FRONTPAGE NVIDIA Launches GEFORCE GTX 680, aka Kepler

GeForce GTX 680, Part 2: SLI, 5760x1080, And Overclocking

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-680-sli-overclock-surround,3162.html

Haven't read it yet, going to now!

Not sure why people compare clocks 7970 vs 680... Both different cores, and 7970 has 25% more cores. Its really a moot argument.. It really comes down to any of these three:

1. Raw stock performance / price
2. Maximum overclockable performance with stock cooler / price
3. Performance / watt

Then there are further breakdowns:

1. Performance / feature (resolution / AA / Tesselation / DX11)
2. Performance / Game (specific games you play)
3. Performance / SLI or Crossfire / multi screen setup scaling


It can go any way, but it really comes down to what you pay for the stock performance it comes to. To get a factory OC 7970 you generally pay more.. At that point it starts matching the 680 for $100 over the 680..

oops

diaz said:

Not sure why people compare clocks 7970 vs 680... Both different cores, and 7970 has 25% more cores. Its really a moot argument.. It really comes down to any of these three:

1. Raw stock performance / price
2. Maximum overclockable performance with stock cooler / price
3. Performance / watt

Then there are further breakdowns:

1. Performance / feature (resolution / AA / Tesselation / DX11)
2. Performance / Game (specific games you play)
3. Performance / SLI or Crossfire / multi screen setup scaling


It can go any way, but it really comes down to what you pay for the stock performance it comes to. To get a factory OC 7970 you generally pay more.. At that point it starts matching the 680 for $100 over the 680..

Click to expand...

+1

BUT: I believe that for us, overclockers, the clocks improvement margin matters as well.

And, marketing wise, it is maybe the first smart AMD move in ages. Sell the 7970 at a high price for 3 months until the 680 launch, then drop the price and launch an improved 7970 that equals the 680...

That's one quarter extra profit!

Just been playing BF3 for a while this morning. Temps are reasonable, 70C (~25C room temp) seems to be the limit, as because it drops down one boost clock multiplier at this point which prevents it from going over 70C. The game runs very smoothly with everything on ultra, even on the larger maps. Around 1700MB Vram is in use, but varies map-map. Definite improvement over my HD5970 - the 1GB of memory wasn't sufficient to avoid FPS drops in firefights.

diaz said:

Not sure why people compare clocks 7970 vs 680... Both different cores, and 7970 has 25% more cores. Its really a moot argument.. It really comes down to any of these three:

1. Raw stock performance / price
2. Maximum overclockable performance with stock cooler / price
3. Performance / watt

Then there are further breakdowns:

1. Performance / feature (resolution / AA / Tesselation / DX11)
2. Performance / Game (specific games you play)
3. Performance / SLI or Crossfire / multi screen setup scaling


It can go any way, but it really comes down to what you pay for the stock performance it comes to. To get a factory OC 7970 you generally pay more.. At that point it starts matching the 680 for $100 over the 680..

Click to expand...

Thats fine for your average Michael, on Overclockers.com we are not your average user.

To try another way to explain what i'm getting at i will use a system of scenarios.

A:
I'm buying a new GPU today in this range and have never heard the word overclocking.
I will buy the GTX 680.
Why: cheaper / better performance / better drivers.

B:
I am an overclocker.
Clock for clock they perform similar right up to there highest clocks on stock cooling.
I will buy the GTX 680.
Why: cheaper / better drivers.

C:
Clock for clock they perform similar right up to there highest clocks on stock cooling, the 7970 comes down to the same price.
I will buy the GTX 680.
Why: better drivers

D: The 7970 out performs the 680 overclocked, the 7970 still costs more.
could go either way, depends on how much the 7970 out performs.

D1:
As above but the 7970 costs the same.
I will buy the 7970.
Why: better performance for my money

E: AMD release a Ghz version and price it the same as the GTX 680, it performs the same.
I will buy the GTX 680.
Why: better drivers.

E1
The 7970 Ghz version out performs the GTX 680.
I will buy the 7970 Ghz.

