Product Listing

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 - The Gaming Card for the Masses?

By Wong Chung Wee - 25 Jun 2013

Conclusion

The New Mainstream Gaming Card That Could Have Been Much More

On the get-go, the GeForce GTX 760 seemed to be a promising new card to look forward to. After all, the GeForce GTX 780 leapfrogged the GTX 680 by a margin large enough that it managed near GTX Titan level of performance. Likewise, the GeForce GTX 770 did the same as it outclassed the GTX 670 and was even faster than the GTX 680 marginally. No doubt these new cards were somewhat expensive, the improvement in performance was a rather big leap.

Running through our results compiled, we couldn't really say the same for the GeForce GTX 760. Priced at US$249, it was supposed to be a replacement for the GeForce GTX 660 Ti that debuted at US$299, which is still hovering at that price point. Our tests showed that the GeForce GTX 760 was marginally better than the older GeForce GTX 660 Ti, but only in selective games. For example, it showed a good lead of 12  to 30% in the Hitman:Absolution game, but in elsewhere the advantage is less than 10% and there are even scenarios where it's slower than the GeForce GTX 660 Ti by a small margin. All things considered, it's only marginally better than the GeForce GTX 660 Ti when you consider its GPU Boost 2.0 and a new adaptive temperature controller and that you're getting this level of performance at a lower price point.

For those hoping it would reach the levels of a GeForce GTX 670, this card isn't the missing link, but you can overclock it to reach those levels as we've found out. Another sore point is that power consumption figures of the GeForce GTX 760 left us wondering if there's probably a driver issue as its power readings are much higher than its competitive playing field. In fact, for a card that doesn't perform better than the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, it draws more power than the GeForce GTX 670!

Priced at US$249 for mass market appeal, the GTX 760 is adequate to handle most new titles. But do not expect it to deliver solid performances at extremely high game settings. We advise users to keep their game settings, and expectations, at reasonable levels in order to appreciate the GTX 760.

Against the AMD Radeon counterparts, the GTX 760 was a clear winner over the Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition card. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 card proved to be a tougher challenge as we witnessed at actual gaming benchmarks, their average frame rate scores were rather close. That said, the Radeon HD 7870 cards are now available from US$200, much lower than their US$299 introductory price and thus make them ideal for their performance and price point. On the other hand, we expect AMD to reassess the price points for the Radeon HD 7950 to make them more lucrative to the GeForce GTX 760.

The missing link now is to find out how much do the add-in board partners charge for their editions for the local market and how they fare. For that, tune in to our shootout across four custom designed GeForce GTX 760 cards from ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and Palit.

As for our preliminary conclusion of the GeForce GTX 760, we think it could have made a better impact if its performance was more convincing. For now, it's main advantage would be its value proposition for the mainstream gamer seeking reasonable performance without a big price penalty - at least for the US market.

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
7.5
  • Performance 7
  • Features 8
  • Value 8
The Good
Good price point (in the USA)
Competitive against Radeon HD 7870, HD 7950
The Bad
Performance could have been better
High power consumption levels
High operating temperatures
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.