Pro/Con GTX 670 Asus top vs Gigabyte

Droc

Droc

2[H]4U
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Mar 20, 2007
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Comparing the two, the Gigabyte is cheaper but the Asus TOP is to have a better chip(and is $30 more and harder to find in Canada).

Would I be doing myself wrong by going with the gigabyte?
 
perfect, thanks. All I hear is people talking about the TOP, but it seems like apples to apples to me.
 
Both are great.

Asus GTX 670 DCII TOP
+ Extremely quiet at load (main selling point to me)
+ Better cooler than reference
+ High factory overclock
+ Back plate
- ~$30 more than reference

Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce
+ Better Cooler Than Reference
+ Same Price as Reference (best part!)
+ Full Gigabyte GTX 680 PCB and power connectors (8+6)
- Slightly lower factory OC compared to Asus TOP
- No back plate (Evga Back Plate fits, but $25)

Apparently some people don't like Blue PCB...

I wouldn't worry about a higher factory overclock, its a nice guarantee, but most likely you will be able to overclock a card with a good cooler to those numbers.

I got the Asus myself because noise was most important to me.
 
Both are good cards yet I bought the Asus because you get that 30 dollars extra you pay back in many ways. Backplate for looks stability and increased cooling. Performance aside the components on the Asus are of higher quality (DIGI+ VRM and 8-phase super alloy power technology ect) and because of this I expect to achieve more in the OC department. I am expecting 1250+ Boost core speeds out of the box. From what I read that would be a high end OC on the gigabyte model at 1300 being max on it. But if you really are an "apples to apples" mentality person you might not agree with me because when I pick out my apples to consume I also make sure they are of the highest quality possible. Also dont tell me you like that awful blue pcb and shiny plastic cooler... nuff said.
 
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I love my Asus TOP gtx 680. Best Card Ive owned.

Only con is:

- Doesnt have a damn vram heatsink for the memory. The rest of the card is beast but to leave off a simple little aluminum heatsink is shitty and the power delivery, vrm, heatsink is not very effective.

Other than that I am in love with the card. OC could be higher but hey its good enough.
 
hammerforged said:
I love my Asus TOP gtx 680. Best Card Ive owned.

Only con is:

- Doesnt have a damn vram heatsink for the memory. The rest of the card is beast but to leave off a simple little aluminum heatsink is shitty and the power delivery, vrm, heatsink is not very effective.

Other than that I am in love with the card. OC could be higher but hey its good enough.
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The Gtx 670 version has a vrm heatsink. I dont know why they dont use this same cooler on the 680... The tri slot cooler has more heat pipes but only 3 of the 5 contact the core chip (670 has 3 heat pipes all making contact with the chip along with being only a 2 slot card) And from what your saying there is no vrm heatsink wtf are they doing with that.
 
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Cheatdeath said:
The Gtx 670 version has a vrm heatsink. I dont know why they dont use this same cooler on the 680... The tri slot cooler has more heat pipes but only 3 of the 5 contact the core chip (670 has 3 heat pipes all making contact with the chip) And from what your saying there is no vrm heatsink wtf are they doing with that.
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Yeah the asus 670 and 680 have no memory (vram) heatsinks and the 670 has a very similar vrm heatsink as the 680 for the power delivery. From what I can tell.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/4.html

My thoughts EXACTLY. Another user posted a pic of the 680 version with the heatsink off and like you said only 3 of the pipes actually touch the chip ha. I mean my temps are absolutely amazing but not the best design out there. Maybe it was for the GK110 ;)

None the less though this is the best card I've owned and I am very impressed with it overall.
 
What's the noise like on the Windforce?

I've currently been hanging out for the 680 or 670 Windforces to appear on Amazon direct (I'm in Australia), as I've heard they are pretty quiet, and only take up two slots, as opposed to the Asus which takes up three.

I've got a reference 680 at the moment, and overclocked and fan up to 75%, it's fairly loud, so quietness is my aim, but I do intend to SLI down the track, so the number of slots it takes up is important too.

Is the Windforce much louder than the Asus TOP?
 
I am curious about how these cards compare as well. It appears that they are close in quality. Perhaps Gigabyte is simply pricing their 670 more aggressively.
 
shadowman said:
What's the noise like on the Windforce?

I've currently been hanging out for the 680 or 670 Windforces to appear on Amazon direct (I'm in Australia), as I've heard they are pretty quiet, and only take up two slots, as opposed to the Asus which takes up three.

I've got a reference 680 at the moment, and overclocked and fan up to 75%, it's fairly loud, so quietness is my aim, but I do intend to SLI down the track, so the number of slots it takes up is important too.

Is the Windforce much louder than the Asus TOP?
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I can't even hear my Windforce over my H100 & GT AP-15's even at load. I am coming from SLI GTX 470's and those things sounded like a wind tunnel.

To the OP, either card is nice. I would go with whichever you can find at the price that you are happy with. Both have been shown to overclock well and stay cool even when OC'd. My card can run 1250 MHz core without going over 60c-65c in stress testing. Great card.
 
