Topic 'Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?' in forum 'PC gaming Tech' - dslreports.com

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:29:50 EDT

DarkLogix posted : EVGA does seem to make a good water cooled option

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:49:22 EDT

Krisnatharok posted : My past three GPUs have all been from EVGA (460, 570, then step up to 580) and they do make a rock-solid reference card.

However, when I get around to upgrading my 580, I will probably look more carefully at MSI's offerings, as they are better for overclocking than EVGA's.
--
If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:45:51 EDT

OHN posted : Cool thanks for the info.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:42:10 EDT

OHN posted : I see what you mean. Either way it sounds like EVGA is a good deal.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:58:15 EDT

Sircolby45 posted :

said by OHN:

Just ordered one from Amazon. Although they are out of stock, they are allowing you to place an order. I went with an EVGA since they have the 'step up" program. If they come out with the new one with higher memory within 90 days, I can pay the difference and upgrade. Cannot beat that.

The Step Up program does not cover that kind of upgrade. In fact they give an example of GTX 460 768MB --> GTX 460 1GB as not being covered. This means GTX 680 2GB --> GTX 680 4GB will probably not be covered either. It has to be a different GPU of the same or higher generation that is of a higher model number of the one you have. You might want to carefully read over their step up terms before counting on that to do your upgrade.

Granted I still went EVGA anyway, because even without the step up program they still have the best warranty.

Straight from their website:

Graphics Cards Examples:

GTX 460 → GTX 580: YES (Upgraded GPU)
GTX 460 768MB → GTX 460 1GB: NO (Same GPU)
GTX 570 → GTX 480: NO (Must be GPU upgrade)

»www.evga.com/support/stepup/
--
Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit / Core i5 - 760 @4GHz / EVGA GTX 680 2GB / 12GB DDR3 RAM / Vertex 2 120GB SSD

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:18:10 EDT

DKS posted :

said by OHN:

Be aware that you can't get the Step-Up program unless you buy the 5 of 10 year extended warranty.

»www.evga.com/about/pressrelease/···p?id=125
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:03:37 EDT

OHN posted : Just ordered one from Amazon. Although they are out of stock, they are allowing you to place an order. I went with an EVGA since they have the 'step up" program. If they come out with the new one with higher memory within 90 days, I can pay the difference and upgrade. Cannot beat that.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:15:18 EDT

BonezX posted :

said by mythology:

Overkill atm for a single or even dual monitor setup. Unless you are updating from a ancient card, updating your entire setup or running a 3 monitor setup with really high resolutions I would hold off until prices drop. The card is sweet tho. ~$500 dollars sweet? Thats your call. :D

fixed

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:27:36 EDT

mythology posted :

said by DKS:

EVGA GTX 680 arrived yesterday and installed. What a difference in BF3! Everything Ultra and the card barely breaks a sweat!

./drool

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:25:59 EDT

mythology posted : Overkill atm for a single or even dual monitor setup. Unless you are updating from a ancient card, updating your entire setup or running a 3 monitor setup with really high resolutions I would hold off until prices drop. The card is sweet tho. $500+ dollars sweet? Thats your call. :D

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:18:50 EDT

BonezX posted :

said by a2nxtcrav3r:

Pricing of it is great but i fear this is only nvidia's midrage that came out. 680's were also a bit hard to find hope they make more.

with how they are selling, it would be like asking if Nintendo was going to make more Wii's when they came out.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:20:47 EDT

a2nxtcrav3r posted : Sold two of my gtx 580 3gb's running one currently was at tri sli.

This last little piggy might bite the dust when GK110/gk110-2
comes out.

Im looking for a 4gig + model.

Pricing of it is great but i fear this is only nvidia's midrage that came out. 680's were also a bit hard to find hope they make more.
--
hmmmmmm....

