Inno3D iChiLL GTX 670 HerculeZ 3000 Edition 2GB Graphics Card Review

I can’t remember the last time we had a look at an Inno3D card, but we’ve always been big supporters of their designs and their end message, and this card we looked at today proves our point in its entirety in terms of both graphical performance and sheer cooling potential.

The design is simply stunning, with a gun-metal grey cooler and triple fan design that really means business from a first glance. The fact that it comes with a full metal shrouding and an Allen key simply shows the quality behind the materials used, and that Inno3D really put a lot of thought into the iChill series coolers that they bolted to this outstanding card.

Outstanding, due to the performance on offer, not just in terms of graphical power. The cooler is at the top of all of our tests, with noise output, power consumption and temperatures at super low levels. Generally after we’ve stressed a card, we find it hot to touch, but we had no nonsense with this card, and was easily able to touch it while it was busy stress testing in our benchmark suite of applications. It was also pretty much inaudible and that’s a big plus for us, as I simply can’t stand loud computer systems.

The other side of the performance is down to the sheer graphical explosion that we saw across every benchmark, with this card outperforming the Palit reference GTX 680 in almost every test. Only was the GTX 680 able to redeem itself slightly at certain resolutions, yet the Inno3D 670 managed to simply outperform it across multiple games and applications, while keeping noise and temperatures to an absolute minimum.

The overclock has really been able to put this card at the top of our pick list, and we won’t hesitate recommending it to anyone, as we simply can’t fault it, though we are yet to look at the price. Generally when we see a card that exceeds all expectations and simply is to good to be true, we find a hefty price tag to match.

Luckily, this card also wins our hearts in the pricing department, at a fantastic, simply mind-boggling price of £336 in the UK retail market. The bottom line is; you will not find a card for this price, that can perform anywhere near the level that we’ve seen today, and I am personally going to shout about this card to anyone who had that kind of money laying around and wants to have the very best value for money.

We have many different awards at eTeknix, ranging from the Innovation award, to the Extreme Performance award, right down to the Bang for Buck award, and this card can simply take them all. Instead though, we will consolidate them all together, to award the Inno3D iChiLL GTX 670 HerculeZ 3000 Edition graphics card with our Editor’s Choice Award.