Which monster 680gtx to get? 5 Choice Poll

Which is better for me?

  • ASUS DirectCU II TOP

    Votes: 10 20.4%

  • ASUS DirectCU II

    Votes: 5 10.2%

  • Gigabyte Super-Super Overclocked White

    Votes: 8 16.3%

  • EVGA Signature 2

    Votes: 18 36.7%

  • Gigabyte Windforce

    Votes: 8 16.3%
  • Total voters
    49
  • Poll closed .
D

doug_7506

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 17, 2004
Messages
3,247
I have narrowed it down to Five:

Listed in my current order:

Concerns. I want a monster factory OC but at the same time I would like it to be QUIET!
The card being quiet is more important than the OC.

One of the biggest problems I have is that there is no place to get an unbiased DB rating on all the cards since everyone measures db differently..

Rest of system specs in sig. Will not be upgrading again for 3+ years. I can wait upto three weeks for the card. As of right now I am waiting for the DirectCU to come into stock, but my mind is still not set?

ASUS DirectCU II 680gtx TOP
Price: $539.99
Factory OC (Boost): 1201mhz ($.45 mhz)
Availability: Have not seen it in stock in two weeks.
Comments: This card just seems to hit the sweet spot, nice factory OC with big cooler at the right price. I loved the performance/noise ratio with my old DirectCU II 7970. The only negative with this card has been reports of it being unstable

ASUS DirectCU II 680gtx
Price: $529.99
Factory OC (Boost): 1084mhz ($.49 mhz)
Availability: Have not seen it in stock in two weeks.
Comments: My biggest concern with this card is that since ASUS bins their chips is there a higher chance that this card will not OC very well? Crapy re-sell since it is non-top. Top only $10 more... This is the slowest card on the list but perhaps the quietest...

Galaxy Super Over Clocked White
Price: $564.99
Factory OC (Boost): 1267mhz ($.45 mhz)
Availability: In Stock RIGHT NOW!!! lol
Comments: Highest factory OC. Best looking 680gtx out? Carries the highest price tag, borderline too high. I could see doing 549 but at 564 something seems off, but it is only 15 which I guess really doesnt matter when you are spending 550... Reports of it being loud, I think this has to do with its factory OC? but the biggest turn off, is that I only have a dvi-d connector on my monitor. This card would require me to go mini-hdmi to hdmi than hdmi to dvi. PLUS I would have to buy another mini-hdmi to hdmi to support my setup. (64 inch tv + 27 inch monitor). Plus this is $30 more than an ASUS top model

EVGA Superclocked Signature 2
Price: $519.99
Factory OC (Boost): 1163mhz ($.45 mhz)
Availability: In stock sporadically.
Comments: Great OC, Great Price, Great Company. The only thing holding me back on this card is the noise. This is probably the loudest card of the bunch (anyone know how loud this thing is?).

Gigabyte Windforce 680gtx
Price: $524.99
Factory OC (Boost): 1137mhz ($.46 mhz)
Availability: In stock now and has been instock the last few times I checked.
Comments: Great price, nice cooler, and great reviews. This card really seems like a win. The only problem I honestly have with this card is that for $5 more you can get an the DirectCU II model (If it ever goes in stock).
 
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You want quiet or you want to overclock and keep it still quiet.. the #1 choice is always to water cool.
 
Yeah but WC'ing is soo expensive and requires maintenance.

Whenever they make a simple wc'ing solution like the H60 I'll wc.
 
doug_7506 said:
Yeah but WC'ing is soo expensive and requires maintenance.

Whenever they make a simple wc'ing solution like the H60 I'll wc.
Click to expand...
Air coolers require maintenance too, dust collects. I change the water in my loop like once a year and it's never had a problem.

But yes, it is more costly.
 
Rizen said:
Air coolers require maintenance too, dust collects. I change the water in my loop like once a year and it's never had a problem.

But yes, it is more costly.
Click to expand...

Except Rad's also have fans, and you're still gonna get dust if you watercool.

Nothing is maintenance free.
 
Gigabyte GTX 680 Windforce. very effective cooling solution. overclock pretty well.
 
The Gigabyte Windforce gets my vote as it's actually in stock. Not sure if I could wait 3 weeks if I was in your position :p

Don't think the white one is worth the premium, I think they charged more just for the white PCB.
 
If it were me the inconsistencies of the Asus Direct CU's in both the red and green camps, I think I'd pass on those.

So out of the bottom 3:
If it were not for the connectivity of the Galaxy, that would be my pick hands down, unless 1300mhz is common on all 680GTX's, $15 wouldn't enter in the equation

EVGA would be my prefered company

I like the Windforce cooling solution, but I have seen reports of the fans falling off on the 7970 models, not sure how common it is though.

After putting an Accelero on my 7970HD, I don't feel that any triple fan solution should be noisy. At 100% fans it sounds like the reference at idle.

