# TPU's GTX 600 Owners Club!



## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

***TPU's GTX 600 Series Owners Club***

**Note Decided to open to all GTX 600 Series Cards.*








> *Requirements....
> Must own a GTX 600 Series Video card (Any make model or color)
> Post Picture or screen shot of GPU-Z*



*The Idea came from getting tired of looking through a bunch of different threads here to find out information about the "GTX 600" Series. I have also seen the suggestion given a few times times by other TPU members. *



> *Please use this thread:
> Ask questions
> Report problems
> Good News
> ...



*Useful Links for GTX 600 series Owners or Soon To Be Owners*



> *New Egg In-Stock Watcher App For GTX 680
> Thread For New Egg In-Stock Watcher App
> Nibitor GTX 680 BIOS Mod thread
> GTX 680 Overclocking Guide "HitechLegion"
> ...





> *Drivers:
> Win 7 64 Bit Drivers Link
> Win 7 32 Bit Drivers Link
> Win XP 32 Bit Drivers Link
> ...





> *Members/Owners:
> 
> 20mmrain - 2 x EVGA GTX 680 1 x PNY GTX 680 3-Way SLI (Reference)
> Finners - PNY GTX 680 (Reference)
> ...


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## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

I'll Start it off with mine!

2 X EVGA GTX 680's SLI (Reference Cards) Water Cooled= EK Water Cooling Blocks w/ EK Backplates


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## DarkOCean (May 5, 2012)

Nice.What kind of oc do you get on water?


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## FreedomEclipse (May 5, 2012)

this thread should be in the 'club' subsection part of the forum. not the Nvdia graphics section.


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## marcosamerio (May 5, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> I'll Start it off with mine!
> 
> 2 X EVGA GTX 680's SLI (Reference Cards) Water Cooled= EK Water Cooling Blocks w/ EK Backplates
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=46948&stc=1&d=1336236664



Beautiful, nothing more to say


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## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

FreedomEclipse said:


> this thread should be in the 'club' subsection part of the forum. not the Nvdia graphics section.



Ahh Shoot your Right! Maybe we can get a moderator to change that. I completely forgot about that section. I'll send a shout out to a couple of them.



> Nice.What kind of oc do you get on water?



I can run about 1285Mhz Stable (1295Mhz Max) I am limited on voltage not Temps. The max Temps I have seen on an 80 degree day were 38c top card. That was overclocked running EVGA OC Scanner

After thought.... Would it be better to open it up to all GTX 600 series owners???


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## m1dg3t (May 5, 2012)

Nice rig 20mm, to bad you are one of only 5 people to have a GTX680  At least it's exclusive


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## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

m1dg3t said:


> Nice rig 20mm, to bad you are one of only 5 people to have a GTX680  At least it's exclusive



Well that is what I was asking.... Should I open this up to all GTX 600 Series owners???

Actually I think I will

I requested a title change and change of location to the Club area. If the accept the change it will be TPU's GTX 600 Series Owners Club


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## Animalpak (May 5, 2012)

c mon MOAR pics !!


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## Tardan (May 5, 2012)

Happy GTX 680 owner here 

Although I have to admit its a shame that there is a somewhat low limit on the voltage. Max temperatures I've seen on my card is 53° C but I can't pass 1205 MHz without getting TDRs. 

These cards definitely feel voltage deprived lol.


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## Finners (May 5, 2012)

looks rubbish compared to 20mm but i'll just blame it on my phone camera,

I too wish these could have more voltage, Does anyone know if anyone else apart from EVGA will be making backplates? i think they look awesome but seems wrong to put EVGA backplate on mine when its not


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## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

Finners said:


> looks rubbish compared to 20mm but i'll just blame it on my phone camera,
> 
> I too wish these could have more voltage, Does anyone know if anyone else apart from EVGA will be making backplates? i think they look awesome but seems wrong to put EVGA backplate on mine when its not
> 
> ...



Which make is that 680 bud? So I can post your name?

Nice set up man.... I think your system looks sick.


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## Finners (May 5, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Which make is that 680 bud? So I can post your name?
> 
> Nice set up man.... I think your system looks sick.



its a PNY


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## Sinzia (May 5, 2012)

Galaxy GTX 680 here! I'll post some pics when there's better light, its crappy out and the lighting sucks in here.


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## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

Sinzia said:


> Galaxy GTX 680 here! I'll post some pics when there's better light, its crappy out and the lighting sucks in here.



I'll Post whether reference or not once you post the pics. I believe you have it.... so I'll just wait for the pics  to finish it off.


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## Lionheart (May 5, 2012)

I will be getting one shortly but they are just so damn expensive here in Aus but I'm sure I can find one for a decent price

Very nice setup 20mm & Finners


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## puma99dk| (May 5, 2012)

so can i join?

i took this a while back of my KFA2 GeForce GTX 680:






techPowerUp! Forums - View Single Post - Sexy Hardware Close-Up Pic Clubhouse.: - KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 | puma99dk|

no pic from "in-case" any time soon need some cabling to do plus cleaning.





just adding a pic of my KFA2 GTX 680 in my case ^^


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## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> so can i join?
> 
> i took this a while back of my KFA2 GeForce GTX 680:
> 
> ...



Sure can.... nice card BTW. I have always been a fan of that brands Logo... To bad I can't get a hold of one  in the US. I would totally switch brands just because of looks. I know I know stupid .... and yes I know it looks just a like a re-branded Galaxy.


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## MxPhenom 216 (May 5, 2012)

I plan to join this club in june when I get my Evga Superclocked+ Signature edition with the backplate GTX680!


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## Tardan (May 5, 2012)

I felt I should contribute to feed the need for pictures so here we go 






I forgot to mention I have a GELID ICY VISION installed 






and here is my current OC.






Yeah, I'm an old school air cooling kind of guy


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## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

Tardan said:


> I felt I should contribute to feed the need for pictures so here we go
> 
> http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/722/img0063vs.jpg
> 
> ...



Looks good to me... Hey I salute Air cooling.... not long ago with my HD 7970 setup.... I had two Artic Cooling heat sinks on those before I upgraded to water cooling. Your rig looks awesome man .... Welcome!!


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## puma99dk| (May 5, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Sure can.... nice card BTW. I have always been a fan of that brands Logo... To bad I can't get a hold of one  in the US. I would totally switch brands just because of looks. I know I know stupid .... and yes I know it looks just a like a re-branded Galaxy.



well i was thinking about an EVGA card, but they was always out of stuck and always every since i had money for a GTX680 and Palit's JetStream GTX 680 came too late so i am after a cooler but i dunno maybe the new closed water cooler from AC or a Gelid Icy Vision again bcs Tardan showed me it can be mounted even i only want my card to still be only 2 slots.



Tardan said:


> I felt I should contribute to feed the need for pictures so here we go
> 
> http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/722/img0063vs.jpg
> 
> ...



thx Tardan for confirming that a Gelid Icy Vision can fit on a reference GTX 680 pcb.


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## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> well i was thinking about an EVGA card, but they was always out of stuck and always every since i had money for a GTX680 and Palit's JetStream GTX 680 came too late so i am after a cooler but i dunno maybe the new closed water cooler from AC or a Gelid Icy Vision again bcs Tardan showed me it can be mounted even i only want my card to still be only 2 slots.
> 
> 
> 
> thx Tardan for confirming that a Gelid Icy Vision can fit on a reference GTX 680 pcb.



Thats funny got a second card??? LOL Wanna trade 

On a separate note.... I guess this as good as time as any to dive in to a GTX 680 conversation.....

I am noticing everyone posting their screen shots with their clocks and overclocks. I would love to do that but for some reason.... my clocks don't represent correctly in GPU-Z. Here's what I mean....

Under the main tab it reads:
Base Clock: 1006
Boost Clock: 1059 >Just like everyone else.

But my cards (because of Nvidia's Boost technology) Actually run at 
Base Clock:1006
Boost Clock: 1124 >No I did not flash the BIOS

It shows the correct higher Clocks under the GPU-Z Sensors Tab
It also shows the correct higher clocks under EVGA On Screen Display, EVGA Precision X and half a dozen other monitoring programs....
But it does not show the correct clocks (Stock or While Overclocked) under GPU-Z Main Tab

I am fairly confident that the higher clocks are correct.... (because several other programs are showing the higher clocks.) I have also heard and read that just because Nvidia says the GTX 680's clocks are 1006 and 1059 that does not mean that people won't receive cards that actually run higher then Nvidia's Minimum clocks. (As long as your card stays under Nvidia's thermal limit your cards can keep in creasing by so many MHZ)
It's just frustrating I can't show my real overclock as easily....If you look at GPU-z Main page it will show a
Boost clock of 1220Mhz (When in reality)
its a boost clock of 1285Mhz

Like I said I have talked with overs in other forums experiencing this... and I am sure I have figured out why.... but is anyone else here at TPU experiencing something like this?.


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## Finners (May 5, 2012)

yeah i get similar, mine goes up to 1226 i think then drops down to 1215 when the temps creep up. but gpu-z shows 1203. 

As far as i know nvidia have set it to have a maximum boost of 1124 if the temps are low enough for them to think its safe, as your under water that would be why. the 53Mhz boost GPU-z reads is the minimum the card will boost


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## Tardan (May 5, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> thx Tardan for confirming that a Gelid Icy Vision can fit on a reference GTX 680 pcb.



My pleasure, glad to help 



20mmrain said:


> Like I said I have talked with overs in other forums experiencing this... and I am sure I have figured out why.... but is anyone else here at TPU experiencing something like this?



I have the exact same symptoms. Not sure why it does that, the only way I can figure out my true boost clock is by enabling the OSD on Precision X. I get a rock solid 1256 MHz when I'm playing games or benchmarking on the OSD. In GPU-Z, it only says 1204 MHz boost clock. It's only a minor issue for me, but it would be nice to know why it happens.


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## Finners (May 5, 2012)

Is yours under water tardan? 

From a quick google it seems 53Mhz is the minimum boost and nvidia boosts an additional 13Mhz for every 10 degrees below 80C so 70-79 should have a core speed of 1072Mhz, 60-69C 1085mhz etc...


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## 20mmrain (May 5, 2012)

Finners said:


> yeah i get similar, mine goes up to 1226 i think then drops down to 1215 when the temps creep up. but gpu-z shows 1203.
> 
> As far as i know nvidia have set it to have a maximum boost of 1124 if the temps are low enough for them to think its safe, as your under water that would be why. the 53Mhz boost GPU-z reads is the minimum the card will boost



That is how I understood this too. I guess I just never asked that many people about it so I could verify it or not. Now that I have my understanding is confirmed. I appreciate the feed back. 
Yeah was reading a little bit more about it while you were answering my question. Only thing left for Nvidia to do now is unlock these voltages. So the GTX 680 owner can destroy every benchmark out there. 

I would have to say that is my only complaint about this card. They (Nvidia and their partners) castrated the GTX 680's voltage. Yes I understand they were going for power savings and thermals (Compared to their previous gen cards) but I wish they would've left a little more room for those who want it. 1.17v and 1.21v (Hardware Monitored) is not cutting it. They are capable of much higher capacity.



> From a quick google it seems 53Mhz is the minimum boost and nvidia boosts an additional 13Mhz for every 10 degrees below 80C so 70-79 should have a core speed of 1072Mhz, 60-69C 1085mhz etc...



I've read this too.... it all depends on the temps. So water cooled cards will have an advantage as long as they don't run out of voltage space like I mentioned above.


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## Finners (May 5, 2012)

Pretty sure its hardware limited as well isnt it? so its only going to be from partners who beef up all the voltage circuits that will give us higher voltage

i dont know if drivers have an effect on boost speeds, i tried the 300.8 drivers that came on the CD with my card and the boost speeds behaved differently to the one's im on now


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## Tardan (May 5, 2012)

Finners said:


> Is yours under water tardan?
> 
> From a quick google it seems 53Mhz is the minimum boost and nvidia boosts an additional 13Mhz for every 10 degrees below 80C so 70-79 should have a core speed of 1072Mhz, 60-69C 1085mhz etc...



Nope. Mine is air cooled(Pictures in previous page). My temperatures are solid at 54°c when I'm playing games so I guess that's why my boost clock doesn't jump around like others do. Thank you for the info as well. Good to know.


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## puma99dk| (May 5, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Thats funny got a second card??? LOL Wanna trade
> 
> On a separate note.... I guess this as good as time as any to dive in to a GTX 680 conversation.....
> 
> ...



hehe, only down side is long way from US to DK


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## 20mmrain (May 6, 2012)

Finners said:


> Pretty sure its hardware limited as well isnt it? so its only going to be from partners who beef up all the voltage circuits that will give us higher voltage
> 
> i dont know if drivers have an effect on boost speeds, i tried the 300.8 drivers that came on the CD with my card and the boost speeds behaved differently to the one's im on now



Yeah there has been some speculation on this fact....some pretty important people have been saying yes the cards are hardware locked. Other important people are saying No.... the voltage could be increased through a BIOS update along with the Fan profile.

I could see either way..... the ZOTAC 2Ghz GTX 680 shows me that the GTX 680 can handle the voltage if needed. Granted I don't think reference cards could handle the 1.5volts needed to do 2Ghz like that card. But I do believe it shows they could handle a lot more voltage than they currently are. 
Which leads me to think ... sure these cards could be hardware capped on purpose to allow Partners to release cards like the GTX 680 2Ghz edition. Not to mention things like Nvidia loosing a VRM before release and other Hardware developments.

At the same time I think that Nvidia's partners aren't stupid and want to leave something there just in case AMD were to release something like..... Oh I don't know a 1Ghz edition reference HD7970. 
So I think they would want to leave a safety valve in case they needed it. Just like some partners have in the past... Like EVGA "Free Power Boost BIOS's"

Although I have seen some positive work with concerns to BIOS editing and Nibitor.... people have been able to BIOS mod the clocks of these cards. I don't know how safe these BIOS's are yet. But it has been done. As far as editing the voltage in the BIOS though.... I don't know if they have done that with Nibitor or not yet.

*Link To Nibitor GTX 680 BIOS Mods*



> hehe, only down side is long way from US to DK



Sigh :shadedshu


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## 15th Warlock (May 6, 2012)

Nice rigs guys!! 

Can I join the club? 

I have two stock EVGA 680s modded with hi-flow brackets and backplates, running at stock clocks for now


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## Lionheart (May 6, 2012)

15th Warlock said:


> Nice rigs guys!!
> 
> Can I join the club?
> 
> ...



Oh how I love when you post pics of your rig so so jelly

I like how you carved 2 spaces out of the Video card cooling shroud for the PCI-E cables, as I am saving up for a GTX 680 and I have the same case as you, would you recommend me do the same and what tools did you use pls


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## Maban (May 6, 2012)

Got me one right here. Couple more pics here.


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## 15th Warlock (May 6, 2012)

Lionheart said:


> Oh how I love when you post pics of your rig so so jelly
> 
> I like how you carved 2 spaces out of the Video card cooling shroud for the PCI-E cables, as I am saving up for a GTX 680 and I have the same case as you, would you recommend me do the same and what tools did you use pls



Thanks for your great comments man! I really appreciate it!

To carve the openings for the cables, I used my trusty dremel with a carborundum disk, it can cut through steel, and goes through plastic like a hot knife through butter, I highly recommend it!

Then you can use a polishing disk to remove all the shavings and round the edges so the finish is as smooth as a baby's butt


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## 20mmrain (May 6, 2012)

Awesome *15th Warlock*..... Welcome my friend I knew it was only a matter of time until I saw you and your kick ass rig here!!! 

*Maban* also welcome to then club! Nice to have another 680 in the ranks!!!

Lets also start comparing some Benchmarks here.... I wanna see what some of these bad boys can do....

I'll start it off with some lower clocks....


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## 15th Warlock (May 6, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Awesome *15th Warlock*..... Welcome my friend I knew it was only a matter of time until I saw you and your kick ass rig here!!!
> 
> *Maban* also welcome to then club! Nice to have another 680 in the ranks!!!
> 
> ...



Thanks much man!! You have an awesome rig also!! I've long been an admirer of your clean custom WC loop, if you lived close to me, I would definitely ask you to help me setup a WC loop for my rig, you rock! 

This is my current highest score with my cards, I'm pretty sure your WC beast will beat this score once it flexes it muscles


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## MxPhenom 216 (May 6, 2012)

We should use this thread for updates on the GTX680 shortage, and links if for any cards in stock anywhere


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## puma99dk| (May 6, 2012)

Tardan said:


> My pleasure, glad to help



than i got another question, what is the temp of the card? i mean vs stock in ur machine if u tested both ^^;

just added some pics to my last thread of gfx in my case.


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## Tardan (May 6, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> than i got another question, what is the temp of the card? i mean vs stock in ur machine if u tested both ^^;
> 
> just added some pics to my last thread of gfx in my case.



That I did do actually. I overclocked before and after the cooling and I got 44°c idle and 75-80°c load. After I got the ICY VISION I have 29°c idle and 54°c load. I can also happily say it is A LOT quieter compared to stock cooling too


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## puma99dk| (May 6, 2012)

Tardan said:


> That I did do actually. I overclocked before and after the cooling and I got 44°c idle and 75-80°c load. After I got the ICY VISION I have 29°c idle and 54°c load. I can also happily say it is A LOT quieter compared to stock cooling too



Arigatou Gozaimashita ^^;

i think i will concider buying a Icy Vision for my new card or maybe just grap the Arctic Cooling Hydro solution i dunno yet.


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## Maban (May 6, 2012)

Tardan said:


> That I did do actually. I overclocked before and after the cooling and I got 44°c idle and 75-80°c load. After I got the ICY VISION I have 29°c idle and 54°c load. I can also happily say it is A LOT quieter compared to stock cooling too



Does it fit with the unisink? Would much need to be done to the unisink or the mounting bracket to get them to play nice together if not?


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## Finners (May 6, 2012)

what gpu usage are you guys getting in games? mines stuck at 97% in games,3dmark,kombuster etc

but 99% in OCCT


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## 20mmrain (May 6, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> We should use this thread for updates on the GTX680 shortage, and links if for any cards in stock anywhere



Ask and though shale receive...... Link to New Egg Stock Watcher App

Link to EVGA Thread for the APP



> Thanks much man!! You have an awesome rig also!! I've long been an admirer of your clean custom WC loop, if you lived close to me, I would definitely ask you to help me setup a WC loop for my rig, you rock!
> 
> This is my current highest score with my cards, I'm pretty sure your WC beast will beat this score once it flexes it muscles



Thanks Man.... I really appreciate the complements!! I would be more than happy to help set you up with what you need for you water cooling Loop! You just let me know when.

I admire the scores you got there.... right now what is holding me back is my CPU score. I am planning a IVY bridge upgrade soon... so that should help somewhat. I can get my current CPU to score higher when I up the speed to 5Ghz.... but I didn't for this run. I will do a run later today @ my highest GPU clocks and highest CPU clocks. See where I come out compared to yours. I really like the SB-E setup you got though.....maybe that is what I should go for instead of Ivy bridge. That CPU seems to be one hell of a beast!!!  Our GPU's scores seem to be in line though. 

*Example Here is another run @ 1282Mhz Core and 1623Mhz Mem My score went up by 200 Point roughly.... I think right now I am being bottle knecked by my CPU and PCIe 2.0 bandwidth.*







> what gpu usage are you guys getting in games? mines stuck at 97% in games,3dmark,kombuster etc
> 
> but 99% in OCCT



I am not sure.... but what you are describing sounds about right. I will look today and let you know what I find.


