# ASUS GeForce GTX 670 Direct CU II TOP 2 GB



## W1zzard (May 10, 2012)

ASUS has taken the great GTX 670 and improved it by putting their DirectCU II cooler on it, which provides whisper quiet cooling. The card is also overclocked out of the box and uses a custom PCB supporting software voltage control. Overall the card received a perfect ten score!

*Show full review*


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## dj-electric (May 10, 2012)

The HD7970 is in such, SUCH a big trouble now.


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## Athlon2K15 (May 10, 2012)

The chart on thie first page shows Asus 680 DCII..great review as always


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## W1zzard (May 10, 2012)

AthlonX2 said:


> The chart on thie first page shows Asus 680 DCII..great review as always



fixed. was just a typo in the model number


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## KainXS (May 10, 2012)

unless AMD drops the price of the 7950, its doomed, and the 7970 price has to drop now,

I don't know how nvidia pulled this off with such a small card


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## Athlon2K15 (May 10, 2012)

because nvidia takes their time when designing GPU's


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## Dimi (May 10, 2012)

BEAST lol This will be my next upgrade for sure.

Anyone wants a GTX 275? LOL

25 db at load?????? Holy shite!


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## Yukikaze (May 10, 2012)

Holy crap. That's a perfect 10.

AMD needs to start slashing prices. And I need to get a GTX670....now to just pick one (this one looks like a damn solid option...)


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## Fourstaff (May 10, 2012)

Lets pray retailers don't start gouging.


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## GoldenTiger (May 10, 2012)

I want a pair of these... anyone see an amazon link yet?


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## Benetanegia (May 10, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> The HD7970 is in such, SUCH a big trouble now.



Even GTX 680 is in trouble now. If not for the fact that there's probably enough people who simply want the best (even if only by 5%) and are willing to pay the price, I don't see how the GTX680 at $500 can stay relevant.

This cards looks even better than GTX680, less than 10% slower, much cheaper, better perf/watt... 

It is far from GTX690's perf/watt tho, which I didn't see coming and remains a mistery how a dual GPU card can be the absolute most efficient card.

Now come on NV please release that GTX 660 or whatever is called the card with 2 SMX disabled. Just imagine, another $100 cut and another "insignificant" 8% performance drop. That's the card I'd think of buying and we know that's the card that GK104 was supposed to be anyway.


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## THE_EGG (May 10, 2012)

Wow, a 10.0. This must be one seriously kick-ass card. I sure am glad I held off on getting a 680 to replace my 580.


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## Benetanegia (May 10, 2012)

Hmm BTW:



> And the card manages all that with a dual slot cooler, that just screams *"put me in SLI"*.



Soo when, W1zz?


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## W1zzard (May 10, 2012)

Benetanegia said:


> Hmm BTW:
> 
> 
> 
> Soo when, W1zz?



670 sli, after i finish the 670 zotac review. so late today or early tomorrow

but need food first, havent eaten all day, hands are starting to shake


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## GC_PaNzerFIN (May 10, 2012)

Score 10
"put me in SLI"


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## Irish_PXzyan (May 10, 2012)

The Asus GTX 560Ti DUII is the best GPU I've ever bought! and now this 670 version just looks too good to be true! I'm certainly going to buy this card next or wait and see how the 660 version will compare!

The price is so attractive!! gosh!


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## jalex3 (May 10, 2012)

So around $540 in Australia vs $770 for the 680.  not bad at all, 3 for the price of a 690!


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## HossHuge (May 10, 2012)

Two questions

1.  Max power draw is a 160ish watts.  So this could run on a 500w power supply?
2. To enable Nvidia surround will any Displayport adapter do?  Or does it have to be a certain one?

If yes to both of these questions I may have one of these on the weekend..


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## Rowsol (May 10, 2012)

The performance is nice and all but the killer is the sound level.  OMG. 

And now I just noticed it's only 2 slots...  Mind = blown.


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## SnapS4 (May 10, 2012)

really queit


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## Benetanegia (May 10, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> 670 sli, after i finish the 670 zotac review. so late today or early tomorrow
> 
> but need food first, havent eaten all day, hands are starting to shake



Take care of yourself first, we can wait.  No we can't. 



Rowsol said:


> The performance is nice and all but the killer is the sound level.  OMG.



That surprised me the most on this card, for sure. It's better than the GTX 680 DCU II, which is almost the same except it's a 3 slot cooler. Black magic must be involved here.


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## W1zzard (May 10, 2012)

HossHuge said:


> Two questions
> 
> 1.  Max power draw is a 160ish watts.  So this could run on a 500w power supply?
> 2. To enable Nvidia surround will any Displayport adapter do?  Or does it have to be a certain one?
> ...



even 400w might be fine

if i remember correctly you can use any combination of outputs with passive dp adapters on kepler. i'd have to double check whether you need active or passive adapters. there is a cheap sapphire mini dp single link adapter that i used for my testing


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## GoldenTiger (May 10, 2012)

Any idea on availability in the US, W1zzard ? Might we see these (Asus DC II and/or TOP) on amazon/newegg today or is it going to be a week or so?


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## SK-1 (May 10, 2012)

The Nadia Comăneci of reviews! Thanks W1zz.


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## BUCK NASTY (May 10, 2012)

Oh, daddy likes. Always loved the Direct CU cards!


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## DonInKansas (May 10, 2012)




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## hardcore_gamer (May 10, 2012)

Gettin 2 of these

I'm so happy and proud to be a PC gamer


*hugs everyone*


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## Crap Daddy (May 10, 2012)

SK-1 said:


> The Nadia Comăneci of reviews! Thanks W1zz.



Glad someone still remembers that girl. Now let's get some work done to afford one of these 'cause nothing comes fro free in this world.


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## HossHuge (May 10, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> even 400w might be fine
> 
> if i remember correctly you can use any combination of outputs with passive dp adapters on kepler. i'd have to double check whether you need active or passive adapters. there is a cheap sapphire mini dp single link adapter that i used for my testing



Just read this from their website.



> Available Ports & Adapters
> 
> The GeForce GTX 680 sports two DVI connectors, one HDMI connector, and one DisplayPort connector. In 2D Surround, gamers can use any of the four display connectors to power their Surround setup, and the fourth display connector for the Accessory Display.



I have an Eyefinity rig and my adapter worked great at 4320*900 but I have since moved up to 5760*1080 and now it cuts out.  I really didn't want to buy another one and fortunately I'm selling rig 1 soon so now I can put that money toward a 670GTX!!

One other question.

Do Dirt 3 and Hard Reset not support Nvidia Surround?


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## LAN_deRf_HA (May 10, 2012)

Length?


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## THE_EGG (May 10, 2012)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> Length?



27cm or 11inches.


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## HossHuge (May 10, 2012)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> Length?



Stock MSI 670GTX

Dimensions: 242x111x38 mm


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## W1zzard (May 10, 2012)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> Length?



27 cm from io slot cover to end of the cooler


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## Boomstick777 (May 10, 2012)

Card looks awesome, will there be a 4GB version?


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## Frick (May 10, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> The HD7970 is in such, SUCH a big trouble now.



Nvidia too. Even a vanilla 670 is so close to the 680 it's ridiculous, at about €60 less. And it will probably be widely avaliable sooner.

This is almost mind blowing. It'll be interesting to see what happens to prices in the coming weeks.


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## yogurt_21 (May 10, 2012)

wow, I thought the palit one was good, this is even better for the same price! I really was going to sit this round out as my 480's are doing fine but the 670 is changing my mind. 2 of these in sli will draw about the same as just one of my 480's while offering way more performance. wow.


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## cadaveca (May 10, 2012)

On AMD cards, many users are reporting problems with secondary monitors, sometimes with crossfire, sometimes without. Browser-based video playback seems a common issue.

Have you noticed any such issues with NV cards?


Performance and power consumption is damn good!


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## mrthanhnguyen (May 10, 2012)

is this directu 2 TOP BETTER THAN gigabyte oc?


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## Assimilator (May 10, 2012)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if GK104 is this monstrously powerful, how fast is GK110 gonna be?

7970 is in big trouble but 7950 isn't doing too well either. If the 660 offers proportional performance and is introduced at $300, the 7950 isn't worth it. ATI will have to drop the prices on both those cards by $50 or more to make them attractive again.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (May 10, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> 27 cm from io slot cover to end of the cooler



How about to the end of the backplate? My friend's case has a overhang that only cuts into the bottom half of cards.


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## johnnyfiive (May 10, 2012)

Dang dang dang...aweeeeesome card.

78xx and 79xx have been officially, royally screwed.


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## TheMailMan78 (May 10, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> even 400w might be fine
> 
> if i remember correctly you can use any combination of outputs with passive dp adapters on kepler. i'd have to double check whether you need active or passive adapters. there is a cheap sapphire mini dp single link adapter that i used for my testing



Whats the power draw on SLI look like thus far?.......or should I just shut my trap and wait for the review?


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## mrthanhnguyen (May 10, 2012)

anyone know when will this asus gtx 670 available on the us market? right now only tigerdirect has it,but they don't have this asus card.


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## the54thvoid (May 10, 2012)

To those saying AMD are in trouble now....

No, they're not.  They sold most of their expected stock in the three months when NV weren't at the party.  

Let me ask this.  Would you buy a GTX 680, or this?  

So, based on the availability of this card, I think we'd all buy the Asus 670 DCII over ANY OTHER card.  AMD are not in trouble but the 680 sales will be hit hard by cards as good as this.

Hell, might be selling my water cooled 7970 and get me one (or two) of these.


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## HossHuge (May 10, 2012)

They are on sale here now.







Here is the Gigabyte 

http://www.pcmax.com.tw/Web/Prod/ProdDetail.aspx?SN=5199


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## the54thvoid (May 10, 2012)

Question for W1zz.

I can see them on pre-order but the clocks listed on e-tailers are saying 915MHz.  What's the deal with that?

You've said it comes overclocked.  Is there a TOP version or just the basic DCII?

Very important to know, there's about 1000 TPU'ers all lining up to buy one


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## Crap Daddy (May 10, 2012)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Whats the power draw on SLI look like thus far?.......or should I just shut my trap and wait for the review?



There are already SLI reviews floating around. Around 300W. So you can get a 670SLI setup running on a good 500W PSU. How about that?


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## TheMailMan78 (May 10, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> There are already SLI reviews floating around. Around 300W. So you can get a 670SLI setup running on a good 500W PSU. How about that?



Thats what I like to hear! My lil' 600w should push them no problem then.......now I just need money.


