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

[Someone Somewhere]

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.

That would be a waste. A STOCK E7200 will bottleneck it in some cases. Underclocked that far would be totally pointless

As in Nvidia architectures prior, ROP partitions and L2 cache slices are aligned. And like the GeForce GTX 650 Ti’s GK106 processor, GM107 sports two partitions with eight units each, giving you up to 16 32-bit integer pixels per clock. Where the two GPUs really diverge is their L2 cache capacity. In GK106, you were looking at 128 KB per slice, adding up to 256 KB in an implementation with two ROP partitions. GM107 appears to wield 1 MB per slice, yielding 2 MB of memory used for servicing load, store, and texture requests. According to Nvidia, this translates to a significant load shifted away from the external memory system, along with notable power savings.

Going easy on memory bandwidth is smart, since GM107 exposes a pair of 64-bit memory controllers to which 1 or 2 GB of 1350 MHz GDDR5 DRAM is attached. Peak throughput is, interestingly, exactly what we got from GeForce GTX 650 Ti: 86.4 GB/s. The memory is feeding fewer CUDA cores, but they’re managed more efficiently. So, the big L2 is supposed to play an instrumental role in preventing a bottleneck.

That is just all fine and dandy but that doesn't change the fact a 1 GHz CPU doesn't have chance with keeping up with even a low end card

wait what!!!! 1ghz, dude core 2 DUO E7200 is not 1GHZ. Go look at specs before saying those random stuff.

Note where it says underclocked and undervolted, and the CPU-Z validator saying 995MHz.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/fullimage.php?image=10725
According to benchmarks this CPU does not bottleneck a HD 7770 i don't see why it would bottleneck this card. But i'd rather let that up to CPU experts. But i am pretty confident in what i was saying, it will most certainly not bottleneck the 750Ti.

If it were running stock clocks, it would be marginal to OK. However, if you look at the CPU-Z image, you'll see it's at 995MHz. That's not stock clocks.

 

[Haravikk]

I disagree. DVI is still the port of choice.
HDMI really has no advantage and is designed for televisions not computers.
I really don't have anything readily available with a native HDMI or displayport and I know I am
not the only one.

I mean mostly in terms of the size it takes up on the card itself; adaptors to DVI are easy to get ahold of if you need them, and it wouldn't cost much for a card manufacturer to bundle at least one. There's also mini DVI as an option; I just think that if you're going to make a card nice and small then it should be designed for more space constrained environments rather than simply the budget segment, and blower style coolers are much better for such systems.

 

[Lascar]

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.

That would be a waste. A STOCK E7200 will bottleneck it in some cases. Underclocked that far would be totally pointless

As in Nvidia architectures prior, ROP partitions and L2 cache slices are aligned. And like the GeForce GTX 650 Ti’s GK106 processor, GM107 sports two partitions with eight units each, giving you up to 16 32-bit integer pixels per clock. Where the two GPUs really diverge is their L2 cache capacity. In GK106, you were looking at 128 KB per slice, adding up to 256 KB in an implementation with two ROP partitions. GM107 appears to wield 1 MB per slice, yielding 2 MB of memory used for servicing load, store, and texture requests. According to Nvidia, this translates to a significant load shifted away from the external memory system, along with notable power savings.

Going easy on memory bandwidth is smart, since GM107 exposes a pair of 64-bit memory controllers to which 1 or 2 GB of 1350 MHz GDDR5 DRAM is attached. Peak throughput is, interestingly, exactly what we got from GeForce GTX 650 Ti: 86.4 GB/s. The memory is feeding fewer CUDA cores, but they’re managed more efficiently. So, the big L2 is supposed to play an instrumental role in preventing a bottleneck.

That is just all fine and dandy but that doesn't change the fact a 1 GHz CPU doesn't have chance with keeping up with even a low end card

wait what!!!! 1ghz, dude core 2 DUO E7200 is not 1GHZ. Go look at specs before saying those random stuff.

Note where it says underclocked and undervolted, and the CPU-Z validator saying 995MHz.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/fullimage.php?image=10725
According to benchmarks this CPU does not bottleneck a HD 7770 i don't see why it would bottleneck this card. But i'd rather let that up to CPU experts. But i am pretty confident in what i was saying, it will most certainly not bottleneck the 750Ti.

If it were running stock clocks, it would be marginal to OK. However, if you look at the CPU-Z image, you'll see it's at 995MHz. That's not stock clocks.

