Gigabyte delivers a potent mainstream performer.
What do you get when you combine Nvidia's GeForce GTX 670 GPU with a full-length PCB and a custom tri-fan cooler? This factory-overclocked killer from Gigabyte, of course.
Despite the mainstream price point, Gigabyte has gone to town on the feature set of this potent product. The designers have increased the power inputs over a standard GTX 670 card, using one six-pin and one eight-pin plug (up from the dual six-pin plugs found on default GTX 670s), but more importantly, they've cranked up the GPU frequency, with a new boost maximum of 1,200MHz, up from the default boost of 980MHz -- a huge increase.
As a result, this is a blisteringly fast card for the price, delivering about 95% of the performance of a stock GTX 680 at a price that's 30% cheaper. The added speed doesn't come entirely without cost, however. It seems Gigabyte hasn't increased the default voltage enough to handle the high speeds, so we suffered regular crashing for the first few hours. After bumping the voltage to 1.05V, the card became 100% stable, so bear this tweak in mind if you do purchase one.
The custom cooler managed to keep the card nice and cool despite the voltage increase, while remaining silent most of the time. However, after purchasing two of these cards (we were that impressed with their performance), one fan developed a noticeable rattle at certain speeds.
Despite a few niggles with Gigabyte's implementation of the GTX 670, there's a lot to love about this card. Delivering most of the performance of its big brother at a much cheaper price, perhaps the best thing about these cards is that they're readily available.
Special features :
- 2,048MB GDDR5 memory
- Max resolution of 2,560 x 1,600
- PCI-E 3.0
Pros : Excellent performance, strong factory overclock, quiet cooler.
Cons : Needs voltage tweak for stability, cooler developed a rattle.
Verdict : 8 out of 10. Highly recommended.
Available from Gigabyte, retailing for $500.