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## brandonwh64 (May 10, 2012)

I just posted a thread with them on newegg.com they are 399$ (cheapest one)


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## the54thvoid (May 10, 2012)

Ouch.

The Zotac Amp, Palit Jetstream and the Asus DCII all beat or level with the GTX 680.

It's all in the clocks.


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## Crap Daddy (May 10, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> Ouch.
> 
> The Zotac Amp, Palit Jetstream and the Asus DCII all beat or level with the GTX 680.
> 
> It's all in the clocks.



More or less. There's also a performance hit at triple monitor res compared with the 680.


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## vibe (May 10, 2012)

"According to ASUS, the retail price of the GTX 670 DC II TOP will be $419."

I'm confused... So is this the GTX 670 DC II or GTX 670 DC II TOP?


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## Crap Daddy (May 10, 2012)

vibe said:


> "According to ASUS, the retail price of the GTX 670 DC II TOP will be $419."
> 
> I'm confused... So is this the GTX 670 DC II or GTX 670 DC II TOP?



The reviewed DC II is the TOP version.

Now speaking of availability....


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## the54thvoid (May 10, 2012)

vibe said:


> "According to ASUS, the retail price of the GTX 670 DC II TOP will be $419."
> 
> I'm confused... So is this the GTX 670 DC II or GTX 670 DC II TOP?



I just reread part of the review, this is for the TOP model.  

W1zz! You need to amend your review title to say 'TOP'.  It looks like a review for the standard CUII.



Crap Daddy said:


> The reviewed DC II is the TOP version.
> 
> Now speaking of availability....
> 
> http://www.abload.de/img/ocuk670fortresscpuok.jpg



They don't have the TOP model..... typical.  And they're gouging on price.  The basic version is £370, £50 ($80) more than a vanilla 670.  Oh, look it's only meant to be a $20 premium.  FUCK OFF OVERCLOCKERS!!!  And SCAN for that matter - same price.  Fine, I'll keep my 7970.  For now.


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## Crap Daddy (May 10, 2012)

Of course you should keep your card except if you want to go 2 cards then 670SLI is unbeatable price/perf wise.


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## Casecutter (May 10, 2012)

Benetanegia said:


> Even GTX 680 is in trouble now.


Man that was my thought when I saw this! The GTX680 is going to be doomed, while for anyone who spent days-night clicking the refresh just to get one two weeks ago for anything above $500… boy I feel bad for that guy!  Good way to maintain customer devotion.

Is it me or is this a week 10 of 2012 chip the reference in the first review would be week 3. And the 10th week puts it at the second week of March, and then another 8 week to build and box why did Nvidia have to wait?  Oh because that was about the time the 'Pitcairn' announced, but then why so long?  I mean they had a PCB design I'm sure, they knew the competition why May 10th.  While the GTX680 was difficult to find, maybe they wanted to give plenty of pent-up demand and need to harvest enough chips to absolutely fill the channel.


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## alexsubri (May 10, 2012)

Really thinking about selling at ATI 7950...


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## punani (May 10, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> The reviewed DC II is the TOP version.



Quick question: are there any differences in hardware  (VRM?) between vanilla DC II and DC II TOP ?? And will a vanilla DC II overclock as high as TOP ?

Either way i'm definitively gonna get me one of these  !! Will be a noticable upgrade from my GTX 260, even on the electrical bill .


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## the54thvoid (May 10, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> Of course you should keep your card except if you want to go 2 cards then 670SLI is unbeatable price/perf wise.



I've spent a lot of time defending the 7970 and in my view it's still easily up there.  This card is overclocked so to make a fair comparison an HD 7970 @ similar clocks must be considered and at those clocks, a 7970 also beats a vanilla 680.  I run mine at 1175 core and it's a beast.

BUT... the prospect of spending about 40% more than what i paid for my 7970 (watercooled) to get TWO GTX 670 CUII TOP's is pretty damn convincing.  And they will make water blocks for them.  EK always seem to do CUII water blocks for the Nvidia range.

First I'll have ze CUII's, then I'll have ze powah, then I'll have ze women.



punani said:


> Quick question: are there any differences in hardware  (VRM?) between vanilla DC II and DC II TOP ?? And will a vanilla DC II overclock as high as TOP ?
> 
> Either way i'm definitively gonna get me one of these  !! Will be a noticable upgrade from my GTX 260, even on the electrical bill .



Will make your 260 look like a used condom.


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## Crap Daddy (May 10, 2012)

punani said:


> Quick question: are there any differences in hardware  (VRM?) between vanilla DC II and DC II TOP ?? And will a vanilla DC II overclock as high as TOP ?
> 
> Either way i'm definitively gonna get me one of these  !! Will be a noticable upgrade from my GTX 260, even on the electrical bill .



I doubt there are any hardware diff as for overclocking each card to its own. The card used by Wizz wasn't particularly very highly overclocked on core but very high on memory.

The 670 should be like 3X the 260


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## cowie (May 10, 2012)

Nice review Wizz
BTW
any devoted hotwire spots on this card?


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## EarthDog (May 10, 2012)

KainXS said:


> unless AMD drops the price of the 7950, its doomed, and the 7970 price has to drop now,
> 
> I don't know how nvidia pulled this off with such a small card


This but...... what about the 680 and this being SO close in performance? makes hte 680 rpicing stick out like a sore thumb at ~$100 more.

Size doesnt matter apparently.


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## punani (May 10, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> Will make your 260 look like a used condom.



Yeah, it's had some rough times for sure 



Crap Daddy said:


> I doubt there are any hardware diff as for overclocking each card to its own. The card used by Wizz wasn't particularly very highly overclocked on core but very high on memory.
> 
> The 670 should be like 3X the 260



Thanx, yeah the 260 is roughly on par with the 5770, which is here in the comparison charts. and the 670 is ~333% faster than the 5770 .


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## douglatins (May 10, 2012)

Newegg will list this for 500 bucks


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## EarthDog (May 10, 2012)

douglatins said:


> Newegg will list this for 500 bucks


Good call.


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## Casecutter (May 10, 2012)

douglatins said:


> Newegg will list this for 500 bucks


Nope have 7 listing most are 400-410 and then  one each at $420-430 and you can click BUY for any...


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## Crap Daddy (May 10, 2012)

Availability seem to be much better than with the 680 so they should stick with the reference price.


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## the54thvoid (May 10, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> Availability seem to be much better than with the 680 so they should stick with the reference price.



You can almost imagine a price collapse.  AMD may well shunt their prices right down, Nvidia can easily afford to follow, given it's a tiny little (meant to be) mid range card.  Imagine, all that performance for £250-£300.  It'd be closer to the old days when top tier cards were 'affordable'.  

Fingers crossed.


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## W1zzard (May 10, 2012)

changed title to reflect that this review is indeed for the "TOP" version


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## Casecutter (May 10, 2012)

Yep, this appears to be a new reality, one chip design blanketing a bunch of product tiers.  Is/was GK104 designed to provide that much scalarity, smart if they did.  

Something tells me AMD has been already been investigating and designing their own dynamic clock boosting PCB and what not... I don’t know of any exclusive right to it. I'd be seriously surprised if the original 8XXX products are already back burnered, and AMD just re-spins the current Pitcairn to achieve the same product mix?  Honestly, I can’t see AMD holding to three product tiers, unless they want to use bump the super high (aka next Tahiti) to go up against the GK100


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## N3M3515 (May 10, 2012)

HOLY CRAP BATMAN! it's faster than GTX 680!!, for $200 bucks less!!

This card is such a WIN!!



Dj-ElectriC said:


> The HD7970 is in such, SUCH a big trouble now.



Same goes for GTX680, pretty pointless.



johnnyfiive said:


> Dang dang dang...aweeeeesome card.
> 
> 78xx and 79xx have been officially, royally screwed.



TRUE!!


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## wolf (May 10, 2012)

fantastic review, your first 10 could not have gone to a more fitting product!

I bow to you Nvidia, you have done a ridicuously good job with kepler, what was needed and more to _really_ get back in the game with AMD. Some people would take a slower card and the high road of lower power and better efficency just to stick to a brand, for the first time in at least two years we can see that brand preference doesn't mean squat, the best product for the customer means everything.

the GTX670 is a serious winner. Excellent implementation Asus.


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## the54thvoid (May 10, 2012)

The 670 sli review is up.

Nvidia just destroyed any reason to buy the 690 or dual 680. (says W1zz).

Nice.  Dual water cooled 670's here I come.


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## Mindweaver (May 10, 2012)

I want this! Kickass review W1zzard!


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## Fluffmeister (May 10, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> To those saying AMD are in trouble now....
> 
> No, they're not.  They sold most of their expected stock in the three months when NV weren't at the party.
> 
> ...



Hiya, pretty sweet isn't it.


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## Frag_Maniac (May 11, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> To those saying AMD are in trouble now....
> 
> No, they're not.  They sold most of their expected stock in the three months when NV weren't at the party.
> 
> ...


Actually what HAD kept AMD/ATI strong in the past was their leading on performance per dollar. You take that equation away, and things change. To a degree your argument on availability even validates that, because certainly with the 600 series any problems with a lack of stock have been due to it's huge success, not poor yields. So to your question would people buy this or a 680? They'll buy, and even wait for, the card with better performance for it's price, but the 680 will still have a niche in the enthusiast segment of the market. Keep in mind it isn't really so overshadowed by the 670 when you consider they're only $80 apart for models that slightly beat it with non reference coolers and factory OCs, and they only beat a stock 680, not an OCed one.

If that's not enough for you, look at this response, because there will no doubt be more like it to come:



alexsubri said:


> Really thinking about selling at ATI 7950...



At the end of the day, esp in times of recession, lots of people put aside brand bias and look at the hard facts in making their GPU decisions. With comparisons like these, I don't see AMD/ATI keeping a lot of customers on brand loyalty alone. As mentioned, they'll likely have to make some changes to stay competitive, and it's looking like it won't be in the area of better tech, so that leaves price drops as the only solution. I find it odd you accuse of price gouging when if anything, it's the AMD/ATI cards that are priced higher than they should be lately.

As far as standard Direct CU II vs TOP editions, they tested one that retails for $420 that beats it's $500 big brother AND AMD/ATI cards in a similar price bracket, that's all that matters. If anything their non TOP models have sold for reference prices in the past too, and are plenty capable too, they only require a bit of manual OCing and a bit more careful fan and clock settings than the TOP models, which is easy. The TOP models DO get more selectively binned chips on the GPU and VRAM though, so a lot of customers are going to see the extra $20 as worth it. I really don't see any of your arguments as valid.


