In keeping with the tradition of graphics chip manufacturers releasing various cards with different performance aspects, NVIDIA has announced the launch of the GeForce GTX 670. This card, much like the GeForce GTX 680 will feature a graphics chip based on the Kepler graphics architecture.
Performance on a Tighter Budget
The top of the line, single-processor graphics processor offered by NVIDIA is the GeForce GTX 680. Unfortunately, many of those cards are in the $600-700 range, which is outside the budget of most people. For those looking for performance at a more reasonable price, the best solution is to go with the GeForce GTX 670.
The suggested retail price for a GeForce GTX 670 card is about $400, but even with the lower price, you will still get good performance from the card in your games.
According the NVIDIA, the GeForce GTX 670 can outperform the closest competitor’s cards by as much as 45%. In addition, the card can match the competitor’s higher-end cards in 25 of the most demanding games. While this may seem great, I caution the numbers until I can see independent testing results.
Along with the launch of the GeForce GTX 670, NVIDIA also provided the following numbers of comparison:
| Game | Settings | GeForce GTX 670 FPS | Radeon 7950 FPS |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarCraft II | Fullscreen, 19×10, “Ultra” settings | 137.9 | 93.2 |
| Unigine Heaven 3.0 | 19×10, 1x/1x graphic settings | 62.3 | 41.1 |
| Dirt 3 | 19×10, 1x1x graphics settings | 117.4 | 81.7 |
The 301.34 NVIDIA, and the AMD Catalyst 12.4 drivers were used during the testing. In addition to the performance increase, the GeForce GTX 670 consumed 170 watts of power compared to 200W for the Radeon HD 7950.
Availability
The GeForce GTX 670 is available right now from many graphics card suppliers. This includes ASL, ASUS, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle and Zotac.