Introduction
Maxwell is finally here after months of speculation and rumours…. but for most of our readers it probably isn’t the “beast” you’ve been expecting. Nvidia is not starting the launch of its new architecture at the high end, as we’ve come to expect, but instead Nvidia’s Maxwell arrives today in two forms, both of which are mid-range, the GTX 750 and the GTX 750 Ti, the latter of which we are testing. Maxwell is continuing Nvidia’s longer term and ongoing objective of improving power efficiency in their GPUs. In fact Nvidia have come a long way in this regard because this is the first time we’ve ever seen a mid-range Nvidia card with no supplementary power needed – both Maxwell cards being launched today require no additional power connectors other than the PCI Express bus.
However, before we take a look at the technical details surrounding Maxwell and the GM107 GPU that forms the basis of the GTX 750 Ti and GTX 750, let’s first go over the specifics of the new GTX 750 Ti. The first question is where does the GTX 750 Ti fit in to Nvidia’s current range of products? The answer to that is actually quite simple. The GTX 750 Ti quite logically replaces the GTX 650 Ti, and GTX 650 Ti Boost. It gets a bit strange with the GTX 750 though because the GTX 750 will be placed above the GTX 650, which doesn’t get discontinued. That means Nvidia’s current mid range consists of three new cards and two old ones as the diagram below demonstrates.
Moving on to the specifications and we can get a closer idea of what this graphics card will do. The GTX 750 Ti has a fully enabled GM107 GPU with all five SMMs (streaming multiprocessors) enabled. This gives the GTX 750 Ti 640 CUDA cores, 40 TMUs and 16 ROPs. The base clock comes in at over 1GHz with 1020MHz on the core and a 1085MHz boost speed which it should be noted is fully compatible with Nvidia’s latest GPU Boost 2.0 technology that allows consumers to tune their temperature/power and clock targets to their own preference. Importantly though for the mid-range market Nvidia has given this card 2GB of GDDR5 making sure it offers enough frame-buffer for users to take advantage of higher resolutions or multiple monitors. Importantly though let me draw your attention to the power consumption – just a 60W maximum TDP and a 300W power supply needed – impressive stuff. Remember the GTX 650 Ti was a 110W part and the GTX 650 Ti Boost was a 135W part (with 400 and 450W PSU recommendations respectively) so this is almost half the power! This paves the way for the GTX 750 Ti to fit into small form factor systems, a perfect GPU for any mini-ITX build that is thermally constrained.
Nvidia’s GTX 750 Ti is being aimed at a lot of people, but there is a more specific group of people Nvidia are hoping to attract the attention of. Nvidia have used data from the latest Steam Hardware Survey, which says 1.96% of Steam Users still use a GTX 550 Ti, to target this new graphics card at GTX 550 Ti owners. This is for two reasons: the card will cost a similar amount to what they paid for their GTX 550 Ti when it first came out and the GTX 550 Ti is about 3 years old and most people upgrade graphics cards after about 2 years of ownership. Therefore making the GTX 750 Ti an ideal upgrade pathway for GTX 550 Ti users. So what can you expect if you upgrade from a GTX 550 Ti? Nvidia says more than twice the performance.
Interestingly, that is more than twice the performance AND at nearly half the power consumption thanks to Maxwell’s efficiency.
And it only takes some simple maths to see that the Maxwell design in the GTX 750 Ti is 4X as efficient as the Fermi design in the GTX 550 Ti – it certainly is a very compelling upgrade pathway.
Nvidia believes the GTX 750 Ti is a very flexible graphics card. It’s low TDP means less heat and less power consumption. This means less cooling is required, so it will fit into smaller cases with low airflow, and less power is needed, so it can fit into tiny cases that won’t accept full ATX power supplies.
Of course if you have a modest pre-built PC with integrated graphics (something made by Acer, HP, Dell, ZooStorm, Lenovo, etc…) then the GTX 750 Ti is also ideal because all you need is a free PCIe slot and 60W extra power to spare and you’re good to go. In any modern PC (even the most basic of pre-built ones) you should be able to find both of those things so the GTX 750 Ti makes an ideal buy in those scenarios. It can save you from having to make an expensive power supply upgrade!
nice card but going from a 650 ti to a 750 ti dont really seem like much of an upgrade for me to pay out $150 i would get a 650 ti boost over this card 😛
if only when the 860 comes out it could be like only $200 but yes i know it wont be 😛
Yeh it’s not meant to be much of an upgrade for GTX 650 Ti Boost users, it is more aimed at people with GTX 5XX series cards or those building new small form factor/low power PCs
It’s about 15-20% quicker than the 650Ti while consuming less power at typically common screen resolutions. If you’re in the market for either card the smart money would be on the 750Ti.
but i have the 650 ti already was just saying it isnt much of an upgrade for me 😛
This is weird! If the 750Ti is faster than the 650Ti, Then how did Nvidia do it? Because both cards memory is the same speed at 86.4 gb/s , Next the 650Ti has 64 TMU’s giving a speed of 59392 Mtexels/sec
vs the 750Ti’s 40 TMUs Giving a speed of 40800 Mtexels/sec, Both cards have 16 ROP’s, Next the 650Ti has 768 cuda cores vs the 750Ti’s 640 cuda cores. So if it is faster I am not seeing how. I saw the benchmarks. Did they use older bench scores vs the recent 750Ti bench scores? If I am not mistaken the 650Ti improved in performance with later driver updates. Something about a V-Sync issue with the older drivers. I think other 600 series cards also had the same issue until the driver update.
If the 750Ti is faster I will buy it, Because I am going to eventually need to get a card with at’least 2GB in the future. And I want a card close in performance and price to what I got, I just hope they are properly comparing them.
Nvidia GPU Cores are not comparable across generations, Nvidia’s GTX 750 Ti is Maxwell while the GTX 650 Ti is Kepler. To use an AMD example You wouldn’t say the HD 6670 that has 480 (VLIW5) cores so why is not faster than the HD 7730/R7 240 which ONLY has 384 (GCN) cores. So why do the same thing with the Nvidia cards here. The GTX 750 Ti is SIGNIFICANTLY faster than the GTX 650 Ti, there is absolutely no disputing that in any way. Any drivers will give you the same results – the GTX 750 TI is at least 10% faster. The GTX 650 Ti BOOST on the other hand is faster than the GTX 750 Ti. So please ensure you do not confuse the two.
Oh and if you need verification from another site please see below:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/25.html
I know the difference between the 650 Ti boost and Non Boost 650 Ti, (I do own a non boost after all) However I did finally come to a conclusion, The 750 Ti is slightly faster but not enough to make any difference at all from a regular NON BOOST (so you can read) 650 Ti, Also both cards only have a memory bandwidth of 86.4 GB/sec meaning neither can really utilize 2GB , They can however utilize a little over 1GB but the difference is not enough to matter much. Looks like if anyone wants a cheap upgrade this year from the 650 Ti 1GB they will have to go with the R7 265, It has 2GB @ 179.2 GB/sec that’s enough bandwidth to utilize all 2GB. It stinks having to go to a AMD card because the crap drivers, But for $149 it is the same price as the 750Ti and a much more logical choice.
The R7 265 is a good option but currently it isn’t really available to buy at many places, and in the UK at least it is selling from £125+. The GTX 750 Ti starts at £106. I’d rather pay £106 for a 750 ti than £125 for an R7 265 when the difference in performance is so small.