NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Review: Retaking The Performance Crown
by Ryan Smith on March 22, 2012 9:00 AM ESTFinal Words
Once again we have reached the end of another GPU launch article and once again we have a lot of data to digest, so let’s get to it.
For the last few generations AMD has always put up a good fight and always managed to spoil NVIDIA in some manner, be it by beating NVIDIA to market by months like we saw with the 5000 series, or significantly undercutting NVIDIA and forcing them into a bloody price war as we saw with the 4000 series. This time AMD once again spoiled NVIDIA by releasing the Radeon HD 7970 nearly 3 months early, but as always, at the end of the day it’s NVIDIA who once again takes the performance crown for the highest performing single-GPU card.
What makes this launch particularly interesting if not amusing though is how we’ve ended up here. Since Cypress and Fermi NVIDIA and AMD have effectively swapped positions. It’s now AMD who has produced a higher TDP video card that is strong in both compute and gaming, while NVIDIA has produced the lower TDP and weaker compute part that is similar to the Radeon HD 5870 right down to the display outputs. In some sense it’s a reaction by both companies to what they think the other did well in the last generation, but it’s also evidence of the fact that AMD and NVIDIA’s architectures are slowly becoming more similar.
In any case, this has ended up being a launch not quite like any other. With GTX 280, GTX 480, and GTX 580 we discussed how thanks to NVIDIA’s big die strategy they had superior performance, but also higher power consumption and a higher cost. To that extent this is a very different launch – the GTX 680 is faster, less power hungry, and quieter than the Radeon HD 7970. NVIDIA has landed the technical trifecta, and to top it off they’ve priced it comfortably below the competition.
Looking at the bigger picture, I think ultimately we still haven’t moved very far on the price/performance curve compared to where we’ve gone in past generations, and on that basis this is one of the smaller generational jumps we've seen for a GTX x80 product, or for that matter one of the smaller leads NVIDIA has had over AMD's top card. But even with NVIDIA’s conservative pricing we’re finally seeing 28nm translate into more performance for less, which of course is really what we're interested in. To that end, based on GK104’s die size I’m left wondering where GTX 680 is going to be sitting by the end of the year as 28nm production improves, as there’s clearly a lot of potential for price cuts in the future.
But in the meantime, in the here and now, this is by far the easiest recommendation we’ve been able to make for an NVIDIA flagship video card. NVIDIA’s drive for efficiency has paid off handsomely, and as a result they have once again captured the single-GPU performance crown.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
404 Comments
View All Comments
Targon - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Many people have been blasting AMD for price vs performance in the GPU arena in the current round of fighting. The thing is, until now, AMD had no competition, so it was expected that the price would remain high until NVIDIA released their new generation. So, expect lower prices from AMD to be released in the next week.You also fail to realize that with a 3 month lead, AMD is that much closer to the refresh parts being released that will beat NVIDIA for price vs. performance. Power draw may still be higher from the refresh parts, but that will be addressed for the next generation.
Now, you and others have been claiming that NVIDIA is somehow blowing AMD out of the water in terms of performance, and that is NOT the case. Yes, the 680 is faster, but isn't so much faster that AMD couldn't EASILY counter with a refresh part that catches up or beats the 680 NEXT WEEK. The 7000 series has a LOT of overclocking room there.
So, keep things in perspective. A 3 percent performance difference isn't enough to say that one is so much better than the other. It also remains to be seen how quickly the new NVIDIA parts will be made available.
SlyNine - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
I still blast them, I'm not happy with the price/performance increase of this generation at all.Unspoken Thought - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Finally! Logic! But it still falls on deaf ears. We finally see both sides getting their act together to get minimum features sets in, and we can't see passed our own bias squabbles.How about we continue to push these manufactures in what we want and need most; more features, better algorithms, and last and most important, revolutionize and find new way to render, aside from vector based rendering.
Lets start incorporating high level mathematics for fluid dynamics and the such. They have already absorbed PhysX and moved to Direct Compute. Lets see more realism in games!
Where is the Technological Singularity when you need one.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Well, the perspective I have is amd had a really lousy (without drivers) and short 2.5 months when the GTX580 wasn't single core king w GTX590 dual core king and the latter still is and the former has been replaced by the GTX680.So right now Nvidia is the asbolute king, and before now save that very small time period Nvidia was core king for what with the 580 .. 1.5 years ?
That perspective is plain fact.
FACTS- just stating those facts makes things very clear.
We already have heard the Nvidia monster die is afoot - that came out with "all the other lies" that turned out to be true...
I don't fail to realize anything - I just have a clear mind about what has happened.
I certainly hope AMD has a new better core slapped down very soon, a month would be great.
Until AMD is really winning, it's LOSING man, it's LOSING!
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Since amd had no competition for 2.5 months and that excuses it's $569.99 price, then certainly the $500 price on the GTX580 that had no competition for a full year and a half was not an Nvidia fault, right ? Because you're a fair person and "finally logic!" is what another poster supported you with...So thanks for saying the GTX580 was never priced too high because it has no competition for 1.5 years.
Unspoken Thought - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link
Honestly the only thing I was supporting was the fact he is showing that perspective changes everything. a fact exacerbated when bickering over marginal differences that are driven by the economy when dealing with price vs performance.Both of you have valid arguments, but it sounds like you just want to feel better about supporting nVidia.
You should be able to see how AMD achieved its goals with nVidia following along playing leap frog. Looking at benchmarks, no it doesn't beat it in everything and both are very closely matched in power consumption, heat, and noise. Features are where nVidia shine and get my praise. but I would not fault you if you had either card.
CeriseCogburn - Friday, April 6, 2012 - link
Ok Targon, now we know TiN put the 1.3V core on the 680 and it OC'ed on air to 1,420 core, surpassing every 7970 1.3V core overclock out there.Furthermore, Zotac has put out the 2,000Ghz 680 edition...
So it appears the truth comes down to the GTX680 has more left in the core than the 7970.
Nice try but no cigar !
Nice spin but amd does not win !
Nice prediction, but it was wrong.
SlyNine - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Go back and look at the benchmarks idiot. 7970 wins in some situations.SlyNine - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
In Crysis max, 7970 gets 36 FPS while the 680 only gets 30 FPS.Yes, some how the 7970 is losing. LOOK AT THE NUMBERS, HELLO!!???
Metro 2033 the 7970 gets 38 and the 680 gets 37. But yet in your eyes another loss for the 7970...
7970 kills it in certian GPU Compute, and has hardware H.264 encoding.
In a couple of games, which you already get massive FPS with both, the 680 boasts much much higher FPS. But than in games where you need the FPS the 7970 wins. Hmmm
But no no, you're right, the 680 is total elite top shit.
eddieroolz - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link
You pretty much admitted that 7970 loses in a lot of other cases by stating that:"7970 kills it in certain GPU compute..."
Adding the word modifier "certain" to describe a win is like admitting defeat in every other compute situation.
Even for the games, you can only mention 2 out of what, 6 games where 7970 wins by a <10% margin. Meanwhile, GTX 680 proceeds to maul the 7970 by >15% in at least 2 of the games.
Yes, 7970 is full of win, indeed! /s