Before we get to the review, here are the specs of the test bench we used to put this card through its paces ,as well as a few notes on the testing and reviewing process:
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2500k (stock)
- Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z77
- RAM: 16 GB Corsair Vengeance
We tested this in a closed test bench to make it as real-world as it gets.
Notes: Graphic card reviews are always accompanied by lots of graphs and comparison figures. However, since this is the first GPU review on IGN India, our arsenal is quite small, so there will just be the first batch of tests. As we get more cards to test, we will be able to provide better comparative figures as well as graphs. Not only that; we will be bringing you special comparison stories and buyers guides backed by quantifiable numbers. Until then, sit back and enjoy the show.
After a slew of high-end graphic card launches, Nvidia is ready to settle down and think of the budget gamers with the new GeForce GTX 750 Ti, which marks a significant level up for the company. Taking what it learned from the KeplerGPUs, it has pushed low power consumption to a whole new level with the new Maxwell architecture, and the 750 Ti is the first to flaunt it.
The 750 Ti is a small card -measuring 5.75 x 4.25 inches - just about the size of the PCI-express port itself. There is one fan on it, but it hardly takes up any space. This compact form factor makes it the perfect graphics card to drop into your mini-ITX chassis or homemade Steam Machine, with room to spare.
While the specs usually depend on the various configurations set by the OEMs, the reference unit we tested has some impressive specs - a clock speed of 1020 Mhz that boosts to 1085 Mhz; 512 CUDA cores; 2GB of GDDR5 RAM, 128-bit, 5400Mhz memory clock; 2MB L2 cache with a total memory bandwidth of 84 Gb/s; and a bilinear texture filtering rate of 32 GigaTexels/sec. Out back, there aretwo Dual-link DVIports and a mini HDMI port, although this can change depending on the manufacturer you go with.
On to the benchmarks. All the scores below are benchmarked on the drivers Nvidia has provided to us, which are beta and not yet released to public. In the past, Nvidia has consistently been improving the performance of its GPUs with each driver release.Since this is new architecture, we have no doubt that,in time, these numbers will increase by a fair percentage as Nvidia optimises the drivers.
While it would have been perfect to pit this card against AMD’s Radeon R7 series in a cage match, unfortunately, we did not have one lying around. Instead, we threw in a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 OC as the 750Ti benchmarks neck-and-neck with that powerhouse. Expect an ‘R7 vs 750 Ti’ in the near future.
We kicked things off with Battlefield 4, which ran like a dream, and was one of the few games we tested that ran everything at 1920x1080 with everything set to Ultra. The Frostbite 3 engine was always stable,with an average of 34fps. The 750 Ti went through the Levelution events without breaking a sweat reaching 60+ fps on the high side. The 660 averaged at 70fps at the same settings.
We tried including Crysis 3 in the benchmarks, but somehow the game kept crashing. We chalked that down to the beta drivers. The released-to-public drivers will be stable.
Metro: Last Light was up next with its terrific 4A game engine that’s a total PhysX hog and eats graphic cards for breakfast. The benchmarks showed an average of 17 fps on 1920x1080 at Ultra settings, with PhysX turned all the way up. There was a gain of 2 fps when we turned PhysX off, and when we set the graphics settings to high, we got 24fps. At 1680x1050 on Ultra, itran at about 20 fps with PhysX off. We did stabilize the game to 30fps with a few tweaks here and there, we achieved a playable 40fps while still retaining the fidelity. The 660 chugged along at 18fps at Ultra with PhysX enabled at 1080p, and 36 fps with PhysX off.
We then took to the high seas with Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, where 750 Ti performed admirably with everything maxed out at 1920x1080 and PhysX on. The card delivered an admirable average of 35 fps, only dropping to 19fps when there were too many ships engaged in battle with lots of PhysX cannon smoke, achieving a high of 61 fps.The Nvidia GTX 660 gave about 34 fps as an average.
Lastly, Batman: Arkham Origins with its Unreal Engine yielded an average of 25 fps at 1920x1080 with all settings set to max. Though workable, it’s still not smooth as butter, though turning down the AA a few notches ironed things out. The 660 churned out an average of 60 fps.
The 750 Ti held its own on the punishing DirectX 11 Unigine Heaven benchmark, with a score of 488, averaging at 19.5 fps, with a max of 45 fps on Ultra with tessellation set to Extreme. On high settings,it gave an average of 25 fps, with a max of 45 FPS with 8X Antialiasing, Tessellation set to normal. While as the 660 scored a 655 with 26FPS on Ultra.
The card scored 5486 in 3D Mark 11 performance testsand 3766 in 3D Mark’s Firestrike Performance test. While as the 660 scored a 6905 in performance tests and 4575 in Firestrike.
The 750 Ti was specifically built to play games at 1080p on a normal and high setting, but since it is the first of a breed of new Maxwell cards, we threw a lot of Ultra benchmarks at it to test its mettle. It may provide smaller fps numbers, but know this, these numbers are with everything set to the most extreme. So you will see 20-60% gains when you dial down graphic hungry settings like Anti-Aliasing to 2x or 4x.
As the scores show, this little card churns out some big numbers. While it staggered a bit when running things at Ultra, it did shine in Battlefield 4 and Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, allowing you to play easily with everything turned up to max. In comparison with the 660, the numbers were very close.
The biggest selling point, apart from the budget factor, is the power consumption of the Maxwell architecture. Nvidia is able to achieve 135% performance per core over Kepler, doubling the performance per watt. The minimum power requirement for the 750 Ti is a 300W power supply. It does not even need an external PCI-e power cable, drawing just the power from the slot itself.Andless power consumption means less heat.The performance it ekes out of the cores is fantastic, but if you love overclocking, Nvidia claims that you can safely push the boost clock from 1085 Mhz to 1271 Mhz.
The GTX 750 Ti starts at Rs. 11,990, and the 750 starts at Rs. 9,900 - about the same price bracket as the R7 260. With the 750 Ti, you’re essentially getting a card that’s very close to the output of a GeForce GTX 660, which costs upwards of Rs 17,000,and that’s a steal!
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