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## Finners (May 6, 2012)

is stock really that bad in the USA? over here we have no shortages at all really


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## 20mmrain (May 6, 2012)

Finners said:


> is stock really that bad in the USA? over here we have no shortages at all really



Yes it is... horrible! You can't find one period.... and if you do it is either for 5 mins till they are sold out.... or it is so over charged in terms of price you would rather wait instead of buying it. Shoot if it wasn't I would already be rocking 3 way SLI or 4 Way SLI


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## Finners (May 6, 2012)

yeah the prices are a little higher then when they first came out here but if you really wanted one you can


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## 20mmrain (May 6, 2012)

Finners said:


> yeah the prices are a little higher then when they first came out here but if you really wanted one you can



Yeah no man.... here is a Link to the Page at New Egg in the US

Look nothing in stock. Plus I could show you more places but I think you get the point. Nothing. The prices aren't inflated in the US at regular E-tailers..... but people buying them and re-selling them they are. Also some of the smaller E-Tailers have them in stock.... but they are also charging an arm and a leg.


**New Added to the Front Page....**

*Links to helpful GTX 600 series information. If you have something that you think would be helpful and should be added please let me know.*


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## puma99dk| (May 6, 2012)

20mmrain if u want the real size 1920x1080 for the wallpaper u use in post one u can get it here: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-wallpaper-now-available/

i even think u can hot link to it ^^;


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## 20mmrain (May 6, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> 20mmrain if u want the real size 1920x1080 for the wallpaper u use in post one u can get it here: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-wallpaper-now-available/
> 
> i even think u can hot link to it ^^;



Thanks bro... I already have it that's where I got the picture from. But I can still link the page you showed... this way others can get the wallpaper too.... thanks for the idea


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## Tardan (May 6, 2012)

Maban said:


> Does it fit with the unisink? Would much need to be done to the unisink or the mounting bracket to get them to play nice together if not?



It was kind of a tight fit, but it works. Did nothing to the unisink or mounting bracket, just followed the instructions and used this guide as a reference to check my placing of the heatsinks and to see if everything was in place. The only difference is that I used the AMD card screws (middle screws on the first picture) to screw in the mounting bracket. From what I noticed with the NVIDIA card screws is that there was space in between the GPU chip and the unisink and the only way to get them closer was to use the other screws. Might not be the case with everyone though.


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## 15th Warlock (May 7, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Ask and though shale receive...... Link to New Egg Stock Watcher App
> 
> Link to EVGA Thread for the APP
> 
> ...



Thanks for posting the apps  

I'm pretty sure the CPU clock is to blame for the scaling on your cards, if you OC it to 5Ghz or higher your score will go up, as your GPU and memory clocks are way higher than mine's thanks to your awesome WC loop.

As for choosing between SB-E and IVB, to be honest with you, I wouldn't choose either, your 2600K will probably give you equal or better performance than a SB-E proc on real applications, as current games tend not to be so highly threaded, synthetic benchmarks tend to favor CPUs with higher core count, but to be honest with you, that doesn't necessarily translate into real everyday performance.

I'm pretty sure your 2600K can reach way higher clocks than say, a 3770K Ivy bridge proc, and match or even surpass the gaming performance of it  

It's probably better to wait for Haswell


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## 20mmrain (May 7, 2012)

15th Warlock said:


> Thanks for posting the apps
> 
> I'm pretty sure the CPU clock is to blame for the scaling on your cards, if you OC it to 5Ghz or higher your score will go up, as your GPU and memory clocks are way higher than mine's thanks to your awesome WC loop.
> 
> ...




Yeah you are right on the CPU clock... I know when I up my CPU clock I score closer to 18k and sometimes surpass it. You while I do love gaming.... I also do love benching. So for me a better CPU would be worth it to me. 
As well as the motherboard I own right now limits me to 2-way sli or 3-way crossfire. At very least I want the option to go 3 or 4 way sli. Also PCIe 3.0 to dispose of the block at higher resolutions.
I'll for sure take into account your recommendations.... but if you were gonna choose between Socket 2011 and 1155 Ivy which would you choose?


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## 15th Warlock (May 7, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Yeah you are right on the CPU clock... I know when I up my CPU clock I score closer to 18k and sometimes surpass it. You while I do love gaming.... I also do love benching. So for me a better CPU would be worth it to me.
> As well as the motherboard I own right now limits me to 2-way sli or 3-way crossfire. At very least I want the option to go 3 or 4 way sli. Also PCIe 3.0 to dispose of the block at higher resolutions.
> I'll for sure take into account your recommendations.... but if you were gonna choose between Socket 2011 and 1155 Ivy which would you choose?



It's a tough call, if you want to go quad SLI there's some excellent 2011 boards like the Asus RIVE and EVGA's SR-2 among others, the only thing is, as of now, the GTX 680 doesn't support PCIe 3.0 on socket 2011 boards, that will change in the future once Nvidia decides to support these boards with their drivers (AMD already offers full support for PCIe 3.0 on X79 for their 7000 series, so it's attainable)

If you want to have a socket 1155 board that supports quad SLI you have to make sure the board has a PLX PCIe bridge, and the selection is very limited, you can wait for either the EVGA Z77 FTW, or the Asus RVE, neither of both are currently available, or you can try to get an Asrock Fatal1ty Z77 Pro.

To me, the question really is: how important PCIe 3.0 is to you if you plan to go quad SLI? if you want to follow that route and be 100% sure your boards supports it, you have no choice but to go with IVB, if you can wait for Nvidia to certify their drivers for X79, then SB-E is probably the better choice, as chances are these boards will be able to upgrade to IVB-E in the future.

In my personal opinion, PCIe 3.0 is not really that necessary right now, as the 2.0 spec still allows for plenty of bandwidth headroom, so you may want to take that into consideration too


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## 20mmrain (May 7, 2012)

15th Warlock said:


> It's a tough call, if you want to go quad SLI there's some excellent 2011 boards like the Asus RIVE and EVGA's SR-2 among others, the only thing is, as of now, the GTX 680 doesn't support PCIe 3.0 on socket 2011 boards, that will change in the future once Nvidia decides to support these boards with their drivers (AMD already offers full support for PCIe 3.0 on X79 for their 7000 series, so it's attainable)
> 
> If you want to have a socket 1155 board that supports quad SLI you have to make sure the board has a PLX PCIe bridge, and the selection is very limited, you can wait for either the EVGA Z77 FTW, or the Asus RVE, neither of both are currently available, or you can try to get an Asrock Fatal1ty Z77 Pro.
> 
> ...



Your Right PCIe 3.0 has no real affect single or Double GPU setups but 3 way and 4 way set ups do seem to have some use for it. Especially at higher resolutions.

3.0 Is not the biggest concern for me..... Benchmarks are. So in that case.... I would agree that SB-E would be the better way to go. There is more of an upgrade path there. IV-B is pretty much done with where it is at until Socket 1150 releases. 

So maybe when it comes time to purchase this week.....I will be looking at a SB-E setup. I could upgrade there and still go to IB-E when it releases. 

Thanks for the advice..... I knew all the options already.... its just nice sometimes to here someone else's opinion. Thanks again!


----------



## 20mmrain (May 7, 2012)

Heads up BTW ASUS GTX 680 for sale at new egg right now...

EVGA GTX 680 SC expected in 48 hours at Tiger Direct ...


----------



## DOM (May 7, 2012)

ASUS says OUT OF STOCK lol


----------



## 20mmrain (May 8, 2012)

DOM said:


> ASUS says OUT OF STOCK lol



LOL They were there in stock for like 20 mins.... I tried to give people some heads up  If your looking us the App I posted on the front page. It works


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (May 8, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> LOL They were there in stock for like 20 mins.... I tried to give people some heads up  If your looking us the App I posted on the front page. It works



GTX680 at Tiger!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2517818&CatId=7387


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (May 8, 2012)

Asus GTX680 back up at newegg

ASUS GTX680-2GD5 GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5...


----------



## Sinzia (May 8, 2012)

Edited my origional post, added the pic.

I'm going to order an EK plexi-nickel block for it when I see one in stock for my birthday! =D


----------



## 20mmrain (May 8, 2012)

Sinzia said:


> Edited my origional post, added the pic.
> 
> I'm going to order an EK plexi-nickel block for it when I see one in stock for my birthday! =D



Great rig man.... thanks for posting back. I can vouch for the Nickel Water blocks they are great. I had a couple on my 7970's. But if they don't get them back in stock by the time you want to purchase. Consider the Copper blocks.... I have them on the 680's right now (The ones with the black tops) along with the Black back plate.... they sure look slick and run really cool!


----------



## johnnyfiive (May 8, 2012)

Anyone know when the GTX 670's are coming ?


----------



## D007 (May 8, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> GTX680 at Tiger!
> 
> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2517818&CatId=7387



OMG $623.00 at tiger? WTF? Is tiger trying to be Ebay now? That's lame..
Man I am glad I didn't try to wait for restock. Even at restock it's hard to find one. They go so fast....


----------



## Crap Daddy (May 8, 2012)

johnnyfiive said:


> Anyone know when the GTX 670's are coming ?



Launch May 10th


----------



## D007 (May 8, 2012)

`It's coming in the mail today!!!!!!! I'm foaming at the mouth....lol.. It would be storming outside.. Watch me hook it up, n get struk by lightning.. Florida weather ftw.
Skyrim and Batman, Arhcam city, here I come.. 

EDIT:
Here it is.. Oh joy. She is in and running right now. All is looking good so far.


----------



## Sinzia (May 9, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Great rig man.... thanks for posting back. I can vouch for the Nickel Water blocks they are great. I had a couple on my 7970's. But if they don't get them back in stock by the time you want to purchase. Consider the Copper blocks.... I have them on the 680's right now (The ones with the black tops) along with the Black back plate.... they sure look slick and run really cool!



Will the copper tarnish? I had DangerDen copper blocks on my 470's and after a year and a half, the exposed copper was starting to tarnish and discolor.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 9, 2012)

Sinzia said:


> Will the copper tarnish? I had DangerDen copper blocks on my 470's and after a year and a half, the exposed copper was starting to tarnish and discolor.



I have owned the Copper blocks by EK several different times..... and never once had them tarnish. Although I tend to keep my video cards for about a year to year and a half tops. Sometimes as low as 3 months depending whats coming out.  
But even the blocks I have owned for over a year and a half never tarnished.... if they got a little dirty I just cleaned them.



> Anyone know when the GTX 670's are coming ?



Launch is May 10th.... Oops well I see you got that answered..... Anyway.... I guess this means we know what your getting huh? 



> OMG $623.00 at tiger? WTF? Is tiger trying to be Ebay now? That's lame..
> Man I am glad I didn't try to wait for restock. Even at restock it's hard to find one. They go so fast....



No Shit right??? 


"What model is your new card (GTX 680)..... welcome to the club


----------



## D007 (May 9, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> "What model is your new card (GTX 680)..... welcome to the club



Ahh tyvm.  It's an MSI.
I need to get a gpu-z. I guess or it's  not official..lol

EDIT: I just had to alt tab out of batman Archam city RQ, so I could say OMFGWTFBBQ! maxed settings and it's smoking a cigarette, while riding a bicycle, uphill, in a snowstorm.
The card is a beat... a Beast I tells ya. I overclocked it too. 

Done:


----------



## Tardan (May 9, 2012)

D007 said:


> Ahh tyvm.  It's an MSI.
> I need to get a gpu-z. I guess or it's  not official..lol
> 
> EDIT: I just had to alt tab out of batman Archam city RQ, so I could say OMFGWTFBBQ! maxed settings and it's smoking a cigarette, while riding a bicycle, uphill, in a snowstorm.
> The card is a beat... a Beast I tells ya. I overclocked it too.



Congrats on your new 680. 

How's the overclocking on that card? I heard MSI cards are pretty good overclockers. We need to see some more single 680 overclocks and benchmarks.


----------



## D007 (May 9, 2012)

Tardan said:


> Congrats on your new 680.
> 
> How's the overclocking on that card? I heard MSI cards are pretty good overclockers. We need to see some more single 680 overclocks and benchmarks.



I actually just went reserved, for now. I only put 100 on the core, and 400 on the memory. With a 10% voltage increase. Idk if I even needed it tbh. 
Uploaded a video, in 1080p, to you tube, of Batman, Archam City, with Maxed settings and Maxed, nvidia control panel settings. "Where applicable" 
I don't like motion blur and the other one. Off by preference.
Here it is..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9VR1-RiFzY


----------



## 20mmrain (May 9, 2012)

D007 said:


> Ahh tyvm.  It's an MSI.
> I need to get a gpu-z. I guess or it's  not official..lol
> 
> EDIT: I just had to alt tab out of batman Archam city RQ, so I could say OMFGWTFBBQ! maxed settings and it's smoking a cigarette, while riding a bicycle, uphill, in a snowstorm.
> ...



Wow.... Nice card man!!! Welcome again  to the ranks! Can't wait to hear about further Benchmarking and overclocks.

I updated your Cards brand in the clubs list. .... Nah GPU-z isn't needed... either a picture or GPU-z will do to get in. Plus just let me know the name of the card. You did all that so your goo d


----------



## D007 (May 9, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Wow.... Nice card man!!! Welcome again  to the ranks! Can't wait to hear about further Benchmarking and overclocks.
> 
> I updated your Cards brand in the clubs list. .... Nah GPU-z isn't needed... either a picture or GPU-z will do to get in. Plus just let me know the name of the card. You did all that so your goo d



Sweet, thank ya. 
Yea it's night and day from my 5850. I use to get such unreliable frame rates. This is so smooth. I am in  
Downloaded sykrim last night. I'll have to do a video for that.


----------



## Tardan (May 9, 2012)

D007 said:


> I actually just went reserved, for now. I only put 100 on the core, and 400 on the memory. With a 10% voltage increase. Idk if I even needed it tbh.
> Uploaded a video, in 1080p, to you tube, of Batman, Archam City, with Maxed settings and Maxed, nvidia control panel settings. "Where applicable"
> I don't like motion blur and the other one. Off by preference.
> Here it is..
> ...



Great overclock! Glad you're happy with the card.



20mmrain said:


> Lets also start comparing some Benchmarks here.... I wanna see what some of these bad boys can do....



Let's listen to this guy and do what he says  I'll start with my 3DMark 11 (performance preset) graphics score and Heaven benchmark.






EDIT: Just realized we didn't have an "official" Heaven benchmark setting, so I hope these settings will do


----------



## 20mmrain (May 9, 2012)

> Let's listen to this guy and do what he says  I'll start with my 3DMark 11 (performance preset) graphics score and Heaven benchmark.



Nice runs man.... I will answer with some benchmarks of my own when I get back tonight! Until then my friend awesome score!!!

***Hey You All see this??***

KingPin Hits 1400Mhz on Air cooled GTX 680

Good News he hit 14k+Mhz

Bad news is he had to hardware mod the card in order to go that high. For added voltage. Proves my point that Nvidia and their partners are holding this card (GTX 680) back so they can gain profits from selling Non-reference versions of the cards themselves. 

I'll post the story with the rest of our links on the front page.... Along with this one....
KingPins - Uncorking KELPER - practical guide for beginners.


----------



## D007 (May 9, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Nice runs man.... I will answer with some benchmarks of my own when I get back tonight! Until then my friend awesome score!!!
> 
> ***Hey You All see this??***
> 
> ...



Nice speeds there. Yea I'm not going to get into hardware modding but whatever floats your boat. I'll hit some benchers later as well.  



Tardan said:


> Great overclock! Glad you're happy with the card.
> 
> Let's listen to this guy and do what he says  I'll start with my 3DMark 11 (performance preset) graphics score and Heaven benchmark.
> 
> EDIT: Just realized we didn't have an "official" Heaven benchmark setting, so I hope these settings will do




In regards to the heaven mark settings. How about we up the ante? We always do "standard" tests and it's so easy now.. What say we "MAX" heaven at 1920x1080 and score that? heh.. I know, everyones going to say "it's simpler if we just do standard settings" But no one plays games on standard with a 680..lol


----------



## Tardan (May 9, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Nice runs man.... I will answer with some benchmarks of my own when I get back tonight! Until then my friend awesome score!!!
> 
> ***Hey You All see this??***
> 
> ...



Yeah I saw that earlier. Shame it comes down to volt mods to increase performance  but if it's around 100-150 MHz performance increase then I won't be too devastated. Better to keep my card alive because I have absolutely no experience in doing it lol.



D007 said:


> In regards to the heaven mark settings. How about we up the ante? We always do "standard" tests and it's so easy now.. What say we "MAX" heaven at 1920x1080 and score that? heh.. I know, everyones going to say "it's simpler if we just do standard settings" But no one plays games on standard with a 680..lol



Pretty sure that is as high as you can go in terms of Heaven settings.  4x AA, 16x AF, and extreme tessellation.


----------



## D007 (May 9, 2012)

Tardan said:


> Yeah I saw that earlier. Shame it comes down to volt mods to increase performance  but if it's around 100-150 MHz performance increase then I won't be too devastated. Better to keep my card alive because I have absolutely no experience in doing it lol.
> 
> 
> 
> Pretty sure that is as high as you can go in terms of Heaven settings.  4x AA, 16x AF, and extreme tessellation.



Ok so u agree.  Sweet. Max settings it is! lol..
Does nvidia control panel effect it? Like super sampling 8x etc etc.?
If so, I'd say we max those, as well. Mine are maxed..lol

I can only run 1920x1080, due to using a 50" HDTV. I figure that'd be the lowest, standard resolution, for anyone who'd even have, a 600 series, anyway.



Tardan said:


> I forgot to mention I have a GELID ICY VISION installed
> Yeah, I'm an old school air cooling kind of guy



What were the temp differences, before you installed that? I'm looking for air cooling myself, right now.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (May 9, 2012)

bring on the GTX680s!

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/nvidia_plays_hardball_tsmc_wins_priority_status_28nm_chips


----------



## erocker (May 9, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> bring on the GTX680s!
> 
> http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/nvidia_plays_hardball_tsmc_wins_priority_status_28nm_chips



Do you bother to look at the News section?


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (May 9, 2012)

erocker said:


> Do you bother to look at the News section?



nope not today at least haha


----------



## Tardan (May 9, 2012)

D007 said:


> Ok so u agree.  Sweet. Max settings it is! lol..
> Does nvidia control panel effect it? Like super sampling 8x etc etc.?
> If so, I'd say we max those, as well. Mine are maxed..lol
> 
> ...



Not sure if the control panel effects it, but if it does we can post official and tweaked scores for people who want one or the other.

I posted my temperature differences a few posts ago too so you can check those out


----------



## D007 (May 9, 2012)

Tardan said:


> Not sure if the control panel effects it, but if it does we can post official and tweaked scores for people who want one or the other.
> 
> I posted my temperature differences a few posts ago too so you can check those out



Cool, thanks for the info. Sneeky posted an insane, water/air hybrid, that is coing out, at the end of the month. I'm going to wait for it.. Still nice temps yours gets. I hit near 80c right now.. That's a no, no, imo.
Here it is: http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/detail/index/sArticle/569/sCategory/2182


----------



## 20mmrain (May 10, 2012)

Here you go here are some benchmarks @ i7 2600K 4.5Ghz/ PCIe 2.0x8 / GPU Core 1306 Mhz / GPU Mem 1644 Mhz

Before I show them off.... I suspect a small bottleneck somewhere. It's either the CPU clock at only 4.5Ghz (Which I know will improve something) or the PCIe 2.0 at only x8 because the other card still in there. 
I have already checked all my settings in Nvidia control panel to insure that I am using the Applications settings. I have also checked to make sure there were no unnecessary programs running in the back ground. I guess I could disable Aero.... but I never needed to before.(I don't think that would be an issue really)

Anyway....until I figure that out the good news is..... My master/1st card is a freaking overclock Beast! 1306 Mhz Stable.... and I haven't found the top yet! This is the first attempt at overclocking and bench marking just one of my cards. I am finding out this card kills. Normally I can only achieve around 1285 Mhz with both cards enabled. 

Alright here are the marks with a single card stay tuned for two cards....
*3d Mark 11 GPU Score 10206*




*3d Mark Vantage GPU Score 37375*



*Heaven Bench 3.0 Overall Score 1236*


----------



## Tardan (May 10, 2012)

That is one beast of a card you have in your hands, 20mmrain! Good runs too! As for your bottleneck, it might be your PCIe at 8x because I read that you need 16x to completely feed the 7970 with PCIe 2.0 so I'm going to assume that will be the case with the 680. I'm pretty certain an i7 @ 4.5 GHz won't bottleneck any GPU for a long while.