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## Xzibit (May 11, 2012)

Frag Maniac said:


> Actually what HAD kept AMD/ATI strong in the past was their leading on performance per dollar. You take that equation away, and things change. To a degree your argument on availability even validates that, because certainly with the 600 series any problems with a lack of stock have been due to it's huge success, not poor yields. So to your question would people buy this or a 680? They'll buy, and even wait for, the card with better performance for it's price, but the 680 will still have a niche in the enthusiast segment of the market. Keep in mind it isn't really so overshadowed by the 670 when you consider they're only $80 apart for models that slightly beat it with non reference coolers and factory OCs, and they only beat a stock 680, not an OCed one.
> 
> If that's not enough for you, look at this response, because there will no doubt be more like it to come:
> 
> ...



Your kind of forgetting that AMD & Nvidia especially have been building up the "GPGPU" Sub-entry level into HPC for the last couple of years.  Last article i read was that Nvidia build a 80% share.  Now with Kepler its pretty much saying forget that.  Thats a big middle finger if you were about to upgrade or were looking forward to improvements in that area of the new architectures.

It comes down to how many Gamer specific buyers will the 670 get and from where AMD, Nvidia people who were buying 680 or 690s.

How many Folders will Nvidia loose in this series to AMD

I bet the percentages are small because they make there money just south of the $300 price mark.  

I'm located in Southern California and I've seen Justin Beiber more times this week then I've seen a 680 or a 690 in stock. I rather be seeing Kate Upton but life isnt fair.

There is other issues aswell as a re-distributor or a reseller / retailer.  You have stock to worry about.  Your not gonna blindly order something if your unsure it wont make you a profit if your holding a bulk of last generation.  You need to get rid of them to make profit and AMD nor Nvidia will have simpathy for you. Why go buying bulk and hurt your margins.

Its nice to look at benchmarks and be cheerleaders but once you get off the benchmark high and stop cheerleading there is many more factors out there.

Anyways i'll put this card on my Maybe list.


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## Frag_Maniac (May 11, 2012)

Actually I didn't forget HPC OR folding, I just don't think they realistically factor into the enthusiast GPU battle in a significant way. The former is more of an advanced industry niche, and the latter one that at best is for the few that choose to spend countless hours trying to win stuff with folding points.

The bottom line is, the GTX 670 DOES primarily fit and serve a gaming specific demographic, and it appears to do it quite well. I think Nvidia learned with the initial Fermis that they can't realistically make a one size fits all product, nor do they need to with their recent success.

I see more doubting Thomases than cheerleaders here, because those praising it are basing their comments on bench results and more significantly, performance to price comparisons, not rhetoric. By comparison the few doubters stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. If anything Nvidia are not only beating AMD/ATI on tech advances, but at their own game of value as well.

I think the maybe will come down to IF you can manage to snatch one with the many, many consumers KNOWING they want one, and that's an availability issue that speaks more of success than failure.


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## 1c3d0g (May 11, 2012)

NVIDIA 0wnz this round hands down.


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## HTC (May 11, 2012)

Great achievement from nVidia: no doubt about it. The fact that this card can, sometimes, have better performance then a stock 680 is quite impressive.

Still, i think the 10.0 score is excessive because the card has problems with some titles @ multi-monitor, just like the 680, not to mention the other cons stated by the reviewer: something like ... say ... 9.8 would be more appropriate, IMO.


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## mrthanhnguyen (May 11, 2012)

anyone know when will this asus directcu 2 top available in us. There's no retail have this. They just have gigabte, evga,.. no asus


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## ChristTheGreat (May 11, 2012)

WOw, the card is less expensive than the GTX 680, and perfom better? xD


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## Xzibit (May 11, 2012)

Frag Maniac said:


> Actually I didn't forget HPC OR folding, I just don't think they realistically factor into the enthusiast GPU battle in a significant way. The former is more of an advanced industry niche, and the latter one that at best is for the few that choose to spend countless hours trying to win stuff with folding points.



Seams like you did forget cause your lumping sub-level into there Quattro and Tesla series. So building 80% a sub-entry level HPC doesnt matter.  Laughable. Those are still sales and $ to a company.  Name one company that likes loosing money to a competitor ?



			
				Frag Maniac said:
			
		

> The bottom line is, the GTX 670 DOES primarily fit and serve a gaming specific demographic, and it appears to do it quite well. I think Nvidia learned with the initial Fermis that they can't realistically make a one size fits all product, nor do they need to with their recent success.
> 
> I see more doubting Thomases than cheerleaders here, because those praising it are basing their comments on bench results and more significantly, performance to price comparisons, not rhetoric. By comparison the few doubters stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. If anything Nvidia are not only beating AMD/ATI on tech advances, but at their own game of value as well.



With that logic the Southern Island series is a myth cause AMD managed it with gaming performance being slightly behind while still improving power usage and folding.  Seams you have a selective memory cause architectually Nvidia just streamlined Fermi while taking out the FP work horse.  Heck a 680 is on par with a 560 Ti.  Try looking up some folding sites see how the 680 is doing by users so far.

So to you tech advancing is taking out the torque persay of a chip and selling it at a higher Price point.  Gotcha.  Doesnt matter once you take out that and streamline the process of Fermi you some how arent improving power usage.  Hey you know what i'm take out the supercharger on a V8 and say i improved it, heck you can still hit 100mph but it wont do burn outs but you save gas. Hey that other car does the same thing and uses same amount of gas but the supercharger is still in it must be low-tech then.



			
				Frag Maniac said:
			
		

> I think the maybe will come down to IF you can manage to snatch one with the many, many consumers KNOWING they want one, and that's an availability issue that speaks more of success than failure.



All i can say is ignorance is bliss.


----------



## DannibusX (May 11, 2012)

I'm getting one.  At least one.


----------



## Frag_Maniac (May 11, 2012)

Xzibit said:


> Seams like you did forget cause your lumping sub-level into there Quattro and Tesla series. So building 80% a sub-entry level HPC doesnt matter.  Laughable. Those are still sales and $ to a company.  Name one company that likes loosing money to a competitor ?


What's laughable is your trying to lump a thread about a GPU that's clearly slated for a gaming demographic into a baseless argument about a lack of credibility to their HPC customers. Who are you kidding? Anyone with half a brain can see the initial Fermis having HPC power was just to turn the heads of that industry and get investors interested. You make it sound like they were intending all along to keep making chips with both HPC power and gaming features. Common sense dictates that is not practical. This industry is just as much about specializing as any other high tech industry.



> With that logic the Southern Island series is a myth cause AMD managed it with gaming performance being slightly behind while still improving power usage and folding.  Seams you have a selective memory cause architectually Nvidia just streamlined Fermi while taking out the FP work horse.  Heck a 680 is on par with a 560 Ti.  Try looking up some folding sites see how the 680 is doing by users so far.
> 
> So to you tech advancing is taking out the torque persay of a chip and selling it at a higher Price point.  Gotcha.  Doesnt matter once you take out that and streamline the process of Fermi you some how arent improving power usage.  Hey you know what i'm take out the supercharger on a V8 and say i improved it, heck you can still hit 100mph but it wont do burn outs but you save gas. Hey that other car does the same thing and uses same amount of gas but the supercharger is still in it must be low-tech then.


HELLO? Is anyone home? Did you forget we are talking about a GAMING GPU here? You can rant and harp all you want about small niche secondary uses, but at the end of a day what SELLS a product is catering to it's PRIMARY target base. You would make a horrible salesman. Nvidia, like Intel, are very good at efficiently putting their R&D where it counts, and their latest products and prices clearly indicate that. It passes innovation AND value onto their target customers, more than I can say for AMD/ATI lately.





> All i can say is ignorance is bliss.


Well, sounds like you have a lot of practice at it. After all, the die hard AMD/ATI fanboys seem to spend more time trying to rain on the parades of happy Nvidia customers lately than enjoying their own products, all the while in denial of the rather obvious comparisons. Ignorance indeed, blissful, I'm so sure. You don't sound too happy to me, and the beer mug slapping smiley just makes you look too sauced to discuss it rationally and calmly.


----------



## N3M3515 (May 11, 2012)

Frag Maniac said:


> because certainly with the 600 series any problems with a lack of stock have been due to it's huge success, not poor yields.



Wrong, it's a combination of poor yields and problems at TSMC with 28nm process.
Not saying gtx 680 wasn't a success, but that's not the reason of poor supply.


----------



## Frag_Maniac (May 11, 2012)

N3M3515 said:


> Wrong, it's a combination of poor yields and problems at TSMC with 28nm process.
> Not saying gtx 680 wasn't a success, but that's not the reason of poor supply.


Yields are relative to the change in tech, and they are easily doing as well at it as are AMD/ATI. The only ones really mastering small die in large quantities is Intel, but then they have Hafnium up their sleeve. If AMD/ATI's yields were so good, they wouldn't be charging more for product that performs worse than the competition, and conversely, if Nvidia's yields were so bad, they'd not be inclined to undercut the competition's prices.


----------



## Xzibit (May 11, 2012)

Frag Maniac said:


> What's laughable is your trying to lump a thread about a GPU that's clearly slated for a gaming demographic into a baseless argument about a lack of credibility to their HPC customers. Who are you kidding? Anyone with half a brain can see the initial Fermis having HPC power was just to turn the heads of that industry and get investors interested. You make it sound like they were intending all along to keep making chips with both HPC power and gaming features. Common sense dictates that is not practical. This industry is just as much about specializing as any other high tech industry.
> 
> HELLO? Is anyone home? Did you forget we are talking about a GAMING GPU here? You can rant and harp all you want about small niche secondary uses, but at the end of a day what SELLS a product is catering to it's PRIMARY target base. You would make a horrible salesman. Nvidia, like Intel, are very good at efficiently putting their R&D where it counts, and their latest products and prices clearly indicate that. It passes innovation AND value onto their target customers, more than I can say for AMD/ATI lately.Well, sounds like you have a lot of practice at it. After all, the die hard AMD/ATI fanboys seem to spend more time trying to rain on the parades of happy Nvidia customers lately than enjoying their own products, all the while in denial of the rather obvious comparisons. Ignorance indeed, blissful, I'm so sure. You don't sound too happy to me, and the beer mug slapping smiley just makes you look too sauced to discuss it rationally and calmly.




So the introducion of HPC in the sub entry-level was just to catch investors eyes ?  Did you bother to even look at Nvidia stock 1y or 5yr as you formulated that in your brain ? Guess not cause that would require common sense. Here a little hint 2007 was Nvidias high has been steadly dropping ever since.

