Stock 670 or factory OC

[TheGhxst]

Which route to go?

Is it worth getting a stock 670 from PNY(or perhapse another company that offers a stock variety?), getting a GPU cooler for it and OC'ing it myself? Can the PNY stock ones OC further then the factory OC'd ones? Or would I be spending about the same amount for the same result?

 

[siddharthmukul007]

when we take into account all the factors like warranty,price,cooling,oc,performance,support....every things becomes the same.
choose the right balance for you.

 

[cc_moreau_cc]

Hey, honestly, it's up to you what you really want to go for but may I recommend the Gigabyte GTX 670. Kepler cards cap out at 97C and then start to downclock. If you have a card with an aftermarket cooler, you give yourself more breathing room and, unlike on reference 670, aftermarket coolers have heatsinks on the memory for better memory overclocking and let me tell you, this 670 can really rack up the memory speed. So, my personal opinion would be to look at something along the lines of the Asus Direct CU II, Gigabyte Winforce 3X or the MSI Lightning. They're all great versions that offer amazing cooling and oc'ing capabilities. It's all up to you buddy!

 

[TheGhxst]

when we take into account all the factors like warranty,price,cooling,oc,performance,support....every things becomes the same.
choose the right balance for you.

That's something I think about a lot when I try to decide on this, warranty especially. If I purchase a stock 670, aftermarket cooler and OC it to death, my bad im out 400ish dollars because it's my own fault. But that is if I was to push it to that point, which I honestly doubt I would do. I'm doing enough research on it to know what is safe and not.

Hey, honestly, it's up to you what you really want to go for but may I recommend the Gigabyte GTX 670. Kepler cards cap out at 97C and then start to downclock. If you have a card with an aftermarket cooler, you give yourself more breathing room and, unlike on reference 670, aftermarket coolers have heatsinks on the memory for better memory overclocking and let me tell you, this 670 can really rack up the memory speed. So, my personal opinion would be to look at something along the lines of the Asus Direct CU II, Gigabyte Winforce 3X or the MSI Lightning. They're all great versions that offer amazing cooling and oc'ing capabilities. It's all up to you buddy!

From what I have seen the Asus card was no longer being made? It got top scores across all of the comparisans and survey things I saw, even got a perfect 10/10 on review(a first time ever), if I remember correctly. I was looking at the Windforce(the 3 fan one I believe), it got the best all around. That is something I was pretty big on was cooling, and it does have one of the only 3 fan coolers that I saw. I was pretty stuck on the EVGA's FTW(possibly sig2 due to the fans) and the Windforce, but everything looks to be aiming at windforce. The FTW has a little higher clock, but I can just adjust the Windforce to match it and be done with it eh?

 

[fudoka711]

Well, its nice to get a factory overclocked card because that usually means its PCB is better than the PCB in a stock card. That means it can be OC'd even more.

The Asus Direct CU II is a great card that I would recommend if you could find it. Otherwise, your other two best options imo would either be the Gigabyte windforce or EVGA FTW models. I would go for the Gigabyte one if your case can handle the extra heat. The gigabyte model vents most of its heat into the case while the EVGA model vents almost all of its heat out the back of the card/case.

Also, something to consider is EVGA's customer service/warranty. EVGA's customer service is basically the best in the business. Only the brand XFX has a longer warranty (lifetime).

The windforce would allow you to push for a high overclock while staying cooler than the EVGA model. The EVGA model might actually be able to hit a higher oc though (albeit run hotter w/out throttling).

 

[redeemer]

Asus Direct CU II

 

[TheGhxst]

I can get the Gigabyte one for about 30 dollars cheaper then the FTW model right now as well, so that's a little bit of money in my pocket. Venting in my case should be pretty solid in the case of the Windforce, I'm using the Corsair 500r with it's 200mm fan sitting on the door. Plus the fans at the front top and bottom it circulates pretty nice. It's a dang deadlock between Asus's Direct CU II, EVGA's FTW and Gigabytes Windforce. I'll do a little more research into Asus's card, and see if I can even find it because it was discontinued. If it is discontinued does that mean they no longer do support on it too? I'm not sure how that works.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

the asus direct cu II is a great card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121637

even if discontinued....support will be on for as long as the warranty exists
companies like asus does not simply back out on support.

 

[TheGhxst]

the asus direct cu II is a great card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121637

even if discontinued....support will be on for as long as the warranty exists
companies like asus does not simply back out on support.

Ohh the standard Direct CU II, I guess it's the Direct CU II Top that went discontinued.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121638

It has a massive core clock on it. So is the DCII the only 670 that uses heat pipes?

 

[siddharthmukul007]

heat pipes does not really matter much when it comes to the gtx600 series.....they run very cool and quite.

for heat pipes you might also check out the following:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127685
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125438

there are many others too

 

[TheGhxst]

Well I'd expect them to run cool on stock, I want to OC them a bit more past what the manu has done. There are just SO many of them it's difficult to choose. I think I'm good to go though.

 

[TheGhxst]

Best answer selected by TheGhxst.