Welcome to GPUReview.com, your source for video card specifications, reviews, links, software and just about anything else videocard related.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 03:09:28 Fri, May 11, 2012 -
5 CommentsThe release of Diablo III is right around the shadowy, skeleton littered corner and I am here to help you choose the best new video card for your budget so that you can kick demonic ass with maximum flair and efficiency. Since I was cursed by the lord of lies himself, I never got into the Diablo III beta and I was unable to play it on the weekend when it was open to everyone. To compensate for this horrible injustice, I will be using Tom's Hardware's Diablo III beta benchmarks to get an idea about how various video cards perform in the game.
I bid thee to journey to the next page... if you dare!
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 12:58:15 Fri, May 11, 2012 -
0 CommentsIt looks like these GTX 670's overclock pretty damn well. The overclocked models from Gigabyte, Zotac, Asus and Evga are at the top of the chart and that might be due to improved cooling over the reference design. There are a lot of question marks in the chart this time as a lot of reviewers are not telling their readers what clock offsets they are using or even what overclocking software they used.
And don't forget that
GeForce GTX 670 video cards available now at Newegg.com!
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 03:43:40 Thu, May 10, 2012 -
0 CommentsNvidia has released the fastest card available for under $400, and it is called the GTX 670. The GTX 670 is basically a GTX 680 that is missing 16 Texture Units and 192 Shader Processors. Unlike the GTX 690 launch, the GTX 670 launch features many different overclocked models and improved cooling solutions. We got 21 cards listed so far and five of those are from Evga.
First some sweet sweet Newegg links, then some pics of the most sexy GTX 670s.
Zotac GTX 670 with Free Shipping $399.99
Evga GTX 670 with Free Shipping $399.99
MSI GTX 670 with Free Shipping $399.99
Galaxy GTX 670 with Free Shipping $409.99
Evga GTX 670 Superclocked with Free Shipping $419.99
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 04:40:22 Thu, May 03, 2012 -
0 CommentsI am not quite sure why some sites are getting such different results even though they are using the same core offset. I don't think it is their power settings since most site turn it up to 135% when they start overclocking. Nvidia told reviewers that the GTX 690 should be able to reach a 1.2GHz clock speed and nearly every site managed to get at least that far. Out of all the sites, I think [H]ard|OCP is the only one that mentioned that they made sure that both GPUs on the GTX 690 were running at the same speed:
"..if you are gaming, and want to stabilize GPU Boost between both GPUs, raising the Power Target is the way to go. This will keep both GPUs at the same clock speed, and it won't be overclocking the GPUs. The GPUs occasionally spiked up to 1071MHz, after raising the Power Target, so it didn't affect maximum clock speed too much, it just helped "equalize" both GPUs to each other. So there is a easy tip for stabilizing performance with the GTX 690; raise the Power Target."
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 04:00:12 Thu, May 03, 2012 -
0 CommentsThe reviews for the GTX 690 are out and the cards have started showing up on manufacturer's websites. One thing I noticed right away is that all the cards look exactly the same. None of them feature any custom stickers or graphics. I don't think I've seen anything like this before.
Once this card is actually available for sale it will be the fastest single video card on the market. I have already updated our Superlatives page to reflect this. Stay tuned for the overclocking roundup.
Can you guess which company made this card?
If you guessed Evga, then you are correct. And probably a wizard.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 09:16:17 Wed, May 02, 2012 -
0 CommentsThis MSI GTX 670 has been spotted in the wilds of Malaysia. Engadget is wondering if it is real, but I think the box looks pretty real to me. There could be more details here or here but I can't load these pages right now.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 03:33:07 Mon, April 30, 2012 -
2 CommentsNvidia has revealed the dual Kepler beast that will forever be known as the GTX 690. This card features the most advanced and expensive cooling system that Nvidia has ever designed. The cooler features two vapor chambers (one for each GPU) and a special fan housing that is made from and injection molded magnesium alloy. The card also has two ploycarbonate windows that allow you to see some of the fins on the vapor chambers.
The card is powered by two full GTX 680 (GK104) GPUs and yet its max power draw is only 300 Watts! That's pretty amazing! Now all we have to do is wait for the rest of details and impressions which are sure to drop on May 3rd.
UPDATE!
