NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 Review Feat. EVGA: Bringing GK104 Down To $400
by Ryan Smith on May 10, 2012 9:00 AM ESTFinal Words
Looking at this data I’m reminded a great deal of the Radeon HD 6900 series launch. AMD launched the 6900 series after the GTX 500 series, but launch order aside the end result was very similar. NVIDIA’s second tier GTX 570 and AMD’s first tier Radeon HD 6970 were tied on average but were anything but equals. This is almost exactly what we’re seeing with the GTX 670 and the Radeon HD 7970.
Depending on the game and resolution we’re looking at the GTX 670 reaches anywhere between 80% and 120% of the 7970’s performance. AMD sails by the GTX 670 in Crysis and to a lesser extent Metro, only for the GTX 670 to shoot ahead in BF3 and Portal 2 (w/SSAA). Officially NVIDIA’s positioning on the GTX 670 is that it’s to go against the 7950 and not the 7970, and that’s a wise move on NVIDIA’s behalf; but the GTX 670 is surely nipping at the 7970’s heels.
With that said, there are a couple of differences from the 6900 series launch which are equally important. The first is that unlike last time the GTX 670 and Radeon HD 7970 are not equally priced. At MSRP the GTX 670 is $80 cheaper, while at cheapest retail it’s closer to $60. The second difference is that this time the competing cards are not nearly as close in power consumption or noise, and thanks to GK104 NVIDIA has a notable advantage there.
Much like the GTX 570 and the Radeon HD 6970, if you’re in the market for cards at these performance levels you need to take a look at both cards and see what kind of performance each card gets on the games you want to play. From our results the GTX 670 is doing better at contemporary games and is cheaper to boot, but the Radeon HD 7970 can hold its own here at multi-monitor resolutions and games like Crysis or Metro. Or for that matter it can still run circles around the GTX 670 in GK104's real weakness: compute tasks
On the other hand if you’re buying a gaming card on price then this isn’t a contest. For the Radeon HD 7950 this is the GTX 680 all over again. NVIDIA can’t quite beat the 7950 in every game (e.g. Crysis), but when it loses it’s close, and when it wins it’s 15%, 25%, even 50% faster. At the same time gaming power consumption is also lower as is noise. As it stands the worst case scenario for the GTX 670 is that it performs like a 7950 while the best case scenario is that it performs like a 7970. And it does this priced like a 7950, which means that something is going to have to give the moment NVIDIA’s product supply is no longer in question.
Outside of the obligatory AMD matchup, interestingly enough NVIDIA has put themselves in harm’s way here in the process. At 2560x1600 the GTX 680 only beats the GTX 670 by 7% on average. NVIDIA has always charged a premium for their top card but the performance gap has also been greater. In games that aren’t shader bound the GTX 670 does very well for itself thanks to the fact that it has equal memory bandwidth and only a slight ROP performance deficit, which means the GTX 680 is only particularly strong in Metro, Portal 2, and DiRT 3. The 7% performance lead certainly doesn’t justify the 25% price difference, and if you will give up that performance NVIDIA will shave $100 off of the price of a card, but if you do want that top performance NVIDIA intends to make you pay for it. Of course this is also why the GTX 670 is only priced $100 cheaper rather than $150. Potential buyers looking for a $350 GK104 card are going to be left out in the cold for now, particularly buyers looking for a meaningful GTX 570 upgrade.
Finally, the nature of NVIDIA’s power target technology has put partners like EVGA in an odd place. Even with a moderate 6%+ factory overclock the GTX 670 Superclocked just isn’t all that much faster than the reference GTX 670, averaging only a 3% gain at 2560. Since the GTX 670 virtually always operates above its base clock the culprit is NVIDIA’s power target, which keeps the GTX 670SC from boosting much higher than our reference GTX 670. Once you increase the power target the GTX 670SC can easily make an interesting niche for itself, but while this isn’t true overclocking it isn’t stock performance either. In any case it’s clear that for factory overclocked cards to really push the limit they’re going to need to go fully custom, which is what a number of partners are going to do in the coming months.
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chizow - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
For shame...once again you fail horribly, once you're done cherrypicking individual benchmarks you'll see Fermi does outclass Tesla by close to 100%, especially once AA is enabled:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/317?vs=305
Feel free to also compare to techpowerup or computerbase compilations to see similar results, since you obviously haven't been following the industry long enough to experience these revolutionary upgrades first-hand.
This is all common knowledge to GPU enthusiasts though, including the author of this article. Please update your frame of reference before you comment further. Thanks.
CeriseCogburn - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
Cherry picking is this very site and using the firswt bench at every release page CRYSIS your favorite amd game right now ?Cherry picking when the SAME VENDOR CARD nVidia is used ?
Now nVidia is against itself in Crysis, and that's cherry picking ? I used the first game to actually look, because all we've has otherwise is you and your amd fanboys flapping lips... with ZERO evidence...
