First GTX 670 review(s) up (tt & oc.net) * TT OC review added*

[aaksheytalwar]

Ya, so limited potential/features for OC. Well, that doesn't matter that much because 680 oc reasonably well at stock volts, so there isn't much reason to complain as AMD doesn't offer anything which is hands down better in any case

 

[amenx]

Theory:

A Reason for shortage of 680 being that, GK104 was originally designed for around 700 MHZ for stock.

Seeing the abysmal 7970 performance & price - nvidia trolls on, scrambles to find all the chips it can bin to 1 GHZ to "comfortably" beat 7970.

Sadly, very few chips make the binning.

However....tons and tons of chips can make the secondary binnings for 670/660ti.

Nvidia releases uber performance @ cheap and kills AMD's already flailing market.

Troll on?

Most plausible theory I've heard yet.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Troll indeed.

 

[guskline]

My head is spinning with all of these reviews. I knew I wanted one of the high end cards to run a 3 monitor system. I was ready to leap for a 7970 when the 680 GTX reviews came out. I'm sure the 7970 could have been less expensive to buy but the Kepler reviews convinced me to find a 680 GTX card which I did. No regrets. Runs everything I play with incredible smoothness. I think it's funny about these 670 reviews because the 680 is so hard to find I can't imagine the 670 being easier unless it's the failed 680 chip route.

 

[Silverforce11]

Its good to know you can get near gtx680 performance from a factory OC gtx670.

 

[X98]

one of these GeForce 600 series cards will prolly be the next 8800 GT

 

[Jaydip]

Awesome card

 

[Tempered81]

Jeez the 670 looks awesome on performance. It's even closer to it's big brother than the 7950 was. What a great card. Whats the price of this thing supposed to be 299, 399?

 

[soccerballtux]

Kinda impressive/odd that it manages to usually be only 5~10% slower than the GTX680 with nearly 10% lower clock and over 10% lower core count (giving it ~80% of the processing power).
Maybe it has really aggressive turbo?
Or the GTX600 series is massively memory limited.

yeah whats up with that

 

[amenx]

If so, the pecking order of cards will be like last gen. AMDs best = NV's second. Pretty sure thats what Nvidia would like to do, rub it in.

 

[soccerballtux]

Theory:

A Reason for shortage of 680 being that, GK104 was originally designed for around 700 MHZ for stock.

Seeing the abysmal 7970 performance & price - nvidia trolls on, scrambles to find all the chips it can bin to 1 GHZ to "comfortably" beat 7970.

Sadly, very few chips make the binning.

However....tons and tons of chips can make the secondary binnings for 670/660ti.

Nvidia releases uber performance @ cheap and kills AMD's already flailing market.

Troll on?

that's what I was thinking, given their yield issues.

 

[soccerballtux]

If so, the pecking order of cards will be like last gen. AMDs best = NV's second. Pretty sure thats what Nvidia would like to do, rub it in.

this makes a lot of sense from the business perspective. It feeds the fanboys. Instead of saying "wait until Nvidia's card launches, it might be better", they can say "wait for Nvidia's launch before deciding, because for the last 5 years, their card, though later, has been 20% faster".

 

[soccerballtux]

Jeez the 670 looks awesome on performance. It's even closer to it's big brother than the 7950 was. What a great card. Whats the price of this thing supposed to be 299, 399?

definitely not 299

 

[Jaydip]

Jeez the 670 looks awesome on performance. It's even closer to it's big brother than the 7950 was. What a great card. Whats the price of this thing supposed to be 299, 399?

299 Last time i checked NV didn't run a charity for its consumers

 

[blastingcap]

Nice find, OP. Tweaktown did this with the gtx680, too, saying they couldn't get Nvidia to give them an official sample due to miscommunication. Maybe TT is now the go-to place for pre-NDA reviews of NV cards, haha.

One thing I dislike is how they apparently tested without AA/AF, but all in all it looks like the gtx670 is at the upper end of the "5-15% faster than stock 7950" I had expected. This thing will sell like hotcakes at $400 and might be in even shorter demand than the gtx680, driving the street price to ~$450.

Overclocked vs overclocked it looks like it'd still be faster than the 7950, even with the 7950's massive oc headroom.

So shall we expect something like this?

Newegg prices:

680 - 500
7970 + Three for Free - 450
670 - 450
7950 + Three for Free - 400
7870 - 350
7850 - 250

At least now we know why AMD dropped prices so much on 79xx without dropping them much on 78xx. NV's gtx660 won't launch for another 4-6 months from the rumors I've heard. Based on these results, AMD ought to thank their lucky stars for that delay.

 

[Tempered81]

If so, the pecking order of cards will be like last gen. AMDs best = NV's second. Pretty sure thats what Nvidia would like to do, rub it in.

