My review of MSI Power Edition gtx 670

[Quantos]

It is clearly stated in the review:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_670_Power_Edition/4.html

MSI uses use a Richtek RT8802A voltage controller on their card, just like the reference design. This is a fairly simple controller which does not offer any monitoring features or software voltage control. Voltages are controlled via VID pins that are directly connected to the GPU.

Well, if that is true, I wonder what MSI will do next. They did say that a future release of AB would be able to control the voltage...

Either we're missing something hardware-wise, or they are blatantly lying to us.

 

[DrBoss]

Well, if that is true, I wonder what MSI will do next. They did say that a future release of AB would be able to control the voltage...

Either we're missing something hardware-wise, or they are blatantly lying to us.

I've sent a message to the MSI rep on the Techpowerup forums indicating the hardware apparently does not allow for voltage control. We'll see if he/she answers.

 

[DrBoss]

Here is the smart ass answer i got back from the MSI rep

"We know we are late with delivering the support, but automatically assuming it doesn't work is a bit of a dim view on the situation."

Read into that as much as your like, but as far as i'm concerned voltage control is unfortunately still not confirmed.

 

[tornadog]

I read that line too and I was wondering how voltage control would be possible. I am hoping someone got the facts wrong. Otherwise MSI would be in a lot of hot water, for blatant false advertising!

 

[ocre]

Here is the smart ass answer i got back from the MSI rep

"We know we are late with delivering the support, but automatically assuming it doesn't work is a bit of a dim view on the situation."

Read into that as much as your like, but as far as i'm concerned voltage control is unfortunately still not confirmed.

i would imagine they would go dead silent on the matter if you had anything to worry about. As long as they are still responding i believe there is still a chance that they will offer it. I believe sincerely that MSI has had intentions of unlocking the voltage control for these models . There must be some hold up though. You know, it might not be on MSI's side at all. They may be a reason that they are late or perhaps there is more to it.

Something seems to be holding this feature up but i wouldnt yet call it a bust. If they start going silent on it then its time to get more concerned.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'll just say that I bet if it worked, it would work now.

 

[chimaxi83]

Wow, what a let down. This card uses the same voltage control method that all the reference cards do, directly via hardware with no software capability. /facepalm MSI. Guess we'll see what happens, but without capable hardware on the PCB, not sure how they're going to go about this. I thought about buying 2 of these cards.

 

[xp0c]

I watched this video a few weeks ago, and at the end they were talking about releasing a 670 Hawk. Must of ended up being called the GTX 670 Power edition.
At the end of the video the MSI guy says they will remove the voltage check points from the 670.
http://hexus.net/tv/show/2012/06/MSI_gives_sneak_peek_into_GeForce_GTX_680_Lightning

 

[DrBoss]

A second message from the MSI rep indicates the next Afterburner will provide voltage control.

 

[tornadog]

I got my 670 PE last week, and I put it on the same settings as was posted here, +75 on the core, +600 on the memory and power slider to max. I ran Heaven overnight and no crashes, and max temp was 68 degrees. I think I will leave it at that. I am very happy with this card, my previous 7970 would get to 78 degrees even at stock speeds.

 

[DrBoss]

Here are some additional bench stats with Unigine at max settings. OC scaling is pretty significant.

It's hot as hell outside (105F). All following tests were performed with an Ambient room temp of 81F (yea... HOT). Max recorded GPU temp while benching today was 74C.

Keep in mind that last week, when ambient temp was 72F, the highest temp recorded while pushing my max stable OC through Unigine was 69C. To sum it up, it's hot, and the GPU temps are higher than i would like, but it is directly correlated to the ambient room temperature.


SETUP
i2600K @ 4.4GHz (1.27v, offset -.05)

Unigine 1920x1080
8xAA full screen
Shaders: high
Textures: high
Filter: trilinear
Anisotropy: 16X
Occulsion: enabled
Refraction: enabled
Volumetric: enabled
Tessellation: extreme

MAX oc
Core Boost: 1290 MHz
Memory: 3602 MHz


MID oc
Core Boost: 1266 MHz
Memory: 3499 MHz


MIN oc (factory default)
Core Boost: 1215 MHz
Memory: 3005 MHz

 

[cmdrdredd]

Try to get your memory clock higher if you can. I'd bet that's holding you back a bit too.

 

[tviceman]

Try to get your memory clock higher if you can. I'd bet that's holding you back a bit too.

7200mhz effective ram speed is probably not holding him back, and it's right around the upper limit of how high the vram is going to overclock with these cards anyways.

 

[cmdrdredd]

With that high a boost it is.

 

[DrBoss]

I will play around with higher memory clocks this weekend.

 

[DrBoss]

How long do you think the N670 PE will be in production. I'd like to nab a second one for SLI, but don't have the coin at the moment. I've got no idea the life cycle of a GPU like this. 6months... a year...?

 

[tviceman]

With that high a boost it is.

That may or may not be so, but like I said, 7200mhz is at the very upper limit of what the vram these cards have can do. He might squeeze out another 50-75mhz, but the performance improvements will be negligible at best.

 

[tornadog]

does cpu have no effect on Heaven benchamrks? I have around the same score at core:1263, mem: 3500

 

[Zanovar]

Any update on voltage control for this card?

 

[tornadog]

Any update on voltage control for this card?

negative ghost rider

 

[Zanovar]

negative ghost rider

I would be kinda pissed tbh,hopefully it will come.

 

[cmdrdredd]

does cpu have no effect on Heaven benchamrks? I have around the same score at core:1263, mem: 3500

It has effect, same settings and all and I run lower boost and memory clocks and I basically match his score with his 1290 boost and 7200Mhz memory.

How long do you think the N670 PE will be in production. I'd like to nab a second one for SLI, but don't have the coin at the moment. I've got no idea the life cycle of a GPU like this. 6months... a year...?

This is their premier GTX 670 and they will likely phase out the reference model over time (as they did for the GTX 680).

 

[DrBoss]

Here is a bit of an update:

Temps have cooled down on the east coast, the two benchmarks below were performed with an ambient room temperature of 72F. Highest recorded GPU temp was 65C @ 63% fan speed (pretty damn good)

SETUP
i2600K @ 4.4GHz (1.27v, offset -.05)

Unigine 1920x1080
8xAA full screen
Shaders: high
Textures: high
Filter: trilinear
Anisotropy: 16X
Occulsion: enabled
Refraction: enabled
Volumetric: enabled
Tessellation: extreme

OC 1 (passed 3 independent benchmark loops in Unigune, not yet confirmed 100% stable)
Core Boost: 1316 MHz
Memory: 3703 MHz





OC 2 (2 hour unigine continuous loop, 100% stable)
Core Boost: 1290 MHz
Memory: 3602 MHz





I'm going to push further with the clocks later this week as well as try to confirm stability for the first OC in this post. I'm also going to benchmark the OC's in Crysis 1 to see real world performance scaling. Give me a few days.

 

[DrBoss]

Well here is some BS about the next version of Afterburner
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=4360550#post4360550

 

[Rvenger]

It takes forever for MSI to ship from Taiwan. I experienced that as well unfortunately.