NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 Review: The $400 Fight
by Ryan Smith on May 30, 2013 9:00 AM ESTDiRT: Showdown
As always, starting off our benchmark collection is our racing benchmark, DiRT: Showdown. DiRT: Showdown is based on the latest iteration of Codemasters’ EGO engine, which has continually evolved over the years to add more advanced rendering features. It was one of the first games to implement tessellation, and also one of the first games to implement a DirectCompute based forward-rendering compatible lighting system. At the same time as Codemasters is by far the most prevalent PC racing developers, it’s also a good proxy for some of the other racing games on the market like F1 and GRID.
Despite the fact that it’s a $400 card, GTX 770 straddles the line between being a card best suited for 2560x1440, and a card best suited for 1920x1080. With GTX 780 and above we could get away with 2560 on the highest settings in most games, but with GTX 770 there will at times be compromises, either in quality/resolution, or dropping below 60fps.
In any case, DiRT: Showdown remains a troublesome title for NVIDIA. With its advanced lighting system on, GTX 770 trails the 7970 – let alone the 7970GE – at every resolution. For GTX 780 this wasn’t a problem, but for GTX 770 this means dropping below 60fps at 2560.
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mapesdhs - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
I've just bought two 3GB 580s for 450 UKP total, will be benching them next week
single & SLI. If you're interested in the results, let me know by PM/email (or Google
"SGI Ian" to find my contact page) and I'll send you the info links once the tests are
done. I'll be testing with 3DMark06, Vantage, 3DMark11, Firestrike, Call of Juarez,
Stalker COP, X3TC, PT Boats, Far Cry 3, and all 4 Unigines (Sanctuary, Tropics,
Heaven and Valley). If I'm reading reviews correctly, two 580s SLI should beat a 780.
If your existing 580 is a 1.5GB card, note you can get a 2nd one off eBay these days
for typically less than 150 UKP. I've won two this month, a Zotac card for 123 UKP
(using it to type this post) and an EVGA card for 142 UKP.
And yes, I agree, the new gen card pricing is kinda nuts. Anyone would think
we haven't had a recession. I doubt peoples' budgets have suddenly become
30% higher (only reason I could buy some is I sold some of my other stuff to
cover the cost). The two 3GB 580s I bought were in total 100 UKP less than the
cheapest 780 from the same seller (I probably could have eventually obtained
two 3GB 580s off eBay, but decided the chance to get them from a proper
retailer right now with warranty, etc. was too good to pass up).
Ian.
colonelclaw - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
Thanks for the reply, Ian. For some reason I'd totally forgotten about SLI. I'd be very interested to see the results of a 580 SLI vs. 780, and I suspect a few other readers here would too. One thing, how closely matched do the two cards have to be? Exactly the same model? Just the same clock speeds? Or is it more forgiving? I can't imagine it would be very easy to track down a 2nd identical 580, which is the reason I ask. If any Anand readers with knowledge of SLIing can share their experiences that would be great.shompa - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Memory... How many games are 64bit? = How many games needs more then 4gig memory? Today zero. It was even more fun when most PCs had BIOS. It cant even address that much graphic memory.Maybe 64bit gaming will be mainstream in a year? I don't know. I sure seems to take its time. I have used 64 bit in my work since 1995 (real computers) and 64bit on my mac since 2002. (OSX 10.27 Smeagol). Gaming/Windows takes its time since Windows don't have smart software packaging. (real computers have the same binary for 32/64bit, different languages and even different architectures. I loved when Apple had "fat binaries" and everything could run on both PPC and X86. Gives the customer a choice of architecture.)
SymphonyX7 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Looks more like a GTX 680 Plus. The gains over the year-old GTX 680 and HD 7970 Ghz edition are measly and power efficiency was thrown in as an afterthought.I'll wait for the HD 8950 and HD 8970 or whatever they'll call it before I make a decision. I suppose it's worth the wait considering what implications the new PS4 and Xbox One will have on game development and their impact on PC ports performance-wise.
kwrzesien - Monday, June 24, 2013 - link
4GB models have appeared at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...Colin.B - Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - link
I just ordered the Gigabyte GTX 770, sold one of my 660 SCs for 160 dollars and am returning the one I just bought. Will I see a big performance drop from 660 SLI to the 770 at 2560x1440? I hope I made the right choice :/