GTX 670 Reviewed and Benched. It still manages to beat out the 7970.

Companies actually dislike NVIDIA so much that they're willing to walk down stairs, or maybe upstairs, to their R and D department and sign out a video card to send to us. They ask just one thing from us. Never tell anyone where it came from. That's fine with us and that's the reason we won't be including any pictures. The video card we have has too many manufacturer markings that we couldn't keep its identity a secret, so we just decided not to include any pictures at all.

Before we move onto our test system and cover some of the main specifications in regards to the GTX 670, I just want to take a moment for people to understand there's no relationship between us and NVIDIA. They're too busy to meet or even respond to our emails, I'm too annoyed (annoyed is putting it in the kindest of terms) at them to just sit back and go along with the samples I have. WE ARE NOT UNDER NDA FROM NVIDIA. Again, we'll repeat, NVIDIA would actually have to communicate with us for there to be an NDA.
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This shit is so unprofessional. No one gives a fuck about your "relationship" with NVIDIA. If you aren't under an NDA, you aren't under an NDA. No need to write about it.
 
I took it as a verbal poking stick aimed at Nvidia with the hopes of getting anyone there to notice him and throw him a pacifier.
 
Gman1979 said:
I took it as a verbal poking stick aimed at Nvidia with the hopes of getting anyone there to notice him and throw him a pacifier.
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Oh it gets better...
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/23927...gtx_690_launch_review_at_tweaktown/index.html

Back to the subject at hand, the new GEFORCE GTX 690. The reason we didn't get a review sample and more so the reason we didn't give you a full and comprehensive review before the launch time had to do a lot with our previous reviews. NVIDIA are worried, a lot I'd imagine. I guess they assumed we'd get an early GTX 690 sample from one of their partners here in Taiwan. For that reason, NVIDIA gave its partners hardly anytime at all with the GTX 690 in their testing labs. This is bad. That means all of the big Taiwanese video card companies would have had hardly any time (in some cases just hours and some partners didn't even get a GTX 690 sample at all) to examine the product and use it to determine their eventual GTX 690 products.
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Looks like a great card. Some of the pictures leaked already shows that the pcb is shorter than the fan. Nvidia looks to have a real winner here. AMD is going to have to do something drastic as they have no chance of competing if these cards really hit for $399.99 as rumor suggests. AMD will be forced to lower their prices even further or simply release higher clocked versions of the 7970/7950 aka 7980/7960 with higher clocks and keep the prices around the same. Not looking good for AMD this round. Especially with nvidia having smoother multi card gaming due to their new improvements and then also pioneering adaptive Vsync. Even their dual card is looking beaten before it's even out.
 
Not looking good this round?
What? Nvidia is 5 months late. How is this doom for AMD? Bring out the refreshes or clock a card higher with lower power consumption. You guys and your concept of time, seriously.... They have had 5 months. 5 MONTHS.

Anyway, back on topic, would you guys rather they not be honest? I'm sure if they just pasted a review with no explanation how they are 5 days early, no one would take it seriously or call it a fake. *shrug*
 
Rizen said:
This shit is so unprofessional. No one gives a fuck about your "relationship" with NVIDIA. If you aren't under an NDA, you aren't under an NDA. No need to write about it.
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Well if you aren't familiar with the situation wouldn't you wonder why one site has review samples and is posting articles about cards before NDA breaks?
 
novadaemon said:
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/4...gb_video_card_performance_preview/index1.html


The only difference seems to be gpu clock and 192 fewer shaders.
What's your take on it?
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First of all, the card looks very impressive. AMD will have a tough time with the 7950 without lowering the price a bit further. My only reservation is that it will definitley limit OC headroom, you can tell just by looking at the reference PCB that it is made cheaply.

HOWEVER, THAT SAID
A couple of counterpoints: as far as beating a 7970...I don't really think so, I mean, that review used release drivers for their 7970 (idiots), every subsequent release was signifigantly faster....and an OC 7970 hangs just fine with a 680, so I don't see a 670 "beating" a 7970 for the typical enthusiast who overclocks.

Second counterpoint: What the fuck is up with the games tested? Lost Planet 2? Mafia 2? Are you fucking kidding me TT this isn't 2009, Where's BF3? Where's Batman? Crysis 2? Metro 2033 is pretty good for benching but Jesus christ, its seriously time for them to get some new games.

Third counterpoint: like rizen said, nobody gives 2 fucks about their relationship with nvidia. Be professional, no need to write about that shit. I like how he freely admitted to breaking NDA in years past and wonders why nvidia won't talk to them? HMM?
 
If I were nVidia I would take whatever steps necessary to make sure that sites like TweakTown never got another review sample of any kind officially or unofficially ever again because of their unprofessional remarks directed at nVidia when without manufacturers like nVidia their websites wouldn't get a single hit.

But regardless of how they got ahold of a GTX 670, TweakTown's GPU reviews are always terrible to begin with and so I wouldn't take much away from the results here. Using ancient drivers and testing old titles from back in 2010 and before to compare the performance on newly released high-end GPU's in 2012 just shows you don't know what you're doing.
 
