he certainly seems like an asshole/idiot in those posts, something not becoming of a hardware editor (only forum goers like me can be assholes! just kidding) I didn't test differences specifically between 12.3 and 12.4, but the main difference with crossfire was the Batman: AC patch. In game performance increased substantially, and performs well in game with both 12.3 and 12.4. I've been playing the game with 12.4.
 
Card is spelled wrong.

The GeForce GTX 670 looks to be a hell of a video car delivering the best performance per watt we have ever seen in the category while trouncing the competition. And given the GTX 670 card's overclocked performance, shown on page 7, encroaching into stock clock GTX 680 territory, we would suggest that we have somewhat of a "new Ti 4200" on our hands.
 
Yeah, this product seems to cannibalize nVidia's 680 line.

Not really, it's never the case with hardware that price scales exactly as performance. That's not to say that a lot of people looking to buy 680s won't go with the 670 as it certainly has a better price to performance ratio than the 680 and comes pretty close to the 680's performance but there will always be a market for those that want more and are willing to pay a premium for it, for example the 690.

But if I were looking for a GPU for single screen non-3D gaming particularly at 1080P I'd go with the 670 right now myself.
 
Suddenly the GTX690 has lost a lot of its "value".

A couple of 670 in sli will give you probably 95%+ of a GTX690 for $200 less. Plus in the coming months the 670 are much more likely to drop in price, while the GTX690 being a niche product will remain at $1,000 during its lifetime.
 
I find it interesting that comparing the GTX670 OC numbers to the XFX 7950 review overclock numbers, the 7950 beats the 670 average fps in Skyrim and Batman, and is within 4fps in Battlefield 3. Why don't you throw an overclocked 7950 into the overclocking comparison?
 
I find it interesting that comparing the GTX670 OC numbers to the XFX 7950 review overclock numbers, the 7950 beats the 670 average fps in Skyrim and Batman, and is within 4fps in Battlefield 3. Why don't you throw an overclocked 7950 into the overclocking comparison?

Probably because it's hard to compare overclocks in general since not all cards will overclock the same. [H] overclocking reviews are to show what you might get, not what you will get.
 
something tells me Nvidia has a lot of almost working GTX680 cores, i expect a ton of availabilty for the 670 and trickle of 680/690's, guessing they hope no-one notices but with performance so close no-one will care much - damn 28nm process eh.
 
The drivers didn't affect performance, the Batman: AC *patch* fixed crossfire, while it was broken with previous Batman: AC releases. With the new patch I get 95-99% gpu usage on both gpu's. The patch was released early march - with prior releases of Batman GPU usage was low on GPU 2 and thus crossfire did not benefit much. That was fixed with the patch. As far as skymtl, he certainly seems like an asshole/idiot in those posts, something not becoming of a hardware editor (only forum goers like me can be assholes! just kidding) I didn't test differences specifically between 12.3 and 12.4, but the main difference with crossfire was the Batman: AC patch. In game performance increased substantially, and performs well in game with both 12.3 and 12.4. I've been playing the game with 12.4.


xoleras
can you tell if single HD 7970 performance has also improved. SKYMTL denies any performance improvement in single card and accepts CF performance has improved in game.
 
Suddenly the GTX690 has lost a lot of its "value".

A couple of 670 in sli will give you probably 95%+ of a GTX690 for $200 less. Plus in the coming months the 670 are much more likely to drop in price, while the GTX690 being a niche product will remain at $1,000 during its lifetime.
Well I think it'll keep it's value because you get SLI performance without SLI woes plus the sexiness factor...

something tells me Nvidia has a lot of almost working GTX680 cores, i expect a ton of availabilty for the 670 and trickle of 680/690's, guessing they hope no-one notices but with performance so close no-one will care much - damn 28nm process eh.

I was thinking the same thing. I am also adding the reports I've been hearing on this and AT's forums about NV's yield problems with Kepler.
 
Well I think it'll keep it's value because you get SLI performance without SLI woes plus the sexiness factor...

What "woes" are you talking about? The 690 is basically SLI on a single board, so any inherent SLI issue (other than heat/power usage of two cards) is going to be the same.
 
something tells me Nvidia has a lot of almost working GTX680 cores, i expect a ton of availabilty for the 670 and trickle of 680/690's, guessing they hope no-one notices but with performance so close no-one will care much - damn 28nm process eh.

And this is why they are not hurting themselves to release a product so close in performance to their flagship at 80% of the price. In order to make the GK104 function as their flagship they have had to bin chips strictly and set the stock clocks aggressively close to the design's maximum potential. This has left them with both a thin supply of 680 cards and a lot of GK104s that didn't make the cut.

