NVIDIA's Killer Kepler rules the graphics
roost
When NVIDIA's Kepler graphics processing
unit was announced some time ago, many feared that NVIDIA's next desktop
graphics offering was going to require a nuclear powerplant to power up. But
with ASUS' NVIDIA GTX 680, we're here to prove exactly why it's indeed the
undisputed king of graphics.
The ASUS variant of GTX 680 pretty much
shares the same look and feel of the stock GTX 680 reference model, so it's
fair to say that this is as close as you're going to get to the original thing.
Utilising the same vapour chamber cooling technology that has been used in most
of NVIDIA's previous offerings, it spreads heat out towards the entire card so
that the whole card has the same temperature instead of just one portion of it.
Utilising NVIDIA's brand new Kepler
architecture, the card clocks in at 1,006MHz and has a memory size of 2GB. The
connectors at the back include two DVI-D ports, a HDMI 1.4a port and a
DisplayPort. Unlike AMD's offerings where you need to daisy chain DisplayPorts
to have more than three monitors plugged into the system, but what NVIDIA has
done here is to allow up to four monitors simultaneously without the need to
daisy chain at all.
To power the GTX 680, two 6-pin PCIe power
sockets are needed. Yes, you read that right. Two 6-pin sockets. The GTX 680
needs only 195W to operate.
We put the ASUS GTX 680 to the test and boy
was it up to it. To cut things short, the performance here is nothing short of
fantastic. To add to the performance, the Kepler's GPUBoost technology (which
automatically overclocks the card in accordance to temperature) manages a
1,100MHz output. The result is pure wonder and magic.
The ASUS GTX 680 also comes with Kepler's
notable value-added feature, such as the adaptive VSync technology, which
automatically toggles Vsync on and off in the times that require it. NVIDIA's
FXAA anti-aliasing technology also works well here. At almost RM2,000, though,
it may be a little pricey for a reference model.
ASUS GTX
680
Price $619.99
Specifications
Chipset: NVIDIA GTX 680
Core Clock Speed: 1100MHz
Memory Size: 2GB DDR5
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Performance
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Design
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Value
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Comment
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(+) Lower power consumption
Great value-added features
Fantastic performance
(-) A little pricey
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