----------



## D007 (May 10, 2012)

I'm going to use the "Performance" preset as well.  We should have a standard for this.
20mm, you wanna run a performance preset benchmark? Off I go.


----------



## HammerON (May 10, 2012)

Here is a EVGA Precision Skin if anyone wants them:
http://kingpincooling.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1752


----------



## erasure (May 10, 2012)

this is my GTX680
i removed bracket


----------



## D007 (May 10, 2012)

Ok, here's my benches. I squeezed everything I could, out of it.
One things for sure. The more power target you put on there, the more fps you get.


Did you removing that bracket, help temps at all Erasure?

We need to keep a standard for testing these. I can see, we have people, doing different settings.
"Performance" preset in 3Dmark11.
Max everything in Unigine, 1920x1080.


----------



## Tardan (May 10, 2012)

D007 said:


> Ok, here's my benches. I squeezed everything I could, out of it.
> One things for sure. The more power target you put on there, the more fps you get.
> 
> 
> ...



Nice runs D007!

I think everyone has been doing the performance preset and max settings on Heaven so far, unless I'm blind


----------



## D007 (May 10, 2012)

Tardan said:


> Nice runs D007!
> 
> I think everyone has been doing the performance preset and max settings on Heaven so far, unless I'm blind



I can tell 20mm isn't. He only has the graphics tests shown, in 3dm11. That means it's a custom run, likely not even the same settings.

I'd love to know, why your heaven mark, is so much higher ,than mine, 20mm.lol.. Is it your processor or something?
Makes me think, my settings, are messing up, in my heaven mark, somewhow.. Maybe my fps is capping at 60? Could something cap my fps?

Thank ya though. .
I spent all night, turning it..lol.


----------



## Tardan (May 10, 2012)

D007 said:


> I can tell 20mm isn't. He only has the graphics tests shown, in 3dm11. That means it's a custom run, likely not even the same settings.
> 
> I'd love to know, why your heaven mark, is so much higher ,than mine, 20mm.lol.. Is it your processor or something?
> Makes me think, my settings, are messing up, my heaven mark, somewhow..
> ...



In his defense, so do I  we just do graphics tests with the performance presets because others are redundant because all we're doing is comparing video card benchmarks.  Graphics score is all we need. It's also a lot faster for me personally when I'm trying to find a stable OC for my video card without having to wait for all other tests to run.

As for your heaven benchmark, I'm suspecting thermal throttling is happening because it is quite a long benchmark so your card may be heating up and downclocking to stay cool.


----------



## D007 (May 10, 2012)

Tardan said:


> In his defense, so do I  we just do graphics tests with the performance presets because others are redundant because all we're doing is comparing video card benchmarks.  Graphics score is all we need. It's also a lot faster for me personally when I'm trying to find a stable OC for my video card without having to wait for all other tests to run.
> 
> As for your heaven benchmark, I'm suspecting thermal throttling is happening because it is quite a long benchmark so your card may be heating up and downclocking to stay cool.



That sounds redundant, for a card, that is supposed to increase performace, when you need it..lol
Any idea what could help me get higher? If people are breaking 1k, in heaven, on a single 680, so should I.

As for the performance preset. I guess, as long as you guys, have the other settings, for performance preset, identical to everyone else, no biggie.


----------



## Tardan (May 10, 2012)

D007 said:


> That sounds redundant, for a card, that is supposed to increase performace, when you need it..lol
> Any idea what could help me get higher? If people are breaking 1k, in heaven, on a single 680, so should I.



It'll increase performance as long as it stays cool in the process.  Is your card passing 70°c during the benchmark? If so it'll start to downclock. I would try playing around with your fan curves and get it to speed up earlier to try and stay under 70° at all times.


----------



## D007 (May 10, 2012)

Tardan said:


> It'll increase performance as long as it stays cool in the process.  Is your card passing 70°c during the benchmark? If so it'll start to downclock. I would try playing around with your fan curves and get it to speed up earlier to try and stay under 70° at all times.



Yea I did that, it ramps up pretty quick. now. Tops at 76c. Fan hits 100% by 70c.
But it hit that, even before I did anything..lol
I also removed the case and set a dual fan, in the pc slot, under the card. It's like right up, against the fins. Made a big difference.
I'm going to run it at stock settings, to see if it makes it better. That would be something..


----------



## Tardan (May 10, 2012)

Aye, running it at stock would a good idea. If you get a better score then most likely its downclocking to stay cool. I can't say for sure if your CPU is the problem or not, but you can always check your CPU usage with task manager while running the benchmark in windowed mode. If you're seeing high usages then it could be. Not sure how CPU bound the Heaven benchmark is so it would be great if you could provide us with some info


----------



## 20mmrain (May 11, 2012)

> That is one beast of a card you have in your hands, 20mmrain! Good runs too! As for your bottleneck, it might be your PCIe at 8x because I read that you need 16x to completely feed the 7970 with PCIe 2.0 so I'm going to assume that will be the case with the 680. I'm pretty certain an i7 @ 4.5 GHz won't bottleneck any GPU for a long while.



Thanks bud.... Yes this card is a bat out of hell! But I think your Right.... it's the PCIe 2.0x8 that is holding me back. I just ordered a Ivy bridge i7 3770K today and it will be here tomorrow. That will help with the PCIe speeds because I have an Asus gen 3 board.
If it doesn't (Which it should) I am still planning on getting a Z77 MOB but the one I want is not out yet.



> Ok, here's my benches. I squeezed everything I could, out of it.
> One things for sure. The more power target you put on there, the more fps you get.
> 
> 
> ...



Nice runs man!!! What I ran my GTX 680 where at the following Presets....

*3Dmark11= Performance Preset* (Disabled CPU tests)(But this wouldn't have an effect on the GPU score anyway so if someone wants to run it with CPU tests enabled.... That's fine.)

*3Dmark Vantage= Performance Preset* (Disabled PPU but I had CPU tests Enabled)( Again we are comparing GPU scores so having CPU tests enabled or disabled won't matter for GPU score only)

*Heaven Benchmark 3.0= 1920x1080 Res./Anisotropy x 16/AA x 8/Tessellation: Extreme/Shaders High/Full Screen/ DirectX 11 / Stereo 3D: Disabled* ( These are the settings I ran )

If we want to keep things standard what do you guys think of these settings? 



> this is my GTX680
> i removed bracket



erasure  Welcome to the Club!!! Nice Asus Card.... I will be adding your name 



> I can tell 20mm isn't. He only has the graphics tests shown, in 3dm11. That means it's a custom run, likely not even the same settings.
> 
> I'd love to know, why your heaven mark, is so much higher ,than mine, 20mm.lol.. Is it your processor or something?
> Makes me think, my settings, are messing up, in my heaven mark, somewhow.. Maybe my fps is capping at 60? Could something cap my fps?
> ...



The settings I just listed are the settings I am running. No funny business from me! Everything you see is screen shots.... I would guess the reason fro the difference could be a couple of things....

1. My Overclock is a lot higher then yours....I am @ 1306Mhz core where you are @ 1185Mhz
2. My card doesn't throttle because of the water cooling. Even during those tests at my high clocks... I only saw max temps of 36C top card 35C bottom.
3. Your CPU my be bottle necking you some.... but in the Futuremark/3Dmark tests.... we are looking at the GPU score. Not the CPU score.... so while my CPU will allow for more Gallup it shouldn't be that much.
4. Also in Nvidia control panel do you have your 3D settings to run at "Applications Settings" if you are using Nvidia's Control panels settings it will hinder your performance.


----------



## D007 (May 11, 2012)

I didn't think you were pulling, any funny business at all..lol.
Didn't mean to make it seem, like I was implying that. XD

I like the standard you mention above for settings. ^^

Thanks for the tips, I talked to Earth a bit ago, turns out my hunch was right. He mentioned vysnc being on, I totally forgot I even had it on, in control panel, it was capping me at 60. Just ran Heaven again, new score is more like what I expected.
Thanks for the help all.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 11, 2012)

No I know u didnt really think that I. Was pulling some. Funny business.  I meant. That jokingly.  But I am glad. U got it figured. Out. Nice benchmarks btw something. To compete. With now!


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (May 11, 2012)

I might end up getting GTX670 SLI! Evga GTX670 FTW cards.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 11, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> I might end up getting GTX670 SLI! Evga GTX670 FTW cards.



for sure .... I would do it! We need some gtx 670 's in our little club here!!!


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (May 11, 2012)

gtx680

GTX680 DCII cards

The GTX670 DirectCU cards look amazing the load noise is 25dba lol!


----------



## D007 (May 11, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> No I know u didnt really think that I. Was pulling some. Funny business.  I meant. That jokingly.  But I am glad. U got it figured. Out. Nice benchmarks btw something. To compete. With now!



You trying to be funny,? I've known girls with less periods..  



nvidiaintelftw said:


> I might end up getting GTX670 SLI! Evga GTX670 FTW cards.



Sounds like it would be a beast.


----------



## EarthDog (May 11, 2012)

I know this is days late but if you want EASY and consistent, Use the Hwbot Unigine heaven benchmark. 

It has a better front end, and either DX9 or DX11. 

http://91.121.148.119/downloads/hwbot_unigine_heaven_v103/


----------



## 20mmrain (May 12, 2012)

D007 said:


> You trying to be funny,? I've known girls with less periods..
> 
> 
> 
> Sounds like it would be a beast.



Really??? Hey when it's your time of the month .... it's your time of the month.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 12, 2012)

Here is an Vantage SLI run with my new i7 3770K....(The verdict is still out on the CPU I might end up selling it and going back to SB.... but this time SB-E)

i7 3770K @ 4.5Ghz 1.18v EVGA GTX 680 SLI @ 1277Core & 1623Mem


----------



## Tardan (May 12, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Here is an Vantage SLI run with my new i7 3770K....(The verdict is still out on the CPU I might end up selling it and going back to SB.... but this time SB-E)
> 
> i7 3770K @ 4.5Ghz 1.18v EVGA GTX 680 SLI @ 1277Core & 1623Mem



Nice run, man! Is your GPU score around the same with your SB processor? I also heard that PCIe 3.0 speeds are not available for X79 boards, but I'm not sure that's the case anymore.


----------



## the54thvoid (May 12, 2012)

Hi Guys,

I'm was looking at getting the Asus GTX 670 Direct CU II TOP.

But then i found out EK have no plans for a water block for it 

However, I may upgrade to twin 670's if i can get a decent deal with waterblocks as well.

But for now, I wanted to share my 7970 bench at the heaven 3.0 max settings.  I know 20mmRain has respect for the 7970 (and I have respect for you dude )

I would say that D007's bench is way too low.  Check your temps and NV control panel settings - like someone said, that score is not what it should be for a GTX 680. 

My speeds are core 1215, memory 1600 (on 1.17 volts).  AMD optimised tesselation is 'off'.  CPU at 4.2 (core i7 3930k)  Should say I am on PCI-e 3.0 x16.

I'll post this as a link, posting a 7970 score 'picture' in this forum seems rude.

http://img.techpowerup.org/120512/Untitled556.png


----------



## 20mmrain (May 12, 2012)

Tardan said:


> Nice run, man! Is your GPU score around the same with your SB processor? I also heard that PCIe 3.0 speeds are not available for X79 boards, but I'm not sure that's the case anymore.



Well GPU scores before were about 51K stock and 54K Overclocked.....Now they are about 55K stock and 58k to 59K overclocked. I am gonna push for 60K..... I really want it.

As far as the CPU score @ 4.5Ghz with the 2600K it was about 30K now about 31K to 32K @ 4.5Ghz 

This is of course with PhysX Diabled.... with PhysX enabled we are talking a lot higher.



> Hi Guys,
> 
> I'm was looking at getting the Asus GTX 670 Direct CU II TOP.
> 
> ...



Really nice score!!! I would love to see how a GTX 680 compares on the exact same run. With the exact same core clock now that....my PCIe slots are no longer bottle necked. But I have a feeling the HD 7970 will win. Clock for clock it seems to be faster.... lets see though.... I will post back in a few mins.

And just like I have been screaming for ever.... These cards are a lot closer then the reviews want them to be. Also it seems where the HD 7970 has the advantage is Overclocking.... Stock for stock The GTX 680 is the winner hands down.....But overclock vs overclock.... the HD 7970 wins.... because the voltage is not castrated.
I will say though.... lets see what happens once Nvidia's drivers mature a little and also if any of Nvidia's Partners release a FPB bios. But for right now these are the facts.
*Heaven 3.0 1215 Core Mhz_1598 Mem Mhz*


----------



## Finners (May 12, 2012)

what is everyone using to test stability on these cards? and when mentioning core speeds are you quoting the base clock or the boost speed?


----------



## the54thvoid (May 12, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Really nice score!!! I would love to see how a GTX 680 compares on the exact same run. With the exact same core clock now that....my PCIe slots are no longer bottle necked. But I have a feeling the HD 7970 will win. Clock for clock it seems to be faster.... lets see though.... I will post back in a few mins.
> 
> And just like I have been screaming for ever.... These cards are a lot closer then the reviews want them to be. Also it seems where the HD 7970 has the advantage is Overclocking.... Stock for stock The GTX 680 is the winner hands down.....But overclock vs overclock.... the HD 7970 wins.... because the voltage is not castrated.
> I will say though.... lets see what happens once Nvidia's drivers mature a little and also if any of Nvidia's Partners release a FPB bios. But for right now these are the facts.
> ...



Yeah, the drivers will get better but I think NV gets it pretty good from the start.  I think it's all down to the cards initial design reason (a 660 or 670).  It's simply lacking a bit of oomph when maximum stress gets going (unlike GK110 which will probably be silly fast if it gets a desktop release)



Finners said:


> what is everyone using to test stability on these cards? and when mentioning core speeds are you quoting the base clock or the boost speed?



Hey mate BF3 sunday? 

Incidentally, I'm sure the 6xx series is power throttled, can't remember where i read it but it means the power limits are set so if the limits draw close it's going to start to down clock which will have a detrimental effect on fps.  Pretty sure this is why in Metro 2033 for example it does poorly.

7970 on other hand has no throttle in effect so it just consumes more power.  That's why it loses so heavily on peak power draw.

Anyway guys, the GTX 680 is a good card.  I bought my 7970 LCS for £530.  If the EVGA Hydro Copper had been out (still not in stock, lol) and the same price, I would have got that, hands down.


----------



## Finners (May 12, 2012)

yeah i'll be on bf3 tomorrow, 

i might load metro up and see what the power level reaches, there is a metro benchmark tool isnt there? not seen it go anywhere near the 132% limit yet when gaming. These things are voltage starved i think. 

Seems strange that nvidia have basically doubled the boost speed on the 670 compared to the 680


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## 20mmrain (May 12, 2012)

Finners said:


> what is everyone using to test stability on these cards? and when mentioning core speeds are you quoting the base clock or the boost speed?



The clocks I am quoting are the Boost Clocks..... You can not change the Base clocks. But when you turn up the Power Limit on these cards.... the Boost clock almost becomes the Base clock.... because the power limiter does not let the card throttle unless you hit Nvidia's temp ceiling.


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## Tardan (May 12, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> I wanted to share my 7970 bench at the heaven 3.0 max settings.  I know 20mmRain has respect for the 7970 (and I have respect for you dude )
> 
> My speeds are core 1215, memory 1600 (on 1.17 volts).  AMD optimised tesselation is 'off'.  CPU at 4.2 (core i7 3930k)  Should say I am on PCI-e 3.0 x16.
> 
> ...



Good score bud! I'm going to post my updated Heaven score too. Improved a bit!







20mmrain said:


> Well GPU scores before were about 51K stock and 54K Overclocked.....Now they are about 55K stock and 58k to 59K overclocked. I am gonna push for 60K..... I really want it.



Awesome. Good luck trying to hit the 60k mark! I'm sure you'll reach it eventually.


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## Finners (May 12, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> Incidentally, I'm sure the 6xx series is power throttled, can't remember where i read it but it means the power limits are set so if the limits draw close it's going to start to down clock which will have a detrimental effect on fps.  Pretty sure this is why in Metro 2033 for example it does poorly.
> 
> 7970 on other hand has no throttle in effect so it just consumes more power.  That's why it loses so heavily on peak power draw.



just ran metro benchmark, power limit never went above 115%, unless you mean as its on 6x6pin there is obviously a maximum power it is ever going to be able to get. 

looking at GPU usage throughout it i would point the lower scores a little towards drivers. Run 3d mark or unigine heaven and its a near 100& usage all the time. On metro i saw dips into the 80's


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## 20mmrain (May 13, 2012)

Power limiter and throttling have an effect when the card is air cooled.... yes this would have an effect on FPS. But when the card is water cooled you don't get the same effect.


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## Lionheart (May 13, 2012)

May I join,  GTX 670 owner here... Cheers Random


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## 20mmrain (May 13, 2012)

Lionheart said:


> May I join,  GTX 670 owner here... Cheers Random
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/120512/Derpy TPU721.jpg



Sure can welcome our 1st GTX 670 owner !!!! Clap Clap


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## Lionheart (May 13, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Sure can welcome our 1st GTX 670 owner !!!! Clap Clap



Wow really, Wooo...\m/>_<\m/ 

I'll run some benchmark's if anyone likes & do some overclocking as well


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## Tardan (May 13, 2012)

Lionheart said:


> Wow really, Wooo...\m/>_<\m/
> 
> I'll run some benchmark's if anyone likes & do some overclocking as well



Congrats on the 670! 

I'd love to see what that beast can do. Let's see how high you can push that overclock and see some Heaven benchmarks on max settings (which is 8x AA, 16x aniso, extreme tessellation and 1920x1080 resolution if possible) buddy! Welcome to the club.


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## Frizz (May 13, 2012)

Lionheart said:


> May I join,  GTX 670 owner here... Cheers Random
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/120512/Derpy TPU721.jpg



Haha no worries mate , glad it was sorted out.


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## 15th Warlock (May 13, 2012)

Lionheart said:


> May I join,  GTX 670 owner here... Cheers Random
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/120512/Derpy TPU721.jpg



Congrats man, and welcome to the club!! It's good to see you here, enjoy your new video card 

Hey guys, can my new GTX675M join the club too?






The card is really fast, and runs cool, runs every game maxed out, it's based on the GTX580M but uses higher clocks. 






I've OC'd it to 702Mhz core and 3200Mhz for the memory so far, and it doesn't break a sweat, max temp is around 69 deegres so far, will see if I can push the clocks higher


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## puma99dk| (May 13, 2012)

looks like someone is running higher than 100% dpi there x:


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## the54thvoid (May 13, 2012)

15th Warlock said:


> Congrats man, and welcome to the club!! It's good to see you here, enjoy your new video card
> 
> Hey guys, can my new GTX675M join the club too?



Dude, that's a Fermi chip...

http://3dvision-blog.com/7506-nvidia-has-announced-new-series-600-mobile-kepler-and-fermi-gpus/


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## puma99dk| (May 13, 2012)

so the re-branding range started i see ^^


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## 20mmrain (May 13, 2012)

15th Warlock said:


> Congrats man, and welcome to the club!! It's good to see you here, enjoy your new video card
> 
> Hey guys, can my new GTX675M join the club too?
> 
> ...





> Dude, that's a Fermi chip...
> 
> http://3dvision-blog.com/7506-nvidia...nd-fermi-gpus/



I will allow the GTX675M Why???? It still is a GTX 600 Series chip for Laptops. Regardless if it is really a re-branded Fermi chip or not.

It would be important information looking at laptops. This way anyone who is under the misunderstanding that the GTX 675M is a Kepler Chip will know.  




