Palit GeForce GTX 680 4GB Jetstream review - Introduction

Introduction

Recently we reviewed the Palit GeForce GTX 680 JetStream edition with 2GB graphics memory. A really awesome graphics card that has all variables right. Basically they took the reference based PCB and started fine-tuning it with exquisite cooling.

The end result was an impressive looking beast, the customized GTX 680 has a big three fan cooler applied to it. And it's not just three fans, it's also three slots wide -- eating away a good chunk of space inside the chassis.

The benefits of that big cooler are copious though, this is a card you will not hear whilst retaining really good temperatures, yeah it works pretty darn well in both performance and silence. Palit had another trick up their sleeves though, a 4GB graphics memory version of this card. Interestingly enough the 2GB version base clock frequency is set higher at default for you, at 1084 MHz with a dynamic turbo that clocks up-to 1150 MHz. And then the memory it runs stock at 6300 MHz meaning that both the GPU core and thus memory have been factory overclocked for you.

The 4 GB version however is left completely reference clocked ... so its a good notch slower then the 2GB version and really performs at the reference baseline. Why 4 GB ? Well some of you like to game at extremely high resolutions or have 8xAA as a bare minimum. If a graphics card runs out of graphics memory it'll starts swapping frames back and forward in that framebuffer which decreases the overall framerate.

So today we'll look at the 4GB model, we'll specifically place a focus at some tests at 2560x1600 with a good chunk of AA enabled to see what difference the extra 2GB graphics memory will bring us in terms of performance.

Have a peek below at the JetStream cooled GeForce GTX 680, and then let's dive into the review.