Published: June 25, 2013 | Source: nVidia | Author: Tom Logan

nVidia GTX760 Review

Conclusion

The GTX760 is a bit of a mixed bag, and how you feel about it definitely depends upon where you’re viewing it from.

If you focus solely upon the nVidia numbering scheme and consider the GTX760 a replacement for the GTX660, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised. For the fairly affordable sum of Â£210 you’re getting a card that performs well in every scenario. If you’re careful with your choice of settings then you can make any game, even Crysis 3, playable. Overclocking brings a little extra performance to the table, depending entirely upon the demanding nature of the title. Because the cooler is the older 6 series reference model it isn’t capable of keeping the card as cool as we’d like and so the GPU Boost 2.0 often reduces the overclock slightly to maintain the temperatures. Naturally a better, third-party, cooler should allow the overclock to shine a little more. Although even still you’re not able to bridge the gap to the model above, in this case the GTX770.

However, we know that the GTX760 isn’t really a replacement for the GTX660. Because it has an extra block of CUDA Cores it’s actually a halfway house between the GTX660 and GTX670. The results reflect this, with some of the best GTX660s (the Gigabyte Windforce for example) or the best GTX670s (MSI Power Edition) able to beat it out in our results. Also the card is already reflecting its mid-range price-point in the latest titles, so you’re not going to be future-proofing yourself. It’s more of a stop-gap until the next generation.

So if you’re looking to upgrade from a GTX 6xx card, then you’re better off skipping this particular model. If, however, you’re still on a 5 series, then the GTX760 has enough performance to make it a worthwhile purchase. If you’re in the market for a graphics card for an entirely new system then the GTX760 should be high up on your list. It combines good performance at a good price, although we’d wait for a third-party cooler to unlock some of the better overclocking ability. We would also like to point out that the Radeon HD7870LE not only comes in at Â£60 or so less than the GTX760, but it also comes with the four games as part of the AMD Never Settle bundle, so could provide better value for money if you’re starting from a clean slate.

All in all the nVidia GTX760 is a solid but unspectacular offering, that brings exactly the amount of 3D performance you’d expect to find for Â£210, and for that reason we award it our OC3D Gamers Choice.

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