> Wow really, Wooo...\m/>_<\m/
> 
> I'll run some benchmark's if anyone likes & do some overclocking as well



I insist that you do run some benchmarks.... I want to see how powerful that card really is compared to the GTX 680. Stock and overclocked. Nice pruchase!!! and welcome again!


----------



## 15th Warlock (May 13, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> Dude, that's a Fermi chip...



I mentioned that I my original post, but the chart you posted makes that clear to everyone 



15th Warlock said:


> The card is really fast, and runs cool, runs every game maxed out,* it's based on the GTX580M but uses higher clocks.*



I know it's a Fermi GPU, and until the 680M comes out, it's much faster than the top Kepler mobile GPU available as of this date (the 660M) and can be OCd to really high clocks, even if it's a rebrand of the previous highend GPU.

Only the 7970M is faster than this GPU now, but unfortunately the Samsung model with that card will only release in Europe, and I wasn't willing to spend a lot of money for an Alienware, Clevo or AVA direct with a 7970M, which altough being excellent laptops are priced much higher than my NP700, I'm really happy with the performance of this lappy for the price I paid 




20mmrain said:


> I will allow the GTX675M Why???? It still is a GTX 600 Series chip for Laptops. Regardless if it is really a re-branded Fermi chip or not.
> 
> It would be important information looking at laptops. This way anyone who is under the misunderstanding that the GTX 675M is a Kepler Chip!!!



Thanks!! 

I was aware that this was not a Kepler GPU, but I then I thought the club is called the GTX 600 owners, not he Kepler owners, so I figured my laptop could still be part of the club  

Appreciate your call, you rock!!


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## 20mmrain (May 13, 2012)

15th Warlock said:


> I mentioned that I my original post, but the chart you posted makes that clear to everyone
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Yes this is the other important part of it.... The Chip is still called the GTX 675M which will fall under the GTX 600 series chips. Regardless of if it's a re-brand or not 

Also ... I know you knew this chip was a re-brand.... but others may not.... so if we can inform a few people who might not know.... this is a victory in my book. Not saying there's anything wrong with it being a re-brand... all GPU companies do it. But someone still might buy it misunderstanding that it is a 28nm kepler and not a 40nm Fermi. 
Either way it is an awesome chip deserving of the GTX 600 series name!!!


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## Lionheart (May 14, 2012)

Hey guys, thought I would run a test in Heaven 3.0 I bumped up the settings a bit more compared to the Heaven 2.5 benchmark thread







I'm going to do another run as I had FXAA on in the Nvidia Control Panel


Ok now with FXAA off







I done a slight overclock this time to see how much I would gain (FXAA is off)







Ok this is my highest stable overclock that I could reach and I am pretty happy with the results (FXAA is off)







Max temps were 63C and fan speed was at 42%


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## 20mmrain (May 14, 2012)

Lionheart said:


> Hey guys, thought I would run a test in Heaven 3.0 I bumped up the settings a bit more compared to the Heaven 2.5 benchmark thread
> 
> http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1620/derpytpu3.jpg
> 
> ...



I am gonna have to re-run trying your settings....Nice runs! 

So you were running Heaven 2.5 last time? Okay.... What we should do is keep the versions.... even... if we are all gonna compare I would say Heaven 3.0 is what we should use since it's the newest.


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## Lionheart (May 14, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> I am gonna have to re-run trying your settings....Nice runs!
> 
> So you were running Heaven 2.5 last time? Okay.... What we should do is keep the versions.... even... if we are all gonna compare I would say Heaven 3.0 is what we should use since it's the newest.



Lol thanks

Yeah 2.5 last time, but prefer to be up to date with the latest version 3.0

Sounds good, can't wait to see you're results


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## Tardan (May 14, 2012)

Good runs, Lionheart!

I was going to say you missed the extreme tessellation setting if you wanted to compare your scores with ours 

We should try to keep it consistent, before we have people comparing results with lots of different runs. Makes it easier for me too so I don't have to rerun tests a lot because I am a lazy, lazy guy!


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## MxPhenom 216 (May 14, 2012)

MSI GTX680

MSI N680GTX-PM2D2GD5 GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit G...


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## the54thvoid (May 14, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> MSI GTX680
> 
> MSI N680GTX-PM2D2GD5 GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit G...



lol, Out of Stock.


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## 20mmrain (May 15, 2012)

Well guys I decided against getting rid of my Ivy Bridge CPU.... I figured.... if it turns out to be an unstable technology I always got my i7 2600K to fall back on. 

But the reason I brought this up.... is I just bought a new toy to compliment my i7 3770K..... It is the new Gigabyte G1 Z77 Sniper 3.

They are up for sale at New Egg. for 279.00$. They have all the usual extras that go with the sniper series plus 4 way SLI/ Crossfire. They also get rid of that ugly gun heatsink.

This new board should also help give all the gallup room for my GTX 680's. Will update later with benchmarks when I get it here and installed.

Yay for me


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## Maban (May 16, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Well guys I decided against getting rid of my Ivy Bridge CPU.... I figured.... if it turns out to be an unstable technology I always got my i7 2600K to fall back on.
> 
> But the reason I brought this up.... is I just bought a new toy to compliment my i7 3770K..... It is the new Gigabyte G1 Z77 Sniper 3.
> 
> ...



Cool. I didn't know they were for sale yet. Now that ASUS and EVGA have some real competition, hopefully they will drop the price of the P8Z77 WS and Z77 FTW.


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## Phusius (May 16, 2012)

I still have no idea what the point of setting my target frame rate at 120 fps does.


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## Tardan (May 16, 2012)

Phusius said:


> I still have no idea what the point of setting my target frame rate at 120 fps does.



Found this on the EVGA forums.

Frame Rate Target will essentially try and cap the frame rate to whatever you set it to. The clock speeds on the card will automatically dynamically adjust based on what is needed to maintain that frame rate at any given time. So if the demand is lower, then the card will downclock because that's all that it needs to maintain that FPS, or vice versa.. boost the clocks to maintain that frame rate under a more 3D intensive scene, for example. Useful for saving power and also for older games/applications which don't demand super high frame rates.


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## Phusius (May 16, 2012)

Kind of useless on my 120 hz monitor then, pretty sure the GTX 680 will commit suicide trying to keep up 120 fps on some games.


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## razaron (May 16, 2012)

I'm thinking of getting a GTX 680 with an EK waterblock. What should I be looking at, OC wise? I've seen two cases of core clocks in the 1400s and a bunch in the 1200s, but none in the 1300s.


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## mastrdrver (May 16, 2012)

Hey is there anyone here who would be willing to graph their GPU clock speeds vs fps in a game?


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## Tardan (May 16, 2012)

razaron said:


> I'm thinking of getting a GTX 680 with an EK waterblock. What should I be looking at, OC wise? I've seen two cases of core clocks in the 1400s and a bunch in the 1200s, but none in the 1300s.



As far as I know as long as you stay under 70 degrees then you're just going to have to hope that you get a good card that can reach 1.3 GHz. GTX 680s are more limited by the voltage limit Nvidia has put on them.



mastrdrver said:


> Hey is there anyone here who would be willing to graph their GPU clock speeds vs fps in a game?



There are a bunch of Heaven benchmarks with our clock speeds a few pages back, I think they demonstrate a decent fps-clock speed comparison. As for graphs most reviews on the 680 do have a graph on stock vs OC speeds, if that's enough for you.

Now that I look at it, Lionheart has a good comparison right on this page.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 16, 2012)

razaron said:


> I'm thinking of getting a GTX 680 with an EK waterblock. What should I be looking at, OC wise? I've seen two cases of core clocks in the 1400s and a bunch in the 1200s, but none in the 1300s.



Well here is an example of one of my cards in the 1300's (and I haven't found the max core clock for this card yet) 



While the score is lower in this run with those types of clocks... (there were other mitigating circumstances contributing to that fact when this was run.) Either way..... here is the proof that 1300Mhz or higher is possible with the right card. But I do stress you need the right card.... these clocks are not guaranteed.

1400Mhz although is not as likely unless a couple of things are happening.....

1. You have a really, really lucky Non-Reference card

2. You mod your GTX 680 For extra voltage or Mod it with extra hardware like VRM's and power  connectors.

The GTX 680's people are seeing that hit these clocks are done by Professional Overclockers who are sponsored and have 20 GTX 680's sitting around to mod. 
Most people will see clocks in the mid 1100's to low 1200's air cooled. And water cooled most will see mid 1200's to high 1200's. 
The voltage on these cards is what is holding back the GTX 680. It has been proven that if Nvidia and their partners would lift the voltage cap these cards would surpass 1300Mhz on a regular basis and approach 1400 on a good number of occasions. 

Some good news you will see from water cooling your cards is..... Your temps will never go above 40c. Because of this your overclock will not throttle like it would with air. So your benchmarks will be more stable. You will also like I said be able to achieve a little higher overclock then you would on Air. Plus.... noise from the fan won't be an issue either.



> Cool. I didn't know they were for sale yet. Now that ASUS and EVGA have some real competition, hopefully they will drop the price of the P8Z77 WS and Z77 FTW.



No shit right..... I was waiting for this board or either the EVGA Z77 FTW or the Asus Z77 Formula.... which ever released first I was going to get..... I still think I got the best of the bunch <---- Gigabyte fan boy here sorry 



> I still have no idea what the point of setting my target frame rate at 120 fps does.



I would actually love to see if this setting could help with bench marking???? I mean if you force the cards to push for a certain Frame rate you know isn't possible.... would it help bring you your score??? HMMMM I feel an experiment coming on!


----------



## MetalRacer (May 16, 2012)

I received an Asus reference GTX680 yesterday and just started playing with it a bit.


----------



## Phusius (May 16, 2012)

MetalRacer thank you for your profile pic, you just gave me a boner.  also my gtx 680 does that as well.  ^^  this club rocks.


----------



## squallkaze (May 16, 2012)

Hi, I'm new to TPU and the forums.  Just thought I would share my new build.

I just installed 2 Palit GTX680 Jetstream 4GB a few days ago.  I'll be using the cards to power 3 monitors in NV surround.  I will be, hopefully, buying 3 of these AOC i2757ph when they arrive in Hong Kong:  

Here's a picture:






Full specs of computer:

Motherboard:  Asus P8Z77-V-Deluxe
CPU:  Core I7 3770K
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80 with Noctua F12 in push/pull
Memory: 16G (4x4gb) Corsair Vengeance 2133 C9
Video:  2 x Palit GTX680 Jetstream 4GB in SLI
Storage:  OCZ Vertex 3 MaxIOPS 240gb
Disc Drive:  Pioneer DVD/RW
Power: Corsair HX1000
Case: Lian-Li X900 Black
Case Fans: Gelid Wing 12PL Blue LED

Thanks and please give any suggestions!


----------



## Lionheart (May 16, 2012)

squallkaze said:


> Hi, I'm new to TPU and the forums.  Just thought I would share my new build.
> 
> I just installed 2 Palit GTX680 Jetstream 4GB a few days ago.  I'll be using the cards to power 3 monitors in NV surround.  I will be, hopefully, buying 3 of these AOC i2757ph when they arrive in Hong Kong:
> 
> ...



Must you shame us with you're awesome looking rig


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## mastrdrver (May 16, 2012)

Tardan said:


> There are a bunch of Heaven benchmarks with our clock speeds a few pages back, I think they demonstrate a decent fps-clock speed comparison. As for graphs most reviews on the 680 do have a graph on stock vs OC speeds, if that's enough for you.
> 
> Now that I look at it, Lionheart has a good comparison right on this page.



I'm specifically trying to find out when the GPU clock is up and when it is down and cross that with fps at that moment.

I need more then just average clock speeds and high/avg/min fps. I would need to know exactly what the GPU clock was at the time that the fps was recorded.

Thanks for any help from anyone.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 16, 2012)

MetalRacer said:


> I received an Asus reference GTX680 yesterday and just started playing with it a bit.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/120515/Capture475.jpg



Welcome.... Nice Overclock bud!



> Hi, I'm new to TPU and the forums. Just thought I would share my new build.
> 
> I just installed 2 Palit GTX680 Jetstream 4GB a few days ago. I'll be using the cards to power 3 monitors in NV surround. I will be, hopefully, buying 3 of these AOC i2757ph when they arrive in Hong Kong:
> 
> Here's a picture



Welcome.... Really nice Rig!



> I'm specifically trying to find out when the GPU clock is up and when it is down and cross that with fps at that moment.
> 
> I need more then just average clock speeds and high/avg/min fps. I would need to know exactly what the GPU clock was at the time that the fps was recorded.
> 
> Thanks for any help from anyone.



Well I can get you some of that information.... but honestly the way these cards are made with clocks....it changes from game to game. Some games take clocks of 1059 to achieve 60FPS others take...500Mhz to achieve 60fps


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## 20mmrain (May 16, 2012)

Sorry for the double post.... But... I finally broke 17K overall on 3Dmark 11

*Here it is....
Overall Score P17009 - GPU Score 21047 Core1282_Mem1701 EVGA GTX 680 SLI Vanilla *


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## razaron (May 17, 2012)

How stable are those clocks?


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## 20mmrain (May 17, 2012)

razaron said:


> How stable are those clocks?



Core 1282 (For SLI are my absolute max Stable) Memory 1701 can go higher. 

My Master/Top card is able to overclock to Core 1306Mhz stable. (I have not found the max Core speed yet)

The bottom card is the one holding me back.... Max can hit 1282 Mhz Core (1290 sometimes can make it though but it is not stable)


----------



## D007 (May 17, 2012)

OOPs I said I would post this here but I posted it in the Skyrim thread on accident..lol..  Fighting a fire giant at level 15, on expert mode. He will one shot kill me..lol.. Fun stuff..

This is my GTX 680 with all the best graphical mods I could find, as well as the giant giants and mammoths mod installed.
1080p ultra ++ settings & ini modifications.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gd0vwl-e8s


----------



## razaron (May 17, 2012)

D007 said:


> OOPs I said I would post this here but I posted it in the Skyrim thread on accident..lol..  Fighting a fire giant at level 15, on expert mode. He will one shot kill me..lol.. Fun stuff..
> 
> This is my GTX 680 with all the best graphical mods I could find, as well as the giant giants and mammoths mod installed.
> 1080p ultra ++ settings & ini modifications.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gd0vwl-e8s



I can't wait till next month, I'll be getting into WCing and be replacing my 5870 with a GTX 680. Heavily modded Skyrim will be the first thing I play, my poor 5870 can't  handle it at my current resolution.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 17, 2012)

D007 said:


> OOPs I said I would post this here but I posted it in the Skyrim thread on accident..lol..  Fighting a fire giant at level 15, on expert mode. He will one shot kill me..lol.. Fun stuff..
> 
> This is my GTX 680 with all the best graphical mods I could find, as well as the giant giants and mammoths mod installed.
> 1080p ultra ++ settings & ini modifications.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gd0vwl-e8s



Looks really nice man.... I have never played the game. How is it?


----------



## Sinzia (May 17, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Sorry for the double post.... But... I finally broke 17K overall on 3Dmark 11
> 
> *Here it is....
> Overall Score P17009 - GPU Score 21047 Core1282_Mem1701 EVGA GTX 680 SLI Vanilla *
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47146&stc=1&d=1337209053



niiiiice!


----------



## D007 (May 17, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Looks really nice man.... I have never played the game. How is it?



The game is phenomenal if you like the RPG world. Let me put it this way. I absolutely love Mass effect and this game is it's only competitor imo. I have Batman Archam city, just sitting in the corner, waiting to be played, what a sin.. Skyrim "with the mods", is just all kinds of awesome. I can't do it justice with words.



razaron said:


> I can't wait till next month, I'll be getting into WCing and be replacing my 5870 with a GTX 680. Heavily modded Skyrim will be the first thing I play, my poor 5870 can't  handle it at my current resolution.



Sweet. 
I'm going to be doing almost the same, going to try that hybrid Air/Water cooling unit, coming out at the end of this month, that Sneeky pointed me too.
Freakin 180 bucks but eh, should be worth it.



Phusius said:


> Kind of useless on my 120 hz monitor then, pretty sure the GTX 680 will commit suicide trying to keep up 120 fps on some games.



Yea, I'm thinking the same thing. I try to cap my fps at 60.. The card runs hot once it gets going. If you work it to hard, it will hit 80c I bet..
That's going to hurt the lifetime of the card for sure.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 17, 2012)

D007 said:


> The game is phenomenal if you like the RPG world. Let me put it this way. I absolutely love Mass effect and this game is it's only competitor imo. I have Batman Archam city, just sitting in the corner, waiting to be played, what a sin.. Skyrim "with the mods", is just all kinds of awesome. I can't do it justice with words.



You should play Batman Arkhma City and tell me how it compares..... if you tell me it is as good as that game.... Well I will run out and steal the game from my local gamers shop


----------



## the54thvoid (May 17, 2012)

Hey guys, this is listed on the TPU graphics reviews but it's very worth a read.  Gives an excellent comparison between a 670 and 680 in the same test conditions with different clock settings.

http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=742&sel_lang=english

Conclusion is no surprise but an excellent piece for GTX 6xx owners and prospective buyers.


----------



## Maban (May 17, 2012)

btarunr said:


> EVGA is said to have isolated a small batch of GeForce GTX 670 SC (SuperClocked), model# 02G-P3-2672-KR graphics cards, which were not properly screened through Quality Assurance (QA). The company worked with its partners to get these cards re-tested through the QA, which concluded that the GTX 670 SC is a well-designed product. EVGA assured current owners of the part in question, that should they notice issues with their products, they should get in touch with EVGA's Jacob Freeman (jacobf[at]evga[dot]com), who will assist in setting up an RMA. Further, EVGA assured that in such cases, the returned GTX 670 SC will be replaced with a faster GTX 670 FTW Edition.



http://www.techpowerup.com/166179/E...670-SC-Owners-To-Get-FTW-as-Replacements.html


----------



## 20mmrain (May 17, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> Hey guys, this is listed on the TPU graphics reviews but it's very worth a read.  Gives an excellent comparison between a 670 and 680 in the same test conditions with different clock settings.
> 
> http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=742&sel_lang=english
> 
> Conclusion is no surprise but an excellent piece for GTX 6xx owners and prospective buyers.





> Originally Posted by btarunr
> EVGA is said to have isolated a small batch of GeForce GTX 670 SC (SuperClocked), model# 02G-P3-2672-KR graphics cards, which were not properly screened through Quality Assurance (QA). The company worked with its partners to get these cards re-tested through the QA, which concluded that the GTX 670 SC is a well-designed product. EVGA assured current owners of the part in question, that should they notice issues with their products, they should get in touch with EVGA's Jacob Freeman (jacobf[at]evga[dot]com), who will assist in setting up an RMA. Further, EVGA assured that in such cases, the returned GTX 670 SC will be replaced with a faster GTX 670 FTW Edition.



Thanks for both the articles guys..... I will post them on the front page later today.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 17, 2012)

Articles posted.... Good finds guys... this will really give a lot of people input!


----------



## helloWorld (May 19, 2012)

This is my max stable overclock at my 670's stock voltage of 1.175 V.

1313 MHz core (I know the boost clock does not say that, but in game, the core clock goes to 1313 and stays there) / 1507 MHz memory.


----------



## Tardan (May 20, 2012)

helloWorld said:


> This is my max stable overclock at my 670's stock voltage of 1.175 V.



Welcome to the club, helloWorld! That is an insane overclock you have there! Beats some of our 680 scores posted here! I hope Nvidia has an answer for us 680 owners.  Give us unlocked voltages!


----------



## Xaser04 (May 20, 2012)

Just seen this thread so thought I would join in (although technically I could have done before now...)


























Mmmmmm card sandwich

Finally a shot of them in my case:






After finding a single GTX680 overclocked to 1185/6800 somewhat lacking overall in Surround gaming -BF3 was fine but Crysis with CCC lvl 6 and texture mods seriously wasn't - 23fps average - I decided to treat myself to 2 Asus Direct CU II 670's. 

Absolutely love them. Each one is as fast as my old 680 at "stock" clocks thanks to higher boost. They also clock to 1300(1280) / 6800 as well which will come in handy. 

