RMA it to EVGA. If you look at the inside cover of the box there's a sticker that states faulty cards should be shipped back to them directly. In other news, I managed to push my 670 to +60 core +20 memory with 145% power target. Card likes to boost to 1289, and settles out at 1275 when it hits 80c. Saw it peak at 82c and hit over 9400 on 3Dmark11. During the Heaven benchmark there were a couple of flashes of artifacting so I'm gonna lower it down a tad and see how it goes.
EVGA are sending me a replacement 2nd day air, once I figured out how to set up the RMA, their process was smooth. I've heard such great things about EVGA... I'm tempted to take my company over to them from PNY, but I like PNY's consistency with the NVIDIA reference and that they make the Quadro cards... EVGA's still got some proving to do in my eyes. Anywho. How did you get 145% power? Are you using PrecisionX or something else? I was hoping to get my card up stably to 1250ish, but I hit both power and thermal thresholds. I probably won't be able to push them any further till I get better cooling on them though. I have two 120mm side fans blowing on the cards, but since my case wasn't made for them they sit low, on the bottom card. Time to break out the dremel and see if I can't make them blow on both cards, particularly bringing cold air to the top card intake. Also, can you re-run heaven with all settings on max at 1080p? Your one card scored higher than my SLI 4GB setup... then I realized some of your settings aren't maxed.
Yes I'm using Prisision X to do all of my OC'ing. The +60 +20 is pushing the limits of stability though, so I need to knock it back a bit. Doesn't go over 82c though, which is nice. This is my maxed out heaven score.
This is with vanilla 1080p settings, cards @ stock, CPU @ 4.5: Extreme 1080p settings, 670s @ stock, CPU @ 4.5: Very much looking forward to what they will do overclocked underwater..
Looks like you eek out a bit better performance with Ivy Bridge and PCIe 3.0. Our setups are pretty similar other than that, exciting to see the difference. I'm hoping I'll be able to bump my cards up a bit with better airflow and I know my CPU can run at 4.7GHz easily, it'll be interesting to see how an air cooled Sandy Bridge P67 system compares to a water cooled Ivy Bridge Z77 system.
Is that a gauntlet you just threw down? I've had my chip up to 4.8 on air but haven't tried to overclock the cards. RAM chips being on the back of the 670s will mean I need some extra small heatsinks and pads.. it just so happens I have some in a box somewhere Edit: I decided to overclock the cards on air - Power 122% Core +90Mhz Mem +700Mhz There is definitely more to be had, I got it to loop heaven @ +100Mhz on the core but when the temps reached 75c+ during the bench I got stability issues. GPU 1 is suffocating in mine EK can't release the blocks soon enough!
Lol, not exactly. I'm just hoping I don't end up crying because I got a Sandy Bridge setup rather than waiting a few weeks for Ivy Bridge with PCIe 3.0. Most of the guides I've read recommend trying to keep temps beneath 70°C to prevent thermal throttling. Yet it seems on full load my top card will hit 70°C on stock settings, so no matter where I clock it it will throttle. I was able to run a stable loop at 1250MHz around 75°C, but until I get some better airflow to the card, I'm not going to push it any further. On a steady loop of Heaven I balance out at 71°C top card, 65°C bottom card, this is at 1215MHz Core. As things stand, looks like there's only a 1% difference at stock, but overclocked there is a 6% difference.
Well I doubt there is even a 1% difference.. a overclocked 2600k on PCIE 2 is hardly going to hold your cards back in a 1080p heaven run The difference at stock I guess I might be getting slightly luckier with the boost on the 2 cards? Could be anything really. Its at high resolutions + lots of VRAM usage that the extra bandwidth might come into play. The higher ipc on the 3770 might help in certain games. Shame I can't match your top resolution, that would be a better test to see if PCIE 3 and ivybridge makes a difference
Happy to report the Cheesecake is charging along swimmingly at +60 core with 120% power target, and regularly stabilizing at 1215 core @ ~70c. I haven't put an OC on the memory yet, as even +20 gives me some artifacts and I'm not sure a miniscule OC of +10 or so is even worth it.
While I like the fact that EK have tried to jazz up their blocks (which i've always found a little dull), i'm not sure about the circles. very 1970's kitchen.
That's about the exact same as what I'm netting on core, but that's weird on memory. I'm at +750 on memory (+800 gives me a couple of minor artifacts during a Heaven run), I wonder if that could be because of the extra memory? or maybe the 4GB versions use different RAM? The tracking on my 3rd card RMA is showing out for delivery, so I should be able to start showing comparisons with a single card setup . Soon .
Hi I'm about to start on my very first new build. After seeing a couple of good reviews I've been thinking about getting the Zotac GTX 670 AMP. But after reading this thread I've just confused myself again. I want a factory overclocked 670 but is there a better option than the Zotac? The Asus looks good. Or should I just look for the best price and warranty on an overclocked card from any manufacturer? It would be good if it was quiet too. Any ideas?
The Gigabyte Windforce, Asus Top and EVGA F T W, seem to be the big hits around here. I'm sure the Zotac is fine too.
I just bought an EVGA 670 Cheesecake to fold with. Looks like the best performance/price ratio for a reference model (I think it uses a GTX 680 reference board). Now to save for a waterblock
Finally bit the bullet and ordered a Gigabyte 670. I'd been umming and aahing about this or a 7850 but the 7850 eventually lost on the basis of only having 1 DVI port on the back and me requiring 2. By the time you add in a converter it wasn't such a bargain anymore. Still, should be a nice upgrade from my 4890.
Well after a couple of weeks weighing up the pros and cons (couldn't think of any) I've gone and ordered an ASUS 2GB DirectCU II GTX 670 but not the TOP edition. Can't wait to get my hands on it together with the other bits that have been ordered along with it (3570K, ROG Maximus V Gene, 16GB Vengance 1600, Corsair AF120 fans, etc).
You will not regret it m8. My system is fairly similar to yours although it is a small half generation back!
