PNY GTX 750Ti OC Introduction
Introduction
For some the idea of spending any more than $150 for a video card seems down right insane – as that will probably be more than they spend for the CPU. For others while they would love to have all the horsepower GTX 780’s offer they are working on a Small Form Factor build, and smaller is the key to happiness when it comes to SFF builds. This is why 760s and 750s were invented. Unfortunately for many the 760 is over-kill and older 650s are just plain power hogs by modern standards. This hole in NVIDIA’s line-up was quickly exploited by AMD and to help plug the stream of customers going to “Team Red” NIVIDA unveiled the 750 and 750TI series of videos cards. Today we will be looking at the 750Ti as it is so far the closest successor for the wildly popular 650Ti Boost Edition card. To be specific we will be looking at PNY’s XLR8 750Ti 2GB Overclocked edition card.
The 750Ti OC – as we will call it for brevity’s sake – is a very interesting card for numerous reasons. Firstly, unlike the other 7-series video cards, the new 750Ti series is not based on any core previously seen. Instead of a cut down, but supped up 6-series core – e.g. the 770 – or further cut down 7 series GK110 core, the 750’s features a low power ‘GM107’ variant of NIVIDIA’s upcoming ‘Maxwell’ architecture. While the GM107 is an extremely cut down version of future of NIVIDIA’s architecture, it did hint at the upcoming ‘full version’ of the Maxwell architecture making great strides in the power vs performance department.
Unfortunately, while it may hint at future greatness the typical 750Ti is not exactly a great replacement for the previous 650Ti Boost series. In fact, the typical 650Ti Boost beats the typical 750TI like it owes it a lot of money – something that should never happen. This actually brings us the real reason the PNY 750Ti 2GB OC is so interesting: its overclocked….a lot. Instead of a GM107 that barely edges past the 1GHz barrier (1020MHz) and only boosts itself to 1085MHZ, the PNY 750Ti 2GB OC jumps out of the gate with a base clock of 1202MHz that can be further boosted to 1281Mhz when-ever the card feels the need….the need for speed. The RAM is also overclocked from a lackadaisical 5,400 to a more respectable 6,008.
More importantly PNY achieves both of these factory settings without needing any additional power. The lack of a 6-pin PCIE connector may not sound like that big a deal for most, but for SFF builds a 60 TDP 750TI is much more enticing than the 650Ti Boost and its 140TDP. PNY being PNY have also further helped consumers as they have not gone with the usual wimpy heatsink and fan that NIVIDA calls for. Instead they have gone with a custom dual slot affair that promises to not only keep this highly overclocked core cool, but do so while at barely audible levels. Considering this card is less than 7 inches long we will be paying careful attention to this boast as if it does pull off both a small form factor and low noise desing it will be a great boon to SFF builders.
If all that was not enough to peak our attention, and we must admit to being underwhelmed with the 750Ti’s launch, what really pushed this model over the edge, and made us want to review this item so badly we purchased it ourselves, is the asking price. Usually ‘overclocked’ is another way of saying ‘higher priced’ and for the most part we can understand the increased asking price – the manufacturer has to not only do all the hard work but has to warranty an overclocked chip for the period of the warranty. Since this card comes with a lifetime warranty and has a great factor overclock we were expecting a large price hike when we first heard of this model. Instead the PNY 750Ti OC 2GB model costs only about 10 bucks more than what NVIDIA’s suggested MSRP is for a standard – read mediocre – 750Ti 2GB. On paper this little bad boy has a lot going for it, but the big question is it enough to really justify the 750’s existence or is the 750Ti -as some suggest – nothing but a demonstrator model for the upcoming 8-series. This is what we intend to find out. So buckle up, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride!