I will put a large review thread in the next couple of days comparing them to the single GTX680 and in some games a overclocked HD7970. 

A quick snippet though:

BF3 @ 3600x1920 - Ultra settings with 2xAA

GTX680 @ 1185/6800 - 37FPS average

GTX670 SLI @ Stock - 58FPS average


----------



## puma99dk| (May 20, 2012)

well u get 2 gpu's to handle the games, but the same memory buffer, why not just have gone with another GTX680 so u could have SLi them?


----------



## Xaser04 (May 20, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> well u get 2 gpu's to handle the games, but the same memory buffer, why not just have gone with another GTX680 so u could have SLi them?



Buying another GTX680: £420 spend

Buying 2 x GTX670 & selling 680: £650-£350* = £300 spend

Essentially it has cost me £120 less to move to GTX670 SLI than it would have done to just add a second 680. Considering the nigh on identical performance it was a no brainer. 

My GTX680 was a reference 2GB model so I would still have had 2GB VRAM had I upgraded to GTX680 SLI (or a 690).  


*GTX680 already sold for £350...


----------



## 20mmrain (May 20, 2012)

Welcome to the club Helloworld and Xaser04.... Your names have been added. Sorry I would've done it earlier but I was busy installing my new Gigabyte G.1 Sniper 3 Z77 (YAY) me!!!

Hey now that you got your 670's you wanna get rid of that MSI gtx 680 Xaser04 I am looking for a 3rd now with my new board


----------



## Xaser04 (May 20, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Welcome to the club Helloworld and Xaser04.... Your names have been added. Sorry I would've done it earlier but I was busy installing my new Gigabyte G.1 Sniper 3 Z77 (YAY) me!!!
> 
> Hey now that you got your 670's you wanna get rid of that MSI gtx 680 Xaser04 I am looking for a 3rd now with my new board



Thanks mate! 

The GTX680 is already sold I'm afraid.


----------



## 20mmrain (May 20, 2012)

Xaser04 said:


> Thanks mate!
> 
> The GTX680 is already sold I'm afraid.



Damn  Oh well back to finding another one


----------



## 20mmrain (May 22, 2012)

Posting new Drivers on front page as well as Beta's and older drivers.


----------



## Milton180 (May 24, 2012)

Today arrive my GTX680 OC MSI Twin Frozr in Nicaragua!! Yeaahhh going to try and savor this GPU Kepler!! Greetings Friends!


----------



## xenocide (May 25, 2012)

I just got my 670 installed, thing is destroying BF3 xD


----------



## puma99dk| (May 25, 2012)

i am still thinking about if 2gigs really is going to be enough even now that EA-Dice announced that they will drop support from Windows 32bit systems bcs they want to use 2 and 3 gb on the gfx and i am like :/

maybe i should just get a 4gb version than, but dunno.

EA-DICE Frostbite Titles in 2013 Will Require 64-bit Windows (TPU)


----------



## Milton180 (May 25, 2012)

Here is installed my MSI GTX680....


----------



## 20mmrain (May 27, 2012)

Milton180 said:


> Here is installed my MSI GTX680....
> 
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35258706/FOTOS/Mostrar Pc/DSC02433.JPG
> 
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35258706/FOTOS/Mostrar Pc/DSC02435.JPG



Welcome to the club your name has been added. 

That is a bad ass card. How does that thing bench? What types of clocks can you get with it?


----------



## boise49ers (May 30, 2012)




----------



## 20mmrain (May 31, 2012)

boise49ers said:


> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/05/29/b25.png



Welcome....

We got to start this party up a little more. Gee it would sure help for Nvidia to start releasing cards in stock on a regular basis. That is why I think this club is so small.


----------



## MetalRacer (Jun 1, 2012)

New Asus GTX 680 TOP arrived today.


----------



## Interlace84 (Jun 2, 2012)

Wow, nice jobs on all the OCs out there! 

I registered just to ask if anyone else out there had GPU-Z reporting a constant 200% TDP-consumption on any GTX670 sensors. I just installed my Point Of View-version after saying goodbye to my trusty gtx480 that died just a month out of warranty :'(

Anyway, seeing that 200% TDP consumption does make me worry something might actually be wrong in my system, so here I am hoping someone can reassure me it's just a sensor readout bug or something *fingers crossed* ^^ VDDC reads 1.0620volts.

Mobo: p5k-r p35 (so pci-express v1.1 unfortunately, could that be related?)
PSU: decent 600W Enermax psu that used to feed SLI 8800s and still reads out perfectly on all voltages.


So... should I pull the plug out right now and remove the card or not?


----------



## bpgt64 (Jun 2, 2012)

*yoyo*

Just traded in, picked up a pair of Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce editions.  Paired with i7 3930k and 4x8GBs of Ares DDR3-1600.

http://www.techpowerup.org/uploaded.php?file=120601/BOOMp16701.jpg


----------



## Tardan (Jun 2, 2012)

Interlace84 said:


> Wow, nice jobs on all the OCs out there!
> 
> I registered just to ask if anyone else out there had GPU-Z reporting a constant 200% TDP-consumption on any GTX670 sensors. I just installed my Point Of View-version after saying goodbye to my trusty gtx480 that died just a month out of warranty :'(
> 
> ...



Hi Interlace84. Welcome to the club!  Congrats on your 670.

Do you have Precision X installed? If so, does it show the same thing on the power consumption graph?


----------



## Interlace84 (Jun 2, 2012)

Tardan said:


> Hi Interlace84. Welcome to the club!  Congrats on your 670.
> 
> Do you have Precision X installed? If so, does it show the same thing on the power consumption graph?



I think the image says it all... it scares me.


----------



## Tardan (Jun 3, 2012)

Interlace84 said:


> I think the image says it all... it scares me.



Hmm. That is strange, I know you've probably done this, but it doesn't hurt to ask  Have you tried updating to the latest stable drivers or even beta drivers? If you have another computer laying around, you could try it on there and see if the problem persists - quick way to tell if it's your computer or the card.

If you're willing to, you might want to try on a fresh reinstall of Windows as well.


----------



## Interlace84 (Jun 3, 2012)

Tardan said:


> Hmm. That is strange, I know you've probably done this, but it doesn't hurt to ask  Have you tried updating to the latest stable drivers or even beta drivers? If you have another computer laying around, you could try it on there and see if the problem persists - quick way to tell if it's your computer or the card.
> 
> If you're willing to, you might want to try on a fresh reinstall of Windows as well.



Thanks for the advice 

I got the gtx670 because the 480 I had died, so alas no spare cards, also no spare system to test with. I already did a fresh reinstall just in case. Drivers are v301.42.

Since every single thing I've tried with it runs stable at max 55 degrees celsius, including looping 3DMark runs, , i'm not too worried anymore  probably a readout issue on older gen mainboards I guess. There's no way it could've drawn twice it's TDP and not be hot enough to fry an egg on.


----------



## MetalRacer (Jun 3, 2012)

So I had to reload win 7 today, and for the hell of it I installed the first version of 3Dmark 11.

I'm guessing tesselation is turned down with this version because this score is very close to my 7970 when I bench it with tesselation turned off in CCC.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 4, 2012)

I think im actually going to tend up getting 1 Asus DirectCU II TOP GTX680 and call it a day Ill have one in about 2 1/2 weeks assuming they are back in stock.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Jun 5, 2012)

My friend's forte gets buzzing interference from his 670. It didn't happen when we swapped in a Titanium HD or his old card and this matches something someone had fixed by taping a piece of anti-static bag over the processor. Rather than mess with that or getting a new soundcard is there a chance adding a backplate to the 670 would act as an EMI shield for the soundcard?


----------



## puma99dk| (Jun 5, 2012)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> My friend's forte gets buzzing interference from his 670. It didn't happen when we swapped in a Titanium HD or his old card and this matches something someone had fixed by taping a piece of anti-static bag over the processor. Rather than mess with that or getting a new soundcard is there a chance adding a backplate to the 670 would act as an EMI shield for the soundcard?



maybe a backplate would isolate the card from the audio card. personally i have never experienced that problem before with my Asus Xonar Essence STX when i used it in my ECS P67H2-A board.

but i would RMA it, bcs if he haven't had any problems with other cards i am not 110% sure a backplate would just fix the problem.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Jun 6, 2012)

He's not the only person I've seen complain about that specifically with a 670. If it's a systemic problem with unshielded X-fi cards it could take dozens of RMAs to find a card that didn't have that issue. That's assuming there was a revision to address the EMI. Ordered the backplate to try it. Cheaper than buying a HD.


----------



## MetalRacer (Jun 6, 2012)

I got an Asus GTX680 Direct CU II OC and flashed with the TOP BIOS and it runs great at the new default clocks, but it dosn't overclock as well as the real TOP. 

Here they are running @stock clocks.


----------



## 20mmrain (Jun 16, 2012)

Sorry Guys.... I haven't been paying attention to the club the past couple of weeks..... so If your name is not on the roster please let me know.

BTW.... Check it out.... I posted it already in "Your PC ATM" but I think it is deserved here. I have been busy assembling a monster PC guys 





Thought I would show off my Tri-SLI monster that is now almost done  3X GTX680's add another one to me on the roster.


----------



## MetalRacer (Jun 16, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Sorry Guys.... I haven't been paying attention to the club the past couple of weeks..... so If your name is not on the roster please let me know.
> 
> BTW.... Check it out.... I posted it already in "Your PC ATM" but I think it is deserved here. I have been busy assembling a monster PC guys
> 
> ...



Outstanding!


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 16, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Sorry Guys.... I haven't been paying attention to the club the past couple of weeks..... so If your name is not on the roster please let me know.
> 
> BTW.... Check it out.... I posted it already in "Your PC ATM" but I think it is deserved here. I have been busy assembling a monster PC guys
> 
> ...



that is f*cking nuts. Im thinking about buying this card next week. I get payed this week so ill order my new card this weekend I hope!


----------



## 20mmrain (Jun 16, 2012)

MetalRacer said:


> Outstanding!



I will run some benchmarks tomorrow and give you guys a view.... I know stock with 3Dmark11 I scored a GPU score of 30k. Overall wasn't as high as I hoped..... but that is because I am still only using a i7 3770k and not a i7 3930K or something like that. But I still got room to bump up the clock on that too. 

Thanks



> that is f*cking nuts. Im thinking about buying this card next week. I get payed this week so ill order my new card this weekend I hope!



Go for it man! I played with both that card and the FTW version at work. Both are outstanding cards. The nice thing about them is they actually have all 5 VRM's unlike the Reference version of the card. They also clock very nicely!
If you get it post here so I can welcome you to the club.

Thanks for the compliment too.... about my Build


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 16, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> I will run some benchmarks tomorrow and give you guys a view.... I know stock with 3Dmark11 I scored a GPU score of 30k. Overall wasn't as high as I hoped..... but that is because I am still only using a i7 3770k and not a i7 3930K or something like that. But I still got room to bump up the clock on that too.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> ...



Hows the double fan card? noise wise and cooling, and build quality?


----------



## 20mmrain (Jun 16, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> Hows the double fan card? noise wise and cooling, and build quality?



Well the FTW version wasn't a double fan card so I can't say with the FTW version (I am not even sure if they make one for the FTW)
But the SC card ....... the noise wasn't all that bad. It was fairly quiet however.....it wasn't that much quieter than the regular reference version. I am not sure if that is because the reference version only has a max Fan speed of 85%..... but the comparison wasn't that noticeable. Although .... I will say it was a little quieter. 
Where the duel fans made the difference was in the temps.....The FTW version with the reference fan ran fairly warm for a GTX 680. While the SC version with the duel fans ran a lot cooler. I was able to clock it too 1256Mhz and never broke 71c with fans on Auto. That means it didn't down clock that often either because of the temps.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 16, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Well the FTW version wasn't a double fan card so I can't say with the FTW version (I am not even sure if they make one for the FTW)
> But the SC card ....... the noise wasn't all that bad. It was fairly quiet however.....it wasn't that much quieter than the regular reference version. I am not sure if that is because the reference version only has a max Fan speed of 85%..... but the comparison wasn't that noticeable. Although .... I will say it was a little quieter.
> Where the duel fans made the difference was in the temps.....The FTW version with the reference fan ran fairly warm for a GTX 680. While the SC version with the duel fans ran a lot cooler. I was able to clock it too 1256Mhz and never broke 71c with fans on Auto. That means it didn't down clock that often either because of the temps.



yeah. How was the SC with the 2 fans build quality? Did it feel good to hold or did it feel cheap?


----------



## 20mmrain (Jun 16, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> yeah. How was the SC with the 2 fans build quality? Did it feel good to hold or did it feel cheap?



IMO the Build quality felt = to the reference version. Maybe felt a little cheaper. But that was only the outside shell. The actual heatsink felt heavy and solid. I would say it felt like an overall sturdy card. But remember my company got a early sample of it. So if EVGA was trying to sell my company the card of course they are going to make sure it is good as a sample as possible.

I hope that description helps.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 16, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> IMO the Build quality felt = to the reference version. Maybe felt a little cheaper. But that was only the outside shell. The actual heatsink felt heavy and solid. I would say it felt like an overall sturdy card. But remember my company got a early sample of it. So if EVGA was trying to sell my company the card of course they are going to make sure it is good as a sample as possible.
> 
> I hope that description helps.



alright sweet thanks. I hope to get paid this weekend to order this card directly from Evga. since newegg most likely wont have any instock by the time i go to order. This GTX470 I have now needs to find a new home or its going in the trash can.


----------



## 20mmrain (Jun 16, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> alright sweet thanks. I hope to get paid this weekend to order this card directly from Evga. since newegg most likely wont have any instock by the time i go to order. This GTX470 I have now needs to find a new home or its going in the trash can.



Hey no problem.... but don't throw it away.... it is still a great card.... unless something is wrong with it?

If there isn't let me know when you sell it and how much I might be interested in it for my kids gaming rig. If I got the money and it's in decent condition.... I will take it off your hands.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 16, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Hey no problem.... but don't throw it away.... it is still a great card.... unless something is wrong with it?
> 
> If there isn't let me know when you sell it and how much I might be interested in it for my kids gaming rig. If I got the money and it's in decent condition.... I will take it off your hands.



selling it for 90 shipped

A few of the clips for the shroud are broken because i took the cooler off a few times to change the TIM and such.


----------



## 20mmrain (Jun 16, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> selling it for 90 shipped
> 
> A few of the clips for the shroud are broken because i took the cooler off a few times to change the TIM and such.



Hit me up when it's posted and I will see what I can do


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 16, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Hit me up when it's posted and I will see what I can do



Will do. itll be next week.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Jun 19, 2012)

Update on the Forte buzzing. The backplate effectively acted as an EMI shield. No more buzz.


----------



## Jstn7477 (Jun 19, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> alright sweet thanks. I hope to get paid this weekend to order this card directly from Evga. since newegg most likely wont have any instock by the time i go to order. This GTX470 I have now needs to find a new home or its going in the trash can.



Don't throw it away, those Fermis are amazing for Folding@Home. PM me man, I could probably use one more in the farm.


----------



## Irony (Jun 19, 2012)

@ nvidiaintel: EVGA 680 was in stock at the egg yesterday for a couple hours. Had it on autonotify


----------



## MetalRacer (Jun 22, 2012)

MSI N680GTX Lightning in stock @newegg.


MSI N680GTX Lightning GeForce GTX 680 PCI Express ...


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 22, 2012)

MetalRacer said:


> MSI N680GTX Lightning in stock @newegg.
> 
> 
> MSI N680GTX Lightning GeForce GTX 680 PCI Express ...



FUUUUUU!

haha jk. I plan on getting one of those on monday. Not sure if blowing $599 on a GPU is worth it since i won't use like half the features. The fact its unlocked though is nice. and its quiet and actually instock unlike the DirectCUs or Evga 2 fan 680.


----------



## Sinzia (Jun 25, 2012)

Just got a second 680, a Zotac reference model!

I'll be benching and stuff later, but I cant wait!


----------



## 20mmrain (Jul 1, 2012)

Sinzia said:


> Just got a second 680, a Zotac reference model!
> 
> I'll be benching and stuff later, but I cant wait!


Added

BTW....
Here are some new benchmarks from the 3 way SLI 
20mmrain|3 Way GTX 680 SLI|1216 Base/1269 Boost/1652 Mem|X46759|i7 3770K @ 4.5Ghz
View attachment 47637
20mmrain|3 Way GTX 680 SLI|1216 Base/1269 Boost/1652 Mem|P67024|i7 3770K @ 4.5Ghz
View attachment 47636
20mmrain|3 Way GTX 680 SLI|1006Base/1059Boost/1502 Mem|P49068|i7 3770K @ 4.5Ghz
View attachment 47631
20mmrain|3 Way GTX 680 SLI|1224 Base/1277 Boost/1656 Mem|P50086|i7 3770K @ 4.5Ghz
View attachment 47632


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 1, 2012)

For some reason I cannot get Vantage to run. It always freezing at the loading screen for the Crash and Burn physics test.


----------



## Sinzia (Jul 1, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> For some reason I cannot get Vantage to run. It always freezing at the loading screen for the Crash and Burn physics test.



that one always seems to take -forever- to load for me, never crashes, but takes a good few minutes.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 1, 2012)

Sinzia said:


> that one always seems to take -forever- to load for me, never crashes, but takes a good few minutes.



but then when i do ctrl alt del says vantage crashed.


----------



## 20mmrain (Jul 1, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> For some reason I cannot get Vantage to run. It always freezing at the loading screen for the Crash and Burn physics test.



Which drivers are you using? Are you on the latest BETA? It seems to work well for me. Also try uninstalling Vantage then reboot. Next re install vantage and all of it's updates. Then Reboot again. Then try again....
If that doesn't work.... Like I said try the latest BETA drivers. 
I also had a similar problem like you describe one time. The first time I had the issue... the above fixed it. The second time.... I had to uninstall PhysX and then re-install it. Plus use some type of .DLL file if memory serves me correctly.  
I know the second description is very vague.... but that is what I remember.

Are any of your other PhysX supporting games causing you issues? If so it could be a problem with your PhysX install. 
Another thought... If you are not using PhysX on the cards to run it. I have seen those tests crashes because of an unstable overclock on the CPU.

But I will also mention that since I switched to the GTX 680's the tests take a lot longer for me to load too.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 1, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Which drivers are you using? Are you on the latest BETA? It seems to work well for me. Also try uninstalling Vantage then reboot. Next re install vantage and all of it's updates. Then Reboot again. Then try again....
> If that doesn't work.... Like I said try the latest BETA drivers.
> I also had a similar problem like you describe one time. The first time I had the issue... the above fixed it. The second time.... I had to uninstall PhysX and then re-install it. Plus use some type of .DLL file if memory serves me correctly.
> I know the second description is very vague.... but that is what I remember.
> ...



yeah i think i just fixed it because now Metro 2033 works now too.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 1, 2012)

heres a benchmark. add me to the club yo!


----------



## 20mmrain (Jul 1, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> heres a benchmark. add me to the club yo!
> 
> http://i50.tinypic.com/15s3j44.png



Added your name welcome to the club! Been waiting patiently to add yah! Finally 

Nice run BTW....and scores on Metro 2033 that card seems like a beast!


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 1, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Added your name welcome to the club! Been waiting patiently to add yah! Finally
> 
> Nice run BTW....and scores on Metro 2033 that card seems like a beast!



except when I turn on MSAA and DOF lol. it goes down to 28FPS lol


----------



## 20mmrain (Jul 1, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> except when I turn on MSAA and DOF lol. it goes down to 28FPS lol



Okay that makes a little more sense.... because when I ran that benchmark with my 3 GTX 680's I saw a very similar score .... and I thought too myself.... how the hell??? But hell yeah that DOF and MSAA is a bitch it really knocks down your score.

LOL I will run one to show you.


----------



## MetalRacer (Jul 2, 2012)

This card is screaming for more juice.


