Nvidia Kepler, Part 2

[PowerK]

Playwares.com did a 690 quad-SLI benchmark/review.

http://www.playwares.com/xe/23165505 (it's Korean)

690 SLI brings ~25% performance improvement over a single 690 across the board at 2560x1600 resolution.

Frankly speaking, I was hoping for more efficient quad-SLI scaling this generation. Not sure if future driver update will result in further efficiency.

[monkeydust]

Been playing swtor without issues. Looks like the evga 670 is about 2x fast as my ati 5870 (which I just gave to my Stepson). Seems like a good upgrade. I don't play very demanding games. Running OC of about 1200/3200 hitting 80c on load which seems to be the norm. My upgrade cycle seems to be 2x nvda to 1x ati.

Looking forward to d3 this week. Thanks again to this thread as I knew nothing about the gtx 670 without it.

[SIrPauly]

Originally Posted by PowerK

Playwares.com did a 690 quad-SLI benchmark/review.

http://www.playwares.com/xe/23165505 (it's Korean)

690 SLI brings ~25% performance improvement over a single 690 across the board at 2560x1600 resolution.

Frankly speaking, I was hoping for more efficient quad-SLI scaling this generation. Not sure if future driver update will result in further efficiency.

Going to be tough to see solid scaling at only 2560 x 1600, would probably take multi-monitor, 3d stereo -- all with added IQ enhancements.

[PowerK]

Originally Posted by SIrPauly

Going to be tough to see solid scaling at only 2560 x 1600, would probably take multi-monitor, 3d stereo -- all with added IQ enhancements.

Agreed.
Unfortunately, they benchmarked only at 2560x1600 and 1920x1080. (No multi-monitor benchmark)
At 1920x1080, 690 SLI brings a mere ~6% performance improvement over a single 690. (Anyway who's crazy enough to set up a 690 quad-SLI for 1080p resolution?)

[SIrPauly]

If one had a higher end LightBoost 120hz 1080P monitor and 3d stereo gaming + pouring on image quality enhancements there may be solid scaling.

[Meteor|WAR]

Originally Posted by Nunz

Well guys, whatever you do - do NOT try the 301.34 drivers.

Those are the one's I've been using. No issues here.

Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

It should throttle 15mhz at 70 and 80c just like GTX680. I don't think that its normal to hit 98c in normal usage and throttle to 500mhz. That just doesn't sound right to me.

When you say it should throttle 15MHz at 70 and 80C, do you mean throttle to 15MHz below base clock frequency? I am not seeing any throttling whatsoever, until I hit 98C--then it drops like a stone to 500MHz. I just tried it again to confirm with a Heaven run and with the fan set to 30% to heat it up quickly, and it holds firm bouncing between 1097 and 1084MHz when over 80C. When I set auto fan to 1:1 ratio matching rising temps, I cannot even pass 68C with the torture of Heaven at max settings. So yeah, there's no way this GPU will ever see 98C under normal usage anyway. I am perfectly content with this reference 670's cooler.

Originally Posted by demo

Meteor is your card the short PCB model? and what clocks have you managed to hit? sorry if you mentioned earlier.

Yes, it is the short PCB one. I have still not yet had the chance to overclock it. I was too busy playing Witcher EE and Arkham City last night which I've been waiting months to play! Maybe tonight I will twist its titties some though.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Originally Posted by Meteor|WAR

Those are the one's I've been using. No issues here.



When you say it should throttle 15MHz at 70 and 80C, do you mean throttle to 15MHz below base clock frequency? I am not seeing any throttling whatsoever, until I hit 98C--then it drops like a stone to 500MHz. I just tried it again to confirm with a Heaven run and with the fan set to 30% to heat it up quickly, and it holds firm bouncing between 1097 and 1084MHz when over 80C. When I set auto fan to 1:1 ratio matching rising temps, I cannot even pass 68C with the torture of Heaven at max settings. So yeah, there's no way this GPU will ever see 98C under normal usage anyway. I am perfectly content with this reference 670's cooler.

Read the anandtech GTX680 review. It has a pretty good description of how gpu boost works. GPU boost works the same on GTX670.

