NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 Review Feat. EVGA: Bringing GK104 Down To $400
by Ryan Smith on May 10, 2012 9:00 AM ESTThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Bethesda's epic sword & magic game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is our RPG of choice for benchmarking. It's altogether a good CPU benchmark thanks to its complex scripting and AI, but it also can end up pushing a large number of fairly complex models and effects at once, especially with the addition of the high resolution texture pack.
Skyrim is a game that for inexplicable reasons AMD just has some trouble with that NVIDIA doesn’t, possibly driver overhead. In any case it’s another game where the GTX 670 can take the lead over the 7970, but only at 2560. At 1920 we’re clearly CPU limited even with all of Skyrim’s graphical features turned up.
One interesting thing we do see however is that the GTX 670 is greatly improving on the GTX 570 due to the latter’s lack of memory. 1.25GB is cutting it close here with the high resolution texture pack, which gives the GTX 670 a distinct advantage. Nearly double, in fact.
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Spunjji - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
Sick burn ;DyankeeDDL - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - link
Why would AMD fans be sad?AMD enjoyed a multi-months lead in performance, over-charging for their cards that had, substantially, no competitions at their price levels.
Now NVIDIA made a move, and it's a very good one: AMD will need to drop the prices and I see really no reason why they couldn't, as they have just a marginally larger die size (300mm2 vs 365mm2) on the same fab/technology.
Price drop is always a win for the customers, be that an Nvidia or an AMD fanboy (or just an enthusiast).
MrSpadge - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - link
That's right. With some more pressure and HD7950 at 300€ GCN may actually start to become a real option! Saying this as a Cayman owning AMD-preferer.andrewaggb - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - link
It's not like the 7970 is a bad card, it's somewhat slower at games, has more ram, is much faster at gpu compute, and is still a relatively low power offering.There's always something better just around the corner. Buy what's best when you need it, and be happy about it :-). Give it 6 months to a year and there will be something better than the 670 as well.
CeriseCogburn - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
If the 7970 is much faster at gpu compute, why did it lose 3 of 5 compute benchmarks in this review ?Hmm... loser but better, loser but better...
Also amd power loser but "still relatively a low power offering", loser but relatively a winner, loses but it's a winner anyway...
I've got it ! The loser is better and wins !
SlyNine - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link
Seriously dude. I MIGHT could give you the first point, if it wasn't riddled full of biased.But the second point doesn't even make sense.
"Also amd power loser but "still relatively a low power offering", loser but relatively a winner, loses but it's a winner anyway..."
Now you're just throwing words in his mouth he didn't even use. What a fail!
GTX680 owner speaking.
CeriseCogburn - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
" and is still a relatively low power offering." (his words I responded to)Okay, maybe I went overboard.
On the other hand, we haven't heard this going the other way at all, and the 7970's loss in the power envelope is loss of a reason to buy an amd card.
Relatively, it's a high power offering, we are after all comparing the two brands, and it's high power usage allows the claims for victory in compute (even when the software base does not).
Galidou - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
''Okay, maybe I went overboard.''You do that all day long going overboard...
CeriseCogburn - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
You do nothing but lie and attack, so you have zero room to talk.Galidou - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
And I am the one who attack, I attack but not you? LOL you're so fun, don'T make me copy and paste every word lack of respect the abuse of words such as massive ignorance, stupid, everyone lies but not you... and everyone lacks of respect but not you... OMG that's extreme