NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 Review

The NVIDIA GTX770 graphics card utilises the same core as the GTX680 but with a revised memory subsystem all wrapped up in GTX TITAN’s clothing.

Product on Review: GeForce GTX 770 2GB GDDR5
Manufacturer and Sponsor: NVIDIA
Price: £329.99

Both the NVIDIA GTX 780 and the formidible GTX TITAN have proven very impressive with the GK110 core. In typical NVIDIA fashion, the GTX770 features last years flagship core, the GK104 found on the GTX680 rather than a trimmed down GK110 found on the latest flagship cards. The GTX780 also features GPU core clockspeed than the reference GTX680 but perhaps most ground breaking is the 7010MHz memory data rate.

While the GTX770 is not a direct replacement for the GTX680, it makes sense to compare against this card than the card NVIDIA pitch it as replacing, the GTX670 because of the similarities. For those looking to upgrade from a GTX670 or a GTX570, NVIDIA claim increases in performance of 22% and 65% respectively. How this performance increase transpires when pitched against the GTX680 we will examine in our performance benchmarks.

So, with the same cooler found on both the GTX 780 and GTX TITAN hiding a re-badged but highly boosted GTX680, NVIDIA looks to have all bases covered, further piling the pressure on the competition because with specs and the promised performance, AMD’s HD7970 looks to fall further off the pace.

About NVIDIA

Founded in 1993, NVIDIA has continuously reinvented itself to delight users and shape the industry. From our beginnings in PC graphics, we expanded into professional graphics to become the standard bearer in visual computing. We later harnessed the parallel computing capabilities of the GPU to advance high-performance computing. Our move into mobile put us at the center of one of the industry’s fastest-growing segments. With the invention of the virtual GPU, we’re accelerating cloud computing for consumers and enterprises.

Specification

Based on the same GK104 found on the GTX680, the GTX770 contains 1536 CUDA cores at a slightly higher clockspeed than the GTX680. The GTX770 comes in two varients, the 2GB and the 4GB version. For most the 2GB card will provide the best balance of power vs price however should you have a larger display, then the 4GB version may be worth opting for. Both versions feature a worlds first 7GBPs (GDDR5 effective)memory subsystem which is a significant boost over the GTX680. Comprising of the same 256-bit memory controller means the GTX770 has 224.3GB/sec memory bandwidth at it’s disposal.

Kepler Core
The GTX770 is equipped with a GK104 core is fabricated on the 28nm process with every component was designed with power efficiency in mind to ensure the GPU gave the best performance-per-watt possible.

While the 28nm manufacturing process holds the bulk of the power saving features, the way the new architecture works is also key to furthering Kepler’s power reduction. SMX, an evolution of the SM from Fermi is NVIDIA’s new streaming multiprocessor:

Each SMX runs at the graphics clock speed rather than 2x that speed as previously but because the GK104 has 1536 CUDA cores (8xSMX), over Fermi’s (GF110) 512 CUDA cores (16xSM), Kepler allows the GTX770 to operate at twice the performance per watt measurement compared to the GTX570.

The clock throughput of FMA2, SFU and texture operations have all been significantly increased and while some operations still retain the same speed as the GTX580, the GTX770’s much higher core clockspeed ensures a substantial increase for all GPU operations.

To feed the new SMX, each unit has four warp schedulers, each capable of firing off two instructions per warp, every clock. With a redesigned scheduling function, the GTX770 is a lot less complex and much more streamlined allowing the compiler to determine which instructions will be issued and can provide this information direct to the hardware block rather than going around the houses using Multi-port decode and a register scoreboard along with the dependency check before the information gets issued. This method is both quicker and more importantly, more power efficient.

Perhaps the biggest change from Fermi to Kepler was the omission of the old Shader Clock. The shader clock was getting tired as it was part of the old Tesla architecture which was implemented as an area optimisation. Because of the way Kepler executes instructions at a much more streamlined manner and at a higher clock rate, fewer copies of the execution unit need be made.

