EVGA GeForce GTX 670 SuperClocked Video Card Review

Introduction

The new GeForce GTX 670, which is being released today, is a more affordable version of the GeForce GTX 680, costing USD 400 and, therefore, competing with AMD’s Radeon HD 7950. Let’s see how the SuperClocked model from EVGA fared in our tests.

The GeForce GTX 670 is based on the same architecture used by the GeForce GTX 680, called “Kepler,” is manufactured under the new 28 nm processor, has a dynamic overclocking technology, and supports the PCI Express 3.0 specification. The only differences between the GeForce GTX 670 and the GeForce GTX 680 are the core clock (915 MHz vs. 1,006 MHz) and the number of graphics processors (1,344 vs. 1,536). The memory configuration is the same.

EVGA is releasing five models based on the GeForce GTX 670: The stock model (USD 400), the SuperClocked model (USD 420), the FTW model (USD 440), the stock model with 4 GB of memory (USD 470), and the SuperClocked model with 4 GB of memory (USD 490).

In the following table, we compare the main specifications of the video cards included in our review. The prices do not include rebates and are for the models with the clock and memory configurations listed below. Prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review, except for the GeForce GTX 670 models, which are the prices advertised by EVGA and NVIDIA. We also included the GeForce GTX 580 in this review, as its price dropped from USD 500 to USD 380 – USD 430 in the past few weeks with the release of the GeForce GTX 680. NVIDIA also offers a 3 GB version of the GeForce GTX 580 starting at USD 490. The second clock listed under “core clock” is the maximum clock the GPU can reach using its dynamic overclocking technology (i.e., “boost clock”).

Video Card	Core Clock	Shader Clock	Memory Clock (Effective)	Memory Interface	Memory Transfer Rate	Memory	Shaders	DirectX	Price
GeForce GTX 670	915 MHz/980 MHz	NA	6,008 MHz	256-bit	192.3 GB/s	2 GB GDDR5	1,344	11	USD 400
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 SC	967 MHz/1,046 MHz	NA	6,210 MHz	256-bit	198.7 GB/s	2 GB GDDR5	1,344	11	USD 420
GeForce GTX 580	772 MHz	1,544 MHz	4,008 MHz	384-bit	192.4 GB/s	1.5 GB GDDR5	512	11	USD 380 – 430
Radeon HD 7950	925 MHz	925 MHz	5 GHz	384-bit	240 GB/s	3 GB GDDR5	1,792	11.1	USD 380 – 425

You can compare the specs of these video cards with other video cards by taking a look at our “AMD ATI Chips Comparison Table” and “NVIDIA Chips Comparison Table” tutorials.

Today, only the LGA2011 Core i7 (“Sandy Bridge-E”) and the “Ivy Bridge” processors have a PCI Express 3.0 controller. Therefore, we tested the video cards using a Core i7-3960X processor on a motherboard based on the Intel X79 chipset. In our Radeon HD 7970 review, we discovered that, at this time, there is no difference between using a PCI Express 2.0 or a PCI Express 3.0 connection. We also discovered that if you are using a high-end video card, the CPU doesn’t affect gaming performance.

Now let’s take a complete look at the EVGA GeForce GTX 670 SuperClocked.