It seems that any of the last 3 are a compromise in one way or another for your usage, I guess you have to decide which would be the easiest for you to live with !
 
FragMagnet said:
If it were me the inconsistencies of the Asus Direct CU's in both the red and green camps, I think I'd pass on those.

...

It seems that any of the last 3 are a compromise in one way or another for your usage, I guess you have to decide which would be the easiest for you to live with !
Click to expand...

This sums up exactly how I feel. There is no clear cut winner for me...

BTW, how is that accelero extreme? Would it be smart to just buy say an EVGA uperclocked + and add the accelero? I was thinking about doing this as it may be the only win win.

EVGA Superclocked+ 1124 factory boost
and
Artic Accelero
Would be well over 600 though :(

Also, I've seen people rigging up h60's on 680gtx. How do you think that would work?
 
Ajiki-kun said:
Is there anything wrong with that DCII 7970 you're using? Like, is it not quiet?
Click to expand...

No it was almost perfect. No audio over HDMI which I wanted. Performance was not as amazing as I expected. Honestly, my overly irrational bias towards Nvidia has left me unable to be happy with it. :eek:

Dan_D said:
I'm waiting on 4GB cards personally.
Click to expand...

Yeah... I like the idea of a 4gb card, but... EVGA FTW 4gb $629
 
doug_7506 said:
No it was almost perfect. No audio over HDMI which I wanted. Performance was not as amazing as I expected. Honestly, my overly irrational bias towards Nvidia has left me unable to be happy with it. :eek:



Yeah... I like the idea of a 4gb card, but... EVGA FTW 4gb $629
Click to expand...

Not happy about the price either.
 
doug_7506 said:
This sums up exactly how I feel. There is no clear cut winner for me...

BTW, how is that accelero extreme? Would it be smart to just buy say an EVGA uperclocked + and add the accelero? I was thinking about doing this as it may be the only win win.

EVGA Superclocked+ 1124 factory boost
and
Artic Accelero
Would be well over 600 though :(

Also, I've seen people rigging up h60's on 680gtx. How do you think that would work?
Click to expand...

I have no issues about using the Accelero, all the vrm/ram heatsinks you need, removeable if needed, good instructions (needed to download though), and the bonding material takes 24 hrs to cure. Looping Heaven at 50c on the GPU, 67c on the VRM's, no need for fan profiles, just set it at 80%-100% depending on your preference, I just leave mine at 100%. On the 7970HD the Accelero makes the card 12" long, I had to remove the upper drive bay in my CM 690II

I had seen the H60's etc after the Accelero, but you still need the unit, the aftermarket bracket ($10 I think), the small heatsinks and a way to attach them, and a fan to cool them. So it depends which parts you have in stock, how much fabbing and messing around you are willing to do, and the space in your case.
 
Theres a certain little card from Msi that should be dropping soon that should surpass everything on that list :D

What Brutus said ha... Beat me to it.
 
look nice with a nice factory OC. Think it will be as quiet as the directCU II models?

more confused now than ever... :confused:
 
doug_7506 said:
look nice with a nice factory OC. Think it will be as quiet as the directCU II models?

more confused now than ever... :confused:
Click to expand...

Depends on what your wanting to do man. The GTX 680 TOP's have been stable from everything Ive read and mine is amazing. Cool, quite, and does 1300mhz on the core. Its the 670 TOP editions that have the problems.

If you never plan to sli and 1300 mhz is enough for you then I say get the 680 TOP for sure because it certainly has the highest stock oc. If I snag a Lightning because I wanna to push voltage on it I might have a 680 TOP for sale soon ha.
 
hammerforged said:
Depends on what your wanting to do man. The GTX 680 TOP's have been stable from everything Ive read and mine is amazing. Cool, quite, and does 1300mhz on the core. Its the 670 TOP editions that have the problems.

If you never plan to sli and 1300 mhz is enough for you then I say get the 680 TOP for sure because it certainly has the highest stock oc. If I snag a Lightning because I wanna to push voltage on it I might have a 680 TOP for sale soon ha.
Click to expand...

Well if you put it up lmk!


Also,

I see a lot of people voting for the EVGA signature+ 2

Could someone elaborate on why? They are my favorite bran, but I feel like the cooling will not be that impressive. Has anyone seen any results with that cooler?
 
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No real reviews out of the sig 2 but I like the value that card has. 8 + 6 pin power, high factory oc, none ref cooler.

If Evga is your favorite brand that might be a good card to go with as well. Just gotta figure out where your priorities are ha.
 
cortexodus said:
It's easy and it's not expensive at all... :cool:

I would recommend something with a larger radiator than the kuhler 620 for a GTX 680, though.
Click to expand...

Holy shit we have the same cases!!!! I could do the same thing. How did you set that up and what kind of temps are you getting? Also, was the tubing long enough?

