The best GTX 670

[The_Golden_Man]

Vote for the one you think is the best.

These cards seems to be the most popular in this forum. So I picked these four as candidates for 'The best GTX 670'.

I voted for ASUS DC II since I bought two of these and are very happy with them.

 

[brandon888]

i vote for gtx 670 ftw ... bad coolig but im not overclocker so ...:d performance is good ... memory and core clock stock overclocked

 

[Don Karnage]

MSI or Asus. Cant go wrong with either

 

[The_Golden_Man]

i vote for gtx 670 ftw ... bad coolig but im not overclocker so ...:d performance is good ... memory and core clock stock overclocked

Yeah, I can imagine it's a nice one, since it has the GTX 680 PCB and cooler. For those who prefer to have the the hot air exhausted out the back this card is probably a good one :thumbsup:

 

[Xed]

Msi or Asus. If you get a good Asus card it's awesome. If you get a dud that has capacitors explode when you're at desktop installing 3dmark to run a bench for Don then you get pissed off and buy a lightning =P

 

[The_Golden_Man]

MSI or Asus. Cant go wrong with either

I think the build quality and that cool looking backplate for the ASUS card is the icing on the cake.

But then again, the MSI card will get Voltage adjustments in the next afterburner :thumbsup:

 

[chimaxi83]

MSI PE 670, if it gets voltage adjustment. If not, DC II 670 and PE 670 are basically equal.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I think the build quality and that cool looking backplate for the ASUS card is the icing on the cake.

But then again, the MSI card will get Voltage adjustments in the next afterburner :thumbsup:

The Asus if you don't include the numerous top cards that are unstable out of the box or the poor vrm cooling and no memory cooling at all.

Right now I'd say the windforce second but the msi pe gets the top honor due to voltage control.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

The Asus if you don't include the numerous top cards that are unstable out of the box or the poor vrm cooling and no memory cooling at all.

Right now I'd say the windforce second but the msi pe gets the top honor due to voltage control.

One must remember that the DC II cooler blows air down on the RAM chips and that tiny VRM heatsink. It also has a backplate to cool the PCB.

I have a theory that since the ASUS card has 6-phase power the Voltage circuitry runs cooler VS many other cards, since the load is distributed over 6 phases VS 4 or 5 phases.

 

[chimaxi83]

One must remember that the DC II cooler blows air down on the RAM chips and that tiny VRM heatsink. It also has a backplate to cool the PCB.

I have a theory that since the ASUS card has 6-phase power the Voltage circuitry runs cooler VS many other cards, since the load is distributed over 6 phases VS 4 or 5 phases.

I own a DC II 680, and from firsthand experience, the cooler doesn't do enough in my opinion. Sure the GPU will be nice and chilly, but the VRM will be sitting at 100C even though the DC II heatsink is blowing on it. The naked memory chips, while not vital to cool, sit anywhere from 70C to 90C overclocked. The DC II has poor VRM/VRAM cooling, no way around that.

Even the Lightning card doesn't cool the VRM's well according to user experience I've been reading. People thinking about overclocking that card while it's air cooled might be a little unhappy, scorching hot VRM reduce overclocking ability.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I voted 670 FTW because of the exhaust and I have one and love it. Although I think if I were to SLI it I'd get an MSI instead. Those look sweet.

 

[Termie]

Tom's has a new review of seven GTX670s posted today: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-test-review,3217.html

They talk about the lack of cooling of VRMs, but ultimately don't make a big deal of it.

One more thing we'd like to mention is cooling on the DC-DC converters. It seems that nearly all add-in board vendors focus their cooling efforts on the GPU and somewhat neglect the power circuitry. Granted, the DC-DC converters of heavily-overclocked cards rarely exceed 100°C. But even temperatures around 95°C don't inspire a ton of confidence about a card's longevity. Enthusiasts willing to increase their card's core voltage will also want to keep this in mind.

The Zotac and Gigabyte cards exhibited the lowest temperatures on their voltage regulation circuitry, which may or may not affect your buying decision. In general, the models based on Nvidia's longer GeForce GTX 680-style PCB fare the best, possibly because they have more room for an optimized layout, or maybe because they employ the 680's DC-DC converter components.

You can find that discussion here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-test-review,3217-12.html

I don't want to spoil it for you, but their winner is not listed in this poll.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

Tom's has a new review of seven GTX670s posted today: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-test-review,3217.html

They talk about the lack of cooling of VRMs, but ultimately don't make a big deal of it.



You can find that discussion here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-test-review,3217-12.html

I don't want to spoil it for you, but their winner is not listed in this poll.

Isn't it the Gigabyte and ASUS cards that was the winners in that shootout?

 

[The_Golden_Man]

According to the poll so far, it seems like the FTW is really popular in these forums.

 

[xp0c]

None of the above

 

[The_Golden_Man]

None of the above

How is your Galaxy? Is it silent and cool? No coil whine?

