The latest nVidia GPU, Kepler, is upon us. Does it continue the green teams dominance in the graphics market?

Continue ReadingQuote

My god, this thing is epic.Quote

Nice to see the competition so close for a change adds a nice new perspective to hardware.Quote

Im gonna get this in my new rig. Now only waiting for the new 1155 Cpus.Quote

nice review again.

My choice was made anyway, I am a faithful and has less than a huge disappointment, I have not bought anything.

Ordered, delivered tomorrow ... quick, quick, quick!!! Quote

I think you've got the 7950oc and 7970oc results back to front mateQuote

Wow that is very close, much closer than the TT review thank god. For me vram is a big issue and I don't want to be getting less than 2.5gb. The TT review was making me a little nervous. Thankfully the 7970 is still holding its own and hopefully a few £ cheaper over the coming days.Quote

So Nvidia and AMD going toe to toe? I like the sounds of that, because it should lead to lower prices from both sides =DQuote

Eventually it might, but I do not think it will happen anytime soon. In the Netherlands, you can get a reference HIS HD7970 for €450. That's the cheapest 7970 available. The cheapest GTX680 at this moment is €520. I do expect the GTX680 to drop a little seeing as it's only just been released, but the 7970 will probably be a bit cheaper, which is right in line with the performance it offers. Also, NVIDIA haven't released their other GTX6xx cards yet. The moment they do is the moment I expect price drops to occur.Quote

If i weren't going on holiday this year, my rig would get a major update with two these bad boys Quote

Nope. If you read our 7950 review you'll see that it was right up there and sometimes ahead.Quote

Looks great! Wonder how it folds though. Guess I will find out tomorrow...Quote

Great review as always tinytomlogan! I really enjoyed it. I'm planning to sell my GTX 570 to buy a GTX 680. Is my AMD Phenom II X4 945 enough to handle one of these beasts? Or it would be a "not so smart upgrade" to do, and I need to change all my pc before buying a GTX 680?

Thanks in advance Quote

Nice review Tom. I really like how the 680 are doing in BF3, with 11-14 fps more than the 7970 in 1920x1080 ultra mode. Think AMD will cut prizes further now Quote

I really want to see it's performance benchmark in 3ds max or mayaQuote

You will find out tomorrow? Nice :')Quote

Next day air was $16 more, I caved in my moment of weakness. Newegg is already sold out of all brands.Quote

I was hoping i could buy one today , but as always.. my sell of my i7 860 was cancelled, at the last freaking moment Quote

Looking forward for a evga gtx680 ^^Quote

1. QuadSLI = I smell a new overkill3D

2. Time for Asus to do a Mars III...

3. All those CUDA cores and no F@H benchies Tom???Quote

Bummer!Quote

Haha I don't blame you mate, it's an amazing card! Do let us know how it fold though :')Quote

Whoops - somebody forgot to add the commentary audio in for the gameplay parts of the vid - though you can still hear him shuffling around as he plays the game in the background!

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Yea shame tho and pretty weird , as i am always very lucky Quote

great review tom!

very expensive for now. maybe in 2 years will be more "accessible" for me

nice job Quote

Where is the high res tests?Quote

Glad the two cards are so close, not disappointed I bought a 7970.

Does make for good consumer experience when they are so closely matched. Might mean they have to start offering extras to secure sales.Quote

Watching Tom's review, and seeing how there's a small difference in games, but a larger one in the benchmarks - could this not be driver issues? Or is there something larger at work?Quote

Good review as always and i'm also glad that they are so evenly matched as well because all this Nvidia/AMD fanboyism and being bias does my head right in.

This guy on another forum said it best, Click "spoiler" to see the quote

[spoiler]I really don't get all of this brand loyalty/finger pointing and reason to get upset over a piece of silicon... The charts say it all, the 7970 wins some and the 680 wins some. It is up to the consumer to decide which card is better for them given their uses and what games they play. The 680 beats the 7970 in Skyrim and BF3 according to the charts, so that's the card I'm going to get.

You all are acting like religious fanatics that claim their way of thinking is the only right way. Why can't both cards just be good at what they're good at? Honestly, why does it matter if one card is better at some benchmarks than the other? If you bought the 7970, then you knew fully well that the 680 was around the corner. Should you get upset when it performs better than the 7970 at some applications? No. You recover your losses and move on.

The amount of bickering between hardcore fans of both sides lately does my head in. It's the same on all of the threads with AMD vs Intel, AMD vs Nvidia, Mech vs Dome keyboards, air vs water cooling, PS3 vs 360, Console vs PC, Apple vs Microsoft, Apple vs anything, or Notebook vs Tablets. What have any of these companies given you that has made you want to so vehemently defend them? They make products, you buy them. Make smart purchases and live with the consequences.[/spoiler]

Personally, I would buy the 680 over the 7970 because of it being quieter and using less power, but, if AMD dropped the price of the 7970 so it was coming in at £50 less (not going to happen, just sayin) I would buy the 7970 because it would be the better bang for the buck. Because of them being so evenly matched though, I don't see any major price drops for the 7000 series coming, but maybe for the 6000 series.

For the folding guys, I don't know how true this is but it is what I have read, Nvidia have not increased the direct compute power on the 680 and it's still around the same as a 580. As I said though I don't know how true that is, it's just what I have read.

Anyway, Tom, bring on the Kepler OK3D madness!!!!!!! Quote

Here's mine, both at the same resolution/settings. 7970 destroys 680

got some screenshots of my ASus GTX680 for you all to look at

Heaven Benchmark

+150 Core and +600 Mem



Not bad for day 1 drivers

But 7970 is better at my everyday overclock

Quote

im just happy to see nvidia finally on kepler.. i could never afford one of these cards i can only dream of one day owning one lolQuote

Oo please pie off with this Ati vs NvidiA

Oo and another thing!, please don't shout and come in like that, my sound was a tad to high Quote

How'd you get your hands on an GTX680 so quickly? Me so jelly ;p

Anyway, that's just one benchmark. I've read tonnes of professional reviews, and in almost all of them the GTX680 is slightly better than the 7970. Doesn't really matter though, both are awesome cards.Quote

as soon as the "brands" release their modded versions of the 680, AMD will be the underdog (yet again)

this is only Day1...

amd-fanboys, make the most of this, you will not get a second chance soon Quote

Not much better than a 580 then, can't see the point in buying one myself.Quote

Brilliant reveiw as always Tom,

One question, the percentage mark, beside the Temp. Is that not the gpu power? If that is the case, then that card was running on half on all the game test, unlike the AMD's that was on a constant 99%Quote

I am looking forward to seeing how the MSI 7970 Lightning against the MSI 680 Lightning version comes out. Im sure they will all be neck and neck time will tell tho.Quote

I think you need to look at the benches and watch Tom's review again, they are evenly matched, no one is the underdog. When the "brands" come out they will be evenly matched with the 7970 brands, you may also want to look at the MSI 7970 Lightning reviews as well.

This is not the right attitude, it should be about buying the best card for your money not brand loyalty, and whether you buy the 7970 or the 680 it doesn't really make much of a difference

1) they are evenly matched

2) the games where the 680 is better, or vice versa with the 7970, the difference is over the level where you wouldn't physically notice the difference. So, yet again, it doesn't really make a difference which one you have.Quote

I'm guessing that's the gpu fan speed you are on about ;pQuote

I just went through some previous card, and it is GPU usage.Quote

Not mine, a friend on OcUK.

These are real world benches, as we're not in Nvidias or AMDs pocket, and are clocking to the max on the latest drivers.

At stock the 680 edges out the 7970 because of dynamic overclocking, but at max they're either the same or 1 is beating the other, depending on game/bench.Quote

I don't think that is going to make any difference to a lot of people here who overclocked their cards? The AMD overclocks better so I'm not sure how you have come to this conclusion? Ha, stop trying to cause a fight between fan bases after Sieb's post! Anyone would think you were trolling as an admin !

Although the cards perform on average almost identically (which I think is testament to AMD given the release dates, but offset by the 20-30w extra power draw) I still think there is a pretty clear case for picking one over the other, from my perspective, depending on the situation and excluding price/power consumption.

If you play beyond 1080p then the AMD's extra vram will probably be an advantage (as DB006's benches suggest) and also if you use 3d technology.

Otherwise, the 680 is arguably better at stock but the AMD catches and often beats it under overclocking.

M&PQuote

Found some info on F@H for the folding guys

This is where I first read about the the low direct compute

http://www.overclock...-in-gpu-compute

This is from a review that I found today

http://www.legitrevi...rticle/1881/15/

It doesn't look like it will be a good folder Quote

i am not 'trolling' or trying to start fights... read several posts before my first on this thread, and foresee where it was going... i did, read between the lines, and commented.

yes, they 'perform' almost the same.

in benches, one may slightly lead the other - but average out nicely

but, less volts and less noise is a win for meQuote

WTF!? that can't be right at all a non cuda GPU vs a cuda GPU Quote

Great review! Sooooooo nice to see a review take the time to both use a large test suite AND compare the overclocked performance of this card vs the overclocked 7970.

The vast majority of sites (especially the major ones) I've seen so far both use a more limited test suite and COMPLETELY IGNORE the overclocking performance of the two cards. They then arrive at the conclusion "lol 7970 is crap the 680 dominates it".

Nice to see that some people can't be bought off by nVidia and take a fully-orbed look at the cards. Just found out about OC3D a few months ago and it has fast become my favorite tech site (and I'm not even in the UK!). Keep up the outstanding work guys

Loved the video review, as well!Quote

You're forgetting that NVIDIA's new GK104 architecture is a lot more like AMD's architecture than we're used to from NVIDIA.. well, that's what I've read anyway.. ;')Quote

I don't know mate, it's just what I have read. But it doesn't look good for the folding side of things.Quote

From the link you posted, it's not working at all right now with f@h. Hopefully we will get an update soon to fix this.Quote

@ Dug.

I know dude, I'm just teasing!

I'm actually really impressed with how these cards have worked out - there don't seem to be any losers. You can pick your priorities and get pretty much the same performance.Quote

Can't wait to get my hands on one of these.Quote

Really nice review Tom. Pity there were no Crysis 2 results for the radeon cards, but for the most part the 680 is pretty much on equal terms with the 7970.

I'm really liking the power draw and the quietness aspects of the 680, so it'll be amazing to see how third party 680's will be like in terms of quietness.Quote

But it still remains to have 'cuda' right ?Quote

Hmm, maybe the 680 is a partially locked down 690 and a 695 will be the 590 replacement?

Can't understand why it indicates to fold so poorly, hopefully will be fixed as said.Quote

Well yeah, that's what they call it anyway. Just trying to think of possible explanations.

Might just need a driver / F@H client update to work properly, maybe then we'll see really great numbers :')Quote

I think a different client ..

we'll see....Quote

I prefer the features of the gtx 680 and like Nvidia drivers better but this wasnt the leap I was expecting.Quote

Saw this on EVGA FB page

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...33475908_n.jpg

Gimme two, or three Quote

For the F@H guys, it seems that the 680 is meant as a gaming card (like the 560 Ti) rather than a gaming/compute card (like the 580).

Give the teeny tiny die size (for Nvidia), low power draw and 12 pin power, I'm expecting a 685 along quite soon. This seems to be Nvidia trying to get double money out of the 'must have best NOW' people.

What I'm interested in and have yet to find is whether Nvidia have caught up in multi-monitor support. 4 screens per card is one thing, but do they have to be the same resolution, can they be moved around 'virtually' and are name tags going to be over the right object or wander 400px off to the side??

