NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Review: Retaking The Performance Crown
by Ryan Smith on March 22, 2012 9:00 AM ESTCivilization V
Our final game, Civilization 5, gives us an interesting look at things that other RTSes cannot match, with a much weaker focus on shading in the game world, and a much greater focus on creating the geometry needed to bring such a world to life. In doing so it uses a slew of DirectX 11 technologies, including tessellation for said geometry, driver command lists for reducing CPU overhead, and compute shaders for on-the-fly texture decompression.
Remember when NVIDIA used to sweep AMD in Civ V? Times have certainly changed in the last year, that’s for sure. It only seems appropriate that we’re ending on what’s largely a tie. At 2560 the GTX 680 does have a 4% lead over the 7970, however the 7970 reclaims it’s lead at the last possible moment at 1920. At this point we’ve seen the full spectrum of results, from the GTX 680 losing badly to winning handily, and everything in between.
On a final note, it’s interesting to see that the GTX 680 really only manages to improve on the GTX 580’s performance at 2560. At 1920 the lead is only 8%, and at 1680 we’re just CPU limited. Haswell can’t get here soon enough.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
404 Comments
View All Comments
Sabresiberian - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
About what?Are you trying to blame the President for high video card prices?
Please.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
It's called inflation, try to get the idea, not some fanboy hurt.silverblue - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
What on earth is your problem? Where is there any sign of fanboyism in the three posts above you? He's got a valid point - cards are getting faster but they're getting more expensive at the same time.Successful troll is successful, it seems.
CeriseCogburn - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link
He said he got it in a sale. A few months ago it was $475 used on ebay (bitcoin).Many cards have come out at $500 and above.
The 580 was well over $500 for a long time, as was the 5870.
I guess you're mad because he;s wrong.
silverblue - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link
Reading comprehension isn't your friend. He's quite clearly talking about a 5870 that he bought for $325 when the prices were reduced two years back. He's also saying that there isn't a card in the region of $325 (give or take a few dollars) that is worth upgrading to right now, so in essence, he's asking what point there is to buying a new card.You're reading far too much into this. He still owns his 5870... which, by the way, never cost $500 at launch. The Eyefinity 6 Edition, perhaps, but not the vanilla 5870 - try $429 as an upper limit (and we're talking US Dollars; not my currency of choice but it's the norm for this site).
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link
Yes of course. So we have the 5870 v 7970 crysis W (page it happens to be on)40 vs 69
24 vs 42
16 vs 26
I see 3 resolutions where not or barely playable becomes playable.
So then it comes down to more exaggeration I objected to at the start.
I wouldn't object saying the 5870 can turn it down satisfy - but the increase is clearly game making.
Is it the GTX580 that was so far ahead yet denounced for core size and heat that is causing the disconnect ? I'd say so.
B-Unit1701 - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Hence why Im still rocking a 4870. Picked one up almost exactly 3 years ago for $250, and haven't been convinced to upgrade until this generation. Will likely jump on a 7850 or a 7870 depending where prices land after nVidia's full launch.CeriseCogburn - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
The power envelope. The standard 300watts for pci-e (maybe they will raise it) is already exceeded on single cards.Where can you go but to 28mn and how is that not going to also bust power specs ?
Monitor resolutions have increased in 2 years.
OS has sucked up some.
Game patches enhance.
--
What's wrong is there is a limit that cannot be passed right now smaller nm must be achieved. Smaller ram with 4x the GB...
Two years may seem long but is it really ?
Many multi billion dollar upgrades to foundries require constant overhauls to move nodes.
Amazing is the whole thing hasn't collapsed already.
fhaddad78 - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
I'm confused by the dialog taking place in this conversation. Unless I am not understanding the results correctly, it seems to me the GTX 680 is a great card, there are some games where it performs really well, and there are other games where it's being outperformed by even older generation products. To me, this card (in it's current state) is more of a side-grade than an upgrade.Am I missing something?
prophet001 - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
only hysteria