----------



## 20mmrain (Jul 3, 2012)

MetalRacer said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/120701/Capture518.jpg
> 
> This card is screaming for more juice.



I know tell me about it. These cards can fly if Nvidia and there partners would just let them! I will run a Heaven tonight and compare


----------



## Finners (Jul 6, 2012)

How is every else with a 680 finding there cards boosting? Mine seem quite conservative and ive got it locked down that it boost to its maximum between 62 degrees and 69 desgrees.

As you can see this gives me quite a narrow window to hit when benchmarking. if its below 62 i get the full 1.175v but it just doesnt boost to its full potential and once it hits 70 it drops to 1.165 and the lower boost like i think everyone elses does. 

I just cant figure out why it wont boost to its maximum when its cooler


----------



## Tardan (Jul 7, 2012)

Finners said:


> How is every else with a 680 finding there cards boosting? Mine seem quite conservative and ive got it locked down that it boost to its maximum between 62 degrees and 69 desgrees.
> 
> As you can see this gives me quite a narrow window to hit when benchmarking. if its below 62 i get the full 1.175v but it just doesnt boost to its full potential and once it hits 70 it drops to 1.165 and the lower boost like i think everyone elses does.
> 
> I just cant figure out why it wont boost to its maximum when its cooler



What clocks are you set at atm? Is your power target set at 132%?


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 7, 2012)

MetalRacer said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/120701/Capture518.jpg
> 
> This card is screaming for more juice.



same with the girl in your avatar pic 



Tardan said:


> What clocks are you set at atm? Is your power target set at 132%?



You dont need to run the powet target that high. Just high enough to where it wont downlock. My card out of the box boosts to 1188 when its rated at 1163 and power target is at stock +100%  and it runs at 1188 constant. Ive never seen the power target higher then 92%.

Just so you know 20mmrain this GTX680 Signature 2 has got to be the best upgrade I have done in the last like 3 or 4 years. Its such a good card! So damn quiet too. hits only 60c in BF3 at like 54% fan and i cant here anything out of my system now. the GTX470 i had was like a jet engine. actually this summer upgrade I have done with fans, memory, and 680 has been really awesome. these corsair fans are great adn this 680 is even better!


----------



## Tardan (Jul 7, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> You dont need to run the powet target that high. Just high enough to where it wont downlock. My card out of the box boosts to 1188 when its rated at 1163 and power target is at stock +100%  and it runs at 1188 constant. Ive never seen the power target higher then 92%.



Maybe it's because I have a somewhat high OC, but I've seen my power target reach 130% playing Dead Island.

To answer Finner's question further though, my card has been boosting to 1256 MHz consistently so far, but I've managed to keep it cool with my custom cooling. Highest temps I've seen so far are about 62 degrees.


----------



## Finners (Jul 7, 2012)

Tardan said:


> What clocks are you set at atm? Is your power target set at 132%?



its set to +144 core and + 200 mem, neither of them are my maximum, just safe stable 24/7 clocks. 

I run a custom fan profile to keep it below 70 when gaming but it still will not boost to its highest which is 1229 until it reaches 62 degrees.

if i leave it all at stock i think it boost to a maximum of 1084 but it has to reach 62 degrees before it will go that high, if its lower its slower

EDIT*

This is what i expect to see but mine doesnt seem to clock like the reference one TPU reviewed


----------



## Tardan (Jul 7, 2012)

Finners said:


> its set to +144 core and + 200 mem, neither of them are my maximum, just safe stable 24/7 clocks.
> 
> I run a custom fan profile to keep it below 70 when gaming but it still will not boost to its highest which is 1229 until it reaches 62 degrees.
> 
> ...



Hmm, that is odd. I have mine at +145 core and its boosting to 1256. What are you using to test your boosts? It really depends on the game, I think. Some might be more GPU demanding than others. Might want to try something like EVGA's OC Scanner. Using their tessy test seems to be good at testing maximum clocks.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 7, 2012)

Tardan said:


> Hmm, that is odd. I have mine at +145 core and its boosting to 1256. What are you using to test your boosts? It really depends on the game, I think. Some might be more GPU demanding than others. Might want to try something like EVGA's OC Scanner. Using their tessy test seems to be good at testing maximum clocks.



Ive been playing BF3 and my card maxes at 1188, thats not overclock either, just out of the box.


----------



## Finners (Jul 9, 2012)

Just used OC scanner to get my card to plot and used Afterburner to plot it, each screen is taken when the speed changes, showing the speed/voltage and temperature. 

All at stock

Initial boost,






Next step up 






Max it boosts to, notice its at 62 degrees






And then the normal throttle when it hits 70 degrees 






Do you think flashing my card with another BIOS would make it boost in the normal way? i have read about a certificate built into the firmware so dont know if flashing works on the 680's


----------



## Tardan (Jul 9, 2012)

Finners said:


> Just used OC scanner to get my card to plot and used Afterburner to plot it, each screen is taken when the speed changes, showing the speed/voltage and temperature.
> 
> All at stock
> 
> ...



From what I'm seeing that's perfectly normal (I think). It boosts to 1084 MHz until it hits 70 degrees, throttles to cool down, then boosts again.

If you want to keep it at 1084 boost all the time you're gonna have to find a way to keep it under 70 degrees. That way it won't throttle and stay at the 1084 boost.

I'll try to get some screenshots of mine in action as well.

EDIT: Here it is. 





As you can see its staying at my boost clocks consistently. Temperatures are rising but it peaks at 59 degrees.


----------



## Finners (Jul 9, 2012)

ahhh thanks for that, i was under the impression that it should boost the highest at the lowest temp but yours boost and then boosts a little higher when it gets a little hotter just like mine does. 

Mine does stay below 70 i turned the fan down the get to that temp so i could show it throttle. 

Have you let yours go to 62 or above and see if it boosts another 13Mhz like mine does?

How have you got the bars to stay on showing the different values? i could make an all in one graph like yours if i can figure that out


----------



## Tardan (Jul 9, 2012)

Finners said:


> ahhh thanks for that, i was under the impression that it should boost the highest at the lowest temp but yours boost and then boosts a little higher when it gets a little hotter just like mine does.
> 
> Mine does stay below 70 i turned the fan down the get to that temp so i could show it throttle.
> 
> ...



I use EVGA Precision X to log my results. It creates an .hml file which I use Rivatuner to open and create the graph. Just click whatever points you want and it'll create the bars for you. 

Here is my GPU running the OC Scanner tessy test. Highest temp I could reach was 65 degrees. At 65 degrees I was still pushing 1245 MHz boost.


----------



## LordJummy (Jul 21, 2012)

I bought an Asus G55VW-DS71 last month and it has a GTX 660M kepler GPU 

Can I join?


----------



## JEJ (Jul 22, 2012)

I have an EVGA GTX-680 card with an i7-3960 processor, 32 GB of quad-channel RAM. When I play videos, I see an occasional (1 every second or so, sometimes more often) horizontal line that look like a break between the upper part of the image and the lower part, as if the video processor can't keep up with 1920 x 1080. I have not encountered this with older cards. What is wrong? It appears that the card is skipping a line in different parts of frames. It is totally unacceptable performance. I don't know if they call this shearing or what. I just played the video on my wife's computer which has a $200 video card that is 5 years old, and the problem does not occur. This sounds like a catastrophic design flaw.


----------



## Tardan (Jul 22, 2012)

LordJummy said:


> I bought an Asus G55VW-DS71 last month and it has a GTX 660M kepler GPU
> 
> Can I join?



Of course! Welcome to the club. 



JEJ said:


> I have an EVGA GTX-680 card with an i7-3960 processor, 32 GB of quad-channel RAM. When I play videos, I see an occasional (1 every second or so, sometimes more often) horizontal line that look like a break between the upper part of the image and the lower part, as if the video processor can't keep up with 1920 x 1080. I have not encountered this with older cards. What is wrong? It appears that the card is skipping a line in different parts of frames. It is totally unacceptable performance. I don't know if they call this shearing or what. I just played the video on my wife's computer which has a $200 video card that is 5 years old, and the problem does not occur. This sounds like a catastrophic design flaw.



What you're describing is tearing. You're going to have to enable v-sync for your video player in the NVIDIA control panel. You can access it by going to Manage 3D Settings, clicking the program settings tab, adding your video player and enabling it from there.


----------



## JEJ (Jul 22, 2012)

Here is a screen shot of the problem. It's not a 3D video problem though, as this is just straight 1920 x 1080i video of flames.

JJ


----------



## Maban (Jul 22, 2012)

That happens to me but only with Flash videos.


----------



## JEJ (Jul 22, 2012)

It's using Windows Media player which is already listed in the 3D settings menu.

JJ


----------



## JEJ (Jul 22, 2012)

What is a Flash video?

JJ


----------



## LordJummy (Jul 22, 2012)

I'm quite impressed with the overclocking ability of this GTX 660M. It runs really cool too. Anyone else rocking a newer kepler based mobile gpu?


----------



## Maban (Jul 22, 2012)

Flash player. Youtube and whatnot.


----------



## JEJ (Jul 22, 2012)

Are all high-end video cards of all brands subject to this problem? It doesn't occur on my old video card, which is a Radeon.

JJ


----------



## Maban (Jul 22, 2012)

All are susceptible to tearing in games, but I've personally never had it happen to me so noticeably in videos before my 680.


----------



## Black Panther (Jul 22, 2012)

Zotac 670 4GB.

It'll be installed next week when I get back home. And posting a gpu-z screenie.

Pictures: 



Spoiler


----------



## Tardan (Jul 22, 2012)

JEJ said:


> It's using Windows Media player which is already listed in the 3D settings menu.
> 
> JJ



Is v-sync enabled in the scroll down menu? If not enable it and see if that works.



JEJ said:


> Are all high-end video cards of all brands subject to this problem? It doesn't occur on my old video card, which is a Radeon.
> 
> JJ



I've never had the problem on my 680 or 670s. Not even in flash videos either.



Black Panther said:


> Zotac 670 4GB.
> 
> It'll be installed next week when I get back home. And posting a gpu-z screenie.
> 
> ...



Congrats on the new card! Is it ok to show the last picture with the serial of the card? Just in case you have to RMA it someday? Unless you already registered it. Total noob at these things so please don't kill me if I'm wrong.


----------



## 20mmrain (Jul 22, 2012)

BlackPanther, JEJ, LordJummy Welcome to the club guys you all have been added to the TPU GTX600 Owners club list. Can't wait to see some benchs and reports on all of your new cards and chips!


----------



## JEJ (Jul 22, 2012)

I found the vertical sync menu and turned it on. That fixed the scrolling problem, where rippling was occurring, but it did not change the tearing.

JJ


----------



## Tardan (Jul 22, 2012)

JEJ said:


> I found the vertical sync menu and turned it on. That fixed the scrolling problem, where rippling was occurring, but it did not change the tearing.
> 
> JJ



Hmm. Have you tried another video player? I personally use VLC. Might want to try that out and see if it fixes your problem.


----------



## LordJummy (Jul 22, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> BlackPanther, JEJ, LordJummy Welcome to the club guys you all have been added to the TPU GTX600 Owners club list. Can't wait to see some benchs and reports on all of your new cards and chips!



I'll run some benchies on my lil' 660M heheh. I've been playing with it the past day OC'ing. It has really surprised me with its' power. It is competing with the gtx 670m but uses a lot less power, and runs way cooler. 

I'll post some screenshots this afternoon. Thx for adding me!


----------



## puma99dk| (Jul 22, 2012)

Black Panther said:


> Zotac 670 4GB.
> 
> It'll be installed next week when I get back home. And posting a gpu-z screenie.
> 
> ...



nice card, i hope u will try overclocking it aswell since it's a GTX670 on a GTX680 pcb i hope it will do some nice oc


----------



## TissueBox (Jul 31, 2012)

Had taken a lot more pictures, but I had really bad lighting so they were blurry 

Are the ASIC quality readings on the GTX 6xx series correct? Because if so, I think I'm loving my card. 






Replaced my 7970 DCII Top (Voltage locked and could only go up to 1100MHz stable) for this little beast.


----------



## Anath (Jul 31, 2012)

I wanna join!

Here is mine:



>



i7 3820
8 gb 1866 ram
asrock extreme 6gb x79 motherboard
3 x evga gtx 680s
1200w coolermaster gold psu
corsair h100
512gb samsung ssd
2 x 1tb samsung f3 hdd
corsair c70 case


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 31, 2012)

TissueBox said:


> http://i47.tinypic.com/2z90f81.jpg
> 
> http://i46.tinypic.com/1zf4vpy.jpg
> 
> ...



Should have gotten the Evga FTW card. Better PCB and such. Why did you side grade to a 670 from a 7970 lol


----------



## TissueBox (Jul 31, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> Should have gotten the Evga FTW card. Better PCB and such. Why did you side grade to a 670 from a 7970 lol



I got this for $380, I thought it was pretty good since no one was willing to sell their non-reference GTX 670 for the past 2 weeks .  I'll hold out on this GTX 670 until I can find a non-reference 670, or a less expensive 680.

As to why - my 7970 DCII TOP was voltage locked. I've managed to get a maximum boost on this GTX 670 of 1308MHz. Performance surpassed my 7970 DCII TOP which has a maximum stable clock of 1100MHz. Oh, and I found a buyer for my 7970 already.


----------



## Irony (Jul 31, 2012)

Anath said:


> I wanna join!
> 
> Here is mine:
> 
> ...



Really? 3 of them? How is that at all necessary; Other than for bragging rights which I totally understand lol.


----------



## Anath (Jul 31, 2012)

Irony said:


> Really? 3 of them? How is that at all necessary; Other than for bragging rights which I totally understand lol.



Lol I moved to an nvidia surround setup. I wasnt sure how two cards were going to handle the max resolution plus a minimum of 4x aa. Plus isnt that being an enthusiast is all about


----------



## Irony (Aug 1, 2012)

Anath said:


> Lol I moved to an nvidia surround setup. I wasnt sure how two cards were going to handle the max resolution plus a minimum of 4x aa. Plus isnt that being an enthusiast is all about



Yeah, except most of us are broke lol.

Awesome rig, man.


----------



## Anath (Aug 1, 2012)

Irony said:


> Yeah, except most of us are broke lol.
> 
> Awesome rig, man.



haha i hear ya. I have no life. I am currently working two jobs so i can afford my toys


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 1, 2012)

Anath & TissueBox Welcome to the club Names are added.....

Hey Anath don't feel bad man... you aren't the only one with an over abundance of GTX 680's in their system.

I know I should feel bad about it....But you know what??? I just don't 
Welcome Anath to the club!

And Irony.... Yeah it's totally for bragging rights. Can't say its for anything logical. 











Thats a Great ASIC TissueBox..... Here are mine Almost all 100%


----------



## Anath (Aug 1, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Anath & TissueBox Welcome to the club Names are added.....
> 
> Hey Anath don't feel bad man... you aren't the only one with an over abundance of GTX 680's in their system.
> 
> ...



Haha now that's a rig!


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 1, 2012)

Anath said:


> Haha now that's a rig!



Thanks man urs is awesome too.


----------



## Irony (Aug 1, 2012)

Here's my GPUz, 1x Gigabyte GTX 670 at stock clocks.







Whats the best OC utility?


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 1, 2012)

Irony said:


> Here's my GPUz, 1x Gigabyte GTX 670 at stock clocks.
> 
> http://i.imgur.com/APQqM.png
> 
> ...



I use EVGA Precision X.... How ever I know some like MSI Afterburner and others like Nvidia Inspector

Welcome to the club.


----------



## puma99dk| (Aug 1, 2012)

ino that EVGA Precision X and MSI Afterburner kan make some games crash and have startup problems.

i use MSI Afterburner myself bcs i use a custom fan configuration plus i like the layout and use better than EVGA ^^;


----------



## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (Aug 1, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Anath & TissueBox Welcome to the club Names are added.....
> 
> Hey Anath don't feel bad man... you aren't the only one with an over abundance of GTX 680's in their system.
> 
> ...



 very nice


----------



## TissueBox (Aug 1, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Thats a Great ASIC TissueBox..... Here are mine Almost all 100%
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47977&stc=1&d=1343785090
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47978&stc=1&d=1343785096
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47979&stc=1&d=1343785100



Thanks for confirming that! It seems that most Keplar cards have a great ASIC quality.


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 4, 2012)

TissueBox said:


> Thanks for confirming that! It seems that most Keplar cards have a great ASIC quality.



I haven't seen many that don't It would br really interesting if others who belong to the club or anyone with a GTX 600 series card could chime in just to see.


----------



## Hilux SSRG (Aug 5, 2012)

Hello club.  Didn't know you existed but I've had a Gigabyte GTX 670OC since May.  

Loving the oc on my card. +135 gpu clock to 1355mhz  and +500 mem clock to 7012mhz.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=48018&stc=1&d=1344120213

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=48019&stc=1&d=1344121214


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 6, 2012)

Hilux SSRG said:


> Hello club.  Didn't know you existed but I've had a Gigabyte GTX 670OC since May.
> 
> Loving the oc on my card. +135 gpu +500 mem clock
> 
> ...



Welcome to the club boss.... Your name has been added to the roles


----------



## Hilux SSRG (Aug 6, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Welcome to the club boss.... Your name has been added to the roles



Sweet.  So where is all the free swag!


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 7, 2012)

Hilux SSRG said:


> Sweet.  So where is all the free swag!



Everybody else got theirs yours is still being made


----------



## Hilux SSRG (Aug 7, 2012)

Any Gigabyte 670 owners try out that official BIOS update?


----------



## mauriek (Aug 8, 2012)

this is my new baby..after preliminary gaming testing, I'm officially in love with her


----------



## puma99dk| (Aug 8, 2012)

my KFA2 again and my Asus Xonar Essence STX and it don't block for standard cooling 

View attachment 48063

and my card's ASIC Quality status


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 9, 2012)

mauriek said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/120808/GTX670.jpg
> http://img.techpowerup.org/120808/GTX670.gif
> http://img.techpowerup.org/120808/Capture001.jpg
> 
> this is my new baby..after preliminary gaming testing, I'm officially in love with her



First Leadtek card WTG and welcome to the Club. Also nice ASIC!



> my KFA2 again and my Asus Xonar Essence STX and it don't block for standard cooling
> 
> This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1279x959.
> 
> ...



Still a beautiful Rig puma99dk| and an awesom ASIC score too. Further proves that almost all GTX 600 series have a good ASIC. Most up to 100% but I have yet to see one with above 100% does anyone have one?


----------



## puma99dk| (Aug 9, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Still a beautiful Rig puma99dk| and an awesom ASIC score too. Further proves that almost all GTX 600 series have a good ASIC. Most up to 100% but I have yet to see one with above 100% does anyone have one?



Thx, and above 100% is that even possible? i mean if custom pcb can't hit that, than what will?


----------



## Irony (Aug 9, 2012)

My ASIC is only 96.9. I feel left out...lol

I've OC'ed +220 core and +296 memory. 1200 and 3300 respectively


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Aug 9, 2012)

Irony said:


> My ASIC is only 96.9. I feel left out...lol
> 
> I've OC'ed +220 core and +296 memory. 1200 and 3300 respectively
> 
> http://i.imgur.com/DubJ4.png



Ive only overclocked my 670 by +17 on the core just so itll hit 1200mhz in games haha. I don't need much more, and Summer temperatures suck haha. Waiting for fall/winter/spring to push it.


----------



## Raw (Aug 9, 2012)

*600 series cards*

Do reference cards count?
If so, you can join me in here if you'd like.
Man, these 600 series cards fly.


----------



## puma99dk| (Aug 9, 2012)

Raw said:


> Do reference cards count?
> If so, you can join me in here if you'd like.
> Man, these 600 series cards fly.
> 
> ...



haha yeah reference cards counts, even my GTX 680 is reference design


----------



## Raw (Aug 9, 2012)

*I would have gone with non-ref but*



puma99dk| said:


> haha yeah reference cards counts, even my GTX 680 is reference design



Cool, I would have gone with non-ref but they were not available from EVGA through the StepUp Program, it was Reference only. I'm not worried about the design differences anyway, the only reason I would consider one is for the *looks of dual fans*. My machine runs cold enough with the HAF design case and the fans I have in the system. 

