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For this review today we are using the latest versions of both AMD and Nvidia drivers. We are using the ForceWare 320.18 driver with the GTX770.
We built a very high end liquid cooled Core i7 3960x system and overclocked it to 4.4ghz. We paired it up with 16GB of 2,400mhz memory and an ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard.
We included a wide cross section of cards in this review today – although our GTX680 sample decided to die just before the review started and we were unable to get one in time for NDA lifting today. We will likely revisit this at a future date when we get more samples in for review.
While many of the cards featured in the review fall in a price bracket below or above the £330-£350 price zone of the GTX770 – The Sapphire HD7970 OC Boost 3GB is very closely matched – available for around £340 inc vat at OCUK this week. This can be used a direct comparison, based on price.
Test System
Processor: Core i7 3960 X Extreme Edition @ 4.4ghz
Graphics Card: MSI Twin Frozr GTX770 OC (Forceware 320.18 beta)
Cooler: Antec 920 H20
Memory: 16GB G.Skill 2,400mhz @ 10-11-10-30
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme
Power Supply: Enermax Platimax 1250W
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Lian Li PC-A77FR Aluminium Red Full Tower Case
Boot Drive: Patriot WildFire 120GB
Secondary Drive: 1TB Samsung
Monitors: Dell U3011 and Dell U2410 x 3.
Other video cards:
Sapphire HD7990
Sapphire HD7970 Toxic 6GB (1200mhz core /1600mhz memory)
Sapphire HD7970 OC Boost 3GB
Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X
XFX HD7870 Core Edition
XFX HD7850 Core Edition
Sapphire HD7790 (1GB & 2GB versions)
XFX HD7770 Core Edition
Nvidia GTX690
Nvidia GTX Titan
Zotac GTX670
Gainward GTX660ti
Gainward GTX660
Zotac GTX650
Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Unigine Valley Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
3DMark
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
Games:
Alien V Predator
Total War: Shogun 2
Dirt Showdown
Sleeping Dogs
May Payne 3
Tomb Raider
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.
awesome card, bit expensive, was hoping for around £300 – ah well!
Awesome coolers those – quick question however, did you notice the PCB was bent in the middle? my last MSI card WARPED very badly. I hear its a fairly common thing
I like the sounds of the cooler, my old 7870 is loud as hell.
Are they bringing out a 760 soon? might be more in my price bracket