NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Review: The New Enthusiast Kepler
by Ryan Smith on June 25, 2013 9:00 AM ESTMeet the GeForce GTX 760
As we mentioned earlier, due to its 170W TDP the GTX 760 is essentially a drop-in replacement for the GTX 670 in board designs. Even NVIDIA’s reference design reflects this, with the reference GTX 760 being based on the reference GTX 670’s cooler and PCB. Consequently there’s not much to say about the GTX 760’s design that we haven’t said before. If you’ve seen a GTX 670 then you’ve seen a GTX 760, down to the last screw. For consistency we’ll quickly go over the GTX 760’s design, but this is generally a rehash of what we’ve already said about the GTX 670.
Like GTX 670 before it, GTX 760 is another “small” GK104 design. The complete card is 9.5” long, however the actual PCB is far shorter at only 6.75” long, 3.75” shorter than the GTX 770’s PCB. In fact it would be fair to say that rather than strapping a cooler onto a card, NVIDIA strapped a card onto a cooler. Meanwhile we see that once again NVIDIA is using Hynix R0C (6GHz) GDDR5 RAM here.
The cooler itself is fairly simple, utilizing an aluminum heatsink melded with a copper base plate. A separate heatsink covers the VRM circuitry – once again mounted at the front of the card – while the fan hangs off of the rear of the card. This unfortunately is the same fan as on the GTX 670, which means it makes a faint grinding sound at low RPMs. This design has proven more than adequate for the GTX 670s, though it does leave some room for NVIDIA’s partners to improve on overall cooling performance, especially with open air coolers.
Elsewhere at the top of the card we’ll find the PCIe power sockets and SLI connectors. Two 6-pin PCIe sockets provide the necessary external power, while a pair of SLI bridge connectors at the other end allow for up to 3-way SLI. NVIDIA’s standard I/O configuration also makes an appearance here, offering 2x DL-DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 1.2.
Looking at clockspeed bins for a moment, it comes as no great surprise that like the GTX 770, the GTX 760 operates at 1.2v at its highest stock clockspeed bin. The higher voltage versus the 1.76v limit on the 600 series causes power consumption to jump up more rapidly at the highest bins, but is necessary to unlock the 1100MHz+ clockspeeds the card is capable of.
| GeForce Clockspeed Bins | ||||
| Clockspeed | GTX 770 | GTX 760 | ||
| 1162MHz | N/A | 1.212v | ||
| 1149MHz | 1.212v | 1.2v | ||
| 1136MHz | 1.2v | 1.187v | ||
| 1123MHz | 1.187v | 1.162v | ||
| 1110MHz | 1.162v | 1.15v | ||
| 1097MHz | 1.15v | 1.137v | ||
| 1084MHz | 1.137v | 1.125v | ||
| 1071MHz | 1.125v | 1.112v | ||
| 1058MHz | 1.112v | 1.1v | ||
| 1045MHz | 1.1v | 1.087v | ||
Finaly, for overclockers there is one further bin (1162MHz) available via overvolting to 1.212v. The maximum power target meanwhile is 115%, for a final power limit of 195W.
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Aditya211935 - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
I guess I m a bit early.A5 - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Looks pretty solid for the price.Samus - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
I feel like an idiot buying a 660Ti two months ago for $300. At least I got the 3GB version that'll be "somewhat" future-proof for BF4 as the maps are expected to tax 2GB cards.gamoniac - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
Don't look back. You can only make your decision based on the information you had and your needs at the time. If you could look just 2 minutes ahead, you would be a billionaire now and wouldn't be participating in this conversation.just4U - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
this is essentially a cheaper 670.. coming it at or below the price of the 660TI. I don't see your purchase as being one of those you think $*!@! over. Hah. Your card is a bit slower but not noticeably so and the added ram may benefit you down the road.Hixbot - Wednesday, June 26, 2013 - link
A cheaper, and slower 670. So not really a 670 at all.just4U - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - link
I'd agree.. although pricing here is 275-300.. Don't see any at 249. The 7950 is 300.. They will have to lower that down a tiny bit to be competitive I think, take a small hit in performance (but more ram possible benefit later?) and their games bundle the trade off for consumers should be about equal.Lovolt - Wednesday, June 26, 2013 - link
Not sure where 'here' is, but newegg has 3 models at $250 and another 6 at $260 (on June 26).just4U - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
Calgary Canada.. We have a newegg.ca but it's not as good as your newegg I think that's to do with taxation and not having a actual warehouse here.ericore - Tuesday, July 2, 2013 - link
No, they have warehouses in Canada; if you've ever ordered a big order you'd realize this since not everything ships at once; comes from different warehouses in Vancouver, Mississauga and several others. They charge us more because they can, but only charge more on certain items so that we can't revolt. Generally the can prices are very close to the US ones, but the odd time they are significantly more. Processing and taxes are also cheaper in the US, but we do get the crappy end of the stick at times. There was a specialty motherboard, on newegg.com this was 100, and newegg.ca this was 150; can't remember the model.