GeForce GTX 750 Ti Review: Maxwell Adds Performance Using Less Power

[dragonsqrrl]

I do think that at this kind of price point is could have gone for a larger, blower style cooler with an HDMI and mini display port out to make room for the vent, since that's the kind of connections people are using more and more, and they allow room for venting quite nicely. This would have made the card a no-brainer for smaller systems.I'm also interested to see if any company will adapt this into a low-profile card, maybe with a passive cooler? It'd be great to see one so capable and it's well on the way to the required cool running already.

I don't think exhausting heat out the rear is that great of a concern for a 60W card.

Low-profile active cooler, or passive cooler. You'll have to choose, cause you're not going to get a low profile passive solution.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

edit2: where's the "unified virtual memory" mentioned in nvidia's gpu roadmap and how was it implemented in maxwell?

We're probably not going to see that until compute oriented big-Maxwell comes to market on 20nm.

 

[logainofhades]

I wonder how well these little guys fold? With such crazy low power consumption, these might just work for my file server. It can fold at night and game well enough, since that system doesn't play anything other than WoW most of the time. Wouldn't mind them as an upgrade for my HD 5850's and 4870's in my extra rigs. Less heat and power but still plenty capable is a win win. The first Nv card I have seriously considered in quite some time.

According to Anand's review it could be around the same as a GTX660 (non Ti).

honestly apart from memory management there nothing extravagant to justify the price. And near a GTX660? that "could be" is a very large word. Based solely on the specifications published u can see the specs are low, the memory management sure brings about a different type of memory handling but if you have PC2133 RAM lol what use is it to u? This card is targeted for low budget low level gaming again. This card will play stuff like bf4 and crysis 3 same as my HD 6790 maybe better Frames due to far newer tech. But in no way will it be able to run higher that medium specs without choking to death on its 60W draw. Why they did that memory mapping change, as mentioned is to reduce bottleneck so to define it, this card if not for that memory increase would bottleneck big time. It is a good card but for the price... NO WAY!!! Also that arma3 you realize that it pulls on PhysX which makes that arma3 an Nvidia optimized game which relistically as all Physx games favor nvidia.

I don't want this for my main rig. I would be crazy to swap my HD 7970 for one of these. I am talking my i5 2400 file server that is running an HD 5850 and my two FX 8320 rigs. One has an HD 5850 and the other has an HD 4870. :lol: My file server has normally been my folding rig, but I haven't folded on it for quite some time. These cards, with their low power consumption, intrigue me for folding all while being faster in games than what those systems are currently running. The only thing those systems really ever see is WoW. The file server sometimes is used for Skyrim by my nephew. This card would be a fair amount faster than your 6790. Even my HD 5850's are faster than a 6790. :lol: A 5850 is somewhere between an HD 7770 and 7790 for performance. These little guys are closer to HD 7850 and using far less power than anything I am using.

 

[h2323]

About as fast as a 265......mmm no. Closer to the 260. Toms hates Amd.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

Also,the reviewer goes on about the R7 265 being a 150W GPU and the GTX750TI being a 60W one??However,it seems he has not read his own article:http://media.bestofmicro.com/3/3/422607/original/06-Power-Consumption-Gaming.pngThe R9 270X and HD7870 are consuming under 130W,and the R7 265 is likely to consume less power if the HD7850 is anything to go by.Yes,the GTX750TI has decent performance for a bus powered card,but the reviewer seems to be overstating the power consumption of the R7 265 and understating its performance at the same time. Why??

Because those are the rated TDP's.

Also I have no idea how you come away from this thinking the 750 Ti merely has "decent" performance per W. The performance it offers at its rated TDP is unprecedented, all the more impressive considering it's still 28nm. You usually expect this sort of efficiency improvement out of a die shrink.

 

[cangelini]

something is clearly wrong with the way Toms benches litecoin performance. It is a well known fact around the web that 270 and 270x get well over 400kh/s while 265 being identical to 7850 should be getting 300+ without any overclocking. Can someone clear this up for me?

Using cgminer and recommended settings for each card--I've seen a lot of variance between my boards. I have some 290X cards that do 850ish kH/s and a dud that hovers around 700 at the same clocks and settings.

 

[EricJohn2004]

