We all love to read about the latest AMD R9 295X2 and Nvidia Titan Z solutions, but the biggest percentage of sales for both companies happens in the lower end of the market. Earlier this year AMD rebadged their HD7850, after making some I/O output and power changes, while dropping the price to around £110. It is always a little disappointing to see either GPU manufacturer regurgitating a design from a previous generation and releasing it to market. Sadly this happens on a fairly regular basis.
Nvidia's GTX750 Ti has been (in my humble opinion) one of the best advances in the GPU sector in the last year. Sure, there is no doubt the Maxwell architecture struggles to keep up with the AMD R7 265 … but to simply conclude with a frame rate comparison does a severe injustice to Nvidia.
The Maxwell architecture really is remarkable. Nvidia have clearly placed a focus on power consumption, and have reduced it as much as possible. In this regard the architecture can be considered a complete success- it doesn't even require a single 6 pin PCIe connector, taking all the power it needs direct from the slot.
We all have a tendency to focus purely on the performance capabilities of a graphics card without factoring in the power demand – I am as guilty as anyone in this regard. A large percentage of us may not worry too much about electricity costs, but two side effects of a lower power demand are heat reduction and a drop in running temperatures. And we all want that.
The Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX really is a fantastic option for a very wide audience. Many people in the budget sector will upgrade one or two components at a time, often relying on an older power supply. The GTX750 Ti makes very little demand of a partnering supply and doesn't even require a power connector to operate. When powering a Direct X 11 game it demands less than 60 watts at the slot.
If you are building a new media center to connect to a 1080p television then the Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX should be right at the top of a shortlist. The fan less design and modest heat output ensure it won't cause thermal issues inside a small chassis, or create a racket in a bedroom or living room environment. The GTX750 Ti is also powerful enough to handle many of the latest games at 1080p with high image quality settings enabled.
It is also worth pointing out the excellent overclocking potential of the GTX750Ti. The Palit KalmX responded with a 16.6% core clock increase to 1,190mhz, which is particularly noteworthy when you factor in that it is fanless. At this speed it is actually faster than the reference clocked HD7850 which demands 115 watts – around double the power consumption of this Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX.
We can only find one store in the United Kingdom selling this card at time of publication, priced at £117.90 inc vat.
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Pros:
- Silent.
- looks great.
- excellent overclocking potential.
- doesn't require a power connector.
- can handle many games at 1080p.
Cons:
- At reference clock speeds it is outperformed by AMD's R7 265, at a similar price point.
Kitguru says: Silent, very low power demands and it runs cool and quiet with plenty of overclocking potential.
Not entirely sure why they bothered doing an acoustics test on a passive heatsink. Seems like a waste of time.
I think for people looking for fanless card, there is intrest how this can perform in completly passive system.
How this card will work out in case with little airflow, no or few fans with low rpm? If i already have lot of fans in my rig, probably fanless gpu wont be that much intrest to me.
Liquid cooling on cpu and total of 5 fans in system provide plenty of airflow, and show this card in perfect light but dosent quite provide insight if [maybe with reducing power consumption ], this card can work in fully|semi passive system.
I think for people looking for fanless card, there is intrest how this can perform in completly passive system.
How this card will work out in case with little airflow, no or few fans with low rpm? If i already have lot of fans in my rig, probably fanless gpu wont be that much intrest to me.
Liquid cooling on cpu and total of 5 fans in system provide plenty of airflow, and show this card in perfect light but dosent quite provide insight if [maybe with reducing power consumption ], this card can work in fully|semi passive system.