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.
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_vor_ - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link
All I read is blah blah blah NVIDIA blah blah nerdrage blah blah.CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link
I'll translate for the special people that need more help.AMD's IQ has been bad since 5000 series, with 6000 series also screwey.
You will have shimmering in game textures and lines in shading transitions on screen since their algorithm has been messed up for years, even though it is angle independent and a perfect circle, IT SUCKS in real life - aka gaming.
Nvidia doesn't have this problem, and hasn't had it since before the 5000 series amd cards.
AMD's 7000 series tries once again to fix the ongoing issues, but fails in at least 2 known places, having only Dx9 support, but may have the shimmering and shading finally tackled and up to Nvidia quality, at least in one synthetic check.
_vor_ - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link
How much is NVIDIA paying you to babysit this discussion and zealously post?"It's better to keep quiet and people think you are a fool, than to open your mouth and prove them right."
CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link
Words right from anandtechs articles, and second attack.A normal person would be thankful for the information.
CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link
Did you notice the Nvidia card won Civ5 by more than the amd did in Metro2033, but Civ5 is declared a tie, and well we know what everyone is claiming for Metro2033.I noticed that and thought it was quite interesting how that was accomplished.
BoFox - Monday, March 26, 2012 - link
AMD's angle-independent AF is still flawed in that it's not fully trilinear when it comes to high-frequency textures (noisy moire). You'd be seeing lines of transition when everything suddenly becomes a bit blurry in a distance with these kinds of grainy textures.It's rather subjective, though.
Nvidia does offer up to 32x CSAA with TRAA (transparent, or alpha textures) in DX10/11 games for superb IQ without having to use brute-force SSAA. AMD does not currently support "forced" AAA (Adaptive AA) on alpha textures in DX10/11 games, and the SSAA support in DX10/11 games was finally announced in beta driver support form with HD 7970 cards.
Transparency AA has been around since 2005, and Nvidia actually maintained the quality IQ options for DX10/11 games compared to DX9 games all along.
ati666 - Monday, March 26, 2012 - link
did AMD fix this problem in their HD7970 or not?CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link
We will find out what's wrong with it a year from now when the next series big 8000 is launched, until then denials and claims it's as good as nvidia are standard operating procedure, and spinning useless theoretical notions that affect gameplay exactly zero and have amd IQ disadvantages will be spun in a good light for amd to get all the amd fans claiming the buzzwords are a win.That will work like it has for the last 3 releases, 4000, 5000, and 6000, and we just heard the 7000 series fixes that fix the 5000 and 6000 crud that was covered up until now in the 7970 release article.
So amd users will suffer bad IQ in several ways while buzzing up words that are spun from this website as notional greatness and perfectness of amd till like, next release... then your question will be answered - just try to not notice anything until then, ok ?
blanarahul - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link
I was confused as to GPU Boost was necessary or not. Thanks for making the difference clear.ammyt - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link
Dafuq y'all saying?The benchmarks are tight in front of your faces! The 680 is tied with the 7950, which surpasses it by a little, and the 7970 is the leader. The 7950 is cheaper by a little margin, but the 7970 is roughly $80 more expensive. What are y'all fighting for?
If I were to choose between the 680, 7950, 7970, I will choose the 7950, cheaper, and a faster by a little margin than the 680. I don't care how or why (memory clock, architecture, bla bla bla) but the benchmarks are in front of you! Clearly, anandtech is biased towards Nvidia.
(Perhaps they're getting paid from them more than AMD...)