Nvidia recently unleashed their Kepler architecture with the GeForce GTX 680 made its debut on the 22th of March. With the aim to deliver the worst fastest GPU for gaming Nvidia succeeded, beating the Radeon HD 7970 by a 7% margin according to our tests.

This forced AMD to reduce the MSRP of 7970 from $549 to just $479 making it 4% cheaper than the GeForce GTX 680. Reducing the price of their flagship GPU caused a snowball effect for AMD and we saw price cuts filter all the way down to the 7770.

The Radeon HD 7950 dropped from $459 to just $399 making it one of the most tempting 7000 series graphics cards, largely because it had no equal. However that is all about to change as Nvidia is today releasing the new GeForce GTX 670 with an MSRP of $399.

The GeForce GTX 670 is built from the DNA of the GTX 680 meaning that it utilizes the same GK104 GPU. There are many other similarities as well, for example it uses 2GB of GDDR5 memory which is again clocked at 6GHz while the new SMX units and GPU Boost technology is also being used.

On paper the GeForce GTX 670 doesn’t look as though it is going to be a great deal slower than the GTX 680 and that could spell disaster for AMD. Nvidia says that although they are targeting the Radeon HD 7950 with their pricing they are actually going after the 7970 in terms of performance.

The GeForce GTX 670 ships with 1344 CUDA cores and 7 SMX units which is 192 less CUDA cores than the GTX 680 as there is 1 less SMX unit. There are also slightly less TAU’s, 112 down from 128 while the ROPs remain at 32.

The memory subsystem of the GeForce GTX 670 is identical to the GTX 680, consisting of four 64-bit memory controllers (256-bit) with 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz (DDR). This means that the memory bandwidth remains at 192.2GB/s.

The Nvidia specification for the base clock frequency is 915MHz while the typical Boost Clock speed is 980MHz. Gainward has turned up the base clock frequency to 1006MHz while the GDDR5 memory now operates at 6108MHz boosting the memory bandwidth to 195.5GB/s though for the purpose of this review we will be testing this card according to the Nvidia spec for core and memory frequencies.

Hardware - Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition (3.30GHz) - x4 4GB G.Skill DDR3-1600(CAS 8-8-8-20) - Crucial m4 512GB (SATA 6Gb/s) - Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Phantom (2048MB) - Gainward GeForce GTX 670 Phantom (2048MB) - Gainward GeForce GTX 680 (2048MB) - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 590 (3072MB) - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 (1536MB) - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 570 (1280MB) - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti (1024MB) - HIS Radeon HD 7970 (3072MB) - HIS Radeon HD 7950 (3072MB) - HIS Radeon HD 7870 (2048MB) - HIS Radeon HD 7850 (2048MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6990 (4096MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6970 (2048MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6950 (2048MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6870 (1024MB) - HIS Radeon HD 5870 (1024MB) - Gigabyte G1.Assassin2 (Intel X79) - OCZ ZX Series (1250w) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit - Nvidia Forceware 301.34 - AMD Catalyst 12.4

Incredibly the new GeForce GTX 670 delivered virtually the same score as the GTX 590 while it was 10% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 in the 3Dmark 11 extreme test. The score of 3002pts also meant that it was just 8% slower than the GeForce GTX 680.

At 2560x1600 the GeForce GTX 670 averaged 31fps making it just 3% slower than the GTX 680 as well as the older GTX 580. This also meant that the GTX 670 was 6% slower than the Radeon HD 7950 and 16% slower than the 7970.

The GeForce GTX 670 averaged 40fps at 2560x1600 when testing with Metro 2033 allowing it to match the performance of the Radeon HD 7950. This meant that it was just 5% slower than the Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 680 graphics cards.

The GeForce GTX 670 performed well in Battlefield 3 averaging an impressive 42fps at 2560x1600 to match the Radeon HD 7970. This meant that it was 17% faster than the Radeon HD 7950 and 24% faster than the GeForce GTX 580. Moreover it was just 7% slower than the GeForce GTX 680.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 didn’t provide much of a challenge for the GeForce GTX 670, even at 2560x1600 where it rendered 78fps. This meant that it was 1% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 and 18% faster than the 7950 while just 4% slower than the GeForce GTX 680.

When testing with Crysis 2 at 2560x1600 the GeForce GTX 670 averaged 28fps making it 13% slower than the Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 680 graphics cards. However it was 8% faster than the Radeon HD 7950 and 22% faster than the old GeForce GTX 580.

The GeForce GTX 670 rendered 37fps when testing with Dragon Age II at 25601600 making it 3% faster than the Radeon HD 7970. Furthermore this meant that it crushed the Radeon HD 7950 by a 37% performance margin, though it was 8% slower than the GeForce GTX 680.

The Deus Ex: Human Revolution performance was impressive as the GeForce GTX 670 averaged 58fps at 2560x1600 making it just 3% slower than the Radeon HD 7970 and 5% faster than the 7950. This meant that while it was just 6% slower than the GeForce GTX 680 it was also 26% faster than the GTX 580.

