GTX 670 question

[samuraimastr]

I've been reading up on the new series of graphics cards from AMD and nVidia, and saw several posts and reviews about the gtx 670 essentially being a 680 with the eighth CUDA core cluster disabled. My question is; is it possible to enable those cores and gain the full functionality of a 680? I don't really think it is (because then why would they bother even selling it as a 670) but this has been nagging me for a few weeks now. Thanks for any responses!

 

[fantastik250]

Well, it may be possible through a BIOS flash. But, it may also be due to an actual hardware cut off, such as voltage or something soldered to make the SMX unit actually disabled.

 

[Wastert67]

i hate nvidia. it probably cost them more money to disable it for each unit but i'm sure they're still making crazy profit on them. especially with gtx 680. it just forces ppl to buy 680 even tho 670 has same hardware. for 100 bucks cheaper. i say screw them. lets boycott nvidia. who's with me?

 

[Wastert67]

they're bunch of douches. lol

 

[Wastert67]

do you how much cheaper their products would be if you would just stop buying them at launch. just hold out for three month and prices would be dropping like flies. but noooo. everyone wants to get the new tech. doesn't matter how much it cost. pathetic. and yes i'm saying all of this because unlike most of you i don't want to spend 400 on gpu for gaming. that's insane. you can't justify it in anyway.

 

[samuraimastr]

do you how much cheaper their products would be if you would just stop buying them at launch. just hold out for three month and prices would be dropping like flies. but noooo. everyone wants to get the new tech. doesn't matter how much it cost. pathetic. and yes i'm saying all of this because unlike most of you i don't want to spend 400 on gpu for gaming. that's insane. you can't justify it in anyway.

Not much would actually come out of boycotting a company. You're not looking at just production costs when you look at a price tag for a new video card. You're also looking at the time spent designing the architecture, the licensing fees the company's paid nVidia so they could use that architecture, delivery, materials, etc. I'm not saying that you're paying only for what it cost overall to make a video card, but they have to make some money somehow. Ahh, and by the way, no one really likes paying $400+ for a video card, they do so because they want to stay on the bleeding edge of technology. You do get to a point of diminishing returns (the 670 is only %5-12 off the 680, for a full $100 cheaper) and 10-20 fps doesn't really matter when you're well into the realm of 80+ on most games, but by that point you're not buying a video card for the performance, you're buying it so you can say "I own this, the pinnacle of gaming." You know what? for some people, that's fine. For others, it is evidently not. It's just down to what you want out of your computer.

 

[samuraimastr]

Well, it may be possible through a BIOS flash. But, it may also be due to an actual hardware cut off, such as voltage or something soldered to make the SMX unit actually disabled.

Yea, if I recall correctly, I read something about using the power saved to cut the PCB board down to 6.5", and help... cool it better? Something along those lines. Perhaps giving the voltage a little boost would allow it enough power to use those other cores if you could activate them, although the heat might get to dangerous levels.

 

[fantastik250]

I suspect the 660 may cut off another core :/

 

[samuraimastr]

Best answer selected by samuraimastr.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey