GTX 680 FTW 4gb or GTX 680 Classified?

[computeguy]

Has anyone had either of these cards? Is the difference between the two all that big? Should I get a GTX 680+ (has 4gb) instead? I don't really know how to overclock a GPU.

Note: Please, no one tell me that 4gb is a waste of money, because I really don't think it is. Current games, such as Crysis 3 (and in some cases, Crysis 2), Skyrim, Far Cry 3 are using 2gb of vram and up, and I don't want to deal with dramatic drops in FPS when it does reach the 2gb limit. Also, it is a huge future proof. It took a while for games to start using up 2gb, so it should take a while to use up 2 more.

 

[computeguy]

I would also like to ask, which has a better cooling solution? Are they both better than the reference cooling?

 

[cookybiscuit]

Overclocking a Kepler card is the easiest thing in the world since nearly all of them are voltage locked. You just increase the memory and core clocks to what you see other people getting, and keep going until you get crashes, then back off.

A 670 offers far better value for money, an overclocked 670 will trounce a 680, thats not to say a 680 won't overclock, but its massively more expensive given the performance 5% performance difference.

Both of those use reference style coolers, the FTW offers decent cooling performance for its type but will be beaten in temps/noise by the Asus DirectCUII or Gigabyte Windforce cards, whether you go for a 680 or a 670 those are pretty much the best.

Also 4GB really isn't needed at 1080p, in the future when games are using more than 2GB a 670/680 probably wont cut it anyway.

 

[computeguy]

Overclocking a Kepler card is the easiest thing in the world since nearly all of them are voltage locked. You just increase the memory and core clocks to what you see other people getting, and keep going until you get crashes, then back off.

A 670 offers far better value for money, an overclocked 670 will trounce a 680, thats not to say a 680 won't overclock, but its massively more expensive given the performance 5% performance difference.

Both of those use reference style coolers, the FTW offers decent cooling performance for its type but will be beaten in temps/noise by the Asus DirectCUII or Gigabyte Windforce cards, whether you go for a 680 or a 670 those are pretty much the best.

Also 4GB really isn't needed at 1080p, in the future when games are using more than 2GB a 670/680 probably wont cut it anyway.

Thanks for the reply. Regarding VRAM, I am seeing many benchmarks of current games at Ultra with a little bit of AA, sometimes reaching to 2.5 GB of VRAM usage.

 

[unksol]

Considering the 7970 beats the 680, is cheaper, has more memory, more memory bandwidth, way way better compute, and can even match titan in some benchmarks. plus has bioshock infinity and crysis 3 free...

A 680 is insane

 

[hero1]

Well, if you are worried about vRAM then get a model with 4GB vRAM so you don't have to worry later on. And if you really want the bang for buck then AMD Radeo 7970 would be a good choice and can overclock to match and beat GTX 680 and has 3GB vRAM. So if you buy a GTX 670 then you better have the 4GB vRAM version (according to your benchmarks). But you can get a great card, like what I have, at the same price. Here Tom has a monthly list and 7970 has been the go to card for a while now and I don't see that changing until GTX 700 series come out!

 

[computeguy]

Well, if you are worried about vRAM then get a model with 4GB vRAM so you don't have to worry later on. And if you really want the bang for buck then AMD Radeo 7970 would be a good choice and can overclock to match and beat GTX 680 and has 3GB vRAM. So if you buy a GTX 670 then you better have the 4GB vRAM version (according to your benchmarks). But you can get a great card, like what I have, at the same price. Here Tom has a monthly list and 7970 has been the go to card for a while now and I don't see that changing until GTX 700 series come out!

I see you have 2 7970s in Crossfire, how is that working out? I've heard about bad optimization for Crossfire lately.

 

[TheBigTroll]

go grab a 670 or a 7970. 680s are the worst values you can ever pick up right now.

you do know that a 4gb 670/680 performs worst than a 2gb card in most situations. the card itself isnt even powerful enough to make use of the extra vram

best value is get a 7970.

 

[cookybiscuit]

I don't think 2GB will be needed for a while, atleast at 1080p. Just tested Crysis 3 with 8x MSAA and its the first time I've seen all my VRAM used up, other than Skyrim with a stupid amount of mods.

http://i.imgur.com/p9gqpO0.jpg
BF3 at all ultra, 4x MSAA and FXAA.

http://i.imgur.com/n5fuCoK.jpg
Crysis 3 at 4x MSAA, close but not topping it out. Unrealistic scenario anyway because a single 670/680 will have its *** kicked in with that much AA.

Also agree with the 7970 comments. Less money, more speed, no worrys about VRAM. Only reason for a Nvidia card is for the 3D.

 

[hero1]

I see you have 2 7970s in Crossfire, how is that working out? I've heard about bad optimization for Crossfire lately.

They are great. I haven't had any issues so far. I had bad time with SLI and that had to go. But this is awesome atm and I hope it stays the same way for the next 3 years.

 

[unksol]

^this. And it's hard to ignore your "computeguy"name. Nvidia ran away from compute to try to push graphics. AMD went to compute and trashed nvidia in it. AND won on graphics. All nvidia had is lower power consumption for crippled performance. For stripping features.

 

[computeguy]

go grab a 670 or a 7970. 680s are the worst values you can ever pick up right now.

you do know that a 4gb 670/680 performs worst than a 2gb card in most situations. the card itself isnt even powerful enough to make use of the extra vram

best value is get a 7970.

How is cooling on the 7970? I saw a video with fan noise, and it was incredibly loud. Is it really? Also, another thing I'm worrying about is the loss of adaptive Vsync. I get screen tearing without Vsync (my monitor isn't that good), but with Vsync on, I get horrible stuttering and fps drops.

 

[CaptainTom]

Considering the 7970 beats the 680, is cheaper, has more memory, more memory bandwidth, way way better compute, and can even match titan in some benchmarks. plus has bioshock infinity and crysis 3 free...

A 680 is insane

This is 100% true. A stock 7970 beats a stock 680, and I have overclocked my 7970 so that I get 30% more performance then stock!

As for noise. NO PROBLEM! Get a dual fan 7970, and it will be quiet!

 

[hero1]

How is cooling on the 7970? I saw a video with fan noise, and it was incredibly loud. Is it really? Also, another thing I'm worrying about is the loss of adaptive Vsync. I get screen tearing without Vsync (my monitor isn't that good), but with Vsync on, I get horrible stuttering and fps drops.

XFX cards are known for the noise issue. At 30% fan RPM it was bad and once I reached 45% I couldn't deal with the coil whine and loudness. So I went with Sapphire and I swear you can't hear the fans even at 60% RPM and I haven't seen the 2 of mine go beyond 65 degrees Celsius and they idle at the same temperature of 32 degrees. I have a mesh side panel and the only thing I hear are the fans from the H80i. So grab Sapphire cards or ASUS for 7970 and even Gigabyte will be good but Sapphire and ASUS plus HIS are hands down cool and quiet. Cheers

 

[cookybiscuit]

How is cooling on the 7970? I saw a video with Also, another thing I'm worrying about is the loss of adaptive Vsync..

Don't. Its utterly pointless, just set an FPS cap in MSI Afterburner.

 

[rdc85]

go grab a 670 or a 7970. 680s are the worst values you can ever pick up right now.

you do know that a 4gb 670/680 performs worst than a 2gb card in most situations. the card itself isnt even powerful enough to make use of the extra vram

best value is get a 7970.

+1, cannot said much better

 

[17seconds]

This is 100% true. A stock 7970 beats a stock 680, and I have overclocked my 7970 so that I get 30% more performance then stock!

As for noise. NO PROBLEM! Get a dual fan 7970, and it will be quiet!

According to TechPowerUp, the 680 is faster than a 7970, or were you referring to the GHz edition?....

best value is get a 7970.

