OFFICIAL KEPLER "GTX680" Reviews

[Lepton87]

I thought it was more about durability and cooling? I've had wires resting on my GPUs before due to cramp cases or just laziness on my behalf. Never had a card die because of that (I've had wires get a little burnt though haha.)

Still, the backplates made the cards look more industrial - which I'm all for.

It really has many advantages, it protects the card from both short circuits and excessive bending by making the card more rigid. But it doesn't do much for cooling, not enough dissipation area. Shaving 2$ off the BOM costs is just being cheap. Every card over 200$ should have it.

 

[ViRGE]

It really has many advantages, it protects the card from both short circuits and excessive bending by making the card more rigid. But it doesn't do much for cooling, not enough dissipation area. Shaving 2$ off the BOM costs is just being cheap. Every card over 200$ should have it.

Backplates aren't really necessary to protect from bending. With blowers the shroud itself provides plenty of stability, and most high-end cards also have a metal plate on the GPU side of the board that runs virtually the entire length of the board in order to act as a heatsink for the RAM and VRMs.

The only protection it really provides is for short circuiting, as you mention. Though I suppose it serves as a heatsink if you have any RAM on the back side of the card.

And the reason it's not included has to do with more than BOM costs. AMD stopped including a backplate with the 7000 series after using one for years; it may not seem like much, but those backplates take up 3mm, which as it turns out is very precious ventilation space for when you're running SLI/CF with the cards directly next to each other.

 

[BoFox]

Hey Keysplayr, Hexus did another review, on SLI vs XF this time:
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/37253-three-screen-geforce-gtx-680-vs-radeon-hd-7970/

All 3 resolutions are included in every bench - the "all-important" 3x 1080p rez.
I loved how the percentages are shown under each chart.

And this one really blows the 7970 out of the water (with refreshing splash like in a water-log roller coaster, in this hot summer "heat" of the 28nm battle)! :biggrin:

 

[Will Robinson]

Seeing that you post so often about the virtues of the 680 you should surely buy one.....they are available right?:whiste:

 

[Keysplayr]

Hey Keysplayr, Hexus did another review, on SLI vs XF this time:
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/37253-three-screen-geforce-gtx-680-vs-radeon-hd-7970/

All 3 resolutions are included in every bench - the "all-important" 3x 1080p rez.
I loved how the percentages are shown under each chart.

And this one really blows the 7970 out of the water (with refreshing splash like in a water-log roller coaster, in this hot summer "heat" of the 28nm battle)! :biggrin:

Thanks BoFox. I'll add it to the OP.

 

[Keysplayr]

Seeing that you post so often about the virtues of the 680 you should surely buy one.....they are available right?:whiste:

Will, would you care to explain to the rest of your fellow members here why exactly it is irking you that BoFox is posting about the virtues of the GTX680?

Also, give us the benefit of the doubt that we do know that it was intended as a dig, and not an actual observation.

You have the floor.

 

[notty22]

Some might like this, from the 680 launch .
Borderlands 2 NVIDIA GTX 680 Tech Demo (CAM)


http://kotaku.com/5898292/borderlands-2-pc-does-amazing-things-with-nvidias-gpu-physx

 

[BallaTheFeared]

God I love physics, any kind, even PhysX.

 

[Ajay]

Some might like this, from the 680 launch .
Borderlands 2 NVIDIA GTX 680 Tech Demo (CAM)


http://kotaku.com/5898292/borderlands-2-pc-does-amazing-things-with-nvidias-gpu-physx

LOL! Is that guy on NV's payroll!

 

[Will Robinson]

Will, would you care to explain to the rest of your fellow members here why exactly it is irking you that BoFox is SPAMMING about the virtues of the GTX680?

Also, give us the benefit of the doubt that we do know that it was intended as a dig, and not an actual observation.

You have the floor.

I haven't reported your trolling Keys...but I fixed your post as a service.^_^
Fortunately this isn't AlienBabyTech so we are allowed to make observations that don't fawn over your employers...
How is availability by the way...all sold out I suppose...not Vaporware?

<Checks New Egg>
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...315498&IsNodeId=1&name=GeForce GTX 600 series
Hmm:hmm:

 

[Keysplayr]

I haven't reported your trolling Keys...but I fixed your post as a service.^_^
Fortunately this isn't AlienBabyTech so we are allowed to make observations that don't fawn over your employers...
How is availability by the way...all sold out I suppose...not Vaporware?

<Checks New Egg>
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20600%20series
Hmm:hmm:

If you think I'm trolling then I think you should.
Ummmm. ^ bold: If this is the way you feel, then the hard time you're giving BoFox, according to you, shouldn't be allowed.
And why do you call them "your employers" ? Don't you think that's inflammatory?
So again, share with the rest of us what your issue is. Really.

 

[blackened23]

680 triple monitor 3d surround vs eyefinity review:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1887/1/

 

[lavaheadache]

680 triple monitor 3d surround vs eyefinity review:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1887/1/

Nice review.

GTX 680 certainly looks impressive. The lightning 7970 AND 680 look to be equal competitors.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Nice review.

GTX 680 certainly looks impressive. The lightning 7970 AND 680 look to be equal competitors.

Yep, performance is a wash unless you're looking at specific games, or 1080p.

