Gigabyte GTX 760 WindForce OC 2GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

We have already seen from Nvidia’s GTX 760 that it is the new sweet-spot gaming graphics card in Nvidia’s new line up. The GTX 760 replaces the GTX 660 Ti  and sits just behind the GTX 770 in the new GTX 700 series. Gigabyte’s implementation of the GTX 760 that we’ve seen here today is certainly an interesting one. Firstly Gigabyte have stepped up to the market in offering both a custom cooled GTX 760 and one with significant out of the box overclocks. We can see across a wide range of benchmarks that it sits very close behind the GTX 770 but at a fraction of the cost, the reason for that is the fact Gigabyte have implemented such a high overclock out of the box. In terms of pricing we are seeing current availability and pricing for about £215 which makes Gigabyte’s GTX 760 WindForce OC possibly the cheapest factory overclocked GTX 760 with a custom cooler money can buy.

The eagle eyed among you will have noticed that the Gigabyte GTX 760 we reviewed had a blue PCB and finger print magnet outer plastic shroud. Since release Gigabyte have opted to release a second revision of this exact graphics card fixing both these problems. The new revision features an all-black PCB as well as a more matte-style outer shroud. Furthermore Gigabyte are also partaking in the Splinter Cell Blacklist bundle so if you buy from selected retailers, available below in our pricing section, then you will be able to pick up a free copy of that game adding some extra value.

While we have seen that the strong points of the Gigabyte GTX 760 include its performance, price and overall aesthetics (if you buy revision 2), it is also important to examine this graphics card’s weaknesses.  From our results it is apparent that the WindForce 3X solution isn’t the quietest and even under gaming load it does create a lot of noise. That said it is still able to hold the GTX 760 overclocked at temperatures just under the 80 degree mark meaning GPU Boost 2.0 doesn’t need to kick down the clocks as much as it would have to on a reference cooling solution, so while the temperatures are similar to reference coolers this is only the case because GPU boost 2.0 chooses 80 degrees as the thermal cap. The Gigabyte GTX 760 is able to sustain much higher clocks at that same thermal cap than other solutions so it may be loud but it does give cooling performance to compensate. My other issue with the Gigabyte GTX 760 WindForce OC 2GB graphics card is that it is rather power hungry. The card can uses as much as, if not more than, the next card up in the series the GTX 770. Of course a lot of this is to do with the increased clock speeds and addition of two more fans.

Pros

• Value for money & price
• Close to GTX 770 performance
• Good cooling performance
• Reasonable overclocking headroom
• Free Splinter Cell Blacklist game promotion
• New revision has black PCB and improved shroud

Cons

• Cooler gets loud under load
• Power consumption is nearly as much as GTX 770

eTeknix says: “Gigabyte’s GTX 760 WindForce OC 2GB Graphics card is a smart choice for any gamer looking for the best performing GTX 760 money can buy. The WindForce cooling implementation allows for additional overclocking headroom and for the graphics card to maintain consistently high Nvidia GPU Boost 2.0 clock speeds. The decision by Gigabyte to revise the design to include a black PCB and improved shroud only shows how in-touch with consumers they are and Gigabyte really deserve credit for such a move. Silent freaks may not be impressed with the noise though it can be tamed with custom fan and temperature profiling.”

Thank you to Gigabyte for providing this review sample.