Palit JetStream GEFORCE GTX 670 2GB Video Card Review

Today we see the new NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 officially launch and we check out what Palit is doing with its JetStream model.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: Palit
15 minutes & 6 seconds read time

Introduction and Package

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Today the new NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 is officially launched to the market and while we managed to bring you a look at the reference GTX 670 running at stock and overclocked before others, today we're looking at our first retail offering.

The first GTX 670 we're looking at comes from Palit and is part of the new JetStream series; a series that impressed us when we looked at the 2GB and 4GB versions of the GTX 680 that launched last month. Today we'll find out if stepping back from the GTX 680 to GTX 670 can help keep this new series looking strong.

As always there's a few things we need to do before we get into the performance side of things and the first thing is the package and bundle. From there we'll take a closer look at the video card and see what exactly the new Palit JetStream GTX 670 offers us before taking a closer look at the specifications.

Once we've done that we'll quickly cover our testbed and then get into the performance side of things to see how the pre-overclocked GTX 670 we've got here today from Palit goes against the reference clocked GTX 670 along with the seeing how it sits against the reference clocked GTX 680. First, though, let's check out the package.

Package

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Palit JetStream GEFORCE GTX 670 2GB Video Card Review 04
Palit JetStream GEFORCE GTX 670 2GB Video Card Review 05
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Looking at the box design we can see it's near identical to the JetStream GTX 680 video cards we've looked at before. Opening up we can see the video card along with a large focus on some of the main features the JetStream GTX 670 offers.

One of the biggest highlights for the JetStream card is the dual TurboFan Blade setup which is one fan down on its big brother the GTX 680 which saw a triple fan setup .Other highlights include LED lighting, DrMOS Mosfets and triple monitor DVI support.

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Moving onto the bundle there's not a lot going on which doesn't come as too much of a surprise since Palit have never been known for a massive bundle. Looking above you can see we've got a quick install guide, driver CD, dual Molex to 6-pin PCIe power connector along with a DVI to VGA and HDMI to DVI adapter.

The Card and Specifications

The Card

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Looking at the video card we can see straight away the look is very similar to that of the bigger GTX 680 version. The biggest difference is that we've lost a fan on the smaller GTX 670. Apart from that, though, we've got the same black and gold color scheme, which make for a really good looking video card.

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Taking a look around the video card you can see that power comes in the form of two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. The position is a little weird as they're moved closer to the middle of the video card, but it shouldn't make any real difference for most people. Closer to the front we've got two SLI connectors which will come in handy for people who are interested in going down the path of multiple video cards.

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Finally we finish up with I/O side of things and you can see we've got two DVI ports along with a single HDMI and full size DisplayPort connector to round off everything.

Specifications

Looking at the specification side of things we can see below that the Palit offering comes overclocked out of the box with the GPU clock being pushed from 915MHz to 1006MHz or 1085MHz via boost.

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As for the 2GB of GDDR5 memory that is present on the JetStream GTX 670, that's been pushed from the default 6008MHz QDR to 6108MHz QDR. Overall this isn't a bad overclock and Palit have bought the core of the GTX 670 in line with the GTX 680 while the memory sits slightly above it.

Benchmarks - Test System Setup

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We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASUS and Corsair.

Before we get into the testing side of things we always take the time to quickly look over our testbed, but if you've seen any of our recent video card reviews over the past few months, you'll be well acquainted with our overclocked X79 testbed.

Quickly before we get into the results today we'll take the time to go over the other video cards we'll be using today. There are a number of video cards we want to see just how the Palit JetStream GTX 670 goes against including the reference GTX 670 with its stock clocks along with the reference clocked GTX 680s that are in here both 2GB and 4GB form.

We also want to see how the video card goes against the HD 7950 and HD 7970 which is of course the main competition for the latest GTX 600 series cards from NVIDIA. Along with all those video cards we've also thrown in the HD 6990 for good measure to round off the line up.

Let's get started!

The FPS Numbers Explained

When we benchmark our video cards and look at the graphs, we aim to get to a certain level of FPS which we consider playable. While many may argue that the human eye can't see over 24 FPS or 30 FPS, any true gamer will tell you that as we climb higher in Frames Per Seconds (FPS), the overall gameplay feels smoother. There are three numbers we're looking out for when it comes to our benchmarks.

30 FPS - It's the minimum number we aim for when it comes to games. If you're not dropping below 30 FPS during games, you're going to have a nice and smooth gaming experience. The ideal situation is that even in a heavy fire fight, the minimum stays above 30 FPS making sure that you can continue to aim easily or turn the corner with no dramas.

60 FPS - It's the average we look for when we don't have a minimum coming at us. If we're getting an average of 60 FPS, we should have a minimum of 30 FPS or better and as mentioned above, it means we've got some smooth game play happening.