The only real major differences are the 7970 is pulling more power and it costs $608 while the 680, when in stock is $500. You also have to consider multi-gpu driver support at higher resolutions, which according to at least [H] nvidia has the upper hand currently.

 

[lavaheadache]

Yep, performance is a wash unless you're looking at specific games, or 1080p.

The only real major differences are the 7970 is pulling more power and it costs $608 while the 680, when in stock is $500. You also have to consider multi-gpu driver support at higher resolutions, which according to at least [H] nvidia has the upper hand currently.

performance is a wash, I hardly care though since my reference card can be pushed to 1300mhz. I run it at ccc limits of 1125 nevertheless.

If I were in the market right now to buy I would probably get a 680 since I like to change things up.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Overclocking is the 680's Achilles Heel imo, while it's competitive with a max clocked 7970 while using considerably less power, it's just too limited. Especially when power isn't a major factor in the grand scheme of things outside of reviewers opinions anyways.

Hopefully we get some after market reviews in here soon, and of course increased OC potential through it.

 

[lavaheadache]

Overclocking is the 680's Achilles Heel imo, while it's competitive with a max clocked 7970 while using considerably less power, it's just too limited. Especially when power isn't a major factor in the grand scheme of things outside of reviewers opinions anyways.

Hopefully we get some after market reviews in here soon, and of course increased OC potential through it.

Like I said in my PM to you. The 680 is likely clocked up significantly to be the top dawg like it is and not sure the average card has tons of additional headroom.

7970's were clocked incredibly conservatively on the whole. I'm sure 1050 mhz could have been easily set as the stock speed and nearly every card they put out could have made it there trouble free effectively making 7970=680.

I know you are going to raise the power consumption argument but honestly there is a lot of "wasted" space in GCN (like Fermi) with compute power likely causing unnecessarily high power consumption as a gaming card. Albeit the card still uses less power than nVidia's go at a multi-purpose chip.

You cant go wrong with either card anyway you look at it.

There is more to come from nVidia and I would bet my bottom dollar that AMD has another monster in the closet to go head to head.

 

[blackened23]

Overclocking is the 680's Achilles Heel imo, while it's competitive with a max clocked 7970 while using considerably less power, it's just too limited. Especially when power isn't a major factor in the grand scheme of things outside of reviewers opinions anyways.

Hopefully we get some after market reviews in here soon, and of course increased OC potential through it.

I wanna see an aftermarket 680 with 8 phase VRM and 2 8 pin connectors. So far overclocking wise, 680s have a very strict limit due to the reasons you mentioned (somewhere around 1350?) and most don't get anywhere close to that.

Can't wait to see what MSI does with the 680.

 

[BoFox]

I haven't reported your trolling Keys...but I fixed your post as a service.^_^
Fortunately this isn't AlienBabyTech so we are allowed to make observations that don't fawn over your employers...
How is availability by the way...all sold out I suppose...not Vaporware?

<Checks New Egg>
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20600%20series
Hmm:hmm:

The same thing happened with HD 7970 for the first few weeks - demand outstripping initial supply even though supply is coming in each day. The demand is just so strong, you see. In this thread, and in this case, vaporware is a term uttered by a... well, you get it.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

The same thing happened with HD 7970 for the first few weeks - demand outstripping initial supply even though supply is coming in each day. The demand is just so strong, you see. In this thread, and in this case, vaporware is a term uttered by a... well, you get it.

You mean after they paper launched two weeks before that, then ran out of supply on release day?

 

[rgallant]

Hey Keysplayr, Hexus did another review, on SLI vs XF this time:
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/37253-three-screen-geforce-gtx-680-vs-radeon-hd-7970/

All 3 resolutions are included in every bench - the "all-important" 3x 1080p rez.
I loved how the percentages are shown under each chart.

And this one really blows the 7970 out of the water (with refreshing splash like in a water-log roller coaster, in this hot summer "heat" of the 28nm battle)! :biggrin:

- 680 @1,006+
- got to love that little + sign.

 

[tviceman]

I haven't reported your trolling Keys...but I fixed your post as a service.^_^
Fortunately this isn't AlienBabyTech so we are allowed to make observations that don't fawn over your employers...
How is availability by the way...all sold out I suppose...not Vaporware?

<Checks New Egg>
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20600%20series
Hmm:hmm:

Man you must be really, really upset that GK104 is better in every single way possible than Tahiti.

 

[chimaxi83]

Man you must be really, really upset that GK104 is better in every single way possible than Tahiti.

Nope, locking the end user out of manual overclocking and voltage control is a definite negative.

Unless you're a noob who doesn't know what they're doing, and wants the easiest way possible. Which, even then, is still difficult, since nothing is clearcut.

 

[Lepton87]

Man you must be really, really upset that GK104 is better in every single way possible than Tahiti.

No it isn't.

 

[tviceman]

Nope, locking the end user out of manual overclocking and voltage control is a definite negative.

Unless you're a noob who doesn't know what they're doing, and wants the easiest way possible. Which, even then, is still difficult, since nothing is clearcut.

No it isn't.

I stand corrected in that regard. The 132% TDP hard ceiling is a drawback, hopefully custom cards will fix that. Specifically what I was referring to though is performance, performance per mm^2, performance per watt, perf per $$, die size, and straight up price. That doesn't really leave much room left for the hd7970, and at $550 it's just a dumb buy when compared to the gtx680.