ASUS GeForce GTX 750 (GTX750-PHOC-1GD5) Quick Review

The ASUS GeForce GTX 750 (ref: GTX750-PHOC-1GD5) is the first videocard (with the GTX 750 Ti) based on NVIDIA’s new GPU architecture Maxwell. ASUS GTX 750 packs 512 CUDA cores and comes with 1GB of GDDR5 graphics memory. More information about NVIDIA GTX 750 can be found HERE. The GeForce GTX 750 is an entry level card (high-end GeForce GTX based on Maxwell are planned for later) but is one of the most efficient graphics card ever built by NVIDIA. In short, the GTX 750 offers the same kind of performance than the old GeForce GTX 480 but for a fraction of the power consumption. In this test, we’re going to see if this statement is true. But before diving into benchmarks, let’s start with the gallery.

1 – GTX 750 Gallery

The bundle is amazingly simple:

The GTX 750: no power connector (the power of the PCI Express slot is enough), a simple but very quiet VGA cooler and a black PCB:

2 – GTX 750 GPU Data

3 – GTX 750 Graphics Benchmarks

For this benchmarking session, I used GpuTest 0.7.0 and 3DMark (2013). All cards have been benchmarked with stock settings (clock speeds, voltage, power target, etc.).

Testbed:
– PSU: Corsair AX 860i
– Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z77
– CPU: Core i5 2400 @ 3.1GHz
– Memory: 8GB DDR3 Corsair 1600MHz
– Win8 Pro 64-bit
– Graphics drivers: R337.50

3.1 – GpuTest: FurMark

Settings: 1920×1080 fullscreen, no AA.

• GTX 750: 2029 points, 33 FPS
• GTX 480: 2681 points, 44 FPS
• GTX 780: 5714 points, 95 FPS

3.2 – GpuTest: TessMark X16

Settings: 1920×1080 fullscreen, no AA.

• GTX 750: 21911 points, 365 FPS
• GTX 480: 24498 points, 475 FPS

3.3 – GpuTest: TessMark X64

Settings: 1920×1080 fullscreen, no AA.

• GTX 480: 4814 points, 80 FPS
• GTX 750: 5740 points, 95 FPS

Interesting, with high level of tessellation, the GTX 750 is faster than the GTX 480.

3.4 – GpuTest: Volplosion

Settings: 1920×1080 fullscreen, no AA.

• GTX 480: 1121 points, 18 FPS
• GTX 750: 1186 points, 19 FPS
• GTX 780: 2503 points, 41 FPS

In this pure pixel shader / math test, the GTX 750 is once again faster than the GTX 480.

3.5 – 3DMark

Ice Storm

• GTX 750: 126800
• GTX 480: 136198

Cloud Gate

• GTX 750: 12688
• GTX 480: 13443

Fire Strike

• GTX 480: 2911
• GTX 750: 3468
• GTX 780: 7996

4 – Burn-in Test

To stress the GTX 750, I used the FurMark test of GpuTest 0.7.0 with the following settings: 1024×640 windowed, no AA. The power consumption has been measured with the Corsair Link utility that works with the AX 860i PSU. The power consumption due to the CPU in load is estimated at 10w.

GTX 750 – IDLE
– GPU temperature: 26°C
– PSU:
. 99% efficiency,
. input power: 74W
. output power: 73W

GTX 750 – STRESS TEST – 5 min
– GPU temperature: 58°C
– PSU:
. 80% efficiency,
. input power: 174W
. output power: 140W
– GTX 750 power consumption: 140-73-10 = 57W

I did the same test with the GTX 480:

GTX 480 – IDLE
– GPU temperature: 50°C
– PSU:
. 92% efficiency,
. input power: 112W
. output power: 100W

GTX 480 – STRESS TEST – 5 min
– GPU temperature: 90°C
– PSU:
. 92% efficiency,
. input power: 424W
. output power: 398W
– GTX 480 power consumption: 389-100-10 = 288W

As you can see on the benchmarks scores, the GTX 750 offers more or less the same performance than the GTX 480. But when it comes to the power consumption and temperature, the GTX 750 is just insane: the power consumption of the GTX 480 is five times the power consumption of the GTX 750. And the idle GPU temperature of the GTX 480 is the burn-in GPU temperature of the GTX 750!

This GTX 750 is a really nice product. I really appreciate the performance/watt ratio of this card:

GTX 750 = 5X POWER EFFICENCY of the GTX 480

I think I will replace my current GTX 680 / GTX Titan by this GTX 750 on my development machine. I don’t need a powerful GPU when I code. I need a quiet graphics card with all latest features (OpenGL extensions for example) with reasonable 3D performances and that has only a very little impact of my electricity bill. The GTX 750 is today the perfect card for that! The GTX 750 is also perfect for HTPC systems and for gaming with reasonable settings.