With the GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX, EVGA sent us a GTX 760 before the actual launch which comes with some very interesting features. First of all the card has been customized all the way. There is a custom PCB, a custom cooler and there is even quite a massive factory overclocking. Overall this might be one of the GTX 760 cards you actually want to buy.
With the EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX you get a card which features
a custom PCB as well as a custom cooler. The ASIC quality
measured on our sample was 79.9 % which is high considering the average being at
73 % on the cards we had at hands.
About ASIC quality:
EVGA's GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX is based on NVIDIA's Kepler GK104-225
A2
chip, which is manufactured by TSMC using the latest 28 nanometer process
technology. With the GeForce GTX 760 you get six SMX units which results in
1'152 CUDA cores. Following the specs further, there are 96 TMUs, 32 ROPs, a
256 bit wide memory interface and 2 Gigabyte of GDDR5 memory, which is clocked
at 1'502 MHz (effective 6'008 MHz). In the end there is a memory bandwidth of
192 Gigabyte per second. Concerning the GPU's clock speeds it runs at a base
clock of 1072 MHz and a boost clock of 1137 MHz. During our tests the highest
boost clock we measured was 1'215 MHz and the average boost clock was also 1'215 MHz.
The EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX also supports GPU Boost 2.0. The first version of GPU Boost stopped overclocking the GPU when a certain power target was hit. This new second version of GPU Boost stops overclocking the card, when a certain temperature is being reached. This makes sense since the temperature is the bigger inhibitor than the power target in most cases. In this case the temperature target is 80 degrees Celsius. In other words, as long as the GPU runs at less than 80°C it will keep overclocking until the maximum frequency has been reached. This is why in our case the average boost clock was
182 MHz higher than the typical boost clock NVIDIA advertises.
nVidia GeForce
GeForce GTX 770
EVGA GTX 760 SC ACX
GeForce GTX 760
GeForce GTX 670
Chip
GK104-425-A2
GK104-225-A2
GK104-blah
GK104
Process
28 nm
28 nm
28 nm
28 nm
Transistors
3.54 billion
3.54 billion
3.54 billion
3.54 billion
GPU
clock
1'046 MHz
1'072 MHz
980 MHz
915 MHz
GPU Boost
clock
1'085 MHz
1'137 MHz
1'033 MHz
980 MHz
Memory
2'048 MB GDDR5
2'048 MB GDDR5
2'048 MB GDDR5
2'048 MB GDDR5
Memory
clock
1'750 MHz (7'000 MHz)
1'502 MHz (6'008 MHz)
1'502 MHz (6'008 MHz)
1'502 MHz (6'008 MHz)
Memory
interface
256 Bit
256 Bit
256 Bit
256 Bit
Memory
bandwidth
224'400 MB/s
192'300 MB/s
192'300 MB/s
192'300 MB/s
TMUs
128
96
96
112
Shader Cores
1'536 (8 SMX)
1'152 (6 SMX)
1'152 (6 SMX)
1'344 (7 SMX)
ROPs
32
32
32
32
Maximum board power
230 Watt
XXX Watt
170 Watt
170 Watt
PCB Type
Reference Design
Custom Design
Reference Design
Reference Design
Lenght (PCB - Total)
26.7 - 26.7 cm
24.3 - 24.3 cm
17.5 - 24.1 cm
17.5 - 24.1 cm
Height (PCB - Total)
11.0 - 11.0 cm
11.0 - 11.0 cm
11.0 - 11.0 cm
11.0 - 11.0 cm
Slots
2
2
2
2
Cooler
NVIDIA Reference
EVGA ACX
NVIDIA Reference
NVIDIA Reference
MSRP
$399
$259
$249
$199
EVGA decided to equip the GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX with their latest
and greatest ACX cooler. In case of this card you get three copper heatpipes
that have not been nickel plated. Two of them have a diameter of eight
millimeter while the last one has a standard size of six millimeter. Soldered to the heatpipes you find the fin stack
which is being provided with fresh air via two fans and these fans measuer 87
millimeter in diameter. EVGA is very proud of the fact, that they use fans that
feature excellent build quality. Another reasonable addition is, that this
custom cooler establishes direct contact with the MOSFET's thank to thermal
pads. Overall this cooler seems to be better than EVGA's old Signature 2.
As the ACX cooler is longer than the 17.5cm of the reference PCB, EVGA decided
to extend the PCB to the size of the cooler. In the end the PCB is 6.8 cm longer
than the reference one but the card's total lenght is the same. On this PCB
extension EVGA deported the memory power design you usually find below the GPU
power design on the reference card. This way they free some space for an
additional phase to the GPU power design. The rest of the PCB extension is empty
and covered by some kind of cooling plate which doesn't cool anything but the
ground (GND)?
A closer look at the PCB shows that EVGA equipped this card with an analog
seven phase power design. The GPU gets its current from five phases and the
two phases left take good care of the memory. NVIDIA's reference design
features four plus two phases.
Checking the
voltage regulation chip we find a RT8802A Multi-Phase PWM controller from
Richtek, which is the same model that can be found on the GTX 680 for exemple.
