Gigabyte GTX 760 Windforce (GV-N760OC-2GD) review – force of the wind, cool of the mind
- Written by Bruno
- Published in Video card reviews
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.

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.

The fans have 8mm in diameter and are capable of maximum 4380 rpm.
The upside contains the 2 power connectors and 2 SLI bridges.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 is capable of 9% overclocking for the GPU and 16% for the memory.
Performance
3DMark Vantage

3DMark 11
3DMark

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Metro 2033

DiRT: Showdown

Batman: Arkham City

Sleeping Dogs

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.

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.

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:

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

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