first the card : replace a outdated but surprisingly capable Radeon HD 5830 that could still play everything near full at 1600x1200 . but near be no longer enough so I spring for the `` great deal '' in the 680 's little-by-1 \/ 2 '' brother , the 670 ftw . quote on great deal for the fact high end card seem to jump $ 100 every 2 year . it be perform well as expect -lrb- see Tom 's hardware or such for benchmark , it run everything max -rrb- but do not overclock well at all . the CPU be unstable at more than a 10mhz offset in precision x and the memory get about 100MHz . I be not run it overclocked because there be no need but I want to know how much headroom it have , and it be little . it be louder than the Radeon but not loud . the card sit 3 ' from my head so that be important . my case and CPU fan be rate 17-19 db so normally the hard drive be the loudest thing , this be a bit louder , maybe 25-30 db . if you have air conditioning on in you room you will not hear the card though . now the concern : EVGA have cut down it be warranty at the knee , from lifetime to 10 year to 3 year in 2 or 3 `` generation '' of card . they no longer cross ship . they no longer pay shipping to they . instead they want to sell you extend warranty and - get this - ship protection in case you return you card . yes they will let you pay now for ship you dead card later and the only way it would be worth it at they price be if the card die a few time . the warranty also require a involved registration process to be complete within 30 day . needless to say this throw up red flag as to what kind of failure rate they card be get nowadays that they will no longer stand behind they . if xfx still make Nvidia card I would have promptly exchange this for a black edition with a double transferable lifetime warranty that they actually honor . there it be , my gripe be one common to most industry - cost cut means support cut - and EVGA have move into the `` value card maker '' realm of support . of course , the card be price lower than factory overclocked offering from Gigabyte , MSI and Asus , so maybe `` value card maker '' be exactly what they want to be now . just know what kind of back you will get .