Palit GeForce GTX 670 Jetstream 2GB Review

[siopao1984]

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We've previously reviewed Palit's GTX 680 Jetstream 2GB back in April, and we found it to be an attractive choice for a high end enthusiast GPU, albeit it was in perpetual short supply. Shortly after, the launch of the cheaper GTX 670 changed the market dynamics. Although the lesser Kepler on the GTX 670 only had 87.5% of the number of SMX units than the fully-enabled GTX 680, real-world benchmarks and performance figures were much closer when both were matched matched clock-for-clock. In fact, factory overclocked cards like the one we have here today will give the GTX 680 and HD 7970/7970GHz (not GP compute scenarios though) a run for their money. After all, why pay more for intangible differences?

Palit has an ongoing promotion right now where you can win another identical card for SLI, by posting pictures of your rig in use.

Basic documentation/driver CD and accessories like a HDMI-DVI and DVI-Analog convertor are provided in the package.

Here at the I/O panel, we see the usual GTX 670/680 ports layout - full sized HDMI/DisplayPort and dual DVI (only one has dual link). In this picture, it is also clear to our viewers that the card takes up slightly more than two slots thanks to its over-sized cooler. This virtually rules out SLI on mATX setups.

At the back, we see that the GTX 670 Jetstream actually has a short-depth PCB like the reference model, although the power circuitry used here is different.

Read more: Palit GeForce GTX 670 Jetstream 2GB Review by VR-Zone.com

[siopao1984]

When we pop out the primary HSF, we see a large heatsink covering the VRM area (more on that in awhile).



At the business end of things, we see the Kepler GK104 die (28nm, 3.5B transistors) flanked by eight 256MB 1.5GHz Hynix BGA RAM modules arranged in a 256-bit GDDR5 memory bus. Palit factory overclocked their card almost 100MHz (~10%) more than the reference design and gave the memory a small 20MHz increment.





2 x 6 pin PCIe connectors here for up to 225W of board power, so any ambitious overclocking is immediately ruled out.





Palit employed four phases of Fairchild Semiconductor FDMF6823C Driver MOS, each rated up to 50A of current in an efficient and space saving form factor.







The bog standard OnSemi NCP5392E PWM used here does not offer i2C support for software voltage control, but its inconsequential since Nvidia uses hardware and software voodoo to impose a max 1.175v voltage ceiling for GK104 cards across all vendors.





Palit's Jetstream cooler here is a plastic assembly holding together the primary heatsink (aluminium base with three copper heat-pipes) and dual fans.







The twin 9cm fans themselves are rated 0.55A each and push a lot of air thanks to its 15-blade design. They have attractive blue LEDs when in-use and are configured to spin in opposite directions so heat is both dissipated into and out of the casing.

[siopao1984]

Software

The included ThunderMaster OC utility is similar in layout and functionality to MSI's Afterburner and EVGA's Precision X, offering clock/voltage monitoring and adjustments and the ability to load/save profiles. The utility interfaces with the Nvidia driver API which does not allow voltage adjustments (the Core Voltage setting in the illustration below only locks the 3D voltage at 1.175v, which hinders any meaningful overclocking). Power limit on this board is restricted to 128%, which is 217.6W (base is 170W).





Temperatures

The point of this test is to determine the dexterity of the cooling solution (leaving the fan speed at AUTO will just mean the fans will ramp it when temperatures hit 70, which doesn't provide a controlled environment for science)

On the highly demanding Furmark 1.9 burn-in test, 100% fan speed (makes a huge ruckus but pushing a lot of air) kept the card cool at 61 degrees celcius. Typical temperatures in games should be around 40-50 degrees, which is an excellent result.





Overclocking

We managed to squeeze an additional 115MHz out of the core (taking the boost clock to 1.2GHz) and an impressive +328MHz from the memory. Your actual milege may vary due to the ASIC "lottery".

[siopao1984]

Test Setup

CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4817MHz 1.52v
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme (Bios 001
Memory: G.Skills ARES 2133MHz DDR3 16GB Kit
Power Supply: Antec True Quattro Pro 1200W
Storage: Intel 520 series 240GB SSD
Graphics Cards / Drivers:
304.79 (PCIe 3.0 fix applied)

Palit GTX 670 Jetstream 2GB
304.48
Nvidia GTX 680 2GB

Catalyst 12.7 Beta
AMD Radeon HD7970 GHz Edition
AMD Radeon HD7970 3GB

To prevent GPU Boost (NVIDIA's adaptive throttling mechanism) from interfering with the clocks, we need to change this setting in the Nvidia Control Panel.







Benchmarks







As we can see from the above benchmarks, like all the other GTX 670 we've tested, the Palit card meets head to head and sometimes leapfrogs its more prestigious competition at stock and when overclocked. Having said that, the other cards still have significant overclocking headroom though, but they cost more. Before we get accused of cherry picking benchmarks, the Radeon cards do much better in beyond full HD resolutions and GPGPU too.

[siopao1984]

Conclusion



Despite annoyances like the card actually using more than two physical slots and the slightly noisy cooling solution, the standout part of the review today is that, at least in the Singapore retail market, the Palit is one of the best priced custom GTX 670 at SGD$589 (PC Themes). Comparatively speaking, non-reference GTX 670 cards from the usual (cartel) suspects cost almost $40-$70 more, and the average GTX680/HD7970 belongs in another league at $200 more. Kudos to Palit and distributor Convergent Systems for this very aggressive price strategy.

We have a new value champion for high-end gamers in the Palit GTX 680 Jetstream 2GB.

[dark_humbz]

super liiiiiiike! hahaha, me being a Jetstream user (the 680 though), finds these cards a true-blue value for money! impressive at the least!