Another improvement over Fermi with the introduction of SMX is the redesigned Polymorph engine (2.0). The Polymorph engine takes card of the tessellation workload of the GTX770. The design of the Polymorph engine is to ensure that the tessellation we see on screen has little (as possible) impact on the rendering performance. What you may find bizarre though is that NVIDIA have cut the Polymorph engine count in half to 8 from Fermi’s 16 yet claim it is almost twice as quick. This is thanks to the improved core an memory clockpeed.

With both a higher core clockspeed based on older (but still very fast) GK104 core and of course that blisteringly fast memory, the GTX770 looks set to replace not only the GTX670, but it’s bigger, but older brother, last years flagship graphics card, the GTX680.

GPU Boost 2.0

GPU Boost caused a bit of a stir when it was first introduced because it did away with the traditional ‘absolute’ method of dictating MHz. Rather it worked by overclocking the card by different means. To achieve an overclock using GPU Boost, one increased the MHz and Voltage as per usual however the card would then ‘Boost’ when placed under load. So rather than having a fixed clockpseed, the GPU adjusts the clockspeed depending on load, ensuring the power is there when you need it rather than it being full on all of the time, thus saving power consumption and heat production by having the card overclock dynamically.

GPU Boost 2.0 is an evolution of this idea. The techs at NVIDIA have determined that GPU power was unnecessarily limiting performance when GPU temperatures was low. Instead of boosting GPU performance based on a power target, it is now based upon temperature with this temperature threshold being 80 degrees Celsius.

Because the boosting is now determined by temperature, noise levels are also reduced as NVIDIA claim the GTX cards deliver a better acoustic profile.

So to summarise, overclocking the card using GPU boost 2.0 means adjusting the temperature threshold, for example from 80c to 85c. The GPU clockspeed will then gradually increase until it reaches this new temperature and will be dynamically adjusted on-the-fly to stay within this threshold. Because of this it is much more difficult to claim one GPU is faster than another without having both working under precisely the same operating conditions.

It therefore should go without saying (but we will say it anyway) that the colder your card runs, the faster it should theoretically operate as a colder card allows overvolting and thus even higher clockspeeds.

GPU Boost 2.0 also features overvoltage control. NVIDIA make no bones that enabling this function will damage the long term operability of the graphics card and as with AMD’s overdrive, you have to acknowledge this fact before you can unlock the cards voltage control. We applaud NVIDIA for this because they have acknowledged that enthusiasts, like us here at Vortez, like to push hardware to the max and without voltage control, the whole process becomes so much more uninteresting and much more difficult.

So, because GTX770’s boost clock and voltage level are now tied to the GPU’s temperature, the voltage can be dialled higher which in turn will allow the GPU to attain higher clockspeed values. Obviously, increasingly board voltage, as with most other products, will gradually degrade the GPU through electron migration causing a premature death of the GPU. Voltage support will be offered on a board partner by partner basis however, we would be extremely surprised if it wasn’t enabled in every GTX770’s VBIOS.

We will see how GPU Boost 2.0 performs in our overclocking section later in the review.

GeForce Experience

GeForce Experience is a new application from NVIDIA that optimizes your PC in two key ways. First, it maximizes your game performance and game compatibility by automatically downloading the latest GeForce Game Ready drivers. Second, GeForce Experience intelligently optimizes graphics settings for all your favorite games based on your hardware configuration.

Some enthusiasts will view (excuse the pun) altering settings to get the very best from a game one of the ‘fun’ elements of owning a powerful graphics card. Others just want to play their game of choice without the endless testing and benchmarking to determine what settings work best. Many don’t have the inclination or indeed the time to learn what effect each setting has upon the games visual elements.It soon becomes a bind when upon a new driver release those settings which were great before can be bettered (or lowered) for a better gaming experience. FXAA, TSAA, MMAA or simply AA. Low, medium, high, ultra texture settings along with overall visual settings can be all too confusing when configuring a games visuals and while it would be easy to just crank everything up to maximum and hoping for the best, this all too often results in choppy, unplayable gaming ruining the gaming experience.

NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience removes much of the guess work when configuring a game thereby giving users the means to jump straight into the game with the best optimised settings for there hardware.

This handy utility will also keep your GPU updated with the latest driver that can be set to automatically download, ready to be installed as soon as they are available and also it gives you access to the beta drivers.

How does it work?
GeForce experience requires an internet connection which, once connected to the NVIDIA Cloud datacenter will download optimal game settings that are tailored to your PC based upon CPU, GPU and monitor resolution.

Low end hardware will have the visuals reduced to improve framerates while high end hardware will inevitably have higher settings assigned. This is all done with a click of a button which ensures that the game not only looks great but perhaps more importantly, plays smoothly.

Testing of the settings are done by NVIDIA themselves who benchmark the game, set a framerate target to ensure smooth gameplay then adjust the settings to ensure both framerate and smooth gameplay are optimised.

In our own tests, the utility worked well and is great for those who want to jump straight into the game with the minimal of fuss and furore of adjusting GPU settings.

Our one complaint is that the supported games list requires expanding. While most of the popular games are supported, many, especially some older but very popular titles are not.

First Look

The GTX770 features the exact same cooler used on both the GTX TITAN and GTX780 save for the lettering towards the end of the which is the only way of telling the three cards apart from this angle. We’ve said it before but this cooler has to be one of the best looking of any reference design and thus NVIDIA should rightly be applauded for using it once more on the GTX770.

We see a few changes to the rear of the card with a distinct lack of memory chips, all of which are contained on the opposite side of the PCB. IF you like a glossy black PCB then you will be pleased to see the one used here. Our preference would be a matt finish however, because it is black we will forgive NVIDIA on this minor point being that it is simply a matter of personal preference and has no effect on the performance of the card.

The shroud appears to be aluminium and given the weight of the card you would be forgiven for thinking so however it is actually plastic. The cooler is a 3 part design with an acrylic window, plastic shroud attached via Allen screws to an aluminium mid plate. The window is a neat addition as it allows the users to see how dirty the aluminium finned cooling array beneath is getting after a period of time and thus when it requires cleaning.

Like the GTX Titan, the side of the card will illuminate in bright green ‘GeForce GTX’ when powered. We do like this little feature of the card however, it would also be good to be able to turn off the illumination as green may not be to everyone’s PC case colour scheme.

Measuring 267x100x39mm, the GTX 770 is half an inch longer than a GTX680, matching both the GTX780 and the GTX TITAN in length while a little smaller than an AMD HD7970.

Closer Look

The fan is located towards the front of the card which draws air in and pushes the cool air over the heatsink, out towards the GPU vent at the I/O end of the card. We were thoroughly impressed with the GTX TITAN’s acoustics so we see no reason, being that this cooler is identical, why this card should be any different, especially given that the card is based on GK104 architecture.

The I/O area features a standard set of connections including DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI and a DisplayPort. This is totally adequate however, we would perhaps also like to see a mini-dp as with many AMD cards on the market.

It should could as no surprise that the GTX770 is fully SLI capable having dual SLI tabs. Up to four cards can be linked for some quad SLI action. Only those with multiple monitors making use of NVIDIA Surround would likely see any benefit from such a monster setup. 2 or 3 cards would be the most efficient multi card setup for a single, large display.

The GTX770 utilises a 8+6pin design which thankfully has reverted to a horizontal configuration from the odd vertical designs seen with the GTX680. NVIDIA recommend a PSU capable of 600W to power this card.

Like the GTX780 and the GTX TITAN, we are thoroughly impressed with the good looks of the GTX770. Everything is where it should be with a multitude of connections available. Our only comments on improving the design would be the addition of a backplate and the flexibility of turning the green illumination on/off. Other than that we simply cannot fault the aesthetics.

Let’s take a look a closer, more detailed look at today’s review sample…

Detailed Look

Unlike the TITAN and GTX780, there are no Torx screws in sight thankfully. All the screws to remove the main cooler from the PCB are Phillips making for an easier life. To dismantle the shroud itself you will however still need an Allen key.

The cooling design comprises of a finned array welded to a nickel plated copper vapor chamber. This design is extremely efficient and because it is a fully enclosed unit, all of the hot air is pumped out of the exhaust, outside of the case at the rear. The vapor chamber is framed by the black aluminium baseplate which makes direct contact to both the memory chips and VRM areas.

