Inno3D GTX 680 iChill Herculez review - fast, cheap(ish), and very quiet

Inno3D has finally released its non-reference GTX 680 design, and with any luck it will be available in Australia without too much delay. The name is a little silly, that much is granted, however the card underneath is rather impressive – of course the price is the deciding factor, as usual, and at $699 it’s not what you’d call cheap; in fact, it’s direct competition would be a card like the EVGA GTX 680 Superclocked Edition.

Sporting an 1100/1155 (stock/boost) core clock, it’s actually a little faster than the EVGA Superclock. It’s also faster than the GIGABYTE GTX 680 OC, and the ASUS GTX 680 DCII. In fact, it’s one of the fastest cards on the market, with the only (readily available) card that has a matching clock being the GTX 680 FTW Edition from EVGA, and that card comes with a reference PCB and Cooler, costs around $40 more and runs noticeably louder.

We now know this card is one of the fastest (factory clocked) cards you can buy, and we also know it’s cheaper than its direct competition, but what about the cooling? Well, here is where some people may find the deal breaker, while others may simply find themselves more impressed. The three-fan cooler cools extremely well without making a single whisper; it’s for lack of a better word, silent.

What some people may not like however is the card’s width, as it occupies just under three PCI slots, leaving just enough room for ‘breathing space’ should you want to connect a pair of these cards in SLI (unlike some other three-slot cards). The cooler shouldn’t really be a problem however, unless of course you’re using an m-ATX board or smaller.

When recording thermals, we were pleasantly surprised, with the card never breaking 49C under benchmark loads and idling at temperatures as low as 24C; not bad at all when you consider ambient room temperature was measured at 19C and the card features a nice factory overclock.

Speaking of overclocking, the card suffers the same problem as all GTX 680s, and that's finding a clock that the card’s energy management system is happy with. Raising the voltage ceiling and maximum allowed power draw of the card is one thing, but if the voltage and core clock fluctuate too much (the card updates voltage and clock dozens of times each second) you end up with instabilities.

This isn’t a problem with Inno3D; it’s a ‘problem’ with the GTX 680 in general. From our experience we’ve found it hard to guarantee stability at anything over 1200MHz Boost clock, and without that ability to disable the Boost function, you’re better off just sticking with the high factory clock Inno3D has already set.

As for gaming performance and power consumption, this card will use around 45W less than a new HD7970 GHz Edition, and it will also perform marginally faster. Of course it costs more too, so that needs to be taken into consideration. Compared to a reference design GTX 680, we’d say this card is a winner, and the price is justified; but considering the cost of a reference GTX 680 is so high in Australia, that simply puts cards like the Inno3D GTX 680 iChill Herculez out of most people’s reach.

One other niggle some potential owners may have is the basic ‘teal-green’ PCB used on for this card. It’s reminiscent of late 90s video cards and it does feel a little dated in the current Blue, Red or Black trend. Of course, not everyone cares about looks; but if you like to gaze lovingly into your case window in the odd occasion, have a think about your PCB and cooler colours, and if synergy is an issue for you personally.

Small nit-picking aside, the card is actually rather desirable. For a heavily overclocked GTX 680 you can typically expect to pay upwards of $749 in Australia, as is the price of the EVGA FTW Edition. Instead Inno3D offers the card at a much for reasonable $699, along with an efficient cooler design and overclocking software, you couldn’t really ask for much more.