Do you even know what you type as you type it or just have mentality of I believe what I want along with the attitude.

I dont know if your trolling or the part of your brain that uses common sense is missing. Troll away buddy. Have a good one.


----------



## Vizzy (May 11, 2012)

when will this card be available?  I want to purchase one asap!


----------



## Anggoro (May 11, 2012)

just too hard to be ignored.
irresistible.
let people enjoy this for a while and then release 660ti.
good bye competition at least until q3 2012(or another price drops from AMD,whichever comes first).


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## uber_cookie (May 11, 2012)

Anyone interested in 7950?  will try getting 2 of these


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## W1zzard (May 11, 2012)

system specs updated ^^


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## Vizzy (May 11, 2012)

is this card available in US yet?  I can't find it on any website


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## blibba (May 11, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> system specs updated ^^



You're still listing three sticks of RAM


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## aCeFr3aK (May 11, 2012)

So should this be my upgrade from my trusty radeon 4870 512mb?


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## the54thvoid (May 11, 2012)

Frag Maniac said:


> Actually what HAD kept AMD/ATI strong in the past was their leading on performance per dollar. You take that equation away, and things change. To a degree your argument on availability even validates that, because certainly with the 600 series any problems with a lack of stock have been due to it's huge success, not poor yields



No, they have yield problems.  From Jen-Hsun Huang himself:



> The gross margin decline is contributed almost entirely to the *yields of 28nm being lower than expected*



http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphi...er_Than_Expected_Chief_Executive_Officer.html

And yes, the GTX 680 is a good gaming card.  Not great because it loses on a few titles to the lower clocked 7970.  The GTX 580 was an awesome card - people said it would never be made, but NV made it.

What Xzibit is saying is that the power efficiency is smoke and mirrors as NV removed the compute power from GK104.  Another forum poster (Crap Daddy) has been keeping us up to speed with developments suggesting GK110 is compute enabled but focussing heavily on HPC systems.

You're kind of alluding to the statement that all defenders of the 7970 are fanboys, which sincerely isn't the case.  The 7970 when clocked at GTX 680 boost clock levels on the whole performs better in terms of fps.  They are very similar in performance clock for clock.  Most reviewers have accepted that.  As for power consumption, well before that I had a GTX 580, so it doesn't bother me.

However, the castration of compute on the GK104 equates to the power efficiency that everyone likes.  

I was never going to buy a vanilla 7970 - I'm on water now.  But to me the increase in performance of a 7970 when clocked up is great.  Likewise for a 680 BUT that's the rub, they both overclock and they both perform similarly.  Put on the higher resolutions and the GK104's weaknesses start to get hinted at (*because it was always meant to be mid range and boy, if this had been released as mid range 670/660 at about £250 then by christ, AMD would have been screwed*.)

GCN may well be a graphic centric architecture and therefore crippling it for power efficiency may have made it a lot weaker.  So Nvidia have the upper hand here perhaps.

But back on track.  You are clearly missing the point that I made.  This specific model of 670 (Direct CU II TOP) is an absolute dream of a card and it destroys the 680 more than it destroys the 7970 simply because the 680 is  more expensive.

If I were to chose a card now, I would buy a GTX 670 (and put a block on it).  I would certainly not buy a 680 or a 7970 or 7950.  But I bought my card before the 680's existed in store and have enjoyed it's performance.  For 3 months people were buying 79xx's because Nvidia were late to the show.

So what's next?  Next week we might get a GK110 announcement, we might not.  For now, I'm patiently waiting for water blocks for the 670's and I'll probably jump on a pair and overclock the socks of them.

Rumour says GTX 680 is going to be replaced with a 685 (just like the GTX 280 gave way to the slightly tweaked GTX 285 and in some respects the GTX 480 was replaced with the GTX 580)


----------



## avaya (May 11, 2012)

Vizzy said:


> when will this card be available?  I want to purchase one asap!



It will be "Out Of Stock" until August 2012. gtx 680, 7970, 7950 won't reprice until then.


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## Casecutter (May 11, 2012)

Xzibit said:


> i'm take out the supercharger on a V8 and say i improved it, heck you can still hit 100mph but it wont do burn outs but you save gas.


I been using the analogy of a V8 small block that's strong, torque'ie, while decently efficient; then saying the Nvidia has gone with a "purpose built 4Cly with turbo" and sure it betters it in places (gaming).  

The last round Nvidia Fermi had been "big block", but got an all around good V8 (under-bored\lower cam) while still stout, durable, all under acceptable cost as GF114. Now I've said Kudos's for the GTX670, although I think they had more motivation from the fact they're receiving the whole wafer and then needing to formulate tier's for each derivative, which had them looking for new strategic value.  

I think the whole idea of "dynamic clock" is here to stay; mainstream gaming would do very well with a good little "Supercharged Boxer 6cly"; the right mix of good straight line, with smooth stout throttle response and low center permitting all the power while in a good in a small balanced package.

Due to this new cost structure for such small die approach to work and be super lucrative Nvidia choose a very cost effective chip. But one who's superlative variant could be harvested to attain the GTX680's, while knowing once they had the HP HkMG process down pat the bulk would slot right in 7870-7890's. They’d used those first chips to best Tahiti and take wind out of AMD sails/sales.  While they "had to bide their time" for improved process and building a war chest of 670’s and on down.  Though I think even Nvidia must know the 680 and 690's were preordain as "Halo submissions" and will be limited editions in the months to come.


----------



## Sicko (May 11, 2012)

avaya said:


> It will be "Out Of Stock" until August 2012. gtx 680, 7970, 7950 won't reprice until then.



Where are you getting this info?


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## Vizzy (May 11, 2012)

avaya said:


> It will be "Out Of Stock" until August 2012. gtx 680, 7970, 7950 won't reprice until then.



what? where did you hear that??


----------



## Xzibit (May 11, 2012)

Casecutter said:


> I been using the analogy of a V8 small block that's strong, torque'ie, while decently efficient; then saying the Nvidia has gone with a "purpose built 4Cly with turbo" and sure it betters it in places (gaming).
> 
> The last round Nvidia Fermi had been "big block", but got an all around good V8 (under-bored\lower cam) while still stout, durable, all under acceptable cost as GF114. Now I've said Kudos's for the GTX670, although I think they had more motivation from the fact they're receiving the whole wafer and then needing to formulate tier's for each derivative, which had them looking for new strategic value.
> 
> ...




Nice analogy.

Then I got to thinking. I sure hope it doesnt turn out to be a Vin Diesel movie 


I like this card more then the others. My issue has never been its gaming performance but rather the direction its taken and the price point to its offering.

Every cycle both architectures AMD & Nvidia are suppose to be improved upon, thats a given. 

The innovation is there since both companies are similar with their end results but sticking to the engine analogies.  Dont know if you'll remember this one the Variable Displacement.

Lets deal with square you have 8 square in-side a box. You take two squares out. Those 2 empty squares are not using power nor space. Your saving power and heat from those 2 you took out. Since you took those out you can take the clutter that was attached to those two from the remaing 6, which gives you more space and less power to use and less heat.
Now you have 2 and a half square of the equivelant not taking up space, power nor heat.  Lets turn up the Revs going back to the engine lingo.  The extra space can be used as a buffer for heat allowing you to Rev it up while still lowering power usage.
The competition arrived at the same conclusion using 8 squares.

But what do we know about lower displacement ?  They always need a SuperCharger or a Turbo to conpensate for low end torque throughout the powerband.

Just looks bad for what they are offering while pivoting the arch without even bothering adjusting price.  Even if AMD is priced high 2 wrongs dont make a right.

Lower your prices!!!

Like selling you a BLT hamburger without the BLT at the price of a BLT.  Dam plain hamburger.

Maybe i'm the minority that doesnt like to get screwed even if its cake or cookies.


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## MxPhenom 216 (May 11, 2012)

Im getting two of these for sure!

saw that it was 2 slot and instantly needed to go get new pants


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## EarthDog (May 11, 2012)

> Like selling you a BLT hamburger without the BLT at the price of a BLT. Dam plain hamburger.


A BLT without the BLT is called bread. There is no burger in a BLT.


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## Vizzy (May 11, 2012)

still no one has addressed when it will actually come out.. does anyone know this answer?


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## Xzibit (May 11, 2012)

EarthDog said:


> A BLT without the BLT is called bread. There is no burger in a BLT.



*B*acon
*L*ettuce
*T*omatoe


----------



## EarthDog (May 11, 2012)

Yep nowhere do I see HAMBURGER. When you order a BLT anywhere, you get bread, Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato, not BLT+Ground beef.


HAHAHAA... anyway, YOU said hamburger, so all just pulling your chain.


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## Clubber_Lang (May 11, 2012)

Thank you Wizzard for the test!

And HOLY HELL.........is that card a beast or what??!!??


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## avaya (May 11, 2012)

Vizzy said:


> what? where did you hear that??



Sorry, just a wild guess. 

In terms of AMD vs NVIDIA, I think the 7970 and 7950 is still king. Anyone who thinks Nvidia is winning with gtx 680 or DirectCUII 670, I'd like to point you to the 6gb Nvidia 8970, which gets about 40% betters fps than gtx 690, reference is 25dBa at load, and is equally easy to find for sale.


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## EarthDog (May 11, 2012)

avaya said:


> Sorry, just a wild guess.
> 
> In terms of AMD vs NVIDIA, I think the 7970 and 7950 is still king. Anyone who thinks Nvidia is winning with gtx 680 or DirectCUII 670, I'd like to point you to the 6gb Nvidia 8970, which gets about 40% betters fps than gtx 690, reference is 25dBa at load, and is equally easy to find for sale.


Heh, another 'wild guess'. You need to say that instead of posting it up like facts homeboy.

Where are you getting this information from in the first place about this so called 8970 beating a 690 by a whopping 40%? Have you read any benchmarks or know anything about the PCIe specifications? The 7970 has a small deficit to overcome against the 680 in performance, and is also 20W more in power. So it has that to make up AND fit within a 300W PCIE power threshold.  :shadedshu


----------



## Casecutter (May 11, 2012)

Xzibit said:


> the Variable Displacement... 8 square in-side a box. You take two squares out


I see what you're describing, but that’s more architectural, which yes Nvidia did so much better in Kepler and how they arranged the GPC and SMX segments.  And on that modular design they must have been in the works years before.  They might not have know the cost/buy structure would change, just forward thinking. (or saw the writing on the wall from TSMC)  

The ability to disable SMX and or complete GPC segment mean the can "slice and dice" almost at will and wherever, while still achieving the "most" from almost every chip from the wafer.  That means the wafer cost is supplanted by almost every die... That means great BfB for Nvidia, as long as checking, sorting, disabling and binning has been invested in and very efficient and automated processing by machine.  It's _nervia_ for either to achieve to such a scale, and Nvidia figured it out and them strapped on Turbo Boost to wring the utmost.