So of course the 670 will cannibalize 680 sales--that works out perfectly for them. Takes pressure off of the low-yield 680's inventory levels, uses up both the GK104's that had minor defects and the fully functional ones that couldn't clock high enough, and still priced high enough to reap fat profit from what would have been a $300 SKU. And between the two types of GK104 I mention that could be 670's, I doubt inventory will be a huge problem.

My guess is that stockholders will be very happy with NV by the end of the year.
 
Pretty impressive card, but I still think current gen cards are a tad overpriced, altho the 670 is priced properly relative to the competition... It's overpriced compared to last gen cards tho, where the second tier cards from the top were sub-$400 and even sub-$300 (GTX 570 / 6950). Hopefully competition finally starts driving prices down soon.

Still, I'm almost tempted to sell my two 6950 (2GB & unlocked/OC'd) and get a GTX 670... I think it'd be more of a sidegrade than anything for gaming at 5760x1200 but I'd probably break nearly even after selling the old cards and I'd avoid all the CF hassles with new games. Very tempting indeed, thoughts anyone?

Edit: I guess it's probably worth waiting to see what kinda price/performance two GTX 660s bring, is there any time frame for the rest of NV's lineup?
 
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Well I think it'll keep it's value because you get SLI performance without SLI woes plus the sexiness factor...

I agree that there's more to the GTX690 than just performance, but still.
 
670 = 560 TI SLI


FYI cause I know alota people were wondering how this compares to the 560 ti
 
Thanks for the review... impressive GPU this one is, that is for sure. I can't justify $500 for 680, but for some reason I can justify $400 for a 670. May be the first time in many years that I don't skip a generation upgrading my video card.

My favorite is the last paragraph of the article, in particular, the last part of the last sentence:

... we would suggest that we have somewhat of a "new Ti 4200" on our hands.

That GPU was beast for the money. A lot of kids that came to my LAN parties I hosted back in the day had OC'd Ti 4200s since they were relatively cheap and you could push a lot of extra performance out of them.

Kyle / Brent: minor typo in that last paragraph, first sentence. Missing "d" on card. (reminds me of my typing.
 
I just picked up two MSI reference 670s. Can't wait to get home and pull out my 6950s. TeeHee!
 
Still, I'm almost tempted to sell my two 6950 (2GB & unlocked/OC'd) and get a GTX 670... I think it'd be more of a sidegrade than anything for gaming at 5760x3600 but I'd probably break nearly even after selling the old cards and I'd avoid all the CF hassles with new games. Very tempting indeed, thoughts anytime?

wtf... you game with NINE screens?
 
What "woes" are you talking about? The 690 is basically SLI on a single board, so any inherent SLI issue (other than heat/power usage of two cards) is going to be the same.
You have a point. I had mis-understood that point of it still using SLI drivers and figured it out when I re-read the 690 review. But yea heat/power/spacing, cables, and everything else tied to using two physical cards instead of one.

670 = 560 TI SLI. FYI cause I know alota people were wondering how this compares to the 560 ti

I am one of those people, thanks for the info. I myself cannot wait for the 660's, especially if the physical card is smaller. I don't like having such a huge card in my case.
 
What "woes" are you talking about? The 690 is basically SLI on a single board, so any inherent SLI issue (other than heat/power usage of two cards) is going to be the same.
He may be referring to power consumption, noise and space constraints inherit to multi-card configurations. That's not to say that the 690 is a power sipper, but it's at least more efficient than a pair of similarly-specced cards
 
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670 = 560 TI SLI


FYI cause I know alota people were wondering how this compares to the 560 ti

I was thinking about this earlier, it would cost me about $190 to get another 560Ti here to go SLI, versus the $400 I spent on a Gigabyte 670 OC. I can probably get around $130-150 in value selling my 560Ti (as part of my old Q6700 PC), so the net cost is around $250-270, or in other words a premium of $60-80 to choose the 670. It's worth it to me to not have to deal with SLI, have much much lower power consumption/temps and noise. Plus the 670 appear to have more OC headroom, we will see.
 
Yes, unfortunately, I need 85% fan on my MSI ref 680 to keep the card around 60C. I can hear that if I am not wearing headphones, but I wear them often so it is not a big deal.

Ahh ok. The reason i was asking is because: they didnt mess with fan speed profiles to make it run cooler in their review. So...you could theoretically get a lower temp than 60c if you messed with the fan speed profiles on an oc'ed 670. Key word being "theoretically".
 
wtf... you game with NINE screens?

Typo, meant 5760x1200 obviously.

Anyone else considering selling their last-gen mid-range SLI/CF setup (560Ti / 6950) for a single GTX 670?
 
