Introduction
NVIDIA just launched the new GTX 760 in both 2GB and 4GB variants and we had a chance to look at the new 2GB version at launch just yesterday and really found ourselves impressed with what NVIDIA was offering for just $249. As always, the next thing we do once we've taken the time to look at the reference card is see how it goes in the overclocking department.
While we do have retail models on hand that are overclocked out of the box and could possibly overclock higher, it's important to find out what a reference card can do when it comes to overclocking. This means that when we look at specialized versions of the model from companies like MSI, EVGA and Palit, we can see just how they differ to what the reference version offers.
As always, when it comes to any overclocking article, we don't go into any detail on the video card itself. If you want to take a closer look at the card and find out a bit more about the general specifications, we recommend that you read our launch review that we linked to in the first paragraph.
Instead today we just get stuck into the test setup and the overclocking side of things before looking at performance. So, let's get into it.
Benchmarks - Test System Setup and Overclocking
We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASUS and Corsair.
You'll see almost an identical setup in our graphs today as you saw in our original launch coverage yesterday. That means from the NVIDIA side we have the reference GTX 760 2GB at stock and overclocked, alongside the EVGA GTX 650 Ti Boost SuperClocked, MSI GTX 660 HAWK and reference GTX 770.
As for the AMD side, we've got the Sapphire HD 7790 1GB Dual-X OC, PowerColor HD 7950 2GB overclocked to over 1100MHz on the core and the reference HD 7970 GHz Edition.
Firing up MSI afterburner we bumped the core voltage to +12 which is the highest option we have. Looking below you can see after a little bit of time we ended up pushing the core up to 1105MHz, which is a nice increase from the standard 980MHz - the boost clock also goes up from 1033MHz to 1058MHz. As for the 2GB of GDDR5, that's gone from 6008MHz QDR to 6808MHz QDR. This is a nice overclock and should yield nice performance increases.
The FPS Numbers Explained
When we benchmark our video cards and look at the graphs, we aim to get to a certain level of FPS which we consider playable. While many may argue that the human eye can't see over 24 FPS or 30 FPS, any true gamer will tell you that as we climb higher in Frames Per Seconds (FPS), the overall gameplay feels smoother. There are three numbers we're looking out for when it comes to our benchmarks.
30 FPS - It's the minimum number we aim for when it comes to games. If you're not dropping below 30 FPS during games, you're going to have a nice and smooth gaming experience. The ideal situation is that even in a heavy fire fight, the minimum stays above 30 FPS making sure that you can continue to aim easily or turn the corner with no dramas.
60 FPS - It's the average we look for when we don't have a minimum coming at us. If we're getting an average of 60 FPS, we should have a minimum of 30 FPS or better and as mentioned above, it means we've got some smooth game play happening.
120 FPS - The new number that we've been hunting down over recent months. If you're the owner of a 120 Hz monitor, to get the most out of it you want to get around the 120 FPS mark. Moving from 60 FPS / 60 Hz to 120 FPS / 120 Hz brings with it a certain fluidity that can't really be explained, but instead has to be experienced. Of course, if you're buying a 120 Hz monitor to take advantage of 3D, an average of 120 FPS in our benchmark means that in 3D you will have an average of 60 FPS, which again means you should expect some smooth gameplay.
Why are some graphs incomplete?
Adding new game benchmarks is a long, tedious and time consuming task as every video card has to be re-tested in those new benchmarks. Because of that reason we have always just evaluated our benchmark line up every six months. To stay up to date and current with the latest benchmarks and games available, we've changed our approach to adding new benchmarks.
Our benchmark line up will progress and be updated as newer more intensive games with benchmarks comes to light. While this will mean that initially you may only see a single video card in those particular graphs, as the weeks go on and we test more and more video cards, the results will grow quickly. This will help keep our benchmark line up as up to date as possible as we introduce and remove games on a constant basis.
Benchmarks - 3DMark 11
3DMark 11
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/
3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world's most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC's gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.
Starting off with 3DMark 11 we can see a slight boost in both performance presets, but not a huge increase.
Benchmarks - 3DMark Fire Strike
3DMark Fire Strike
Version and / or Patch Used: 1
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark
Fire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.
Moving into one of our latest benchmarks with limited results due to its early nature of being added to our mix of tests, you can see that the overclock brings a nice little boost in performance, with roughly 10% being seen at the higher resolution Extreme preset.
Benchmarks - Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Version and / or Patch Used: 3
Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com
Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//
New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.
Looking at Heaven benchmark we again see a little bit of a bump with the best increase again being seen at the higher resolution when more pressure is placed on the video card.
Benchmarks - Phantasy Star Online 2
Phantasy Star Online 2
Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.sega.com/?t=EnglishUSA
Product Homepage: http://www.pso2.com/us/html/index.html
Play Phantasy Star Online 2 and experience revolutionary combat in an action-driven, free-to-play multiplayer online RPG from SEGA. Take a journey into an immersive sci-fi fantasy narrative and explore mysterious worlds to unravel their secrets. Join fellow adventurers and fight against the legions of darkness to banish them from the galaxy.
