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Zotac Geforce GTX 670 AMP! Edition

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8/11/2012 6:36:32 PM

Mark discovers that Zotac's second-tier card is almost as potent as its first

On first impressions, this is an identical card to the Zotac GTX 680 AMP! that I previously reviewed. It requires the same amount of PCIe power lines, it uses the same custom Zotac cooler, takes up the same space, drinks in the same wateringhole. They are hardware twins, divided at birth.

Description: Description: Zotac GeForce GTX 670 AMP!

Zotac GeForce GTX 670 AMP!

Yet, the GTX 670 is different, not least in being about $180 cheaper, marginally less than AMD is asking for its flagship HD 7970 and about the same as the HD 7950. Given that pricing, I was curious to find out if the Zotac GTX 670 AMP! just looks like its big brother or if it can pound pixels as furiously.

On paper, the GTX 670 has just 1344 shaders, 192 less than the GTX 680, and it is also denuded of a few texture mapping units. But, and this is critical, it has exactly the same memory bus, running its 2GB of GDDR5 at the same speed, and therefore the same overall bandwidth available. Its GPU clock is also very similar, and the boost that Zotac has added for its AMP! branding is also the same.

With 14% less shaders, surely the GTX 670 is going to be a shadow of the superior card, the one that's 36% more? Not so much.

This issue here is that most of the benchmarks I ran aren't restricted by the GPU any longer but rather the CPU, which in this case is about as good as you can get. I think my selection, if a little dated in places, offers a good cross section of what people are actually using their video cards for. And if you're not running the very latest software, then the difference between this card and the GTX 680 can be nominal.

Description: Description: With 14% less shaders, surely the GTX 670 is going to be a shadow of the superior card, the one that's 36% more?

With 14% less shaders, surely the GTX 670 is going to be a shadow of the superior card, the one that's 36% more?

Even on the hardest tests, like Heaven 3.0, the difference was just 7%, which, given the price difference, makes this card something of a bargain.

Those wondering why I didn't stack AMD's scores against this one, it was to hide its shame, as I've yet to see a HD 7000 series of any model get near these numbers. Perhaps a dual GPU one might, with a following wind.

Obviously, this is a much better deal than the GTX 680, and with Zotac's special AMP sauce it's an even tastier option. The only question I'd ask is whether $495 is still too much to spend on a video card. That's a choice you'd need to make, but I can confirm that for an investment at that level you get almost all the Kepler GPU goodness that spending $675 will return.

The only appreciable downside to this card is that it's not physically any smaller than the GTX 680 and, as such, you need plenty of space inside your PC to house it. You also need a PSU with dual PCIe sixpin lines, although anyone building a gaming rig at this level should already have a decent power supply.

This card is all good news for the consumer, on a number of levels. If you want Kepler power, then you can have it without having to pay silly money. And, if you still like AMD, and many do, then the appearance of this card is probably going to push the cost of the 7900 and 7800 cards down rapidly.

As for Zotac, it's delivered on its signature AMP promise, by delivering extra power at mainstream pricing.

Details

Price

$495

Manufacturer

Zotac

Website

www.zotac.com

Required spec

Windows 7 for DX11, single PCI-Express x16 slot, dual PCIe six-pin power lines, 550W PSU or bigger, 2GB RAM, 330MB HDD space

 

Specifications

1344 SMX unified shaders

Engine clock: 1098MHz (base), 1176MHz (boost)

2GB GDDR5 memory

Memory clock: 6608MHz (1652MHz x 4)

Custom dual-fan cooler

256-bit memory interface

DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs

PCI Express 3.0 interface

NVidia GPU Boost technology

NVidia 3D Vision Surround capable

NVidia FXAA technology

NVidia TXAA technology

NVidia SLI ready

NVidia Adaptive Vertical Sync

DirectX 11 technology and Shader Model 5.0

OpenGL 4.2 compatible

Hardware-accelerated full-HD video playback

Blu-ray 3D ready

Lossless audio bitstream capable

TrackMania 2 Canyon 3-Day Game Pass included

 

 

Test

Resolution

 

Zotac GeForce GTX 670 AMP!

Zotac GeForce GTX 680 AMP!

HAWX 2

1080p DX11

Avq. FPS

159

166

3DMark Vantage

Default

Performance

P33793

P36059

3DMark 11

Default

Performance

P9499

P10302

 

Default

Extreme

X3240

X3490

Far Cry 2

1080p 8xAA

Avq. FPS

140.25

149.83

Street Fighter IV

1080p 8xAA

Avq. FPS

269.67

277

Batman: AA

1080p

Avq. FPS

297

305

Heaven 3.0 Benchmark

1080p

Avq. FPS

58.5

62.5

 

8xAA 16xAF

 

 

 

AVP

Tessellation Normal

Avq. FPS

101.5

107.3

 

1080p 16xAF

 

 

 

Benchmark's performed with a Intel DX79SI motherboard, Core i7-3960X CPU, 16GB DDR3 quad-channel memory, Crucial M4 128GB SSD, Windows 7 64-bit

Verdict

Almost all the power that NVidia offers at a more palatable price

Quality

8

Value

8

Overall

8

Other  
 
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