GIGABYTE GTX 670 OC

 

The GIGABYTE GTX 670 OC is a veritable force to be reckoned with not only for price versus performance, but in quality thermal design. Read on to find out!

 

Introduction

With the advent of the Kepler architecture there has been a rather wide price gap in dollar-versus-performance on the market. Hot on the heels of the GTX 680, GIGABYTE used NVIDIA’s GTX 670 reference design and boosted it with not only a factory overclock, but gave it a complete redesign in thermal and power management. The GIGABYTE GTX 670 OC sells for approximately $415. Let’s see how the latest competes with the other high-rolling single-core GPU’s on the market.

Clarifying the main differences in the GIGABYTE’s OC version of the GTX 670, there is a modest 10% factory overclock across the board. Noticeable differences right away are the cooling solution and slightly higher power requirements. Even though it shares more common characteristics of its older sibling, the GTX 680, one of the SMX processors is still disabled like the reference GTX 670. Below is the chart where GIGABYTE’s video card is highlighted in gold, while NVIDIA’s reference board line-up is highlighted in black.

Specifications	GTX 680	GIGABYTE GTX 670 OC	GTX 670	GTX 580
CUDA Cores (Stream Processors)	1536(GK104)	1344(GK104)	1344(GK104)	512(GF110)
SMX	8	7	7	16
Texture Units	128	112	112	64
ROPs	32	32	32	48
Base Clock	1006 MHz	980 MHz	915 MHz	772 MHz
Shader Clock	N/A	N/A	950 MHz	1544 MHz
Boost Clock	1058 MHz	1200 MHz	980 MHz	N/A
Memory Clock	6008 MHz GDDR5	6008 MHz GDDR5	6008 MHz GDDR5	4008 MHz GDDR5
L2 Cache Size	512KB	512KB	512KB	768KB
Memory Bus Width	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	384-bit
Memory Bandwidth	192.2GB/s	192.3GB/s	192.2GB/s	192.4GB/s
Texture Filter Rate	128.8 GigaTexels/s	109.8 GigaTexels/s	102.5 GigaTexels/s	49.4 GigaTexels/s
VRAM	2GB	2GB	2GB	1.5GB
TDP	195W	180W	170W	244W
Recommended Power	550W	550W	500W	700W
Power Connectors	2×6-Pin	1×6-Pin, 1×8-Pin	2×6-Pin	1×6-Pin, 1×8-Pin
Transistor Count	3.5B	3.5B	3.5B	3B
Manufacturing	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 40nm
Thermal Threshold	98C	98C	98C	97C
Launch Price	$499	$415	$399	$499

The benefits and differences between the Kepler and Fermi architectures has already been well covered and if so inclined, details can be found here. For now the focus is what differentiates the GIGABYTE GTX 670 OC and NVIDIA’s GTX 670 reference card. A three-step approach encompasses GIGABYTE’s patented cooling technology called Windforce 3X. Components such as the fans, heatsink block, and direct heat pipe touch technology are explored in finer detail below:

	Three ultra-quite PWM fans provide excellent air flow even when the card is under full load. The unique design combines the fins with a clip module providing an anti-turbulent shroud- housing. On the bottom is a special RAM heatsink optimized for heat transfer.
	The triangle design of the heatsink block further minimizes the flow of air turbulence between the fans and also provides the system with efficient air flow.
	Three 8mm pure copper heat pipes make direct contact with the GPU through direct heat pipe touch technology. A solder free process increases heat dissipation drastically.

You can also find our reference design NVIDIA GTX 670 review here to have a direct comparison with the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 670 OC 2GB video card.