After reading reviews I chose the Asus 670 top because of quietness. Right now I have two GTS 450s in SLI, and the GPUs at idle are MUCH louder than the two H100s cooling my CPUs when under full load running folding@home on the same system...

I'm hoping the Asus 670 top falls under the noise floor of my H100s under full load, but I'm not sure if that is setting the bar too high or too low in this case.
 
Sgraffite said:
After reading reviews I chose the Asus 670 top because of quietness. Right now I have two GTS 450s in SLI, and the GPUs at idle are MUCH louder than the two H100s cooling my CPUs when under full load running folding@home on the same system...

I'm hoping the Asus 670 top falls under the noise floor of my H100s under full load, but I'm not sure if that is setting the bar too high or too low in this case.
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It should. My Windforce does.

I've seen two reviews that list noise levels for the Asus card. One review measured 25 dBa at full load and the other measured 37 dBa. Big difference, but I think the case and how the cards were tested makes a huge difference in sound output. I couldn't find a review of the H100 from either of those sites, hoping they would have a similar testing methodology that I could use to get some sort of an idea of the noise levels, but no luck. I haven't found a site that reviewed the Windforce that did a proper noise level test. Vortez has a good review, but they basically just say the card couldn't be heard above the H100 with stock fans on low speed.

EDIT: Guru3D did review a H70 though and got 44 dBa at full load while their review of the Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP was 37 dBa at full load.
 
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fwrigley said:
It should. My Windforce does.

I've seen two reviews that list noise levels for the Asus card. One review measured 25 dBa at full load and the other measured 37 dBa. Big difference, but I think the case and how the cards were tested makes a huge difference in sound output. I couldn't find a review of the H100 from either of those sites, hoping they would have a similar testing methodology that I could use to get some sort of an idea of the noise levels, but no luck. I haven't found a site that reviewed the Windforce that did a proper noise level test. Vortez has a good review, but they basically just say the card couldn't be heard above the H100 with stock fans on low speed.

EDIT: Guru3D did review a H70 though and got 44 dBa at full load while their review of the Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP was 37 dBa at full load.
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Ya, unfortunately there are a lot of variables involved. Such as what CPU under full load? What case? etc. I guess I am just being hopeful as both of my H100s are fairly quiet, as well as being set on low. Currently it is just the video cards that makes noise.
 
Both are find cards, but I think the Asus is a bit overrated, especially since the TPU review. I think the Gigabyte Windforce has an advantage with the VRAM heatsink.
 
I can't speak for the ASUS. My Gigabyte is real quiet at load (with OC and auto fan) and runs always under 70deg (actually that's a lie. got to 72 with a longish sesh overclocking with furmark :p)

But yeah, virtually silent.....still gonna watercool it so it doesn't feel out of place in my rig and EK make the best backplates imo.
 
Blkout said:
Both are find cards, but I think the Asus is a bit overrated, especially since the TPU review. I think the Gigabyte Windforce has an advantage with the VRAM heatsink.
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Care to link me to the TPU review of the Asus 670 DirectCU II because I cant find one.
 
The GB Windforce is very quiet. After a few hours of BF3 (64 player max details) my temps peaked at 61c with fan speed maxing out at 41%. I cannot distingush the fan noise at 41% over my NH-D14 CPU cooler (2x 1200rpm 120/140mm Noctua fans). It is a bit quieter than my 560Ti Twin Frozr II was, and SIGNIFICANTLY quieter than my old GTX 280 blower (I will never own a blower again).

I have a quiet focused case (Corsair 550D) with the side/top panels closed. Video card is at factory OC (boosts to 1176MHz).

VERY happy with the Windforce, paid $399CAD on release day at NCIX, picked it up in person day 1 too :).
 
The only thing is, and I love TPU's reviews, but Wizzard(owner of TPU) appears to be doing some of the software now for the Asus Tweak tool which means he's tied to Asus, so it wouldn't surprise me if he's marking the Asus reviews up in order to push more Asus video card product. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, just saying its easy to see why he would. There's nothing about the Asus 670 that makes it any better than the Gigabyte 670, in fact, you could argue that its really not as good due to lacking the VRAM heatsink. I know he hasn't tested a Gigabyte Windforce 670 yet, but I doubt it would receive a 10/10 for the fact that its not an Asus.

All I'm saying is that people are going nuts over the 10/10 review, but you have to look at it with all the facts in hand and draw your own conclusions.
 
Blkout said:
All I'm saying is that people are going nuts over the 10/10 review, but you have to look at it with all the facts in hand and draw your own conclusions.
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I agree! Just because it's on the Internet doesn't make it true. I love ASUS, but I got the Gigabyte and I love that it has the VRAM heatsync. Mine does 1325 core/7000 mem at 60C with quiet fans.
 
Just saying, Wizzard is tied to Asus now, whether he gets a cut of each card sold because Asus Tweak bundled with the cards or if they paid him up front for his software, either way, you know he didn't help Asus for free, and mysteriously, the Asus DCII Top card he received gets a glowing 10/10 review and seems to overclock a good bit better than the other review samples that other sites received.

That being said, I still love TPU and their reviews, but I'm smart enough to read between the lines too.
 
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