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Origin PC spoiled the GTX 680M launch party a bit with their announcement of their new EON15-S and EON17-S notebooks this morning, but NVIDIA asked us to avoid discussing the particulars of the new mobile GPU juggernaut until the official NDA time. As you’ve probably guessed, that time is now (or 6PM PDT June 4, 2012 if you’re reading this later). NVIDIA also shared some information on upcoming Ultrabooks, which we’ll get to at the end.
On the high-end notebooks, so far the only Kepler GPU has been a higher clocked GK107, the GTX 660M, but increasing the core clocks will only take you so far. NVIDIA has continued to sell their previous generation GTX 570M and 580M as the GTX 670M and 675M (with a slight increase in core clocks), but clearly there was a hole at the top. Now it's time to plug that hole with the GeForce GTX 680M.
Let’s get acquainted with a graphics card that is pure perfection in all respects. You think, it is not possible? Well, read our review and you will see it is, in fact, so.
Today we will talk about the design and functionality of the proprietary GeForce GTX 680 graphics cards. We will test two graphics cards like that in an SLI configuration, compare it against a dual-processor GeForce GTX 690 and other products.
<p style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: small; ">In a typical high-end GPU launch we’ll see the process take place in phases over a couple of months if not longer. The new GPU will be launched in the form of one or two single-GPU cards, with additional cards coming to market in the following months and culminating in the launch of a dual-GPU behemoth. This is the typical process as it allows manufacturers and board partners time to increase production, stockpile chips, and work on custom designs.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: small; ">But this year things aren’t so typical. GK104 wasn’t the typical high-end GPU from NVIDIA, and neither it seems is there anything typical about its launch.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: small; ">NVIDIA has not been wasting any time in getting their complete GK104 based product lineup out the door. Just 6 weeks after the launch of the GeForce GTX 680, NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 690, their dual-GK104 monster. Now only a week after that NVIDIA is at it again, launching the GK104 based GeForce GTX 670 this morning.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: small; ">Like its predecessors, GTX 670 will fill in the obligatory role as a cheaper, slower, and less power-hungry version of NVIDIA’s leading video card. This is a process that allows NVIDIA to not only put otherwise underperforming GPUs to use, but to satisfy buyers at lower price points at the same time. Throughout this entire process the trick to successfully launching any second-tier card is to try to balance performance, prices, and yields, and as we’ll see NVIDIA has managed to turn all of the knobs just right to launch a very strong product.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/5818/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-feat-evga" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; text-align: left; ">Today we are going to talk about three new graphics accelerators on Radeon HD 79xx GPUs, which have different PCBs, unique cooling systems and increased operational clock speeds. We will also test CrossFireX configurations and see how well this technology works for Tahiti graphics processors.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/radeon-hd-7970-crossfirex.html" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></p>
Today we are introducing to you the fastest graphics accelerator of our times and even of the rapidly approaching near future.
<p style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">In an unusual move, NVIDIA took the opportunity earlier this week to </span></span><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">announce a new 600 series video card</span></span><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Arial; "> before they would be shipping it. Based on a pair of Kepler GK104 GPUs, the GeForce GTX 690 would be NVIDIA’s new flagship dual-GPU video card. And by all metrics it would be a doozy.</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">Packing a pair of high clocked, fully enabled GK104 GPUs, NVIDIA was targeting GTX 680 SLI performance in a single card, the kind dual-GPU card we haven’t seen in quite some time. GTX 690 would be a no compromise card – quieter and less power hungry than GTX 680 SLI, as fast as GTX 680 in single-GPU performance, and as fast as GTX 680 SLI in multi-GPU performance. And at $999 it would be the most expensive GeForce card yet.</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">After the announcement and based on the specs it was clear that GTX 690 had the potential, but could NVIDIA really pull this off? They could, and they did. Now let’s see how they did it.</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Arial; "><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/5805/nvidia-geforce-gtx-690-review-ultra-expensive-ultra-rare-ultra-fast" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small; "> As AMD’s 28nm allocation has improved so has the selection of cards available on the market. We’re still in the first phase of the Radeon HD 7000 series rollout, with AMD’s partners building semi-custom cards based on AMD’s reference PCB, but even without custom PCBs AMD’s partners have been able to turn out a number of interesting designs. This is particularly the case for the 7800 series, where prices are high enough for partners to experiment with different coolers and TDPs are low enough to allow more than a handful of approaches.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small; "> Last month we saw some of those first designs with PowerColor’s PCS+ HD7870 and HIS’s IceQ 7870 Turbo, and today we’ll be looking at a third: Sapphire’s HD 7870 Overclock Edition, their semi-custom factory overclocked 7870. How does Sapphire’s dual-fan entry stand up to the competition? Let’s find out.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/5767/capsule-review-sapphires-radeon-hd-7870-overclock-edition" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; text-align: left; ">Let’s take a closer look at two reference graphics cards based on the junior AMD GPUs from the Southern Islands family – Cape Verde.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/radeon-hd-7770-ghz-edition-hd-7750.html" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></p>
Will the daring newcomers based on the mainstream AMD GPUs be able to outdo the previous generation High-End graphics cards in performance, energy-efficiency and price? You bet they will! This is what we will talk about in our today’s review.