Nvidia Maxwell GTX 750 Ti Review

Conclusion

Reviewing cards further down the scale is always a task that draws your attention. As much as we adore looking at the monstrous graphics cards capable of tearing holes in the fabric of time, we’re very aware that the majority of us are restricted by budget and thus offerings like the GTX750Ti are where most people will find their eyes being cast. We hesitate to use the term low-end, because that is unfair, but then to use ‘low power’ is so euphemistic as to almost be pejorative. But here we are. A graphics card to replace the GTX650Ti and with the affordable price of £115, with the non-Ti card being a mere £90.

What do you get for £115?

We think you get a nice surprise. This is the first iteration of the new Maxwell architecture and, in the nicest possible way, nVidia reference models are hardly renowned for being the fastest cats on the block. Equally the low-power state means it’s important to keep those clocks relatively low as even the slightest overclock can drastically alter the required power input. A look through our graphs and it would be easy to be dismissive of the GTX750Ti as too low in performance to be useful for sensible gaming. However, as always we must remind you that we test at identical settings to provide the most accurate comparison. It would be pointless testing a GTX780Ti @ 1650 and medium details, but it does mean that a card such as the GTX750Ti does suffer in the final analysis. Sensible gaming is the key maxim here though and there are a lot of performance boost to be had by merely turning the anti-aliasing off. Unigine demonstrated this clearly with massive increases available even at 1080P. 

The big selling point is the power draw, which is also the area that nVidia have been shouting loudest about. To compare, on our test rig with identical settings the GTX650Ti Boost drew 298W peak, but the GTX750Ti only peaked at 221W. Which for a heavily overclocked LGA2011 rig is frankly ridiculous. Don’t think that power draw matters? The same setup with a HD7970 is close to 500W at the wall. You could game on the GTX750Ti every day of the week for the same power cost as a high end card would be on the weekend. So if you’re budget conscious, keen on saving the planet, or just wanting a media server that doubles as a light gaming rig, the GTX750Ti really could be the card for you.

We can’t wait to see how this refined and honed architecture fares on some beefy cards. For now the Maxwell is a worthy replacement for the GTX650Ti and priced so low as to win our OC3D Value For Money award.

      

Thanks to nVidia for supplying the GTX750Ti for review. Discuss your thoughts in the OC3D Forums.