Specifications and Features
Specifications and Features
A Closer Look
A Closer Look at the PNY GeForce GTX 750Ti XLR8 OC 2GB
As with most of the other PNY 7 series models the rather small 750Ti OC comes packaged in basically the same large shipping container PNY designed for their 780 models. This means that consumers will be hard pressed to tell them apart at just a quick glance. More importantly it will also means shipping the 750Ti could cost more; of course this is a rather minor concern as most shipping companies -besides the post office – go by weight and not volume. On the positive side, this increased size gives an extra layer of protection from in-transit damage – as the box can be crushed a lot before actually reaching the 750Ti housed within.
Another positive to this box is it is a very well designed shipping container. It is neither too bold nor too dull, rather it gets that delicate balancing act right and we doubt anyone would either accidentally overlook it in the video card isle, nor be embarrassed for picking it up -something we can’t say for some of the over the top box ‘art’ we have seen grace some manufacturers products in the past!
Also like the exterior, when you remove the internal packaging from the shipping container you can see that PNY has opted for the exact same plastic enclosure as their XLR8 780Ti model. This enclosure features a clear top and white bottomed plastic base which both secures the card and further helps reduces the chances of damage to the card happening while in transit.
As expected the accessories are on touch on the anemic side of the spectrum; though unlike the 770 OC2, given the relatively frugal nature of the 750Ti a small accessory list is more than acceptable. Most consumers rather pay less for the card and not have any ‘useless’ goo-gaws than pay more for a ‘1337’ poster or sticker. To be precise the 750Ti comes with a single digital to analog port adapter, a mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter, a quick start guide and a CD with the necessary drivers for the 750Ti.
Even on just a quick glance this PNY 750Ti looks nothing like most 750Ti’s we have seen in the past. On the one hand this card uses a big and obviously powerful two slot heatsink like that found on most ‘custom’ 750Ti’s, but on the other, it overall dimensions are more in keeping with a reference 750Ti. Basically PNY has correctly balanced both performance and form factor to appeal to as wide an audience as possible – something which cannot be said of many custom 750Tis.
The fact of the matter is consumers interested in a 750Ti will fall into one of two broad camps: those who want the most bang for their rather modest buck and don’t care about the size of the card, and those who do care about form factor as it will be going into a Small Form Factor case. By providing what on first glance appearance to be a very potent single fan powered custom cooler and a great factory overclock consumers in the first camp will really like this card; and by making this 750Ti only slightly longer than a reference 750Ti consumers in the second camp should also like it.
The only complaint we have with this card from a form factor point of view is much like most of PNY’s 7 series cards its dimensions are larger than they need to be. We honestly have no problems with PNY making their 750Ti slightly longer than a stock 750Ti – as it will still fit in most SFF cases, but we do take issue with it being done solely for aesthetics. As you can see by just flipping the card over, the card really is more than capable of being the same length as a reference card, but PNY has stuck an extra-long plastic fascia on top of it.
We really would love to know the justification for this as it appears to have been done solely for the sake of looks. The extra length does zip for the fan as the fan is molded into the top fascia and is not easily replaceable. It also is not even being utilized by the heatsink which could have been even larger. This means people in the first camp will be annoyed that temperatures could have even been better, and it will also annoy SSF builders who have to contend with an extra half inch or so of plastic that may block headers on a mITX motherboards. Thankfully it is only a half inch or so when compared to say a MSI 750 Gaming this card is still much shorter, and when compared to a PNY 780 OC its downright small!
Taking a closer look at the heaskink we can see that it is PNY custom design that uses a large – for its class – aluminum heatsink and a single, elven bladed, Apistek 82mm fan to keep it cool. While this is one less fan than either a Gigabyte 750 WindOC or MSI Gaming 750 relies upon, the Maxwell core is a very cool running core and to be honest those other cards have probably gone for ‘overkill’. Overkill is all well and fine, but if it does little to add to the performance of the card while making impossible to install into some cases, overkill is not what you want in an entry level card. Judging by the level of factory overclocking, the PNY 750Ti OC’s heatsink is certainly not underpowered, and rather is ‘right sized’.
