Which 680 brand?

[jon_the_faun]

Which brand provides the coolest/fastest 680 model? EVGA seems to be the favorite based on reviews and sales. Although, I have been eyeing the Gigabyte card with the three fans (forget what its called).

Also, coming from AMD (x2 6970 crossfire), I've grown accustomed to receiving the xfire bridge along with the package. Noticing Neweggs photo sample, I don't see a bridge. Is this normal for Nvidia?

 

[fb39ca4]

Generally, more fans=better. Try to find reviews of the specific model, ones that compare multiple manufacturers are even better.

As for SLI brifges, they usually come with high end cards, and also with motherboards supporting the feature, but if you still happen to not have a bridge, it won't break the bank to buy a new one.

 

[jon_the_faun]

Ok, its down to these two:

EVGA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130771

GIGABYTE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125422&Tpk=GIGABYTE%20680

 

[fantastik250]

The Gigabyte card. Even though it's GTX 680

They reviewed the same type and brand card but for the GTX 670 version
On Tom's Hardware's Seven GeForce GTX 670 Cards, Benchmarked And Reviewed

All-Around Best GeForce GTX 670: Gigabyte N670OC-2GD

Gigabyte's card is quiet at idle and not too loud under load. Its cooling performance at idle, during normal desktop work, and during gaming is even better than Asus' card. It ties Zotac's effort for the lowest temperature at idle, but achieves its goal at a mere 20% fan duty cycle. When we configured it to cool our card down to 70°C, its sound level was still acceptable.

This is the slimmest card in our test, it weighs the least, and is even suitable for SLI configurations on motherboards with a just a single-slot gap between 16-lane interfaces. Unfortunately, that's pretty common. Although the N670OC-2GD doesn't include the highest overclock, it's currently selling online at the same $400 price point as completely stock reference cards. And that's with the Windforce 3X cooler. That combination cannot be beat.

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-test-review,3217-16.html

 

[mcnumpty23]

i would save the money and get a gtx670

so close in performance to a gtx680 but a lot cheaper

the best one is the gigabyte already mentioned or the asus direct cu--the asus is quieter

 

[Tamz_msc]

Yes, based on Tom's review of the GTX 670 version, I'd also go with the Gigabyte card.

 

[jon_the_faun]

Best answer selected by jon_the_Faun.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey