GTX 680: Who's got one/Getting one? real world results

[Activate: AMD]

Wish I could tell you what to do here. If it were me though, I'd continue to wait a while longer unless you HAVE to have a new video card right now. The AMD cards won't go anywhere in price but lower, and sooner or later the 680's will start showing up in force, and when they do, the prices will fall at least a bit. Of course, it remains to be seen how far off that is. Regardless, unless you're someone who doesn't like AMD drivers, or wants to eventually build a 680 SLI system, I see no reason not to go with a 7970 myself.

A major driver is that my 460 SLI setup is limited to 2 monitors right now since surround doesn't support 3 monitors where 2 have different resolutions from the third. I want to game on my primary (2560x1440) but have the other two as accessories. I can light up all 3 but not if I want SLI running when I game on the primary. Both the 7970 and the 680 will do that and out perform my current GPU's at that resolution. Initially, my preference was for the 680 due to higher performance in a number of areas (heat and power included) out of the box, but its clear that its ultimate performance is hampered by an undersized VRM section, which limits overclocking. But the 680 still has ancillary benefits and better driver support, though I never had issues with Catalysts in the past.Now that the price of the 7970 has undercut the 680, even for non-reference models, the choice is a lot tougher. It was a no brainer with the 7970 at $550.

[kbohip]

2560x1440 with 2 460's in SLI? I must have read that wrong as I can't see how those cards could do that. I have the same setup btw and I love it but I only game at 1680x1050. I thought I remembered reading somewhere in this thread (I think it was a post from Jethro) stating that the only area the 680 was beaten by the 7970 was at ultra high resolutions. Might this be the one time that Jethro talked someone into an AMD setup?

Nm, I found the post and copied from there what he said.

The only other "weak point" the GTX680 I can think of is gaming at resolutions higher than 57X12, and as there is probably up one gamer per state doing this I'll give you that one. (and note 4GB GTX680 models will end that very very small advantage in the next few weeks accoring to rumor)

So unless your gaming room monitor setup resembles Neil Peart's drum set Activate, I don't think the 7970 would be a better choice than the 680.

[Activate: AMD]

2560x1440 with 2 460's in SLI? I must have read that wrong as I can't see how those cards could do that. I have the same setup btw and I love it but I only game at 1680x1050. I thought I remembered reading somewhere in this thread (I think it was a post from Jethro) stating that the only area the 680 was beaten by the 7970 was at ultra high resolutions. Might this be the one time that Jethro talked someone into an AMD setup?

Actually they handle it pretty well. In aggregate they perform similarly to a 480 or 580, though they're a bit short on VRAM for AA. Overclocked to 825 core I average in the 60's on BF3 with settings mixed high/medium. It would be nice to have a single card do better than that and open up the possibility of SLI/CF in the future.

Nm, I found the post and copied from there what he said.

The only other "weak point" the GTX680 I can think of is gaming at resolutions higher than 57X12, and as there is probably up one gamer per state doing this I'll give you that one. (and note 4GB GTX680 models will end that very very small advantage in the next few weeks accoring to rumor)

So unless your gaming room monitor setup resembles Neil Peart's drum set Activate, I don't think the 7970 would be a better choice than the 680.

They overclock well and at high overclocks the 7970 does appear to split games with the 680, so its not entirely straightforward. In addition the 7970 appears to overclock better on average and from what I hear the best overclocking 7970's are faster than the best overclocking 680's. I'm not worried about super high resolution gaming because 2560x1440 is my target res.

[zetachi]

ASUS GTX680 in the house Just replaced my PNY OC 460 SLI.

3Dmark 11 from X2326 to X3099 combined 2641-3317
Heaven FPS from 70.9 to 106.1 score 1787-2672
min FPS 23.6-46
max 169.3-212

BF3 ULTRA

[guskline]

I have my 680 gtx powering 3-24 inch 1920x1080 monitors and games run well. Surround is very easy to set up. Previously had a 6970 running Eyefinity but this 680 GTX is a BRUTE!
3DMark 11 Performance with OC 9620