Consider the bog-standard reference-card design. Enthusiasts often sneer at the thought, but the GTX 680 reference design is efficient, quiet, and fast. You often have to spend extra for higher clocks and more fans—and more moving parts and heat often equate to a higher probability of failure.

The EVGA GTX 680 we’re reviewing here is a standard reference card, but EVGA equips it with one of the best overclocking software tools we’ve tested.

You can use Precision to tweak the base clock, Boost clock, voltage, fan settings, and more. The GTX 680 GPU itself offers good overclocking headroom, so a few quick tweaks using Precision should get you 5–10 percent pretty easily.

Flexible overclocking software and a solid warranty make choosing EVGA a little easier.

But really, if you’re running a single display that’s 1920x1200 or lower, you’ll rarely need that additional headroom. We ran our usual benchmark suite at 2560x1600 with 4x multisampling antialiasing. At that rarified resolution, most games were still hitting in excess of 60fps. Even titles like Metro 2033, which hammers all GPUs, exceeded 40fps at 1920x1200 with all the DX11 features enabled (but AA off.)

When we look at the results, it’s worth noting that both GTX 680 cards win in most benchmarks against the overclocked XFX Radeon HD 7970 Double-D Black Edition. The Radeon does eke out wins, most notably in Shogun 2, but the 1fps disparity in Metro 2033 is really just statistical noise. The GTX 680 wins decisively in a number of other game tests.

More important is power. EVGA’s card wins on full-throttle efficiency, but given the variability in GPUs, the difference between EVGA’s power consumption and that of the Asus card is again statistically insignificant. Both cards are more power efficient—and quieter—than the overclocked Radeon at both idle and full throttle. As with Asus, EVGA offers a three-year warranty to registered users.

EVGA’s Precision tool takes full advantage of the GTX 680 GPU’s capabilities.

In the end, we have to give the nod—just barely—to EVGA, for its impressive Precision tweaking tool. While the Asus card also ships with overclocking software, EVGA’s Precision offers a clean interface that’s easier to use. The downside: Finding any GTX 680 is nearly impossible currently, but as Nvidia ramps up manufacturing and initial demand is fulfilled, you’ll see more cards appear on store shelves.