With memory boosted to 4GB and factory overclocked, the GIGABYTE Windforce GTX670 looks to be a seriously powerful graphics card…
Product on Review: GV-N670OC-4GD
Manufacturer and Sponsor: GIGABYTE
Street Price: £350
The NVIDIA GTX670 has impressed the enthusiast community with its near GTX680 performance thanks to the same Kepler GK104 core applied to the flagship model. The reference NVIDIA GTX670 comes complete with 2GB (2048MB) of GDDR5 memory but GIGABYTE have seen fit to double this amount to 4GB (4096MB) with thier latest graphics card, the GIGABYTE GTX670 Windforce x3 OC. As the name suggests, this GTX670 also comes pre-overclocked to a respectable 980MHz which is some 65MHz over reference speed equating to a 6.6% increase. The star of the show though is of course that delicious Windforce cooler which in our eyes, is the best GPU cooler we have had the pleasure of handling here at Vortez. The Windforce design comes in either two or three fan guise and it is the latter that graces this graphics card.
With three fans cooling a massive heatsink, we expect temperatures to be very good with this GTX670 which should hopefully allow us to push the factory overclock a little further without suffering from throttling in GPU boost. If todays review sample is anything like the GIGABYTE GTX680 Windforce we reviewed earlier which incidently was a Gold award winner, then it looks set to take the mid/high end crown.
Here’s what GIGABYTE had to say about their product:
GIGABYTE introduces the latest exclusive WINDFORCE™ 3X cooling solution with “Triangle Cool” Technology to reach a better cooling performance. The latest patent pending technology combines fin with clip module in a special triangle shape. With the original anti-turbulence structure plus the new triangle cooling design, it enhances the efficiency of heat dissipation dramatically by minimizing the flow of turbulence between fans. Compared with traditional linear solution fansink, the dissipation area increases 70% and the dissipation performance is 35% better. Furthermore, the dissipation performance can achieve 450W, but the noise under FurMark is only 28.3 dB. Furthermore, the new WINDFORCE™ 3X 450W Cooling Solution Technology provides a more efficient air flow and better performance for the cooling system.
Specification
It is over two yearssince we saw the introduction of NVIDIA’s Fermi, NVIDIA’s previous architectural change. The GF100 featured 512 stream processors in a 16×32 format built by TSMC in a 40nm process. Sporting OpenGL 4.0 and DirectX 11, enthusiasts climbed over each other to get the latest and greatest GPU from NVIDIA. While the performance was there, power efficiency was very poor with the cards consuming lots of power and running very hot.
Enter the 5 series 8 months later and many would say the GTX580 was the card the GTX480 should have been. It was more powerful thanks to the fully unlocked memory controller (6x64bit), ran cooler and thus became a firm favourite among the high end GPU market.
For a little over a year the GTX580 enjoyed sitting atop of the GPU pile (save for dual GPU variants) and it wasn’t until the AMD HD7970 emerged in December 2011 that the GTX580 lost it’s performance crown. NVIDIA however had not been resting on their laurels…
Kepler Core
The successor to Fermi is codenamed Kepler. Listening to feedback of Fermi from gamers around the world, NVIDIA sought to create a graphics card that was not only the best money could buy in terms of performance but crucially it had to run cool and quiet to make for a power efficient model. Kepler addresses these issues in two ways, GPU Boost which we will discuss further in our overclocking section of the review and a redesigned streaming multiprocessor.
The GTX670 is equipped with the same GK104 core of the GTX680 which NVIDIA claim is their highest and most power efficient GPU to date. Fabricated on the 28nm process, every component was designed with power efficiency in mind to ensure the GPU gave the best performance-per-watt possible.
While the 28nm manufacturing process holds the bulk of the power saving features, the way the new architecture works is also key to furthering Kepler’s power reduction. SMX, an evolution of the SM from Fermi is NVIDIA’s new streaming multiprocessor:
GTX680 Kepler Core
To feed the new SMX, each unit has four warp schedulers, each capable of firing off two instructions per warp, every clock. With a redesigned scheduling function, the GTX680 is a lot less complex and much more streamlined allowing the compiler to determine which instructions will be issued and can provide this information direct to the hardware block rather than going around the houses using Multi-port decode and a register scoreboard along with the dependency check before the information gets issued. This method is both quicker and more importantly, more power efficient.
