Closing Statement
With a real world price tag of $429 backstopped by rather good performance, PC gaming enthusiasts are once again going to have to ask themselves if the extra cost of a GeForce GTX 780 is worth it. Unlike the 780 OC we recently reviewed the answer to this critical question is not blatantly obvious and a good argument could be made for going in either direction. Simply put this card is great example of what can be done with, and to the older GK104 chip, but it still is a Kepler GK104 based video card in a market filled with GK110 cards.
The easiest way to sum up this card is instead of comparing it to a stealthy assassin or monster masher that its higher priced brethren can be compared to, the PNY GeForce GTX 770 4GB XLR8 OC2 is more like as steadfast companion. A companion that you can count on to do Yeoman’s work, day in and day out for the foreseeable future. Sadly just like the Yoeman of yore, opting for it certainly will not net you the fame or envy from friends like the more expensive options would, but it will keep a bit more ‘gold’ in your pocket.
Unfortunately, great example and good performer aside, the amount of headroom left for enthusiasts to find and exploit is rather slim. PNY has wrung nearly every ounce of performance they could and we were a bit disappointed with the manual overclocking results. More to the point, it is a good card in its own right and one that can nip at the heels of what a reference design, GK110 based GeForce GTX 780 can do, but because NVIDIA has limited the additional voltage that can be applied, even with extra TLC these cards will never surpass even a stock GeForce GTX 780’s level of performance. That is the crux of the issue with this card and strikes to the very heart of the matter: PNY do have a good performer on their hands but you will be trading performance for the lower asking price. The amount of performance you give up will depend largely on the resolution you game at, but you will be giving up performance to get the lower asking price.
In the end this is a good enthusiast grade card, but it is a card that will not be right for everybody. However anyone who does choose to save the $70 and purchase the XLR8 770 OC2 instead of a GTX 780 will be rewarded with a great gaming experience. Conversely those who opt to spend more for a reference GTX 780 will always be wondering if they made the right decision. The very fact that a 770 can once again make it an agonizing decision is in and of itself very impressive. At its new low, low asking price the PNY GTX 770 4GB XLR8 OC2 is a very good value and if it ever dips down below the $400 mark it will be a great value.
