Nvidia GTX680 Review - Sim Racing Perspective

[Seahawks1Fan]

This is my review of the Nvidia GTX680 video card focusing on sim racing (rFactor, rFactor 2, Iracing, and pCARS). I have tested this card out on triple screens running 5760x1080 at max settings to see how it performs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFJFmaJKZRk

I'm also in the running to be a community tester for the upcoming Fanatec Clubsport Wheel. If I'm selected, I will be doing an extensive video review of the wheel and test it on multiple sims (rFactor, Iracing, pCars, rFactor 2, etc). I need your votes to have a shot at this. Voting ends on April 26th. Here is the link.

http://insidesimracing.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=6863

 

[Gdog96]

That was a great review.

 

[sesselpupser]

Oh awesome, I was just looking for a review like this but the best I could find demonstrated BF3, Arkham City, Skyrim and Dirt 3. I'm looking to upgrade from my 580 to a 680 to run 3 1680x1050 monitors but I'm a little concerned about the <60fps in pCARS when running alone in the day, I'm sure that would drop more when racing a full grid at night. I know it's not optimised yet, but it makes me wonder if I should wait for the 4GB version after all as I have been advised by a couple of GTPers, especially with all the new sims due out this year and next, I wouldn't want to find my £450 graphics card to be unable to run them across three monitors while maxed.

Thank you very much for the video, it was useful and enlightening. If you do try a night race with a full grid on pCARS please do let us know what the frame rates are like!

 

[Mr. S]

Great video, thanks for your work. Helped me a lot, seeing that I plan on buying a 680 in a few weeks.

 

[ilonioum]

This is my review of the Nvidia GTX680 video card focusing on sim racing (rFactor, rFactor 2, Iracing, and pCARS). I have tested this card out on triple screens running 5760x1080 at max settings to see how it performs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFJFmaJKZRk

I'm also in the running to be a community tester for the upcoming Fanatec Clubsport Wheel. If I'm selected, I will be doing an extensive video review of the wheel and test it on multiple sims (rFactor, Iracing, pCars, rFactor 2, etc). I need your votes to have a shot at this. Voting ends on April 26th. Here is the link.

http://insidesimracing.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=6863

Very good review my friend, I did enjoy it very much, congrats with your successful purchase.

 

[Seahawks1Fan]

Thank you very much for the video, it was useful and enlightening. If you do try a night race with a full grid on pCARS please do let us know what the frame rates are like!

My first attempt at a review, so I really appreciate the feedback. I figured guys might be interested in how this card performs as you always see single screen reviews, but never triple screen.

Just did a quick test on pCARS at night with a grid of 20 cars at Watkins Glen. At the start, I was getting around 30 fps. Once traffic lightened up, it went up to 40 and in some places 50.

 

[Mr. S]

I guess your i5 is the limiting factor in pCARS.

 

[sonac]

I don't believe that a quad core sandy bridge CPU running at 4,6GHz could be a limiting factor.

EDIT: OH and I almost forgot- very nice review, Seahawks1Fan

 

[Mayaman]

How does it compare to dual 580s?

Thanks

 

[sesselpupser]

My first attempt at a review, so I really appreciate the feedback. I figured guys might be interested in how this card performs as you always see single screen reviews, but never triple screen.

Just did a quick test on pCARS at night with a grid of 20 cars at Watkins Glen. At the start, I was getting around 30 fps. Once traffic lightened up, it went up to 40 and in some places 50.

Thank you for trying that out, I had assumed the shadows, lighting effects and extra cars would slow it down more than that. I wonder how it'll run closer to (or on) release?

The 680 really is impressive, though. I'm seriously struggling to decide between buying a 2GB 680 now or waiting for the 4GB ones to go on sale. I suspect the fact I'm thinking about that means I should wait and see, but I just bought my third monitor so I'm dying to get on with it.

Talk about first world problems...

 

[left888]

Great review Seahawk, I run 2 GTX 570's in SLI and my next card will be the 680 4GB card. I don't think pCARS is as good as iRacing graphics just yet but perhaps once CARS comes out of Alpha, Beta and they fixe the over blurry graphics. Almost everyone that races pCARS has a low frame rate and once SMS optimizes the graphics we should see a vast improvement their.

