MSI GeForce GTX 680 vs MSI GeForce GTX 680 Twin Frozr III OC

[lordazura]

Hey guys, now that I know that I am defenitely getting a GTX 680 over a GTX 670, I am wondering about the following thing.

I can get a MSi GTX 680 standard edition for 419.99 after mail in rebate (459.99$ before) = 130$ rebate.
or
A MSi GTX 680 Twin Frozr III OC for 459.99 after mail in rebate (489.99$) = 50$ rebate.


I don't know which one to get... Would the Twin Frozr OC worth the extra 30-40$ over the Reference edition? Or the extra performance/Lower Temperature and OCing capacity I'd get is not worth it?

Also, I've read here that some people prefer reference cards when it comes to running two of these in SLI, since the reference cards push the air outside of the case instead of inside. What is your guys opinion on that?


As always, thanks a lot for your great help to far. Awesome community


Best Regards,
LordAzuRa


Edit: PC Configuration:
Intel Core i5 3570K
Corsair Cooling Air Series A50 Performance CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H 3PCI-E16 SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard
Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB DDR3 1866MHZ PC3-15000 Memory Kit
[Insert New Video Card Here]
Zalman Z11 Plus Mid Tower ATX Case
Corsair Professional HX750W 750W ATX 12V 62A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply
Intel 330 Series 180GB 2.5IN SSD
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA 6Gbps 3.5IN Internal Hard Drive
ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X SATA DVD Writer OEM Black
Corsair Vengeance M60 Performance FPS Gaming Mouse

 

[Guest]

Hey guys, now that I know that I am defenitely getting a GTX 680 over a GTX 670, I am wondering about the following thing.

I can get a MSi GTX 680 standard edition for 419.99 after mail in rebate (459.99$ before) = 130$ rebate.
or
A MSi GTX 680 Twin Frozr III OC for 459.99 after mail in rebate (489.99$) = 120$ rebate.


I don't know which one to get... Would the Twin Frozr OC worth the extra 30-40$ over the Reference edition? Or the extra performance/Lower Temperature and OCing capacity I'd get is not worth it?

Also, I've read here that some people prefer reference cards when it comes to running two of these in SLI, since the reference cards push the air outside of the case instead of inside. What is your guys opinion on that?


As always, thanks a lot for your great help to far. Awesome community


Best Regards,
LordAzuRa


Edit: PC Configuration:
Intel Core i5 3570K
Corsair Cooling Air Series A50 Performance CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H 3PCI-E16 SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard
Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB DDR3 1866MHZ PC3-15000 Memory Kit
[Insert New Video Card Here]
Zalman Z11 Plus Mid Tower ATX Case
Corsair Professional HX750W 750W ATX 12V 62A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply
Intel 330 Series 180GB 2.5IN SSD
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA 6Gbps 3.5IN Internal Hard Drive
ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X SATA DVD Writer OEM Black
Corsair Vengeance M60 Performance FPS Gaming Mouse

From the reviews I have read, the frozr 3 is better for cooling etc. And it comes overclocked. Now you can probably hit those clocks yourself if you tried, but the temps might be higher. Its really personal preference and depends if you intend to OC and what games you play. The OC may not be needed.

 

[lordazura]

From the reviews I have read, the frozr 3 is better for cooling etc. And it comes overclocked. Now you can probably hit those clocks yourself if you tried, but the temps might be higher. Its really personal preference and depends if you intend to OC and what games you play. The OC may not be needed.

Thanks for the answer,

I am mostly planning to play some GPU hungry games such as Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, Max Payne.

I doubt that the Frozr 3 can be overclocked a lot further without becoming unstable (I believe that it's not only about temperature, right?) while I know for a fact (from an overclocking review) that the reference GTX 680 can be overclocked quite a bunch too.

About the reviews, I see the Frozr III 12 degrees lower in Idle than the reference (27 vs 39) and 18 degrees lower when in full load (61 vs 79).

3DGuru did a reference card Overclocking Guide. Here are the stats:

Original: Core Clock: 1006 MHz - Memory Clock: 6000 MHz
Overclocked: Core Clock: ~1300 MHz - Memory Clock: 7128 MHz
(Quite Impressive)

Idle temperature only went from 27 to 29 and full load temperature from 79 to 82!

==========================================================================

Now, would someone really benefit from having a ~13 degree cooler graphic card? In which area would it benefit a user? Personally, which one would you choose?

 

[frombehind]

careful with MSI cards... there was an article on Tom's just a few days ago where Nvidia caught MSI red-handed severely over-voting some of their cards. Yea, every manufacturer "tweaks" the reference design to offer their unique flavor, but MSI tweaked so much that whole batches of the cards just didn't work.