Loved the article, I've been waiting on this for about a month now. I'm VERT impressed by the compute potential of this card. It matches the GTX770(a 330$ card) in compute tasks. And it's amazing how a card with only 640 cores is matching a card with 768 cores with 50% faster memory. Makes me wonder if I can hold off on upgrading my 780 when the 880 comes out. Hopefully it's not THAT much faster. But I have a feeling it will be.But I think Tom's messed up ONE thing pretty badly. When your testing a card, your suppose to use graphics settings optimized for THAT card, so you can get realistic results of what a user might achieve with it. Not for the best card in the whole round up. This card only has a 128bit memory bus, yet Tom's used AA in almost every benchmark accept for Metro LL. And I can't even use SSAA in Metro LL with my 780, otherwise Tom's would have used it. Some of the benchmarks ran with 4xAA! Who in their right mind is going to be using 4xAA on a graphics card that doesn't even need a 6 pin plug?The memory subsystem on this card is it's main bottleneck. Why Tom's chose settings that would bottleneck that card I have no idea.It matches the 650Ti Boost right now, just think if it had a 192bit memory bus like the Boost does. It would be faster than the GTX660. Now that's impressive.Take this same card and benchmark it with no AA, or at the VERY most 2xAA if you REALLY need it, and watch this card move up those charts considerably. It would be ahead of the 650Ti Boost for sure, but still behind the 265x, but not by nearly as much.Using 4xAA on a 150$ card lol, that's not right. I use Ultra settings and 2xMSAA when I play Battlefield 4 on my GTX780@1920x1080. Yet he's using 2xMSAA and Ultra on this little spec of a graphics card. I just don't get it. At least use Ultra with no AA, or maybe High with 2xAA. The settings he did lower don't make a significant difference in performance anyways so IDK why he lowered those and left the rest high.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

The 750ti is selling for $199 here in Canada...Same price as the R9 270...Way too much for too little performance in comparison

Umm, really?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=gtx+750+ti&N=-1&isNodeId=1

I mean, it's going for over MSRP, but don't you think $199 is a bit of an exaggeration?

 

[childofthekorn]

Sweet hopefully AMD brings the competition to keep the price low and add additional options. Lookin good for the consumer.

 

[Blahman11]

And just as I bought a HD7850.. Never mind thats technology for you. That is a very good card in the 65watt package, and it's only on the 28nm package. That card will use a heck of a lot less on 20nm. We shall have to see what AMD will come up with to hit back, but to be honest I can see nvidia charging for that in the UK. AMD will cut their prices accordingly I reckon.

 

[ferooxidan]

This wattage and price.... you take one 7 from HD 7750 and transform that into a Ti then you get 750 Ti. loldo re mi fa so la Ti do.........good job Nvidia! now do something similar to 760 in mini from factor and it will be the perfect card for mini ITX build.

 

[Damon Palovaara]

Does that mean that the 750ti takes the crown for the fastest GPU using only Auxiliary power (taken from the 7750)

 

[Onus]

I agree with Sangeet on this one. I would have liked to have seen the HD7750 in this article, just to see how much more nVidia now offers with no power connector needed. A single-slot-width or low-profile version of this will add excellent gaming abilities to a small form factor or HTPC build. It will be interesting to see whether AMD can counter this, and how; and also where prices settle.

 

[Nilo BP]

Wonder when we can expect some power consumption improvements from AMD. Lord knows they need it.

 

[chituntang]

Can we see some SLI results? If the card is so good in power/performance ratio, then maybe matching AMD's power and see the performance gain?

 

[Lascar]

Also,the reviewer goes on about the R7 265 being a 150W GPU and the GTX750TI being a 60W one??However,it seems he has not read his own article:http://media.bestofmicro.com/3/3/422607/original/06-Power-Consumption-Gaming.pngThe R9 270X and HD7870 are consuming under 130W,and the R7 265 is likely to consume less power if the HD7850 is anything to go by.Yes,the GTX750TI has decent performance for a bus powered card,but the reviewer seems to be overstating the power consumption of the R7 265 and understating its performance at the same time. Why??

Because those are the rated TDP's.

Also I have no idea how you come away from this thinking the 750 Ti merely has "decent" performance per W. The performance it offers at its rated TDP is unprecedented, all the more impressive considering it's still 28nm. You usually expect this sort of efficiency improvement out of a die shrink.

Well again i cannot stress this more. "WAIT"!!!! The technology has barely been implemented. Soon like i said AMD will choke Nvidia as they always do with a better and less costly card. I bet you 100 bucks they will do that 2 months from the 750Ti and sell the card 120 something. AMD Always wins the price performance war no two ways around it.

 

[Lascar]

Can we see some SLI results? If the card is so good in power/performance ratio, then maybe matching AMD's power and see the performance gain?

This card as per specs will not have SLI capability, the company deems that it is not worth mentioning since this is not a card that is targeting enthusiasts. They probably will not even consider no link SLI.

 

[Lascar]