I'm positive that Nvidia is super cost effective on price for GK104's probably lower that may "mainstreams" of the past, when you average 320 mm² die from the price for a complete 12in wafer.  Then the size and components of this new PCB (4+2 phase PWM) and then a heat sink that only described as "simple affair". No vapor chamber it not even heat pipes, nothing more than a copper contact plate and aluminum fins for a enthusiasts card.  So selling such reference design will make a boat load for Nvidia and AIB that stick to that.  Honestly, I could see Nvidia actually going back to building and marketing cards and dropping some partners as the margins could be that lucrative.

It good to see Nvidia back on their game, but man I feel weird supplementing over and above just to see them in this new arena.  Not that a 7970 is worth the price of admission, but a Tahiti wafer figure provides 3 acceptable variants, using more silicon so each has to cost AMD more.  Then most AIB at minimum have 5+1 power, full-length PCB, vapor chamber or H-P coolers, and so much more on the BOM, but can be at a $470 price.  

As I've said make a 7950 at the 925Mhz, and de-content at under $380. Then use the new Ghz chips to saturate the market, with well appointed customs that are and can be over-clocked at $480.  Give "enthusiasts" what they want for 2560x and above, not just some plug-n-pay!


----------



## the54thvoid (May 11, 2012)

EarthDog said:


> Heh, another 'wild guess'. You need to say that instead of posting it up like facts homeboy.
> 
> Where are you getting this information from in the first place about this so called 8970 beating a 690 by a whopping 40%? Have you read any benchmarks or know anything about the PCIe specifications? The 7970 has a small deficit to overcome against the 680 in performance, and is also 20W more in power. So it has that to make up AND fit within a 300W PCIE power threshold.  :shadedshu



He's trolling.  He has nothing. Nada. Zilch.


----------



## Vizzy (May 11, 2012)

thats great.. trolling.. but seriously why is this not in stores yet but the others are?


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (May 11, 2012)

avaya said:


> Sorry, just a wild guess.
> 
> In terms of AMD vs NVIDIA, I think the 7970 and 7950 is still king. Anyone who thinks Nvidia is winning with gtx 680 or DirectCUII 670, I'd like to point you to the 6gb Nvidia 8970, which gets about 40% betters fps than gtx 690, reference is 25dBa at load, and is equally easy to find for sale.



I dont give a shit how much better something is compared to its counter part. All i care is that it performs better. Sorry but the 8970 doesnt even exist LOL! I dont see how anyone can consider the 7970 and 7950 king still. At first when nvidia had nothing to counter it the 7970 and 7950 were the big thing on the market. Now nvidia has released cards that perform better by fair margins while running cooler, quieter, and consume less power. The gtx670 at this point is the card to get. uses 20 or more watts less in power and costs 399 MSRP and beats out a card that is 80 to $100 more(the 7970). Nvidia has shot AMD when the 680 released by releasing a faster card for cheaper price. But now Nvidia has shot themselves and AMD for releasing the 670 that performs within 5% of the 680 and in par with the 7970 and in some respects like the 670 directCUII is beating out both. for $419

All im getting out of things you have posted is your a trolling fanboy. the GTX670 DirectCUII will be available in the coming days. 680s will hopefully be back in healthy stock starting in June


----------



## TheMailMan78 (May 11, 2012)

Ive lost some respect for you guys today......how can you not see the troll in this? Come on! Have I taught you NOTHING?!

Anyway I'm looking forward to getting a 670 Direct CU II in a year or so.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (May 11, 2012)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Ive lost some respect for you guys today......how can you not see the troll in this? Come on! Have I taught you NOTHING?!
> 
> Anyway I'm looking forward to getting a 670 Direct CU II in a year or so.



yeah. I still wanted to reply.

In a year? there will be new cards lol!


----------



## TheMailMan78 (May 11, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> yeah. I still wanted to reply.
> 
> In a year? there will be new cards lol!



And? The card I have now is running BF3 at Ultra with no AA. Why would I spend $420 dollars to play BF3 at Ultra.....with 4xaa? Really man 420 bucks for this card is way to much. In a year when its 320 or so Ill buy it and even then no game will push it I bet. Its a pointless upgrade right now.


----------



## EarthDog (May 11, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> He's trolling.  He has nothing. Nada. Zilch.


B7 that tool.

:shadedshu


----------



## Clubber_Lang (May 12, 2012)

avaya said:


> Sorry, just a wild guess.
> 
> In terms of AMD vs NVIDIA, I think the 7970 and 7950 is still king. Anyone who thinks Nvidia is winning with gtx 680 or DirectCUII 670, I'd like to point you to the 6gb Nvidia 8970, which gets about 40% betters fps than gtx 690, reference is 25dBa at load, and is equally easy to find for sale.



Dude?....I am a complete newb and know that's bullshit. The direct comparisons between the 79XX Amd cards ARE the GTX 670's and 680's.......why in the world would you bring up some card that hasn't only come out yet....but hasn't even been brought up in any way from AMD?

If you're going to start saying stuff like that.....can we mention the GTX770 and 780.....because those cards will be going up against that mythical card you just brought up.


----------



## Delta6326 (May 12, 2012)

At first I wanted a 680 then I wanted a 690 and then I wanted this 670! Now I want 2 of these!! Go W1zz and go Nvidia!


----------



## DualAmdMP (May 12, 2012)

Delta6326 said:


> At first I wanted a 680 then I wanted a 690 and then I wanted this 670! Now I want 2 of these!! Go W1zz and go Nvidia!



I think you may want the 660 too


----------



## Frag_Maniac (May 12, 2012)

Xzibit said:


> So the introducion of HPC in the sub entry-level was just to catch investors eyes ?  Did you bother to even look at Nvidia stock 1y or 5yr as you formulated that in your brain ? Guess not cause that would require common sense. Here a little hint 2007 was Nvidias high has been steadly dropping ever since.
> 
> Do you even know what you type as you type it or just have mentality of I believe what I want along with the attitude.
> 
> I dont know if your trolling or the part of your brain that uses common sense is missing. Troll away buddy. Have a good one.


First off, as mentioned we are talking GAMING product comparisons here. You still have what little brain power you've invested in the argument stuck on the HPC industry, as if that segment alone were crippling Nvidia, which obviously isn't the case. Nvidia are leading AMD/ATI on sales of gaming product by such a large margin, they could survive on that alone. 

They've also proven they can pack the horsepower behind HPC if they really wanted to focus more on that. Nvidia are smart enough to adapt to what market yields them the most profits and focus mostly on that. AMD/ATI by comparison flounder around without much focus or diligence when it comes to architectural advancement, new features, or driver support. 

Funny you should even talk about trolling, because here you are with maybe only one or two other people ranting against Nvidia in a thread about new Nvidia product just because you can't stand hearing people give it it's due praise. That's practically the definition of trolling, get a clue for once. A troller accusing others of trolling is silly childish hypocrisy, no more.

@ Those mentioning low yields,
Yields commonly drop a certain margin when drastic design changes are made, whether it be architectural or die size changes, but as mentioned, Nvidia's yields aren't any worse than AMD/ATI's. It's only a "problem" if the yields are so poor they can't be competitive with pricing, but HELLO, have you checked pricing lately? Apparently not. Common business sense dictates that if AMD/ATI had such stellar yields by comparison, they could easily hit a better price to performance ratio and win on volume of sales, but they are FAR from doing that as anyone can see. Like I said, the yields you get are relative to how they allow you to compete.

Bottom line, no one in their right mind can justify saying Nvidia are in trouble whether it be chip design, features, drivers, yields, or which segment of the computer industry they're focusing on most. The only time such comments even come out is when poor people don't like to see them leading the industry (same happens when Intel smacks AMD), or AMD/ATI fanboys can't stand seeing them smack the crap out of the competition in gaming product. 

All I have to say is put your petty angst aside and maybe you'll realize that in gaming product the value now lies with Nvidia, or, you can stay angry and ignorant, though blissful I doubt. The irony is, the budget shopping consumers with much shallower pockets now have no reason whatsoever to label Nvidia as price gouging elitists, but they still find ways to troll against them with baseless arguments as if they are the evil empire.


----------



## Vizzy (May 12, 2012)

can we focus less on whos trolling and more on does anyone know when it will be for sale at like newegg?


----------



## N3M3515 (May 12, 2012)

Vizzy said:


> can we focus less on whos trolling and more on does anyone know when it will be for sale at like newegg?



The egg

3 brands available, 4 sold out.


----------



## Vizzy (May 13, 2012)

yes I don't want a normal 670 though I want the asus one.. and its not out anywhere yet for some reason


----------



## THE_EGG (May 13, 2012)

N3M3515 said:


> The egg
> 
> 3 brands available, 4 sold out.



why you say my name?


----------



## N3M3515 (May 13, 2012)

THE_EGG said:


> why you say my name?





coincidence!!


----------



## Vizzy (May 13, 2012)

wth still not in stores


----------



## Krahl (May 13, 2012)

After your review of the DCUii GTX 680(TOP) I decided to put a preorder on one of those

Now after this review I've started faltering a bit in my faith; if it is the best buy ( obviously).

It all comes down to my preorder on the dcuiiTOP was placed at the price of 3849 Danish Kroner.
That translates to either 3849/7,5 = 513,2 € OR 3849/5,6 = 687,3 $
The cheapest GTX 670dcuiiTOP is priced at 3467 Danish Kroner which means a price of
3467/7,5 = 462,3 € OR 3467/5,6 = 619,1$

The price difference isn't huge - but since I'm having a really hard time deciding between the 2 I thought: hey - why not ask here? :=)

What's your take on the 2 cards when prices are as they are here in DK W1zzard/others?

It should also be mentioned that the gtx680dcuiiTOP is now priced -at the cheapest in DK of 4200Dkr ( 560€ or 750$) as I preordered before they upped their prices by quite a few % (9)


----------



## the54thvoid (May 13, 2012)

Frag Maniac said:


> ..The only time such comments even come out is when poor people don't like to see them leading the industry (same happens when Intel smacks AMD), or AMD/ATI fanboys can't stand seeing them smack the crap out of the competition in gaming product.
> 
> *All I have to say is put your petty angst aside* and maybe you'll realize that in gaming product the value now lies with Nvidia, or, you can stay angry and ignorant, though blissful I doubt. The irony is, the budget shopping consumers with much shallower pockets now have no reason whatsoever to label Nvidia as price gouging elitists, but they still find ways to troll against them with baseless arguments as if they are the evil empire.