GTX670 x7 SMX
The Block diagram above shows the Kepler core layout with one less SMX than it’s bigger brother, the flagship GTX680.
Perhaps the biggest change to the processor core is the omission of the old Shader Clock. The shader clock was getting tired as it was part of the old Tesla architecture which was implemented as an area optimisation. Because of the way Kepler executes instructions at a much more streamlined manner and at a higher clock rate, fewer copies of the execution unit need be made.
Another improvement over Fermi with the introduction of SMX is the redesigned Polymorph engine (2.0). The Polymorph engine takes card of the tessellation workload of the GTX680. The design of the new Polymorph engine is to ensure that the tessellation we see on screen has little (as possible) impact on the rendering performance. What you may find bizarre though is that NVIDIA have cut the Polymorph engine count in half to 8 from Fermi’s 16 yet claim it is almost twice as quick. This is thanks to the improved core an memory clockpeed.
Overall then, it seems NVIDIA have outdone themselves. Higher clockspeeds on both core and memory, 3x the amount of stream processors yet streamlined by eliminating the shader clock to cut the amount of power consumption without compromising overall performance.
Here are the official specifications of the NVIDIA GTX670:
Processing Units
Graphics Processing Clusters
7 SMXs
1344 CUDA Cores
112 Texture Units
32 ROP Units
Clock Speeds
915 MHZ Base Clock
980 MHz Boost Clock
6008 MHz Memory Clock (Data rate)
512KB MHz L2 Cache Size
Memory
2048MB Memory Total Video Memory
256-bit GDDR5 Memory Interface
192.2 GB/s Total Memory Bandwidth
102.5 GigaTexels/sec GB/s Texture Filtering Rate (Bilinear)
Physical
28 nm Transistor Count
3.54 Billion Connectors
2 x Dual-Link DVI 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort Form Factor
Dual Slot Power Connectors
2 x 6-pin Recommended Power Supply
Power & Thermal
500 Watts Thermal Design Power (TDP)1
170 Watts Thermal Threshold2
98° C
Graphics Processing Clusters
7 SMXs
1344 CUDA Cores
112 Texture Units
32 ROP Units
Clock Speeds
915 MHZ Base Clock
980 MHz Boost Clock
6008 MHz Memory Clock (Data rate)
512KB MHz L2 Cache Size
Memory
2048MB Memory Total Video Memory
256-bit GDDR5 Memory Interface
192.2 GB/s Total Memory Bandwidth
102.5 GigaTexels/sec GB/s Texture Filtering Rate (Bilinear)
Physical
28 nm Transistor Count
3.54 Billion Connectors
2 x Dual-Link DVI 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort Form Factor
Dual Slot Power Connectors
2 x 6-pin Recommended Power Supply
Power & Thermal
500 Watts Thermal Design Power (TDP)1
170 Watts Thermal Threshold2
98° C
GIGABYTE GTX670 Windforce OC Specification
Chipset- GeForce GTX 670
PCB Form[/b-] ATX
Core Clock- Base clock: 980 MHz
Boost clock:- 1058 MHz
(standard Base clock:- 915 MHz
Boost clock:[/b-] 980 MHz)
Memory Clock- 6008 MHz
Process Technology- 28 nm
Memory Size- 4096 MB
Memory Bus- 256 bit
Card Bus- PCI-E 3.0
Memory Type- GDDR5
DirectX- 11
OpenGL- 4.2
I/O- Dual-link DVI-I*1, DVI-D*1, DisplayPort*1, HDMI *1
Digital max resolution- 2560 x 1600
Analog max resolution- 2048 x 1536
Multi-view- 4
Card size- H=62 mm, L=295 mm, W=129 mm
Power requirement- 550 W
Chipset- GeForce GTX 670
PCB Form[/b-] ATX
Core Clock- Base clock: 980 MHz
Boost clock:- 1058 MHz
(standard Base clock:- 915 MHz
Boost clock:[/b-] 980 MHz)
Memory Clock- 6008 MHz
Process Technology- 28 nm
Memory Size- 4096 MB
Memory Bus- 256 bit
Card Bus- PCI-E 3.0
Memory Type- GDDR5
DirectX- 11
OpenGL- 4.2
I/O- Dual-link DVI-I*1, DVI-D*1, DisplayPort*1, HDMI *1
Digital max resolution- 2560 x 1600
Analog max resolution- 2048 x 1536
Multi-view- 4
Card size- H=62 mm, L=295 mm, W=129 mm
Power requirement- 550 W
Features
Ultra Durable VGA™
GPU Temperature 5%~10% down
Ultra Durable VGA board provides dramatic cooling effect on lowering both GPU and memory temperature by doubling the copper inner layer of PCB. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA can lower GPU temperature by 5% to 10%.