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:11:25 EDT

DarkLogix posted :

said by Krisnatharok:

said by DarkLogix:

Thus the reason I have a 1100watt PS
its overkill but I don't have to worry at all

and its corsair which based on reviews should be a quality unit
however I should have looked at the measurements (it was a real PITFA to get in tehre and I had to remove the top mount fan)

what's efficiency at with only 40-50% load? :p

I don't care
It provides all I need and more, so any upgrades are covered.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 05:40:44 EDT

OHN posted : Very nice. I may get one if I can find it that is. I just sent back my 560 Ti to Newegg. The fan broke on it. Well one of the fins. Had it less than a month. Also had some extra cash from some paintball stuff I sold.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:28:37 EDT

Krisnatharok posted :

said by DarkLogix:

what's efficiency at with only 40-50% load? :p
--
If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:12:55 EDT

DKS posted : EVGA GTX 680 arrived yesterday and installed. What a difference in BF3! Everything Ultra and the card barely breaks a sweat!
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:19:32 EDT

Daarken posted : He already donated his old 560's so I am not sure what he might have as far as benchmarks go.

Here is the stats on the current games he is playing.
Dirt 3. - 100.3 FPS Max Settings
Dirt 3 - Infected (Map) 86.7 FPS Max Settings
BF3 - Vsync On - 60.7 FPS ULTRA Settings.
Gotham City Impostors - 100.1 FPS Max Settings
--
Getting it Done.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:03:42 EDT

DarkLogix posted : Thus the reason I have a 1100watt PS
its overkill but I don't have to worry at all

and its corsair which based on reviews should be a quality unit
however I should have looked at the measurements (it was a real PITFA to get in tehre and I had to remove the top mount fan)

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:36:48 EDT

TruSm0ke posted : Theoretically, yes, you should be fine with a 500w PSU powering the hardware you listed. But you are still cutting it very close as both GTX570 & i7 930 would likely both end up needing atleast 80-90% or more of that 500w. Again, I'm just doing some quick math based on a rough idea for the manufacturers power requirements for both 570 and i7. And thats with no consideration for the rest of components you listed.

Cutting things "close" when it comes to a PSU is also gambling with your hardware. If you ever wanted to OC, or add/upgrade any of those components, you would probably NOT be fine with a 500w PSU.

There are a ton of PSU calculators scattered across the web that help with this. I thought I had this program on my computer that calculated power requirements, but I can't seem to find the files for it on my main or backup drives.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:04:59 EDT

DarkLogix posted : Well personally I'm using a 1100watt corsair powersupply, however I likely would be fine with a 500.

all I have is the following
GTX570
i7 930
24GB ram
128GB ssd
2TB seagate

but I was cerious as they always recomend some size and magicly assume the load that other parts might have. (i'd prefer if Nvidia instead just said "plan for X watts per this model video card"

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:58:48 EDT

TruSm0ke posted :

said by DarkLogix:

wow
btw so if one requires a 550w power supply how much is power for the video card?

ie you know the CPU and other parts are going to be using some of that 550w thus estemating the power req of 2 would mean finding how much 1 needs after the sys req is considered then doubleing it

To be quite honest, now days a good rule of thumb is always be looking for a quality 750w PSU or above. This rule is especially important for any quality gaming rig. Don't short change your system with a crap, Chinese knock-off of a brand/PSU. Get a quality and reliable PSU with reliable current especially for expensive hardware. Never really understood why people would buy all this expensive hardware and would then go on to skimp on a half decent PSU for powering them. It's just stupid to do.

Do yourself a favor, spend that extra $30-50 over the cheap Chinese knock-offs and go for the well built, reputable, and tried-n-true brand of PSU.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:52:08 EDT

TruSm0ke posted :

said by Daarken:

My brother just ordered 2 - Evga 680's yesterday morning, and got them today, he was running a pair of 560ti's.
Fortunately he donates the old video cards to family/friends/members of our clan.

I'm curious to see what kind of improvements your brother is getting. I'm currently running 2 MSI 560Ti's in SLI and would like to see some raw numbers just for curiosities sake.

