What Gtx 670? (First Build)

Honestly, the price premium on the MSI GTX 670 Power Edition seems worth it (and it is, I own one). I would recommend it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $389.99 USD

If you're not keen on that card, I would go with the Gigabyte GTX 670 you have selected above. It stays very quiet, and has good overclocking potential, although not as much as the MSI GTX 670 Power Edition. It really all depends on what you plan to do;

1. For quiet operation, the Gigabyte Windforce cooler provides near silent operation at stock voltages when compared to their reference counterparts.

2. For maximum overclocking, the MSI GTX 670 Power Edition takes the cake as the triple over-voltage allows for more stability at higher clock/memory speeds.

It's up to you, but I would recommend staying away from reference GTX 670s with the short reference PCB, as they lack in the quality of some components, if you plan to overclock. If you must get a card with a reference cooler, get a card with a reference GTX 680 PCB, as it has solid components for being reference.

Also, would you consider AMD? Just curious because many factory overclocked Radeon HD 7970s will beat the GTX 670. Then again, both cards are strong and have their weaknesses. Just something to take into consideration.

I would like to stay with nvidia, and I have no clue on how to overclock either (Wish I knew how...) What is a reference card also? and what is the difference between a non reference and a reference. I have heard that the evga gtx 670's are really good?

If you really are sticking to 1920X1080 then perhaps you can go with a 660 or 660ti. The 660ti can be overclocked to just a shade slower than a standard 670 at a much lower price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

It's because of the memory bandwidth that I would not recommend any card lower than a GTX 670, if the budget permits. It really cripples the card, especially since it has a very strong core (same compute power as the GTX 670), but unfortunately, since the high amounts of detail that is stored in the memory banks can't communicate fast enough with the core, it bottlenecks the performance. Here's proof: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-...

And on that note, if you want to stay with nVidia, then a GTX 670 will please you, and is my recommendation.

Don't get a 670. Get a 660. The value for money is the best out there. And the card is FAST! Paying like 30-40% more for a card that is maybe 10% faster than the 660 doesn't make sense.

Like this:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX41638

Gigabyte. it's gonna run cooler and it costs less. if any of them are faster that another you'll never notice the few fps difference.

the evga ftw would be the most powerful out of what you have selected, but i would also recommend the msi power edition. and i would stick with the gtx 670, theirs basically 2 cards from nvidia that i would buy right now, the gtx 660 and the gtx 670. the gtx 660 would perform a noticeable amount slower then a gtx 670 though.

Gigabyte GTX 670 : $360

And yeah, I suspect the 660ti should still be in play even at that price (as would the HD7970 with the 'Never Settle' game bundle if you like those titles)

I have two evga cards that I picked they are both ftw but I dont know the difference between the two. Could you tell me what one out of those two is the best.

- http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

- http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681... (I looks like this one is faster, but what is GTX 670 ftw LE? on the other card)

Go with gigabyte 670 Windforce.

In many cases, LE stands for Limited Edition, which it might be. Other than the lower clock speed, memory speed, and slightly lower price, no there is no difference. If you want this card (although I would recommend something difference, stated above), I would go with the non-LE version and spend the extra dollars, as the increased clock/memory speed will help.

@To the people recommending a GTX 660:
Yes, the GTX 660 is a solid and strong card, but the OP was about what GTX 670 to chose from. She/He has the budget, so why not give them the better performance? The memory bandwidth limitation is why I would go against buying anything lower than a GTX 670 for 1920x1080 resolution with high/ultra and Anti-Aliasing/Anisotropic filtering enabled. Check the review above.

I am leaning really far toward the evga 670 but If i knew how to overclock and knew more about all the terms and stuff   I think I would get the msi. Do you know anything that could help me get better at all this stuff like overclocking, and all the terms, building and etc? But I think I will get the EVGA because of their customer service.

Thank you so much for your help so far  

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I'm pretty sure that I read that the EVGA FTWs (with stock cooling) get pretty hot. 80C hot.

That's just too hot for me, so I went with that Gigabyte last week for $360. I am happy with it.
I don't think the card has reached 67C, and I almost never hear the fans.

As for overclocking, I used this simple guide http://www.overclock.net/t/1265110/the-gtx-670-overcloc... to reach 1280MHz (max GPU clock) and 1802MHz (memory). My heaven scores at those clocks average around 1305 (everything maxed besides 3D).

***According to the guide in the link: the GPU clock is throttled down when temp reaches 70C. So, I would stay away from the reference cooler if I could. And, since the Gigabyte (Windforcex3) is as cheap or cheaper than most refernce 670s, cooler, quieter, and comes with a decent factory OC, I found it to be the right one for me, and I think its probably the right one for you.

I was looking at the ASUS DCII (non top) because they have the best cooling (apparently), but I havent seen one for less than $400 (with MIR), and they come without an OC.

That MSI Power Edition for $370 looks good as well. Good cooling, and some voltage tweaking options.

buy the 670 for the performance* over the lesser cards. forget about over clocking...........not going to need it.

*performance, meaning something other than frame rates.

The stock cooler is actually great at keeping the card cool at stock voltages, with a good airflow case. If you get this card, just be sure your case has decent airflow. My definition for decent is at least a 120mm fan intake, and two exhaust fans at the top and rear. If your case fits this criteria, the cooler will stay quiet, and cool.

Also, just like @swifty_morgan said, overclocking is not needed, and if this is your first build, I would stay away from it since your card at stock is plenty. For my first build, I got a factory overclocked card, because I didn't want to risk anything. Eventually you will do enough research to feel comfortable overclocking your card. If you do want to overclock eventually, either PM me or open another thread and the community and myself will be happy to help.

Thank you and everyone else that has helped me so far. I will stick with the EVGA gtx 670 ftw edition.  

@locomoco312 I think that I will use an old gaming case that I used to have dont know when I was around but it looks like this
http://www.pcplanetsystems.com/abc/images/big/cast6big....
http://www.telecommandercorp.com/links/cases/xbladeblac...
Some pictures of it

Or should I just buy this one - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...
Would rather not spend $100 more dollars but.. if I must I will.

I would get the 660ti and overclock it to around the same performance.

I would get the Corsair 200R. I noticed that you are using the Canadian store, so I looked into the price, here it is: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681... $79.99 CAN
I would buy to high airflow fans (quiet ones) and put them on the sides for maximum airflow, or a Corsair H100(i) (if/when it's released), but at stock, both the Antec Three Hundred and Corsair 200R will be great. You can probably get away with the cases shown above, but if you are buying a new, high-end graphics card, then I would get a nice case to house it in.

@Limerick You would need to overclock the GTX 660Ti quite a bit to compensate for the lack of bandwidth. If you look at the link above: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-... you will see the disadvantage of a small memory bus on performance, not to mention, nVidia's choice for mis-matched memory configuration (2048MB does not cleanly fit in a 192-bit bus, a 64-bit bus can handle 512MB efficiently, but 1GB is too much, so a 192-bit bus only handles 1536MB effectively).

I am still a noob, but it was my understanding that overclocking these Kepler cards is quite safe. The only card not voltage locked is the MSI PE, so any other 670 should be perfectly safe to OC as long its done gradually (increase by +10 MHz or so, until it crashes).

http://www.overclock.net/t/1265110/the-gtx-670-overcloc...
I just built my first rig last month, and am totally new to all this stuff, but it was easy for me to follow this^ simple guide to OCing 670s and get a ~13.5% performance increase. 13% is nothing to sneeze at, especially when all you have to do is change two numbers.