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I find it interesting that comparing the GTX670 OC numbers to the XFX 7950 review overclock numbers, the 7950 beats the 670 average fps in Skyrim and Batman, and is within 4fps in Battlefield 3. Why don't you throw an overclocked 7950 into the overclocking comparison?

the XFX HD 7950 OC (1195 Mhz) BF3 score of 54.2 fps is at 2560 x 1600 Ultra 2X MSAA + FXAA .

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/03/01/xfx_radeon_hd_7950_black_edition_video_card_review/8

The GTX 670 (1234 Mhz) score of 58.1 fps is at 2560 x 1600 Ultra FXAA .

So the performance if any would be better on HD 7950 OC at Ultra 2X MSAA + FXAA.

In Deux Ex the GTX 670 has no chance of getting to the XFX HD 7950 OC (1195 Mhz ) score of 79.4 fps at 2560 x 1600 given the XFX HD 7950 OC (900 Mhz) scores 61.0 fps and is faster than GTX 670 at 58.9 fps (980 Mhz turbo).

This proves again clock for clock the HD 7950 is faster than GTX 670. something most users will never understand and consider the GTX 670 as much faster. :D
 
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I wish I had a single 670 vs my 560ti SLI cause these 2 cards spew some good heat when full blast, I'd opt for less heat in my face.
 
Holding out for the 660. $250 is my max price point, so I hope they aren't $299.
 
Pretty impressive card, but I still think current gen cards are a tad overpriced, altho the 670 is priced properly relative to the competition... It's overpriced compared to last gen cards tho, where the second tier cards from the top were sub-$400 and even sub-$300 (GTX 570 / 6950). Hopefully competition finally starts driving prices down soon.

Still, I'm almost tempted to sell my two 6950 (2GB & unlocked/OC'd) and get a GTX 670... I think it'd be more of a sidegrade than anything for gaming at 5760x1200 but I'd probably break nearly even after selling the old cards and I'd avoid all the CF hassles with new games. Very tempting indeed, thoughts anyone?

Edit: I guess it's probably worth waiting to see what kinda price/performance two GTX 660s bring, is there any time frame for the rest of NV's lineup?

I honestly don't think it's overpriced compare to last gen. The GTX 570 launched at $350 and it doesn't have the same ROPs, memory clock, memory bus width and VRAM as the GTX 580. For the specs alone and therefore performance the GTX 670 comes pretty close to the GTX 680 so I think it's well-priced.
That's why I already placed an order for 1 to play around with and will get a 2nd after I sell my HD6970s. :)
 
Ahh ok. The reason i was asking is because: they didnt mess with fan speed profiles to make it run cooler in their review. So...you could theoretically get a lower temp than 60c if you messed with the fan speed profiles on an oc'ed 670. Key word being "theoretically".

Absolutely you could. And every card will be different, with some able to overclock great, some not.
 
something tells me Nvidia has a lot of almost working GTX680 cores, i expect a ton of availabilty for the 670 and trickle of 680/690's, guessing they hope no-one notices but with performance so close no-one will care much - damn 28nm process eh.

I agree! It's nice for them that chips that "fail" as 680s may make great 670s!!!
 
I honestly don't think it's overpriced compare to last gen. The GTX 570 launched at $350 and it doesn't have the same ROPs, memory clock, memory bus width and VRAM as the GTX 580. For the specs alone and therefore performance the GTX 670 comes pretty close to the GTX 680 so I think it's well-priced.
That's why I already placed an order for 1 to play around with and will get a 2nd after I sell my HD6970s. :)

Yeah, on technical merits alone I agree that it's actually a better value than the GTX 570 at launch, but the 6950 soon started to make 570 prices sag...

Hrm, I guess I'll see how much I can get for my 6950s in order to sidegrade to a 670, can always pick up a second 670 if prices drop by the end of the year. Would probably hold up better than a more hamstrung GTX 660, it's gonna be interesting to see what NV does with that or if they just keep the 570 around a while longer...
 
So...is there any reason left for anyone to buy a 7970? LOL
 
Yeah, on technical merits alone I agree that it's actually a better value than the GTX 570 at launch, but the 6950 soon started to make 570 prices sag...

Hrm, I guess I'll see how much I can get for my 6950s in order to sidegrade to a 670, can always pick up a second 670 if prices drop by the end of the year. Would probably hold up better than a more hamstrung GTX 660, it's gonna be interesting to see what NV does with that or if they just keep the 570 around a while longer...

I'd say that a GTX670 is a fair bit more than a sidegrade. Especially if you game at higher resolutions, the 670 has been to show 20% higher framerates at least, with more benefit at higher resolutions.

I ordered a GTX670 myself to go with my new zr30w, Diablo III is going to be awesome on that. Giving the 6950 to my wife, which is total overkill for her, but if it doesn't die, she shouldn't need to upgrade for a very long time.
 
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