This was my case before I get rid of the 7970. (Unfortunately my case mod left me no place to hide my wires...)

Maybe an H80?

15xub7n.jpg
 
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doug_7506 said:
Holy shit we have the same cases!!!! I could do the same thing. How did you set that up and what kind of temps are you getting? Also, was the tubing long enough?

This was my case before I get rid of the 7970. (Unfortunately my case mod left me no place to hide my wires...)

Maybe an H80?
Click to expand...

lol, I would say your P180 is FAR more gutted than mine ;-)

This is probably the "best" way but I just used zip ties, some pliers and some patience. Temps hover at literally room temp on idle, and I've yet to break 51C under load. Tubes were long enough to reach the radiator with a fan mounted in front of it. Intake fan is hard-mounted to the metal on the case (I got rid of that plastic holder doodad that I can see you're still using). The pic doesn't show it well but there is still just a bit of slack even as it is. It would be even better if I put in a 38mm fan for the intake instead but it's totally fine with the 25mm units I'm using. I don't use the Kuhler's integrated 3pin header for any of the fans. I've got those on a manual controller. Basically, It's quick, cheap, quiet, and completely reversible! :D

One bad thing, there's no longer any room under that card for other things. The other video card I have mounted below it is just a dinky 8400GS I use for a tertiary display and it's low-profile. Some people twist and jam those tubes in all over the damned place in order to accommodate other cards below the "modded" one, but I'm not willing to do that. My duo-slot 570 pretty much became a quad slotter as far as space goes (barring low profile stuff that fits behind the tubes, anyway)
 
I'm definitely interested. Kinda worried about voiding my warranty or ruining a $500 card. The mod he did looks irreversible.

51c under load is impressive though! You use a fan controller for your fan speed?
 
doug_7506 said:
I'm definitely interested. Kinda worried about voiding my warranty or ruining a $500 card. The mod he did looks irreversible. 51c under load is impressive though! You use a fan controller for your fan speed?
Click to expand...

I understand the trepidation, believe me. However, even the guy that did the custom mounting plate for mounting the kuhler to the GPU has a setup that's totally reversible. I did something sort of like this but, the pics of this guy's zip-tie mounting situation look a little different than mine. He's mounting to a reference GTX480 though, so it's a different card as well. This is the thread that started the whole thing and got me wanting to do it up for myself.

The the most difficult part of doing it up with zip ties is making sure the contact between the GPU and the cooler block is centered. I wanted it perfect and it was a real bastard to line up, carefully pulling each zip tie a click at a time. Probably took me about 40 minutes total to remove the ref cooler, clean everything up, mount the kuhler and then seat the card and get rocking. I took out the Antec fan that the Kuhler comes with and mounted two of these instead. I use this to control the push/pull fans manually (3rd channel controls my rear case exhaust).
 
Thanks for the tips. I am definitely going to look into this some more.

Do you think there is a way to modify a pwm fan wire to connect it to the fan controller on the card?

I will probably use 2 NF-F12 for push/pull. I have one at the top of my case that is not doing much and I already have one in the front.

This setup up would make my computer virtually silent under load. Maxing out around 22dbs!
 
Since you plan on keeping the card for a long time, I'd wait and pay the premium on a 680 Lightning. You get the great Twin Frozr cooler and the ability to up the voltage if you want max OC, so you will be able to find the balance of noise/OC that works for you. It just sounds like you want top of the line to be satisfied, so may as well go for it (nothing wrong with that).

I would not consider EVGA due to the blower fan design, the only reason to use that is if you are going SLI and need to exhaust heat out the back. Internal large fans like the Lightning, Windforce, DirectCU are always significantly cooler and quieter.
 
seems like msi lighting + antec 620 might be the way to go!

What will be the premium on that msi lighting?

Right now the evga superclocked signature + seems like the card to get. (assuming i remove the cooler).
 
doug_7506 said:
seems like msi lighting + antec 620 might be the way to go!

What will be the premium on that msi lighting?

Right now the evga superclocked signature + seems like the card to get. (assuming i remove the cooler).
Click to expand...

It's $600 and available on Newegg now.
 
Does PNY have an option? they are pretty much all the same damn card, and PNY is always a good way of saving a few bucks, and the stock cooler is fine IMO. My last 3 cards over 4 years have been PNY except for the AMD card I bought because they don't make em. Solid cards, no frills, except the packaging is generally stellar.
 
Considering if I was going to get a 680GTX I would be throwing 2-3 in SLI, these 3-slot abominations serve now purpose to me.

Now the MSI Lightning..
 
I know it wasn't an option but if I could have waited longer, I would have purchased a Galaxy GTX 680 4GB. Pretty high clocks and 4GB ram at a decent price.

Just picked up the EVGA Signature 2. Hopefully the galaxies don't come back in stock soon or I'm going to be mad lol.
 
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