If the 'idle' temps are high, but they've got two monitors attached, it's because nVidia cards don't downclock to idle 2D state when there are two monitors attached. This is supposedly to prevent flickering. It's a pain, because it means I have to disable the second (portrait) monitor on my development rig when I don't want to be developing, or the GPUs (GTX470s) gently cook themselves. If I set a custom fan profile (something like 100% @ 80*C, 40% @ 40*C, linear between the two) the fans are churning away at 70-75% and thus really annoying. But tweak the fan profile for quiet or run stock fan control and the cards 'idle' at 85*C+ I am so going full water when I rebuild. edit: The review looks promising. I'm still not convinced that 2GB of VRAM is enough if you're going to be playing at 5760x1200 or higher, though. The lack of two dual-link DVI ports puts paid to my hopes of being able to go 7680x1440 with nVidia, though... unless they still provide the option of doing it across multiple cards. Bah.
And the new drivers are out : http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-301.10-whql-driver.html http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-32bit-301.10-whql-driver.html
a reliable source tells me it's going to go on sale for £450. considering 7970 can be had for £400, and it's only 10% faster, i don't think it's very competitively priced.
Translated Looking at it, it seems as until you go above 1920x1200 in most games the GTX 680 comes out on top by a healthy margin, but when you go above the 1920x1080 resolution the frame rates between the 7970 and 680 are very close and I suspect that is down to the Vram and early drivers. Not looked at power etc as that doesn't really concern me considering this is a "high end performance card" so I knew they would be high. It's looking good for Nvidia but I will wait for a few reviews from the usual sites I visit and then will make my choice on what to buy.
If that's the case then all the places selling them are putting the price up quite allot above the rrp. Apparently the rrp is $499 which equates to £316 according to XE converter, which says to me that shops are just being greedy and stinging everyone because it's a new card.
well you have to add VAT onto that as the US rrp doesnt count tax. If you were able to claim your 7970 as a business expense it would only cost are around £350-360 rather than £420-440.
True I forgot not many things if any in America actually includes tax on it. Also it looks like the review that was linked to in a few post's above has been taken down.
Thanks for the translated link. Totally agree, at high resolution there is no clear cut winner though AMD have had time to work on their drivers. Ill wait for the partner custom cards and hope the higher RAM versions are not total rip offs
First of all to guys who say $499... That is USA. This is Europe. That means +20% for VAT, +10% for not being USA, and then a little markup for shops (10-30€).
Well Overclockers.co.uk have added the Zotac GTX 680 to there newest product's list on the Right hand side of there site for £429.95.
This, I think. Without a review actually testing Surround, the only values that are worth looking at for me are 2560x1600 @ high AA (4x/8X depending on the game in question) where the Asus DCII 7970 usually takes the lead over the GTX680 and the stock 7970 nips at its heels. Time will tell how well the 680 overclocks, but the 7970 is a known good overclocker, so should still hold its own. I don't really care whether I run AMD or nVidia; I just want the cards to reach availability and a price-war to start so they nudge below £400. If you don't include the Rip-Off-Britain factor, prices should be around the £380 mark for the GTX680? Much more than £400 for the card is blatant profiteering on the part of the retailer.
Awesome On overclockers.co.uk front page: Zotac GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £429.95 inc VAT A unboxing amuse bouche
Overclockers have got a zotac card in their new products added section on their front page for 430 quid. You can't click through to the product description though
Well with the 7970 already dipping to £395 I think its fair to say we'll see Nvidia following suit in the not too distant future, assuming supply can keep up with demand. I'm waiting for solid, reliable benchies at 1600p in BF3 with FXAA on and MSAA off.
