When I first cast my eyes over the GTX680 Super Overclock I was aghast that GIGABYTE had chosen to use 5x40mm fans. The GIGABYTE GTX680 Windforce x3 is also a fantastic card so why then did GIGABYTE choose to improve cooling performance, especially at the cost of noise because the Windforce 3 cooler is virtually silent?

Competition. With so many manufacturers vying for top spot, it makes sense to be the best, to be at the head of the crowd, to be number 1. The GIGABYTE GTX680 SOC certainly achieved that status because it is the best clocking GTX680 we have had our hands on so far and while it took some time to get there, the tweaking and testing is what true overclockers love. There's no fun if it just reaches its pinnacle with a few minutes of testing. The added option to tweak the PWM makes overclocking this GPU that little bit more complex and because you don't have cooling restrictions, you can concentrate on overclocking this card.

So is it Super? Well yes and no. It's super sized, super heavy and super expensive. Weighing in at £499 it is one of the most expensive GTX680's this side of watercooled version but for that you get a truly unique cooler and one of the highest factory overclocked flagship NVIDIA GTX680 cards available. I would have expected to see 4GB instead of the included 2GB of GDDR5 which is a real shame, not that it struggled with 2GB but for £500, a little future proofing wouldn't go amiss. It certainly lives up to its name being a Super Overclocker though reaching a blistering, stable 1287MHz (Boost). Whether this is enough to tempt to part with half a thousand pound only you and your bank manager can decide. Cost and acoustics are perhaps the major considerations to make when making the decision to buy this GPU over the many other pre-overclocked cards on the market. If the high pitched whine from the server grade 40mm fans doesn't concern you then this card is sure to impress with its super performance.



Me? I have 2 whiny children already so adding another to the household would be too much to bare I'm afraid so I'll stick with GIGABYTE's Windforce 3, a compromise on cooling ability, performance and most importantly, noise. If however, the high pitched whine from the server grade 40mm fans doesn't concern you and performance is a feature you place above all else then this card will not disappoint because out of all the single core cards we have tested to date, this is the fastest and certainly worthy of the 'Super' moniker.