NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 Review: The $400 Fight
by Ryan Smith on May 30, 2013 9:00 AM ESTThe 2GB Question & The Test
Before diving into our test results, I wanted to spend a moment mulling over NVIDIA’s choice for the default memory configuration on GTX 770. Due to the use of a 256bit bus on GK104, NVIDIA limits their practical memory choices to either 2GB of RAM or 4GB. A year ago this was fine even if it wasn’t as large as AMD’s 3GB memory pool, but that was after all a year ago.
Not unlike where we are with 1GB/2GB on mainstream ($150+) cards, we’re at a similar precipice with these enthusiast class cards. Having 2GB of RAM doesn’t impose any real problems today, but I’m left to wonder for how much longer that’s going to be true. The wildcard in all of this will be the next-generation consoles, each of which packs 8GB of RAM, which is quite a lot of RAM for video operations even after everything else is accounted for. With most PC games being ports of console games, there’s a decent risk of 2GB cards being undersized when used with high resolutions and the highest quality art assets. The worst case scenario is only that these highest quality assets may not be usable at playable performance, but considering the high performance of every other aspect of GTX 770 that would be a distinct and unfortunate bottleneck.
The solution for better or worse is doubling the GTX 770 to 4GB. GTX 770 is capable of housing 4GB, and NVIDIA’s partners will be selling 4GB cards in the near future, so 4GB cards will at least be an option. The price premium for 4GB of RAM looks to be around $20-$30, and I expect that will come down some as 4Gb chips start to replace 2Gb chips. 4GB would certainly make the GTX 770 future-proof in that respect, and I suspect it’s a good idea for anyone on a long upgrade cycle, but as always this is a bit of a gamble.
Though I can’t help but feel NVIDIA could have simply sidestepped the whole issue by making 4GB the default, rather than an optional upgrade. As it stands 2GB feels shortsighted, and for a $400 card, a bit small. Given the low cost of additional RAM, a 4GB baseline likely would have been bearable.
The Test
For today’s launch article we’re using NVIDIA’s 320.18 drivers for the GTX 780 and GTX 770, , and AMD’s Catalyst 13.5b2 drivers for all AMD cards.
| CPU: | Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4.3GHz |
| Motherboard: | EVGA X79 SLI |
| Power Supply: | Antec True Power Quattro 1200 |
| Hard Disk: | Samsung 470 (256GB) |
| Memory: | G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1867 4 x 4GB (8-10-9-26) |
| Case: | Thermaltake Spedo Advance |
| Monitor: | Samsung 305T |
| Video Cards: |
AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition AMD Radeon HD 7990 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan |
| Video Drivers: |
NVIDIA ForceWare 320.14 NVIDIA ForceWare 320.18 AMD Catalyst 13.5 Beta 2 |
| OS: | Windows 8 Pro |
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ninjaquick - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Delta Percentages: The 7990 just needs to be removed, it skews the whole chart way too much.Brainling - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
It's a nice card, but not nice enough for me to upgrade my 670. If it had been a slightly more paired down GK110, I would have considered it...but the performance gains are just not enough to justify replacing my 670 (which still has little trouble with most games).I'll spend my computing dollar on going from Sandy Bridge -> Haswell instead, and wait for the eventual 800 series sometime next year (which should be a new micro architecture).
The0ne - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
"... the rest of the year will be a battle of prices and bundles."Can't wait.
Runadumb - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Firstly Thank you for the detailed review.Right, I could pull the trigger on two of these (when they come out with 4GB versions) as they are 85%+ above my current 2x570GTX's. Thanks for having 570's in the results by the way.
My BIG question is: Is the proper next-gen cards still due early next year or is this all we've got for the next 18 months? The rumour mill is fine here.
As I run 3 displays and a 6000x1080p resolution I literally can never have too much performance. So if waiting until next year meant I get a better upgrade I'm happy to do it. This system can just about keep me going right now.
I may abandon the 3 screen setup for a consumer version Oculus Rift but how long away is that? I want to hedge my bets.
jwcalla - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
I think Maxwell is going to be more like mid-2014. It seems aggressive though... a new architecture, a shrink to 20nm and they're shoe-horning a 64-bit ARM chip in there. Lots of opportunities for delays IMO. But it might be a wise idea to wait... NVIDIA is promising (read: take with a grain of salt) 3x "GFLOPS per watt" over Kepler, and about 7-8x over Fermi. It's hard to predict how that will scale into performance though.Ryan Smith - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
It would be historically accurate to state that NVIDIA typically releases new architectures on new nodes, and that both Maxwell and TSMC 20nm are scheduled for 2014. When in 2014 is currently something only NVIDIA could tell you.But I would say this: consider this the half-time show. This is the mid-generation refresh, so we're roughly half-way between the launch of Kepler and Maxwell.
araczynski - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Hopefully by the time I replace my aging E8500/6970 system (which still plays everything I care about pretty well at 1080p) with a haswell, this thing will have a 4GB option so i can make another long lasting rig.xdesire - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Ok i see that this is an overclocked/tweaked GTX 680 but what in the hell is that TDP?!HEADHUNTERZ! - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Soooo...where does the GTX 670 FTW compare to the GTX 770!? Theyre both the same price! So which one would be a better decision to make?JPForums - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
They won't be priced the same for long. Unfortunately, I just can't see a GTX670FTW beating a GTX770 (especially with a factory overclock). I wonder if there is enough overclocking headroom for a GTX770FTW.