Sparkle Calibre X680 Captain Review

I am still a big believer in Nvidia's GTX680, as the hardware delivers incredible performance at a reasonable price point, catering to the high end audience. The Sparkle Calibre X680 Captain is undoubtedly a major improvement on the Nvidia reference design in all areas.

The unusual cooler implementation will immediately attract the eye, as upon first glance it could be assumed that the card is passively cooled. The triple fans are however housed (hidden) underneath the heatsink, forcing cool air inwards through the aluminum fins and over the PCB components.

The design deserves commendation as Sparkle haven't cut corners, offering dedicated GDDR5 and VRM heatsinks to improve cooling proficiency. The performance of the cooler is excellent – rated alongside the best of the modified GTX680 cards available today. In most environments, the Sparkle Calibre X680 Captain will peak around the mid-high 60c mark when gaming.

The adoption of a tri-fan cooling system means that Sparkle are able to spin the fans slower while maintaining a high level of airflow. This is a very strong selling point for the Calibre X680 Captain, because if you want a very quiet running high performance system and aren't interested in liquid cooling then this should be right at the top of a shortlist. Moving the fans underneath the cooler also brings an added safety benefit.

The Sparkle Calibre X680 Captain is supplied in a high state of overclock and our sample didn't exhibit much additional headroom, with another 50mhz available on the core before artifacting would occur. Obviously, every sample will deliver slightly different results, but the ‘out of the box' clock speeds seem well tuned by Sparkle for long term stability.

You can pick up this card in the UK for £419.99 inc vat. They ship with a 3 year warranty.

Pros:

• excellent performance.
• fantastic cooling performance.
• very quiet.
• good price point.
• 3 year warranty.

Cons:

• A lot of competition in this price sector.
• ‘Captain'? Really?

Kitguru says: Sparkle have a winner on their hands, especially when factoring in the low noise levels and overall performance.

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