NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Review: Retaking The Performance Crown
by Ryan Smith on March 22, 2012 9:00 AM ESTBattlefield 3
Its popularity aside, Battlefield 3 may be the most interesting game in our benchmark suite for a single reason: it’s the first AAA DX10+ game. It’s been 5 years since the launch of the first DX10 GPUs, and 3 whole process node shrinks later we’re finally to the point where games are using DX10’s functionality as a baseline rather than an addition. Not surprisingly BF3 is one of the best looking games in our suite, but as with past Battlefield games that beauty comes with a high performance cost
NVIDIA’s cards have always done well at Battlefield 3, which puts the Radeon HD 7900 series in a bad position from the beginning. Short of the GTX 680’s massive lead in the Portal 2 bonus round, this is the single biggest victory for the GTX 680 over the 7970, beating AMD’s best by 28% at 2560, and by continually higher amounts at lower resolutions. Based on our experience with BF3 I’d hesitate to call the 680 fully fluid at 2560 as large firefights can significantly tear into performance relative to Thunder Run, but if it’s not fully fluid then it’s going to be very, very close.
What’s also interesting here is that once again the GTX 680 is doing very well compared to the dual-GPU cards. The GTX 590 and 6990 never pull away from the GTX 680, and at 1920 with FXAA the GTX 680 finally squeaks by and takes the top of the chart. Performance relative to the GTX 580 is also once again good for that matter, with the GTX 680 beating its predecessor by 48% at almost every resolution.
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Makaveli - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
what are you ranting about wreckage NV would have done the same thing if they released their card first!Gouging its customers don't make me laugh. If the price is too high for you don't buy it.
AMD didn't put a gun to anyone head.
CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link
Nvidia released it's last 4 flagship cards at $499, yes that's correct, and this one is that.Not sure what imaginary world you live in, but it's one that does not include the common facts at hand.
In other words, AMD already knew far beforehand the $499 flagship Nvidia card price was coming, and so did everyone else who paid attention.
consolePoS - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
I said haha busted you dickhead goddamnconsolePoS - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
woops thought my well thought out comment had been removed, oh well whilst I'm already commenting heres another: "Wreckage is a complete benson and an all around arse-bandit"slayernine - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Actually it looks to me like the 680 is hugely disappointing, losing to the 7970 and even the 7950 in some tests.Try reading the article....
Hauk - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
Wreckage first again! LMAO..pandemonium - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link
I'm confused...are we reading the same article? The 7970 and 680 swap top positions for the most powerful single GPU in several different ways.Where is this, "This cards beats AMD on EVERY level! Price, performance, features, power..... every level"?
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link
We always, since game engines favor one style core over another, have a reasonable average of the games chosen to be tested as indicator of "performance".Every common and popular website testing has that "performance" chalked up the GTX680 winning.
you can't argue price
you can't argue features
you can't argue power
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20% slower overall
$80 more expensive
no on the fly OC, no dyna vsync, no physx- no unique destrcution, no TXAA
loses on watts per frame
--
Yes we are looking at the same review but your bias has your brain dreaming up other things ?
IceDread - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link
No it does not.SLI scaling is really bad as is surround.
http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/15196-geforce...
Check the graphs.
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link
I guess SWE clockers are amateurs or have some shoulder chip..http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-680-sli-...
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-cross...
Nvidia 101 FPS
AMD 89 FPS