Ar first glance, the design of the GTX770 is almost identical to its bigger brother, the GTX780 (bottom of above picture). There are however some key differences. The GTX780 has more memory and a slightly larger core. It also is has a different VRM design. The GTX780 has a 6+2 design while the 770 is 5+1. With this in mind, it is extremely unlikely that a GTX TITAN/780 waterblock will fit the GTX770.

The PCB itself is of course black which we like here at Vortez. Everything is where you would expect to find it with the GPU core being framed by 8 x256MB memory chips and the VRM being closest to the power inputs.

The VRM is made up of a 5+1 design as opposed to the GTX680’s 4+2. The 5 main phases are dedicated to the GPU which may seem a little low for the overclockers but as we will see later in the review, this didn’t seem to affect our overclocking efforts in the slightest. Interstingly, the GTX770 has a larger bank of MOSFET’s than the GTX780 despite having less chokes.

The memory IC’s carry the model number K4G20325F0-FC28 and hail from Samsung. Sadly we couldn’t find the official specifications of this new memory other than it is specified to run at 1.5V ± 0.045V. With NVIDIA clocking this memory to 7GBps it will be interesting to see how much is left in the tank when we come to overclock the card.

As stated previously, the core is essentially the same GK104 used in the GTX680. We would be lying if we said we were ecstatic at this choice because we were in truth a little disappointed that NVIDIA didn’t opt for a trimmed down version of the flagship GK110, perhaps with just 8 SMX (the GK104 also has 8 SMX) instead of the 12 found on the GTX780. That said, the GK104 still has tremendous performance and has always been good for a little overclocking so hopefully performance will be better than that of the GTX680 while slightly off the pace of the GTX780 as you would expect.

Test Setup & Methodology

How we test graphics cards

Testing a graphics card is an extremely lengthy process. We sometimes see reviews where a graphic card has been tested using out of date equipment, out of date games and out of date drivers. While the latter can be excused due to the sheer amount of driver updates making a thorough review impossible we will however notify the reader when we have used a different driver to the normal for example a pre-release driver. For the most part however we will always use the same hardware and where possible the same drivers unless a newer driver rectifies an issue we have encountered or significantly improves performance to such an extent that continuing with an outdated driver is not feasible.

We have also seen the emergence of frame time analysis. We covered this in a separate article here: GPU Reviews: Why Frame Time Analysis is important so we won’t go into the reasoning again but to summarise, our testing comprises both FPS testing and perhaps arguably more importantly, frame time analysis. We also look at overall performance by equating averages across the games and finally before concluding our review we take a look at value for money.

HardwareWith the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

High End Graphics cards on test:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2GB GDDR5
(Forceware 320.18) *New Release Driver*
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.18) *New Release Driver*
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 4GB GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN SLI 12GB(2x6GB) GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
NVIDIA GTX680 2GB GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
AMD HD7970 3GB GDDR5 (AMD CAT 13.3 beta)

Motherboard: ASUS P9X79 Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler – Corsair H100

Benchmarks
If you are a regular reader of our reviews you will know we like to test the latest hardware with the latest games and benchmarks on the market. Here are the games we have chosen:

Battlefield 3
Crysis 3
Far Cry 3
BioShock Infinite
DiRT: Showdown
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

We also take into consideration the benchmarkers out there so have included 3 of the more popular synthetic benchmarks available:

Unigine: Valley
Unigine: Heaven 4
Futuremark 3DMark Firestrike

Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…

Temperature, Acoustics and Power Consumption

Power Consumption

To test for power consumption we use the included iPower Meter found with our Thortech PSU. As system load figures obviously differ from idle it is extremely difficult to get an accurate figure of system draw and then simply take this figure away from the overall amount because each game will generate varying levels of CPU and hard drive activity. Dynamic power adjustments which fluctuate in game will also affect accurate power figures thus rendering any such power consumption calculations redundant at worst and approximate at best.

We will therefore take our system readings averaged over a benchmark run of Tessmark (100% load) and after 20 minutes of being idle in Windows 7. These can then be used as a comparison to other graphics cards to determine how much more or less power you can expect a GPU to consume.

