Conclusion
Conclusion
You have been able to read quite a few GeForce GTX 770 reviews here on Guru3D.com, the conclusion will roughly all be the same. The release of the GeForce GTX 770 is a little bit of a weird one, really this is a GeForce GTX 680 in disguise. Now there's nothing wrong with that as it is merely a refresh of an existing product line. The GTX 680 has been a real powerhouse in performance and to date can keep up in the high-end range of dedicated graphics cards. The reality of course for those that have purchased a GTX 680, there's no reason to upgrade whatsoever. Overall you are looking at a performance differential of 10% in favor of the GTX 770. The GTX 770 is faster thanks to a higher standard clock and memory frequency. Now I do not want to cast a negative cloud on the GTX 770 as really, it's a great product to have in your PC.
Interesting is this release of the KFA2 GeForce GTX 770 EX OC edition. Its quite the looker and has a really nice dual-fan solution that will keep the temperatures a chunk under reference temperatures. The card comes with a mild overclock as well, but let's zoom in a little at some of it's aspects.
Aesthetics
So just like the GTX 780 we just reviewed, KFA2 again applied their familiar looking cooling solution. This revision is a dual-slot solution and I think it just looks great. The PCB seems to follow the reference though it's been manufacturers by the KFA2/Galaxy's ODM. Then the cooler in its all grey design combined with the dark PCB, that's just nice looking. We would have liked to see a metal bar at the top or a backplate to prevent the card from bending through while hanging horizontally.
Cooling & Noise Levels
As you have been able to see in our test sessions, the cooler does its job really well. The cooler applies roughly 300 to 350 Watts of cooling power. As a result the "official" temperature target might remain 80 degrees C, but we have never seen the card pass 75 Degrees. BTW unlike some other websites, we do not fire off pointless viral-like applications like Furmark to test temperatures. We simply log the temperatures during our benchmark sessions and take the highest recorded temperature. So with the lower than reference temperatures comes an added benefit, the dynamic clock frequency will go higher up to the point it reached its power target of 230 Watt. Noise is fine, it stays below 40 DBa meaning you can hear the cooler. Unfortunately there was some coil noise under stress though. This seems to be a common denominator for Galaxy / KFA2 products over the years.
Power Consumption
Again not bad, the card is rated at as having a 230 Watt TDP. That 250 Watt TDP will also make running multi-GPU solutions a bit easier. With two cards we think an 800 Watt PSU would be sufficient. So yeah, it's not great to have a GPU sucking up 230 Watt, but you'll agree with us that it could have been a lot worse, really. If you look at the dual-GPU based ARES II for example, that card alone draws 500 Watt / 250 Watt per GPU. So, perspective is the word I like you to keep in mind. Mind you that our measurements show that the card is just under 200 Watts of power consumption mostly (under stress).
Game Performance
The GeForce GTX 770 in most scenarios will be 15% to 25% slower than the GTX 780, comparing towards GTX 680 it seems give or take 10% faster. Drivers wise we can't complain at all, we did not stumble into any issues. And with a single GPU there's no micro-stuttering (if that ever bothered you) and no multi-GPU driver issues to fight off. Performance wise really there's not one game that won't run seriously good at the very best image quality settings. The one title that is a little icky is Metro Last Light, just disable SSAA as the game already applies and enforces in-game AAA. Gaming you must do with a nice 30" monitor of course, at 2560x1440/1600. I mean Sleeping Dogs at high quality is still oozing out 88 FPS there. Or what about Hitman Absolution with 45 FPS at 1920x1200 High quality and 2xMSAA? At these resolutions the GeForce GTX 770 offers just a phenomenal gaming experience with image quality that you can only get on a PC.
Overclocking
Overclocking then, again impressive. First off, the card already has a very nice factory overclock straight out of the box. As a result the card is boosted to roughly 1200 MHz. A thing or two have changed, the new boost modes now also can be configured with temperature targets relative to maximum power draw and your GPU Core frequency offsets. Saying that I realize it's sounds complicated, but you'll have your things balanced out quite fast. This GPU can take 1250 MHz fairly easily really, and at that stage you added another 10% performance already (over reference GTX 770). We had great results allowing this card to run stable at close to 1300 MHz. With this KFA2 card you will need to apply some extra fan RPM though.
Conclusion
Congratulations, you made it all the way through to the last chapter of the church of Guru, the conclusion. Can I hear an Amen brothers and sisters for the heart of the GTX 770 which is the GTX 680, combined with a small tweak on the baseclock clock frequency and memory it brings in a nice 10% gain in performance. *imagine choir singing aaaaaaaaaah*
Seriously though, lame puns aside, the decisive factor obviously is obviously going to be pricing. The performance of the GeForce GTX 770 is nothing to complain about, in fact at 1920x1200 this might be the best card for the money if you are looking for some brute horsepower in the high-end segment. KFA2 gave the GTX 770 a little extra TLC by adding their proprietary cooling design. it works well, but the competition is fierce though. Regardless, your temps will remain under 75 Degrees C which is great. Out of the box you'll receive a small speed bump as the card is factory clocked faster for you. All factors combined make the KFA2 GeForce GTX 770 EX OC a lovely card that is performing really nicely. So the MSRP pricing for GTX 770 overall is EUR 329.00 excl. VAT, which means roughly 395 EUR / USD depending on your country. And KFA2 just confirmed that the card will cost around £329.99 inc at OCUK. And that's quite honestly a very reasonable price, especially when you consider that it is the suggested retail price. Shave off another 15% in about four weeks and that will be the final pricing (roughly. There's no need to make the conclusion any longer then needed, this product comes recommended if you are in the market for it of course. Don't forget to check out our other GeForce GTX 770 content & related downloads.
Amen to that *imagine choir singing aaaaaaaaaah (2)* ;)
More GeForce GTX 770 related content
- GeForce GTX 770 Reference review
- GeForce GTX 770 2-way SLI and Multi monitor review
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3x OC review
- Palit GeForce GTX 770 Jetstream review
- KFA2 GeForce GTX 770 EX OC review
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