Overclocking Capability 10%~30% Up
Ultra Durable VGA board reduces voltage ripples in normal and transient state, thus effectively lowers noises and ensures higher overclocking capability. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA graphic accelerators improve overclocking capability by 10% to 30%.
Power Switching Loss 10%~30% Down
Ultra Durable VGA board allows more bandwidth for electron passage and reduces circuit impedance. The less circuit impedance, the more stable flow of current and can effectively improve power efficiency. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA can lower power switching loss by 10% to 30%.
OC GURU ll
Brand-new instinctive user interface, easier to monitoring and adjusting all important settings. Users can set up MONITORING, GPU CLOCK, MEMORY CLOCK, FAN, GPU VOLTAGE, Memory VOLTAGE, OSD, ONLINE SUPPORT and update driver, BIOS directly.
SMX
Kepler GPUs feature our next-generation Streaming Multiprocessor, SMX. To improve performance, SMX features substantially more shader, texture, and geometry processing units, while the double speed processor clock present in prior GeForce GPUs has been eliminated in favor of more CUDA cores operating at the lower-speed graphics clock. This change dramatically improves Kepler’s performance per watt.
GPU Boost
GPU Boost dynamically adjusts the GPU’s clock speed automatically based on GPU operating conditions. Dedicated hardware circuitry constantly monitors GPU power consumption. GPU Boost automatically adjusts clocks to achieve the maximum possible clock speed while remaining within a predefined power target. GPU Boost operates completely autonomously with no game profiles and no intervention required by the end user, providing an instant performance boost to gamers.
Anti-Aliasing
NVIDIA FXAA technology harnesses the power of the GPU’s CUDA Cores to reduce visible aliasing. It is applied with other post-processing steps like motion blur and bloom. For game engines making use of deferred shading, FXAA provides a performance and memory advantage over deferred shading with multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA). FXAA reduces but does not completely eliminate shader aliasing. FXAA’s chief advantage over traditional MSAA is higher performance. In many cases, FXAA can be applied at a cost of 1ms per frame or less, resulting in frame rates that are often 2x higher than 4xMSAA with comparable image quality.
TXAA is a new film-style AA technique that’s designed to exploit GeForce GTX 690’s high texture performance. TXAA combines the raw power of MSAA with sophisticated resolve filters similar to those employed in CG films. TXAA is available with two modes: TXAA 1 and TXAA 2. TXAA 1 offers visual quality on par with 8xMSAA with the performance similar to 2xMSAA, while TXAA 2 offers image quality that’s superior to 8xMSAA, with performance comparable to 4xMSAA.
HDMI Support
NVIDIA offer the HDMI functionality to provide access to premium digital content. HDMI enables gaming enthusiasts to seamlessly connect to their LCD monitor to bring the ultimate multimedia experience. (Only 1 single HDMI cable is required while streaming audio/video data to flat-panel display devices, such as Plasma/LCD TVs, or projector.)
