Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce (GV-N760OC-2GD) review – force of the wind, cool of the mind [355] | Video card reviews @ReviewStudio.net

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce (GV-N760OC-2GD) review – force of the wind, cool of the mind

A new GTX 760 board came to our office, for a review: Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce. The NVIDIA GTX 760 reference I’ve tested had the sample cooler, whilst Gigabyte sports its Windforce 3X solution.

Already knowing about the silence and cooling capabilities of the Gigabyte’s cooler, it would be interesting to see how it performs with the new graphics chipset.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD

 

The specs:

 

GIGABYTE GTX 760 Windforce

NVIDIA GTX 760

NVIDIA GTX 770

NVIDIA GTX 780

Chipset

GK104

GK104

GK104

GK110

Fabrication Process

28nm

28nm

28nm

28nm

Transistor Count

3.54 billion

3.54 billion

3.54 billion

7.1 billion

GPU clock

1085 MHz

980 MHz

1046 MHz

863 MHz

Boost clock

1150 MHz

1033 MHz

 1085 MHz

900 MHz

Memory

2 GB GDDR5

2/4 GB GDDR5

2/4 GB GDDR5

3 GB GDDR5

Memory Clock

6008 MHz

6008 MHZ

7010 MHz

6008 MHz

Memory Interface

256 bit

256 bit

256 bit

384 bit

Memory Bandwidth

192.2 GB/s

192.3 GB/s

224.3 GB/s

288.4 GB/s

Stream cores

1152

1152

1536

2304

ROPs

32

32

32

48

Texture Units

96

96

128

192

Texture Fillrate

94.1 GT/s

94.1 GT/s

133.9 GT/s

165.7 GT/s

SLI / Crossfire

3x

3x

3x

3x

TDP

170 W

170W

230 W

250 W

Price

$249

$249

399$

$649

 

 

Build and features

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce carries the nice aspect given by the 3 fans. It is not massive, but pretty elegant.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD

The fans have 8mm in diameter and are capable of maximum 4380 rpm.

The upside contains the 2 power connectors and 2 SLI bridges.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD top

The back of the board has no backplate and no memory chips. Instead there is a RT8802A voltage regulator module.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD back

The RT8802A controller is capable of 2/3/4/5-phase power conversion with automatic phase selection. Moreover it is capable of over current and over voltage protection.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD bottom Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD rear

To display the image, the board needs monitors. It is capable of connecting 4 of them simultaneously through its interfaces: 2x DVI, 1x, HDMI, 1x DisplayPort.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD interfaces

Let’s see how the cooling system is build. I take out the cooler and give you the image.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD cooler

There are 2 aluminum heatsinks connected through 3 copper heatpipes.  The cooler benefits from Gigabyte’s Triangle Cool and Ultra Durable VGA technologies for minimize the GPU temperature and for better overclocking capabilities.

The GPU is perfectly covered by the pipes which draw the heat from it. A little radiator cools down the VR.

The blue PCB contains the NVIDIA GK104 GPU and 8 memory modules. The VR has 5+2 phases corresponding to GPU and memory.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD no cooler

The memory is made by Hynix and has the indicative H5GQ2H24AFR-R0C. That means 2GB GDDR5 @ 3GHz and 1.5V.

 

Test setup

 

Model

Details

CPU

Intel Core i7-3770K

@ 3.9GHz

Cooler

EKWB Supreme HF

- Liquid cooling -

Motherboard

Biostar Z77X Hi-Fi

 

RAM

16GB G.SKill Ares DDR3-1600

11-11-11-28-2

Storage

Patriot Pyro 120GB

Intel AHCI

Video cards

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce

NVIDIA GTX 760 reference

ASUS GTX 770 DirectCU II OC

NVIDIA GTX 780 reference

Asus GTX 780 DirectCU II OC

MSI GTX 680 Lightning

Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II mini

Asus GTX 660 DCII Top

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz

Catalyst 13.1

Forceware 320.18

Forceware 320.39 for GTX 760

Monitor

Dell U2412M

 

PSU

Antec HCP-1200

 

 

Methodology

DirectX 10

Details

3DMark Vantage

High

Extreme

 