Sounds like a new driver coming that will further separate the 680 from the 7970 and put the 670 up with the 7970. A 670 @ $400 would mean the 7970 would have to drop into the $300 range. Especially if a 660 comes along.
 
Thinly veiled shot at my response to this thread? Nice!
 
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I am sure the 7970 wont need to fall to $300......if they have the around same performance, they will be around the same price. $400-$400, not GTX 670 $400, 7970 $300.......I wish
 
PRIME1 said:
Sounds like a new driver coming that will further separate the 680 from the 7970 and put the 670 up with the 7970. A 670 @ $400 would mean the 7970 would have to drop into the $300 range. Especially if a 660 comes along.
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Huh? why would it drop to $300 when 7970 is only slightly slower on stock than 680?

If 670 is within 1-5% of 680 speed, then that means 680 price NEEDS to drop..

Plus, this review looks like some random kids write up :eek:
 
I'm somewhat puzzled about the PCB size. I can't believe its so small. even my 8600GT seems larger.
 
shansoft said:
If 670 is within 1-5% of 680 speed, then that means 680 price NEEDS to drop..
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I think the 670 will be the obvious choice over the 7950 without question however nVidia isn't stupid and they aren't going to release a lower-end part than their GTX 680 that offers nearly the same performance for $100 less. TweakTown is benching with old titles, not the latest drivers, and using questionable testing methods that are unlikely to show the true performance of the GTX 600 series parts and when [H]ard, Anandtech, Tomshardware, and others start testing I think you're going to see more of an advantage to the GTX 680.
 
burningrave101 said:
I think the 670 will be the obvious choice over the 7950 without question however nVidia isn't stupid and they aren't going to release a lower-end part than their GTX 680 that offers nearly the same performance for $100 less. TweakTown is benching with old titles, not the latest drivers, and using questionable testing methods that are unlikely to show the true performance of the GTX 600 series parts and when [H]ard, Anandtech, Tomshardware, and others start testing I think you're going to see more of an advantage to the GTX 680.
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I hope you are right or nvidia will have a lot of angry customers
 
At stock clocks, the 670 should be 12.5% slower than the 680. So, just as the 680 is slightly faster overall than the 7970, the 670 should be slightly faster than the 7950. Current prices (MSRP) are;

GTX 680 - $499
HD 7970 - $479
GTX 670 - ???
HD 7950 - $399

Based on this, if they want to avoid a price war (and both companies do), the rumored price of $419 makes sense. That would put it $20 over a product that it is slightly faster than. Pricing at $399 would cause AMD to likely drop the price of the 7950 by $20. If there's going to be a price gap of $20 regardless, both companies want the higher price. Yea, it's collusion and illegal, but that's the way the world works.

OC models, as always, will cost more.
 
He is assuming nVidia and AMD are actually talking about pricing so that they both can keep MSRP artificially high...that is simply not the case.
 
night_2004 said:
He is assuming nVidia and AMD are actually talking about pricing so that they both can keep MSRP artificially high...that is simply not the case.
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Because it's not like they haven't engaged in price fixing before.....
 
limitedaccess said:
Well if you aren't familiar with the situation wouldn't you wonder why one site has review samples and is posting articles about cards before NDA breaks?
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I don't care about NDAs. If you break an NDA then you'll have to deal with the manufacturer, but for me as the reader/enthusiast it makes no difference to me if you adhere to it or not. It's in your best interest running a hardware site to make friends with the companies (on a professional level), and the way TweakTown writes their video card reviews comes off as whiny and unprofessional. And they wonder why NVIDIA doesn't want to deal with them?
 
Nice card for the budget minded to save money for.
 
Derangel said:
Because it's not like they haven't engaged in price fixing before.....
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Oh it might have happened. But I don't think it is happening right now. nVidia's releasing the 680 at $50 less than the 7970 and forcing AMD to lower prices sounds like good old competition to me right now.
 
night_2004 said:
Oh it might have happened. But I don't think it is happening right now. nVidia's releasing the 680 at $50 less than the 7970 and forcing AMD to lower prices sounds like good old competition to me right now.
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Not sure if I trust TT's numbers, but I think the recent competitive pricing from both sides shows non-fixing practices honestly.

If anything the FCC would know better I would imagine.
 
Medion said:
Pricing at $399 would cause AMD to likely drop the price of the 7950 by $20. If there's going to be a price gap of $20 regardless, both companies want the higher price. Yea, it's collusion and illegal, but that's the way the world works.

OC models, as always, will cost more.
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pricing a product based on an assumed response by your competitor (or what you would do in their shoes) isn't collusion, its common sense.
 
oh my... is tweak town still doing these horrible reviews?

oh and just FYI.. if anyone was as confused as i was.. purple, dark blue and , light blue are different resolutions on their graphs.. their advertisements cover up the Legend on the graphs..

the 670 looks like a good card but need a halfway good review of it..
 
I'm going to wait for [H] review on it. If their review confirms tweaktowns then I'll be glad I waited, cuz I've been tempted to get a GTX 680.
 