NVIDIA 3D Vision
NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ technology is a combination of Graphics Processor Units (GPU), specialized 3D glasses, software, and certified displays and projectors that deliver an immersive 3D experience on your PC or workstation. For a complete list of system requirements for NVIDIA 3D Vision Technology
NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround
NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround expands your field of view across three 3D monitors for Breathtaking panoramic gaming. At an ultra-wide resolution of 5760×1080, games like Battlefield Bad Company 2 have to be played to be believed.
CUDA
CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel computing architecture that enables dramatic increases in computing performance by harnessing the power of the GPU to speed up the most demanding tasks you can run on your PC.
SLI
NVIDIA SLI technology links multiple GeForce GPUs together for dramatically improved graphics performance. With over 1000 supported applications and used by over 94% of multi-GPU PCs on Steam, SLI is the technology of choice for gamers who demand the very best.
NVIDIA PureVideo
Blu-ray and HD DVD movies are bringing a new level of movie-viewing experience; with high-definition image quality far surpassing standard-definition DVDs. NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD2 technology provides unsurpassed Blu-ray and HD DVD movie picture quality.
Dual Link DVI
Dual-link DVI convertible output supports Video/Audio signal integration through DVI to HDMI interface, which drivers resolution of a digital display up to 1920×1200 or higher.
PhysiX
PhysX™ is designed specifically for hardware acceleration by powerful processors with hundreds of cores. Combined with the tremendous parallel processing capability of the GPU, PhysX™ will provide an exponential increase in physics processing power and will take gaming to a new level delivering rich, immersive physical gaming environments
GPU Temperature 5%~10% down
Ultra Durable VGA board provides dramatic cooling effect on lowering both GPU and memory temperature by doubling the copper inner layer of PCB. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA can lower GPU temperature by 5% to 10%.
Overclocking Capability 10%~30% Up
Ultra Durable VGA board reduces voltage ripples in normal and transient state, thus effectively lowers noises and ensures higher overclocking capability. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA graphic accelerators improve overclocking capability by 10% to 30%.
Power Switching Loss 10%~30% Down
Ultra Durable VGA board allows more bandwidth for electron passage and reduces circuit impedance. The less circuit impedance, the more stable flow of current and can effectively improve power efficiency. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA can lower power switching loss by 10% to 30%.
OC GURU ll
Brand-new instinctive user interface, easier to monitoring and adjusting all important settings. Users can set up MONITORING, GPU CLOCK, MEMORY CLOCK, FAN, GPU VOLTAGE, Memory VOLTAGE, OSD, ONLINE SUPPORT and update driver, BIOS directly.
SMX
Kepler GPUs feature our next-generation Streaming Multiprocessor, SMX. To improve performance, SMX features substantially more shader, texture, and geometry processing units, while the double speed processor clock present in prior GeForce GPUs has been eliminated in favor of more CUDA cores operating at the lower-speed graphics clock. This change dramatically improves Kepler’s performance per watt.
GPU Boost
GPU Boost dynamically adjusts the GPU’s clock speed automatically based on GPU operating conditions. Dedicated hardware circuitry constantly monitors GPU power consumption. GPU Boost automatically adjusts clocks to achieve the maximum possible clock speed while remaining within a predefined power target. GPU Boost operates completely autonomously with no game profiles and no intervention required by the end user, providing an instant performance boost to gamers.
Anti-Aliasing
NVIDIA FXAA technology harnesses the power of the GPU’s CUDA Cores to reduce visible aliasing. It is applied with other post-processing steps like motion blur and bloom. For game engines making use of deferred shading, FXAA provides a performance and memory advantage over deferred shading with multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA). FXAA reduces but does not completely eliminate shader aliasing. FXAA’s chief advantage over traditional MSAA is higher performance. In many cases, FXAA can be applied at a cost of 1ms per frame or less, resulting in frame rates that are often 2x higher than 4xMSAA with comparable image quality.
