nVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Pro Reviews

A great card for Full HD gaming that also performs fairly well at 2,560x1,440

According to NVIDIA, the GeForce GTX 760 will be the last update to their desktop graphics card line-up for a while. We suspect new products may hit for the holidays or in the CES 2014 time frame, but for now and through the fall, NVIDIA’s graphics card line-up looks like this: The GeForce GTX 660 Ti will be going away in favor of the GTX 760, though the lower-end GeForce GTX 600 series cards will remain. With an expected starting price point of $249, the GeForce GTX 760 targets the “sweet spot” of the PC graphics market and it does so quite well. At that price, the GeForce GTX 760 is more affordable than the GTX 660 Ti and the Radeon HD 7950, though AMD is offering some excellent games as part of their “Never Settle Reloaded” bundle that sweeten the deal. With that said, NVIDIA has still raised the bar in terms of performance per dollar, which is what we think most gamers consider when upgrading or purchasing a new graphics card. It doesn’t’ feature any whiz-bang new technology and leverages last year’s flagship GPU, but the GeForce GTX 760’s represents a good value for gamers looking for the best bang for their buck.

Nvidia has introduced the GeForce GTX 760 GPU to provide the best gaming performance at £200 or so. Entirely based on the GK104 architecture that powers presently-available GTX 680/670 and 660 Ti GPUs, this 'new' card tinkers with the Kepler die and massages it into a graphics processor that's very similar to what we've seen before. Remonstrations about model numbering aside, GTX 760 provides very solid competition to the Radeon HD 7950, but we can't help but feel that Nvidia has already trodden this ground with the GTX 660 Ti last August; the GTX 760/660 Ti use differing implementations of the Kepler design but largely achieve the same kind of performance. As a card that's similar to incumbent GTX 660 Ti in pricing and performance, Nvidia's partners are going to have to do a sterling job in convincing users to spend £200-plus on the GTX 760.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB video card gives gamers more power than ever at the $250 price point and we can see this card selling extremely well due to the price and features that it has.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 video card drops neatly into the $249 price bracket with solid overall performance.

Following the 780 and 770 launch, the 760 slots itself in a comfortable space in a very popular price point which means this could be a midrange killer. Also don’t forget that the 660 Ti is not going away and therefore it just solidifies coverage of the mainstream market. The overclocking of the GTX 760 is very good, almost hitting 1300MHz on the core and 6.8GHz on the memory. This should allow for a nice bump in any games that may be at the edge of performing well such as Metro 2033 which was right at the edge of averaging 30 FPS. Overclocking both the GPU and memory should net a very good performing card especially if your card gets around 1250 core like this one did. This card has great potential for an SLI setup–a 3-way setup with this card would still cost less than a GTX TITAN. In the case of the 700 series we will say that the software advances are a big plus here as the GeForce experience is now out of BETA and on its way to official support. Adding to this the imminent Shadowplay feature, the aptly named GeForce Experience truly will open a whole new venue to how you experience your GPU and gaming platform. The auto optimization of games alone is huge, as who better to tune your GrForce card than the guys at Nvidia.

Today, NVIDIA releases their GeForce GTX 760. It uses the same GK104 graphics processor that we've seen on cards like the GTX 660 Ti, GTX 670, GTX 680, and GTX 770. The new card delivers an impressive 20% performance improvement over the GTX 660 but is also priced $50 higher. According to NVIDIA, the GTX 760 will actually replace the GTX 660 Ti in the product stack, providing 6% better performance at $30 less. Compared to AMD's lineup, we see the card 8% faster than the Radeon HD 7950; the HD 7950 Boost variants should roughly match its performance--at higher pricing. NVIDIA's card is using the same reference cooler we've seen on previous GTX 600 Series cards, and it feels just a bit weak. Temperatures reach up to 82°C during gaming, which causes additional performance throttling to keep the card cool, as such is activated beyond 80°C. Even at those high temperatures, acoustic performance is far from impressive. The card runs at similar noise levels as the GTX 770 and GTX 780; both are considerably faster. However, the custom GTX 760 designs from other manufacturers we are reviewing today certainly improve cooling performance and noise.

As a reviewer, after doing testing with the GeForce GTX 760 but not yet knowing the price point (why the GPU vendors do this to us beyond me…) I was guessing that NVIDIA would take the standard route and set the MSRP at $299. Just 3 days before the NDA though they told me it would actually sell at $249 and I have to admit as a consumer that I was really excited. Not only does the GeForce GTX 760 offer some awesome performance for gamers running single display configurations but NVIDIA was willing to potentially start a pricing battle with it, a solid $50 under the Radeon HD 7950 Boost. Will AMD drop prices on its cards? Usually by now I would have known if they were going to, so my first guess is that they will not. As a company they have invested a lot of money in the game bundle packages and they need to impart the value that the Never Settle campaign offers gamers. As a gamer though, it’s great to have options like we have today and the GeForce GTX 760 might just be the best release of the generation.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 760 is going to for the most part fill a niche between the HD 7950 and HD 7870 and deliver performance that is slightly better than the GTX 660Ti that it is replacing. You wonder what's the upside if the performance of the GTX 760 is similar to the GTX 660Ti? Cost to the consumer is one thing. Current pricing from Newegg has the GTX 660Ti ranging from as low as $259 after rebates to as high as $315 after rebate. The GTX 760 is going to retail for $249 with today's hard launch with stock available at all your popular e-tailers and brick and mortar stores. NVIDIA's partners will have custom versions available and with the trend over the last few launches the pricing for these cards should prove to be attractive. Second would be the feature set. The GTX 760 is built for gaming at 1920x1080 with the eye candy on. That it does, taking advantage of all the tools in NVIDIA's toolbox including PhysX, GPU Boost 2.0, new fan management algorithms, 3DVision support, Tri-SLI support, TXAA/FXAA anti aliasing, GeForce Experience, and an upcoming feature that takes advantage of the built in H.264 encoder called Shadowplay so that gamers can record their gaming without the software penalties. Essentially you get the same or better performance for a lower cost with more features!

With the inclusion of Nvidia's new adaptive fan controller, GPU Boost 2.0, and a reasonable 170-watt TDP, the GeForce GTX 760 borrows enough from its pricier 700-series counterparts to fit in the lineup without sticking out, looking lacking, or gobbling up too much power. Still, its plastic shell and last-generation silicon do keep it from feeling all that new and exciting. But it’s the card’s performance—and the price for that performance—that matter most, and on that front, the GeForce GTX 760 delivers quite a savvy balance. It generally bested the pricier, older AMD competition while seldom lagging all that far behind the $399 GeForce GTX 770.

The GTX 760 is an important product for NVIDIA’s 2013 lineup since it targets the so called “gamer’s sweet spot” price point. It will also cause gamers to reassess their expectations of what a $249 graphics card should be able to accomplish. In short, the GTX 760 brings high resolution, affordable gaming to the masses and by doing so, becomes one of this year’s best graphics cards.