NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Review: Retaking The Performance Crown
by Ryan Smith on March 22, 2012 9:00 AM ESTDiRT 3
For racing games our racer of choice continues to be DiRT, which is now in its 3rd iteration. Codemasters uses the same EGO engine between its DiRT, F1, and GRID series, so the performance of EGO has been relevant for a number of racing games over the years.
First it loses, then it ties, and then it starts to win.
After a very poor start in Crysis NVIDIA has finally taken a clear lead in a game. DiRT 3 has historically favored NVIDIA’s video cards so this isn’t wholly surprising, but it’s our first proof that the GTX 680 can beat the 7970, with the GTX 680 taking a respectable 6% lead at 2560. Interestingly enough the lead increases as we drop down in resolution, which is something we have also seen with past Radeon and GeForce cards. It looks like Fermi’s trait of dropping off in performance more rapidly with resolution than GCN has carried over to the GTX 680.
In any case, compared to the GTX 580 this is another good showing for the GTX 680. The 680’s lead on the 580 is a rather consistent 36-38%.
The minimum framerates reflect what we’ve seen with the averages; the GTX 680 has a slight lead on the 7970 at 2560, while it beats the GTX 580 by over 30%.
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chizow - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Did not see OC results listed anywhere, will they be added to this article or an addendum/supplement later?Ryan Smith - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
It will be added to this article. We may also do a separate pipeline article, but everything will be added here for future reference.SlyNine - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Adaptive v-sync, is that like tripple buffering? never heard of it but it sounds interesting.iwod - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
In those high res test it seems it is seriously limited by bandwidth. If you could get 7Ghz GDDR5 or MemoryCube i guess it would have performed MUCH better.I think we finally got back to basic. What GPU is all about. Graphics. We have been spending too much time doing GPGPU which only benefits a VERY small percentage of the consumer market.
PeteRoy - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Unfortunately there is no game that can benefit from the power this card has to give.We are in 2012 and the PC gaming graphic level is stuck in the year 2007 with Crysis as the last game to push the limits of video cards.
Since 2006 when the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 took over the gaming industry all games are made for these consoles therefore all games have the graphic technology of DirectX 9.
Battlefield 3 in the end of 2011 still doesn't look as good as Crysis from 2007.
Sabresiberian - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
YOU have no use for this card because you are clearly playing Tetris at 1024x768. Other people have much higher resolutions and play much more demanding games.Some of them even - GASP! - run more than one monitor. Imagine that.
;)
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
I agree. The 7970 isn't doing it for me @ 19x12 w SB@4800x4. MOAR.SlyNine - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Crysis 2 will full DX11 plus texture pack tottaly tears my 5870 a new one. unless these cards are now pumping out 3x the FPS than the performance is needed.Ahnilated - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
I waited all this time hoping the GTX680's would be an awesome card to upgrade from my GTX480's that I run in SLI. Well I am very disappointed now. I guess I continue waiting.Pessimism - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Do not forget that NVIDIA knowingly and willingly peddled defective chips to multiple large vendors. The real question is whether they have mastered the art of producing chips that will remain bonded to the product they are powering, and whether they will turn to slag once reaching normal operating temperatures.