[Meteor|WAR]

Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

Read the anandtech GTX680 review. It has a pretty good description of how gpu boost works. GPU boost works the same on GTX670.

OK, I just spent some time watching the GPU clocks more closely with the rising temps. You are correct, when it hits 70C the boost clock frequency does throttle down. But for me once it starts, the amount of the throttling fluctuates consistently between 10-23MHz, not 15MHz. Also, this is with a 100+ offset overclock, not sure how much that affects it.

But along with this, I can still reproduce the 98C throttling down to 500MHz. So that is another thing all together. It must do that as a fail safe when its getting close to the GPU's max safe temp. 104C, I think?

[BababooeyHTJ]

Originally Posted by Meteor|WAR

But along with this, I can still reproduce the 98C throttling down to 500MHz. So that is another thing all together. It must do that as a fail safe when its getting close to the GPU's max safe temp. 104C, I think?

Yeah, probably. I really don't think that it should do that during normal usage though. Although, your temps with an 1 to 1 fan profile sound about right.

[Meteor|WAR]

Trying to overclock the GPU now. So far it is stable up to 125+ offset, good for 1262MHz on the boost clock. That's 282MHz over the stock/average boost clock for the 670. Max temp in Heaven is hitting a ceiling of 74C with 1:1 fan speeds...

[BababooeyHTJ]

Originally Posted by Meteor|WAR

Trying to overclock the GPU now. So far it is stable up to 125+ offset, good for 1262MHz on the boost clock. That's 282MHz over the stock/average boost clock for the 670. Max temp in Heaven is hitting a ceiling of 74C with 1:1 fan speeds...

Mind posting a benchmark at with the shaders on high, tess on normal, 16x af, 4x msaa, at 1920x1080?

[Meteor|WAR]

Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

Mind posting a benchmark at with the shaders on high, tess on normal, 16x af, 4x msaa, at 1920x1080?

Even though it still says 1680x1050, I had it set to 1920x1080.



Here's the current setting this was run at, about 1273MHz on boost:

[PowerK]

Originally Posted by SIrPauly

Going to be tough to see solid scaling at only 2560 x 1600, would probably take multi-monitor, 3d stereo -- all with added IQ enhancements.

Originally Posted by PowerK

Unfortunately, they benchmarked only at 2560x1600 and 1920x1080. (No multi-monitor benchmark)
At 1920x1080, 690 SLI brings a mere ~6% performance improvement over a single 690. (Anyway who's crazy enough to set up a 690 quad-SLI for 1080p resolution?)

On my second scheme through, I discovered that they actually did some benchmark for multi-monitor gaming on page 24.
At 5760x1080. http://www.playwares.com/xe/23165471
Still about ~25% performance improvement over a single 690.
I hope review sites like [H]ardOCP, Anandtech and Tech Report do some 690 quad-SLI benchmark and analysis soon. Not to mention a proper WHQL driver for 690 from nVIDIA.......

[demo]

Shame you cant SLI a 690 and 680 together

[demo]

I'm torn, do I go for 3 x 670 now, knowing tri drivers arent very good atm, or just get 2 x 680 now, and a 3rd later after a driver revision or two?

I can pick up 670's tomorrow, however 680 wont be in stock for another week or two.. theres not much difference in prices here, and 3rd party custom cooled 670's with full pcb cost the same as stock 680's... not sure I want reference 670's, lot of reviews showing the cooler isnt very good and I want to keep them under throttle temps of course.

[bill dennison]

http://www.techpowerup.com/165980/Ge...er-Update.html

[noko]

Originally Posted by demo

I'm torn, do I go for 3 x 670 now, knowing tri drivers arent very good atm, or just get 2 x 680 now, and a 3rd later after a driver revision or two?

I can pick up 670's tomorrow, however 680 wont be in stock for another week or two.. theres not much difference in prices here, and 3rd party custom cooled 670's with full pcb cost the same as stock 680's... not sure I want reference 670's, lot of reviews showing the cooler isnt very good and I want to keep them under throttle temps of course.

Are you not pcie limited with three current generation cards? How about a 690 now and then another down the road. If a 670 is not much different in price over a 680 then I would wait if you go that route. Why can't you SLI a 690 with a 680? That sucks. Looks like CFX has more options on different cards.