While I agree with this for the most part, this time it's not as close. You couldn't really beat or even match a 285, 480, or 580 with an overclocked 4890, 5870 or 6970. Also, the 260, 470 and 570 were like 20% slower, this thing looks like 3% slower in high res.

 

[SirPauly]

Theory:

A Reason for shortage of 680 being that, GK104 was originally designed for around 700 MHZ for stock.

Seeing the abysmal 7970 performance & price - nvidia trolls on, scrambles to find all the chips it can bin to 1 GHZ to "comfortably" beat 7970.

Sadly, very few chips make the binning.

However....tons and tons of chips can make the secondary binnings for 670/660ti.

Nvidia releases uber performance @ cheap and kills AMD's already flailing market.
Troll on?

Then what explains the GTX 670 at 915 with boost clock of 994 if this chip was designed for 700? I find the tons and tons point very weak.

 

[Silverforce11]

Jeez the 670 looks awesome on performance. It's even closer to it's big brother than the 7950 was. What a great card. Whats the price of this thing supposed to be 299, 399?

Factory OC model. If its Gigabyte Windforce, they often have very high factory OCs.

Also factor in the dynamic turbo, if its running cool it will boost beyond spec. I bet these boost to around 1.2ghz since its a very beefy cooler and custom pcb.

Stock vs stock should be 15-20% gap based on specs.

 

[-Slacker-]

Wouldn't put too much stock in this review.

The 670 eats 20w more than a hd7970 at load? Yeah, I want a second opinion, doc.

Also a review batch that tests the most nvidia-biased games (starting with hawx2lol) and only 2 games where the radeons fare well, one of which isn't even set to the highest detail preset ... next!

 

[Rvenger]

Might have to return my whinny Sapphire 7970 for this. Just with a little overclock you can get 680 performance with ease.

 

[Silverforce11]

I think the gtx670 custom pcb should be a real winner, since it really allows the dynamic turbo to shine without reference restrictions.

It's default clock is lower, but if turbo functions the same, a good cooler and good build quality? It will prolly boost higher than reference gtx680s.

 

[MisterMac]

Then what explains the GTX 670 at 915 with boost clock of 994 if this chip was designed for 700? I find the tons and tons point very weak.

I find counterarguments without any fact or constructs other than subjective personal feelings very...very very weak.
Maybe you should think about that.

However..

Because we don't know voltage or more intimate specs.

You can buy a GTX 670 and probably 100% match it up to be a 680.
Clocks, voltage, etc.

As a consumer however, our "quality assurance" is probably alot less strict than AMD & NVidia's requirement.

Because a chip gets designated for a second class binning - doesn't mean it won't in our consumer hands work and be able to be setup to a first class binning.

Unless you know the strict inner procedures and QA requirements of how NVidia bins and constructs they're chips - your point is "insert bad word here".

If 5% of produced chips made it for GTX 680, and 10% made it for GTX 670, 20% for GTX 660ti.

Availability for GTX 670 will seem abundant and crazy.
Even more so once GTX 660ti 3rd class gk104 chips arrive.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

1. It is too close, perhaps not a 670 in reality.

2. Point 1
Else

3. An oc so high that nearing its oc potential and prolly with a msrp of $460-480 or so with a 10-15% oc over stock with not much headroom.

Next

1. 5850 competed with 285 and blew it away, not 4890. 5870 wasn't even needed and competed close to 295, tho much slower

2. 6970 competed against 480 and won over. 580 released a lot later so that is still just half a victory due to the delay. For half the time amd had won anyway before the 580 launched

3. Once 580 launched, for quite a while nvidia won, but after that 7970 was the winner for a good 3 months or so

6. 680 oc and 7970 oc are so close that nobody wins or loosely in absolute true sense, they are head on, like 570 and 6970 had 580 not been released ever for example sake

7 and ya, 260 competed with 4870 and amd didn't have anything for 280, by the time 5xxx was out only then was 285 released.

8 nvidia typically lasts 2 years, first 6 months first gen and next 18 months the refresh. But approx 2 years cycle. Amd lasts 15 months approx. so due to diff cycles you can't exactly compete all the time as diff winners at diff times.

9 loosing for 4 months and then winning for 6 months is actually just tieing and not really winning

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Factory OC model. If its Gigabyte Windforce, they often have very high factory OCs.

Also factor in the dynamic turbo, if its running cool it will boost beyond spec. I bet these boost to around 1.2ghz since its a very beefy cooler and custom pcb.

Stock vs stock should be 15-20% gap based on specs.

This

 

[SirPauly]

@mistermac

Why would you think the chip would be designed for 700mhz based on its size and extremely good power efficiency over-all?