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Sparkle announced their X680/X670 graphics cards in September and today we have the flagship Calibre X680 Captain in for review. This card utilises a 2oz Copper PCB and CoolPro Cooling system, with Triple Silent PWN fans. The cooler has been specially designed to optimise airflow through the large heatsink, supported by six substantial heatpipes. The card uses a 6+2 phase power design to help with stability under load.
| Product | Nvidia GTX580 | Nvidia GTX590 | Nvidia GTX680 | Sparkle Calibre X680 Captain |
| Transistors | 3000m | 3000m x2 | 3540m | 3540m |
| Core Clock | 772mhz | 607mhz | 1006mhz+ | 1124mhz+ (1189mhz boost) |
| Memory clock | 1002mhz | 855mhz | 1502mhz | 1550mhz |
| Shaders | 512 | 512×2 | 1536 | 1536 |
| ROPs | 48 | 48×2 | 32 | 32 |
| Memory amount |
3GB | 3GBx2 | 2GB | 2GB |
| Memory bus width | 384bit | 384 bit x 2 | 256 bit | 256 bit |
The Sparkle Calibre X680 Captain is overclocked out of the box, to a 1,124 mhz core clock speed (1,189mhz boost), and the 2GB of GDDR5 is also overclocked to 1,550mhz (6.2Gbps effective). The GTX680 is a formidable graphics card with 32 ROP's, 1536 CUDA cores and the 2GB of GDDR5 memory is connected via a wide 256 bit memory interface.
Wasn’t expecting this. I dont see anyone in UK stocking these however?
unusual design for a high end card. never really heard of the company to be honest. far east brand?
I always wondered why this design wasn’t used more often (fans under cooler). it should in theory lower noise as the main fan noise is behind a rack of fins and air will be sucked in. good idea.
Are Sparkle linked to Gainward? the cooler looks very like the phantom cooler they had out a while ago. (was a good cooler, not a bad thing).
very impressive card, would you guys say its better than the KFA2 3 fan cards though?
Thats a good question. If you like the KFA2 white PCB and want the slightly higher clocks then they are good options. They are slightly louder and more expensive however.
One of my good friends once told me that Sparkle and Gainward are a sister company. I believe him now.
Thank you all for reading the review, can I clarify that Sparkle are an independent company and in no way related to Gainward.
The use of similar coolers in pure coincidence
Sparkle are an independent company and in no way related to Gainward.