Even without removing said heatsink we can see that PNY has opted for what is basically the same 2+1 power delivery system of a reference 750Ti. This is unfortunate as we would have hoped to have seen an even more robust power subsystem. On the plus side, and unlike NVIDIA demo designs, the VRM and RAM components are also cooled by the down-draft fan. Additionaly this card may be overclocked, but thanks to its next generation Maxwell GM107 core, it does not need a 6pin power adapter. All things considered that is rather impressive as this card has been overclocked from 1020Mhz base / 1085MHz boost to a whopping 1202MHz Base / 1281 Boost on its 640 CUDA cores, and from an effective 5,400Mhz to 6,008Mhz on the RAM (which also boosts the memory bandwidth from 86.4GB/s to 96.1GB/s). Put another way, the 750Ti is capable of basically 18% percent more speed than what NIVIDIA says it can do, and do so without exceeding the power requirements of the PICe bus. As an additional benefit the lack of a 6pin power port means one less cable to clean up inside the cramped quarters of a SFF case. Color us impressed to say the least.
Turning the card around we can see that while this card may be a two slot design instead of one slot like a reference 750Ti it nevertheless keeps to NIVIDIA’s reference output selection. Basically the bottom row consists of the usual min-HDMI port and two DVI ports, while the top row is dedicated solely to cooling slots. This is actually a missed opportunity as PNY could have easily included a full sized HDMI port, and even a DisplayPort. As it stands the output selection is decent, if not exactly above average.
The only real issue with this card is, just like all 750Ti’s, is it uses a narrow 128bit memory bus, so while yes the memory has been overlcocked, the GM107 will not be as effective in using it as a 256-Bit bus enabled 760 or even the older 650Ti Boost’s 192-bit bus was. Needless to say, if you plan on running larger resolution monitors a stock 760 – or even older 650Ti Boost – is still a better option than this overclocked 750Ti. Also of note is that NVIDIA has hobbled all 750 series cards and none will ever be SLI capable. This is a shame as the previous 650Ti Boost Edition series was SLI capable, and once again if you plan on running higher than 1080P resolutions, or multi-monitor setups, either an older 650Ti Boost or a newer GTX 760 would be more optimal solutions.
Testing Methodology
Testing Methodology
To fully test the abilities of a given video card, we have used a blend of in-game benchmarks and custom recorded real world game benchmarking. For custom game play we have used FRAPS to record the minimum and average frame rates and to do so for a set period of time. All tests were run a minimum of four times and the scores are the average of all four runs.
All games were patched to their latest version. The OS was a fresh clean install of Windows 7 with all latest hotfixes, patches and updates applied. All games were tested at the two of the most popular resolutions of 1080P (1920×1080) and then again at 1440P (2560×1440). This means each game’s tested was run a minimum of 8 times: 4 @ 1080P and 4 @1440P. Before testing Unigine’s Valley benchmark was run for 15 minutes to ‘warm up’ the video card. This was done to ensure that long term performance and not short term performance is being illustrated.
The games used for testing were:
Sleeping Dogs
Metro: Last Light
BioShock Infinite
Crysis 3
Batman: Arkham Origins
Tomb Raider
Battliefield 4
Assassins Creed: Black Flag
Call of Duty: Ghosts
For stress testing we used Unigine’s Valley benchmark.
For overclocking we used either the manufactures included software overclocking program or if necessary EVGA’s Precision X program.
Drivers:
GeForce 337.88
Main Test System
Processor: Intel i7 4770K
Memory: 16GB GSkill 2666 Trident X CL11 1.6v
Motherboard: MSI MPower Max Z87
Cooling: Corsair H100i
SSD: 1x Seagate 600 Pro 400GB, 2x Intel DC S3700 800GB SSDs.
