NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 Review Feat. EVGA: Bringing GK104 Down To $400
by Ryan Smith on May 10, 2012 9:00 AM ESTMeet The GeForce GTX 670
Because of the relatively low power consumption of GK104 relative to past high-end NVIDIA GPUs, NVIDIA has developed a penchant for small cards. While the GTX 680 was a rather standard 10” long, NVIDIA also managed to cram the GTX 690 into the same amount of space. Meanwhile the GTX 670 takes this to a whole new level.
We’ll start at the back as this is really where NVIDIA’s fascination with small size makes itself apparent. The complete card is 9.5” long, however the actual PCB is far shorter at only 6.75” long, 3.25” shorter than the GTX 680’s PCB. In fact it would be fair to say that rather than strapping a cooler onto a card, NVIDIA strapped a card onto a cooler. NVIDIA has certainly done short PCBs before – such as with one of the latest GTX 560 Ti designs – but never on a GTX x70 part before. But given the similarities between GK104 and GF114, this isn’t wholly surprising, if not to be expected.
In any case this odd pairing of a small PCB with a large cooler is no accident. With a TDP of only 170W NVIDIA doesn’t necessarily need a huge PCB, but because they wanted a blower for a cooler they needed a large cooler. The positioning of the GPU and various electronic components meant that the only place to put a blower fan was off of the PCB entirely, as the GK104 GPU is already fairly close to the rear of the card. Meanwhile the choice of a blower seems largely driven by the fact that this is an x70 card – NVIDIA did an excellent job with the GTX 560 Ti’s open air cooler, which was designed for the same 170W TDP, so the choice is effectively arbitrary from a technical standpoint (there’s no reason to believe $400 customers are any less likely to have a well-ventilated case than $250 buyers). Accordingly, it will be NVIDIA’s partners that will be stepping in with open air coolers of their own designs.
Starting as always at the top, as we previously mentioned the reference GTX 670 is outfitted with a 9.5” long fully shrouded blower. NVIDIA tells us that the GTX 670 uses the same fan as the GTX 680, and while they’re nearly identical in design, based on our noise tests they’re likely not identical. On that note unlike the GTX 680 the fan is no longer placed high to line up with the exhaust vent, so the GTX 670 is a bit more symmetrical in design than the GTX 680 was.
Note: We dissaembled the virtually identical EVGA card here instead
Lifting the cooler we can see that NVIDIA has gone with a fairly simple design here. The fan vents into a block-style aluminum heatsink with a copper baseplate, providing cooling for the GPU. Elsewhere we’ll see a moderately sized aluminum heatsink clamped down on top of the VRMs towards the front of the card. There is no cooling provided for the GDDR5 RAM.
Note: We dissaembled the virtually identical EVGA card here instead
As for the PCB, as we mentioned previously due to the lower TDP of the GTX 670 NVIDIA has been able to save some space. The VRM circuitry has been moved to the front of the card, leaving the GPU and the RAM towards the rear and allowing NVIDIA to simply omit a fair bit of PCB space. Of course with such small VRM circuitry the reference GTX 670 isn’t built for heavy overclocking – like the other GTX 600 cards NVIDIA isn’t even allowing overvolting on reference GTX 670 PCBs – so it will be up to partners with custom PCBs to enable that kind of functionality. Curiously only 4 of the 8 Hynix R0C GDDR5 RAM chips are on the front side of the PCB; the other 4 are on the rear. We typically only see rear-mounted RAM in cards with 16/24 chips, as 8/12 will easily fit on the same side.
Elsewhere at the top of the card we’ll find the PCIe power sockets and SLI connectors. Since NVIDIA isn’t scrambling to save space like they were with the GTX 680, the GTX 670’s PCIe power sockets are laid out in a traditional side-by-side manner. As for the SLI connectors, since this is a high-end GeForce card NVIDIA provides 2 connectors, allowing for the card to be used in 3-way SLI.
Finally at the front of the card NVIDIA is using the same I/O port configuration and bracket that we first saw with the GTX 680. This means 1 DL-DVI-D port, 1 DL-DVI-I port, 1 full size HDMI 1.4 port, and 1 full size DisplayPort 1.2. This also means the GTX 670 follows the same rules as the GTX 680 when it comes to being able to idle with multiple monitors.
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CeriseCogburn - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
Hmm.. 10X costlier ? Are we into some bloviating bullfuddo or what ?2500k $ 225
z68 100
4G 1333 25
case 50
HD 75
1920X 175
key/M 25
ps 50
GTX670 400
win7 100
_____________
$1,225 for a top end system, monitor and all, except we could just reuse your $500 big screen your console box uses, so we're down to $1,050 for a SMOKING FAST computer system.
I guess you bought a 1050/10 ....
$105 gaming console - enjoying that amiga pong dude ?
snakefist - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
good luck with that system on ultra settings in highest resolution (which is, btw, NOT 1920x1080). one can argue with about every item you listed - but lets just say this:what if i DON'T have a console and cannot reuse that "$500 big screen"?
and you honestly think i value you so much that i actually make a calculation of current hardware prices just to contradict you? you're so wrong... but your "gaming configuration" did made me laugh on several occasions
7x, 8x, 9x, 10x - what's ESSENTIAL difference? point is still valid, and will be as long as we don't go into 2-3x range
@raghu78
i cannot say i saw Alan Wake on any platform, but xbox360 is 2010? and PC version is 2012? i fail to see significance in comparing them...
what i DID say is that it's often hard to notice difference between highest and next-highest level of settings - might be subjective and/or game-dependent - ones i saw didn't make me feel compelled to switch GPU. again, it can be just me
i would also prefer you not to put words in my mouth, i never had and probably never will buy a game console
CeriseCogburn - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
Ok, so 1920x1080 is better than consolers, or at least equal to, their TV resolution, so the point is still valid, the point I made, not your exaggerated 10X.A carefully built $600 gaming system can look far superior to a console.