Score explanation: Less than 2000: Please adjust your game settings because the processing load is quite heavy.
2000 through 5000: The game runs fine at the setting, if you have room, you can adjust some settings.
5001+: The game works wonderfully at this setting.
PSO2 has always shown excellent increases when overclocking is thrown into the mix, and above is no different, with the GTX 760 2GB seeing a really nice increase in performance.
Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2
Lost Planet 2
Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1
Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/
Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."
Looking above you can see the overclock brings with it an increase of about 5 - 10% in performance, depending on the resolution. The bump at the highest resolution is most appreciated as we get a bit more breathing room in the 60 FPS realm.
Benchmarks - Just Cause 2
Just Cause 2
Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Dark Tower
Developer Homepage: http://www.eidos.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.justcause.com/
Just Cause 2 employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in Just Cause. The game is set on the other side of the world from the original Just Cause, on the fictional island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Panau has varied terrain, from desert to alpine to rainforest. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist, aiming to overthrow the evil dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and confront his former mentor, Tom Sheldon.
Just Cause 2 also sees a bit of a bump and you can see at the highest resolution we manage to come from just below 60 FPS to just over it, which is exactly what we love to see when it comes to overclocking.
Benchmarks - F1 2012
F1 2012
Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/
Product Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com
In F1 2012 players will feel the unparalleled thrill of becoming a FORMULA ONE driver with a host of new features, wide-ranging technical and gameplay advancements and extensive competitive and co-operative multiplayer components. F1 2012 will feature all of the official teams, drivers and circuits from the 2012 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, including the debut of the 2012 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX at Austin, Texas and the return of Germany's famous Hockenheim circuit to the calendar.
F1 2012 sees a little bit of movement at the lower resolutions, but nothing too major. You can see at the highest resolution that we actually see no change in performance.
Benchmarks - Metro 2033
Metro 2033
Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.4a-games.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.thqnordic.com/
Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.[3] In March 2006, 4A Games announced a partnership with Glukhovsky to collaborate on the game.[4] The game was announced at the 2009 Games Convention in Leipzig;[5] a first trailer came along with the announcement.[6] A sequel was announced, currently titled Metro: Last Light.
Metro 2033 manages to see a nice little bump across the board which equates to almost 10% at the highest resolution. You can see, though, we still fall just a few FPS shy of the 60 FPS number we're always on the hunt for to provide a solid gaming experience.
Benchmarks - Dirt Showdown
Dirt Showdown
Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/
Product Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/dirtshowdown/360/
DiRT Showdown is the new arcade racing game from the team that brought you the award-winning DiRT series, uncaged in 2012. Pick up and play controls combine with electrifying events, frenzied crowds and stunning graphics to deliver high octane, dive in and drive thrills from event one.
Above you can see a little bump in performance at all resolutions. While it's not quite enough to see the extra FPS we need at the highest resolution, the move from a 61 FPS average to 64 FPS at 1920 x 1200 is appreciated, as we get a bit more breathing room.
Benchmarks - Nexuiz
Nexuiz
Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.alientrap.org/
Product Homepage: http://www.nexuiz.com/
Nexuiz is an Arena First Person shooter coming soon to consoles. Nexuiz is fast paced with extremely competitive game play. IllFonic brings Alientrap Software's Nexuiz to next-gen gaming consoles around the world while staying true to the game play refined over the years through development. IllFonic introduces a new Victorian influenced art style that is simultaneously futuristic and sophisticated. Nexuiz for consoles is powered by CryENGINE 3.
While we see a little bit of movement across the board, it's nowhere near enough extra performance to get us into the playable FPS realm.
Benchmarks - Sniper Elite V2
Sniper Elite V2
Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/
Product Homepage: http://sniperelitev2.com/us/age.html
Sniper Elite V2 features detailed sniping simulation with advanced ballistics, taking into account gravity, wind, velocity, bullet penetration, aim stability and more. Guaranteed to provide players with the most realistic simulation of military sharpshooting yet available.
Like we saw under Just Cause 2, you can see above the overclock manages to push us from under the 60 FPS mark to smack on it at the highest resolution. While we'd of course like a little bit more FPS, the 60 number is always the target that we aim for, so no complaints here.
Benchmarks - Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs
Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://eu.square-enix.com/en
Product Homepage: http://www.sleepingdogs.net/
The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player an open world environment in which to move around freely. Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The player controls Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer, as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization. On foot, the player character has the ability to walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and martial arts in combat. Players also drive a variety of vehicles including cars, boats, and motorcycles.
Sleeping Dogs already saw some strong performance, but you can see above, the overclock helps give us a little bit of breathing room - especially at the highest resolution as we float around the 70 FPS area.
Benchmarks - Far Cry 2
Far Cry 2
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01
Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/
The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.
While not entirely needed, you can see across the board we've got bumps in all resolutions, with some very strong numbers being seen.
