MSI GTX 670 Power Edition 2048 MB

[W1zzard]

To read this review go to: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...Power_Edition/

[Ikaruga]

it's consistently delivers 680 performance for 20W less, even at "GPU bound" resolutions. Perhaps the drivers are holding back the 680?

[puma99dk|]

really awesome card u got reviewed there W1zzard, but the overclocking is just a disappointment :/

i was actually expecting higher clocks with this great MSI Twin Frozr IV cooler but didn't happen.

when will u actually do a review of a 4gb GTX670 card? ^^;

[D007]

So, it's not worth buying...lol... The improvements, "If they can be called that" are marginal at best. Shame..

[zsolt_93]

There is a mistake at the voltage controller which states GIGABYTE instead of MSI. Apart that a nice review as always. And the card performs really well, personally looks better than the lightning series without the backplate and that stabilizer thing.

[radrok]

This VGA will be a win when MSI Afterburner is going to release supported voltage tweaking, up to 1.3v, provided you get a good clocking chip

[W1zzard]

Originally Posted by zsolt_93

There is a mistake at the voltage controller which states GIGABYTE instead of MSI.

fixed

[D007]

Originally Posted by W1zzard

fixed

The ever vigilant Wiz..

Originally Posted by W1zzard

more like: always fail at copy and paste

[W1zzard]

Originally Posted by D007

The ever vigilant Wiz..

more like: always fail at copy and paste

[johnnyfiive]

This is a great way to get GTX 680 performance without paying the GTX 680 price. Nice card.

[DrBoss]

Too bad about the overclock, seems like a bad sample.

My MSI N670 PE is stable with a boost clock of 1290 Mhz (31.5% over reference), Memory at 1802 Mhz. 69C Max temp with fan set on 60%

[MxPhenom 216]

meh.... good review from wizzard. so so card

Wizard you should try and review the Evga GTX680 Signature 2 card. I have one coming on Friday.

[Hilux SSRG]

Originally Posted by DrBoss

Too bad about the overclock, seems like a bad sample.

Samples for the gtx 670 can vary pretty wildly, more so than usual in my opinion.

W1zzard's review of the Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce gave him OC 1060/1925 Mhz while my own Gigabyte OC to 1365/1802 Mhz.

I guess the MSI Lighting is the better OC out there for MSI fans.

[Delta6326]

Great reviewing like always!! Still don't think it or any other beat the ASUS Top(besides RSOD)

Originally Posted by DrBoss

Too bad about the overclock, seems like a bad sample.

My MSI N670 PE is stable with a boost clock of 1290 Mhz (31.5% over reference), Memory at 1802 Mhz. 69C Max temp with fan set on 60%
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7135/7...f75917e7_o.jpg

Thats a nice OC and AN Awesome background of the moon do you have a link to that pic?

[mayankleoboy1]

when will you start using ATI 12.7 in all reviews?

its in beta. but 12.7 has proved to be a big boost in lots of games.
my concern is that the reviews may not show the complete current picture. and anybody who buys these high-end cards must be technical enough to use a driver that gives a lot of performance advantage over Nvidia.

[hardcore_gamer]

Wizz,

Y u no include 7970 Ghz edition in the performance charts ?

[DrBoss]

Originally Posted by Delta6326

Thats a nice OC and AN Awesome background of the moon do you have a link to that pic?

Thanks man, It's actually a picture of Mercury which i took down from a NASA website. I'm not on my home computer at the moment. But many great pictures can be found on the NASA Goddard Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/

[DrBoss]

W1zzard,

I just noticed on Page 4 of the review that you indicate "MSI uses use a Richtek RT8802A voltage controller on their card, just like the reference design. This is a fairly simple controller which does not offer any monitoring features or software voltage control. Voltages are controlled via VID pins that are directly connected to the GPU."

So, despite MSI indicating that Afterburner 2.2.3 will give us voltage control... it seems the truth is that the hardware will not allow it?

[W1zzard]

in theory, afterburner could control the VID pins from the GPU

[neliz]

MSI Afterburner 2.2.3 with Triple Overvoltage support for the 680 Lightning and 670 Power Edition available now:
http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

[TheHunter]

^
@Wizzard

This might be the perfect time do redo OC part of the test?

[omnimodis78]

Great review! I'm currently sitting on the fence regarding the Gigabyte option (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/G...ndforce/4.html) or this MSI model. A few things are keeping me undecided (and to be honest I'm not even sure if they are quantitative enough, maybe I can be given some feedback):

1. The MSI model has 50% of the memory modules cooled (as half the modules are on the bottom of the board) / the Gigabyte model covers all modules with a heatsink.

2. The Gigabyte model has 6+8 PCIe power configuration (does it even realistically matter)?

3. The MSI model is already on "version 2" - I generally like this as it means that certain things have been either fixed or improved. Gigabyte is still version 1.

4. Military Class III vs Ultra Durable VGA. Essentially, from what I have read for a while, is that both are on equal footing here, and that the fluffy names and graphs are more marketing. Anyone have any perspectives on this?

I'm not a brand-sheep, but I've never had any issues with Gigabyte, whereas I don't really have experience with MSI. I know both are top brands, but how is MSI with pre and post warranty expiration customer service? Do they reply to emails? Can you reach a live person if you ever need to call them?. Thanks.

[Hilux SSRG]

I own this Gigabyte model and highly recommend it. If you look at W1zzard's maximum overclock comparison chart above [pg31] the Gigabyte has great overclocking capabilities - I run mine at 1350mhz max clock and 1752mhz max mem clock.

[PatoRodrigues]

9.3 volts instead of 5 (Richtek recommended)... bad circuit.

MSI gave some response, but nothing about recall or RMA problems.

PWM voltage on this one <<<<<<<<<<

[stonely0]

Hi, Firstly, nice detailed review well done!

I'm now running 2 of this card (MSI 670GTX PWR ED/OC) SLI everything is good. I read from the reviews on Page 3

"You may combine up to four GTX 670 cards from any vendor in a multi-GPU SLI configuration for higher framerates or better image quality settings."

Can i really do that? I was under the impression that SLI 2 way or 3 way require the same set of video card from the same manufacturer. I have a leadtek Winfast 670GTX 2GB lying around my room somewhere. Can i hook it up together with my 2 MSI 670GTX? My MoBo support up to 4 GPU so that should not be a problem and PSU have plenty of watts to go around.

Please enlighten me on this... and pardon my poor english, it's not my mother tongue


Cheers