 

[lordazura]

careful with MSI cards... there was an article on Tom's just a few days ago where Nvidia caught MSI red-handed severely over-voting some of their cards. Yea, every manufacturer "tweaks" the reference design to offer their unique flavor, but MSI tweaked so much that whole batches of the cards just didn't work.

Says it only affect two specific model "GTX 660 Ti and 670 Power Edition". So the GTX 680 are safe.

 

[lordazura]

Best answer selected by lordazura.

 

[bigshootr8]

In my opinion yes the temperature can matter. Heat=Power because the more hot your card runs the fan will ramp up where as if its stably heated its better. you have to also keep in mind the two types of cooling.

Reference cards use a blower there is a heatsink on top of the GPU with some heatpipes and a blower at the end shooting the air out. The VRM can get very hot with reference cards.
Where as with non reference MSI cards you get cooling throughout the entire card. which keeps things cool and its not using all that much more power then reference to power the cooling up.

My opinion if you are going to spend 500 dollars on a card get a decent cooler 13 degrees is a big difference in terms of cooling.

 

[bigcyco1]

Says it only affect two specific model "GTX 660 Ti and 670 Power Edition". So the GTX 680 are safe.

It's all bs anyway no worries i have two 670 PE and nothing wrong with them i took them apart didn't find mine wired the way TH show something fishy going on just not sure 100% what anyway enjoy your card

 

[lordazura]

In my opinion yes the temperature can matter. Heat=Power because the more hot your card runs the fan will ramp up where as if its stably heated its better. you have to also keep in mind the two types of cooling.

Reference cards use a blower there is a heatsink on top of the GPU with some heatpipes and a blower at the end shooting the air out. The VRM can get very hot with reference cards.
Where as with non reference MSI cards you get cooling throughout the entire card. which keeps things cool and its not using all that much more power then reference to power the cooling up.

My opinion if you are going to spend 500 dollars on a card get a decent cooler 13 degrees is a big difference in terms of cooling.

10 minutes after I've placed my orders and that everything is paid and processed

Got the reference one...

Thanks anyway

LordAzuRa

It's all bs anyway no worries i have two 670 PE and nothing wrong with them i took them apart didn't find mine wired the way TH show something fishy going on just not sure 100% what anyway enjoy your card

Yeah, they tried to give more power for people's bucks. It failed, they will replace all the cards. Nothing to be mad about imo, they tried to do good. Sure they "cheated" Nvidia but meh

Thanks,
LordAzuRa

 

[bigcyco1]

10 minutes after I've placed my orders and that everything is paid and processed

Got the reference one...

Thanks anyway

LordAzuRa



Yeah, they tried to give more power for people's bucks. It failed, they will replace all the cards. Nothing to be mad about imo, they tried to do good. Sure they "cheated" Nvidia but meh

Thanks,
LordAzuRa

+1 I honestly think this is from a new batch it's because MSI is trying to keep their customers happy but NV is really bulling them about voltage locking.The issue is msi has already sold millions of these product claiming the voltage is unlocked.I can understand they had to try to do something to keep customers happy, but at the same time follow NV rule.Well this put MSI in a very bad position.Clearly it was wrong what they did.I understand why though people shouldn't be so mad at msi it's NV they should be pissed at but enough of all that talk.I don't want to get into a big debate about it.Bottom line... msi has to back up their warranty on the cards.I have two msi 670 PE not a dam thing wrong with them.I think this might be something they only did with a recent batch of the 660 ti and 660 not sure but i wouldn't return my cards even if they asked me to lol! There something bigger going on then most are catching onto but i am not going to say because i don't want to be involved. Anyway enjoy your new beast of a card.

 

[lordazura]

+1 I honestly think this is from a new batch it's because MSI is trying to keep their customers happy but NV is really bulling them about voltage locking.The issue is msi has already sold millions of these product claiming the voltage is unlocked.I can understand they had to try to do something to keep customers happy, but at the same time follow NV rule.Well this put MSI in a very bad position.Clearly it was wrong what they did.I understand why though people shouldn't be so mad at msi it's NV they should be pissed at but enough of all that talk.I don't want to get into a big debate about it.Bottom line... msi has to back up their warranty on the cards.I have two msi 670 PE not a dam thing wrong with them.I think this might be something they only did with a recent batch of the 660 ti and 660 not sure but i wouldn't return my cards even if they asked me to lol! There something bigger going on then most are catching onto but i am not going to say because i don't want to be involved. Anyway enjoy your new beast of a card.

Thanks

It's like the very first gaming computer I'd builded XD

I'm used to play my games in 1280x1024 at 10-15 FPS (Pentium 4, Radeon X1950 Pro, 1 GB Ram, etc)...

I guess that it will be day and night Can't wait to receive all the final pieces and build that beast ^_^

 

[bigshootr8]

Oh yea lol you'll see what the wizard has been hiding behind the curtain enjoy dude