Also, what's the 680 like for overclocking when watercooled, given temps are a major factor in turboing?Quote

Not looking too good for F@H. Kinda disappointed by this.Quote

Glad I didn't buy it .Quote

It's Nvidia dude, they'll have a compute card out soon enough (that's not tesla/quadro).

My fear is that this was being designed as the 660 Ti, but found AMD didn't push performance as high as they planned for, so have released their mid range card as the high end, with the planned top end card being delayed a few months.

If that's what they're doing, it's understandable from a short term money making position, but it would certainly put me off them (if I had the money to buy right now).Quote

We haven't seen numbers yet. Don't count it out yet.

I have a 680 coming in the mail, a new card coming out isn't going to help me . At least there is always EVGA step-up. Quote

Gotta love them for that!

Ofcourse, I could be completely wrong and you're simply stuck with compute defective GPU Quote

I have to say, I love the GTX680's features, the adaptive overclocking, adaptive V-Sync and TXAA. I am excited to see what the future holds, I will wait until they released their whole range. Quote

Great review Tom

me personally though I probably won't be upgrading to any of the Nvidia 600 series or AMD 7000 series I will probably hold out for the second-generation of 28 nm GPU's

one of the best parts about all the new stuff getting released is the old stuff gets cheaper so there is always the possibility of an SLI or crossfire set up with your old cardQuote

Can we please remove the Overkill3D values from the main graphs because they make it difficult to compare the cards that are comparable. At least remove the Mars 2 SLI every one knows that will be way more powerful than a single card GPU no SLI.Quote

So, anyone got a good reason for selling their 580 and buying the 680? It's more quiet...that it?Quote

Unless you plan to F@H, this is better in every way imaginable.Quote

Why do you say that? It's no better than a 580Quote

quiter, faster and lower power consumption.Quote

I am waiting eagerly to see some really F@H results (from you, as tom didn't do any ) with triple the cuda cores it should be a bit better AND less heat haha

i wanna sell my 580 and get one of these WHEN they have a 4gb version OR if by then a 685 or w/e comes outQuote

Hardly, have you seen TTl's review?

If I had a 580 I wouldn't even consider splashing £400 on a minimal upgrade.Quote

Still love my 590... wouldn't trade it for anything. Quote

Looks great. Low watt/fps makes my wallet open.Quote

To be honest I think that may be exactly it. There are the pre-soldered mounts for another power connector, after all... :/.

The rumoured silicone delays may have also had a hand in this - the GK110 is supposed to be significantly larger than the GK104, so maybe they had yield issues there.

This may be why there was such a delay with the release of the part - remember that Kepler was supposed to be released a few months ago, after all!Quote

Nor should you, never mind the "lets buy something for the sake of it" brigade.

A 590 is a fantastic card. Will be a few years before you consider upgrading that bugger lolQuote

Honestly I don't think I'll be buying this. I currently have two 6970s @950/1500 in Crossfire and they are more than enough to get 60+ FPS in any game I throw at them with maxed out graphics. nvidia has implemented some really nice technologies, but there isn't enough performance gain for me to justify spending 1000 bucks in getting 680s in SLI just like there wasn't enough performance gain with the 7970s for me to justify spending that money. I'll wait until the GK110 comes out and maybe upgrade then, but for now it seems completely unecessary.Quote

What if the 690 is released with much better temps, proper SLI functionality, and no flames when you overclock?

Unless I'm wrong. Last I read, the 590's weren't worth the SLI setup.Quote

Why would you need to SLI 590's Quote

Better frame rates when using 3D, ultra settings, and a buttload of mods.

