GF GTX 680/670 Round Up: EVGA, Zotac, MSI, GB, Asus

Performance Summary: Summarizing the performance of the cards featured in this round-up is fairly straightforward. The highest clock GeForce GTX 680 cards put up the best overall scores, followed by the lower clocked GTX 680 cards, and then the GeForce GTX 670s. All were strong performance, however. The Asus GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP and ZOTAC GeForce GTX 680 AMP! Edition in particular traded the pole position, thanks to the Asus card’s GPU, which was the highest clocked of the bunch, and the ZOTAC card’s speedy memory. We should also point out that the factory overclocked GeForce GTX 670 cards typically hung with or offered better performance than a reference GeForce GTX 680. Also, the overclocked GeForce GTX 680 cards fared much better against the recently released Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition than the reference cards, outpacing AMD’s latest more often than not.

So, which of these cards would we spend our hard-earned money on? Well, that depends on your ultimate goal. First, let’s breakdown their prices:

• Asus GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP - $539
• ZOTAC GeForce GTX 680 AMP! Edition - $549
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 OC w/ Windforce - $524
• EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Super Clocked - $519
• ZOTAC GeForce GTX 670 AMP! Edition - $449
• MSI GeForce GTX 670 Power Edition OC - $429

Looking back through the numbers and considering current pricing, our picks would have to be the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 OC with Windforce cooling or the MSI GeForce GTX 670 Power Edition OC. We’re not huge fans of triple-slot coolers, especially since dual-slot solutions can be just as effective, without having to sacrifice and additional slot. With that said, there is only $30 separating the GeForce GTX 680 cards and $20 separating the GeForce GTX 670s. If you want what is arguably the fastest single-GPU powered graphics card on the market, by all means grab the Asus card—it’s a beast. If you’d like to save a few bucks though, the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Super Clocked offers much of the performance, minus a few bells and whistles. If total cost is a factor, however, the GeForce GTX 670 cards are clearly the better value. They offer 90%+ of the performance of a GeForce GTX 680 at significantly lower cost. If you can live without having the absolute fastest graphics card, there’s some real savings to be had with the GeForce GTX 670s.

Gigabyte GTX 680 OC w/ Windforce MSI GeForce GTX 670 Power Edition OC	Asus GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP ZOTAC GeForce GTX 680 AMP! Edition EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Super Clocked
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 670 AMP! Edition