GeForce GTX 760 review (Page 25)

GeForce GTX 760 review

Graphics cards 1048 Page 25 of 25 Published 2013-06-25 14:48 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Final words and conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

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. Interestingly enough the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is also based on the very same GPU, yet has one more shader (total 1344 Shaders) and 1 ROP cluster more, now on paper that card should be faster. However that card is tied to a 192-bit memory bus, has lower clocks and with the new power boost 2.0 technology the GTX 760 is capable to beat the card very often despite the GTX 760 having less shader processors. Weird to observe. Don't expect that an upgrade from a GTX 660 Ti to a GTX 760 will make a significant enough difference though. And from that point of view the release really is more of the same. 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.

Performance

The reference cards having a base-clock at 980 MHz, which is a little shy for this product. At that clock frequency the reference cards will perform just under the GeForce GTX 670 (not a bad position to be really). But the tweakability of the GPU is fairly high. And as such you are going to notice huge amounts of partner boards which much higher clock frequencies lifting this card closer towards GTX 680 performance. And that's where things get interesting price performance wise.

The GeForce GTX 760 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 39 FPS in 1920x1200 with Very High quality settings and that high resolution texture package and FXAA. Metro Last Light is another heavy example, with all eye candy opened up the card still pushes 41 FPS at 19x12 and that almost equal to the GeForce GTX 670. So while this product might have two disabled clusters, the performance remains good and once the dynamic clock aka turbo kicks in you'll notice some interesting performance increases.

Aesthetics

Looking at the reference product that NVIDIA send us we can only conclude one thing, that's 100% similar looking to the GeForce GTX 660 and 650 Ti Boost cards. So yeah, that was done to save overall costs to keep this card under the 300 USD marker. Though not as cool looking as the 770/780/Titan it remains a perfectly fine and good looking card with its all dark black and style.

Noise Levels

Directly related to the aesthetics is the cooling and thus the noise levels. The GeForce GTX 760 reference based graphics cards have one fan. It's low RPM so it's not noisy airflow wise, however it makes a slight humming noise while spinning. That boosts sounds pressure and affects the measured ratings. Realistically the card is silent, but you can hear it. Should something like that bother you then be sure to check out some 3rd party cards from NVIDIA's board partners as they are mostly bound to have a customized cooler.

Power Consumption

The GeForce GTX 760 edition as tested today shows roughly 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 reference card in most scenarios maybe is 5% slower than the GTX 670. 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. I mean Codemaster's Grid 2 at high quality and 4xAA is still oozing out 79 FPS at 1920x1200. Or what about Hitman Absolution with 52 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.

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 bandwidth 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. 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 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. The GeForce GTX 760 will launch at almost 289 EUR / 299 USD. Over the coming months it is slowly going to replace the GTX 660 Ti and once prices settle in the 250 EUR range you will have a very competitive and excellent performing graphics card that suits all your needs for any modern PC.