 

[tribolik]

Great review Seahawk, I run 2 GTX 570's in SLI and my next card will be the 680 4GB card. I don't think pCARS is as good as iRacing graphics just yet but perhaps once CARS comes out of Alpha, Beta and they fixe the over blurry graphics. Almost everyone that races pCARS has a low frame rate and once SMS optimizes the graphics we should see a vast improvement their.

From the vids and pics Ive seen its better IMO... especially the lighting system and material rendering (metal, chrome and other materials that cant be rendered in Iracing for example)
even GT5 and FM4 look better than Iracing IMO

 

[Conza]

This is my review of the Nvidia GTX680 video card focusing on sim racing (rFactor, rFactor 2, Iracing, and pCARS). I have tested this card out on triple screens running 5760x1080 at max settings to see how it performs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFJFmaJKZRk

I'm also in the running to be a community tester for the upcoming Fanatec Clubsport Wheel. If I'm selected, I will be doing an extensive video review of the wheel and test it on multiple sims (rFactor, Iracing, pCars, rFactor 2, etc). I need your votes to have a shot at this. Voting ends on April 26th. Here is the link.

http://insidesimracing.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=6863

You'll be reviewing the wheel with GT5 as well right?

Also, how does the GeForce 680GTX compare to the Radeon 7970 for multiple screens? I understand that 1v1 its still in Radeon's favour, but once you get past that ram barrier, it may be a whole other story.

EDIT: Ah, should've read more posts, seems there'll be a 4GB version - that'd probably change the scale a little bit... then again, if Radeon produces a 6GB, that'd be perfect as a stand alone card for 3 monitors (overkill for 1 in 2012 I'd say).

 

[mykem]

From the vids and pics Ive seen its better IMO... especially the lighting system and material rendering (metal, chrome and other materials that cant be rendered in Iracing for example)
even GT5 and FM4 look better than Iracing IMO

It depends on how you view graphics in a racing game. BTW, GT5 graphics is quite different from Forza 4. The same way that iRacing differs from pCARS. Personally, for realism I prefer iRacing over pCARS- the color and textures are not as rich and detailed but the lighting and especially the depth of field is much more realistic. And apparently iRacing is introducing a new track shader that provides a more detailed textures.

 

[tribolik]

It depends on how you view graphics in a racing game. BTW, GT5 graphics is quite different from Forza 4. The same way that iRacing differs from pCARS. Personally, for realism I prefer iRacing over pCARS- the color and textures are not as rich and detailed but the lighting and especially the depth of field is much more realistic. And apparently iRacing is introducing a new track shader that provides a more detailed textures.

I know GT5 graphics are quite diferent to Forza 4... it renders materials much better and so is the lighting system IMO... Forza 4 as Iracing doesnt seem to be able to render chrome materials for example.

But Pcars is another ball park alltogether... better bump mapping, better material rendering (similar to GT5)... cant really compare the depth of field because I havent played both games or sims... but thats what it seems to me from the videos Ive seen... I know a bit about 3d rendering because I work with autocad and 3d studio (architect) but as I said before my opinion is based on videos and pics Ive seen here and in other forums so I might be wrong.

 

[Nastradamus87]

This is my review of the Nvidia GTX680 video card focusing on sim racing (rFactor, rFactor 2, Iracing, and pCARS). I have tested this card out on triple screens running 5760x1080 at max settings to see how it performs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFJFmaJKZRk

I'm also in the running to be a community tester for the upcoming Fanatec Clubsport Wheel. If I'm selected, I will be doing an extensive video review of the wheel and test it on multiple sims (rFactor, Iracing, pCars, rFactor 2, etc). I need your votes to have a shot at this. Voting ends on April 26th. Here is the link.

http://insidesimracing.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=6863

Nice review.

You have 16 GB of RAM but in your iRacing graphics options you have the system memory slider at the default (1200 MB). Is that on purpose or did you forget to crank it up?

 

[left888]

From the vids and pics Ive seen its better IMO... especially the lighting system and material rendering (metal, chrome and other materials that cant be rendered in Iracing for example)
even GT5 and FM4 look better than Iracing IMO

Not sure if you have actually tried iRacing? because GT5 and Forza4 don't even come close to it . pCARS screen shots look very nice but "in game" graphics are lacking and I speak from experience. iRacing in triple screens 5760 x 1080 I'm getting upwards of 200+ FPS while pCARS doesn't even get 60 FPS and they are blurry at that.