The reference card from NVIDIA makes use of a NCP5392P from ON Semiconductor.
Furthermore there is an
unidentified Richtek 2-phase PWM labelled 08 FC 80R taking care of a stable
current supply for the the
memory which I guess it's the same kind or the same as on the reference designed
card.
There is also an INA3221 Triple-Channel voltage monitor from Texas Instruments.
You also finder the later on the reference card.
The memory chips used are made by Hynix and carry the model number
H5GQ2H24AFR R0C. They are specified to run at 1'500 MHz (6'000 MHz effective).
The card ships well bolstered in a plastic made mold.
Bundled with the graphics card there is an user guide, some other
documentation, a driver CD that
includes the overclocking tool too, two power converters (2x Molex to PCIe-6pin), a DVI to VGA adapter,
a huge poster and a set of stickers.
That's already one hell of a bundle but guess what, there is more! This product
comes with a 3 year warranty and you can extend its warranty upon register it on EVGA's website to 5 years for 12 € and to 10 years
for 25 € within 90 days of purchase. Find more
information here.
This product is also eligible to EVGA's Step-Up Program.
Last but not least when checking EVGA's current promotions with this card at the moment you get
for free:
Idle, temperature is
taken after 15 minutes @ 43 %, 70 % and 100 % fan speed.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature under Furmark
For FurMark, temperature is taken
after 15 minutes of GPU Burn test @ 43 %, 70 % and 100 % fan speed.
We stopped the test when the GPU temperature hit 90°C.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature and fan speed under BattleField 3
For BattleField 3, temperature and fan speed values
taken, are the
highest achieved
after 1 hour gaming @ auto fan speed.
AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed.
CrossFire (non
ref design)
111.44
473
2.36
*Entire system
More is better
Less is better
More is better
The "Performance Index" value is calculated as the sum of all
benchmarks results divided by the amount of games (3DMark and Ungine not
included into the calculation).
Performance/Price
Graphics Cards
Performance Index
Price
(€)
Performance/€*10
nVidia GeForce GTX 760 (FW
320.39)
62.83
219.7
2.86
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC ACX (FW
320.39)
65.81
243.36
2.70
nVidia GeForce GTX 670
65.56
272.6
2.40
nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI
93.67
400.0
2.34
nVidia GeForce GTX 770
75.33
341.6
2.21
AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition
72.91
344.7
2.12
nVidia GeForce GTX 680
71.30
339.9
2.10
AMD Radeon HD 7970
65.80
319.0
2.06
nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI
103.55
545.2
1.90
nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI
111.58
679.8
1.64
AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed.
CrossFire
111.44
689.4
1.62
nVidia GeForce GTX 780
87.78
559.6
1.57
nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN
94.13
855.3
1.10
More is better
Less is better
More is better
For the price we took the lowest price available on geizhals.eu,
on the day the review has been published.
EVGA’ brand new GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX is quite a nice
piece of hardware. This custom card is not only quicker than a reference
GTX 760 it also features EVGA latest and greatest ACX cooler, which is
an improvement over the Signature 2 cooler but not yet perfect. Last but
not least, these days EVGA
is the only manufacturer of NVIDIA graphics cards, that manages to put together
a really appealing game bundle and furthermore there is EVGAs compelling extended
warranty offer as well as their Step-up program.
- Performance
- Game Bundle
- EVGA Step-Up
Cooling / Noise
Level
+
-
GPU Temperatures were good at maximum of 77°C
under heavy FurMark load with the fans revving up to 43 percent of
maximum fan speed. This new ACX cooler isn't perfect when it comes to
noise level, but still when comparing it to the Signature 2 cooler it's
an improvement. This cooler can be categorized as
audible while gaming with a maximus noise level measured at 40.5 dBA. In
idle the card i sunfortunately not noiseless, it's only silent.
Looking at the cooling performance part of the equation shows, that it's powerful.
- Noise
level in both idle and load
Performance
+
-
A closer look at overall performance shows that the
GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX is
5 % faster on average in games than a reference GTX 760.
Taking a look at the clock speed shows that this card clocks at 1'215 MHz
on average, when applying heavy 3D loads. At this point one can really
see GPU Boost 2.0 doing it's job, since it always tries to get the
maximum clock speeds out of the card, without overstepping the 80°C
temperature target.
A closer look at power consumption shows, that our test system, equipped
with the GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX, burns 50 Watts under idle conditions
and 205 Watts under load. Since we do not yet have a reference card at
hand, we can't tell you wheter this is better or worse than what NVIDIA
does.
- Performance/Watt
- Power consumption under load
- Power Consumption in idle
Recommendation / Price
+
-
Should you be looking for a graphics card in the
performance segment, that features a very decent factory overclocking, quite a decent cooler
and flexible options, then the EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SuperClocked
ACX is going to be a good choice.
- Performance Gaming
We gave the
GTX 760 SuperClocked ACX
from EVGA
the very good 4 out of 5 stars.