OFFICIAL KEPLER "GTX680" Reviews

[BallaTheFeared]

Only 10+ million people play this game...

 

[notty22]

Only 10+ million people play this game...

WoW , completely destroyed AMD . I guess it's exciting it has a extra 1gb ? LOL

 

[RussianSensation]

WoW , completely destroyed AMD . I guess it's exciting it has a extra 1gb ? LOL

Despite the fact that some people on our forum were not happy that HD6870 review included a factory preoverclocked GTX460 @ 850mhz FTW that beat or matched an HD6870 for the same price, here is the most favourable position for a 7970 -- the very best air cooled HD7970 in the world vs. a plain Jane reference 680:

MSI R7970 Lightning 3GB @ 1265/1505MHz
ASUS GeForce GTX 680 2GB @ Stock and 1218 Boost/7096MHz

MSI Lightning is very impressive:
- 14 power phases for GPU vs. 4 for stock 680
- dual 8-pin power supply connectors vs. 2x6-pin for 680
- dual 10 cm fans for cooling vs. 1 smaller fan on 680
- Unlocked digital power / digital PWM controller / Unlocked BIOS --> none of these on the 680
- MSI GPU Reactor with additional Hi-C Caps vs. None on 680
- Hi-C caps all around on the board for the GPU, solid state chokes, copper MOS, dark solid Caps vs. none on the 680.

It took the most premium max OCed HD7970 on air with the best components to match a reference OCed 680 in surround gaming but it still lost in 1080P gaming:

680 is $100 cheaper in US.

 

[notty22]

I'm waiting to see where the goal posts go next. Probably a ski slope

 

[Cookie Monster]

If the component selection hence PCB design along with 225W cap via PCI-e connectors, cooler and hardwired power limits are limiting some of the overclocks, The custom made PCBs by AIBs for the GTX680 could be actually worth it unlike the past where overclocking was entirely based on the GPU.

 

[f1sherman]

well it took some time for Tahiti to get to 1800MHz with LN2.

GK104 hit 1900MHz on a day 1

 

[skipsneeky2]

Despite the fact that some people on our forum were not happy that HD6870 review included a factory preoverclocked GTX460 @ 850mhz FTW that beat or matched an HD6870 for the same price, here is the most favourable position for a 7970 -- the very best air cooled HD7970 in the world vs. a plain Jane reference 680:

MSI R7970 Lightning 3GB @ 1265/1505MHz
ASUS GeForce GTX 680 2GB @ Stock and 1218 Boost/7096MHz

MSI Lightning is very impressive:
- 14 power phases for GPU vs. 4 for stock 680
- dual 8-pin power supply connectors vs. 2x6-pin for 680
- dual 10 cm fans for cooling vs. 1 smaller fan on 680
- Unlocked digital power / digital PWM controller / Unlocked BIOS --> none of these on the 680
- MSI GPU Reactor with additional Hi-C Caps vs. None on 680
- Hi-C caps all around on the board for the GPU, solid state chokes, copper MOS, dark solid Caps vs. none on the 680.

It took the most premium max OCed HD7970 on air with the best components to match a reference OCed 680 in surround gaming but it still lost in 1080P gaming:

680 is $100 cheaper in US.

Damage control right there.:thumbsup:

 

[f1sherman]

Damage control right there.:thumbsup:

lol but what for?

AMD has few cards which they can't sell anyway,
and Nvidia sold everything they piled up, and can't even hope to satisfy the demand

 

[skipsneeky2]

lol but what for?

AMD has few cards which they can't sell anyway,
and Nvidia sold everything they piled up, and can't even hope to satisfy the demand

The way Russian gathered all that info and put the worlds most robust overclockable 7970 on the market,if not the world up against a reference gtx680.

The reference nvidia design was never really that exciting nor popular,just wait till msi builds a lightning version of the gtx680,lord only knows what they will do.:biggrin:

 

[RussianSensation]

The way Russian gathered all that info and put the worlds most robust overclockable 7970 on the market,if not the world up against a reference gtx680.

Exactly. Unless 680 also cost $599, then we should wait until there is an EVGA Classified 680 or a 680 Lightning and put those up against the best 7970. It's akin to taking a GTX580 Lightning or a GTX590 MARS II and putting it up against a reference 6970 / 6990 and concluding that the special edition card is better. It would hope so. In this case it wasn't convincingly better, which is even more disappointing.

