The GeForce GTX 760 Roundup: Gigabyte and EVGA Compared
by Ryan Smith on October 7, 2013 2:00 PM ESTFinal Words
Wrapping up this roundup, if GK104 is NVIDIA’s workhorse GPU for this generation, then it’s GTX 760 that is the company’s workhorse video card for enthusiast gamers. It’s well suited for common 1080p monitors, possessing enough power to run most games at near-maximum settings while not reaching ridiculous prices or power consumption levels. It’s for that reason of course that NVIDIA’s partners put out so many variations on the product, as while it’s not necessarily a product line that earns a lot of prestige it’s a product line that’s the bread and butter of their enthusiast offerings.
For that cards we’ve looked at today, Gigabyte’s GTX 770 OC Windforce 3X and EVGA’s GTX 760 Superclocked ACX, we’ve seen both companies take their shot at carving out part of that GTX 760 market for themselves. Though they’re basing their cards on similar design principles – custom boards with open air coolers – as it turns out these cards ended up being more dissimilar than we would have expected based on specifications alone. In this case however that’s less “separate but equal” and more of a one-sided victory for a single party.
As far as gaming performance is concerned the cards are effectively tied, thanks to their near identical factory overclocks. Despite the magnitude of the overclocks however it’s hard to argue that they amount to much in this case; without an equivalent memory bandwidth bump the performance just doesn’t materialize. Granted, 4% better performance is something we’ll gladly take any day of the week, it’s just going to be difficult to justify spending anything extra for it given the limited benefits.
Turning to cooling performance however we have found that Gigabyte’s GTX 760OC is consistently outperforming EVGA’s 760SC ACX on power consumption, temperatures, and noise. It draws less power, operates at a lower temperature, and achieves such effective cooling with less noise generated in the process. By slapping on their full size Windforce 3X cooler Gigabyte has essentially overbuilt their GTX 760OC, but there’s no arguing with the effectiveness of the result. The only drawback here will be Gigabyte’s $10 premium in a crowded market.
EVGA for their part puts up a good fight here, but their 760SC ACX just doesn’t have what it takes to keep up with Gigabyte’s cooling performance. With that said the 760SC still puts in a solid performance for an open air cooler, and it does so in a more compact 9.5 inch size that will no doubt prove useful for smaller cases. EVGA for their part is currently only charging $249 for the card, at-MSRP for the GTX 760 despite the factory overclock, which in this case is likely the right move given the stiff competition.
Hardware aside, on the software and support side EVGA will still have the edge. Gigabyte’s OC Guru II software and 3 year warranty are perfectly adequate, but they will fall short of EVGA’s excellent Precision X software and the options EVGA makes available for extended warranties and stepping up to other EVGA cards. Consequently a choice between the two will ultimately come down to Gigabyte’s acoustic advantage, or EVGA’s slightly lower price and value added features.
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hags2k - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
I like the design of the GB card and really do think it's superior, but I've grown to really love EVGA's software package and have made use of their transferable warranty twice already - the "added value" really is value in this case. It's a tough call!Subyman - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
I have a MSI TF 760 and couldn't be happier. I compared them all when they first came out and the MSI and GB were the quietest and coolest. I was very pleased with the quality especially considering the price. Would live to see the MSI represented.Teizo - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
Not sure why you guys didn't include the MSI 760 Gaming, or the ASUS Direct CU. I guess you didn't have them on hand.ShieTar - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Since the 760 is showing consistently >80% of the performance of a 770, at 60% of the cost, and since NVIDIAs drivers seem to handle framepacing in SLI mode quiet well now, I would really love to see some performance tests for a set of 760s in SLI. Could you please add those tests?Impulses - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Yeah SLI 760s seem like a terrific value, faster than any single card by a good margin and cost effective enough as to make the 770 a bit irrelevant... I'm trying to decide whether to get two 760s, as an upgrade from my 6970 x2 setup, or save up for 780 x2...Nfarce - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Guru3D has just such an animal of a review dating from this past June. Just Google "GeForce GTX 760 SLI" and you'll see the link right up there at the top two or three links that come up. The only downside is they don't review all the games (no BF3, no Crysis 3, no Far Cry 3 specifically). But it beats the Titan in Tomb Raider & Bioshock Infinite by 13-18% at 2560x1440. Very nice bang for the buck.idiot consumer - Sunday, October 13, 2013 - link
It is nice to see new gear coming out BUT:There are probably 50% of nvidia card owners with famous: "video driver stopped responding and has recovered"
There is no cure nor solution from nvidia or micro$oft.
The only solution is to buy new card until it happens again.
Forums all over the world are full of complaints.
How come that mayor reviewers like AnandTech could not care less?
Galidou - Sunday, October 13, 2013 - link
If they start to cover driver issues, both company wouldn't want their video card reviewed. The point here is to show the performance, not the possibility of various bugs/problems unless they're critical, BUT:I have a gtx 660ti for a year now and the problem has cursed me for a long time. It is/was worse in some games. I fixed part of it going to an earlier driver. I had a 6870 + 6850 in crossfire(I thought if I had any problem with crossfire I could disable it and play with the 6870) and never had a trouble with them, EVER.
idiot consumer - Sunday, October 13, 2013 - link
If they start to cover driver issues, both company wouldn't want their video card reviewed. The point here is to show the performance, not the possibility of various bugs/problems unless they're critical,Considering that nvidia suffered class lawsuit - in US only - unfortunatelly and has settled it confirms that issues are critical.
Good old days of excellent nvidia cards have gone forever.
I shall never buy from nvidia anymore.
Ryan Smith - Monday, October 14, 2013 - link
We report on things we see first hand and things we can reproduce. And right now we can't reproduce any NVIDIA driver stability issues (and not for a lack of trying).