Rizen said:
This shit is so unprofessional. No one gives a fuck about your "relationship" with NVIDIA. If you aren't under an NDA, you aren't under an NDA. No need to write about it.
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I believe every word. Nvidia is a group of corporate assholes riding the coattails of a fine engineering team. Every piece of unsavory news about them, from cards ignoring driver-level quality settings and preferring maximum cheated FPS, to the sawed-off 4xx card, to "TWIMTBP" equaling a blatant AMD performance handicap confirms them as the dirty, disreputable bunch of hacks and cheaters that they are.

Their engineers, though, have created something wonderful in the 6xx-series.
 
Rizen said:
And they wonder why NVIDIA doesn't want to deal with them?
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It's funny that nVidia's product partners don't seem to have any issues like that with them though. W/e bottom line is they have enough information out there that suggests that nVidia on single monitor at below 19x12 is kicking AMD's a**. Even with the lower-end of their "mid-level" card. Not good for AMD and definitely not good for consumers.
 
TheWeazmeister said:
It's funny that nVidia's product partners don't seem to have any issues like that with them though. W/e bottom line is they have enough information out there that suggests that nVidia on single monitor at below 19x12 is kicking AMD's a**. Even with the lower-end of their "mid-level" card. Not good for AMD and definitely not good for consumers.
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The only thing you got right was it not being good for consumers.

AMD has their entire line up out right now. Nvidia just recently got out their second card, the GTX 690, is having a hard time to keep the GTX 680 in stock and we are very soon about to get their THIRD card. AMD is doing everything right and taking advantage of the problems that nvidia is having right now.

Nvidia is having problems and I wish they could get our their mid level stuff sooner. I'm not angry at them, every company has these problems from time to time, I just wish this would happen sooner.

Even though I think my 7850 was very much worth the price, it could of been cheaper still. This case I was only going to get AMD as I wanted 3 monitor support over Nvidias 2. But my gaming machine I want to move to green team.
 
Rizen said:
I don't care about NDAs. If you break an NDA then you'll have to deal with the manufacturer, but for me as the reader/enthusiast it makes no difference to me if you adhere to it or not. It's in your best interest running a hardware site to make friends with the companies (on a professional level), and the way TweakTown writes their video card reviews comes off as whiny and unprofessional. And they wonder why NVIDIA doesn't want to deal with them?
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Well from the reader's perspective I assume you'd want to scrutinize the validity of the information. For instance if I just make a website and post GTX 670 numbers without any explanation would you not wonder if I just made up random numbers?
 
limitedaccess said:
Well from the reader's perspective I assume you'd want to scrutinize the validity of the information. For instance if I just make a website and post GTX 670 numbers without any explanation would you not wonder if I just made up random numbers?
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TweakTown isn't a chinese blogspam hardware site, though, they've been around since I was running a hardware site in 2002. Regardless, there is a professional way of stating these things. The way they wrote about it was anything but.
 
needmorecarnitine said:
How is that collusion and illegal?
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night_2004 said:
He is assuming nVidia and AMD are actually talking about pricing so that they both can keep MSRP artificially high...that is simply not the case.
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Activate: AMD said:
pricing a product based on an assumed response by your competitor (or what you would do in their shoes) isn't collusion, its common sense.
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Alright guys, I clearly sensationalized a bit. It's not collusion, I was wrong, and I apologize. I used too strong wording to convey my point. My point is that due to lack of competition, NV can simply slot a card in without affecting prices. And, while one can argue that the 680 caused AMD to lower prices of some cards, you can counter-argue that those cards WERE and STILL ARE priced too high. They were priced too high due to lack of a competitive series (GF600 series), and are still priced too high because NV doesn't have all of their cards out, nor do they have proper availability of their currently released products. Regardless, I did a piss poor job of conveying my point and I apologize for that.

As to the other part of my post, I stand by my statement that the 680 vs. 670 Ti looks to have the performance difference of the 560 Ti vs. the 560 (vanilla). Given the pre-release speculation, one could argue that these cards likely were meant to be released as the 670 Ti and 670, or even the 670 and 660 Ti. But, they are what they are, and it will be up to the end user to determine if they want to pay an extra 25% (or so) for a potential 10% more performance. That's a personal preference and there is nothing wrong with that.
 
At this point if either nVidia or AMD cuts prices they're not going to gain any significant market share given the amount of brand loyalty in the enthusiast video card market these days. All they'll do is crush their own profit margins.

When you get down to it the enthusiast graphics card market is dying along with the PC gaming market in general, and the people who still buy enthusiast cards already have a strong brand preference one way or another based on years of experience. Also we're by definition not very price sensitive.
 
Xeth said:
When you get down to it the enthusiast graphics card market is dying along with the PC gaming market in general, and the people who still buy enthusiast cards already have a strong brand preference one way or another based on years of experience. Also we're by definition not very price sensitive.
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Speak for yourself. There's no way I'll ever drop $500 on a video card. If AMD responds to the 670 by dropping the 7950 to $300-350 MSRP, I'll buy one and so will droves of other price-conscious gamers.
 
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