See if he's willing to run some benchmarks with both setup's and is willing to report them back here!! Btw I say "willing" because it can be time consuming for sure.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:53:53 EDT

OHN posted : I have (Anandtech is the first place I check, then Toms, Then Hard etc). I wanted to see if someone could post their personal experiance. Also, I think they use a specific portion of the game for benchmarking. I want to see FPS in Bazzar, Sienne, Metro, Tehran. I play the smaller maps mostly. Got tired of Caspian.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:18:34 EDT

demir posted : check anandtech for benchmarks

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:57:35 EDT

OHN posted : Anyone have FPS for Battlefield 3 on Ultra? Sucks to see that even a great card like this gets below 30 FPS at times during gameplay.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:56:53 EDT

OHN posted : The price for the 560 Ti is reasonable right now. I got an MSI 560 TI OC for $240 and that included a $20 mail in rebate (forgot to do it) and Batman AC. Anyways, you may find lots of people selling their 560 Ti in order to upgrade. I may be one of them.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:31:09 EDT

Tehuno posted : How long does it usually take for the price to drop on previous generations? Want to grab a 560 ti, but dont want to get one and the price drop the next week.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:55:49 EDT

Sircolby45 posted : So far I am absolutely loving mine! I have it overclocked to +180 on the core and +425 on the memory. This results in the core peaking at 1303MHz, but it generally runs more around 1290MHz. Overclocking these are a little different, but it is not rocket science. Also the reference cooler is very quiet!
--
Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit / Core i5 - 760 / GTX 680 2GB / 8GB DDR3 RAM / Vertex 2 120GB SSD

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:21:30 EDT

BonezX posted :

said by OHN:

Very cool. I am very tempted to get a 680 then. Just $500 is a lot.

in my case it's not that bad, considering i do almost every second gen in terms of videocards.

went from a 9800gtx to a gtx460 1gb(due to cashflow and weak cpu/ram/mobo) so a 1 - 2K "upgrade" every couple years isn't bad in my case. also helps when you leave room for some expansion.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:53:12 EDT

OHN posted : Very cool. I am very tempted to get a 680 then. Just $500 is a lot.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:10:00 EDT

Daarken posted : He is running a 1k Watt PSU
Here it is installed.
Here is one 680 next to a 560ti.

--
Getting it Done.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:10:57 EDT

Krisnatharok posted : Nice!

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:00:49 EDT

DKS posted :

said by Krisnatharok:

One or two? :D

One. And the backplate.
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:59:35 EDT

Krisnatharok posted : One or two? :D

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:57:30 EDT

DKS posted : Ordered yesterday from EVGA. Delivery expected next Friday.
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 07:39:58 EDT

Reno posted :

said by demir:

The TDP of the GTX 680 is 195 watts. So, if you did an SLI setup, you'd probably need a minimum of an 800 watt supply. Maybe 750.

A lot of people ran GTX 580's in SLI on 850W PSU's and the 580's have a TDP of 244W. A 750W PSU even with a few drives and an overclocked i7 2600 should be more than enough. The only thing I would look to verify if I was buying a new PSU would be that there was still 20% headroom left on the PSU. If I just had a good 750W PSU in my system, I'd just throw in x2 680's without even giving things more of a thought.

BTW - I've been laughing for two days straight thinking of all those people that paid for ATI 7970's over the last two months. That must be the worst feeling ever.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:23:11 EDT

demir posted : The TDP of the GTX 680 is 195 watts. So, if you did an SLI setup, you'd probably need a minimum of an 800 watt supply. Maybe 750.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:19:35 EDT

DarkLogix posted : wow
btw so if one requires a 550w power supply how much is power for the video card?

ie you know the CPU and other parts are going to be using some of that 550w thus estemating the power req of 2 would mean finding how much 1 needs after the sys req is considered then doubleing it

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:26:35 EDT

Daarken posted : My brother just ordered 2 - Evga 680's yesterday morning, and got them today, he was running a pair of 560ti's.
Fortunately he donates the old video cards to family/friends/members of our clan.
--
Getting it Done.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:58:15 EDT

DarkLogix posted : Well the SSD par tis due to being at about 75% full and I want more space on my speedy OS drive for programs to be installed.

