GIGABYTE GV-N680SO-2GD Pro Reviews

Fully custom high-end graphics cards usually command a hefty premium. In the case of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 Super OverClock, that is true to an extent, but this monster is actually priced competitively; as of this writing, this card can be had for $479 after rebate (regular price: $509). Considering the fact that much lower-clocked reference GeForce GTX 680 cards sell for about $459 currently, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 Super OverClock is priced pretty well. If you don't mind the triple-slot cooler and the associated sacrifices that come with it, this card is absolutely worth the extra twenty bucks. The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 Super OverClock also proved to be a decent overclocker, it runs much cooler than reference models, and it's clearly more power efficient than competing Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition cards. Although we could do without the high-pitched whine emitted from the card's cooling fans when under load, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 Super OverClock is one heck of an awesome graphics card that's sure to turn some heads if you stick this monster in a windowed system.

GIGABYTE took another step forward with an impressive video card in the GIGABYTE GTX 680 Super Overclock Edition. This video card has the fastest factory overclock which makes its out-of-box performance higher than others. The Windforce 5X cooling system is also new and innovative, and provided moderate temperatures with virtually no sound. However, the downside to this cooling system is all of the extra aluminum and fans added a ton of weight to the video card. Obviously you are a going to need a motherboard with most of its expansion slots unpopulated to physically install this beast. And you would likely want to take great care if you were moving your system about with this GIGABYTE card installed. While the Windforce 5X did a good job keeping heat off with fans running at the highest level, it could not provide us extra Power Target percentage or let us manually adjust the GPU or memory's voltage. GIGABYTE's new OC GURU II program though has been updated and as long as you use the version 1.21 of the program, will work for you with this video card. We are happy to see a viable overclocking program from GIGABYTE. We managed to get nearly 1300MHz in game operating speed and a 6.9GHz memory speed. While this is a respectable overclock, we expected more for the price. This brings us to the GIGABYTE GTX 680 Super Overclock Edition's Achilles heel, its price.