And I don't intend to OC these reference cards to any aggressive extent or at all. I don't have the need. I can play any game so far maxed out and that's about all I require. Not that I can't OC them pretty far, I have tried once and all I can say about that is...I'm impressed with them. 
1149MHz clock speed with low voltage...amazing. And I could go higher easily.






But I backed them down to default after the test and that's where they will stay for awhile.


----------



## puma99dk| (Aug 9, 2012)

Raw said:


> Cool, I would have gone with non-ref but they were not available from EVGA through the StepUp Program, it was Ref only. I'm not worried about the design differences anyway, my machine runs cold enough with the HAF design case and the fans on board.
> 
> And I don't intend to OC these cards to any aggressive extent or at all. I don't have the need. Not that I can't OC them pretty far, I have tried once and all I can say about that is...I'm impressed with them.
> 
> But I backed them down to default after the test and that's where they will stay for awhile.



well if u r worried about temps, u can replace ur EVGA stock cooler with a custom, if i am not wrong they still got warranty after u do that ^^


----------



## Raw (Aug 9, 2012)

*I do like the looks of the dual fans though*



puma99dk| said:


> well if u r worried about temps, u can replace ur EVGA stock cooler with a custom, if i am not wrong they still got warranty after u do that ^^



Worried...lol. 
Not at all worried about temps, as I said, I run cool, very cold actually. The HAF setup I use and the Noctura cooler is the bomb. Just look at the picture, at a 97% load it only gets to 47 C and at only a 46% fan speed.

I just OC'ed once more to test further...just for shits and grins.

I bumped the GPU Clock Offset to +135
The Mem Clock Offset to +139
The Power Target to 111%
The Shader Clock: 2465

Result: CORE: 1.232 MHz
Result MEM: 3118 MHz
Result: VDDC 1.175 V
Result: GPU TEMP 62 Degrees C Max
Result: Fan Speed 62% Max (2520 RPM)
Result: Artifacts - cur:0 -max:0
Result: SCORE 8820 (147 FPS)







I also use my pcs in a basement and as the home is air-conditioned the basement is somewhat cool. Cool from the duct work down here.

I do like the looks of the dual fans though and I may look for some kind of custom cooler just to dress up/eye candy my cards. Any recommendations?


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 9, 2012)

Raw said:


> Do reference cards count?
> If so, you can join me in here if you'd like.
> Man, these 600 series cards fly.
> 
> ...



Yeah they do RAW welcome to the club! 




nvidiaintelftw said:


> Ive only overclocked my 670 by +17 on the core just so itll hit 1200mhz in games haha. I don't need much more, and Summer temperatures suck haha. Waiting for fall/winter/spring to push it.



Yeah I know what you mean Nvidiaintelftw....... This summer has been brutal.....I don't even want to push my Water cooled cards all that far until Fall.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Aug 9, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Yeah they do RAW welcome to the club!



You should rename my card in the OP as the Evga GTX680 Signature 2 because thats what it is actually called haha.


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 9, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> You should rename my card in the OP as the Evga GTX680 Signature 2 because thats what it is actually called haha.



LMAO I know that.... I had writers block that day and was too lazy to go and find the real name.... Sorry  Changed


----------



## spectrus77 (Aug 10, 2012)

hiii. My last upgrade in 2012. One more gtx670 dct.


----------



## TissueBox (Aug 11, 2012)

Sold my previous EVGA GTX 670 Signature and purchased a(n) MSI GTX 670 Power Edition. 

Really disappointed though; it TDP throttles at 101-103% no matter what I set the power target to. Seems like I'm not the only one who is having this issue either.

Its boost is also far less than my previous EVGA GTX 670, despite having lower temperatures. If I remember correctly, my EVGA GTX 670 hit a maximum boost of 1307 (and maintained it) at a core clock of 1085MHz with temperatures <70C. My GTX 670 PE only hits 1269MHz at a core clock of 1100MHz, with temperatures <62C; throttling kicks in as well so it's not maintained.

Not sure if this matters, but I'm using version 304.79 Beta of Nvidia's drivers. Will try 301.42 next.






















*EDIT:* Well, after hours of overclocking, I've managed 1150MHz stable on the core, with a maximum boost of 1320MHz and no throttling at all. It would be a lot easier if the extra 14% power target worked. With this said, the boost is still much lower than my previous reference GTX 670.

Using simple math, my EVGA GTX 670 gets a maximum 13MHz * 17 boost, whereas my GTX 670 PE gets a maximum 13MHz * 13 boost. Anyone care to shed some light on the (significant) variation? Or can anyone else chime in about their maximum multiplier boost?


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Aug 12, 2012)

Do I win!!?


----------



## puma99dk| (Aug 12, 2012)

Raw said:


> Do reference cards count?
> If so, you can join me in here if you'd like.
> Man, these 600 series cards fly.
> 
> http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p508/papajack2/RAW2500KEVGA670s1.jpg



is the PCI-Express x1 free when u use ur Noctua HN-C14 cooler Raw? ^^;


----------



## Hilux SSRG (Aug 13, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> Do I win!!?



I guess we're both in first place?




http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=48117&stc=1&d=1344817523


----------



## Hilux SSRG (Aug 13, 2012)

TissueBox said:


> EDIT: Well, after hours of overclocking, I've managed 1150MHz stable on the core, with a maximum boost of 1320MHz and no throttling at all. It would be a lot easier if the extra 14% power target worked. With this said, the boost is still much lower than my previous reference GTX 670.
> 
> Using simple math, my EVGA GTX 670 gets a maximum 13MHz * 17 boost, whereas my GTX 670 PE gets a maximum 13MHz * 13 boost. Anyone care to shed some light on the (significant) variation? Or can anyone else chime in about their maximum multiplier boost?



Based on your overclocking breakdown, would you look over my oc numbers to see if I'm right?

I've hit so far 13mhz * 18 boost? on my Gigabyte 670Windforce :

gpu clock +150 to 1130mhz
memory clock +600 to 1802mhz/7208mhz
boost clock to 1209mhz
max clock to 1365mhz


----------



## TissueBox (Aug 13, 2012)

Hilux SSRG said:


> Based on your overclocking breakdown, would you look over my oc numbers to see if I'm right?
> 
> I've hit so far 13mhz * 18 boost? on my Gigabyte 670Windforce :
> 
> ...



If you're talking about the math, then it's right. That's an outstanding maximum boost and multiplier compared to mine. Some people have all the luck 

What temperatures do you have, and what fan speed? Are the fans audible at that speed?

I'm just a bit perplexed at the variation of the boost multiplier. Really hoping someone else with a deeper understanding would chime in about it.


----------



## Hilux SSRG (Aug 13, 2012)

TissueBox said:


> What temperatures do you have, and what fan speed? Are the fans audible at that speed?
> 
> I'm just a bit perplexed at the variation of the boost multiplier. Really hoping someone else with a deeper understanding would chime in about it.



At that oc, the temps hover at 50C and 50fan speed. Fan is pretty quiet. I had to raise the fan speed to 70+ to hear it. 

I'm still want to reach 1400mhz but think I will be limited due to my air cooling.


----------



## Milton180 (Aug 14, 2012)

Process: Intel ® Core ™ i5-3570K procesador (cache 6M, hasta 3,80 GHz)
Ramms: Patriot Division 2 Viper Xtreme 16GB 1600MHZ
Mobo: MSI Z77A-GD55
Cooler: Hydro Series ™ H100 Corsair Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Case: Graphite Series™ 600T White Edition
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 SATA III de 2,5 " SSD 120GB
HHD: 1TB Segate Barracuda 7200RPM, 500GB Segate Barracuda 7200RPM
Backup: 3TB Segate GoFlex Home USB 3.0
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 680 Twin Frozr III OC edition
Teclado: Thermaltake Challenger Pro Red Ilimination
Mouse: Genius Mouse Maurus Gx Gaming
PSU: OCZ ZX SERIES 1000W Power Supply
LED: Asus LED 24"
Sound: Logitech X530 5.1


----------



## Jimmy2k9 (Aug 14, 2012)

Milton180 said:


> Process: Intel ® Core ™ i5-3570K procesador (cache 6M, hasta 3,80 GHz)
> Ramms: Patriot Division 2 Viper Xtreme 16GB 1600MHZ
> Mobo: MSI Z77A-GD55
> Cooler: Hydro Series ™ H100 Corsair Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
> ...



Well that certainly looks like a fun day!


----------



## Dos101 (Aug 17, 2012)

oooh can I join!? Love my Gigabyte 670 OC, even have my 9800GT paired with it for Physx.


----------



## ShiBDiB (Aug 17, 2012)

Just bought a GTX 670 FTW edition. Should be waiting for me when I get home from work


----------



## Irony (Aug 17, 2012)

Dos101 said:


> oooh can I join!? Love my Gigabyte 670 OC, even have my 9800GT paired with it for Physx.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/120817/IMG_1375.jpg
> 
> ...



Nice.  I've got the same card, lol. I've got it running 1370mhz on the core with only one click higher voltage adjustment from stock. I love this card.


----------



## Hilux SSRG (Aug 17, 2012)

Irony said:


> Nice.  I've got the same card, lol. I've got it running 1370mhz on the core with only one click higher voltage adjustment from stock. I love this card.



Yeah the gigabyte windforce cards look fantastic. 
Have you had any success with overclocking your card to 1400mhz?


----------



## Dos101 (Aug 17, 2012)

Irony said:


> Nice.  I've got the same card, lol. I've got it running 1370mhz on the core with only one click higher voltage adjustment from stock. I love this card.



Haha nice! Love this card, runs cool and oc's like a mofo. Mine's running at 1310 with no voltage tweaking. Gonna push it a little more this weekend. Very impressed with it so far.


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 19, 2012)

*Milton180 & DOS101* Welcome to the Club!

*TissueBox* Your card has been updated.... what a bad ass new card you have there!!!


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 19, 2012)

Adding some benchmarks for a little fun friendly comparison Funkengreuven are going to be having. Feel free to get in on this everyone. But here are my *(video card completely stock runs)* for Metro 2033, 3Dmark11, 3Dmark Vantage, and Heaven Benchmark 3.0. 
*Settings:*
Heaven and Metro 2033 were performed @ 1920x1080p on the highest settings possible. (Everything enabled) 3Dmark11 and 3Dmark Vantage were done on performance settings.

Here they are..... post your stock video card runs and overclocked runs.... I will be doing some overclocked runs tomorrow.

*Stock Clocks 3 Way GTX 680 SLI /+-0/+-0/+-0 1058 Core / 1502 Mem CPU = i7 3770K @ 4.5Ghz*


----------



## Irony (Aug 19, 2012)

Hilux SSRG said:


> Yeah the gigabyte windforce cards look fantastic.
> Have you had any success with overclocking your card to 1400mhz?



Haven't yet, but it's only another 30mhz, so I'm sure it's doable. Might try it tomorrow if I get a chance. It's late tonight...

@20mmrain: 3dmark11 and 06 wont post scores and crashes half the time with a system info error. I wonder if its a dx issue? Idk.


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 19, 2012)

Irony said:


> Haven't yet, but it's only another 30mhz, so I'm sure it's doable. Might try it tomorrow if I get a chance. It's late tonight...
> 
> @20mmrain: 3dmark11 and 06 wont post scores and crashes half the time with a system info error. I wonder if its a dx issue? Idk.



*see if this works.....*



> Q: I have issues with the SystemInfo scan at the start with 3DMark 11 – how do I fix this?
> 
> A: First make sure you have the latest patch installed – available here.
> 
> ...



*Or you can try this one I found for 3dmark06*



> Hello,
> 
> This is my guide on How to solve the 3dMark06 System Info Error in WinXP 32-Bit (Sorry, I know this is not a question but I could not a find a better place to post this than here). Sorry, I do not have Vista or Win7 available but I belive the fix should be similar. If not it gives you good grounds to find a solution on your own.
> 
> ...



*See if either of these fix your issue.*

*The last thing I would try is uninstall reboot and re install the programs.*


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 19, 2012)

*Small OC run 3 way GTX 680 SLI / +95/+132/+200 = 1215 Core/ 1603 Mem CPU i7 3770K @4.5Ghz*


----------



## Irony (Aug 20, 2012)

Thanks, I think one of those fixed it. it seems to be all better now.


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 20, 2012)

Irony said:


> Thanks, I think one of those fixed it. it seems to be all better now.



Awesome to hear bro! Glad I could help now start some benching.... I don't wanna be the only one out hear throwing up scores. I wanna see some of the GTX 600 series Lovin!


----------



## Irony (Aug 21, 2012)

Gpuz shots of speeds and such:






Here's my 3dmark11 score. I'm pretty proud of 10361 for GPU. I just have 3dmark11 basic so score is online: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4171652


Unigine Heaven:








Hilux SSRG said:


> Yeah the gigabyte windforce cards look fantastic.
> Have you had any success with overclocking your card to 1400mhz?



Yep, I did; just for you lol. Stable enough to run skyrim for a minute or two:


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 21, 2012)

Irony said:


> Gpuz shots of speeds and such:
> http://i.imgur.com/wPmAk.png
> 
> 
> ...



Jesus some nice runs you have there! I will do some 1 card only runs tonight. To see how a 680 stakcs up. Because that 670 you have there is a beast.

And a 1 or a 2 min run @ 1400mhz..... I don't think my card can get that high. I think that highest I have had one of my cards is 1342Mhz.

Nice job man!


----------



## Irony (Aug 21, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> Jesus some nice runs you have there! I will do some 1 card only runs tonight. To see how a 680 stakcs up. Because that 670 you have there is a beast.
> 
> And a 1 or a 2 min run @ 1400mhz..... I don't think my card can get that high. I think that highest I have had one of my cards is 1342Mhz.
> 
> Nice job man!



Thanks! 

I'll try at 1400, but I actually got better scores at 1240 than 1300. Idk why.


----------



## ShiBDiB (Aug 21, 2012)

Best part about my 670 FTW... things fricking silent


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 21, 2012)

Irony said:


> Thanks!
> 
> I'll try at 1400, but I actually got better scores at 1240 than 1300. Idk why.



So here is a single GTX 680 Reference @ 1324/1701 with a P Score of P10869 and a GPU score of 11083. This was done with my cpu @ 4.5 ghz. I feel that my score is stalling because my CPU is actually starting to hold back the overclock. I get this idea.... because of watching the FPS during the benchmark. In areas it looks like it is being capped @ 60fps and I know it is not because of V-sync. I may try to up my cpu overclock and see if it does make a difference in the GPU score.


----------



## Irony (Aug 22, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> So here is a single GTX 680 Reference @ 1324/1701 with a P Score of P10869 and a GPU score of 11083. This was done with my cpu @ 4.5 ghz. I feel that my score is stalling because my CPU is actually starting to hold back the overclock. I get this idea.... because of watching the FPS during the benchmark. In areas it looks like it is being capped @ 60fps and I know it is not because of V-sync. I may try to up my cpu overclock and see if it does make a difference in the GPU score.
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=48197&stc=1&d=1345589730



Very nice.

I got another 48 points lol. 25 more for GPU.  
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4183447


I'm having a conundrum. If I OC any higher my score drops by like 1000 or more points, even only 20mhz on memory or core clock. Is that normal or no? because It's still stable, it'll get through the benchmark just fine, just lower frames. Don't know why


----------



## bpgt64 (Aug 22, 2012)

Might I join you fine gents...currently rocking twin Gigabyte GTX 670s.


----------



## 20mmrain (Aug 22, 2012)

bpgt64 said:


> Might I join you fine gents...currently rocking twin Gigabyte GTX 670s.



Sure you can all I ask is to bench those suckers drop a screen shot of the benchmark and a GPU-Z shot.  Welcome


----------



## erixx (Sep 3, 2012)

Hello! I am new to this fine 6xx Club, I just got myself a Gigabyte 670OC.

I installed the Gigabyte OC Guru software and like it's simplicity, but it does not interact with Logitech LCD screens or as an transparancy, and it's Ctr-F1 shortcut does not work here. 
MSI Afterburner is just fine but a bit boring after using it from it's first version...

Now a question:

did anybody find the TIM (thermal paste) on the Gigabytes to be bad or not well applied? I didn't check and I am curious... (my temps are very good, but in the past it was my standard check, this time I was to anxious to play with it)


----------



## Raw (Sep 3, 2012)

*Heaven...No OC on CPU or GPU*

Completely stock with 1 video card, no OC at all. No OC on CPU or GPU.


----------



## erixx (Sep 4, 2012)

I got FPS 90 something with the stock 670OC and a i5@4600, shame the screenshot was all black...


----------



## rmfa (Sep 4, 2012)

I'm new here, here is my GTX680 SLI setup.











Asus P9X79 Pro 
Intel Core i7-3820 CPU @ 4.5GHz
Visiontek 4x4GB DDR3 2133MHz Quad Channel
240GB Visiontek Go SSD SATA III
PNY XLR8 Geforce GTX680 x2 SLI
Alienware Optx 23.6'' 120Hz 3D LCD 
Logitech THX 5.1 - Bose QuietComfort 2's
Logitech G5/G15/G25 -- OS: Win7 x64 Ultimate
Corsair H80 - Coolermaster Cosmos S


----------



## Flibolito (Sep 4, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> In areas it looks like it is being capped @ 60fps and I know it is not because of V-sync.



I have the same problem. Wondering if its the drivers doing it or whut, gameplay is fine just interesting.


----------



## rmfa (Sep 4, 2012)

Anath said:


> Lol I moved to an nvidia surround setup. I wasnt sure how two cards were going to handle the max resolution plus a minimum of 4x aa. Plus isnt that being an enthusiast is all about



Amen!  I test these cards for a living so I'm constantly swapping out.  I just went from an HD6990+HD6970 Trixfire setup.  Talk about noisy!  These GTX680's are near silent even at full tilt!


----------



## newconroer (Sep 7, 2012)

I am having the stuck 3d clocks issue on a single GTX 680.
After leaving a 3d program, the card does not return to 2d clocks.

I have made sure to set mouse program, web browser and anything else to adaptive power management, and it will not cease.

Rebooting is the only way to fix it.


----------



## puma99dk| (Sep 7, 2012)

newconroer said:


> I am having the stuck 3d clocks issue on a single GTX 680.
> After leaving a 3d program, the card does not return to 2d clocks.
> 
> I have made sure to set mouse program, web browser and anything else to adaptive power management, and it will not cease.
> ...



have u tried running GPU Shark to see what programs actually is using ur gfx even after u may have closed ur browser, and so on?

u can dl GPU Shark here: http://www.ozone3d.net/gpushark/


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 7, 2012)

I might start clocking my 680 this weekend even though it already runs everything I need perfectly. I want 1300-1350 on my card. Wonder how cooling will hold up though. My card gets kind of loud near 60%


----------



## ShiBDiB (Sep 7, 2012)

My FTW 670 is still blasting thru everything I throw at it and running completely silent.


----------



## Darkleoco (Sep 7, 2012)

Would like to be added if my 660m counts


----------



## Irony (Sep 8, 2012)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> I might start clocking my 680 this weekend even though it already runs everything I need perfectly. I want 1300-1350 on my card. Wonder how cooling will hold up though. My card gets kind of loud near 60%



Heh heh, Mines silent, and I even managed to hit 1410mhz


----------



## newconroer (Sep 8, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> have u tried running GPU Shark to see what programs actually is using ur gfx even after u may have closed ur browser, and so on?
> 
> u can dl GPU Shark here: http://www.ozone3d.net/gpushark/



I thought about it; but then I turned my global power management in the Nvidia panel to 'adaptive' and it made no change.

I reinstalled drivers over the current ones and it seems to be ok now.

