NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card Review

Introduction

NVIDIA did a really job of keeping the GTX 760 that is being released today under wraps. All throughout Computex 2013, the GTX 760 name is one that we didn't hear come up once. Out of nowhere, though, we start to see samples arriving. First we got an NVIDIA reference card sample and straight after we started seeing partners sending us over their versions.

As we always do, the first card we'll look at is the reference one from NVIDIA and from there we'll then take the time to overclock the model to see just what we're able to do with it. Overclocking the reference card always gives us a reference point of what a reference design card can clock like, compared to partner's cards, which go the extra mile by adding higher quality components to the PCB.

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Being a reference card means that we've got no bundle to deal with. Instead we'll today just be moving straight onto the card itself to see just what exactly NVIDIA is offering. There's really not much more that needs to be said so let's just get into the swing of things and see just what's going on with this brand new mid-range model from NVIDIA.

The Card and Specifications

The Card

You can see straight away it doesn't have the same sexy styling that is seen on the higher-end GTX 770 and GTX 780 models that we saw launch earlier this year. You can see we've got a fairly plain heatsink solution which sees a fan sit towards the end of the card, which is surrounded by an all-black shroud.

You can see power comes in the form of two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Here you can also see how the shroud over shoots the card. Like some of the previous generation mid-range GTX 600 series cards, you can see the PCB is actually a fair bit shorter than the heatsink itself. Moving closer to the front you can see a pair of SLI connectors giving us the ability to run up to three of these cards in SLI.

When it comes to the I/O side of things, you're not going to find any surprises here with a very typical NVIDIA setup that includes a Dual Link DVI-D and DVI-I along with a HDMI port and DisplayPort connector to round everything off.

Specifications

On the Stream Processors front the new GTX 760 comes with 1,152 which is down from 1,536 seen on the GTX 770. Texture Units and ROPs come in at 96 and 32, which compares to 128 and 32 seen on the GTX 770.

As for the clocks speeds, the base clock on the new model is 980MHz, which is then boosted up to 1033MHz. The 2GB of GDDR5 comes in at the standard 6008MHz and sits on a 256-bit memory bus.

While we're looking at the 2GB model today, 4GB models will also be made available.

Benchmarks - Test System Setup

We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASUS and Corsair.

We'll be looking at a number of cards in our review today against the new GeForce GTX 760 2GB. We'll be including the EVGA GTX 650 Ti Boost SuperClocked, MSI GTX 660 HAWK and GeForce GTX 770 2GB on the NVIDIA side.

When it comes to the AMD side, we've got the Sapphire HD 7790 1GB Dual-X OC, PowerColor PCS HD 7950 2GB overclocked to over 1100MHz on the core, along with the reference AMD HD 7970 GHz edition to round things off here today.

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/

Buy It Here

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 out the gate with 3DMark 11 you can see just where the new GTX 760 sits against the other GTX 700 offerings along with the older GTX 600 offerings we've got on hand.

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

Buy It Here

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.

Today marks the addition of the new 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark in our video card reviews.

While we can show you the results, we're not able to really compare it against anything else at the moment. In the coming weeks we'll see this quickly fill up with more results.

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.

Heaven shows the new GTX 760 performing very well with it coming out ahead of the HD 7900s at the both resolutions. As always, NVIDIA has done an excellent job with tessellation optimization.

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.

Sitting above that 5,000 points mark shows that we've got very strong performance under PSO2 at the highest 2560 x 1600 resolution. Of course anything below that resolution isn't going to be an issue for the card.

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."

Lost Planet 2 performance is very strong and you can see we're sitting in line with the higher-end HD 7900 series cards again thanks to good tessellation optimization.

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 numbers are only slightly ahead of the MSI GTX 660 HAWK in this case and at the highest resolution you can see we fall just a single FPS behind the 60 FPS number we're always on the hunt for to provide a solid gaming experience.

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 performance across the board is strong and you can see in this case we manage to come out again of the HD 7900 series cards. More importantly, we've got playable FPS at all resolutions.

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.

Checking out Metro 2033 performance you can see we've got strong performance at 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050. Compared to the AMD offerings, you can see we're not all that far behind the overclocked HD 7950. It's worth noting that the HD 7900s, though, do manage to break into that 60 FPS barrier at the highest resolution.

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.

Dirt Showdown sees the GTX 760 perform strong at the lower resolutions, but when we hit 2560 x 1600, it drops into the 40 FPS realm, which is just too low to be playable.

You can see the performance bump is nice compared to the GTX 660 HAWK from MSI, which manages to sneak in playable numbers at 1680 x 1050, but falls short at 1920 x 1200, something the new GTX 760 manages to do with no problems.