TXAA is a new film-style AA technique that’s designed to exploit GeForce GTX 690’s high texture performance. TXAA combines the raw power of MSAA with sophisticated resolve filters similar to those employed in CG films. TXAA is available with two modes: TXAA 1 and TXAA 2. TXAA 1 offers visual quality on par with 8xMSAA with the performance similar to 2xMSAA, while TXAA 2 offers image quality that’s superior to 8xMSAA, with performance comparable to 4xMSAA.
HDMI Support
NVIDIA offer the HDMI functionality to provide access to premium digital content. HDMI enables gaming enthusiasts to seamlessly connect to their LCD monitor to bring the ultimate multimedia experience. (Only 1 single HDMI cable is required while streaming audio/video data to flat-panel display devices, such as Plasma/LCD TVs, or projector.)
NVIDIA 3D Vision
NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ technology is a combination of Graphics Processor Units (GPU), specialized 3D glasses, software, and certified displays and projectors that deliver an immersive 3D experience on your PC or workstation. For a complete list of system requirements for NVIDIA 3D Vision Technology
NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround
NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround expands your field of view across three 3D monitors for Breathtaking panoramic gaming. At an ultra-wide resolution of 5760×1080, games like Battlefield Bad Company 2 have to be played to be believed.
CUDA
CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel computing architecture that enables dramatic increases in computing performance by harnessing the power of the GPU to speed up the most demanding tasks you can run on your PC.
SLI
NVIDIA SLI technology links multiple GeForce GPUs together for dramatically improved graphics performance. With over 1000 supported applications and used by over 94% of multi-GPU PCs on Steam, SLI is the technology of choice for gamers who demand the very best.
NVIDIA PureVideo
Blu-ray and HD DVD movies are bringing a new level of movie-viewing experience; with high-definition image quality far surpassing standard-definition DVDs. NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD2 technology provides unsurpassed Blu-ray and HD DVD movie picture quality.
Dual Link DVI
Dual-link DVI convertible output supports Video/Audio signal integration through DVI to HDMI interface, which drivers resolution of a digital display up to 1920×1200 or higher.
PhysiX
PhysX™ is designed specifically for hardware acceleration by powerful processors with hundreds of cores. Combined with the tremendous parallel processing capability of the GPU, PhysX™ will provide an exponential increase in physics processing power and will take gaming to a new level delivering rich, immersive physical gaming environments
Packaging & Accessories
The GIGABYTE GTX670 Windforce OC come packaged in an attractive navy blue box with a neon ‘eye’ dominating the front of the package. To the left are the main features, 980MHz, Windforce and a claim of 28.3dB while under the extreme stresses of Furmark utility.
Flipping the box over we find that GIGABYTE have gone into great detail describing the Windforce cooler with a 3D diagram showing the airflow properties. Also shown is a line diagram of the IO back plate along with a basic rundown of the cards features in multiple languages.
The accessory list is short but sweet containing a user guide, a couple of MOLEX to PCIe 6 and 8 pin power points. Last of all you get a GIGABYTE Utility CD containing the GPU driver and utilities.
First Look
The top of the card is dominated by the huge Windforce x3 cooler. The 3 60mm fans are made from translucent plastic with a smoked tinge to them. The fans are held in position by a black moulded plastic shroud which appears to be flimsy but is actually quite sturdy.
Flipping the card over we see that GIGABYTE have stuck to the trademark blue PCB which while attractive may limit your colour scheme if you are so inclined. Looking closer, we also find that there are 8 memory modules (8x256MB). These modules hail from Samsung so should be good for overclocking. The same modules are also used innermost which we will see on the next page.
The cards profile shows off the aluminium fins of the heatsink with a hint of copper tubing thrown in for good measure. A sliver of steel acts as a brace for the lengthy card which measures 295mm in length with the main heatsink overhanging the PCB by 27mm (included in overall length measurement).
The I/O area features the following ports: Dual-link DVI-I x 1, DVI-D x 1, DisplayPort x 1 and a single HDMI port. As you can see, the card has a triple slot backplate but the card itself is little more than dual slot.