Thanks though


----------



## puma99dk| (Sep 8, 2012)

newconroer said:


> I thought about it; but then I turned my global power management in the Nvidia panel to 'adaptive' and it made no change.
> 
> I reinstalled drivers over the current ones and it seems to be ok now.
> 
> Thanks though



good it seemsl ike to be oki, now but if it starts again take a look of what may causes the load on ur gfx.


----------



## erixx (Sep 8, 2012)

AIDA64 (not latest build but my paid update period is over):
GFX670 does only report
- GPU Fan speed
- GPU temp
- GPU Voltage

But Voltage is in fact indicative of MHZ ranges... 0,99 V is idling, 1,18 V is Load.

Just FYI... 

And remember, latest internet browsers and Flash want the GPU to run in 3D mode for their convenience/propaganda...


----------



## newconroer (Sep 8, 2012)

*Windowed modes causing 'stutter'*

I am noticing a lag/stutter/hitch in games when using windowed mode stretched to full screen size or 'fake' full screen windowed mode. The frames per second are 60 constantly, even while this happens. Best way to notice it is if you stand still and something moves by on screen, like snow or rain. It will be smooth and then there will be that moment something just doesn't flow correctly, then it goes back to seeming ok. There's no time that passes until it happens again, nor does it last for a specific duration.

If I switch to actual full screen it goes away.

Single Gigabyte 680 on 306.02 drivers.

It's almost similar to the weird anomaly we experienced in Skyrim, where you'd have 60 fps and when moving the camera around *particularly up and down* you'd get this stutter/shake effect (something related to the frame refreshing?). Using a program like Dxtory and capping at 59 frames solved the issue. However that was in full screen only. It would seem windowed modes create their own problem exclusively.

Is this just one of the downsides to windowed modes?

The irony is that I don't want to start using any windowed modes for multi monitor browsing or etc.; it's so that I can get the color profile to work in-game since Direct X titles override color schemes in Windows while in full screen.
ATi Tray tools had a hotkey option to let you manually apply while in a program, but Nvidia's control panel does not, which is why I've resorted to playing in fake full screen modes. 

I wish Nhancer was still supported.


----------



## spectrus77 (Sep 28, 2012)

Hi guys, my two bbs.


----------



## puma99dk| (Sep 29, 2012)

nice GTX 670 which i had one.


----------



## Animalpak (Sep 29, 2012)

spectrus77 said:


> Hi guys, my two bbs.
> 
> [url]http://imageshack.us/a/img33/2007/dscf1147u.jpg[/URL]



I have one too !!

I think this time can not sell it to buy one of the NextGen.

Keep it as a trophy ! Is a card with an impressive balance !


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Oct 7, 2012)

Got my Evga GTX680 Signature 2 card overclocked today. Stopped at 1275 core and 6408 memory for right now. Will continue tomorrow. Hoping I can do 1300-1325mhz on the core. I only needed to bump my power target to +110% for 1275 to keep it running at that.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Oct 7, 2012)

Thinking about experimenting with water cooling for my 680. Ive always wanted to try water cooling, but it was expensive, and now that I have a high paying job, I think I might start looking at parts for it.


----------



## the54thvoid (Oct 7, 2012)

I'm not in your club but water cooling is addictive.

We have a TPU clubhouse for it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52032&page=69

I've heard varied things about cooling the 680's (i.e. you don't need water) but if you like silence and want to make a hobby out of your PC, then water is the way.  As long as you dont cock it up!


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Oct 7, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> I'm not in your club but water cooling is addictive.
> 
> We have a TPU clubhouse for it.
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52032&page=69
> ...



Its just the Evga dual fan cooler gets kind of loud passed 55% and so I dont like the fan getting up near there, and then the temepratures get up to 70c and such so.


----------



## erocker (Oct 7, 2012)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> Its just the Evga dual fan cooler gets kind of loud passed 55% and so I dont like the fan getting up near there, and then the temepratures get up to 70c and such so.



Are you thinking of putting just the GPU on water or the CPU too?



erixx said:


> And remember, latest internet browsers and Flash want the GPU to run in 3D mode for their convenience/propaganda...




LOL!


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Oct 7, 2012)

erocker said:


> Are you thinking of putting just the GPU on water or the CPU too?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Just the GPU right now, as my 2500k runs at like 50c max at 4.5ghz.


----------



## Protagonist (Oct 27, 2012)

Finally my EVGA GTX 670 FTW 2GB is here, can a join the club now


----------



## dumo (Nov 7, 2012)

*Galaxy GTX 680 SOC White Ed*






Default settings


----------



## vawrvawerawe (Nov 13, 2012)

20mmrain said:


> I'll Start it off with mine!
> 
> 2 X EVGA GTX 680's SLI (Reference Cards) Water Cooled= EK Water Cooling Blocks w/ EK Backplates
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=46948&stc=1&d=1336236664



Nice. The graphics alone cost more than a complete high-end laptop.


----------



## Irony (Nov 13, 2012)

And the performance is double+ a high end laptop; and you get bragging rights; and it looks awesome; and it makes you feel happy inside lol. The list is endless


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Nov 13, 2012)

So I put my 680 on water cooling if ya'll haven't seen my thread on it. Water Cooling is fricken sweet! I need to swap out radiators though.


----------



## Irony (Nov 13, 2012)

What rad are you going to?


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Nov 13, 2012)

Irony said:


> What rad are you going to?



Alphacool NexXxos UT60. I need something thicker, double pass, and that doesnt need fans that run at 2000rpm to keep temps down.


----------



## Irony (Nov 13, 2012)

Thats gonna be pretty awesome. 240mm? When are you gonna add cpu?


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Nov 13, 2012)

Irony said:


> Thats gonna be pretty awesome. 240mm? When are you gonna add cpu?



When I go Haswell i think. Still cant decide on what full tower case to go with. I really like the Cooler Master Cosmos II, but it really expensive and doesnt have enough 5.25" slots. I want a case that has the zones type of design where theres the panel that sperates the mobo area from the PSU area.

Maybe sooner and just slap a fat 120rad into my case for the CPU, as Sandy bridge doesnt run too hot anyways. never gets higher then about 50-55 at load.


----------



## Irony (Nov 13, 2012)

Yeah that would be nice. Do you like the 800d? Its a nice monstrosity


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Nov 13, 2012)

Irony said:


> Yeah that would be nice. Do you like the 800d? Its a nice monstrosity



I would totally get the Switch 810 if it had the zones thing I was talking about.

I do really like the phantom 820 case, but theres just a lot of plastic!


----------



## Irony (Nov 13, 2012)

Yeah; tons of room for rads in 810. Theres also xigmatex elysium, it doesnt have the zones but its a frickin beast. Cosmos ii is an awesome case; cant beleive it only has 3 5.25 bays


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Nov 13, 2012)

I really do like the phantom though the more I look at it. Reminds of a Lamborghini Reventon haha.


----------



## Irony (Nov 13, 2012)

Oh yeah; the new phantom is really nice. I have a friend with the regular phantom, its well built. I dont really like the pointy asymmetrical nose and top, but the 820 is really nice


----------



## syeef (Nov 19, 2012)

*MSI GTX680 Twin Frozr III OC*


----------



## remixedcat (Nov 19, 2012)

Just got my new system with a GTX650Ti!!!!


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Nov 25, 2012)

My 680 sucks at overclocking. Cant even get 1300mhz stable, or BF3 just bricks itself! WTF.

I never have good luck with GPU overclocking!


----------



## TissueBox (Jan 8, 2013)

My new toy just came in today; ordered the GTX 680 Superclocked Signature+ on the 28th 

Full unboxing picture album: 
http://s1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj601/SGS_Raven/GTX 680 Superclocked Signature Plus/

The important ones:

































Unfortunately.. it was essentially DOA. Artifacts everywhere (During POST, Windows loading, desktop, stability testing) at stock, and while downclocked and/or overvolted. Kind of ticked off since TigerDirect.ca shipped the card from the States (Georgia) and it's $50+ to ship it back with UPS; sent a technical support e-mail to EVGA as well but I doubt they'll pay shipping to them.

I have had pretty bad luck with cards lately, with an overheating 7970 Matrix to this DOA 680


----------



## Irony (Jan 8, 2013)

TissueBox said:


> My new toy just came in today; ordered the GTX 680 Superclocked Signature+ on the 28th
> 
> Full unboxing picture album:
> http://s1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj601/SGS_Raven/GTX 680 Superclocked Signature Plus/
> ...



Thats a bummer. Mxphenom216 has nearly the same card, and his had issues getting hot. He has it on water now tho. Evga wouldnt do an Rma?


----------



## TissueBox (Jan 11, 2013)

Irony said:


> Thats a bummer. Mxphenom216 has nearly the same card, and his had issues getting hot. He has it on water now tho. Evga wouldnt do an Rma?



Thankfully I e-mailed EVGA - they were very prompt in their replies (<12 hours for each reply) and also very courteous. I got my BNIB (still in plastic wrapping) RMA card using cross-shipping today (they ship the replacement card first and I ship the defect card second) - it took four days in total, with just two e-mails being sent to them from me. Two days for the explanation, questions, and answers and two days for shipping - pretty darn good support I would say. The effort they took in packaging was also not "cheap" by any standards, with a relatively small cardboard box thoroughly filled with soft packing material. The technician who took my case also agreed to pay shipping to them; I got a pre-paid label e-mail the other day from UPS in less than 24 hours from when they agreed so that was very nice. All in all, it was a pleasant experience; I think they earned a very loyal customer.

Here are the two cards  The PITA on the top and the new working one on the bottom. Wish they both worked so I could poke fun at SLI.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jan 11, 2013)

Irony said:


> Thats a bummer. Mxphenom216 has nearly the same card, and his had issues getting hot. He has it on water now tho. Evga wouldnt do an Rma?



yeah, seems like Evga kepler cards are having a lot of issues, more specifically the Signature ones. A lot of people are reporting Artifacting and Display Driver has stop responding messages with cards at stock clock right out of the box.


----------



## Tennis97 (Jan 18, 2013)

May I join? 

System pic, this is how it stands




Info


----------



## ShiBDiB (Feb 20, 2013)

Just updated from a 670 FTW to this sexy 680 FTW.


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Feb 20, 2013)

I'll be joining this club soon,  got an msi gtx 680 oc  arriving tomorrow


----------



## Saybol (Mar 8, 2013)

*new to the club*

Hey guys, im new to the club, but not a new 680 owner. Just thought i would share my OC achievement.

I'm using the EVGA Signature+ SC edition. And these numbers are achieved using a modified BIOS i recently flashed my card with.. it raises the ceiling a little on the voltage limitations that it ships with allowing me to hit the hardware limit of 1.2125v instead of the software max of 1.175v. This is all on stock cooling, so it gets a little warm.. I was able to get it to 1356Mhz but anything above 1293Mhz is very unstable with my current cooling solution.

At this speed I'm able to game stable for hours.. I'm pretty happy with it.


----------



## Irony (Mar 8, 2013)

Nice Overclock. 

Is that the new unigine? I haven't checked it out. 

Also, is that a theme for windows or what? Looks rather awesome from the bit around the edges lol


----------



## Saybol (Mar 8, 2013)

Yeah, its the new Unigine Valley benchmark. The program itself is quicker than Heaven.. and instead of controlling tessellation on the fly you control weather effects and lens focusing. 

My desktop is made using a combination of Rainmeter and Objectdock. I tend to prefer the cleaner sleeker looks than the cluttered setup's you sometimes see on deviantart.


----------



## Milton180 (Mar 10, 2013)

Ok sold my MSI GTX 680 TFIII OC and now I did it with 2 GTX 660 Ti MSI Power Edition OC


----------



## Irony (Mar 11, 2013)

looks good.

What are the rest of your specs?


----------



## Milton180 (Mar 11, 2013)

Irony said:


> looks good.
> 
> What are the rest of your specs?




My Specs are:

CPU- i5 3570K Intel @4.2Ghz 
Mobo- MSI Z77A-GD55
Ram- Corsair Dominator Platinum 2133Mhz 16GB
GPU- 2 GTX 660 Ti MSI Power Edition OC SLI
SSD- OCZ Vertex III
HHD- Segate Barracuda 3TB 7200Rpm
PSU- OCZ ZX Series 1000W
Cooler- Corsair H100
Case- Corsair 600T Graphite


----------



## TheMailMan78 (Mar 11, 2013)

ShiBDiB said:


> Just updated from a 670 FTW to this sexy 680 FTW.
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=50123&stc=1&d=1361347530



Why? That wasn't anywhere near worth the money.


----------



## erocker (Mar 11, 2013)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> yeah, seems like Evga kepler cards are having a lot of issues, more specifically the Signature ones. A lot of people are reporting Artifacting and Display Driver has stop responding messages with cards at stock clock right out of the box.



Out of the five Evga cards I've owned, only one never had a problem. Thankfully Evga has  the best customer service I've ever dealt with.


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## DayKnight (Mar 11, 2013)




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## Irony (Mar 11, 2013)

Milton180 said:


> My Specs are:
> 
> CPU- i5 3570K Intel @4.2Ghz
> Mobo- MSI Z77A-GD55
> ...



Nice. I thought I saw some dominators in there 

Hows performance with those 660s compared to your 680?


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## Mindweaver (Mar 11, 2013)

Hey guys I want to join! I just bought a MSI GTX680 PE 2gb, and it so much faster than my GTX570 and GTX480.


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## Milton180 (Mar 12, 2013)

Ok here i put a difference between MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr III OC Vs GTX660s Ti MSI Power Edition OC SLI both tests were with stock GPU in ventage.

GTX680 Msi TF III OC Stock






2 GTX660Ti Msi Power Edition OC Stock


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## puma99dk| (Mar 12, 2013)

Milton180 said:


> Ok here i put a difference between MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr III OC Vs GTX660s Ti MSI Power Edition OC SLI both tests were with stock GPU in ventage.
> 
> GTX680 Msi TF III OC Stock
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35258706/FO...2012/DOMINATOR/Sistema2013/Benchmark 2013.png
> ...



well i still prefer one bigger cards than two smaller once, bcs it uses less power 
and there can be SLi profile issues sometimes using two cards u don't have that with only one ^^;


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## Saybol (Mar 21, 2013)

managed a killer firestrike score with a single 680. Because im using beta drivers they wont accept the score. But still.. im fairly satisfied.


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## newconroer (Jun 2, 2013)

Anyone familiar with boost parameters for the Keplers?


Check out my SLI setup. Notice anything odd about the clocks?
Note that my Afterburner power settings are the same for the 670 as they are for 680 shown in picture.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 21, 2013)

We should add GTX700 series to this club or just turn it into a Kepler owners club.


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## SeanJ76 (Jun 6, 2014)

2x Evga 670 GTX FTWs sli'ed@1319mhz core/3707mhz memory/145% pwr target(k-boost locked).














Don't plan on upgrading till the 880GTX comes out!!!


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## SeanJ76 (Jun 6, 2014)

A lot of people I know who also bought 670/680 Sli decided to sell them soon as the big boy GK-110(780ti) came out,  I'm sooooo glad I didn't jump on the bandwagon, I'm still super happy with my 670 FTW sli performance


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## Snowcharm (Jun 6, 2014)

My MSI 660


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## Toothless (Jun 26, 2014)

Brought here by Hilux SSRG while trying to OC my 660. Bumped the clock by 103 and the memory by 204.


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## peche (Dec 28, 2015)

got some interesting results, with my 680, also on some reviews all the capacities about the card, muscle 680!

How much owners of 600 series left?

Regards,


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## RealKGB (Apr 2, 2021)

peche said:


> got some interesting results, with my 680, also on some reviews all the capacities about the card, muscle 680!
> 
> How much owners of 600 series left?
> 
> Regards,


Still alive!
I'm running 2 EVGA GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB Superclocked Edition cards.
Not in SLI (yet).
They're still quite capable cards - except for Relics of the Past (Zelda BoTW mod)
Planning an upgrade to either 2 780 Ti's or a Titan Z.
Picture:



I know, I know, messy, but my case has literally no room for cable management (plus I have so much stuff packed inside I'd need 2cm of space in the back of my case to hide them all).

Top card runs 82C max under full F@H load, bottom card runs 78C max under full F@H load.

I repasted them with MX-4 in October.


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## Toothless (Apr 2, 2021)

Honestly.. SLI isn't worth it. I ran two 780's and was having more issues than it was worth. Titan Z is a waste of money to be honest and gets stomped by anything 3xxx or 6xxx. Just wait for pricing to get better and go single.


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## RealKGB (Apr 2, 2021)

Toothless said:


> Honestly.. SLI isn't worth it. I ran two 780's and was having more issues than it was worth. Titan Z is a waste of money to be honest and gets stomped by anything 3xxx or 6xxx. Just wait for pricing to get better and go single.


I don't care too much.
I don't need great performance (max 30 FPS on RoTP and everything else runs fine on my cards) and I'd like to play around with SLI.
Plus AMD GPU drivers do not like my PC and only Kepler has macOS with hardware acceleration support.


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## Toothless (Apr 2, 2021)

ragnarok0275 said:


> I don't care too much.
> I don't need great performance (max 30 FPS on RoTP and everything else runs fine on my cards) and I'd like to play around with SLI.
> Plus AMD GPU drivers do not like my PC and only Kepler has macOS with hardware acceleration support.


I mean, NVIDIA drivers don't like SLI since they disabled it. Maybe Kepler can't run newest drivers, iunno. I'd love those cards for display outputs and NVENC encoding and I dearly miss my 660. Payday is soon..


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## RealKGB (Apr 2, 2021)

Toothless said:


> I mean, NVIDIA drivers don't like SLI since they disabled it. Maybe Kepler can't run newest drivers, iunno.


I was running 461.72 but then I got weird GPU bugs.
So I guess it "supports" it but not really.
456.71 runs fine for me though and that's what I'll stick with.


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## Toothless (Apr 2, 2021)

ragnarok0275 said:


> I was running 461.72 but then I got weird GPU bugs.
> So I guess it "supports" it but not really.
> 456.71 runs fine for me though and that's what I'll stick with.


I guess as long as you don't run into games that are "against it" (less performance with SLI on), no VRAM issues, and don't mind more power draw then sure. I loved the physical look of SLI and a full case but that's been years long gone.


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## Irony (Apr 2, 2021)

Haha that's fun to see, there's not much SLI happening these days. I went mini ITX a while ago, but before that I had a couple crossfire setups. Idk if multi gpu is really worth it but I fully support it


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## Toothless (Apr 2, 2021)

Irony said:


> Haha that's fun to see, there's not much SLI happening these days. I went mini ITX a while ago, but before that I had a couple crossfire setups. Idk if multi gpu is really worth it but I fully support it


Yeah I killed off my dream of having a 690 because of all that junk. Maybe if encoding used both GPUs for sure for video editing but meh. I'll go with a 780 or something like that.


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## Cheese_On_tsaot (Aug 6, 2021)

I have a 650 Ti with a Core 2 Duo overclocked to 3.7ghz with 1066 DDR2 RAM with Win XP installed, honestly the 650 Ti is amazing for such a rig, if you have anything that requires XP, a joy to use.


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## Rorre (Dec 17, 2021)

My 2 EVGA GTX 660SC 3GB ver that I ran in SLI for 6 years, never a bsd, max temp never exceeded 85C during extreme benchmarking. Ran them in a big CoolerMaster case with good airflow, in combo with 3770k and Asus z77 deluxe mb, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance and EVO 860 512GB boot ssd. I rarely noticed stutter (1080p), but I suspect that’s because of the 3GB of DDR5 ram. Hard to find reviews or benchmarks on these 3GB versions. I know MSI made a TwinFrozer edition. Awesome machine, now using GTX1070.


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## Rorre (Dec 22, 2021)

My CoolerMaster CM 690 II (VER.2), with the Asus Z77 Deluxe motherboard hosting my two EVGA GTX 660 3GB editions in SLI, from 2012-2018. Most fun I ever had. I miss SLI, so sad to see its demise.


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