You're the one coming across with a wee bit of angst chappy.  I can't speak for others but I have no problem with Nvidia.  And if there were no yield problems why would their CEO JHH say their was and then secure a deal just recently to get priority supply from TSMC?  

And I'll take you up on one statement:


> The irony is, the budget shopping consumers with much shallower pockets now have no reason whatsoever to label Nvidia as price gouging elitists



Nvidia hasn't released any budget cards yet.  The 670 certainly isn't.  

And the general consensus is quite clear that GK104 was meant to be destined for mid range but performed so well in gaming that it was promoted to the top tier.  Even the 670 PCB and construction quality should give people a clue as to where it's nature lies.
You say Nvidia aren't price gouging, well they are.  They're selling *mid range design* models *at top spec prices* to compete against *AMD's over inflated prices.*

Now both companies have been criticised.  There we go.

But back on topic.

The Asus 670 TOP card isn't out yet because it's a very hefty custom tweak.  It's coming - be patient. I can't get one (or two )... there wont be a water block for it - it'll ruin my aesthetic.


----------



## Benetanegia (May 13, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> You're the one coming across with a wee bit of angst chappy.  I can't speak for others but I have no problem with Nvidia.  And if there were no yield problems why would their CEO JHH say their was and then secure a deal just recently to get priority supply from TSMC?



JHH never said they had yield issues. This is the statement from where everything came from.



> Decline [of gross margin] in Q1 is expected to be due to the hard disk drive shortage continuing, as well as a shortage of 28nm wafers. We are ramping our Kepler generation very hard, and we could use more wafers. The gross margin decline is contributed almost entirely to the yields of 28nm being lower than expected. That is, I guess, unsurprising at this point,



Lower than expected yields does not equate yield problems at all. It means just that: yields at that point were lower than expected, and thus their Q1 forecast was adjusted to reflect that. At a later point he still said that yields were much better than previous nodes. Notice the plural, better than previous node*s*.

All this confusion is very simple to explain IMO. He is talking about the Q1 FY 2013 forecast, about why their forecast changed from that previousy predicted, why the gross margin would be lower than they first "promised". So he clearly states the capacity problem and after that he points out that yields on the new node are lower than expected and of course much lower than 40 nm yields at that point, which is why he says "That is, I guess, unsurprising at this point," right after mentioning lower than expected yields. Yields and especially capacity of 28nm is nowhere near that of 40nm, but their new chips, must be 28nm and so they'll not be able to meet demand as well as in previous quarters and so gross margin will decline. That's it, that's all JHH said, IMO, it's very clear if you take 2 seconds to understand it.

Another misconception is that only Nvidia has yield or capacity issues, and this is said because AMD said they didn't have any yield or capacity problems, but that's entirely relative. Come on, does anyone really and honestly believe that AMD and Nvidia have to meet the same demand? First of all Nvidia snatched the Apple deal this round, that is a HUGE amount of chips that need to be delivered. And they also said Kepler has more OEM wins than any other Nvidia generation before.

And regarding AIBs:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/Nvidia_GTX_670/16.html



> Another aspect AMD touched on was the availability of their Southern Islands cards, which is sort of a red herring. It is true AMD's 7000 series graphics cards are more readily available in the market, but the fact of the matter is this has nothing to do with production. Instead the issue is Kepler based graphics cards are in high demand. *We have talked to a few retailers and the word from them is Kepler is selling at nearly a 4 to 1 ratio over Southern Islands.* This leaves plenty of volume available for AMD, but makes it appear as if Nvidia is lacking the same volume, when this is not necessarily the case.


----------



## Gabkicks (May 13, 2012)

Hi! Should I just buy the gigabyte windforce 3 now while its in stock, or wait for the Asus GTX 670 DCUII to show up? this review makes me really want the Asus card.


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## W1zzard (May 13, 2012)

Gabkicks said:


> Hi! Should I just buy the gigabyte windforce 3 now while its in stock, or wait for the Asus GTX 670 DCUII to show up? this review makes me really want the Asus card.



while i havent tested the gigabyte, i would wait for asus, if it were my money


----------



## the54thvoid (May 13, 2012)

Benetanegia said:


> JHH never said they had yield issues.


 
As CEO of a large company he can't say 'the process is a problem' (shares would plummet) but as intelligent human beings we understand his point.  He said this...



> The gross margin decline is contributed *almost entirely to the yields of 28nm being lower than expected*



If I plan for 'X' amount as a business and my gross margin suffers because my expected yield is not as high, then that is a problem/issue.

JHH said himself gross margin decline is due to a shortage of wafers.  We've both quoted him.  It's certainly not going to destroy NV and it's certainly not as bad as 40nm was at first (picked up pretty well in fact) but if the CEO says:



> The gross margin decline is contributed *almost entirely to the yields of 28nm being lower than expected*



then it's an issue.  There is no logical way you can argue against that.

They know how many design wins etc they have so they plan for 'x' amount of wafers.  They dont get enough so they have to renegogiate with TSMC to get priority status.

It's obvious they have a problem with yield - this is why they are fixing it with an increased capacity from their latest deal with TSMC.

Jeez.....


----------



## Xzibit (May 13, 2012)

Benetanegia said:


> JHH never said they had yield issues. This is the statement from where everything came from.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I take it you read the Q&A..

The forecast isnt just the kepler but all of its entities Tegra, HPC, Mobile & GPU.  They had to adjust it cause aside from HPC none of them are doing as forcasted.



> Jen-Hsun Huang
> We have an understanding about wafer prices from TSMC and we negotiate with them and we now both understand where the pricing is





> Jen-Hsun Huang
> And so I expect us to be supply constrained from wafers at the wafer level, and we'll continue that way throughout the end of the year




You cant meet demand if you arent producing enough cause you cant buy wafers.  He was also question on that but as you know these things are a pitch to investors.

He doesnt want to be downgraded again like in Jan/Feb while the company keeps bleeding money.


----------



## Benetanegia (May 14, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> As CEO of a large company he can't say 'the process is a problem' (shares would plummet) but as intelligent human beings we understand his point.  He said this...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



They are not in a worse situation than other players. It's not an Nvidia issue at all, it's an issue everyone is having. Pay attention and you'll see they simply aren't in any worse situation than others.

Yes if you plan on being able to produce 10 million (random number) cards in a quarter, but you can only get 5 million that's an issue, one that you basically created for yourself. But it doesn't mean you have an issue with production. Not when you were only able to sell 2 million in your previous generation in the same timeframe and when you're outselling your direct competitor in a 4 to 1 ratio. You have no real issue, again in production/allocation, you just aimed too high.

An issue is when your gross margin suffers badly compared to previous exercises, i.e. versus Q1 FY 2012. When your gross margin suffers against your overly optimistic forecast, your only issue is with your investors confidence and maybe an issue with reality (well and SEC if wrongdoing/deception can be demostrated). But no matter how much you expected if you have 50% yields, and everybody else has 50% yields, YOU don't have yield issues. Simply because you expected/wanted/sold to investors a 75% yield figure, based on what your production partner told you would be posible, that doesn't make it your yield issue. Again lower than expected != bad yields. Bad yields is when yields are lower than normal/usual/previous node*s*, not when yields fail to be better than they usually are, no matter how much these better than normal yields are expected to be. 



> They know how many design wins etc they have so they plan for 'x' amount of wafers. They dont get enough so they have to renegogiate with TSMC to get priority status.



And that's a volume problem not a yield problem. They had to renegotiate because they are selling or want to sell 4x as much as AMD does and with current wafer allocation that's imposible. The issue has always been that they need to move many chips and there's simply not enough wafer starts. Plain and simple. And yes in that sutuation if you expected for example 40% yields and you get 37%, your gross margin will definitely suffer and that still does not mean you have yield issues. You have yield issues when you are way below that mark.



Xzibit said:


> I take it you read the Q&A..
> 
> The forecast isnt just the kepler but all of its entities Tegra, HPC, Mobile & GPU.  They had to adjust it cause aside from HPC none of them are doing as forcasted.
> 
> *You cant meet demand if you arent producing enough cause you cant buy wafers.*



And that again is an issue with volume and not yields, so your post is redundant to what I've been saying. Nvidia is expecting to only have a 30% of its production be 28nm by the end of the next quarter and have doubts of reaching 50% by the end of year. This when their entire future (Kepler, tegra 3+, etc.) depends on the node. 

AMD, Qualcomm, everybody is in the exact same situation, but there's only 2 GPU vendors and the last thing AMD wants to say is "we wouldn't be able to meet demand, if not for the fact that there is NO demand for our products, come on ladies and gentlemen, buy our shares". No they say "we are able to meet demand" and it's even essentially true, just not the truth that they really want to be true.


----------



## Xzibit (May 14, 2012)

Benetanegia said:


> And that again is an issue with volume and not yields, so your post is redundant to what I've been saying. Nvidia is expecting to only have a 30% of its production be 28nm by the end of the next quarter and have doubts of reaching 50% by the end of year. This when their entire future (Kepler, tegra 3 , etc.) depends on the node.
> 
> AMD, Qualcomm, everybody is in the exact same situation, but there's only 2 GPU vendors and the last thing AMD wants to say is "we wouldn't be able to meet demand, if not for the fact that there is NO demand for our products, come on ladies and gentlemen, buy our shares". No they say "we are able to meet demand" and it's even essentially true, just not the truth that they really want to be true.



I wasnt responding to the yields issue i was responding to the Forecast.

I dont think you can equate those two companies with the volume of 28nm that Nvidia was try'n to allocate which is much smaller.  Those two companies cover more products and markets geographicly. Especially Qualcomm.

Jen-Hsun Huang admitted in the Q&A it was poor planning on not allocating the wafers for whatever reason.  Tegra 3 has been in the works longer then Kepler so purchase or estimation of purchasing or allocating wafers comparable to the two companies would only mean production not allocation or purchase of said wafers.  Would fall in-line as to the supposed talks with Samsung but thats like AMD going to Intel for wafers.

If Jen-Hsun Huang was so adimately 100% sure of the margins if Nvidia had been able to purchase the wafers it needed to comply with said demand.  He looked like an amature when JP Morgan asked about it.



