NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Review: The New Enthusiast Kepler
by Ryan Smith on June 25, 2013 9:00 AM ESTFar Cry 3
The next game in our benchmark suite is Far Cry 3, Ubisoft’s island-jungle action game. A lot like our other jungle game Crysis, Far Cry 3 can be quite tough on GPUs, especially with MSAA and improved alpha-to-coverage checking thrown into the mix. On the other hand it’s still a bit of a pig on the CPU side, and seemingly inexplicably we’ve found that it doesn’t play well with HyperThreading on our testbed, making this the only game we’ve ever had to disable HT for to maximize our framerates.
With Far Cry 3 we’re back to a game where the GTX 760 has a clear lead, surpassing the 7950B by an unexpected 28% at our highest 1080p settings. However 41.5fps is less than idea for an action game like Far Cry 3, so we have to drop the MSAA to take a crack at 60fps. Even then, the GTX 760 leads by 14%.
This also happens to be another great example of the ROP difference between GTX 760 and GTX 660 Ti. With MSAA enabled the GTX 760 takes a clear lead, but without MSAA the two cards are practically tied.
Meanwhile Far Cry 3 is also another strong example of the performance gap between the GTX 760 and cards 2-3 years old. GTX 760 leaves those older cards in the dust by anywhere between 77% for the GTX 560 Ti and 6870, up to 138% for the GTX 460 1GB. CPU performance may have plateaued over the last half-decade, but thanks to the embarrassingly parallel nature of graphics, we continue to see massive gains over a whole generation.
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YukaKun - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
And where's my beloved GTX670?! Are you guys hiding something here that nVidia doesn't want me to see?No, but really; I know it's not it's direct replacement, but I'd really like to see the numbers how they stack up.
Cheers!
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
The GTX 670 is in all of our charts. All of this data is also on Bench.YukaKun - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Yeah, just realized it is... I wonder why I didn't see it, lol.Selective reading at its finest indeed.
Thanks Ryan!
HisDivineOrder - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
AMD is now saying the Never Settle Reloaded bundle is running out at retailers. That means, you should be mentioning that it isn't going to last much longer and doesn't really factor into the value of the 7950/7950B unless they decide to renew it.I suspect though they'll do a price drop soon.
DanNeely - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
I'd expect them to create a new bundle instead.kallogan - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Too big, barely better than 660 ti at higher power consumption. What's the point ?MrSpadge - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Too big: there will loads of custom coolers, just like on the current cards. Shorter ones as well.barely better than 660 ti at higher power consumption: the additional performance is approximately proportional to the added power draw, so efficiency hardly suffers. Of course I'll stick with my OC'ed 660Ti, but this newcomer is just more balanced for everything but the most pure compute tasks.
What's the point: cheaper for nVidia to produce (one SMX less) and sold cheaper. It's a win-win.
jimwatkins - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
I suppose this is of little interest to most readers, but since your doing computer performance, how about a bitcoin GH performance chart. Video cards are actually of waning value in the bitcoin arms race but it's an interesting aspect of compute performance nonetheless and the high end AMD cards certainly still produce value.dcianf - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
I'm excited to see them maintain compatibility with my 660Ti/670 full card waterblock. PLEASE LET THIS BE A NEW STANDARD!JimmiG - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Well it's hotter, more power hungry and louder than the GTX 670 while still being slower, which is kind of disappointing for something that's supposed to be an evolution of the GTX 600 series. Still, it does feel like "GTX 660 Done Right" in some ways, as that card was always too slow, forcing people to pay $400 for the GTX 670.It's sad that prices have been creeping up so much without people noticing. $499 used to be the "ultra-enthusiast" segment, and $199 would buy you a very decent card. In 2012 and early 2013, $400 was the "mid-range" and $999 the "ultra high-end". GTX 760 brings the mid-range back to $250 again, at least until the GTX 860 come out at $499...