120 FPS - The new number that we've been hunting down over recent months. If you're the owner of a 120 Hz monitor, to get the most out of it you want to get around the 120 FPS mark. Moving from 60 FPS / 60 Hz to 120 FPS / 120 Hz brings with it a certain fluidity that can't really be explained, but instead has to be experienced. Of course, if you're buying a 120 Hz monitor to take advantage of 3D, an average of 120 FPS in our benchmark means that in 3D you will have an average of 60 FPS, which again means you should expect some smooth gameplay.

Benchmarks - 3DMark 11

3DMark 11

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/

Buy It Here

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world's most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC's gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

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Starting off with 3DMark 11 we can see a nice little boost in performance when compared to the reference clocked card. Against our other offerings we're sitting with similar performance to the reference GTX 680 which puts us ahead of the HD 7900 series offerings.

Benchmarks - Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Version and / or Patch Used: 2.5

Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com

Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//

New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

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Heaven performance is looking very strong on the Palit JetStream GTX 670 and we can see a nice boost in performance over the reference card. We're sitting a little behind the GTX 680 in this instance, but you can see it's got no problem dealing with the HD 7970.

Benchmarks - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx

Product Homepage: http://www.hawxgame.com/

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft. The game is the sequel to Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., released in 2009.

The game begins with Colonel David Crenshaw participating in a routine patrol mission in the Middle East. After halting an insurgent attack, a volley of missiles is fired at the Air Force base that Crenshaw was stationed at, with one of the missiles disabling Crenshaw's aircraft, resulting Crenshaw being in enemy captivity. A joint strike force composed of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and a Ghost Recon squad executes an operation to rescue Crenshaw. In Scotland, Royal Navy Pilot Colin Munro encounters an unidentified passenger aircraft that explodes from an on-board bomb when undergoing training exercise. In Russia, an air force squadron led by Colonel Denisov and Captain Dmitri Sokov engages separatist aircraft but is ordered to retreat from the region after numerous Russian military installations have been attacked.

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H.A.W.X. 2 tends to favor NVIDIA offerings and we can see that the GTX 670 JetStream from Palit again has no problems dealing with the HD 7900 based video cards from AMD. Compared to the other NVIDIA offerings you can see we're sitting fairly in line with the GTX 680 in this instance.

Benchmarks - Mafia II

Mafia II

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.2kczech.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.mafia2game.com/

Buy It Here

Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games. The game is set from 1943 to 1951 in Empire Bay (the name is a reference to New York's state nickname "The Empire State"), a fictional city based on San Francisco and New York City, with influences from Chicago and Detroit. The game features a completely open-ended game map of 10 square miles. No restrictions are included from the start of the game. There are around 50 vehicles in the game, as well as licensed music from the era.

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Mafia II performance is really strong across the board and again we're seeing the overclocked JetStream GTX 670 from Palit is coming out ahead of the HD 7970. While the gap indeed shrinks at the highest resolution, it still manages to come out ahead.

Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1

Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/

Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."

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Moving into the tessellation heavy Lost Planet 2 we can again see the Palit JetStream GTX 670 come out ahead of the HD 7970 at all resolutions while compared to the reference clocked GTX 670 we manage to sneak a couple of extra FPS across the board. Considering we're only a little over that 60 FPS average at 2560 x 1600, any extra FPS we get here is always appreciated enabling to a smooth gaming experience.

Benchmarks - Aliens vs. Predator

Aliens vs. Predator

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/

Product Homepage: http://www.sega.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/

Aliens vs. Predator is a science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Rebellion Developments, the team behind the 1999 original PC game, and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The game is based on the Alien vs. Predator franchise, a combination of the characters and creatures of the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise. There are three campaigns in the game, one for each race/faction (the Predators, the Aliens and the Colonial Marines), that, while separate in terms of individual plot and gameplay, form one overarching storyline.

Following the storyline of the campaign modes comes the multiplayer aspect of the game. In this Multiplayer section of the game, players face off in various different gametypes in various different ways.

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Aliens vs. Predator we've mentioned a few times now hasn't been the best game for the new GTX 600 series video cards and here we can see the HD 7970 is able to outperform the GTX 600 based video cards.

The overclock, though, you can see helps push us up a couple of extra FPS at 2560 x 1600, where we come within 4 FPS of that 60 FPS mark we always aim for.

Benchmarks - Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.0.2

Timedemo or Level Used: Dark Tower

Developer Homepage: http://www.eidos.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.justcause.com/

Just Cause 2 employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in Just Cause. The game is set on the other side of the world from the original Just Cause, on the fictional island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Panau has varied terrain, from desert to alpine to rainforest. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist, aiming to overthrow the evil dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and confront his former mentor, Tom Sheldon.