Dual Ivy-E because its awsome

Ram, well if I did dual Ivy-e's then I'd have eight memory channels to fill with 4gb sticks

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:56:12 EDT

Krisnatharok posted :

said by DarkLogix:

so what you're telling me is I need to get the following later this year

dual Ivy-E xeons, GTX680, larger SSD, and even more ram.

sure?
--
If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:52:41 EDT

DarkLogix posted : so what you're telling me is I need to get the following later this year

dual Ivy-E xeons, GTX680, larger SSD, and even more ram.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:45:28 EDT

Krisnatharok posted : tl;dr version: yes, it is capable of 12 GB/s

From: »www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gef···1-5.html

PCI Express 3.0: One Last Perf Point

GeForce GTX 680 includes a 16-lane PCI Express interface, just like almost every other graphics card we’ve reviewed in the last seven or so years. However, it’s one of the first boards with third-gen support. All six Radeon HD 7000 family members preempt the GeForce GTX 680 in this regard. But we already know that, in today’s games, doubling the data rate of a bus that isn’t currently saturated doesn’t impact performance very much.

By default, GTX 680 runs in X79 at PCIe 2.0 data rates

Enabling PCIe 3.0 is achieved through a driver update.

Nevertheless PCI Express 3.0 support becomes a more important discussion point here because Nvidia’s press driver doesn’t enable it on X79-based platforms. The company’s official stance is that the card is gen-three-capable, but that X79 Express is only validated for second-gen data rates. Drop it into an Ivy Bridge-based system, though, and it should immediately enable 8 GT/s transfer speeds.

Nvidia sent us an updated driver to prove that GeForce GTX 680 does work, and indeed, data transfer bandwidth shot up to almost 12 GB/s. Should Nvidia validate GTX 680 on X79, a new driver should be the answer. In contrast, the data bandwidth of AMD’s Radeon HD 7900s slides back from what we’ve seen in previous reviews. Neither AMD nor Gigabyte is able to explain why this is happening.

--
If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 09:46:50 EDT

DarkLogix posted : Any idea on if it actually utilizess the PCI-e 3.0 extra speed? I ask because for sometime now people have claimed that except for dual gpu cards nothing made full use of PCI-e 2.0 x16.

as I currently have a GTX570 I'd have to consider if the gain will be worth it or not.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:16:30 EDT

Krisnatharok posted : Yeah, it looks like the 680 has three times the cores as the 580, although they run half as fast, if I understood the Tom review. So you're looking at a theoretical 33% boost in performance over the 580, before you get into the Turbo-boost-type technology Nvidia has integrated. A quick glance on the bar charts shows an up-to-32% gain on the GTX 580.

»www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gef···161.html
--
If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:02:51 EDT

praetoralpha posted : I've been thinking about upgrading my current card, but so long as my GTX 285 still gives me 60 fps in most everything on high, I'm in no hurry. Not enough stuff uses DX11, and it doesn't appeal to me much; I'm considering an SSD + larger HD instead.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:59:45 EDT

OHN posted : Be like water my friend.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:59:11 EDT

OHN posted : I loved my Vodoo 3 3000 AGP card. Most of the time when people online ask me what I game on I say "I am running a 3dfx Vodoo 3000 on a Compaq Presario, 56K Modem and AOL 9.0" Most dont get it.

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:56:05 EDT

DarkLogix posted :

said by Krisnatharok:

Considering that the Good Samaritan demo took three GTX 580s to run, but can run on a single Kepler GPU...

Sounds good
though as it supports PCI-E 3.0 I'll wait till I upgrade my CPU/mobo to Ivy-e (if I do)

Re: What are your thoughts on the GTX 680?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:48:49 EDT

Gordo74 posted : I want the quiet version other than the loud reference cooler.