> *Harlan Sur - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division*
> 
> Great. And then obviously, you mentioned in your prepared remarks about under shipping demand in both the desktop and notebook segments in Q1. Can you just quantify roughly dollar-wise how much more revenue you could have shipped in Q1? And given obviously the constraints here in Q2, what the rough dollar impact on July sales could be as well.
> 
> ...



It's an earning call and not having potential earning numbers when talking to investors is a no-no

Just seams they dropped the ball on the roll out where it had potential to get it back on track and maybe have them stop loosing money.


----------



## ChristTheGreat (May 14, 2012)

Sorry guys, didn'T read all the post, but I would like to know if this card has RAM cooling? It looks like a big NO, and this worries me.. Overclocking ram, fine but if not cooled... For this I prefer the Zotac AMP I think (but cooler seems bigger).


----------



## Benetanegia (May 14, 2012)

Well so basically that's what I've been saying. I'm going to try this one to be my last post on the matter since it is way off-topic. And keep in mind that as always this is only my view, my opinion. Thoughtful and as based on evidence as posible, but just an opinion in the end.

Nvidia's only issue is that of over-promising and then under-delivering, due to both external and internal influences/problems. And yields have nothing to do on this, they do not have abnormally lower yields, looking at what evidences I could find.

What must be understood tho, if any conclusions are to be made from what is said in conference calls, is that in the GPU scene we have 2 players and it's very important to know who they are and in what situation they are.

AMD: Aside from the long standing situation that AMD has been living on for the past years, AMD lost the Apple deal that they had in previous generations and they have gained very few other OEM design wins. Not enough to make up the difference anyway. Their message is thus that of abundance. "We can meet demand" == "you can place orders". They want/need new customrs. Don't let the words make believe you that I'm saying this is the doom&gloom for AMD. They are just in a situation where they want more contracts, and their message reflects that.

Nvidia: Got Apple back and have more design wins than ever before. They are not able to meet demand for several reasons and thus their instance is that of keeping the customers and keeping them happy. And so "finding excuses" for underdelivering. Lack of wafer starts is THE reason as well as the fact they were not able to allocate enough of the available wafers, but both of these only translate to "cannot meet demand" and "not completely on their hands", as well as "the situation will hardly change in the near future". And that's not the message that Nvidia wants, so "yieds lower thn expected" is a good "excuse" considering the circumstances, because the promise of higher yields is always there for new nodes (not that it's false that yields are lower than expected, but neither is true the message that has been conveyed from this).

It does not mean anyone is lying, but everyone uses what is best for them. Wafer starts are very low, which is the innevitable truth and yields are lower than expected (which does not equate bad yields or yield issues). AMD is apparently able to meet demand which does not mean that they have good yields and plenty of wafer allocation. Devil is in the details.


----------



## Xzibit (May 14, 2012)

I wouldnt put too much hope on the Apple contract. Its good they got it back but they were in the tablet business and its there way of putting there foot in the door in a big way.  Many forcasters think the tablets are on there way out with lighter slimmer ultrabooks they will be competing for similar clientel.  Thats why the new iPad is going to be smaller in size after the slim revision on iPad 3.

Would have been better if they kept Sony Playstation contract for a steady stream of reveneu or able to snatch Nintendo Wii-U or Microsoft Durango from AMD.  Now having all 3 console platforms go to AMD it gives them a advantage in the future having a revenue stream even if its light and a closer relationship with game developers. Which I suspect Nvidias announcement of its new program to collect users info is an attempt to counter.  That worries me more because Developers will be inclined to streamline their development and aim a set # of audience in the console and develope PC games along side that. The Way Its Ment To Be Played delepore assistance program might vasnish soon after the consoles hit the market or might become a financial liability to Nvidia.


Back on topic...

I called two local retail vendors that had a 670 not OC model too for $489 <- WTF . Gigabyte and EVGA both out of stock but I wanted to know why the high price.


----------



## N3M3515 (May 14, 2012)

Xzibit said:


> I wouldnt put too much hope on the Apple contract. Its good they got it back but they were in the tablet business and its there way of putting there foot in the door in a big way.  Many forcasters think the tablets are on there way out with lighter slimmer ultrabooks they will be competing for similar clientel.  Thats why the new iPad is going to be smaller in size after the slim revision on iPad 3.
> 
> Would have been better if they kept Sony Playstation contract for a steady stream of reveneu or able to snatch Nintendo Wii-U or Microsoft Durango from AMD.  Now having all 3 console platforms go to AMD it gives them a advantage in the future having a revenue stream even if its light and a closer relationship with game developers. Which I suspect Nvidias announcement of its new program to collect users info is an attempt to counter.  That worries me more because Developers will be inclined to streamline their development and aim a set # of audience in the console and develope PC games along side that. The Way Its Ment To Be Played delepore assistance program might vasnish soon after the consoles hit the market or might become a financial liability to Nvidia.
> 
> ...



Onle two models left at newegg, hurry!


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## boise49ers (May 14, 2012)

Got an MSI OC version Friday night , should be here Wednesday or Thursday. 
They are selling out fast. I don't think there are any of the OC versions left.


----------



## Vizzy (May 14, 2012)

I'm confused cant you over clock a card yourself?

when the hell does the ASUS DirectCu II TOP come out!?


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (May 14, 2012)

I just want two of these bad boys in my rig right meow!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## punani (May 14, 2012)

Vizzy said:


> I'm confused cant you over clock a card yourself?
> 
> when the hell does the ASUS DirectCu II TOP come out!?



I put in an order for the non-TOP model on day 1 an now the retailer put in "coming: over 25 pcs" on current stock , YEY. hopfully it'l be on my doorstep soon .

And they also put in TPU seal of approval on the TOP model picture  Link


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## Vizzy (May 14, 2012)

Where did you place an order on the non top??


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## N3M3515 (May 14, 2012)

punani said:


> I put in an order for the non-TOP model on day 1 an now the retailer put in "coming: over 25 pcs" on current stock , YEY. hopfully it'l be on my doorstep soon .
> 
> And they also put in TPU seal of approval on the TOP model picture  Link



Holy crap batman! 449 euro ftw!!


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## punani (May 14, 2012)

Vizzy said:


> Where did you place an order on the non top??



A Finnish site called Jimm's PC. 429€ for non-TOP and free shipping within Finland .


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## Casecutter (May 14, 2012)

As to the issue of yield when they can make so many variants off the single node.  The question of yield is not the same as "normal" when a customer anticipates say two different decent chips and may be a true gelding off a node.  Nvidia can make lot's different variants off one GF104 node, so yes a wafer yield is good, but not offering enough "top-shelf parts", which appears to be the situation. 

Jen-Hsun Huang said, "gross margin decline is contributed almost entirely to the yields of 28nm being lower than expected".  The high margin chips aren't there, and they need more capacity of the on 28Nn because it's being used for every card they want to release.


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## HothBase (May 14, 2012)

On the last page:



> Not only noise is low but temperatures are great, too. With only 74°C under load the card is *quieter* than most other GTX 670 cards tested today.



Shouldn't it say cooler instead of quieter?


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## Joe Public (May 14, 2012)

Wow.  I said I wasn't replacing my 6950 until later this year...   Well. Now I just wanna go to my usual e-tailer and order this thing right away.


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## W1zzard (May 14, 2012)

HothBase said:


> On the last page:
> 
> 
> 
> Shouldn't it say cooler instead of quieter?



that's correct. fixed.


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## Frag_Maniac (May 14, 2012)

Benetanegia said:


> They are not in a worse situation than other players. It's not an Nvidia issue at all, it's an issue everyone is having. Pay attention and you'll see they simply aren't in any worse situation than others.


Exactly, at least someone else gets it. The red team's GPU supply goes out of stock just as quickly as the green team's lately, and it's not for being more popular. Saying Nvidia has poor yields is like the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. It's all relative to how the comp is doing, like I keep saying over and over and over.


----------



## SteelSix (May 14, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> while i havent tested the gigabyte, i would wait for asus, if it were my money



Yea man I've been watching the Gigabyte come in and out of stock on Amazon. I even called Asus USA pre-sales, no ETA info available. Looks like a killer card. Thanks Asus for dual slot!! It's about time..


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## HuLkY (May 14, 2012)

W1zz, is the card out yet? Can't find it on Amazon.com


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## chodaboy19 (May 16, 2012)

Are the fans 92mm or 100mm ?

Did you notice this during the review process?

http://www.overclock.net/t/1255980/nvidia-gtx-670-owners-club/80_40#post_17243016


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## Vizzy (May 17, 2012)

still not out !?!?!?!?!


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## Nordic (May 17, 2012)

I don't see how anything 670/7870 or lower isn't silent. If asus could do it why cant the rest of them.


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## Frag_Maniac (May 17, 2012)

james888 said:


> I don't see how anything 670/7870 or lower isn't silent. If asus could do it why cant the rest of them.


It's not that they can't, it's that some choose to go for lower temps in the non ref cooler cards, while others go for average temps but lower noise (ave among the non ref coolers). You add to that various price points that they settle on and it's easy to see why it's one of the big Nvidia partners that gets a fair number of top bin chips from the GPU and VRAM suppliers that is able and willing to put in the R&D and part spec that yields both pretty good temps and ultra low noise. Even the type of fan they spec on these cards makes a big difference on noise levels. What's strange is EVGA is one of the biggest Nvidia partners, but you never see them make non ref air cooled cards. The closest they've come to it is using the 680 ref cooler on some of the 670s.


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## Vizzy (May 19, 2012)

bah.. im getting impatient here.. why is it for sale in UK but not US?


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## Gabkicks (May 22, 2012)

ugh, i wish i bought the gigabyte windforce for $399 shipped 12 days ago >_< now i am stuck waiting on this asus that will probably come out over $420.


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## Frag_Maniac (May 23, 2012)

Oddly enough the ASUS has been shipped to both Aus and Can, but still not avail in the US. I still think it's going to be the more consistent in performance between it and the Giga though. Some of the Gigas aren't OCing very well, and some even suffering from freezes and crashes. 

This concurs with that I was told by a guy whom has owned a PC shop over 20 years, used to do product reviews, and sat in on a few Nvidia staff meetings. He said ASUS and EVGA get top binning selection on chips, but with Giga it's hit and miss.


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## Jackeduphard (May 24, 2012)

I just got one ...

ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit ...


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## Delta6326 (May 24, 2012)

I just got all happy when I saw that on Newegg. To bad I don't have a new build ready for one.


