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.
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.
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
|