According to TechPowerUp, the 670 is a better value...

 

[rdc85]

I think The TPU don't include the games promotion that u get with radeon card in performance/dollar...

 

[ilysaml]

@OP

FTW has better OCing capabilities while the Classified has the best OCing possible.

And regarding the VRAM, you don't know what you're talking about, with the exception of Skyrim which uses the extra VRAM to store and load high resolution textures and packs the extra VRAM is useless even at 5760X resolution.

 

[TheBigTroll]

@OP

FTW has better OCing capabilities while the Classified has the best OCing possible.

And regarding the VRAM, you don't know what you're talking about, with the exception of Skyrim which uses the extra VRAM to store and load high resolution textures and packs the extra VRAM is useless even at 5760X resolution.

even if it has better overclocking, its limited by the fact that you cant overvolt. paying the 100 dollar premium wont get you 100mhz more overall speed

 

[TheBigTroll]

According to TechPowerUp, the 680 is faster than a 7970, or were you referring to the GHz edition?....
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan/images/perfrel_1920.gif



According to TechPowerUp, the 670 is a better value...
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan/images/perfdollar_1920.gif

assuming that the prices of 7970s are not the same as 670s. the 2 free games definitely beat out nvidia's free to play bundle as well

 

[17seconds]

even if it has better overclocking, its limited by the fact that you cant overvolt. paying the 100 dollar premium wont get you 100mhz more overall speed

According to Guru3d, they were able to get the EVGA GTX 680 Classified up to 1293 MHz, 287 MHz over the reference clocks. The memory was able to overclock to 7114 MHz, a full 1.1 GHz more than the reference.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/evga_geforce_gtx_680_classified_with_evbot_review,24.html

In comparison, they were able to get the Asus Matrix Platinum ROG 7970 up to 1275 MHz with maximum voltage applied. The memory went up to 7008 MHz.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_7970_review_matrix_platinum_radeon,24.html

Similarly, they only got the MSI 7970 Lightning up to 1190 MHz with maximum voltage.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_hd_7970_lightning_review,26.html

 

[CaptainTom]

According to Guru3d, they were able to get the EVGA GTX 680 Classified up to 1293 MHz, 287 MHz over the reference clocks. The memory was able to overclock to 7114 MHz, a full 1.1 GHz more than the reference.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/evga_geforce_gtx_680_classified_with_evbot_review,24.html

In comparison, they were able to get the Asus Matrix Platinum ROG 7970 up to 1275 MHz with maximum voltage applied. The memory went up to 7008 MHz.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_7970_review_matrix_platinum_radeon,24.html

Similarly, they only got the MSI 7970 Lightning up to 1190 MHz with maximum voltage.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_hd_7970_lightning_review,26.html

My 7970's memory is up to 7300 so byah! The fact is the 7970's stock is 925 core/5500 mem, whereas the 680's is 1058 core/ 6000 mem. So clock for clock, the 7970 IS faster than the 680. Thus if a 7970 even gets close to a 680's clock speeds, it will easily win.

 

[TheBigTroll]

According to Guru3d, they were able to get the EVGA GTX 680 Classified up to 1293 MHz, 287 MHz over the reference clocks. The memory was able to overclock to 7114 MHz, a full 1.1 GHz more than the reference.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/evga_geforce_gtx_680_classified_with_evbot_review,24.html

In comparison, they were able to get the Asus Matrix Platinum ROG 7970 up to 1275 MHz with maximum voltage applied. The memory went up to 7008 MHz.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_7970_review_matrix_platinum_radeon,24.html

Similarly, they only got the MSI 7970 Lightning up to 1190 MHz with maximum voltage.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_hd_7970_lightning_review,26.html

you cant compare the mhz of different architectures of different cards

 

[17seconds]

even if it has better overclocking, its limited by the fact that you cant overvolt. paying the 100 dollar premium wont get you 100mhz more overall speed

you cant compare the mhz of different architectures of different cards