EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Classified Review: Pushing GTX 680 To Its Peak
by Ryan Smith on July 20, 2012 12:00 PM ESTCrysis, Metro, DiRT 3, Shogun 2, & Batman
Since the GTX 680 Classified doesn’t bring anything new to the table architecturally, we’ll keep our commentary on its stock performance brief. At stock it’s much like any other overclocked GTX 680 (factory or otherwise), with the only real room for differentiation being the greater amount of RAM and the higher power target. In practice the greater amount of RAM doesn’t make much of a difference in our single-GPU tests, as that much RAM is far more beneficial for the ultra-high resolutions of multi-monitor gaming, at which point you’re going to need a second card to provide the necessary horsepower.
The higher default power target on the other hand is quite interesting. The GTX 680 Classified will hit its top boost bin almost all of the time thanks to the generous power target, something the reference GTX 680 can have trouble with even at stock. So although reference cards can be overclocked to this level, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll match the GTX 680 Classified’s boost clocks in that state.
Starting off as always in Crysis, there’s actually not much to see. Since the reference GTX 680 is already memory bandwidth limited here and since the GTX 680 Classified doesn’t have a memory overclock, the factory core overclock does very little for its performance here.
Metro isn’t a title that we’ve previously considered to be memory bandwidth limited, but given its GPU-crushing nature like Crysis (and the fact that the 7970GE does so well here), maybe we should take that into consideration. The GTX 680C picks up 7% here at 2560, which is decent but it’s less than what the factory overclock can provide when the GPU can fully stretch its legs.
Now when the GTX 680 Classified can stretch its legs in a GPU-bound situation, we see the full impact of that factory overclock. With DiRT 3 it picks up the full 10% performance improvement the factory overclock is capable of providing.
Things also look good with Shogun 2 at 2560, with another 10% gain. On the other hand 5760 only picks up 7%.
Batman on the other hand doesn’t do the GTX 680 Classified any favors, which is a bit odd. 3-5% just isn’t what you expect here, since there’s no real evidence that the game is CPU or memory bandwidth bottlenecked.
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Belard - Saturday, July 21, 2012 - link
Its been a few years... so I was a bit off on the price ;PI've owned 3DFx, GF2/3/4/5/7 series and ATIs 9800Pro/4670.
I paid $190 for the GF7600GT with the extra large cooler to reduce nice (Exhaust heat out the back)... and I laughed when the reviewers complained about the dual-slot being a "problem"... WTF?! Blowing heat out is better than blowing heat off the GPU and having it stay inside the case.
After than, I spent $85 on the ATI 4670 with the HIS blower... With the way PC gaming is, I don't see the value of spending a dime over $200. And considering its been 3 years since the ATI 5000 series, the 7850 should be a $150 card at the most.
Yes, I'm planning on the PS4 to replace my PC gaming and to rid me of Windows. NO PC games = Why use Windows?
RussianSensation - Saturday, July 21, 2012 - link
Console gaming has its appeals. Sitting on a nice couch in front of a 50-60 inch LED/Plasma after a long-day's of work is often more comfortable than gaming on a chair at a desk. However, that PS4 won't be $150, probably more like $400-500.Visual - Monday, July 23, 2012 - link
Eh, what does your screen have to do with the rest of the hardware?I've been playing my PC games on a couch 2m away from a 47" TV for the last 5 years, a lot of them with a wireless XBOX360 controller as well, at least when I feel the extra precision of a mouse is not needed, and always at a resolution and details settings much better than the console alternative. I only play exclusives on the actual XBOX360. There is no way in hell I will ever consider console gaming a serious option.
CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - link
The same type of brainfart had the guy spewing nVidia has nothing below the $400 gtx670 worth buying.Thank you for adding a dose of reality.
CeriseCogburn - Sunday, July 29, 2012 - link
The 4850 has been below $100 for a long, long time. Brand new it has been $60 for a year.Now it's $40 with a special aftermarket HS
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-ATI-Radeon-HD-4850-EA...
Whatever, you're all screwy on numbers, as it makes it easy to moan and whine.
will54 - Saturday, July 21, 2012 - link
I read somewhere that the GTX 660 will be coming out in August and than they are going to focus on the 700 series. Not positive but I think I read on Toms Hardware.shin0bi272 - Sunday, July 22, 2012 - link
WTF Anand? I post a link as a reply and its instantly marked as spam? that's bull shit.poohbear - Friday, July 20, 2012 - link
why do you benchmark shogun 2 @ 1600p using Ultra Quality and then in 1200p you benchmark it @ very high quality? why did you drop the detail level exactly? makes no sense.Ryan Smith - Friday, July 20, 2012 - link
Because it was utterly unplayable at 5760x1200 at Ultra, even with 2 video cards. I'm all for bogging down a video card, but there has to be a limit.poohbear - Friday, July 20, 2012 - link
no i mean u dropped the quality when u went down to 1980x1200. why did u do that? not many people really pay attention to 5760x1200, most of us are on 1080p (according to Steam hardware survey).