Power Supply: Corsair AX860i
Monitor: Dell U2714H
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
Synthetic and Real World Benchmark Definitions
Synthetic Game Benchmarks
In the Synthetic Gaming Benchmarks section we will show a number of benchmark comparisons of PNY GeForce GTX 770 XLR8 OC2 and other comparable GPUs, using various benchmarks which come included with five popular modern PC games. This will illustrate how much performance this card has to offer. To ensure that long term performance is and not short term performance is illustrated 15 minutes of Unigine’s Valley benchmark was run to ‘warm up’ the video card. Only then were any tests run on the now warm video card.
Please Note: We have included results for a ” Stock NVIDIA GTX 750Ti 2GB” card. These results were obtained by down clocking the PNY 750Ti OC to reference performance levels. Also note that we have not included 1440P results for the 750 series as these cards are simply not optimal for such resolutions. These are designed for 1080P and as such are being only compared at this resolution. Doing otherwise would be doing you our readers a great disservice.
Real World In-Game Benchmarks
In the Real Gaming Benchmarks section we will show a number of timed real world game play results using FRAPS and four popular modern PC games. This will illustrate how much performance the PNY GeForce GTX 770 XLR8 OC2 has to offer and do so in a way which cannot be unduly skewed by driver ‘optimizations’ which have been included for the sole purpose of improving benchmark results. While not as common as it once was such optimizing is still not unheard of by either AMD or NVIDIA. Once again Unigine’s Valley benchmark was run for 15 minutes to ‘warm up’ the video card prior to testing.
Sleeping Dogs Synthetic Gaming Benchmark
Sleeping Dogs Gaming Benchmark
Sleeping Dogs is an open world action-adventure video game developed by United Front Games in conjunction with Square Enix London Studios and published by Square Enix, released on August 2012. Sleeping Dogs has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken.
The settings used in the testing below are the Extreme display settings and a resolution of 1920×1080. World density is set to extreme, Vsync disabled, high-res textures are enabled, and shadow resolution, shadow filtering, screen space ambient occlusion, and quality motion blur are all set to high.
As expected the 750Ti OC does struggle even at 1080P resolutions. That is because we have the eye-candy turned all the way up and to be perfectly candid these tests have been designed with much heavier duty cards in mind. With that being said when you take a close look at what PNY has been able to accomplish the Sleeping Dog results actually are pretty impressive. Compared to a stock GTX 780 the 750Ti OC posts numbers which are completely out of scale to the differences in price between these cards. Put simply a 780 costs 353% more, but only offers 276% more performance. Of course that is the difference between playable and non-playable frame rates, but it still is a relatively good showing. When compared to what a typical reference speed 750Ti can do, the difference is rather great considering the PNY 750Ti OC only costs ten bucks more. Specifically those ten bucks gets you a boost over 5 frames per second on average and over 3 frames per second on the minimums. That is significant no matter how you slice it.
Metro: Last Light Synthetic Gaming Benchmark
Metro: Last Light Gaming Benchmark
Metro: Last Light is a DX11 first-person shooter video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver released in May 2013. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features action-oriented gameplay. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play. Scene D6 was used and an average of four runs was taken.
The settings used in the testing below are Very High for quality and a resolution of 1920×1080. DirectX 11 is used, texture filtering is set to AF 16X, motion blur is normal, SSA turned on and tessellation is set to high.
Surprisingly enough the 750Ti OC posts an average score that is over half of what a 780 can do – albeit the minimum frame rates are more like 1/3rd – and that is damn impressive. Also impressive is the nearly 3 additional FPS added to the average and a nearly 1.5frames added to the all-important minimums when compared to what a typical 750Ti can do. Of course, even a heavily overclocked 750Ti will offer a more slideshow’esque gaming experience and using terms like ‘smooth’ or ‘fluid’ will require drastic reduction in post processing settings.
BioShock Infinite Synthetic Gaming Benchmark
BioShock Infinite Gaming Benchmark
BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games, and published by 2K Games released in March 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken.