Looks like the folks over at TechPowerUp! have received theirs. They have some size comparison shots to gawk at as well.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 04:41:49 Tue, April 24, 2012 -
3 CommentsAnd by the red side I mean AMD. I found two pieces of AMD news that are fit to print, or type I guess. First of all AMD has decided to separate all their products that are in the HD 4000 series or older from the rest of their newer cards. The nature of this separation is driver support. From now on, all HD 4000 or older parts will receive driver updates only 4 times a year.
In other news, AMD will be debuting the HD 7990 at Computex 2012 which is set to occur June 5-9th. The HD 7990 will be powered by two 28nm GPUs, which together contain 4,096 stream processors. Those GPUs will be paired with 6 GB of GDDR5 memory and enough display connectors to drive 6-monitor Eyefinity.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 03:19:12 Tue, April 17, 2012 -
0 CommentsPosted By: Steve McBarnes - 02:58:19 Tue, April 17, 2012 -
1 CommentsThe 300 series Nvidia drivers that were released along side the GTX 680 feature some new technology that you don't need a GTX 680 to use. One of these technologies is Adaptive VSync. If you want less screen tearing in your PC games, give this article a read, download the drivers and then open up the Nvidia control panel and turn this new fangled VSync on.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 12:33:07 Wed, April 11, 2012 -
0 CommentsPosted By: Steve McBarnes - 04:46:04 Tue, March 27, 2012 -
1 CommentsApparently this one! Galaxy is apparently working on a single slot GTX 680 and there are two pictures to prove it. Galaxy is taking full advantage of the GTX 680's low power consumption and low heat creation. The branding of this card apparently translates to the Warrior's Edition and I for one hope that this Warrior will make his way to the states.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 03:42:55 Tue, March 27, 2012 -
1 CommentsThis may be one of the largest Newegg video card deals posts that I've ever posted. I highly recommend the two XFX HD 7770's that come with a free copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. That game is beautiful and really fun.
Galaxy GT 520 1GB $24.99 (after $20 MIR card) + Free Shipping, exp. 4/1
Sapphire HD 6570 1GB $49.99 (after $10 MIR card) + Free Shipping, exp. 3/31
Asus HD 6670 1GB $64.99 (after $20 MIR card) + Free Shipping, exp 3/31
MSI GTS 450 1GB $84.99 (after $20 MIR card) + Free Shipping, exp 3/31
Asus GTX 550 Ti 1GB $99.99 (after $20 MIR card) + Free Shipping, exp. 3/31
Gigabyte HD 6850 1GB $119.99 (after $20 MIR card) + Free Shipping, exp 3/31
Evga GTX 580 1.5GB $389.99 (after $30 MIR card) + Free Shipping, exp 3/31
HD 7770s:
XFX HD 7770 1GB $142.99 & Free Copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution (after 10% off code HARDOCPX321B & $10 MIR card) + Free Shipping, code exp. TODAY!, MIR card exp. 3/31
XFX HD 7770 1GB $159.99 & Free Copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution (after $10 MIR card) + Free Shipping, exp. 3/31
Gigabyte HD 7700 1GB $149.99 + $6.98 Shipping
GTX 570s:
Galaxy GTX 570 1,280MB $259.99 + Nvidia Sweepstakes Code + $7.56 Shipping
ECS GTX 570 1,280MB $259.99 + $7.56 Shipping
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 08:36:20 Fri, March 23, 2012 -
0 CommentsPosted By: Steve McBarnes - 04:02:02 Thu, March 22, 2012 -
1 CommentsThis overclocking roundup is going to be different than all previous roundups because Nvidia has changed the way the clocks of the card operate. GPU Boost is feature that changes the clock speed of the GPU to take advantage of any power that is not being utilized. So if you are playing Battlefield 3 and using about 150 of the GTX 680's 195 watt TDP, the clock speeds on the GPU will increase (in steps of 13.5 Mhz) to take advantage of that extra 45 watts.
Now if the card gets too hot or the game starts to use more power, the clock speed will be decreased (once again in steps of 13.5Mhz) to no lower than 1.058MHz. Even though the base speed of the GTX 680 is 1,006MHz, whenever a game or 3D benchmark is running, the clock speed will adjust be at 1,058MHz or higher.
As you can imagine, this drastically changes overclocking. Evga PrecisionX is the new tool that everyone is using right now. In PrecisionX you can increase the power target to 132% which allow the GTX 680 to run at 250 watts instead of 195. Some of the sites in the roundup increased the power target to 132% but some decided not to bring it up all the way.