Nvidia based GPU’s perform exceptionally well in Hard Rest and as a result the GeForce GTX 680 and GTX 670 dominated the charts. Although the GeForce GTX 680 was 11% slower than the GTX 670 it dominated the Radeon HD 7000 series cards beating the 7970 by a 16% margin and the 7950 by a 34% margin.

As is the case with Hard Reset we have also found that Dirt 3 prefers Nvidia based GPU’s and here we again find the new GeForce GTX 600 series to be very dominant. The GeForce GTX 670 averaged 72fps at 2560x1600 making it just 5% slower than the GTX 680. However it was 44% faster than the Radeon HD 7950 and GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards while it also beat the 7970 by a 16% margin.

The GeForce GTX 670 averaged 46fps at 2560x1600 when testing with Just Cause 2 at 2560x1600. This made it just 4% slower than the GeForce GTX 680 and 2% slower than the Radeon HD 7970. Meanwhile it was 15% faster than the GeForce GTX 580 and 28% faster than the Radeon HD 7950.

When testing with The Witcher 2 at 2560x1600 we found that the GeForce GTX 670 was 10% slower than the Radeon HD 7970 and 6% slower than the GTX 680. That said it was 15% faster than the GeForce GTX 580 and 5% faster than the Radeon HD 7950.

The GeForce GTX 670 performed well in The Elder Scrolls V averaging 61fps at 2560x1600 making it just 5% slower than the GTX 680. However it was 17% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 and 30% faster than the 7950.

The GeForce GTX 670 stumbled in the Alan Wake game averaging just 35fps at 2560x1600 making it slower than both the Radeon HD 7970 and 7950 graphics cards. Although it trailed the GeForce GTX 680 by an 8% margin it was also 5% slower than the Radeon HD 7950 and 13% slower than the 7970.

The GeForce GTX 670 performed quite well in the King Arthur II game with an average of 21fps at 2560x1600. This made it 13% slower than the Radeon HD 7970 while it matched the performance of the 7950.

Under load when playing Crysis 2 the GeForce GTX 670 consumed slightly less power than the GTX 680 and only slightly more than the Radeon HD 7950. This meant that the GeForce GTX 670 is more efficient than the Radeon HD 7900 series which is very impressive.

As you would expect from an efficient graphics card the GeForce GTX 670 doesn’t run very hot and with the Gainward Phantom cooler in place load temperatures never exceeded 71 degrees. That’s still not nearly as cool as the Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 but it is still remarkable for a high-end graphics card.

Just Cause 2 saw the GeForce GTX 670 gain an additional 9fps at 1920x1200, which was a 13% performance bump and was enough to see the GTX 670 take the lead, beating the Radeon HD 6990.

When testing with Aliens vs. Predator we saw a massive 18% jump in performance when overclocking the GeForce GTX 670 and again we saw an increase of 9fps. This was enough to overtake the GeForce GTX 680 and put the GTX 670 on par with the Radeon HD 7970.

Battlefield 3 saw a performance bump of 12fps for another 18% performance gain, which saw the GeForce GTX 670 provide the highest frame rate as it crushed the GeForce GTX 590 and GTX 680 graphics cards.

Of course while the MSRP is said to be $399, pitting the GeForce GTX 670 against the Radeon HD 7950, that won’t count for much if almost no one can buy the GTX 670. Therefore the key here for Nvidia will once again be availability, as they have hit everything else on the head.

The performance of the GeForce GTX 670 was inspiring and on average it was 15% faster than the Radeon HD 7950, while it matched the 7970. When compared to the old GeForce GTX 580 the GTX 670 was 21% faster at 2560x1600 and just 6% slower than the GTX 680.

In fact that was perhaps the biggest shock for us, the fact that the GeForce GTX 670 was just 6% slower than the GTX 680. Given gamers stand to save around $100 when purchasing the GeForce GTX 670 over the GTX 680 this 20% saving is a big deal given just 6% performance is being sacrificed.

Something else that we found equally as amazing was the physical size of the PCB, which is no bigger than that of a Radeon HD 7750. Not only is the GeForce GTX 670 the most efficient high-end graphics card we have ever seen, but it is also the smallest.

For now manufacturers are sticking with the Nvidia specifications, which extend the card by 70mm due to the oversize cooler. However we anticipate that it won’t be long before manufacturers start making compact versions of the GeForce GTX 670 that will be friendlier for those building Micro ATX or even Mini ITX gaming systems.

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The Gainward GeForce GTX 670 Phantom is a well-designed GTX 670 graphics card and we found that it operated at near silence throughout the testing phase. The card also overclocked very well and we were surprised by how easy it was to make the GTX 670 Phantom much faster than the GeForce GTX 680.

There isn’t much more that needs to be said, the GeForce GTX 670 is the best value, most efficient high-end graphics card available right now, assuming it is actually available. Should it be possible to pick up a GeForce GTX 670 graphics card for $399, we suggest that you do.