Yes i reedited my response after taking a careful look at the CPU degrading settings lol. Maybe i didn't take much notice but why undervolt and underclock the CPU? Why not use advanced cpu profile to manage clocks which can be switched later to more where needed thats what i do on my 1090T. I switch to 800-1600Mhz 67W when im on mild usage.

 

[average joe]

Again still people are not even taking time to look in front at all i mean seriously at all. Stop comparing new tech to rebrands. AMD is fucked? where? They just have to implement new tech all the same. AMD always does this, wait for nvidia to release something good and expensive, then step up their tech and release at lower price

I was disappointed in the Kaveri and upset that AMD dumped the FX series to make APU's exclusively. But I love me 7770 which played pretty good at 1080 and they always had the better price. What Maxwell seems to be at first glance is a major game changer. Like the Core 2 Duo on the processor side. This thing is better performance per watt than anything AMD has to offer. So they are being squeezed from both sides. The CPU side is abysmal vs Intel. AMD shugs it off because of the IGPU advantage which is not growing but shrinking with Intel. AMD then claims its focus on portables and tablets not desktops. The Samsung and Nvidia Tegra 4 in the tablet space it clobbering them. AMD shrugs this off because they have the GPU market value play. Well unless they start selling R9 270's for $149.99 instead of 239.99 they aren't that good a deal anymore. I don't know what the CEO is doing but you can't survive turning out 2 tier product in every category you compete in. This thing and an i3 in a tablet would destroy an A10 and the battery would last twice as long.

About that, kaveri is new APU update. But if u followed the FM2+ path, u would notice that they discontinued AM3+ to make all future chips FM2+ not completely dissolving the CPU only chip. They have not yet entered production phase probably still planning new architecture

No they actually announced they are no longer going to make the FX series and are abandoning their most ardent supporters to become a mediocre tablet cpu company..

 

[silverblue]

Well done NVIDIA. At 60W, I'd be tempted to have one myself. Making a card go fast is one thing, but doing so at such frugal levels is far more meaningful especially if electricity isn't cheap.

 

[average joe]

There is low power performance and there is headroom. What makes this chip so exciting is how cool running it is at 900mhz. Overclocked to 1050mhz it has 20 Cecilius of thermal headroom to use. It the same idea Intel used when it came out with the Core 2 technology. Core 2 was Intels first chip designed from the bottom up. They made the mobile chip first and up scaled to the desktop and extreme versions. the first core 2's were 60 watts and air cooling cooling could take them from 2 ghz to 4 or 4.5 ghz without and trouble. This chip could prob run at 2 ghz without the locked multiplier. The 20nm version could make it to 4 I bet.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

There is low power performance and there is headroom. What makes this chip so exciting is how cool running it is at 900mhz. Overclocked to 1050mhz it has 20 Cecilius of thermal headroom to use. It the same idea Intel used when it came out with the Core 2 technology. Core 2 was Intels first chip designed from the bottom up. They made the mobile chip first and up scaled to the desktop and extreme versions. the first core 2's were 60 watts and air cooling cooling could take them from 2 ghz to 4 or 4.5 ghz without and trouble. This chip could prob run at 2 ghz without the locked multiplier. The 20nm version could make it to 4 I bet.

That might be a little optomistic. By memory, there's something like a cube law between frequency and power required - double the frequency, eight times the power.

 

[Nossy]

That's cool. Now make me a low profile version...

 

[DryCreamer]

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

We might not see it until the flagship, or mobile versions... :/

Dry

 

[Lascar]

Again still people are not even taking time to look in front at all i mean seriously at all. Stop comparing new tech to rebrands. AMD is fucked? where? They just have to implement new tech all the same. AMD always does this, wait for nvidia to release something good and expensive, then step up their tech and release at lower price

I was disappointed in the Kaveri and upset that AMD dumped the FX series to make APU's exclusively. But I love me 7770 which played pretty good at 1080 and they always had the better price. What Maxwell seems to be at first glance is a major game changer. Like the Core 2 Duo on the processor side. This thing is better performance per watt than anything AMD has to offer. So they are being squeezed from both sides. The CPU side is abysmal vs Intel. AMD shugs it off because of the IGPU advantage which is not growing but shrinking with Intel. AMD then claims its focus on portables and tablets not desktops. The Samsung and Nvidia Tegra 4 in the tablet space it clobbering them. AMD shrugs this off because they have the GPU market value play. Well unless they start selling R9 270's for $149.99 instead of 239.99 they aren't that good a deal anymore. I don't know what the CEO is doing but you can't survive turning out 2 tier product in every category you compete in. This thing and an i3 in a tablet would destroy an A10 and the battery would last twice as long.