DirectX 11

Details

3Dmark 11

Extreme

3DMark

Cloud Gate

Fire Strike

Fire Strike Extreme

Unigine Heaven 4.0

1680x1050 High noAA / Extreme 4xAA

1920x1200 High noAA / Extreme 4xAA

Metro 2033

1680x1050 High noAA / Very High 4xAA

1920x1200 High noAA / Very High 4xAA

Dirt Showdown

1680x1050 High noAA / Ultra 4xAA

1920x1200 High noAA / Ultra 4xAA

Batman Arkham City

1680x1050 High noAA / Extreme 4xMSAA

1920x1200 High noAA / Extreme 4xMSAA

Sleeping Dogs

1680x1050 High / Extreme

1920x1200 High / Extreme

Tomb Raider

1680x1050 High / Ultimate

1920x1200 High / Ultimate

 

For NVIDIA boards I have used ForceWare 320.18, but for GTX 760 the 320.39 driver was provided. The AMD cards run on Catalyst 13.1.

The temperature was measured as the minimum value for idle state and the maximum value for load conditions. In each case, the noise was listened and interpreted by my very ear, at 1.5m from the opened test bench.

The power consumption was measured for the whole system and for the video card alone.

 

Overclocking

The default clocks are 1085MHz (1150MHz Boost) for the GPU and 1502MHz for the memory.  Effectively, the CPU went up to 1202MHz.

The GPU becomes unstable at 1185MHz (1250MHz Boost) and the memory at 1737 MHz (6948 MHz). The maximum frequency the CPU has reached was 1294MHz.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce GV-N760OC-2GD oc validation

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce is capable of 9% overclocking for the GPU and 16% for the memory.

 

Performance

3DMark Vantage

 Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce 3DMark Vantage

 

3DMark 11

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce 3DMark 11 

 

3DMark

 Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce 3DMark

 

Unigine Heaven 4.0

 Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce Unigine Heaven

 

Metro 2033

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce Metro 2033

 

DiRT: Showdown

 Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce DiRT Showdown

 

Batman: Arkham City

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce Batman AC

 

Sleeping Dogs

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce Sleeping Dogs

 

Tomb Raider

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce Tomb Raider

 

 

Temperature and noise

Gigabyte Windforce is a very nice cooler, both in aspect and performance. The Windforce system has 3 fans to cool the 2 radiators. The idea is to have a large airflow and minimum noise.

During our testing, I haven’t heard any noise, even after overclocking. The maximum rpm reached was 56% where the fans generated no sound.

On the other hand, the temperature was also under control.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce Temperature

The cooler is capable of keeping the overclocked GPU at max 71C (159.8 F), with the fans on AUTO settings. The manual override of rotation increased the rpm to 65% (where the noise is beginning to arise) and decreased the temperature to 69C (156.2 F).

Still, the noise will be heard from inside a closed chassis only after 70%, so basically… never!

 

Power consumption

As seen in the GTX 760 press sample review, the power consumption is medium to small. The NVIDIA board sucked maximum 237.9W for overclocking while delivering good performance.

The 8-pin + 6-pin power connectors can deliver 225W, being complete by the 75W from PCI-E for a total of maximum 300W. Let’s see how hungry is our board.

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce Power System

The system intake helps us choose the right PSU for the system. A PSU of 500W is capable of sustaining this gaming rig, having some additional power if needed.

Here is how Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce alone has done in this area:

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce Power Board

The difference between Gigabyte’s board and NVIDIA reference sample is under 20W, which is negligible.

 

Value

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce can be bought for $259.99 / €254.10 / £228.80, having a very good price/performance ratio. Compared to GTX 770, the little brother is a better buy.

 

 

Conclusion

Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce brings a good performance and a decent value. Starting with the nice aspect and the excellent and silent cooler, the graphics board makes a very good option for gamers.

It comes with a GPU clock increased over NVIDIA’s reference, offering a better performance. The overclocking is excellent, sometimes the numbers being close to GTX 770.

Overall we recommend this board as a best buy for gamers with a medium buget. But....how about a SLI configuration?

 

PROs

CONs

 

- nice build

- best performance

- best overclocking

- excellent power consumption

- excellent cooling

- no noise

- good value for performance

 

 

-

 

Evaluation

Build & Features

9.3

9.19

Performance

9.1

Cooling & Noise

9.3

Overclocking

9.2

Power consumption

9.3

Value

9.2

 

Awards

best-performance-9.1 best-overclocking-9.2 dead-silent-9.3

 

Comments

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