Benchmarks - Hitman Absolution
Hitman Absolution
Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.ioi.dk/
Product Homepage: http://hitman.com/
Hitman: Absolution is an action-adventure stealth game developed by I/O Interactive and published by Square Enix. It is the fifth entry in the Hitman game series, and runs on I/O Interactive's proprietary Glacier 2 game engine. Before release, the developers stated that Absolution would be easier to play and more accessible, while still retaining hardcore aspects of the franchise. The game was released on 20 November 2012, which is in the 47th week of the year (in reference to the protagonist, Agent 47).
Hitman Absolution sees not much performance change with the overclock with just an FPS or two being seen here and there - nothing that is going to effect the overall actual gaming experience.
Benchmarks - Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.nixxes.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.tombraider.com/us/base/agegate?refer=184&
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure platform video game. Published by Square Enix, Tomb Raider is the fifth title developed by Crystal Dynamics in the Tomb Raider franchise. As the first entry in a new Tomb Raider continuity, the game is a reboot that emphasizes the reconstructed origins of the culturally influential lead character Lara Croft. Tomb Raider was released on 5 March 2013 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows to universal critical acclaim.
Across the board you can really see nothing but a bit of fluctuation under Tomb Raider as we see some numbers a little higher and others a little lower when overclocked.
Benchmarks - BioShock Infinite
BioShock Infinite
Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://irrationalgames.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.bioshockinfinite.com
BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game and the third installment in the BioShock series. Previously known as "Project Icarus", it is being developed by Irrational Games and was released worldwide on the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms on March 26, 2013. BioShock Infinite is not part of the storyline of previous BioShock games but features similar gameplay concepts and themes.
BioShock Infinite sees a few extra FPS here and there and you can see just that 1 extra FPS at 1920 x 1200 is enough to push us into that 60 FPS realm that we're always aiming to achieve.
Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF
High Quality AA and AF
While we test all our games with maximum in-game settings, turning on Anti-Aliasing (AA) and Antistrophic Filtering (AF) helps take the intensity of our testing to another level.
Here we see video cards go from playable FPS to an unplayable FPS and the real power houses continue to help break that 60 FPS mark we always aim for to provide a smooth gaming experience.
Far Cry 2 sees some nice performance gains at both resolutions. Looking at stock performance, though, you can see that the extra FPS isn't quite needed in this situation.
Metro 2033 sees a nice bump at both resolutions and while the 2560 x 1600 bump isn't helpful in changing the game play experience, the move at 1920 x 1200 from 61 FPS to 65 FPS is nice, as it gives us just a little bit more breathing room making sure that the game runs smoothly.
Just Cause 2 sees no change with the overclock here. You can see at 1920 x 1200 the average is 1 FPS lower. We would put that down to fluctuation.
Sleeping Dogs gets a little bump at both resolutions, but overall performance is way too low to be playable with these in-game settings.
Temperature Test
The temperature of the core is pulled from MSI Afterburner with the max reading used after a completed run off 3DMark Vantage and the Performance preset.
Overclocked we see absolutely no change in the idle and load temperatures, which can be seen above.
Sound Test
Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.
After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).
Noise levels actually manage to come in slightly lower at load here. Of course we always have to throw a dB in here and there for fluctuation to the environment.
Overall the overclock doesn't seem to affect the temperature or the noise of the video card much at all.
Power Consumption Test
Using our PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).
There are a few important notes to remember though; while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time; therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.
The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a SSD hard drive is used with a single CD ROM and minimal cooling fans.
So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.
At idle we can see that there's really no change in the overall power draw. As you'd expect, though, with the extra voltage added to the core and the overclocking of both the memory and core thrown into the mix, we do see a jump of around 20 watts at load.
Overall, though, just over 400 Watt is a number that most quality power supplies aren't going to have a problem dealing with.
Final Thoughts
Overclocking on mid-range video cards is always really fun and exciting. It's at these mid-range levels that we see an overclock come in extremely handy. Sure, it's great to see a GTX TITAN go from 180 FPS to 212 FPS in a game, but we know overall it doesn't really affect the way the game looks or plays.
Move down a few levels, though, to something like the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB and you see multiple times we're able to move from under 60 FPS, a level that we consider not playable, to over 60 FPS, a level that we consider playable. It's times like this that we see overclocking really affects the playability of the game.
It's also not just when we move from under 60 FPS to just over it, but also when we move from low 60s to higher 60s. That extra 10% that we can often see at time really gives us that extra bit of breathing room that we need to make sure the game really does run as well as we need it to.
We can't just place all the importance on the 60 FPS number, though. For those games that aren't quite as intensive, when we're floating around the 100 FPS realm, that extra FPS seen comes in handy for people on 120Hz monitors. Of course the more often you can stay at that 120 FPS number, the overall smoother looking your game will be.
Overall overclocking on the new GTX 760 2GB is good. We can see that the extra MHz we're able to achieve on the model gives us a nice jump in performance with at times it being the difference between playable and not playable. Along with that, though, we saw that overclocking effected both heat and noise levels in a very minor way, if really at all.
Like we mentioned in our launch piece on the new GTX 760 2GB, we're really looking forward to seeing what partners do with the new model. Not just from a cooling perspective, but also from the perspective of increased overclocking ability. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks as we review more and more variants of the new GTX 700 series based video cards from partners here at TweakTown.