About that, kaveri is new APU update. But if u followed the FM2+ path, u would notice that they discontinued AM3+ to make all future chips FM2+ not completely dissolving the CPU only chip. They have not yet entered production phase probably still planning new architecture

No they actually announced they are no longer going to make the FX series and are abandoning their most ardent supporters to become a mediocre tablet cpu company..

Oh nono like i said up ther, they are not dropping everything. The fx lineup maybe coming to EOL, but as i said they are planning new arch to FM2+ and Future probable FM3 etc, thats what they meant by unifying the architecture. No longer APU one side, Processor alone other side, performance this no L3 this etc etc. They will just make 1 type of processor just like intel does.

 

[logainofhades]

So in AMD terms this thing performs like a 7790 with the power draw of a 7750 without a die shrink. That's impressive. AMD is screwed, they quit making FX processors and an I3 with this in a laptop is going to rape the Kaveri.

Actually, it was closer to a 7850 in terms of performance.

 

[logainofhades]

Apparently there are some GTX 750's out in the wild now. Can we expect a review of those as well? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121854

 

[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.

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...

AMD always wins the price performance competition... If nvidia beat AMD on price performance i would totally buy but it never happens and it never will.

Umm, not sure if you got this earlier (I guess I was being a little vague) but it's sort of happening right now. It's also happened many times in the past...

I'm also ready to get back on the original topic, whenever you're done trolling.

Huh! nevermind the childish retort then, If for you price performance is not a factor when dealing with graphic cards then by all means suit yourself. I do not wish to discuss price performance matter with someone who owns a gtx 480 and sees only performance.

I guess that's it then...

Although I will say a few things. You realize you diverted to the whole price performance discussion, right?

You seem to be under the assumption that I bought that GTX480 at or around MSRP. Not sure why you would assume that. But even if I had, I'm not sure why you think I paid twice as much for it compared to what AMD could give me...

Also I apologize for the tone of my previous comment, but you seemed to be unaware of (or indifferent to) the fact that you were contradicting yourself. But looking at it from your perspective I guess that wouldn't matter much to me either.

You really should be careful about making blanket statements, like assuming I only value performance simply because I own a 480, or asserting that AMD is always the better value, without actually knowing how much I paid for my card or having any way of backing up what you're saying.

Excuse me pal but who pointed fingers first? and talked about AMD fanboy etc, im not an AMD fanboy, i just stated a fact and it turned into fanboy stuff. I have owned 2 Nvidia cards and 2 ATI cards. ATI always beat Nvidia in PPR.

 

[rush21hit]

60watt and deliver 1080p? My jaw just dropped :OAt $150 level of performance somewhat persist and that crazy low power, it would shine gloriously on the entry level gaming builds, really.Unless AMD reacts something about this soon, this card would become my main option for sub $150.*time to upgrade my 7750 I bought at launch at about the same price as this

 

[west7]

great card but 150$ is to much for this performance

 

[Onus]

So in AMD terms this thing performs like a 7790 with the power draw of a 7750 without a die shrink. That's impressive...

Agreed. It does a lot more with less, and that is never a bad thing.

Well done NVIDIA. At 60W, I'd be tempted to have one myself. Making a card go fast is one thing, but doing so at such frugal levels is far more meaningful especially if electricity isn't cheap.

...which leads to this.
I've got a very small build that just doesn't quite have as much "oomph" to it as I'd like for some of my games; it has a low-profile HD7750 in it. A low-profile version of the GTX750Ti is a no-brainer for that build, and will make it viable for everything I run at "good" (not just "acceptable") settings.

 

[lowguppy]

Can't wait for a low profile version. Finally, nVidia seems to care about this space, which should push AMD to update and improve its 7750.

 

[silverblue]

Again still people are not even taking time to look in front at all i mean seriously at all. Stop comparing new tech to rebrands. AMD is fucked? where? They just have to implement new tech all the same. AMD always does this, wait for nvidia to release something good and expensive, then step up their tech and release at lower price

I was disappointed in the Kaveri and upset that AMD dumped the FX series to make APU's exclusively. But I love me 7770 which played pretty good at 1080 and they always had the better price. What Maxwell seems to be at first glance is a major game changer. Like the Core 2 Duo on the processor side. This thing is better performance per watt than anything AMD has to offer. So they are being squeezed from both sides. The CPU side is abysmal vs Intel. AMD shugs it off because of the IGPU advantage which is not growing but shrinking with Intel. AMD then claims its focus on portables and tablets not desktops. The Samsung and Nvidia Tegra 4 in the tablet space it clobbering them. AMD shrugs this off because they have the GPU market value play. Well unless they start selling R9 270's for $149.99 instead of 239.99 they aren't that good a deal anymore. I don't know what the CEO is doing but you can't survive turning out 2 tier product in every category you compete in. This thing and an i3 in a tablet would destroy an A10 and the battery would last twice as long.

