The manufacturer placed the nVidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics accelerator in the initial gaming class, but many users in their reviews claim that the video card's potential is worth competing with more expensive devices in the professional segment in the video adapter market. In this article, the reader is given the opportunity to get acquainted with one of the best chips in the domestic market, which is able to cope not only with any resource-intensive toys, but also show excellent work with applications that require high performance from a computer. A review of the characteristics and reviews of the owners will help users decide on the choice of a video adapter in the gaming segment.
The king is dead, long live the king!
The nVidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics card was supposed to be a normal round of evolution of gaming graphics cards in the high-performance segment and replace the obsolete GTX 580 graphics card. However, everything went wrong as planned by the manufacturer. The reason for this was the transition of the chip production technology from 40-nanometers to 28. Along with lowering the power consumption of the crystal, heat dissipation decreased, and accordingly, the chip had an excellent potential for increasing performance by overclocking.
It is worth noting that it was this technology that created the whole line of productive video cards for professional use in mathematical calculations in video processing and 3D modeling. True, the manufacturer used a multiprocessor platform for such systems. Needless to say, two or three video cards based on the GTX 680 chip in SLI mode are able to show a decent result in similar calculations.
Specifications
The GTX 680 chip was codenamed GK104. On one chip, the manufacturer managed to place 3.5 billion transistors, using an area of 294 mm 2 . Hardware support DirectX 11 and the 5th shader modification became the key to high performance in games that the nVidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics card is capable of. Performance features are provided by a 265-bit memory bus built using GDDR5 technology. This is done in the form of four independent controllers with a width of 64 bits each.
The amount of RAM of the video adapter is 2 GB, but theoretically it can be assumed that some manufacturers wish to increase the size of the accelerator RAM to 3 or 4 gigabytes. They will be able to do this by installing larger memory chips, but this change will not be able to affect the bus bandwidth, since this feature is hardware limited.
High power indicator
Due to the reduction in heat dissipation, the graphics core performance has improved on the nVidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics card. Having crossed the psychological barrier at 1 GHz, the manufacturer set the minimum threshold for the crystal at 1006 MHz. However, according to the statements of many owners, this parameter is fictitious and, as practice shows, the video adapter is capable of more.
As in previous modifications of the nVidia line, the stability of the device directly depends on cooling, so the performance of chips from different manufacturers in the segment of gaming video cards will be effective only if there is a decent cooler for heat dissipation. However, here the user will have to choose between price and platform performance, since the solutions provided on the market do not have a middle ground.
Technologies and their capabilities
By reviewing the nVidia GeForce GTX 680 chip, we can conclude that the video adapter is a finished product. Firstly, the crystal runs at full power (nothing is blocked at the factory), and this will clearly please any user. The second point is the support of all existing technologies in the multimedia market and in the gaming segment. We are talking about virtualization in working with 3D, support for multiple displays with faster graphics output for all connected monitors and the ability to use the crystal in CUDA mode.
Confuses only one oddity - the manufacturer on a graphics accelerator installed a controller to automatically reduce the core frequency when idle. It’s a little incomprehensible why to reduce the performance of an already economical chip in operation, because, logically, users need efficiency that is implemented by the corresponding chip in GPU Boost mode.
NVidia Mobile Solutions
A spontaneous reduction in the core frequency when idle in the nVidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics accelerator was explained after the presentation to the world of laptops with a discrete video adapter installed on the basis of a similar chip. In the process of testing and reviewing laptops, many enthusiasts found that the manufacturer initially aimed at the portable device market. It was for mobile platforms that such an economical chip was created.
Comparing the performance of games on laptops with the installed GTX 680M and GTX 580M graphics accelerators, users came to the conclusion that nVidia technologists simply removed AMD's competitor from the market, providing the world with an inexpensive and very effective solution. So, the price of a gaming segment laptop with a new accelerator does not exceed 50,000 rubles (which is 10% higher than the device of the previous generation). While the platform performance increased by 35%. Pretty good deal for gamers.
Prize to the studio!
A potential buyer will probably pay attention to the fact that the domestic market is full of solutions based on nVidia GeForce GTX 680, which have an almost identical appearance. Namely - the same cooling system on most video adapters of this manufacturer. As tests show, the motherboard, along with the crystal and batteries, is not subject to strong heat, so many manufacturers decided to leave the nVidia cooler in the factory, and brand their product with a regular sticker placed on the case of the radiator casing.
An aluminum plate around the perimeter of the entire video card and a turbofan, completely covered by a casing, perfectly removes heat from the elements of the device. The technology of 28 nanometers clearly positively affected the chip. But this only applies to graphics accelerators, which were not overclocked by manufacturers at the factory.
Only stars above
However, the famous Taiwanese brand once again wanted to surprise its fans, and the ASUS nVidia GeForce GTX 680 video adapter appeared on the market, which received not only its own cooling system, but also underwent a tremendous overclock. By increasing the core frequency to 1300 MHz, the company's technologists managed to increase the device's performance by almost 20%. The market leader did not stop there and offered customers a choice in the form of solutions with 2 and 4 gigabytes of RAM on board.
After the innovation from ASUS, products under the brands MSI, Zotac, Palit and other well-known manufacturers appeared on the video card market. All of them are united by a high factory overclocking of the graphic core and a proprietary cooling system. It’s just difficult to make a choice, because the cost of the product has increased in direct proportion to the chip’s efficiency (at least 20,000 rubles).
Finally
A video adapter based on the nVidia GeForce GTX 680 will definitely appeal to all fans of resource-intensive games, but, having studied the reviews and tests, many potential buyers will be unpleasantly surprised. The fact is that the video card has a huge supply of power, the potential of which can be revealed only if there is a central processor corresponding to the game class. After all, to acquire an expensive accelerator and use half of its power is irrational.
Under the game video adapter, you will have to completely replace the game platform, otherwise it will not be possible to achieve high efficiency. IT professionals recommend using the multi-core powerful processors of the Core i3 line and higher. If we are talking about AMD products, then it is better to start with 4-core platforms.