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.

It comes as no surprise that when we fired up Nexuiz performance would be both low and at an unplayable level. It's not really worth going into much more detail than that.

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.

Sniper Elite V2 looks good at both 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 with playable numbers that are similar to the HD 7950 when we overclocked it to over 1100MHz. Looking at 2560 x 1600, you can see we've got a good number in 57 FPS, unfortunately it's still just under that 60 FPS number we're looking for.

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 2 performance is strong across the board and at the lower resolutions you can see we manage to again sneak ahead of the overclocked HD 7950. Moving to the higher 2560 x 1600 resolution you can see we do fall behind the HD 7950 overclocked, but still manage to get a very strong 70 FPS.

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/

Buy It Here

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.

Far Cry 2 performance as you'd expect is strong at all resolutions with playability not being an issue. While we're a little behind the HD 7900 series in this case, the most important thing is that our FPS numbers are playable.

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).

Moving into Hitman Absolution you can see that performance is strong at both 1920 x 1200 and 1680 x 1050. Moving to 2560 x 1600, you can see that while the minimum looks good, the average is a little too low for our liking.

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.

Tomb Raider sees some good minimum numbers at 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200. While the average at 1680 x 1050 is below that 60 FPS mark, thanks to the higher minimum, the game is playable. Moving to 1920 x 1200, though, we would say the 42 FPS average is too low. 2560 x 1600 numbers are just both to low in the minimum and average department.

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 some good performance at 1680 x 1050 and the 59 FPS average at 1920 x 1200 is of course pretty strong. Moving to 2560 x 1600, though, you can see performance is just too low.

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.

With AA and AF on we see that Far Cry 2 performance continues to be strong at both resolutions lining up around the same level as our overclocked HD 7950.

As intensive as Metro 2033 is when AA and AF is turned on, you can see the new GTX 760 2GB manages to sneak at 61 FPS at 1920 x 1200. Moving to 2560 x 1600, though, you can see performance sits way too low with a 37 FPS average.

Like Metro 2033, we can see Just Cause 2 paints a similar picture with playable numbers at 1920 x 1200 with AA and AF on. Moving to 2560 x 1600, though, you can see that performance is again just too low to be playable.

Turning on AA and AF under Sleeping Dogs sees performance plummet with low FPS at both resolutions.

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.

We've noticed that the new GTX 700 cards do indeed run a bit warmer then you'd expect when compared to previous models. Saying that, though, we've seen some great improvements from partners when it comes to non-reference cooling solutions.

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 sit towards the higher-end of the pack, but they're still at a fairly good level. We're really looking forward to seeing what partners do when it comes to new cooling solutions.

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.

You can see power draw sits at the bottom half of the pack coming in at a bit under 400 watt at load and just over 130 watt at idle. We see fairly standard numbers here and most quality 550 watt + power supplies are going to handle a setup like this with no problems.

Pricing, Availability and Final Thoughts

Coming in at $249 at the time of writing, the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB hits at that perfect mid-range price point and considering the performance of the new model, we must say that it's a strong price point that is indeed going to get the attention of end-users. While the new GTX 700 series doesn't bring anything earth shattering in terms of new features, we can't deny that from a marketing perspective it's a good series from NVIDIA.

The HD 7000 name has been around for what feels like forever now and the new GTX 700 name from NVIDIA helps bring something fresh to people's minds, especially when you think that the GTX 600 series compared to the HD 7000 series. The first thing you tend to think is that the new GTX 700 series compares to the next generation AMD cards, which aren't even released yet.

While we'll see the new model starting at $249 as we just mentioned, we should see most models coming in at around $10 - $20 higher than that due to the fact that partners will be offering their own variants of the model from today. We've already got a couple on hand and we'll be taking a closer look at them soon. As always, though, the first thing we need to do is check out the overclocking performance of the new reference model. NVIDIA is also offering a 4GB variant of the model and we're sure we'll see some companies offer that; if previous experience is anything to go by, though, we wouldn't expect too much extra performance from the extra onboard memory.

We're excited to see what partners have done with the cooling solution, though, as like the other GTX 700 series cards, we do feel that the reference cooler has the core running a little warmer than we like. While it's at a temperature that's not a problem for stability, we always prefer it to come in lower.

Rumors suggest that this is the last GTX 700 series card we'll see from NVIDIA and while it makes sense, you really never know with NVIDIA. If AMD come out on the attack in the coming months, which is something I feel they really need to do, NVIDIA might have to retaliate with something, and with the "Boost" and "Ti" name available, there's plenty of room to squeeze new models in if need be.