EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC ACX review

Graphics cards 1048 Page 25 of 25 Published by

teaser

Final words and conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

And there you have it, the EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked (SC) ACX. Brought to you for roughly 269~279 USD (we expect). The release of the GeForce GTX 760 really isn't something new in terms of technology. The GeForce GTX 760 is a GTX 680 GPU with two out of the 8 available shader processor clusters disabled. And from that point of view the release really is more of the same. The interesting thing however is that NVIDIA opened up this level of performance in a 'somewhat' mainstream performance segment. But at 249 USD the performance you gain from a product like this is really interesting. Traditionally a GeForce GTX 460/560/660 and now 760 series product is upper segment of mainstream and as this product show us, it'll eat any game for breakfast and then for lunch and dinner as well. For the reference clocked products, you may expect slightly lower than GTX 670 performance. But with all board partner 'tweaked' products, add another 10% to the performance and all of the sudden these puppies sit in between the GTX 670 and 680 performance wise. The board partners have gone crazy and jumped all over the GeForce GTX 760 with multiple versions and custom cooled solutions. Palit jumped on the bandwagon with their popular JetStream series and added a nice 92 MHz faster clock frequency.

Performance

With the reference cards having a base-clock at 980 MHz, being factory clocked to 1046 MHz the magic is to be found in the boost clock as at that factory tweak the GPU all of the sudden finds its turbo frequency well above 1100 MHz (when the power signature allows it to do so). But mostly that is what we noticed, being that the GPU continously is hovering in the 1100 MHz range during gaming. I'm still taking reference here okay ? Now a card like shown today with its factory tweak, well let me just say that it is absolutely golden for the guys and girls with a  1920x1080 and 1920x1200 range in monitor resolution, there's not a game out there that it can't deal with at this resolution. In Crysis 3 we end at an average of 41 FPS in 1920x1200 with Very High quality settings and that high resolution texture package and FXAA. Battlefield 3 is another example, with all eye candy opened up in game and again at 4xAA the card still pushes 57 FPS at 19x12 and that nearly equal to the GeForce GTX 680. So while this product might have two shader clusters less, the performance really remains exceptionally good and once the dynamic clock aka turbo kicks in.

Aesthetics

EVGA applied their new ACX cooler solution which dramatically imrpoves cooling performance thanks to 40 percent more heatsink surface to coolwith. As stated the PCB seems to be reference though, but the cooler in its all black design, the two subtle and silent fans, yeah it's a good looking package alright. The one thing I have to mention is that the top place of the cooler is made out of plastic and that does make the cooler look a tiny bit cheap, especially when you have had the NV reference cooler with that cool plaxi see-through window. Regardless, it is a cool looking product alright. 

 

5173_img_8693

Noise Levels

As you have been able to see in our test sessions, the cooler does its job really well. The NVIDIA reference coolers are great, but they follow the temperature target of 80 degrees C. With the ACX cooler the GPU will get way more cooling power at your disposal. As a result the temperature target might remain at roughly 65 degrees C. An added benefit of that is that the dynamic clock frequency will go higher up to the point it reached its power target. So this is why the card is so close and sometimes a small notch faster then soem of the competition. Noise wise it's silent, you can slightly hear some airflow under full gaming load. But honestly, it's really good.

Power Consumption

The GeForce GTX 760 edition as tested today shows roughly 150 to 160 Watt power consumption at peak utilization with a modern game. Honestly that is pretty good as well. Not far off from reference, of course. But remember the 760 is injected in the graphics arena as a mid-range product, but comes with a high-end class GPU that has been limited a bit.

Overclocking

The EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC ACX edition in most scenarios maybe is 10% slower than the GTX 680, but the factory clock combined with that high boost frequency brings it close to that GTX 680 every now and then alright. Drivers wise we can't complain at all, we did not stumble into any issues. And with a single GPU there's no micro-stuttering (if that ever bothered you) and no multi-GPU driver issues to fight off. Performance wise really there's not one game that won't run seriously good at the very best image quality settings. The one title that is a little icky is Metro Last Light, just disable SSAA as the game already applies and enforces in-game AAA. Gaming you must do with a nice 30" monitor of course, at 2560x1440/1600. I mean Codemaster's Grid 2 at high quality and 4xAA is still oozing out 57 FPS there. Or what about Hitman Absolution with 54 FPS at 1920x1200 High quality and 2xMSAA? At these resolutions the GeForce GTX 760 offers just a plenty gaming experience with image quality that you can only get on a PC.


Guru3d-recommended

Final Words

As much of a refresh as the GeForce GTX 760 really is, it is the end-result that counts. The product comes with a GTX 680 chip but was limited in performance by roughly 25% die to two disabled SMX clusters (each 192 Shaders processors). But with plenty of memory bandwith and the ROP engine left in-tact the GeForce GTX 760 remains to be serious business. The reality remains that last year's most high-end GPU can now be bought at a much better price. The AIB partners from NVIDIA jumped on it, as example today the tested version. Armed with the updated cooler and a really serious factory overclock this product closes in at the GTX 670 and almost GTX 680 performance range. And no matter how you look at it, that is just a good deal for the money. Talking about money, these are the NVIDIA MSRPs (meaning over time you may expect lower prices):

  • EUR - 199 excl. VAT
  • GGBP - £209 incl. VAT
  • USD - $249 incl. VAT 
Honestly, that is a lot of card for the money. The custom cooled and factory higher clocked products will obeviously be a few tenners more expensive, you can expect the ACX SC to cost roughly 260 EUR (incl VAT). The card is quite silent and runs at GeForce GTX 670 to GTX 680 like performance. Next to that there still remains to be room left for tweaking. Overall the product is just impressive for the money and has great looks. With EVGA also comes nice after-sales and upgrade programs, be sure to check out their website and see what options are available to you in your region. We reward the EVGA's GeForce GTX 760 SC ACX edition with our top pick award, well deserved. Once it is available in the stores then please be careful, there will be a several SKUs based on the GTX 760, our sample is the 02G-P4-2765-KR SKU. You will receive a 3 warranty on the product as it has a have a suffix of -KR in the product code. End users can also opt in to Extended Warranty for 5 year or 10 programmes.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX edition graphics card comes recommended by Guru3D.com

Share this content
Twitter Facebook Reddit WhatsApp Email Print