The GIGABYTE GTX670 Windforce requires a further 2 pins of power over the reference design with a 6+8 configuration. GIGABYTE recommend a PSU of 550W to power this graphics card.
Being a high end graphic card it should come as no surprise that it is both PCIe 3.0 and SLI capable. With two SLI tabs it can be potentially be used with 3 other cards in a Quad SLI setup should you have a case big enough to accomodate three four triple slot graphics cards!
Overall, the GIGABYTE GTX670 Windforce OC is near identical to it’s bigger brother the GTX680 Windforce. The GTX670 variant does however have double the memory of it’s bigger brother so should perform better at the highest resolutions where memory consumption becomes a factor. Presently, there are few games that will throttle a card with 2GB but it is always nice to have that extra available, especially when multiple filters are applied.
Let’s delve a little deeper and examine the Windforce cooler and PCB components…
Closer Look
]The Windforce cooler was very easy to remove with just four spring loaded screws holding the heatsink in position.
With the heatsink removed we can see that it is split into two sections, each connected by 3x 8mm heatpipes. the main section deals with providing direct contact to the GK104 core via the three copper heatsinks. This is by far the most efficient cooling method.
As you can see from the picture above, the core contact to the heatpipes was near perfect with just the right amount of thermal interface material used.
A further aluminium heatsink can be found covering the voltage regulation module area which is held in place by a further two screws and is totally independent of the main heatsink assembly.
With hte main heatsink removed we see that the GPU core is framed by a further 8 memory modules, each being 256MB in size and again, hailing from Samsung. Interestingly, the same horizontal VRM layout is used on this card as it was with the GTX680 version.
Removing the VRM heatsink we see that there are 6 inductors hidden beneath, one more than the GTX680 with a further 2 inductors for the memory making a 6+2 phase power design. Each inductor powering the core has 3 MOSFETs for company.
Unlike the GTX680 version which utilises HYNIX memory, this graphics card uses Samsung modules with a product code of K4G20325FD FC03 which tells is that they require 1.455Vdd.
The modules are a mirror image of what is found on the back of the card and incorporate Flip Chip technology:
DRAM memory devices are most commonly supplied in BGA packages, and Samsung’s Flip Chip technology ensures that the devices offer the highest levels of performance in terms of both speed and power consumption. Flip Chip technology also ensures lower levels of stray capacitances and lead inductances, improving noise immunity for the device.
Lastly, we reach to beating heart of the GTX670, the awesomely powerful GK104 core. It may have one SMX less than the GTX680 but with an additional 2GB of memory to play with, this card is sure to appeal to those looking for huge power with minimal compromises.
Test Setup
With the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.
Some of the components for our test bench were kindly donated by CORSAIR who provided the majority of components without whom we would not have been able to bring you this review so a big thanks to them.
Graphics cards on test:
Graphics cards on test:
GIGABYTE GTX670 WINDFORCEX3 OC 4GB GDDR5 OVERCLOCKED
GIGABYTE GTX670 WINDFORCEX3 OC 4GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! Extreme Edition 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! Extreme Edition 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE GTX650 Ti 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX650 Ti 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD7770 1GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE GTX680 Super Overclock
MSI GTX680 Twin Frozr 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! Edition 2GB GDDR5
MSI R7870 Hawk 2GB GDDR5
EVGA GTX680 SuperClocked Signature 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE GTX680 Windforce 2GB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX670 2GB GDDR5
HIS HD 7870 IceQ Turbo 2GB GDDR5
MSI HD 7870 Twin Frozr III OC 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE HD7850 OC WindForce x2 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX680 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD7870 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX580 AMP2! 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7970 Black Edition 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7770 Black Edition ‘S’ 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7750 1GB GDDR5
HIS HD7970 3GB GDDR5
XFX DD Radeon R7950 3072MB GDDR5
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7970 3072MB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX570 AMP! 1280MB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX570 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-448 Twin Frozr III 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-384 Twin Frozr III 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD6990 4GB GDDR5
NOTE: For this review we will be using the same 301.33 drivers which we have tried to use for all NVIDIA products on test for the purposes of accurate (as possible) comparisons
Motherboard: MSI X79 Big Bang X-Power II
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler – Corsair H100
Benchmarks
We have also updated our range of benchmarks to include the following games which will give the graphics cards a challenge and sort the wheat from the chaff. Each benchmark will be run at both stock and maximum overclock settings and utilise 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 resolutions along with AA at various levels (application dependent):
Battlefield 3
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
DiRT 3
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
Unigine: Heaven 2.5
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
DiRT 3
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
Unigine: Heaven 2.5
Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…
Overclock Performance
Overclocking via NVIDIA’s GPU Boost was covered in our ZOTAC GTX680 review so we won’t go into detail here on the attributes and pitfalls of using this method to overclock a GPU. Suffice to say though it is effective and as we shall see below, can be used to great effect..