I would not base my decition on one reviewer, i would look at all of them to get the full picture.
especially if some reviews are incomplete.

My decision would be based on a wide range of games, the full power consumption tests, and the full range of resolutions on all games tested and the full range of overclocking, again on all those games.

^^

Is your avatar crooked or is it just me?

Lol I really want one of these, but I think I'll hold on to my SLI 570s.

They outperform a single 680, so no point in ridding them and upgrading to the 680.

freeagent said:

^^

Is your avatar crooked or is it just me?

Click to expand...

lol, it seems to have rotated.

zitnik said:

Lol I really want one of these, but I think I'll hold on to my SLI 570s.

They outperform a single 680, so no point in ridding them and upgrading to the 680.

Click to expand...

That's usually the way of it from one generation to the next. In order to beat my SLI 260s, I would've had to buy a GTX580. GTX570 would just match the performance. Granted, it would do it with less heat produced, more features (DX11), and with a single card instead of two, but once you go SLI and get used to the performance it offers, it's kinda tough to go back to a single GPU type of setup.

freeagent said:

^^

Is your avatar crooked or is it just me?

Click to expand...

I photoshopped it that way, looks amusing to me

I had like 30min, so I installed the card and ran a couple benchmarks. This thing is a beast. It also looks to be just under an inch shorter than an HD 6970, so it's big power in a small package. No photos yet. For one of the first times ever I chose to run it before taking photos. Time is precious.

These are run bone stock with a 2600K (2133 RAM) & GTX 680.



That graphics score beats the stock 7970 by 3724 marks.



This one beat the stock 7970 by 2430 marks.

Wow.

JeremyCT said:

That's usually the way of it from one generation to the next. In order to beat my SLI 260s, I would've had to buy a GTX580. GTX570 would just match the performance. Granted, it would do it with less heat produced, more features (DX11), and with a single card instead of two, but once you go SLI and get used to the performance it offers, it's kinda tough to go back to a single GPU type of setup.

Click to expand...

Lol, my OC'ed 5830's equal a 7970 or an OC'ed 580GTX (http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2729853), but my next rig will be either 7970 or 680 powered: an OC'ed IB and an OC'ed 7970/680 will run on a 550W PSU, I need at least 750W for my current PhII@4GHz an the 2 5830's...

hokiealumnus said:

I had like 30min, so I installed the card and ran a couple benchmarks. This thing is a beast. It also looks to be just under an inch shorter than an HD 6970, so it's big power in a small package. No photos yet. For one of the first times ever I chose to run it before taking photos. Time is precious.

Wow.

Click to expand...

Why does it say PCI-e @ 1.1 on your GPU-z?

Some modern GPUs downgrade the PCIe connection at idle to save power, then ramp it back up to 2.x or 3.0 under load.

The GPU does this? In my gpu-z it says it is always running at 2.0x mode :s

Seems to overclock quite well, left mine at +150Mhz for now and has been running well in BF3 and on Cuda units (I cannot seem to get 2 instances to run yet):

Badbonji said:

The GPU does this? In my gpu-z it says it is always running at 2.0x mode :s

Click to expand...

does your CPU support pcie 3.0? if not then that is why, so unless you are running SB-E 2.x is all you are gonna get. more of a problem for GPU compute stuff than it is for gaming.

That makes sense, just got a bit confused because it sounded like the GPU was responsible. I am waiting for Ivy Bridge before finally upgrading my CPU, still on LGA 1366

nice scores hokie, gtx 680 is a beast can we see some game benchmarks and what was your physics test score in 3dmark'11 on your i7

Badbonji said:

The GPU does this? In my gpu-z it says it is always running at 2.0x mode :s

Seems to overclock quite well, left mine at +150Mhz for now and has been running well in BF3 and on Cuda units (I cannot seem to get 2 instances to run yet):

Click to expand...

That's a nice OC, seems pretty easy..

Hey guys I was thinking of getting a 680. I have a i7 2600k processor. I shouldn't have to worry about bottle-necking for this generation of processors right? Also Anyone know any news about the 670 release date and price point? I may go that route if they release before Guild Wars 2