NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 SLI

[W1zzard]

Today NVIDIA released their GeForce GTX 670 which caught the enthusiast market by surprise, bringing outstanding performance and decent pricing to this segment. Now we put two of these cards in a dual card SLI configuration on our shiny new Ivy Bridge PCI-Express 3.0 setup to investigate whether it has the potential to be used in ultra-high end killer gaming rigs.

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[Benetanegia]

It's almost as if Nvidia didn't want to sell GTX 680 anymore. (Or 690 for that matter)

There's been a lot of rumors and theories about why the GTX 670 took so long. Well now we have the answer and with SLI review the answer is complete.

And W1zz thanks for you dedication. I was expecting the SLI review for tomorrow and just enterd TPU one last time after I took dinner and found the SLI review. That's why we come to TPU.

 

[SK-1]

680 price drop soon? lol

 

[the54thvoid]

It's almost as if Nvidia didn't want to sell GTX 680 anymore.

There's been a lot of rumors and theories about why the GTX 670 took so long. Well now we have the answer and with SLI review the answer is complete.

Stock piling chips for 670? Easier to fuse off some dysfunctional clusters? It is odd they have so few 680's yet so many 670's at launch.

Even funnier is the pointlessness of 680 sli and 690 cards now. The 670 is killing everything nearby - red or green, it doesn't discriminate. It's a tiny monster psycho card.

680 price drop soon? lol

Better hope it's not a 670 price RISE!!!

 

[Xzibit]

I just want to say I'm so mad I spent $1,000+ on a GTX 680 SLI setup or a GTX 690 less then 2 weeks ago. Errr i'm so furious.


Oh, wait I didn't

 

[Benetanegia]

Stock piling chips for 670? Easier to fuse off some dysfunctional clusters? It is odd they have so few 680's yet so many 670's at launch.

We'll see, but I don't think there's so few 680's according to Steam HW survey, in its first 2 months after release the 680 sold at the same rate as the HD7970 did in its 2 months, and there's more 680's than the two HD7800 SKUs combined despite being 2 weeks more on the shelves. Demand was just very high IMO. We'll see in the coming weeks if a lot more 680's start being in stock and 670's dissapear.

Maybe they do have yields problems (beyond what's normal on a new chip on a new process), but I seriously doubt it. They would have released the GTX670 a lot sooner at $450, probably at the same time as the GTX680 which would have come at $550, if they had yield issues. Hell, looking at how close both cards are they would have done something like with GTX480 (disable one cluster, higher clocks, i.e GTX670 with 680 clocks or higher) if they had yield issues. Anything would have been better than putting their own GTX680 to waste like this if the GTX670 delay was due to yields and not simply because it performs so close it renders almost every other card obsolete.

 

[Crap Daddy]

The 690 is in very short supply. It will be like those very rare vinyl records with limited pressing for collectors. The marketing move, on the other hand was great. There will be no faster dual card this generation around. The 680 is the king of the single cards so that's it. Still better for surround resolutions. The 670 will sell like hotcakes. I didn't forget about about the 660TI which will probably be 10% slower than the 670 for 300$. Then you might say that it will eat the 670 when overclocked!

 

[MicroUnC]

Interesting! I might be putting 2 of these in my system

 

[Benetanegia]

I didn't forget about about the 660TI which will probably be 10% slower than the 670 for 300$. Then you might say that it will eat the 670 when overclocked!

From Nvidia's perspective a 660 Ti makes very little sense tbh. I'd love that card, especially if it is the exact same thing as the 670 is to the 680. I might even snatch one of those, despite the fact I said I wouldn't get one this generation. But at this point it makes so little sense IMO.

Also maybe not the place to discuss this, but the GTX670 kind of confirms that GK104 has more shaders than it is capable of using efficiently. GK107 chips were already a hint, performing a lot better in relation to their number of shaders and Fermi, the 690 was also a hint of "scaling issues" if we can call that by being able to match GTX680 SLI which should have been faster and the 670 confirms it IMO. I know it sounds very weird to talk about inefficiencies and scaling issues in these cards that are awesome, but I think that a GK104 with say 1024 SPs wouldn't have been much worse than it is. If I had to guess, Nvidia just figured out that they could throw some more SPs in there since Kepler architecture produces chips that are so tiny.

 

[Xzibit]

From Nvidia's perspective a 660 Ti makes very little sense tbh. I'd love that card, especially if it is the exact same thing as the 670 is to the 680. I might even snatch one of those, despite the fact I said I wouldn't get one this generation. But at this point it makes so little sense IMO.

Rumor has it the GTX 660 will be this big Super Top-Secret and un-true but lets pretend it is

 

[thematrix606]

Wizz, why no microstuttering analysis ever on SLI? That's the FIRST thing I would look at to consider SLI or Xfire.

 

[LifeOnMars]

I agree, I think it's time that reviews referenced potential microstuttering issues. These babies look very tempting for a future build.

 

[Frick]

Nvidia shot AMD and themselves in the foot here.

 

[dj-electric]

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_670_SLI/images/perfrel_2560.gif
Danger close period.

 

[fwix]

agree about the micro stuttering stuff for the sli-crossfire setup gtx 590 gtx 690 gtx 670s gtx 680s hd 7970s hd 7950s

maybe in the next reviews ?

ps: i have a gtx 590 @780/950 (games : 1080p max out quality ) i never notice any stuttering with the latest driver 300.xx - 296.xx

 

[alexsubri]

Well done Nvidia ...I am waiting for ATI's response ..(if they even have one _

 

[_JP_]

The GTX 690 is still a sexier card and the GTX 680 has the power and looks of a proper top-of-the-line card. Those will still sell. Thank you for this review, W1zzard. Very useful.

Nvidia shot AMD and themselves in the foot here.

Twice.

 

[W1zzard]

Wizz, why no microstuttering analysis ever on SLI? That's the FIRST thing I would look at to consider SLI or Xfire.

proper microstuttering analysis can only be done using a highspeed camera to analyse what you see. don't trust those frametime analysis.

send me a highspeed cam and you'll get your testing. this is on my purchase list right after the thermal camera

 

[dj-electric]

Can't tell if trolling or reviewing like a boss

 

[MxPhenom 216]

JESUS! I want 670 SLI!

 

[PopcornMachine]

Very impressive. But I'm still not paying $800 for GPUs.

 

[1c3d0g]

Jesus! NVIDIA'S GTX 670 is going to be the most wanted tech gear of 2012 by FAR!

 

[nikko]

670 SLI will be outperformed by 780.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

670 SLI will be outperformed by 780.

in 2014 that is

 

[Anggoro]

670 SLI will be outperformed by 780.

means the 780 will be near the double of 680?
now that's worth the wait, if it's ever possible.