The settings used in the testing below are UltraDX11 (option 3) for quality and a resolution of 1920×1080.
The combination of fewer CUDA cores and higher memory bandwidth requirements means that BioShock is not precisely 750Ti friendly. But on the positive side the relative differences are still impressive given the large differences in price between this down right cheap 750Ti and that of even its nearest competitor in the charts – the 770 OC2. Also on the positive side, this card offers an additional 10 frames per second on the averages, and nearly 3 on the minimums when compared to a stock 750Ti. That means each additional frame per second will only cost you between one dollar and three dollars and thirty three cents. No matter how you look at it that is a bloody marvelous deal.
Tomb Raider Synthetic Gaming Benchmark
Tomb Raider Gaming Benchmark
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game published by Square Enix and released in March 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken.
The settings used in the testing below are Ultimate default settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 1920×1080.
Tomb Raider is not NVIDIA friendly and the lack of driver refinement does show. By the same token this 750Ti is able to crack the 30 frames per second barrier and that is something we did not expect to see from any 750Ti!
Batman Arkham Origins Synthetic Gaming Benchmark
Batman Arkham Origins Gaming Benchmark
Batman: AO is an action-adventure video game published by Warner Bros and released in October 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken.
The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 1920×1080. Anti-Aliasing is set to TXAA (high). Motion blur, Distortion, Lens Flare, Light Shafts, and Reflections set to On. Geometry, Dynamic Shadows, Depth of Field, and Ambient Occlusion all set to DX11 Enhanced.
Out of all the test results we must admit that this one surprised us the most. Picking up an extra six frames per second for only ten bucks is simply astounding. We just wish PNY were able to work this kind of magic on the rest of their ‘XLR8 OC’ series!
Battlefield 4 Real World Benchmark
Battlefield 4 Gaming Benchmark
Battlefield 4 is first person shooter video game, published by EA Digital Illusions CE and released in October 2013. Unlike most, this games does not include an in-game benchmark. This makes it perfect for more real world gaming tests. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded the first 90 seconds of the single player Tashgar level. An average of four runs was taken.
The settings used in the testing below are Ultra pre-set for quality, with VSync disabled and a resolution of 1920×1080.
While neither version of the 750Ti posts numbers that we would consider ‘playable’ that extra ten dollars does get you a lot closer! Of course, by the same token these results just underscore how bandwidth starved all 750Ti’s really are. That 128-bit wide bus is why the difference between a stock and highly overclocked version are actually pretty close.
Assassins Creed: Black Flag Real World Benchmark
Assassins Creed: Black Flag Gaming Benchmark
Assassins Creed: BF is an historical action-adventure video game, published by published by Ubisoft and released in October 2013. Like Battlefield 4 this games does not include an in-game benchmark. This makes it perfect for more real world gaming testing. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded a custom run through Havana’s marketplace. An average of four runs was taken.
The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 1920×1080. Environment quality was set to very high, Anti-Aliasing was set to TXAA 4X, Ambient Occlusion set to HBAO+ (high), Shadow Quality set to ‘soft shadow’, Motion Blur and Volumetric Blur both set to On. Texture Quality, Reflection Quality, and God Rays all set to High.
Once again the differences between the reference 750Ti and the overclocked PNY 750Ti may not be all that extreme but all things being equal we think that ten dollars is still a heck of a good deal for 3 extra frames per second on the minimums. Those extra frames will enable you to run with more eye candy turned on than what a normal 750Ti would allow for.
Call of Duty: Ghosts Real World Benchmark
Call of Duty: Ghosts Gaming Benchmark
Call of Duty: Ghosts is a first person shooter video game, published by Activision and released in October 2013. Since it does not include an in-game benchmark, it perfect for more real world gaming testing. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded 90 seconds of the single player ‘Ghost Stories’ level, starting as soon as we resume control of Logan back on Earth. An average of four runs was taken.
