PNY – Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 2GB

Nvidia continues its assault, with this superb, but still rather expensive, GPU

Nvidia has been cruelly bludgeoning the competition with its giant benchmark stick recently. First, the GTX 680 2GB comprehensively outclassed AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 3GB, then the GTX 690 4GB dropped in to snatch the fastest graphics card title by a colossal margin. However, while AMD deployed its full line of 7-series GPUs in a few months, with prices ranging from under $150 to over $600, Nvidia’s Kepler-powered cards only stopped costing north of $600 recently, when cards such as the GTX 670 2GB turned up with its $480 tag, along with the low-end chips.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 2GB

 With the modular nature of the 28nm Kepler architecture, it’s been a straightforward task for Nvidia’s engineers to make the reductions necessary to drive down the price. A full-fat Kepler GPU sports four graphics processor clusters (GPCs) of two streamlining multi-processors (SMs) each. The GTX 670 2GB has simply had one of its SMs disabled, dropping the stream processor count to 1,344 and the number of texture units to 112 (a GTX 680 2GB boasts 1,536 and 128 of each respectively).

Nvidia has also chosen to drop the GPU’s clock speeds, although this is rather complicated by the use of Nvidia’s GPU Boost technology, which increases clock speeds on the fly. The GTX 670 2GB has a base clock off 915MHz, at which it will run regardless, but also has a guaranteed boost clock of 980MHz to which it will boost in the vast majority of games. However, this is only a worst-case boost, with our stock card capable of boosting to 1,084MHz – a much larger boost curve than that of the GTX 680 2GB, which tops out at 1,110MHz.

Elsewhere, the memory is unchanged from that of the GTX 680, with 2GB of GDDR5 running at 1.5GHz (6GHz effective). The 256-bit memory interface is also unchanged, giving a total bandwidth of 192.26GB/sec – notably less than AMD’s competing cards.

The PCB only accounts for 175mm of the card’s 240mm length

While the reduction in SM units and clock speed aren’t too drastic, the GTX 670 2GB is hugely different from the GTX 680 2GB physically. The entire card measures just 240mm across (17mm shorter than the GTX 680 2GB), but part of this is the cooler – the PCB itself measures just 175mm. A pair of 6-pin PCI-E power connectors sits almost in the middle of the card, while to the rear, a pair of DVI ports, and HDMI port and a DisplayPort provide plenty of flexibility. As with the rest of Nvidia’s 6-series, the 670 supports up to four simultaneous displays too.

Pros and cons 70s rock Fast performance; not much slower than GTX 680 for $150 less 70s hair Still too expensive for most gamers How much? Price: $480 Manufacturer: www.nvidia.com In detail Graphics processor: GeForce GTX 670 2GB, 916MHz-1,019MHz guaranteed Pipeline: 1,344 stream processors (916MHz-1,084MHz guaranteed), 32 ROPs Memory: 2GB GDDR5, 6GHz effective Bandwidth: 192.26GB/sec, 256-bit interface Compatibility: DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.1 Outputs/inputs: 2 x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, 2 x SLI Power connections: 2 x 6-pin, top-mounted Size: 240mm long, dual-slot

 

Performance

Arma II is the least favourable game for the GTX 670 2GB, but it still managed to match the HD 7950 3GB at 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA, with a minimum of 56fps. At 2,560 x 1,600 with 4x AA, the GTX 670 2GB fell a little behind, though, with its minimum of 32fps close to 10 per cent behind the HD 7950 3GB. This is the exception rather than the rule, however - the GTX 670 2GB was considerably faster in all our other tests.

The performance advantage was particularly clear in Battlefield 3. At 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA, the GTX 670 2GB surpassed the HD 7970 3GB – a card that’s $60 more expensive – thanks to a minimum of 60fps. It was much closer at 2,560 x 1,600 with 4x AA, but the GTX 670 2GB was still quicker thanks to a minimum of 35fps, compared to the HD 7970 3GB’s 33 fps. Impressively, there’s little gap between the GTX 670 2GB and its better-endowed and costlier sibling here; the GTX 680 2GB was less than 10 per cent quicker.

Dirt 3 also saw the GTX 670 2GB surpasses the HD 7970 3GB. Its minimum of 67fps at 2,560 x 1,600 with 4x AA was 3 fps faster than the top-end Radeon, and 9fps quicker than the HD 7950 3GB, while again coming in around 10 per cent slower than the GTX 680 2GB.

The GTX 670 2GB impressed us in Skyrim too, managing a minimum of 66fps at 2,560 x 1,600 with 4x AA. Again, this surpassed the performance of the HD 7970 3GB, and was less than 10 per cent slower than the GTX 680 2GB.

As with other Kepler GPUS, the GTX 670’s speed is matched by low power consumption and cool temperatures. A peak power draw of 230W while running Unigine’s Heaven benchmark is 3W more than the HD 7950 3GB, but 16W below the GTX 560 Ti 1GB. Meanwhile, the peak load delta T of 55⁰C is fine, with the card’s cooler spinning up the fan to maintain a GPU temperature below 80⁰C.

Conclusion

The GTX 670 2GB comfortably surpasses both the HD 7950 3GB and HD 7970 3GB in the majority of our tests. At $480 for a non-overclocked card, it’s fairly priced too, performing just 10 per cent slower than a GTX 680 2GB, despite costing 25 per cent less. Plenty of custom-cooled and factory-overclocked versions are available too, at the usual slight premiums.

However, while the GTX 670 is undeniably a great card, its $480 price is still unlikely to tempt those on more conservative budgets – we’re still waiting for the inevitable but still unconfirmed GTX 660. However, if your purse strings stretch to $480 then the GTX 670 2GB is a fantastic choice.

Results

Arma II: operation arrowhead (DX9)

1,920 x 1,080, high AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 56fps/69fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 56fps/64fps

2,560 x 1,600, high AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 32fps/39fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 35fps/40fps

5,760 x 1,080, high AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 19fps/24fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 20fps/23fps

Dirt 3 (DX11)

1,920 x 1,080, 4x AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 110fps/128fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 85fps/100fps

2,560 x 1,600, 4x AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 67fps/80fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 58fps/68fps

5,760 x 1,080, 4x AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 49fps/56fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 38fps/42fps

Battlefield 3 (DX11)

1,920 x 1,080, 4x AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 60fps/72fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 45fps/56fps

2,560 x 1,600, 4x AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 35fps/41fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 28fps/35fps

5,760 x 1,080, 4x AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 24fps/28fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 19fps/25fps

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (DX9)

1,920 x 1,080, 4x AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 89fps/111fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 73fps/84fps

2,560 x 1,600, 4x AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 66fps/82fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 55fps/61fps

5,760 x 1,080, 4x AA, 16x AF

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 37fps/45fps

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 30fps/36fps

Total system power draw

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 88W/230W

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 89W/227W

Peak GPU temperature (Delta T)

GeForce GTX 670 2GB: 11⁰C/55⁰C

Radeon HD 7950 3GB: 15⁰C/57⁰C

Test kit

3.3GHz Intel Core i5 2500K CPU

Asus P8P67 motherboard

4GB Corsair 1,600MHz DDR3 memory

Crucial M225 128GB SSD

Windows 7 64-bit

Nvidia GeForce 285.62

AMD catalyst 11.12

Scores
Speed	9/10
Features	9/10
Value	9/10
Overall	9/10