Skyrim for example... when using uGridsToLoad=13 my framerates drop a LOT. But it looks so good.Quote

Interesting, Let the pricing war begin.Quote

I'm a bit dissapointed just a gtx 580, with mild performance boost, and low power draw. But I'm with Tom. It seems fishy that this is spose to be the big hoss of gtx 6xx series and it's just slighty faster than the 580.Quote

Still happy it did not eat my 7970 for breakfast haha, the videoram is a really big concern of mine.... I am curious how it handles 5760*1080 BF3 gaming, I find I can't run ultra on my OC'ed 7970 but high runs fine... I'll wait a bit for prices to drop then get another 7970 and overclock that boy to its limit as well ^^Quote

Got a Palit for £375 (to have a look @) then will shove it in a mate's build as i fancy the MSI Lightning versionQuote

So it seems another (F@H) client is needed for the GTX680...Quote

Great review of the monster card.Quote

It was the same thing when Fermi was released too. I had to wait awhile before I could fold on my 470. The price of early adoption...Quote

Woot, it's here!



lol, hope this is powerful enough to play d3.



The nod to folding is pretty cool





Huge ass EVGA poster, I lol'd when I unfolded it

Quote

enjoy Quote

I'm not jealous of you hmmblah, honest Quote

I WANT NOW! Too bad they're sold out everywhere.... Quote

Here you go MSI one

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=57559&agid=1156Quote

i am very jelly right now, enjoy itQuote

I can't believe how cheap they are! It's almost $300 cheaper than my 590! Quote

Lovely card !

Am I the only one who thinks the stacked 6pins will be a problem for watercooling?

You are always left with a two slot card.Quote

I said this right away (when we saw the connectors) , stupid action NvidiA !Quote

I honestly can't believe this is the replacement for the 580! It has way cooler features and I like where they are going with it, but it seems Nvidia releases what they had to to keep use happy and just barly steal the crown from AMD.(which is debatable)

Most reviewers are calling the 680 the new king, but with a features gone(compute). This keeps AMD in some of our hearts because we get basiclly the same performance(with better compute) for a little more money.

Tom called them basically the same, buy what you want, you have love his honesty and unbiased opinion. For most of us this would seem 100% true, but I think he is right, something is fishy with the 680.

The 580 was a true king of it's time! Fast and powerful, when needed, cool and quiet when not. It had so much going fot it nothing could touch it, which put an instant target on its back!!! To beat it you needed dual GPU,x-fire, or SLI, but your power bill went way up, and your wallet was lighter. To use less power or be cheaper, it was hard to beat. So I gotta give props to the old King....because it will be the mark from which all will be measured from ,for a while, anyway....

580 vs 680 the 680 wins in almost every way except it's computing, the 580 destroys it....folders, wait.. when the price drops on the 580s buy them all up, or buy used 580s...there will be alot of them soon.

The reason has to be twice the CUDA cores at a higher clock for $500 would kill off the TESLA/QUADRO card sales, when the 680 could almost do what a $2000 card could do..a sly business move for Nvidia!!

I think they are being smart though, release the 600 series now, minus compute at current 500 series prices and 90% of us wouldn't be the wiser, because It's benchmarks and game performance is better than the 580, than once they got all our money and sales start droping, the all new 700 series!!!(aka.600 series with compute for alot more money). For some this would be a good thing, if you don't need compute buy the cheaper 600 gaming cards, but bad for those that want it, because I'm sure you will be forced to pay a higher price for it. Just another notch inbetween type of cards, from workstation cards. High end gamming and ultra class consumer cards.

I think thats why there is extra solder points on the cards for different PCI-E power. There is clearly a spot for a 8 pin next to the top 6 pin, which the higher end boards may need when they boost compute performance, add a second GPU, or just maybe its there for a killer overclocking single slot water cooled configuation.... who knows.

7970 vs 680 not so clear....

gaming- buy the card that performs better in the games you play at the price you can afford.

overclocking- I think the 680 will be way better for people who don't mess about with their video cards that much because it basically has INTEL Speed Step, when it's loaded down(all cores active) it runs at "stock clock", but if you throw an old game that is less demanding(lesser cores active) it overclocks itself for better performance.

The 7970 will be better for those who like messing with their card overclocks, I can see where GPU Boost would confuse or off people trying to overclock the 680.