The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 1920×1080. Image Quality, Textures Resolution, Normal Map Resolution, and Specular Map Resolution set to Extra. Screen Space Ambient Occlusion and Antistrophic Filtering set to High, Terrain Detail set to ON, and Anti-Aliasing was set to TXAA 4X. With Shadows, Distortion, Motion Blue and Depth of Field set to Yes.
Once again the PNY 750Ti offers -at least – three extra frames per second over what NIVIDIA expected a 750Ti to do. All things considered that really is damn impressive given the limitations PNY had to work with!
Crysis 3 Real World Benchmark
Crysis 3 Gaming Benchmark
Crysis 3 is a first person shooter video game, published by Electronic Arts and released in February 2013. While older than some of the others it is one of the most visually stunning games released to date and puts a lot of demands on the GPU. This makes it perfect for more real world gaming testing. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded 90 seconds of the single player ‘Post Human’ level, starting as soon as soon as prophet is handed a Hammer II pistol by Psycho. An average of four runs was taken.
The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 1920×1080. Texture Quality, Game Effects, Objects, Particles, Post Processing, Shadows, Shading, Water, and System Specs all set to Very High. Motion Blurr was set to High and Lens Flare was set to On. Anti-Aliasing was set to MSAA 8X and Antistrophic Filtering was set to 16x.
Crysis 3 simply tortures video cards and we are not surprised in the least by the ‘performance’ – or better to say lack of performance – the PNY 750Ti post. NVIDIA really did a disservice to the 750Ti series by hobbling it with a 128bit bus and we have a sneaking suspicion that the PNY 750Ti OC would have post significantly better numbers if it had even a 192-bit bus like the 650Ti series it ‘replaces’.
Temperature, Noise, and Power Analysis
Temperature, Noise, and Power Analysis
Video Card Temperature Results
For all temperature testing the cards were used in an open test bed environment. Ambient temperature was kept at a constant 20°C (+/- 0.5°C) and if the ambient room temperatures rose above 21°C or dropped below 19°C at any time, all benchmarking was stopped until proper temperatures could normalized.
For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Windows 7 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak temperature.
For Load tests, we ran Unigine’s Valley benchmark for 20 minutes.
Regardless of its relatively small form factor and heavy overclock, this custom single fan heatsink design does a surprisingly good job at keeping temperatures down right cool. We must admit that this was rather unexpected – it is rather small – but obviously this card is an example of the old adage ‘it is not how big you are, but how well you use it’. It’s just a shame that PNY didn’t make the underlying heatsink bigger. After all, with an extra half inch’s worth of cooling fins the temperatures could have been even lower. Nevertheless this is a very small, but very effective design.
Sound Level Test Results
While everyone “hears” noise differently there is one easy way to remove all subjectivness and easily compare different fans: use a sound level meter. This way you can easily compare the various fans noise envelopes without us coloring the results and see what fans fit within your personal comfort level. Of course, we will endeavor to try and explain the various results – which are taken at a 15 inch distance from the GPU’s fan(s) – to help you gain an even better understanding of how loud a cooler’s stock fan is, but even if you discount our personal opinions, the fact remains numbers don’t lie.
For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Windows 7 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak dB.
For Load tests, we ran Unigine’s Valley benchmark for 20 minutes and recorded the peak dB.
Once again these results are rather surprising. This card does rely upon a single fan to keep temperatures in check, and this card does not use heat pipes to increase the heatsink’s effectiveness. This usually is a recipe for louder than normal cooling solutions. Thankfully the single fan has been designed to move air and do so without sounding like a buzz saw. Obviously dual fan 750Ti models will be quieter, as this single fan is not exactly silent, but all things considered we doubt anyone will complain about the ‘noise’ this card makes!
System Power Consumption
To obtain accurate results we have connected the system to a Power Angle power meter that has in turn been attached to a 1500watt UPS. This ensures only 120volt power is supplied to the PSU and removes an variances that could potential crop up because of brownouts and power spikes.