The next important settings in PrecisionX are the GPU and Memory Clock Offsets. The GPU offset currently goes up to 549MHz (all the sites stayed under 180Mhz) and the memory offset goes up to 1GHz. I like the way Hardware Canucks described these offsets, so I am going to steal two paragraphs from them:
"Bumping up the Offset literally heightens GPU Boost’s range by the amount you set. For example, if you set an Offset of 125MHz, situations that saw the core running at 1058MHz will now cause it to Boost up to 1183MHz while games that allowed for 1150MHz would now strive for 1275MHz. The Memory Offsets behave in the same way except they aren’t quite as constrained as the core is.
Of course, all of these numbers are dependent upon the card operating within its TDP limits. This is also why setting a Power Target is so important since without changing it, there would be much less headroom to play with. In addition, keeping the card cool will also ensure that it can run at higher GPU Boost clock speeds without slamming head first into a power and thermal barrier."
Now it is time to talk about the changes to the chart. I got rid of the reference core and memory speeds to make room for columns for the GPU and memory offsets. Also, the speeds listed in the OC core and OC memory columns refer to the highest speeds that the card attainted while the site was testing their overclock.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 03:01:48 Thu, March 22, 2012 -
1 CommentsThe GeForce GTX 680 is finally here, and it has features and tech that have never been seen before. If you would rather watch a video than read about these new fangled things, then I suggest giving this link a click. I will be writing an easy to understand article talking about all these new features later to today.
Looking at the reviews, it seems like Nvidia succeeded in making the most powerful single GPU card ever made, it is uses less power than competiton's flagship, and it also gives you more performance per dollar than the HD 7970.
The only thing holding the GTX 680 back is its 256-bit memory bus. If Nvidia had increased it to 512-bit or even 384-bit, the GTX 680 would have totally crushed the HD 7970. As it is, the GTX 680 has higher pixel and texture fill rates, but lower FLOPS and memory bandwidth. In fact, I just noticed this interesting story on TechPowerUp about how the GTX 680 was originally the GTX 670 Ti. It seems like Nvidia made a 256-bit chip that was so good that it beat the HD 7970 and thus could be branded as an 80 part instead of 70 part.
All the reference models look the same right aside from the different stickers, so I decided to show you an exciting GTX 680 model that is not available yet. This is a mock-up of a GTX 680 from Inno3D that comes with an attached liquid cooling system, not just a waterblock cooler. This could end up being something like Sapphire's Toxic X1950 XTX card.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 04:06:44 Wed, March 21, 2012 -
0 CommentsPosted By: Steve McBarnes - 04:09:26 Tue, March 20, 2012 -
0 CommentsOn Saturday the Dutch site ComCom listed a pre-order for a Zotac GTX 680 for what amounts to 563 US dollars. The card is listed with a 1,006MHz core speed, a 6,008MHz memory speed and only a 256-bit memory bus. Looks like I'll have to update our GTX 680 information!
Yesterday some pictures of Gigabyte's GTX 680 appeared in a Overclock.net thread. For those that don't want to sign up for those forums, click here for more info and pics.
Some GTX 680 benchmarks were posted on the Chinese VR-Zone site on Monday. Try this link if you are better with English. Over in the GPU-Z screen you can see that they were using version 300.99 Nvidia drivers and the GTX 680 was clocked to 1,150/2,299/7,200.
And today two factory overclocked GTX 680s showed up for pre-order at NCIX. There's an MSI model clocked at 1,056Mhz and a Evga Superclocked model. Both cards are listed for $577.98.
Posted By: Steve McBarnes - 01:55:43 Thu, March 15, 2012 -
0 CommentsPosted By: Steve McBarnes - 10:23:42 Thu, March 15, 2012 -
2 CommentsChiphell and PCOnline have posted new (as in different from the old rumored specs) for the upcoming GTX 680. They also provided a picture of the GTX 680, which you can see below. The new specs differ from the old ones in the following ways. 1,536 CUDA cores instead of 1,024, 1,006MHz core clock instead of 850mHz, 6MHz GDDR5 memory instead of 5.5GHz and a 256-bit a memory bus instead of a 512-bit memory bus. So the new specs say that the card has more cores at a faster speed but the memory bus has been cut in half. I would be very surprised if the GTX 680 has a 256-bit bus when the GTX 580 had a 384-bit bus.
