Which GTX 670?

[PalZer0]

I have a sneaking suspicion that my GTX 560Ti is on its way out (2 driver crashes while playing games today - 1 in BF3 and the other in Crysis 2). As such, I'm looking for a new graphics card.

With the absence of the oft-rumoured GTX 660 and AMD's terribad performance with their cards, I'll have to spring for a GTX 670.

That said, there's so many options that I don't really know what to pick. Given that they all hang around the $500 mark here in Australia I may source one from overseas. The question is which GTX 670 should I go for?

[nosferatu-Dark3r]

My brother just recently bought a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 OC 2GB. Its a beast and the Windforce cooling is quality, keeping temps low while creating little noise. I haven't seen too much of it so I cant comment conclusively but he says it was a good buy.

Its from PC Case Gear for $509

[Zisheng Chen]

They're all quite similar, so you'll want to get one with a non-reference cooler like the Gigabyte or Asus versions. Seeing as Asus tend to be slightly more expensive across the board, I recently bought a Gigabyte GTX670 OC from PC Case Gear. Personally, I prefer Gigabyte because I think they strike the best balance between quality and price compared to lesser known manufacturers like Palit or Zotac (which are cheaper), or more expensive brands like Asus or MSI (in some cases, but not here, however).

[nosferatu-Dark3r]

BUT if you are willing to wait here are more deets on the 660:
http://wccftech.com/details-surface-nvi ... hics-card/

[Tim Colwill]

Another +1 for the Gigabyte 670 OC. I picked up mine the other day it's lovely and quiet, even under high load. Quite big though, so get a roomy case if you're considering it.

[-Slayer-]

Are you doing a clean install of your video drivers, or updating them.

I use to get crashes, then I stopped doing clean installs and the crashes stopped, well it worked for me anyway.

[PalZer0]

Are you doing a clean install of your video drivers, or updating them.

I use to get crashes, then I stopped doing clean installs and the crashes stopped, well it worked for me anyway.

Just doing updates. The last few updates have tended to throw my monitor into a black screen or suspend mode with no way to recover (forcing me to do a hard system reboot). I doubt that's related though as it seems to be a driver installation issue more than anything else.

[-Slayer-]

Are you doing a clean install of your video drivers, or updating them.

I use to get crashes, then I stopped doing clean installs and the crashes stopped, well it worked for me anyway.

Just doing updates. The last few updates have tended to throw my monitor into a black screen or suspend mode with no way to recover (forcing me to do a hard system reboot). I doubt that's related though as it seems to be a driver installation issue more than anything else.

Do you get a minidump file created, it should show what bit of hardware or software is crashing, I use whocrashed to view them or bluescreenview and also look in the Event View under Control Panel\Administrative Tools.

Others will know more than I do, just thought it might be it, I call them black screens of death as the mongrel computer just sits and wont reboot even though it's set to.

[PalZer0]

The installer still continues behind the black screen. The display driver just doesn't reinitialise like it's supposed to after being installed. Doesn't explain the driver crashes ingame though.

EDIT: Back on topic, I was also looking into the EVGA cards. Has anyone had any experience with those?

[Zisheng Chen]

The EVGA card uses a reference cooler, so you'll find it will probably have slightly higher temperatures and fan noise compared to a non-reference card, particularly if you go for EVGA's factory overclocked versions.

[Werewolph]

I've got the Gigabyte 670 myself, and it overclocks quite nicely. Mine is running at 1250/3250 (6500 effective), and it's just a smidgen slower than the 2x 480's I was running, at just over a third of the power usage of one of the 480's.

[steve_rogers42]

EVGA are the brand i usually stick by, whilst they do use the reference cooler they do tend to perform as intended and the warranty is pretty sweet.

evga/gainward/msi/gigabyte/asus would be the go, non-reference if your going to overclock, other wise reference is fine, not like they are hot cards.

[Otto-matic]

I've got the Gigabyte version and am pretty happy with it, cool and quiet. Have also heard good things about the Asus version but this was impossible to get in Australia when I was looking a couple of months ago.

[War]

I've gotten myself a Gigabyte 670 and have to say, even though it's a little big longer than the stock card it's very quiet.

The Evga 670 superclocked had some problems as I remember and they did a bit of a recall on them (http://hardocp.com/news/2012/05/16/evga_minirecall_on_gtx_670) , I presume any current ones sold new should have had that fixed by now.

Had Evga for my last few set of cards, couldn't fault them but I'm afraid I was impatient and gotten myself the gigabyte, not regretting it happily though!

[Office Linebacker]

Spending some holiday time and noticed that BF3 is chugging away after the last few patches. Turned it down to medium and getting around 45-50 in large fire fights. I'm currently have a 460 so my thoughts have turned to a 670

I'm not sure on the availability yet but MSY has the following cards listed
2G GTX 670 Inno3D - $452/ Gigabyte - $495 / Asus - $549

From the review it appears that the Gigabyte card is much quieter than the stock cards (Inno's, etc)and has reasonable OC. Not sure I could justify the ASUS as for another $40 you could get a GTX 680.

My rig is a 1366 i7 @3.2 6gb RAM Win 7 64 bit. I'd be playing at 1920X1080. Doubt I'd look at an SLI set up in future. Seems to much hassle for too little gain (and increased driver issues).

Thoughts?