GIGABYTE GV-N670OC-2GD
RRP: $399.99 | Website: www.gigabyte.com
Test Machine
• Intel Core i7 3770K
• GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H
• Transcend AxeRAM 2400MHZ
CL9
• Antec HCP 1200 PSU
• Windows7 64-Bit
T
his may be the wrong
place to address this,
however seeing as we are
looking at an NVIDIA GPU
powered graphics card, this
place is as good as any. More
than that, the point we are
about to make has a direct
impact on the score but more
importantly what you should
take away from this review.
As many of you know
how, NVIDIA has taken a
somewhat puzzling stance
on overclocking. Not that
they discourage it, but the
outfit has essentially barred
its partners from shipping
overclocking software that
allows extended voltage
26 The OverClocker Issue 20 | 2012
ranges which includes any
and all such BIOS ROMs as
well. So given that the GK104
GPU isn’t a power hungry
ASIC or at least not like
the GF110, the benefits of a
beefed up PWM and such are
of limited benefit. Not that
they don’t’ help but almost
all self-respecting vendors
customize their offerings
by offering beefier power
circuitry in addition to factory
overclocks and better coolers
NVIDIA’s move or at
least the change in policy
effectively negates such
customizations and as such,
puts us in a position where
virtually all GTX 670 and
680 graphics cards are by
and large the same. They
are not so because of their
similarities electronically,
but in that the overclocking
headroom and performance
is just about fixed with very
little the vendors can do to set
them apart.
Effectively the only
avenue that was there for
differentiation has been
slammed shut by this policy
and as such we are reduced
to reviewing the cards from
a purely gaming context. In
a way GIGABYTE has done
itself a favour by producing a
card that doesn’t vary much if
at all from GTX 680 reference
design. It features the tried
and tested Winforce OC
cooler and the familiar blue
PCB. It spots a five-phase
PWM instead of four and it
actually shares the exact
same PCB as the 680OC we
reviewed in a previous issue.
The card has a built in
overclock of 980MHz which
isn’t much but you may as
well have it especially since
it costs you nothing but
gains you that little bit more
performance. What is more
important to us though is
the overclock we were able
to achieve with the card.