 

[tribolik]

Not sure if you have actually tried iRacing? because GT5 and Forza4 don't even come close to it . pCARS screen shots look very nice but "in game" graphics are lacking and I speak from experience. iRacing in triple screens 5760 x 1080 I getting upwards of 200+ FPS while pCARS doesn't even get 60 FPS and they are blurry at that.

From that list Ive only tried GT5 but Ive mencioned that

...as I said before my opinion is based on videos and pics Ive seen here and in other forums so I might be wrong.

Still one thing Im sure... they need to work on the different materials rendering, mapping and especially the different refraction values for different materials on Iracing

 

[Seahawks1Fan]

Nice review.

You have 16 GB of RAM but in your iRacing graphics options you have the system memory slider at the default (1200 MB). Is that on purpose or did you forget to crank it up?

Nice catch. I did forget to turn it up to 16. Just tested it and didn't seem to make much of a difference on the FPS.

 

[the_greeze]

Nice review.
You have 16 GB of RAM but in your iRacing graphics options you have the system memory slider at the default (1200 MB). Is that on purpose or did you forget to crank it up?

Just out of curiosity, what sort of improvements could be gained by increasing that slider? TBH, I've stayed away from tweaking that (I'm a sort of "if it ain't broke" guy!) and know nothing about what it actually does () but if there are significant improvements to be had, I'm in 👍

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Well if I wasn't going to invest in one before, this sure helped me be absolute that I will get one this holiday season. Thanks. Also I think this subforum need many more great vids like this on all part of sim racing hardware so people can see the best routes at making a in depth system.

 

[Seahawks1Fan]

Glad my review was helpful to several of you.

If you all can take a minute and vote for me over at Inside Sim Racing to do a review of the upcoming Fanatec Clubsport Wheel, I would appreciate it. If I am selected, I plan to test it out on multiple sims and put together an extensive video review. It's a tight race at the moment (no pun intended) and voting ends 4/26.

Here's the link to vote. Thanks fellas.
http://insidesimracing.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=6863

 

[Mr Latte]

Well done on the review, nice card but have you any links to tests comparing with the new 4GB versions. I'm curious if the extra VRAM makes a difference in triple screen configurations.

 

[sesselpupser]

Well done on the review, nice card but have you any links to tests comparing with the new 4GB versions. I'm curious if the extra VRAM makes a difference in triple screen configurations.

As far as I'm aware, the 4GB cards have only just come out. At £100 or so more than the 2GB, I'm pretty sure I'll hold off until I can afford one, but again I'll have to wait and see what the different options are in about a month or so. Given that I don't want to try SLI nor do I want AMD hardware it looks like a 4GB 680 is the best possible card I personally could upgrade to.

 

[Mr Latte]

Likely the usual places will do benchmarks in good time.

Wondering what the OP has to say about "Adaptive V Sync" which this card supports of course. Does it reduce tearing in multiscreens?

 

[Mr. S]

I don't believe that a quad core sandy bridge CPU running at 4,6GHz could be a limiting factor.

EDIT: OH and I almost forgot- very nice review, Seahawks1Fan

Are you sure? I thought someone said pCARS is making heavy use of CPUs as well.

 

[Seahawks1Fan]

From all the research I did prior to building my machine, I understood the i5 was the way to go over the i7. I also wanted to be able to easily overclock it.

 

[kingcars]

From all the research I did prior to building my machine, I understood the i5 was the way to go over the i7. I also wanted to be able to easily overclock it.

For gaming purposes, you're correct. 👍 I'm running an i5 2500k as well.

 

[Seahawks1Fan]

Likely the usual places will do benchmarks in good time.

Wondering what the OP has to say about "Adaptive V Sync" which this card supports of course. Does it reduce tearing in multiscreens?

I haven't noticed much "tearing" at all with this card. I have seen it occasionally with rFactor 1, but very rare. Haven't seen any with rFactor 2, iRacing, or pCars yet. If anything changes, I'll be sure to report it.

 

[Seahawks1Fan]

I don't necessarily think the i5 is better than the i7, but the i5 takes full advantage of current gen games. The i7 is quicker at rendering if you are producing videos for example. The i5 2500k or 2600k is the way to go as it's less expensive and can be easily overclocked (I oc'd my to 4.6ghz).