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Just Cause 2 performance is really strong across the board and we can again see the performance of the JetStream GTX 670 comes out ahead of the HD 7970 at all resolutions.

Benchmarks - Metro 2033

Metro 2033

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.4a-games.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.thqnordic.com/

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.[3] In March 2006, 4A Games announced a partnership with Glukhovsky to collaborate on the game.[4] The game was announced at the 2009 Games Convention in Leipzig;[5] a first trailer came along with the announcement.[6] A sequel was announced, currently titled Metro: Last Light.

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Across the board we can see a nice boost in performance with a couple of extremely handy FPS being seen at 2560 x 1600. Unfortunately we do fall three FPS below that 60 FPS average we want to aim which is the same number the HD 7970 gets. Moving down in the resolution table we can see the GTX 670 JetStream manages to come out ahead.

Benchmarks - Dirt 3

Dirt 3

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.dirt3game.com/

DiRT 3 boasts more cars, more locations, more routes and more events than any other game in the series, including over 50 rally cars representing the very best from five decades of the sport. With more than double the track content of 2009's hit, DiRT 3 will see players start at the top as a professional driver, with a top-flight career in competitive off-road racing complimented by the opportunity to express themselves in Gymkhana-style showpiece driving events.

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Dirt 3 has favored AMD in the past, but you can see even the GTX 670 JetStream from Palit has no issues dealing with the HD 7970 at all resolutions and by a decent margin.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01

Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/

Buy It Here

The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

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Far Cry 2 across the board sees some bumps in performance and on a whole we're ahead of the HD 7970 at all resolutions. For the most part, though, there's nothing too shocking here.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF

High Quality AA and AF

While we test all our games with maximum in-game settings, turning on Anti-Aliasing (AA) and Antistrophic Filtering (AF) helps take the intensity of our testing to another level.

Here we see video cards go from playable FPS to an unplayable FPS and the real power houses continue to help break that 60 FPS mark we always aim for to provide a smooth gaming experience.

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Alien vs. Predator continues to be a game that plagues NVIDIA when it comes to performance and you can see again we're just below that 60 FPS average here with the JetStream GTX 670.

Mafia II and Far Cry 2 AA / AF performance is great, though.

Temperature Test

The temperature of the core is pulled from MSI Afterburner with the max reading used after a completed run off 3DMark Vantage and the Performance preset.

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The Palit JetStream GTX 670 is actually quite the warm running video card as it sits towards the top of the pack when it comes to load numbers. They're not at a worrying level, but they're clearly in the upper section of our graphs.

Sound Test

Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

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Noise levels are also sitting in the top half, but on a whole they're pretty strong at both idle and load. Considering the performance, you'll probably find yourself pretty happy with the noise levels coming out of the video card, considering the FPS you'd be seeing with your games.

Power Consumption Test

Using our PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a SSD hard drive is used with a single CD ROM and minimal cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.

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Power draw is pretty strong with just under 200 watts at idle and just over 400 watts at load. If you've got yourself a decent and branded 600-watt power supply, you're not going to run into any troubles.

Final Thoughts

The new GEFORCE GTX 670 from NVIDIA is a really strong video card and Palit have come out with a really nice version of it straight away that only makes it better. NVIDIA are starting to become a real thorn in the side of AMD as they attack the area that AMD has always been strongest in; pricing.

The standard non-overclocked version of the JetStream GTX 670 we've been told should set you back around the $399 mark. The overclocked version we've got on our hands on here today will be closer to the $429 mark. Considering for the most part we see the GTX 670 win out against the HD 7970 almost every time, this is bad news due to the $479 price tag associated with the flagship model from AMD.

The weakest area for the Palit JetStream GTX 670 is the bundle, but that's always been an area that Palit hasn't been strong in. It's also something that more and more companies are choosing to ignore over the coming months as they let the video card do the talking verse the bundle.

Outside of a smaller bundle, though, the Palit JetStream GTX 670 is a really nice video card that offers some fantastic performance at a really strong price point. There's little to dislike about not only the JetStream variant of the GTX 670, but the GTX 670 period.

NVIDIA are performing exceptionally well in the high-end video card segment and it will be very interesting to see what they do over the coming months as they work their way further down the list to offer some more mainstream models.

The next offering should be the GTX 660 which for NVIDIA will hopefully bring with it the same thing we've seen out of other GTX 600 series based cards; strong performance at a great price point.

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Shawn takes care of all of our video card reviews. From 2009, Shawn is also taking care of our memory reviews, and from May 2011, Shawn also takes care of our CPU, chipset and motherboard reviews. As of December 2011, Shawn is based out of Taipei, Taiwan.

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