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## punani (May 25, 2012)

Jackeduphard said:


> I just got one ...
> 
> ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit ...



installed mine just 20 mins ago and so far I'm loving it


----------



## Jackeduphard (May 25, 2012)

silly newegg gave me two day shipping ... so some how in there mind that works out to be ... Tuesday of next week when it was shipped out yesterday ??? what the heck!


----------



## elemelek (May 27, 2012)

Great review W1zzard! Made me buy one and i thought ill sit out this generation...


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## pociej (May 30, 2012)

Do GTX670-DC2-2GD5 and GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 sharing the same PCB?
Asking because EK will make waterblock for ASUS GTX 670 DCII (GTX670-DC2-2GD5) and I'm thinking of use it on TOP version...


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## Delta6326 (May 30, 2012)

Should be the exact same card just one has a higher OC out of the box, which 90% of the Non "Top" will OC just as high.


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## aCeFr3aK (Jun 1, 2012)

ordered mine on the 30th, i had used 3 day shipping from newegg but they are saying itll be here on tuesday which is the 5th... should i call them and get my money back for the shipping?


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## Jackeduphard (Jun 1, 2012)

well if you paid for something and it is not happening I would say heck yes! 

But remember if it is a National Holiday and stuff you have to account that in as well. 

And some times it comes faster then the estimation of time.


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## Black Panther (Jun 1, 2012)

aCeFr3aK said:


> ordered mine on the 30th, i had used 3 day shipping from newegg but they are saying itll be here on tuesday which is the 5th... should i call them and get my money back for the shipping?



I'd wait. It's only a couple of days. But then I'm accustomed to waiting..


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## Delta6326 (Jun 4, 2012)

I have been looking at the ASUS TOP and have noticed its getting some bad reviews, people are saying that it won't work out of the box and they get BSOD/RSOD, I was wondering W1zz do you think that the backplate could be shorting out cards?


----------



## chodaboy19 (Jun 6, 2012)

Mine works just fine stock. It overclocks itself to 1293MHz at 1.1750v with 86%-95% TDP. I haven't done any benches, but I have played Diablo3 and SC2 for hours on end without single crash.


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## Jackeduphard (Jun 6, 2012)

I would hope D3 and SC2 dont crash it hahaha  


It is a wonderful card for sure! Out of the box it is and has been rock solid on my side as well. I would not say that it is a good card ... but it is a great card!


----------



## Tank (Jun 10, 2012)

Well... Seems like i am not doing sli next upgrade one single strong card it is


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## GC_PaNzerFIN (Jun 10, 2012)

Getting a lot reports of these TOP cards being unstable at stock clocks. Couple hours of Heaven and high number of the cards eventually crash.

Just a little warning... if you do have one of these please do some proper stability testing to see if your card is one of these bad ones.


----------



## Vancha (Jun 11, 2012)

Just came here to say the same. The non-TOP seems to be more reliable and overclock to a higher point than the TOPs, of which an unnaturally high percentage seem to be unstable at their stock clocks (and yes they both have the backplate).

In this case, TOPs don't appear to be higher binned and actually seem to be worse than the non-TOPs.


----------



## Jackeduphard (Jun 11, 2012)

Vancha said:


> Just came here to say the same. The non-TOP seems to be more reliable and overclock to a higher point than the TOPs, of which an unnaturally high percentage seem to be unstable at their stock clocks (and yes they both have the backplate).
> 
> In this case, TOPs don't appear to be higher binned and actually seem to be worse than the non-TOPs.



No problems on my end just yet ...

(of course all i am doing is playing D3 for 8 hours strait and then have a moive open on the other screen)


----------



## adulaamin (Jun 11, 2012)

I was hoping to buy the TOP card in a month or so for a new build... I hope Asus fix the issues by then or I'd have to look for another model/brand...


----------



## bpgt64 (Jun 11, 2012)

These cards overclock really well.  You just have to be careful of the boost overclocking, as it ups what you set the default by a specific amount...  So overclocking to say...1150 core, really means like 1230mhz.

http://img.techpowerup.org/120601/BOOMp16701.jpg

My benchmark of 3dmark11.


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## Animalpak (Jun 11, 2012)

I received the card last Tuesday and I have not found any problem, even after long sessions of play BF3... I dont like to overclock the GPU, this card already runs at its limits.

I need to post some pics for this upgrade too !


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## Jackeduphard (Jun 12, 2012)

just get there base model ... (from what some people are saying it is a great card too ...)


@adulaamin


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## Helltech (Jun 15, 2012)

Well I got this card on NewEgg as soon as it came out on there. Got it, red screened out of box. Never overclocked it. After looking online figured it was from SpeedFan/Afterburner, so I used it on a clean install of Windows, and still would red screen all the time, just randomly. RMA'ed it to NewEgg they gave me a refund becuase they ran out and they havn't been in stock since. I'm getting really tired of waiting. 

Anyway does anyone know how this fairs against MSI's PE edition. ASUS is (probably?) more quite and it has that sexy backplate, but I can't wait much longer for it to get instock.


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## radusorin (Jun 15, 2012)

For the RMA part .... hope this helps 

GPU Tweak Version 2.1.5.0
Fix “The system will cause Red Screen in some platform”.
2012.06.05  update

At list no problem for me


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## Helltech (Jun 15, 2012)

radusorin said:


> For the RMA part .... hope this helps
> 
> GPU Tweak Version 2.1.5.0
> Fix “The system will cause Red Screen in some platform”.
> ...



As far as I was aware when I was looking back at the begining of the month it was the software itself causing it to redscreen, that is just an update that leviates the problem.

However I wasn't even using the software and still red screening, as I said i would red screen on a fresh install of windows.


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## Frosty (Jun 21, 2012)

Just so everyone is aware:

The TOP version of the GTX 670 DCU II has been recorded to boost past 1137MHz, which seems to be causing the instability and crashing for most users. 

With the above said, Asus has released an updated BIOS for the card that should improve stability. It can be found here:

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GTX670DC2T2GD5/#download


I'd be interested to know if this would make a difference in the performance seen in the review for this card.


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## Helltech (Jun 21, 2012)

Frosty said:


> Just so everyone is aware:
> 
> The TOP version of the GTX 670 DCU II has been recorded to boost past 1137MHz, which seems to be causing the instability and crashing for most users.
> 
> ...



According to the extremely large thread on another forum all users that flashed to the new BIOS have gotten worse Heaven and 3DMark scores, it basically just lowers the max the cards can boost from what they have seen.


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## Frosty (Jun 21, 2012)

Helltech said:


> According to the extremely large thread on another forum all users that flashed to the new BIOS have gotten worse Heaven and 3DMark scores, it basically just lowers the max the cards can boost from what they have seen.



Yes, it will most likely lower the performance of the card but resolve the instability issues some users are experiencing. 

I mentioned that the reason for the instability is that the cards are boosting *past* the 1137MHz boost frequency advertised by Asus. In a way, those who purchased this card were actually getting better than advertised performance. Now that the BIOS update is released they should be getting the performance (1137MHz boost) that had been previously advertised by Asus.

I mentioned it to W1zzard as I think this would have a fairly significant impact on his review.


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## Helltech (Jun 21, 2012)

Frosty said:


> Yes, it will most likely lower the performance of the card but resolve the instability issues some users are experiencing.
> 
> I mentioned that the reason for the instability is that the cards are boosting *past* the 1137MHz boost frequency advertised by Asus. In a way, those who purchased this card were actually getting better than advertised performance. Now that the BIOS update is released they should be getting the performance (1137MHz boost) that had been previously advertised by Asus.
> 
> I mentioned it to W1zzard as I think this would have a fairly significant impact on his review.



Yeah it fixes the over-boosting problem on the top cards, just wish they would fix the problems with the non-top ones.


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## NGC7293 (Jun 25, 2012)

Hi, there!

Have this one GTX670-DC2T-2GD5, since 5 of june. So, out of the box (no overclocking) - Furemark, Unigine Heaven, Diablo 3 - everything's OK!
But in Battlefield 3, Battlefield 2 Bad Company - every 30 min(avarage) - hard crush, RSOD, BlackSOD. Help's only hard reset. Top core(max boost) frequency in this games - 1280Mhz!

Updated VBIOS from the Asus website: http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GTX670DC2T2GD5/#download doesn't help.
New BIOS decrease top core(max boost)  frequency to 1215Mhz, so as I said before, it doesn't help.

Then I decrease top core(max boost)  frequency to 1180 Mhz in MSI Afterburner - and problem fixed.

I can't understend, why they are published GPU Boost Clock : 1137 MHz, but at this time maximum boost clock is 1280Mhz!? May be they are mean, that GPU Boost Clock : 1137 MHz  - is avarage boost clock?  What 4?

So, imho, the reason of this RSOD/BlackSOD/crush - is toooo much high default core clock. It seems, like ASUS doesn't test their cards.  And it's very CRUDE PRODUCT!



Helltech said:


> just wish they would fix the problems with the non-top ones.


AFAIK, non-TOP cards doesn't have the same problem.   There is no negative feedback about GTX670-DC2-2GD5, with same problem


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## Helltech (Jun 25, 2012)

NGC7293 said:


> Hi, there!
> 
> Have this one GTX670-DC2T-2GD5, since 5 of june. So, out of the box (no overclocking) - Furemark, Unigine Heaven, Diablo 3 - everything's OK!
> But in Battlefield 3, Battlefield 2 Bad Company - every 30 min(avarage) - hard crush, RSOD, BlackSOD. Help's only hard reset. Top core(max boost) frequency in this games - 1280Mhz!
> ...



Except I have had three non-top card and two of them had the RSOD issue and the last one didn't. So yes, they do.

ASUS GTX670-DC2-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit G...


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## NGC7293 (Jun 25, 2012)

Helltech said:


> Except I have had three non-top card and two of them had the RSOD issue and the last one didn't. So yes, they do.
> 
> ASUS GTX670-DC2-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit G...



Ok, believe you, but % of negative feedback with the same poblem on non-TOP is much lower, then with TOP.
And I believe it's your's feedback? So, are you sure, that the prolblem associated only/most with monitoring software, E.G. SpeedFan, Precision X, MSI Afterburner, GPUz???


One more observation. All this overclocked cards:
Palit GeForce GTX 670 JetStream 2 GB, 	ZOTAC GeForce GTX 670 AMP! Edition 2 GB,  Gigabyte GTX 670 OC 2 GB  operates at 3D Load	- MAX 1176 MHz

And  
ASUS GeForce GTX 670 Direct CU II TOP 2 GB operates at 3D Load - MAX 1293 MHz

So I think, ASUS overdone in its attempt to be №1


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