The GIGABYTE GTX670 Windforce OC as the name suggests come pre-overclocked from a rather conservative clockspeed of 915MHz to a much more satisfactory 980MHz. This should give us a GPU Boost speed of 1060MHz under load conditions.
Being factory overclocked, we didn’t hold out too much expectation. Thankfully there was still some room left in the overclocking tank with a suicide run of an additional 150MHz to be had on the core. Sadly this was far from stable and only good enough for a couple of 3DMark runs so we dropped it back 50MHz which gave us a final, stable figure of 1080MHz giving a GPU Boost speed of 1160MHz. We also managed to push the memory a little further too. With a combination of both memory and GPU now overclocked and fully stable we ran our benchmark tests…
Temperature, Acoustics and Power Consumption
Power Consumption
To test for power consumption we do not use anything too technical, just a wall meter which measures the total system power draw minus the monitor.
Utilising 3 fans and being overclocked from the factory, we didn’t expect the GIGABYTE GTX670 to be a low power consumer and so was the case. It is by no means a power hungry monster that will make the lights flicker when hitting those load conditions but it does consume a fair whack of electricity hitting 348W (total system draw) with only the flagship cards from AMD and NVIDIA drawing more.
Temperature
To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we would normally run Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained however we found that this throttled the card and resulted in spurious results. So we set Heaven running continuously for 20 minutes and used this as a temperature result as the card did not throttle with this application.
the Windforce cooler has impressed us before on the GTX680 but this time it has left us astounded. Hitting a maximum 56c under load was an amazing achievement and testament to the cooling properties of that massive Windforce design. Even with the voltage whacked up to maximum with overclocks dialled in the card barely broke a sweat hitting a cool 60c.
Obviously, in an enclosed case environment the temperatures above will doubtless increase but even so, this is a magnificent achievement and one which should rightly be applauded.
Acoustics
No only is this card cool but it also goes about it’s business in near silence. The GTX670 is near as dammit silent when idle in fact anything below a 40% fan speed you would be hard pushed to hear the card in an enclosed unit. During testing, the card barely raised a murmur and to actually hear the fans we had to manually raise the speed above 50% which will not normally be required during average use. Even loading the card up with Furmark failed to upset the accoustics and thus while we do not have accurate noise measurement equipment, we can only conclude that GIGABYTE’s own evaluation of 28.3dB to be true because for the power underneath the bonnet, this is one seriously silent graphics card.
Let’s move on to our suite of gaming and synthetic benchmarks…
Battlefield 3
Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next instalment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York.
Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the parking lot scene on Operation Sword Breaker. High and Ultra presets were loaded at both resolutions.
Crysis 2
Crytek took an internet beating from its loyal fans due to the fact that they pandered to the console masses and dumbed down the graphics to DirectX 9. Fortunately, fans of the PC version of Crysis managed to force Cryteks hand and they have since developed a DX11 patch and have also enhanced the textures with added tesselation. It is for this reason that we have decided to include it in our suite of benchmarks.
To test the cards we used the Crysis 2 benchmark courtesy of Adrenaline with both the 1.9 patch, DX11 update and Hi-res texture pack. Settings were manually placed to Ultra, DX11 and tessellation enabled with the Central Park map being run 3 times per resolution benchmark test.