In order to stress the video card we have once again used Unigine’s Valley benchmark and ran it for 20 minutes to determine peak system power consumption. For idle results we have let the system idle at the Windows 7 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak idle power consumption.
High overclock or not, this card is a downright power miser. While yes it does consume more than a stock 750Ti, the differences really are negligible. To be blunt when you consider the amount of performance it has on tap, the PNY 750Ti OC is easily one of the best performance per watt cards you can find on the market today. It’s just a damn shame that NIVIDIA didn’t include SLI capabilities as you literally could run two of these cards for less than what it would cost in electricity to run one 650Ti Boost.
Overclocking
Overclocking
To discover our PNY GeForce GTX 770 XLR8 OC2 sample’s overclocking abilities we used EVGA’s Precision X software and began raising power and thermal thresholds to the maximum allowed and then increased the voltage also to the maximum permitted. Then using Unigine’s Valley benchmark we began stability testing.
With such a high factory overclock, lack of 6-pin power input, and NVIIDIA usual meddling in such affairs it really did come as a surprise to see how much more headroom this card had. With very little effort we were able to reach a peak of 1,376MHz -or an additional 95Mhz over the factory overclock. This is an additional 7.4% increase on the already impressive factory overclocking settings and a whopping 295Mhz increase over a reference GeForce GTX 750Ti’s boost level. Put another way, when manually overclocked this GM107 runs 26.9% faster than a GM107 found in a reference GeForce 750Ti! On the memory side of the equation we were able to boost the memory to an effective 6420Mhz, which is a 6.9 percent improvement over the card’s default 6008Mhz overclock setting – and an excellent 18.9% / 1020MHz boost over a reference 750Ti’s ram settings.
With all that being said, don’t expect miracles from even further overclocking. While yes pushing the GM107 as far as it can go will – slightly- increase minimum & average frame rates this card still is only meant for 1080P resolution. Put simply, the lack of a wider 192-bit bus really does handicap this card and it shows. To us that is actually the biggest disappointment so far: the GM107 is powerful but NIVIDIA has truly handicapped it in every way possible so as to not ‘give away’ too many details of their upcoming 8 series. This of course not the fault of the PNY 750Ti, and it is one of the better examples of its class, but it still is something to take into consideration.
Performance Summary and TL;DR
In an effort to make sorting through all the results as easy as possible we have combined the results all of all the game results into an easy to digest summary format. By comparing the PNY GeForce GTX 750TI XLR8 OC 2GB to similar products in all the games you will be able to easily find the game(s) you are interested in, see the improvement and decide if the PNY GeForce GTX 750Ti XLR8 OC 2GB is the worth the investment.
No matter which card you compare the PNY 750Ti to, it simply shines in the price vs performance category. Even when compared to a reference 750Ti – whose claim to fame price vs performance – you are going to get an average of 17% more performance for a mere 7% increase in price. That is damn impressive. It is just a shame that this new series is not allowed to have SLI capabilities as otherwise maybe, just maybe, NVIDIA would have had another crowd favorite on their hands. As it stands we know which 750Ti we would want to buy if we were looking for a 750Ti.
Score Card and Summary
Score Card and Summary
Packaging & Accessories: 8 out of 10.
The shipping container may not be the flashiest of boxes we have ever seen, but it is still aesthetically pleasing and offers good protection to the card while in transit. More importantly finding room to store this box – in case you need to RMA this lifetime warrantied card – will be a snap.
Functionality & Aesthetics: 18 out of 20
This 750Toi sets a new standard in what to expect from the 750Ti class of video cards and the very fact that the PNY engineers were able to do this while still keeping length to near reference length is remarkable. The only possible issues anyone will take is that it could be even smaller and the all black design may be a bit bland for some tastes.