Now, after you blurted out the price blabber, I added your two comments together and understand where you're coming from.
You like a low or medium PC game setup and you really could care less for quality, just fast frames.
The system I posted whallops any console, period. It smokes it into the dirt. Keep laughing then, as your stupid comment about gaming at 10X the cost is stupid because you claimed you can't tell the difference and even if you could you wouldn't and don't care.
So you just keep your non console no eye candy occasional game rig and be happy. Whatever.
snakefist - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
"So you just keep your non console no eye candy occasional game rig and be happy."oh, thank you very much for allowing me to do this :)
for your information, i am building systems (gaming or otherwise, all price ranges) for many, many years and am in fact quite good at it... your proposed configuration is quite laughable (high-end gamer with 25$ mouse+keyboard)...
please post more configurations, i might learn something :) - someone with so much posts must me exceedingly intelligent and experienced
i don't deal with consoles, and if you failed to comprehend
meaning of "2013 consoles will have mid-range 2012 graphics)" in the light of "overall increase of game graphics quality" (last one not said by me, btw)... well, it's totally not my problem...
btw, you should ask for professional help, both in system building and anger-management - someone raging so much at every hardware review/comment have definite issues
oh, i currently have 5 systems, some of them with AMD and some with NVIDIA graphics (of different price-ranges), NOT because i'm very rich, but because i need them for work. but objectivity is not something you would understand, is it?
CeriseCogburn - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
Objectivity and communication skills is not something you have, that's for sure. Nor do you have honesty.You certainly, I guarantee, have not built more systems for others than I have, and haven't owned retail, besides that. None of that matters, as your posts alone should be proof of your capabilities, as they are the only evidence any of us here have.
So let's talk about understanding - understand this, there isn't a thing you could teach me, and so far, I've caught you lying.
If you actually have a point, or rather had one, I already told you it became clear after your second post - and it's still as clear as it was then.
Now let's go back to 10X more expensive - a console is easily or generally $299, some $599, so let's go with $499, then we have the $500 TV set, and we're at $1,000 for console -
Now at your 10X rate, we have $10,000 for a top end gaming system. Congratulations, you're a great teacher.
Like I said I got it - you dissed consoles, and you dissed decent high end gaming rigs, you like dissing, you started out dissing, and ended with dissing, and as far as facts in between, there were none.
snakefist - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
"You certainly, I guarantee, have not built more systems for others than I have, and haven't owned retail, besides that."getting personal, aren't we? you are building system for OTHERS (unlucky people)? i do it for living, quite successfully and for many years... you have no way of knowing how many i made, yet claim your own superiority...
as facts are concerned you're turning a figure of speech into your chief argument - what did you expect from me, to browse current console prices and say it's 7.14x times more expensive (feel free to use this number as a further proof, it could improve your calculating abilities). oh, by the way, including monitor/tv into 10x calculation is a stunningly clever - what the hell would anyone do with ten 500$ screens? or i have missed well-known fact that consoles are sold EXCLUSIVELY packed with 500$ screen - in which case i do apologize to you..
and if you had any communication skill, everyone wouldn't hate you - i browsed several random replies people posted on your so called "fact-based comments" and none were positive. however all of them had more or less clear evidence of your incompetence
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link
Oh cut the crap. You haven't provided a rudimentary price structure to even get close to 7.14X and you NEVER will.You're like chizow the flaming red hater, who screamed 80% and 75% perf increases vs 40% current when finally after ten demands he had to reply with something, and it was like you, his "word", then "his demand" I "look around at benches" and get a clue - so I posted the links from anandf flagship releases and the numbers, and found 33% to be a fair number not 80%.
My competence is far above yours because I'm not a knee jerk liar, and I can actually be a man about things and go where the evidence leads, and ignore the hyper emo fanboy lies that well up from within - something about 90% of you need a lot of training in to overcome.
Since you blew out your big lying spew, you'll have to come clean to gain any shred of respect, and it is clear you have no intention to do so.
SlyNine - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
Ya but Chizo backed it up with facts, and you were just cherry picking data.CeriseCogburn - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
No chizow never had any facts, and you know it.AFTER I took the time to post all the links on the RELEASE reviews of the very cards from anantech over the years here, AND post the frames for the easy comparison... WHICH HE NEVER DID ONCE WITH ANY DATA AT ALL....
chizow then finally by way of not so lazy and lying as to be laughable, did what I told him to do prior, GO LOOK AT THE BENCH chart here at anand and then give us the real percentages, not his lies he just prior got caught on.
So he posted one link on one game (with what systems behind them we have no clue like we do in the REVIEW links I posted ).
Now after having your lies exposed with chizows, your absolute lack of data, and my work, you're still whining.
I used the very first game in each review, Crysis, and it's all nVidia cards bud. That'sa not cherry picking anything, I even used the release review from anandtech because that's what were using and the EXACT SAME LOOK we are all having here.
I have been 100% fair. You two on the other hand...
Ananke - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - link
Great cards. The great battles are only in the forums though, in reality sales happen under the $200 mark...I see only AMD 7850 and NVidia 560ti where the actual money is made. So, yeah NVidia is still behind its competition on new releases in the money making segments.Applause to green team though, their architecture and mnf process are so good, they managed to offer the GT560 replacement as an higher tier card with double the price :):)
Have said so, I will consider these when they hit the $199 mark...