Loved the article, I've been waiting on this for about a month now. I'm VERT impressed by the compute potential of this card. It matches the GTX770(a 330$ card) in compute tasks. And it's amazing how a card with only 640 cores is matching a card with 768 cores with 50% faster memory. Makes me wonder if I can hold off on upgrading my 780 when the 880 comes out. Hopefully it's not THAT much faster. But I have a feeling it will be.But I think Tom's messed up ONE thing pretty badly. When your testing a card, your suppose to use graphics settings optimized for THAT card, so you can get realistic results of what a user might achieve with it. Not for the best card in the whole round up. This card only has a 128bit memory bus, yet Tom's used AA in almost every benchmark accept for Metro LL. And I can't even use SSAA in Metro LL with my 780, otherwise Tom's would have used it. Some of the benchmarks ran with 4xAA! Who in their right mind is going to be using 4xAA on a graphics card that doesn't even need a 6 pin plug?The memory subsystem on this card is it's main bottleneck. Why Tom's chose settings that would bottleneck that card I have no idea.It matches the 650Ti Boost right now, just think if it had a 192bit memory bus like the Boost does. It would be faster than the GTX660. Now that's impressive.Take this same card and benchmark it with no AA, or at the VERY most 2xAA if you REALLY need it, and watch this card move up those charts considerably. It would be ahead of the 650Ti Boost for sure, but still behind the 265x, but not by nearly as much.Using 4xAA on a 150$ card lol, that's not right. I use Ultra settings and 2xMSAA when I play Battlefield 4 on my GTX780@1920x1080. Yet he's using 2xMSAA and Ultra on this little spec of a graphics card. I just don't get it. At least use Ultra with no AA, or maybe High with 2xAA. The settings he did lower don't make a significant difference in performance anyways so IDK why he lowered those and left the rest high.

Realistically, you cannot do benchmarks without marking on the same level of comparison. It would be unfair to just say hey this is the 750TI its $150-200 its as good as a GTX660 or whatever.. "but" when u put AA on ur f....!! lol that would be totally silly.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

Can we see some SLI results? If the card is so good in power/performance ratio, then maybe matching AMD's power and see the performance gain?

It doesn't support SLI. Did you actually read the article, or look at any picture of a 750 Ti?

 

[jin_mtvt]

Nice work Nvidia on the power consumption... But that's it.Are we seriously going to discuss performance per W for a discrete ~150$ graphic card now? Then, i find it funny how lengthy and complete this article is compared to recent ones on AMD cards of similar offering..go figure!! Just to sum up for you ..Let's assume a 60W average difference with most other GPUS ( ~ 120W average VS 60W average here ) on a 4hours of gaming per day for 365 days @ 0.1$/KW/h .That's a hefy ~8$/year saved! Completely justifies the cost of this card!!! And don't get me started on how speding this energy during heating seasons void the argument.Don't get me wrong, i'm all for efficiency, but pushing performance per watt as the main selling point on a 150-200$ GPU ..MOUAHAHHA This cards needs to be at 125-14-$ selling point fast or only the "Green tinted" n00bs will buy it. Nvidia we need NEW stuff soon. I do also agree that if we can see partners 265 @ ~150$ ..forget everything within +- 20$ of this card. ( that is IF Newegg et all can stop artificially jacking prices of all USA/CANADA GPU market )

 

[dragonsqrrl]

Also,the reviewer goes on about the R7 265 being a 150W GPU and the GTX750TI being a 60W one??However,it seems he has not read his own article:http://media.bestofmicro.com/3/3/422607/original/06-Power-Consumption-Gaming.pngThe R9 270X and HD7870 are consuming under 130W,and the R7 265 is likely to consume less power if the HD7850 is anything to go by.Yes,the GTX750TI has decent performance for a bus powered card,but the reviewer seems to be overstating the power consumption of the R7 265 and understating its performance at the same time. Why??

Because those are the rated TDP's.

Also I have no idea how you come away from this thinking the 750 Ti merely has "decent" performance per W. The performance it offers at its rated TDP is unprecedented, all the more impressive considering it's still 28nm. You usually expect this sort of efficiency improvement out of a die shrink.

Well again i cannot stress this more. "WAIT"!!!! The technology has barely been implemented. Soon like i said AMD will choke Nvidia as they always do with a better and less costly card. I bet you 100 bucks they will do that 2 months from the 750Ti and sell the card 120 something. AMD Always wins the price performance war no two ways around it.

This response is so opinionated, and so unrelated to your previous comment, or my comment for that matter (which I'm assuming you're responding to) that I'm not even sure what to make of it.

I guess you could argue in a very general generational sense that AMD tends to offer the better value, speaking strictly in terms of price to performance ratios. But to say that AMD "always" wins can be so easily countered that I'm not sure why even the most adamant of AMD fanboy's would go through the trouble, and resulting humiliation of making such a claim, especially now.

When arguing with fanboys...

 

[xiinc37]

Jesus... It's like Fermi vs. Evergreen all over again, except completely backwards! I'm very interested to see what AMD will produce to attempt to counter this.

 

[dark_maggot]

I have a really old PC and right now a full upgrade is out of the question.Would this card work with my ASUS M2A-VM motherboard? I have a 9800 GT right now.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

Then, i find it funny how lengthy and complete this article is compared to recent ones on AMD cards of similar offering..go figure!!

Well, there are a few slight differences. For one they're covering a new GPU of a new architecture, whereas some of the recent AMD cards you're referring to were pure rebrands.

I do also agree that if we can see partners 265 @ ~150$

Which doesn't seem likely. Forgive my pessimism, but I think it's warranted.

..forget everything within +- 20$ of this card.

Including ~half of AMD's lineup?

 

[knowom]

Might have to get one of these in the future to go with my undervolted & underclocked 0.752 V E7200 still using IGP with it finally a low wattage GPU that really performs.