[demo]

My pcie slots are 8+16+16 pcie 2.0 via NF200 in Tri, so sure I will be a little restricted, but think it will be ok.

I'm just thinking if I do a budget upgrade might aswell go all the way with budgetness lol, and get 3 x reference 670's.. but then taking current 6 series Tri drivers into account, might aswell go for dual 680's.

[PowerK]

Ivy Bridge PCI-Express Scaling with HD 7970 and GTX 680
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/I...press_Scaling/

[demo]

Yeh I posted that a few pages back, 5% difference with a single card at stock clocks. Would be interesting to see SLI or Tri configs, aswell as being overclocked. If theres already restriction at stock clocks, the hit may be larger with oc. The other thing is, what is the difference using a pcie 2.0 x4 slot with NF200 for x16? which is what my board does (1 x8 native pcie 2.0, plus 2 x4 pcie 2.0 @ x16 via NF200). The more I think about it, the more I think 670's would suit this system. Not only would I save $100-$200, but also less of a hit from pcie bus on this board, and should have near performance.

[PowerK]

It doesn't even look like 5% to me. Sometimes even PCI-E 2.0 x16 comes out to be faster than PCI-E 3.0 x16. Well within margin of errors, it seems.

[demo]

It shows 5% in the performance summary at the end (over x8 pcie 2.0), and thats just a single card at stock clocks. I'm sure once SLI, oc and bridge chips over native x4 slots are taken into account, the hit would be larger, meaning I could pay for 680's but have any benefit over 670 negated.

If my board ran 3 x 16x that would be no problem, but the issue is x8 pcie 2.0 plus x4 native with bridge chips.

[SIrPauly]

Originally Posted by PowerK

On my second scheme through, I discovered that they actually did some benchmark for multi-monitor gaming on page 24.
At 5760x1080. http://www.playwares.com/xe/23165471
Still about ~25% performance improvement over a single 690.
I hope review sites like [H]ardOCP, Anandtech and Tech Report do some 690 quad-SLI benchmark and analysis soon. Not to mention a proper WHQL driver for 690 from nVIDIA.......

Surprised there wasn't more scaling. -- would be nice to see a real impressive, severe GPU limited investigations with single, dual, tri and quad with the GK-104.

ChrisRay was the only one that really touched on these aspects by discussing and investigating the higher quality modes, hybrid modes, super-sampled transparency with Alphas. His point was really simple: A person with quad is not going to use traditional settings and IQ. Sadly, ChrisRay isn't with us anymore and passed away.

[PowerK]

Originally Posted by SIrPauly

Surprised there wasn't more scaling. -- would be nice to see a real impressive, severe GPU limited investigations with single, dual, tri and quad with the GK-104.

ChrisRay was the only one that really touched on these aspects by discussing and investigating the higher quality modes, hybrid modes, super-sampled transparency with Alphas. His point was really simple: A person with quad is not going to use traditional settings and IQ. Sadly, ChrisRay isn't with us anymore and passed away.

Are you talking about ChrisRay @ NVnews ??
If so, what happened to him ?

[SIrPauly]

Indeed. He passed away a bit over two years ago -- he was all excited to go to CES in Las Vegas and getting his system ready for Fermi. He did catch a severe flu in Las Vegas and passed away from complications.

He is missed a lot by me -- miss his passion, his help, conversations and investigations. Forums still feel empty without his views to share.

[PowerK]

I never knew.. . My deepest condolences to the community.

[SIrPauly]

Originally Posted by bill dennison

http://www.techpowerup.com/165980/Ge...er-Update.html

You would like to see quad support for the GTX 670, especially in the context of enthusiast pricing.

Thanks, for that link!

[demo]

Would be interesting to see Quad 670 vs 690 SLI, considering there is a ~$400 difference.

[SIrPauly]

And probably why GTX 670 may not be allowed to be Quad.

[acroig]

Originally Posted by SIrPauly

He is missed a lot by me -- miss his passion, his help, conversations and investigations. Forums still feel empty without his views to share.

+1.