The NVIDIA GTX 770 consumes a little more power than the card it is based upon, the GTX680 but this is well within the realm of digital error so we would state that both the GTX770 and GTX680 consume roughly the same amount of power in real world scenarios.

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we would normally run Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained however we found that this throttled the card and resulted in spurious results. So we set Heaven running continuously for 20 minutes and used this as a temperature result as the card did not throttle with this application.

With the default max temp set to 80c, the GTX770 duly obliged and reached this temperature while reducing the boost clockspeed slightly to keep temperatures in check. This 80c limit can be adjusted to 95c when overclocking to allow further ‘boosting’.

Acoustics

As with the GTX 780, we were very impressed with NVIDIA’s new cooling design. For anyone familiar with the Previous GTX 6XX reference GPU coolers, you will be happy to hear that the noise has been reduced to little more than a murmur under normal operating conditions and is unlikely to be heard above normal case fans. adjusting the fan speed profile decreases fan noise further but fan speed will obviously depend greatly on your case operating temperature as to which speed gives the greatest balance of cooling vs. acoustics.

Overclocking (GPU BOOST 2.0)

For overclocking our NVIDIA cards we will be using EVGA’s Precision too (ver 4.2) as this gives us all of the options we require.

Above is a screenshot of GPU-Z showing the reference speeds and reference boost clocks

Above is a screenshot of the actual overclock we achieved via Precision. With both the power and temp targets maxxed out and an additional 12mv added to the core, we managed a 100% stable 1280MHz boost speed based upon an initial 130MHz to the reference speed. Despite the GDDR% memory being highly clocked already, we still managed an audacious extra 169MHz giving us an effective memory speed of 7344MHz!

This is a fantastic result by any standards and goes some way to proving GPU BOOST 2.0 is an excellent method for overclocking, especially if you forgo the pop-up warning (above) that displays when unlocking the voltage adjustment which only allows a 12mv increase over stock.

After settling on our stable clockspeed which was verified by multiple runs of Unigine Heaven and 3DMark we benchmarked the overclock and compared it to stock results with Unigine Heaven 4.0. As you can see, this overclock gave our Heaven 4.0 score a respectable boost by almost 200 points.

Futuremark 3DMark Fire Strike (Synthetic)

Fire Strike is the new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is Futuremark’s most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.

Unigine: Valley (Synthetic)

Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.

Unigine: Heaven 4 (Synthetic)

Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms.

Battlefield 3 (FPS)

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next installment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the parking lot scene on Operation Sword Breaker. High and Ultra presets were loaded at both resolutions.

Crysis 3 (FPS)

Crysis 3 from Electronic Arts is the fourth instalment of the Crysis franchise and sequel to Crysis 2. It uses the CryEngine 3 gaming engine which is perhaps the most advanced gaming engine to date and therefore the most demanding. The meme ‘Can it run Crysis’ has never been so apparent…

Far Cry 3 (FPS)

Far Cry 3 is a tropical survival shooter video game from Ubisoft Montreal and Massive studios. It’s open world design has similar traits to it’s forbear Far Cry 2 but it does it all so much better. With stunning visuals and settings to bring a PC to it’s knee’s, this game is so much more than the ‘just another console port’ it was reported to be.

BioShock Infinite (FPS)

Set in 1912 during the growth of American exceptionalism, BioShock Infinite is a thrid person shooter developed by Irrational games and published by 2K Games. It is the third instalment of the BioShock franchise. the game utilises the Unreal Engine 3, modifying it with their own lighting engine to present a visually stunning experience like no other.

DiRT: Showdown (FPS)

DiRT Showdown is the new arcade racing game from the team that brought you the award-winning DiRT series, uncaged in 2012. Pick up and play controls combine with electrifying events, frenzied crowds and stunning graphics to deliver high octane, dive in and drive thrills from event one.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (FPS)

Skyrim is not a direct successor to the very popular Oblivion. Instead it takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The non-linear playing that made the Elder Scrolls such a popular series does however make a return along with the beautiful scenery the encompasses the world of Skyrim.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the drop down passage to Riverwood. V-sync was disabled to allow fluctuating (higher the 60) FPS for these runs. It is however recommended that v-sync is left enabled during normal gameplay due to the games dynamics.