Damage control right there.:thumbsup:

HD7970 is still a good card and turns into a great card once overclocked. If I owned one, I wouldn't sell it to side-grade to a 680. Since AMD's graphics has been about bang for the buck since HD4870, I just don't understand how it's justifiable that a $600 Uber-version can't convincingly beat a $500 reference NV card. I think if the MSI Lightining was $499, it would make a lot more sense.

I am not sure if AMD will lower prices just yet. They know NV is supply constrained. If they wait another month, it might not upset early adopters as much if they end up dropping the price. I imagine AMD would much rather introduce more factory pre-overclocked cards than to lower prices since if they lower prices on 7970, that sends a price drop across their entire line. I don't know what they are going to do about the 7950. If they overclock that card more, it'll beat a 7970. If they drop the price on it, it'll make 7870 redundant. HD7950 should probably be discontinued entirely.

If they launched 7970 at $449 from the beginning, it would been the best card for almost 3 months and still remained viable without upsetting early adopters. Also if it was $449, prob. a lot more people would have purchased it instead of waiting for NV's 680.

 

[skipsneeky2]

HD7970 is still a good card and a great card once overclocked. If I owned one, I wouldn't sell it to side-grade to a 680. Since AMD has been about bang for the buck since HD4870, I just don't understand how it's justifiable that a $600 version can't convincingly beat a $500 reference NV card. I think if the MSI Lightining was $499, it would make a lot more sense.

I think AMD won't lower prices for a bit though. They know NV is supply constrained. If they wait another month, it might not upset early adopters as much if they drop the price since they will have owned the 7970 for 3-4 months. I imagine AMD would much rather introduce more factory pre-overclocked cards than to lower prices since if they lower prices on 7970, that sends a price drop for all their other cards. I don't know what they are going to do about the 7950. If they overclock that card more, it'll beat a 7970. If they drop the price on it, it'll make 7870 redundant. HD7950 should probably be discontinued entirely.

Got mine as a gift for my birthday,the overclocking it is capable of and its mass amount of vram and the fact it can pull less wattage then a gtx570 grabbed my interest.

My first love card wise was the budget oriented 8800gts 512mb,i bought it relatively quick after release,matter of fact i still have it in a anti static bag,but the 7970 is the first amd card to captivate me and blow me away even more then the 8800gts did..only way its getting sold is if their driver support blows out the window,i still have found rc11 to be the most stable nearly 2 months later and if i had to try and like this card,it would have been returned long ago.

 

[Tempered81]

I just don't understand how it's justifiable that a $600 Uber-version can't convincingly beat a $500 reference NV card.

That card clocks to 1800+mhz without modification. Tahiti has a lot of headroom (about equal to gk104 - so it's a wash to compare theoretical headroom) The reference card from Nvidia needs triple the Voltage components soldered onto the board to clock high. It's like adding 2/5ths of a PCB onto the PCB. You'd be lucky to break 1340mhz on that reference pcb, where 7970 references have gone as high as 1700, and the lighting you mention to 1800.

Kepler is the best architecture, pitcairn 2nd, and Nvidia is more poplular and favored over ati. GK104 is a great die, the 680 product is not "outstanding" because of the weak pcb (minus that excellent sound dampening fan). Also less memory - Pre-order for $549, and then $499.

No reason to be mad about the board, MSI will make one for gk104 also. Then you can do a sweet comparison of gk104 lightning versus tahiti lightning. Level the playing field. (board). heheh

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Overclocking is soo hit or miss, how many 470s do you guys know that can hit 960Mhz on water in SLI and beat stock 580 SLI?

Yes it needs to be considered, a decent avg is all that you can give it though. Because there are duds, and there are amazing cards...

If you go into buying a 7970 looking for 1250+MHz on reference cooling you're going to be sorely disappointed nine times out of ten.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Overclocking is soo hit or miss, how many 470s do you guys know that can hit 960Mhz on water in SLI and beat stock 580 SLI?

Yes it needs to be considered, a decent avg is all that you can give it though. Because there are duds, and there are amazing cards...

If you go into buying a 7970 looking for 1250+MHz on reference cooling you're going to be sorely disappointed nine times out of ten.

http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/detail/index/sArticle/502/sCategory/2182

Just in case,the Accelero Xtreme vga cooler

Beefy and damn sure to get you to 1300+,my card has already hit 1250@ 1.25v and stayed stable...but damn does it get hot,unless i ramp the fan to 75% then its loud.:\

 

[Keysplayr]

A couple more reviews added in the O/C category. OP updated.

 

[Silverforce11]

snip

Depends on which games you bench in a small list such as that, could vastly influence the results, which you also know is true.

Take a look at bigger summaries. TPU, Comp.de etc.

