The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti and GTX 750 Review: Maxwell Makes Its Move
by Ryan Smith & Ganesh T S on February 18, 2014 9:00 AM ESTHTPC Aspects : Miscellaneous Factors
In this section, we cover some miscellaneous HTPC aspects that are too short to warrant a separate section. These include a discussion of various display refresh rates supported, a short look at the hardware encoder (NVENC) in action and a summary of our thoughts on the GT 750Ti as a HTPC GPU.
Refresh Rate Accuracy:
NVIDIA provides an easy way to customize refresh rates. The process remains the same as what we explained in our review of the GT 640. The 23 Hz setting gives us a refresh rate of 23.971 Hz. With Intel providing rock-solid 23.976 Hz support in Haswell, it is time NVIDIA got the out-of-the-box refresh rate support correct.
NVIDIA also allows setting of refresh rates not reported as available by the display's EDID. On the Sony KDL46EX720, it allowed driving of 1080p50 without any issues. The flexibility is definitely appreciated, though it would be nice to have better accuracy without all the tweaking.
Hardware Encoder: NVENC
We used CyberLink MediaEspresso v6.7 to evaluate the hardware encoder block. Our test clip was a 3-minute long 1080p24 H.264 stream at 36 Mbps and the target was a 720p24 H.264 stream at 6 Mbps. The time taken for conversion and the power consumption at the wall during the conversion process are provided in the table below.
| GPU Video Encoding Performance | ||||||
| Conversion Time | Power | |||||
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti | 2:54 | 88.97W | ||||
| NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 | 0:36 | 108.18W | ||||
| AMD Radeon HD 7750 (VCE) | 1:06 | 76.84W | ||||
| Intel HD 4000 QuickSync (Better Quality/Fast Conversion) | 0:24 | 63.91W | ||||
It appears as if the 750Ti is using the CUDA path rather than NVENC, while the 640 seems to use NVENC fine. We had readied ourselves for some quality comparison using objective metrics for the new NVENC. It looks like we have to wait for this issue to be resolved before proceeding down that path. [Update: NVIDIA got back to us indicating that this is a Maxwell-related driver issue. We are waiting for new drivers]
HTPC Verdict - Wait and Watch
We have taken a look at the HTPC credentials of the 750Ti and compared it with the GT 640 and the HD 7750. In terms of power efficiency, it is hard not to recommend the 750Ti. With a 60W TDP, it is amenable to passive cooling also. However, it comes to the market at a time when the HEVC standard has just been ratified (preventing it from having a full-blown hardware accelerated decoder) and HDMI 2.0 with 4Kp60 support being right around the corner. The perfect HTPC GPU would include support for both, but the 750Ti, unfortunately, is a bit early to the game. More troublesome is the fact that CyberLink's MediaEspresso seems unable to take advantage of the new NVENC and the fact that some of our 1080p60 H.264 clips are showing decoding artifacts (considering they play perfectly using the GT 640).
We would suggest HTPC enthusiasts to adopt a wait-and-watch approach to the GT 750Ti, particularly with respect to driver bugs specific to the 750Ti and also the extent of HEVC decode support that will be available. Depending on the requirements, it might also be prudent to wait for a Maxwell GPU with HDMI 2.0 support.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
177 Comments
View All Comments
jukkie - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
I see the GTX 750 Ti as a direct competitor to the HD 7770, so why was AMD's card left out of the list?Hmmm...
Novaguy - Saturday, February 22, 2014 - link
I thought AMD's plan is to put the 7850/r7 265 up against the 750 Ti, not the 7770. The HD 7770 really isn't the direct competitor to the 750 Ti; it's usually had around $110. I would guess that if there's anything the HD 7770 competes against, it would be the upcoming 750.th3parasit3 - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
I'm still running a GTX460 768MB with an E8500 at stock (built in 2010), mind you my display is only 1650x1050. To me, Maxwell is a huge advancement -- not because of its ability to deliver great FPS at 1080p, but because of its power requirements, or lack thereof.AMD burned me on a faulty 5770, so I have much love for NVIDIAs driver support and performance boosts. Looks like after a four year holding pattern, 2014-15 is the year I upgrade my GPU and rebuild. Sign me up for a 750ti and a 860/870.
Grandal - Saturday, February 22, 2014 - link
These seem to be ready made Steam Box drop-ins to me. Will hit the thermal requirements at the perfect time to win the "reference" Steam Box GPU battle.Novaguy - Saturday, February 22, 2014 - link
Hmm, beyond using this to upgrade my oem boxes from radeon 7750's, I'll love to see this turned into a mid-range mobile card. 750 Ti downclocked for mobile (maybe this is the 850M/860M) would be a nice upgrade over 750M/755M and even possibly even the 760M/765M. It's already below the 75 W TDP those 760M/765M MXM cards call for....Novaguy - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
Just broke down and bought a 750 ti to upgrade from a 7750. Really nice, runs really cool. Definitely worth it for those of you who want to upgrade oem boxes without dealing with the psu, especially if you flip the 7750 at the usual places.dr_sn0w - Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - link
So, gurus, please tell me if the GTX 750 ti OC will support 4k resolution or not. Thanks.av30 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I really would have liked to see how the vanilla 750 performed in the HTPC environment in relation to the GT 640. Any chance of updating that section of the review?kamlesh - Wednesday, March 12, 2014 - link
I m realy curious about Tegra K1 and its succsessor... Leave K1 beside for a moment and see if gtx 750 having 512 cuda cores n draws 55W and gtx 750ti having 640 drws 60W then if u calculate maxwell's each cuda (veriably) draw 0.039W(if clocked at 1ghz or abov). Means if next Tegra uses 2smx of maxwell (256 cores) it might use only 4W (CONSIDERING 20NM AND ~600MHZ CLOCK GPU) and and max 5W with entire SoC.Gadgety - Saturday, March 22, 2014 - link
Yep me too. Specially the K1 successor, even though the K1 itself is barely out. GPU per watt likely to yield amazing mobile graphics.