Power-the 680, across the board uses less power. Where it beats the 7970 and has lower power, it is the clear watts/performance winner. In cases where the 7970 beats the 680, but the 680 still uses lower power, it's bascically a tie, you have to choose based on other things.

One place where the 7970 wins out,and it affects alot of us,is Idle power!! AMD cards have zero core(the thing keeping Tom from Quad x-fire, till he got it sorted). If you sit in front your computer messing with it all the time, it doesn't matter, but if you leave your machine on all the time or walk away from it alot, the AMD cards will sense when your monitor turns off and cut it's core power to only a few watts.

Basicaly I see this as the same thing:

Nvidia=higher base clock and overclocks when needed, always using less power.

AMD=needs more power to do the same work but underclocks when not needed, to make up for it's power wasteing habits.

kinda sounds familiar...dosen't it?

Price=let the battle begin.. so WE can win alittle!!

personally, I'm kinda steering away from the 680, until I see where they go next. I can see alot of you with single 580 or even 570s switching to 680s for a small bump in performance(losing compute), than AMD responds with a 7990 single GPU card to regain the crown , and Nvidia releases a 685,690, and a 695, leaving the people who just bought a new 680 with a mid grade card??? but ofcorse this will force the price down and you can just pick up one or two more for 2 or 3 way SLI.

I went the expensive single GPU route first time around, this time I went with 2 cheaper cards in SLI(although they cost more than one single card they also beat it peformance wise), they are brand new, so I'm not upgradeing till I see whats next.

I'm interested to see what the partners will do with the non-referance boards, Imagine what ASUS could do if the GPU Boost,base clock, and spread are all adjustable in the BIOS....EPU and TPU switchs on video cards??maybe??

ok sorry for the long post, but thats my $.02..Quote

Yea i'll wait when you can show its fully PPD,

then i'll start buying....Quote

The 580 was a true king of it's time! Fast and powerful, when needed, cool and quiet when not. It had so much going fot it nothing could touch it, which put an instant target on its back!!! To beat it you needed dual GPU,x-fire, or SLI, but your power bill went way up, and your wallet was lighter. To use less power or be cheaper, it was hard to beat. So I gotta give props to the old King....because it will be the mark from which all will be measured from ,for a while, anyway....

580 vs 680 the 680 wins in almost every way except it's computing, the 580 destroys it....folders, wait.. when the price drops on the 580s buy them all up, or buy used 580s...there will be alot of them soon.

The reason has to be twice the CUDA cores at a higher clock for $500 would kill off the TESLA/QUADRO card sales, when the 680 could almost do what a $2000 card could do..a sly business move for Nvidia!!

I think they are being smart though, release the 600 series now, minus compute at current 500 series prices and 90% of us wouldn't be the wiser, because It's benchmarks and game performance is better than the 580, than once they got all our money and sales start droping, the all new 700 series!!!(aka.600 series with compute for alot more money). For some this would be a good thing, if you don't need compute buy the cheaper 600 gaming cards, but bad for those that want it, because I'm sure you will be forced to pay a higher price for it. Just another notch inbetween type of cards, from workstation cards. High end gamming and ultra class consumer cards.

what do you mean by "Compute"?Quote

Compute = FP64 performance

This card is not for computing, but graphics

Wait for "big" Kepler to give more power as a Tesla card

Maybe in August we'll C much more... Quote

FP is floating point or something, right?Quote

when you see pictures like this you wonder why there so damn expensive, not exactly gold dust.Quote

Tom are you going to do a review for the GTX 680 in 3 way or 4 way SLI like you did for AMD 7970? Quote

Because alot of us are willing to pay the priceQuote

Awesome review as always Tom. Waiting on the 660 and 670 to decide what to buy Quote

AMD HD7970 v nVidia 680GTX.

I can't afford to buy either however, if I were spending my own money on either of these I'd choose the 7970 for the multi-monitor stability.

I know the 680 uses nVidia Surround, but from what I have read AMD still seems to own the multi monitor market.

Easier to set up and mature drivers.Quote

Sensationalisation physics.Quote