Gtx680 has a 8% advantage at 1080p, and 3% advantage at 1600p. That's a stock gtx680 that Turbos up to 1200mhz vs a stock 7970. gtx680 so far OCs an extra 100mhz or so, reaching a turbo speed of ~1.3ghz as the highest we've seen. That's a tiny OC getting around ~7% extra perf or less due to scaling issues.

So factor that in, an OC gtx680 its ~15% faster at 1080p and 10% faster at 1600p than a STOCK 7970. How much does a 7970 have to OC to match or beat? Not by much at all, unless you cherry pick a small list of games.

 

[chimaxi83]

well it took some time for Tahiti to get to 1800MHz with LN2.

GK104 hit 1900MHz on a day 1

Why do people care about this? I find that weird. Reason I ask is because I've seen a few people throw this around as if its meaningful, even to the enthusiast crowd here.

You're not hitting 1900. Or 1800, 1600, 1400. Neither am I, or the next guy/next guy/next guy. Who cares?

 

[blackened23]

Overclocking is soo hit or miss, how many 470s do you guys know that can hit 960Mhz on water in SLI and beat stock 580 SLI?

Yes it needs to be considered, a decent avg is all that you can give it though. Because there are duds, and there are amazing cards...

If you go into buying a 7970 looking for 1250+MHz on reference cooling you're going to be sorely disappointed nine times out of ten.

I don't think anyone here advocates a 7970 to a new purchaser. AMD needs to lower prices, period - the 680 is a better buy hands down.

I'm just saying that things aren't so black and white when you factor OC/crossfire in, to pre-existing users. Certainly nobody with existing cards should switch because its a sidegrade at best if you've successfully oc'ed. But for a new buyer? You'd be insane to get a 7970 in the US. Not sure about the EU pricing situation. Anyway, i'm anxious to see what kind of aftermarket 680 cards will be hitting the market.

Also, OC's are NOT hit and miss if you overclock balla style am I right?! :awe:

 

[BallaTheFeared]

That's a stock gtx680 that Turbos up to 1200mhz vs a stock 7970

TPU's list for dynamic overclocking didn't even reach 1200MHz though... Even if it did, it's still stock.

Also, OC's are NOT hit and miss if you overclock balla style am I right?! :awe:

If you mean without regard and anything and everything that can be overclocked is overclocked, then yes!

But then I overclock OEM laptops...

 

[tviceman]

I'm excited for AIB custom boards, hopefully with the ability to allow users to push the cards as hard as possible. Of course the vram will need just as much of an overclock, so effective AIB heatsinks will definitely be in order. If there is any shred of truth to Zotac releasing a 2ghz card... LOL...

YO BALLA, my laptop overclock:

 

[notty22]

Here's data from Ryan, Anands review

 

[badb0y]

well it took some time for Tahiti to get to 1800MHz with LN2.

GK104 hit 1900MHz on a day 1

The dude soldered on extra stuff onto the PCB of the video card and put it under LN2 to get the 1900 mhz.

Also it looks like he had like 10 samples with him to reach those clocks lol.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

YO BALLA, my laptop overclock:

:thumbsup:

The dude soldered on extra stuff onto the PCB of the video card and put it under LN2 to get the 1900 mhz.

Also it looks like he had like 10 samples with him to reach those clocks lol.

6+6+6+6

75+75+75+75

=

8+8

150+150

 

[notty22]

The data Tempered has been flaunting from a custom pcb (lightning) also had a LN2 Pot attached to reach 1800mhz , so the whole point is meaningless to buyers of these cards. Unless they can afford to mod / acquire liquid Nitrogen / and not be concerned about blowing up 5-600$ dollar video cards.

AMD Radeon HD 7970 ships from factory with a pretty high frequency of 925 MHz, but also plenty of overclocking potential. Just using regular cooling and stock voltage we reached a stable clock at 1165 MHz. This is nothing compared to what elmor has done.

So without the extreme craziness added, this overclocking designed MSI R7970 Lightningr reached 1165mhz.

I think that phony Saphire screen grab that hinted of a 1300mhz AMD card, fooled many in to believing that was reality. Clearly it wasn't.

 

[badb0y]

The data Tempered has been flaunting from a custom pcb (lightning) also had a LN2 Pot attached to reach 1800mhz , so the whole point is meaningless to buyers of these cards. Unless they can afford to mod / acquire liquid Nitrogen / and not be concerned about blowing up 5-600$ dollar video cards.

My point exactly.

1300 is far fetched but 1200 is not. I think if AMD does release a "ghz edition" of the 7970 it should be at 1200 where it can actually trade blows with a GTX 680.