Throwback Thursday – Geforce GTX 680 with architecture Kepler turns seven years old

Seven years ago, AMD had an advantage in the top segment of the graphics card market. At the turn of the year, the company had launched the worst Radeon HD 7970, which together with the new architecture Graphics Core Next made of 28 nanometers was enough to take the performance crown with a message from the competitor Nvidia’s then top card Geforce GTX 580.

However, the lead did not last long, as the green team sat and brooded on the next generation of graphics cards. On March 22, 2012, Nvidia launched the Geforce GTX 680, which became the company’s first consumer card manufactured at 28 nanometers with the new Kepler architecture under the hood.

While the Geforce GTX 680 during the development period was actually intended as a middle-class card, the company discovered that the relatively scaled-down graphics circuit GK104 stood strong against AMD’s then flagship. This led Nvidia to move the model up to the top segment.

► Read SweClocker’s review of the Geforce GTX 680

The result was a graphics card that performed up to 40 percent better than its predecessor Geforce GTX 580 and between 5 and 10 percent higher numbers than AMD’s Radeon HD 7970. In addition, the node shrinkage together with architectural optimizations resulted in a greatly improved energy efficiency, where this in many cases were duplicated against its predecessor Fermi.

The Kepler architecture became a relatively long-lived story and was used not only in the rest of the Geforce GTX 600 series but also for the next generation of graphics cards from Nvidia. Then it was about the much more powerful circuit GK110 which saw the light of day together with Geforce GTX Titan the following year.

This is how the Geforce GTX 680 performs in 2019

As we are usually curious about how older graphics hardware performs in today’s games, we take the opportunity to throw our copy of the Geforce GTX 680 into SweClocker’s test system for graphics cards. There will be a couple of fast measuring rounds in Battlefield 1, Destiny 2 and Rise of the Tomb Raider in the resolution 1,920 × 1,080 pixels.

To make it all a little more exciting, we also spice up the card lineup with rival AMD’s Radeon HD 7970, which was the closest competing model when it went. The drivers used for the cards are Nvidia Geforce Driver 419.35 and AMD Radeon Software 19.3.3.

With the detail control turned up to the ceiling in Battlefield 1, the performance of the Geforce GTX 680 does not quite measure up in terms of performance, even if it is not catastrophically bad numbers that are presented. Compared to its predecessor, the Geforce GTX 580, the performance gap is recognizable, with the Geforce GTX 680 presenting 40 percent better figures.

It becomes all the more interesting when we mix AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 into the game, which at the launch of the Geforce GTX 680 was generally somewhat lagging behind. This is certainly not the case in Battlefield 1, where AMD’s old loyalists crush the competing card from Nvidia with over 25 percent better performance.

When we move towards Destiny 2, the Geforce GTX 680 actually performs fully approved in terms of level of detail and puts out an average of 50 FPS – 42 percent better results than the Geforce GTX 580. In this game, the Radeon HD 7970 can no longer show its front feet, but ends up instead further down the table.

The last stop on Rise of the Tomb Raider and it quickly becomes clear that the highest detail setting “Very High” is not a particularly durable alternative with the Geforce GTX 680. However, the model performs significantly better than its predecessor Geforce GTX 580, where the latter card seems hit the limit of its graphics memory.

Even if it is not the same landslide victory as in Battlefield 1, AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 can once again claim a win against the competing card from Nvidia. The red team’s card squeezes out about 5 percent higher frame rate and significantly better numbers in terms of the minimum level.

Geforce GTX 680 with different quality levels

In addition to lowering the resolution, a distorted level of detail is a sure way to get a higher frame rate in games. We therefore take the opportunity to run through all the detailed modes of the tested games to see how low you need to go to achieve an acceptable level of performance together with the Geforce GTX 680.

As can be seen, there is still good potential to play today’s titles with a Geforce GTX 680 if you can imagine screwing the detail knob a bit. If you are a little less sensitive and can imagine lying and floating just below the 60 FPS line, the preset “Medium” is fully usable in the tested games.

Summary thoughts on the Geforce GTX 680 seven years later

Geforce GTX 680 was a really fast graphics card when it was launched in 2012 and after today’s tests it is clear that there is actually some power left in the old man even in today’s games. To achieve an acceptable frame rate, however, we need to stick to 1080p and be prepared to turn down the detail settings a few notches.

Something that is particularly interesting in this flashback is the competitor AMD’s Radeon HD 7970, which at the time of testing seven years ago was generally slightly worse than the Geforce GTX 680 in terms of performance. This is in many cases no longer true, where the Radeon HD 7970 can now instead take the win in many modern games.

The scenario is recognizable from SweClocker’s return visit of the Radeon R9 290X and Geforce GTX 780 Ti, in which it turned out that AMD’s cards performed better in terms of performance over the years. The statement “fine wine” thus seems to be quite true, at least when we look at the generation Kepler against GCN.

Did you own a Geforce GTX 680 when it went, or do you even own one today? Share your experiences in the comments section of this article!