About that, kaveri is new APU update. But if u followed the FM2+ path, u would notice that they discontinued AM3+ to make all future chips FM2+ not completely dissolving the CPU only chip. They have not yet entered production phase probably still planning new architecture

No they actually announced they are no longer going to make the FX series and are abandoning their most ardent supporters to become a mediocre tablet cpu company..

Unless there's an actual statement agreeing with this, it's not correct; roadmaps that lack information don't necessarily mean there aren't plans to bring FX back, and in any case, roadmaps are always subject to change.

 

[Digiphix]

My HD5770 died (rip) and Im looking for a new card with decent performance for under $200. It gave me GTX260 performance with less power consumption which is a big thing for me. This card is nice and I would like to have it. If I'm correct the GTX750ti (SC) would be a fitting upgrade from radeon.

 

[logainofhades]

Yea, this card will be a nice upgrade over a 5770.

 

[deadrats]

so does this Maxwell based card feature the much anticipated integrated Denver ARMv8 cores or not?

 

[Trave]

I really need a single slot card for this one T.T

 

[dragonsqrrl]

Huh! nevermind the childish retort then, If for you price performance is not a factor when dealing with graphic cards then by all means suit yourself. I do not wish to discuss price performance matter with someone who owns a gtx 480 and sees only performance.

I guess that's it then...

Although I will say a few things. You realize you diverted to the whole price performance discussion, right?

You seem to be under the assumption that I bought that GTX480 at or around MSRP. Not sure why you would assume that. But even if I had, I'm not sure why you think I paid twice as much for it compared to what AMD could give me...

Also I apologize for the tone of my previous comment, but you seemed to be unaware of (or indifferent to) the fact that you were contradicting yourself. But looking at it from your perspective I guess that wouldn't matter much to me either.

You really should be careful about making blanket statements, like assuming I only value performance simply because I own a 480, or asserting that AMD is always the better value, without actually knowing how much I paid for my card or having any way of backing up what you're saying.

Excuse me pal but who pointed fingers first? and talked about AMD fanboy etc, im not an AMD fanboy, i just stated a fact and it turned into fanboy stuff. I have owned 2 Nvidia cards and 2 ATI cards. ATI always beat Nvidia in PPR.

I'm actually amazed you somehow still think you're right. I thought you were done?

So proving AMD isn't "always" the better price/performance option is "raging over the obvious", but simply stating that AMD is "always" the better price/performance option serves as "fact"? I mean what are you trying to say? That you always ignore evidence that doesn't conform to your agenda? Or maybe you're saying people should simply shut up and accept your assumption that AMD's always the better price/performance option, or that AMD always has inferior drivers, or that AMD fanboy's are stubborn trolls that advance their agenda through misinformation? I'm honestly curious because I don't know what you're trying to say, and I'm not convinced you know either.

It's true I called you a fanboy, but it was only after you gave an unrelated fanboyish response, which we're still talking about now instead of the original topic you posted, and that I intended to discuss. So I would argue that you started it. I'm not sure what you were expecting, maybe you weren't expecting me to respond at all?

And sorry dude, but I don't think saying that you've owned Nvidia hardware makes you any less of a fanboy than owning a GTX480 makes me a performance only enthusiast. But I am noticing a distinct trend towards deflection and pigeonholing in your comments, so I guess that would make sense.

 

[ingtar33]

yikes... anyway, i don't think anyone is complaining about the 750ti. it's a 15% improvement over the 650ti, and does it with half the power. Frankly any gpu producing performance numbers over a hd 7770 and under a hd7790 and managing on 2/3 the power of both is doing something REALLY right.

Its a nice card, now if only nvidia would sell it for $120... at that price it would be a flippin' awesome card. That said i fear this little beast will become the core of many CUDA mining rigs and soon will be selling for way more then $200

 

[Achoo22]

Historically, every time NVidia or AMD comes out with a new chip that performs roughly on par with the one from the last series, they've screwed consumers over with pricing for two generations of boards. All those folks who were waiting on Maxwell to grab a new card might want to keep waiting.