Build Quality & Warranty: 17 out of 20
PNY wanted their 750Ti to be special and it shows. It is not only a great example of what the GM107 Maxwell core can do, it is also a great example of how much power can be squeezed into a downright small form factor. When you add in the lifetime warranty to the equation there really is not much to dislike about this card from a build quality POV besides its reference 2+1 power subsystem and its less than stellar output selection.
Performance: 24 out of 30
While we are not fans of the 750Ti series, the combination of high performance/low noise cooler and excellent factory overclock makes for what is easily the best 750Ti experience we have seen to date. The only real problem is this is a 1080P only card and even at 1080P resolutions you will have to turn down the eye candy to get playable frame-rates. By the same token it is the best ‘bang for your buck’ card we have ever seen.
Value: 19 out of 20
That selfsame combination of excellent cooling, very good performance and a lifetime warranty makes this card a remarkably good value for 1080P consumers. When compared against stock 750Ti, the extra ten dollars for the PNY 750TI OC is easily the best ten dollars that you could spend. The only fault that can be possible found with this card is the fact that the extra 1GB of DDR5 Ram does come with a price premium that is out of sync with the performance benefits. Put simply, this card’s performance will be a bottleneck long before the extra 1GB becomes an issue for most consumers. Of course, the extra 1GB of space will not cost you all that much so it is hard not to get it ‘just in case’.
Final Score: 86 out of 100
From its lifetime warranty, to excellent factory cooler to the impressive real world performance everything about this card screams excellent value for consumers on a tight budget. In fact, this card is so good that there really is no reason to opt for a ‘stock’ 750Ti. Overall, the PNY 750Ti OC 2GB’s performance is high enough that it not only justifies its ten dollar premium it actually justifies the entire reason for 750Ti’s existence.
Closing Statement
Closing Statement
There are two ways of looking at all 750Ti video cards: those who will love to cool running, lower power nature of this new 750Ti series, and those who will not see what the big deal is as the last generation 650Ti ‘Boost Edition’ is basically as good and maybe even better than them. This is why were are usually ambivalent over the 750Ti and can’t consider their MSRP $140 to be all that good of a deal. Thankfully this PNY 750Ti OC is not your typical 750Ti and has what is is easily the best ten dollars you can spend on an upgrade!
For just ten bucks you get what the 750Ti should have been from the very beginning: a good value and better than its 6 series predecessor. By applying an insane overclock to both the RAM and GM107 ‘Maxwell’ core, PNY have been able to unleash an additional 17% performance. Better still is PNY has done this without significantly increasing heat, noise or power consumption – all of which are in the signal digit difference range. When you add in the small form factor – that admittedly could be even smaller – the PNY 750Ti OC comes with, the end result is what is easily one of the best video cards for 1080P gaming orientated mITX builds.
Because of the performance PNY has unleashed we now can actually understand why NVIDIA are “no way, no how” ever going to allow SLI capable versions of these cards. Two of these cards will only set you back about 2/3rds the cost of a good overclocked 770 and yet will nearly equal that 770’s performance! Compared to what a stock 780 will set you back you can nearly get four of these bad boys and get nearly twice the performance. That to us just goes to show how much potential the next generation Maxell core has.
With all that being said the PNY 750Ti is still a 750Ti and as such will not be right for everyone. Most of this blame should be set at the feet of NVIDIA and not PNY but the loss of SLI abilities really hurts this model more than most 750Tis – as we would love to have four of these beasts for a cheap monster gaming rig. Regardless of who or why these cards are incapable of SLI, the end result is still the same: the 750Ti is really only for 1080P resolutions and even then some eye candy levels do have to be lowered in order to get playable frame rates. However if you are on a tight budget and only care about 1080P performance the PNY 750Ti OC 2GB should be on your short list. It really is a Panthera Pardus in a room full of lazy housecats and- unlike most 750Ti’s – is easily worth careful consideration. Its great noise, power and overall price to performance ration simply make it too good to simply dismiss out of hand. Color us impressed.