Overall Performance (FPS)

We make a simple calculation for this set of results. For each game we add all of the resulting FPS totals together and then divide by the four sets to give us an overall performance figure. While the figures alone do not give you an accurate picture of how the card will perform in any given scenario, they do tell you, when averaged, which GPU is the more capable across all of the benchmarks and settings tested.

[fullimage=21497]

Value For Money

For those on a budget, this is perhaps the most important section of a graphics card review. For everyone else it will certainly make you think twice before calling the bank manager for an overdraft request. We calculate Value for money by taking the cost of the product and then dividing that figure by the overall performance figure which gives us a result in the guise of £ per frame – in effect how much every frame per second will cost you.

Gaming Experience (Frame Time Analysis)

Gaming experience is what we like to refer to as the Laymans term for Frame Time analysis. Frame time analysis is in its most basic sense how smooth your gameplay will be. Ever had a powerful card rendering at 100FPS with ease for it to stall for a split second before resuming? This is what Frame Time Analysis shows us: The peaks during an otherwise smooth gaming experience. This is presented to you in two ways, by showing you a line graph of a 60 second FTA capture using FRAPS and then by deducing the average and 99th percentile response times.

Some claim this should be the way graphics cards are tested and we won’t argue here because there is little point in having a card which churns out an average 100FPS if it has micro stutters lasting 50ms (GPU response time) which spoils the fluidity of the game.

Comment

The graphs above may appear very daunting however, what you want to see is a smooth line (not fuzzy) with very few peaks and troughs. While you are unlikely to notice peaks and troughs below 30ms, any peak above 30ms may be seen as a stutter during gameplay. This will however depend greatly on your own perceptions.

Average and 99th Percentile response times (Frame Time Analysis)

Here we take a look at both average (black) and 99th Percentile (coloured) response times of the graphics cards. It is highly unlikely a user will notice any micro stutter (also incorrectly referred to as lag but the effect can be interpreted to be similar) at anything below 30ms but every gamers perception differs.

Conclusion

The NVIDIA GTX770 is a great card of that there can be no doubt. You may have noticed that thus far we have not commented on the price. We purposely left this until the end of the review for good reason because while it may well accused of being a re-badged GTX680, it is priced much closer to current GTX670 at a very reasonable £329. We have been vocal in accusing NVIDIA have adding a premium to their cards (sometimes justified, others not) however, with the GTX770, we find that NVIDIA have priced the GTX770 very aggressively, beating both the GTX680 and AMD HD7970 by a fair wedge.

Not only does it beat the competition on price but for the most part, it equals and often surpasses both the previous generation flagship NVIDIA card and current range topper from AMD. With this in mind it can be argued that the GTX770 actually offers very good value for money. Sure, £330 is still a lot of cash for a card which cannot be labelled as class leading. It does however give those who like to watch the pennies flagship performance at a drastically reduced cost.

Dressed in GTX TITAN clothing, the GTX770 is a stunner to look at and once installed you would be hard pushed to tell the difference between the two so we have no complaints there. If we did have one complaint, it would be the choice of core, the GK104. While there is nothing wrong with the performance of this core, this being a last generation flagship core, you would expect it to have current gen technology. The blistering memory speed goes some way to rectifying this problem however, we would have liked to have seen a revised GK110 core rather than last gen GK104.

In fairness to NVIDIA however, it is a marketing strategy they have used to great effect in the past by shifting surplus last generation cores at a knock-down price in current gen. So with that in mind, if it helps keep costs down while not sacrificing performance, we are certainly not going to complain too much.

The GTX770 is like going out on the town to a cheap bar and scoring. Back at your place, what you thought was a young stunner turns out to be older than she originally looked – but boy can she move! This, like the GTX770, leaves you with a smug grin, regardless of your initial misgivings.

To summarise:
With the GTX770 you get a near perfect balance of performance and cost. NVIDIA have come up trumps yet again with this generation. AMD should be afraid because NVIDIA now have 3 cards that surpass the performance of their own flagship single core GPU.

Pros
+ Great Overclocker
+ Blistering memory performance
+ Competitive price point
+ Low-noise

Cons
– Last generation GPU core

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