[Updated] Early NDA-Busting GTX 670 Review Out: Handily Beats An AMD HD 7970

UPDATE: The graphs are now showing on TweakTown's review. Consider them carefully before putting money down for a GTX 680.

The NVIDIA GTX 670 is due to launch in five days, which means no disclosures regarding pictures, performance or price from the usual review sites until the NDA lifts. However, TweakTown do not have an NDA with NVIDIA since NVIDIA don't like them for some reason and won't talk to them. Therefore, TweakTown can do what they like when it comes to leaking information early, should they be able to get hold of it somehow and this they do by using their relationships with board partners who are under NDA that are willing to leak them information and hardware samples.

This they have done with the GTX 670 and posted a review here. Sort of. They didn't post any photos of the card, because it would have identified the manufacturer who leaked it to them, who do have an NDA with NVIDIA.

Interestingly and frustratingly, the review is up, but there are no performance charts of any kind showing. Not only that, but these are not showing up in other reviews on TweakTown, either, so it's all a little strange.

However, we can talk about the conclusion. In short, it beats AMD's best, the HD 7970. That is, the full GK104 GPU, already a midrange Kepler GPU beats the top end HD 7970 which is bad enough, but now even the crippled version does so too! This is bad for AMD and they should look to improving the performance of their GPUs to give NVIDIA a run for their money and some decent competition. It does look like they're doing something about this though by releasing a "GHz Edition" HD 7970, boosting the GPU clock from 925MHz to 1GHz which does help it to compete with the GTX 680. Apparently they can do this now because wafer yields have improved significantly since the HD 7970 was launched, allowing the GPU to run at higher clocks more reliably.

Here are TweakTown's conclusion/final thoughts on the GTX 670:

My personal issues with NVIDIA and the issues that TweakTown on a whole have pushed right aside, the GEFORCE GTX 670 is just an awesome video card that is going to be a serious headache for AMD. The performance of the video card is really quite crazy and the fact that this is the second option for NVIDIA when it comes to single GPU video cards is bad for AMD when it has no issue competing with their strongest option; the HD 7970.

This is actually our second GEFORCE GTX 670 we have on hand as well, we've got a full retail option from someone that we'll show you on the 10th when the model officially launches. The reference based design, though, is looking good for NVIDIA and could be a clear option for people who don't want to spend big money.

To be completely honest, there's not really much more that needs to be said about the video card. Of course we're only covering the performance today so there's no bundle or anything like that to talk about. We don't have any pricing from NVIDIA so there's not much to say in that area either.

We of course know it will come in cheaper than the GTX 680 and considering the price point that hits at, we're fairly comfortable in saying that the GTX 670 is going to be a really well valued video card.

Keep an eye out for the official launch next week when we check out our first retail option. For now, though, that really wraps everything up. Again NVIDIA has done a good job with the GTX 670 and we look forward to seeing what their partners offer us in the coming weeks and months.