Now I'll look at your stupid link which is ZERO EVIDENCE for now since you cannot even be beyond lazy and copy a bit of text from it or claim what you think it proves.
LOL - so it proves nothing right ? You've got nothing. You have failed.
CeriseCogburn - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
" ince you obviously haven't been following the industry long enough to experience these revolutionary upgrades first-hand. "Dude, I have been following daily for likely more years than your age.
Good luck with that stupidity.
80% and 75% is crap.
33% down to 20% or so is fine, but we have another problem - the GTX580 was an enormous movement in total as it was tacked on improved after the 480 and was just prior distorting your tiny moaning brain, as you add on your ten years blabbering talking point with your long time amd fanboyism to bolster it.
It took me a few minutes to prove you lied. :)
You've got a bit of a point, but not much, and the added features of this new nVidia release ( adaptive v-sync, frame rate target (precisionX) ) negates all of that anyway - not to mention the driver add going all the way back to the 8 series.
You're just moaning for no reason and lying too much while doing it.
Iketh - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - link
your logic is flawed beyond beliefchizow - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - link
Really? How so? If it was so flawed it should be simple for someone so clever as you to poke it full of holes.I'm waiting. :/
CeriseCogburn - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link
Here's a hole so large you'll be moaning when I'm done, and not about pricing or performance increase.A lot of people may wait a couple generations to upgrade, or go from a top tier card 2 or 3 gen back to a secondary card now new - or vise versa, cross over the big two, etc. etc.
In your retentive and specialized moaning, you've restricted end user reality to a single specific instance you've handily outlined as your only metric, and have declared your single path to be the only qualifying upgrade doctrine to use.
Now there's a zeal of rectal tightness one can easily surmise no end user gaming enthusiast has ever adhered to in their purchasing history, in the entire world, not once, ever.
So what we really have is a much varied user base in the card(s) they currently run, and a quite varied distane and jump, node, architecture, two cards to one, one card to two, using a current card as a PhysX boost for a hot and cheap upgrade, etc.
Thus, a person can wait out the $499 nVidia flagship launch or one or two, or some in between node shrink G80 to G92b, 280 to 285, 470 or 480 to 580, etc, and make the jump NOT when your choice choking and frankly stupid single choice only stroke my moaning firebrand demanded purchase scenario rears it's stupid dead head.
In other words, the $499 you complain about is not the second $499 the real gamer and end user customer spent, they've been sitting a round, and are only spending once, not on your miniscule upgrade single purchase own only before and after rant line....
So people figure it out in spite of your complaining, and make an enormous jump in their upgrade, or sell off a sli of cf set and barely spend a dime for a good "reset" for a future dual card perf bump on the cheap, or take the second or third or prior tier for a spin with a healthy discount from the release you hate with passion so much.
You see, you've become a one trick pony, the one trick an amd fanboy can rage about and pretend to have a point - now I wouldn't mind so much if your 75% and 80% crap wasn't so obviously a doubly inflated lie - but on the other hand the initial constraint you introduce is near worthless for any current end user your hoped for perfectly having a fit scenario would apply to !. -
NOTE: I'm so close to current performance because in the last ten years of those wonderful and enormous increases chizow has so adeptly been gassing the entire room about in hyper ventilation, that I think I'll keep my recently purchased flagship(s) that enjoyed not long ago that great and gigantic leap of power chizow loves in his tiny red heart so much ! Thanks chizow ! I can sit here a big fat winner with all my money in my pocket and it's such a poor increase I am win still for zero dollars !
See how that works genius ? :-)
SlyNine - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link
Your constant use of twisted circular logic is amusing.CeriseCogburn - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
That's no rebuttal at all. We'll go with you and your chizow pal's upgrade path right - the one and only you and he allow for your argument ... that's not twisted..(rolls eyes)
CeriseCogburn - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
You're actually a person who did exactly what I said SlyNine, you're perfect personal proof, as you have more than once stated you went from 5870 and jumped 2 flagship releases and bought the 680.Now, even after personally doing this, you attack my explanation calling it circular logic.
Look in the mirror amd fanboy. I am sorry your amd fanboy base lifestyle took an upset this round, and you personally decided 7970 sucked compared to 680, and jumped from your 5870.
You obviously couldn't bring yourself to move to the small performance increase the just prior 6970 was, slapping chizow with that brick unconsciously, you attack me, the person who correctly outlined what actually occurs, that you actually did, by your own words, elsewhere more than once, in these posts.
ROFL - you really, really, really blew it badly that time Slynine.
BulletSpongeRTR - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - link
Exactly, I'm a lowly line cook for a large restaurant chain making $10/hr. But I have SAVED my pennies for this card and will be ordering one today. If an individual cannot reign in their expenses and put away a little here and there to buy what they want (and lets be honest, a 670 is a want NOT a NEED) then they should not be complaining. I'm nearly done acquiring parts for my first build and will be glad when it's done. One more "Summer if Ramen" is all I can do.