So far the FTW has 50% of the votes, ASUS has 25% and the two other candidates share the rest.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I heard the zotac and gainward cards are excellent but I have no idea what countries have these models.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

I heard the zotac and gainward cards are excellent but I have no idea what countries have these models.

We have them here in Norway. The Gainward GTX 670 Phantom is just a reference card with a custom cooler, which is not very good.

The Zotaz AMP! Edition is a noisy 3 slot card. And it looks ugly.

 

[Zardnok]

I run the Asus GTX 670 Top edition and love it. It boosts to 1267 out of the box and can go higher.

 

[blackened23]

How the hell does a cheesy reference cooler 670 that is vastly overpriced win the poll? Good grief, the FTW isn't in the same league as the asus or msi boards. Only EVGA gets away with a turd reference cooler for a 50$ premium and the EVGA fanboys go nuts over it

 

[Destiny]

After more than a month... I am very happy with my Gigabyte Windforce card... quiet and cool... I'm not an overclocker but it chews up my games:thumbsup:

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I run the Asus GTX 670 Top edition and love it. It boosts to 1267 out of the box and can go higher.

Top is bad. Non top flashed with the top bios is good

 

[cmdrdredd]

How the hell does a cheesy reference cooler 670 that is vastly overpriced win the poll? Good grief, the FTW isn't in the same league as the asus or msi boards. Only EVGA gets away with a turd reference cooler for a 50$ premium and the EVGA fanboys go nuts over it

It's not reference at all. It's a GTX680 PCB and GTX 680 cooler. So basically a GTX 680 with a GTX 670 GPU on it.

The GTX 680 cooling is actually pretty good. Many people prefer to send the heat outside of the case.

Honestly I would not touch Asus cards with the issues I've read about them. Gigabyte, Galaxy, MSI for aftermarket cooling setups and EVGA for their customer service (should you need it).

We have them here in Norway. The Gainward GTX 670 Phantom is just a reference card with a custom cooler, which is not very good.

The Zotaz AMP! Edition is a noisy 3 slot card. And it looks ugly.

Just like the Blue PCB on Gigabyte stuff...who cares? I don't know about you but I'm not staring at my PC all day.

 

[blackened23]

It's not reference at all. It's a GTX680 PCB and GTX 680 cooler. So basically a GTX 680 with a GTX 670 GPU on it.

The GTX 680 cooling is actually pretty good. Many people prefer to send the heat outside of the case.

Honestly I would not touch Asus cards with the issues I've read about them. Gigabyte, Galaxy, MSI for aftermarket cooling setups and EVGA for their customer service (should you need it).




Just like the Blue PCB on Gigabyte stuff...who cares? I don't know about you but I'm not staring at my PC all day.

You're arguing semantics. It is a blower cooler (like the reference is) with slightly different (wider) dimensions. IT IS designed exactly like the reference fan but slightly wider - it is pretty much exactly the same. You can't have the overclocking headroom with that junky cooler that an asus DC2T would have.

Of course, EVGA fanboys (this isn't directed at you, just saying in general) will cream their pants over any turd of a card that EVGA releases, and then EVGA will overclock it by 20mhz for you at a cost of 30$. 30$ for a superclocked card, good stuff there. Meanwhile for that same 30$ gigabyte asus or MSI will give you a real cooler that gives you actual OC headroom and better quality. As far as customer service, you'll probably need it considering EVGA had so many defective 670 cards.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You're arguing semantics. It is a blower cooler (like the reference is) with slightly different (wider) dimensions. Anyone praising that compared to say, the TF4 or DC2 are out of their minds.

Of course, EVGA fanboys (this isn't directed at you, just saying in general) will cream their pants over any turd of a card that EVGA releases, and then EVGA will overclock it by 20mhz for you at a cost of 30$. Good stuff there. As far as customer service, you'll probably need it considering EVGA had so many defective 670 cards.

EVGA had one model that had issues, they replaced every card no questions asked with a better model. I don't see why you're bringing that up again...

Have you ever tried to get another manufacturer to replace a card? I have from others (Visiontek and BFG back in the day) and the experience was pretty bad. I've never had to deal with gigabyte, galaxy, or MSI for anything so I cannot say what the experience of replacing a bad card would be. I've replaced a motherboard through Asus and while their response was very slow, they got it done so I can only assume they would have the same for a video card as well. AT least when you have a question, EVGA does provide an answer and in most cases within 24 hours. Had a gigabyte card been available for the same price I purchased my original EVGA 670 SC card (that got replaced) I may have gotten it. I had a Sapphire HD 6950 with a heatpipe cooling system and I was pretty impressed by it so a similar design would have been nice. I didn't pay MSRP for my original card locally so that's pretty much why I got it.

I do see where some people may want the heat pushed out the back of the case and not thrown around inside of it. It can cause temps to rise a bit in some situations.