Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Windforce 3X review

Performance Analysis

At 1,920 x 1,080 in Battlefield 3, the Gigabyte card added 4fps to the original GTX 670 2GB minimum frame rate, leaving it above the more expensive HD 7970 3GB GHz Edition and only just behind the GTX 680 2GB. While the card does fall behind the GHz Edition at higher resolutions, it's only by a single fps on the minimum in each case, and it maintains an easy lead over the HD 7970 3GB

The Gigabyte GTX 670 2GB produced a very impressive result in Crysis 2 at 1,920 x 1,080, easily leading the HD 7970 3GB, which the GTX 670 2GB couldn't do before. However, its minimum frame rate does fall behind this card again at 2,560 x 1,600 by a single fps. Though it regains its lead in three screen gaming, every card by the dual GPU GTX 690 4GB is unplayable in this test.


Skyrim tends to favour Nvidia hardware, so it's unsurprising to see GeForce cards do better than their Radeon counterparts. Nonetheless, the Gigabyte GTX 670 2GB clearly outperforms the HD 7970 3GB in every test, and either beats or equals the costlier GHz Edition in each test too, which is an excellent result.

The HD 7970 3GB GHz Edition maintains a lead over the card in The Witcher 2, and this lead becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions. The standard HD 7970 3GB, is almost equal to the Gigabyte card in this game, never differentiating on the minimum frame rate by more than 1fps.


In our Unigine Heaven 3.0 Benchmark, the Gigabyte GTX 670 2GB is able to extend its lead on the HD 7970 3GB to 168 points, a 10 per cent total difference. This score leaves it barely behind both the GTX 680 2GB and HD 7970 3GB GHz Edition, which is impressive. Even more impressive, however, is the effect that overclocking the Gigabyte card has, as its Unigine score rose by 237 points, or 13 per cent, giving it a significant lead on both of these more expensive card. This result was replicated in Battlefield 3 at 2,560 x 1,600, where our overclocked card beat these two cards by 4fps each.

Our power and thermal testing also left us with good news to share. Though its power consumption under load was naturally higher than that stock GTX 670 2GB, the Gigabyte card still manages to consume less power than a HD 7970 3GB, and far less than a GHz Edition. Temperature on the card were also excellent, with the card proving to be a massive 17°C cooler than a stock GTX 670 2GB under load. Pleasingly, the Windforce 3X cooler also runs very quietly.

Conclusion

Unlike Gainward's Phantom card, Gigabyte's take on the GeForce GTX 670 2GB does the original card justice by striking a balance between price and performance that is truly excellent. Despite costing roughly the same as a Radeon HD 7970 3GB, Gigabyte's GTX 670 2GB outperforms it with ease, producing results that are on par instead with the HD 7970 3GB GHz Edition and GTX 680 2GB, which cost around £50 more.

Even better, the card's excellent overclocking capabilities mean that it truly can offer better performance than these more expensive cards, making it a brilliant choice for those looking for high quality 2,560 x 1,600 gaming. It's more power efficient than its AMD competition too, and the Windforce 3X cooler easily keeps noise levels and temperatures low enough to justify the £20 extra that it costs over a stock model of the GTX 670 2GB.