]
Crysis Warhead
Following the success of Crysis, the stand alone expansion “Warhead” was hotly anticipated to bring more game play, more weapons, improved visuals whilst maintaining better performance, the latter being what gamers wanted most. After all how many people upgraded their rigs just to play this game… In the game, you play as the upbeat Brit Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes, chasing down a Korean nuclear warhead. Throw in some ice shooting aliens and we’re bound to have a great game. It sure delivered.
Testing was done using Framebuffer’s Crysis Warhead benchmarking tool. The tests were configured to DirectX 10 at Enthusiast levels. Each test on the Ambush map was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Skyrim is not a direct successor to the very popular Oblivion. Instead it takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The non-linear playing that made the Elder Scrolls such a popular series does however make a return along with the beautiful scenery the encompasses the world of Skyrim.
Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the drop down passage to Riverwood. V-sync was disabled to allow fluctuating (higher the 60) FPS for these runs. It is however recommended that v-sync is left enabled during normal gameplay due to the games dynamics.
DiRT 3
As players race to elevate their global standing, DiRT 3 is back delivering mud, sweat and gears world over: from the intense weather-beaten rally stages of Europe, Africa and the US, to executing performance driving showcases and career challenges where car control is pushed to spectacular limits.
The in-game benchmarking tool was used to test performance. All the display settings were set to the maximum available and DirectX 11 was applied. The average FPS was recorded at the end.
Metro 2033
Based on the novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any games out now, making it the ideal benchmark for those looking for the best graphics card.
The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Metro 2033, configuring the settings to High and making use of DirectX 11. The frontline scene was looped 3 times for each configuration. The average FPS was recorded at the end.
Futuremark 3DMark 11
3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. The benchmark was run in both Performance and Extreme presets.
Unigine: Heaven 2.5
Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.
Conclusion
With graphics cards becoming more power efficient, less of that power is given off as heat and thus a graphics card cooler you would think is less important than say 5 years ago. However with the advent of easy to use overclocking utilities, more and more people are squeezing every last ounce of power from their GPU’s which in turn creates more heat and thus a graphics card cooling solution is as important now as it ever was, perhaps more so given the dramatic rise in price for high end units!
We have witnessed all versions of the Windforce cooling design on entry and flagship models and all have impressed us tremendously. There are some graphics cards that utilise triple slot cooling solutions to keep temperatures under control however this has the drawback that SLI capabilities are restricted due to space limitations. Not so with the Windforce x3 cooler which retains the dual slot design akin to the reference model. While the graphics card we reviewed today is much longer (some 12 inches in length) than the reference model, it is also 14c cooler which could mean the difference between an average overclock and a chart topping overclock.
With fantastic cooling abilities along with near silent operation it would be easy to forget that this card also comes with a huge 4GB of GDDR5 which is a key selling point of the graphics card. For the most part, 2GB of GDDR5 is all that is required and it would be rare that this figure would be saturated by today’s gaming titles but with future hits such as Crysis 3 on the horizon, you would be foolish to believe that 2GB will be the sweet spot forever.
So to summarise, the GTX670 is powerful, cool and silent. These three elements should be high on your list of priorities but as with most things, price will ultimately be the deciding factor. Here is where matters continue to be well thought out because at £350 it is the cheapest 4GB varient of the GTX670 that we could find available. It is however priced some £70 above a 2GB reference model but when you consider you are getting an amazing custom cooler and extra future proofing thanks to the 4GB of GDDR5 then this card really makes a lot of sense for the astute buyer. For this reason, we have no hesitation in recommending the GIGABYTE GTX670 Windforce x3 OC our prestigious Gold award.
Pros:
+ Extremely Cool
+ Very Quiet
+ Great looking
+ 4GB of GDDR5
+ Factory Overclocked
Cons:
– Basic accessories
+ Extremely Cool
+ Very Quiet
+ Great looking
+ 4GB of GDDR5
+ Factory Overclocked
Cons:
– Basic accessories
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
