Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 2GB Review

Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 2GB - The Card

While the reductions to the GTX 670 2GB’s GPU aren’t that significant (a 12.5 per cent drop in stream processor count and nine per cent drop in base clock frequency), the difference to card itself is staggering. From the 257mm PCB of the GTX 680 2GB, the GTX 670 2GB’s PCB is just 175mm (7in) in length (not counting the cooler), and stripped down it's almost comically dinky for a £330 graphics card.


The rear I/O is the same as the GTX 680 2GB, with a pair of DVI-D ports, an HDMI port and a full-size DisplayPort alongside the vented sections for exhausting hot air out of the back of the card. As with the rest of the 6-series, the GTX 670 2GB supports up to four simultaneous displays on one card (at increased idle power consumption), with the ability to output to three of them as a single large resolution via Nvidia’s Surround multi-monitor technology.


A dual slot cooler extends the stock card’s length to 240mm, with a radial fan drawing in air from the back of the card and blowing it over an aluminium heatsink mounted on the top of the centrally mounted GPU; as such, no air is exhausted inside your case.

A pair of 6-pin PCI-E power connectors fuel the card, with Nvidia stating the GTX 670 2GB’s maximum board power as 170W TDP. These are fitted at the end of the PCB, but due to the cooler extending off the edge of the PCB, are nearer the middle of the card.


With the cooler stripped off the GTX 670 2GB look more like a mid-range card than a high-end contender. The aluminium stack of cooling fins, fitted atop a copper contact plate, is joined by a dual-slot aluminium heatsink which handles VRM cooling. On the VRM front there are four phases for the GPU, and 2-smaller phases for the memory, for a total of 6+1 for the card. Interestingly, our stock alternates its eight 256MB GDDR5 memory chips on both the front and backside of the PCB, likely a precaution considering the memory, running at 6GHz effective, is not actively cooled.



While the stock card we’re reviewing here will be on sale at launch via partners such as PNY and Gigabyte, Nvidia has stated its willingness for board partners to offer their own custom cooled versions of the card. Pre-overclocked and custom-cooled versions will be on sale at launch, with most simply dropping the GTX 670 2GB GPU into existing GTX 680 2GB PCBs. With such a small stock PCB though, we can’t wait to see micro-versions of the GTX 670 2GB arrive.