Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX Review

1. Introduction2. Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX3. Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX (High Res Gallery)4. Testing Methodology5. 3DMark Vantage6. 3DMark 117. 3DMark8. Unigine Heaven Benchmark9. Unigine Valley Benchmark10. Total War: Rome 211. Tomb Raider12. GRID Autosport13. Battlefield 414. Watchdogs15. Thermal Dynamics16. Acoustics Performance17. Power Consumption18. Overclocking19. Closing Thoughts20. View All Pages

Nvidia's GTX750ti Maxwell card has impressed us. We reviewed several partner solutions back in February and March this year and for the modest asking price it delivered some great frame rates, especially when factoring in the incredibly modest power demand. Today we look at a new GTX750 Ti Maxwell card from Palit, their passively cooled, silent solution dubbed the ‘KalmX'.

The Palit GTX750 Ti isn't supplied in an overclocked state probably due to the fact it is passively cooled. The core clock is set at 1,020mhz and memory is clocked at 1,350mhz. This 2GB of GDDR5 memory is connected via a 128 bit memory interface. The card is equipped with 16 ROPS, 40 Texture units and 640 Cuda Cores.


We like the Palit box artwork … a lot. In this day and age of using a single generic design for a complete range of video cards, it is nice to see Palit adopting a specific design, just for the KalmX.

Why such an unusual name? Well if you say ‘Kalm' out loud, it sounds like ‘Calm'. The X could probably signify ‘extra'. So we end up with ‘extra calm'. As this is silent, passively cooled solution, we guess it makes sense.

The back of the box lists some general specifications.

No bundle really, just an information leaflet and a software disc. We do always advise readers to go get the very latest beta drivers directly from the Nvidia website.

No fans anywhere in sight. And no noise either. A nice combination we don't often see. The Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX is actually a very attractive looking graphics card. The giant heatsink has a gold bar running along the lower area, with the name highlighted. The PCB is black, keeping in style with the understated aesthetic.

If you loathe dealing with fan noise and are looking to build a cost effective system to connect up to a 1080p monitor or television then the Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX will be a video card you want to consider. It also helps that it is a bit of a looker too.

Nvidia's GTX750 Ti doesn't need any power connectors to operate – it takes all the power it needs direct from the PCI e slot. Actually this is not completely accurate, the ASUS GTX750 Ti OC which we reviewed back on March 7th 2014 required a single 6 pin connector which was a little disappointing. The Palit GTX750 Ti KamX we are reviewing today doesn't require one however, so bonus points to Palit.

Two DVI ports and an HDMI port are featured on the I/O backplate. Sadly no DisplayPort on this card.

The heatsink is easy to remove, and there are no headers or cables to get in the way either. The cooler is large, but the design is simple enough. A copper base is connected to two heatpipes which run into large racks of aluminum fins on either side of the core.
On this page we present some high resolution images of the product taken with a Fuji XT1 and a Sigma SD1 camera. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.





To test today we are using the latest Forceware 340.43 beta drivers and Catalyst 14.7 beta drivers.

We are using one of our brand new test rigs supplied by DINOPC and built to our specifications. If you want to read more about this, or are interested in buying the same Kitguru Test Rig, check out our article with links on this page. We are using an Apple 30 inch Cinema HD monitor for this review today.

Comparison cards:
Palit GTX 750 Ti (1,202 mhz core / 1502 mhz memory)
MSI GTX750 Ti Twin Frozr OC (1,085mhz core / 1,350mhz memory)
eVGA GTX760 SC (1072mhz core / 1502mhz memory)
Sapphire R7 265 Dual X (925mhz core / 1400mhz memory)
VTX3D R9 270X X Edition (1,080mhz core / 1400mhz memory)
ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC (975mhz core / 1,400mhz memory)
VTX3D HD7870 Tahiti LE (975mhz core / 1500mhz memory)
VTX3D VChamp HD7850 (1000mhz core / 1225mhz memory)
ASUS HD7850 (860mhz core / 1,200mhz memory)
Gigabyte GTX650TI (1,033mhz core / 1,350mhz memory)

Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Unigine Valley Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
3DMark
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark

Games:
Total War: Rome 2
Grid AutoSport
Tomb Raider
Battlefield 4
Watch Dogs

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.
Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.

The Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX scores well in this older Direct X 10 benchmark, claiming a final score of 20,585 points.
3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

The graphics score of 5,412 gives an early indication that 1080p performance should be acceptable with medium to high settings in most games.
3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance.

Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good.

To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.”

The latest version of 3DMark is a demanding Direct X 11 test. The Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX scores well considering the price point, claiming a final score of 4,293 points.
Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset.

A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

• Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
• Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
• Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
• Multicore CPU support
• Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
• Powerful C++ API
• Comprehensive performance profiling system
• Flexible XML-based data structures

We tested at 1080p with the settings shown above.

We noticed some micro stuttering in this benchmark in one specific part of the test which gave a false indication of minimum frame rates. Still the average frame rate puts the Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX in behind the Asus GTX750 Ti OC.
Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.

We tested at 1080p with the settings shown above.


Performance in this benchmark is perfectly smooth at 1080p , averaging almost 48 frames per second.Total War ROME 2 is the eighth stand alone game in the Total War series, it is the successor to the successful Rome: Total War title. The Warscape Engine powers the visuals of the game and the new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers on the battlefield, which in itself may contain thousands of combatants at a time.

Creative Assembly has stated that they wish to bring out the more human side of war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city. This will be realised using facial animations for individual units, adding a feel of horror and realism to the battles.

To test the cards today we use the ULTRA profile settings shown above at 1920×1080.

This game may have been released some time ago, but it is immensely popular and demanding of the partnering hardware. The Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX performs well, considering the high image quality settings – only dropping below 25 frames per second once in our test section.
Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far.

We test with the ultimate settings at 1080p.

Performance is generally very good, although there are a couple of intensive environment sections which can cause a few minor performance issues for the GTX750 Ti. Dropping the image quality from ULTIMATE to ULTRA would be a way to raise the minimum frame per second rate.
Grid Autosport (styled as GRID Autosport) is a racing video game by Codemasters and is the sequel to 2008′s Race Driver: Grid and 2013′s Grid 2. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on June 24, 2014.

We test at 1080p with image quality settings set to ULTRA.

The Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX performs well at 1080p, holding a frame rate well above 30 at all times.
Battlefield 4 (also known as BF4) is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and published by Electronic Arts. The game is a sequel to 2011′s Battlefield 3. Battlefield 4 is built on the new Frostbite 3 engine. The new Frostbite engine enables more realistic environments with higher resolution textures and particle effects. A new “networked water” system is also being introduced, allowing all players in the game to see the same wave at the same time. Tessellation has also been overhauled.

We test the Sapphire R7 265 in both ‘Direct X’ and ‘Mantle’ modes and compare against the  GTX750 Ti cards. We are using the latest patch as of 20th July 2014.

The default clock speeds of the Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX mean that it does struggle a little to maintain smooth frame rates at all times.
For Watch Dogs, Ubisoft Montreal built a new game engine called Disrupt.The engine was originally intended for a different game focused on driving. Ubisoft North American president Laurent Detoc explained that the team working on the project realized an open-world game was a better fit than their original vision.Watch Dogs runs in 900p on PlayStation 4 and 792p on Xbox One; both versions of the game run at 30fps. The PC version has received a lot of negative press due to the poor port from console.

We configured the engine to run at 1080p with ‘high' settings, as detailed above.

Reasonably smooth frame rates considering the relatively poor port from console to PC.
The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.


Due to the passive nature of the cooling on this solution, the heatsink takes some time to reach peak temperatures. In this case 56c when gaming, or 64c when stressed in the synthetic Furmark test. The cooler is certainly doing an adequate job, aided by the cool running Nvidia Maxwell architecture.
We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.

We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa.

Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

KitGuru noise guide

10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX has no fan, and doesn't register any level of noise on our equipment. Ideal for those people with very sensitive ears building a new rig for a living room or bedroom environment.
To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Crysis Warhead and the synthetic stress test Furmark and record both results.

The Palit GTX 750 Ti KalmX is one of the most efficient cards we have tested, only consuming 58 watts when gaming – all from the PCI e socket.
We used MSI Afterburner to overclock today. It is based on the popular Rivatuner software.


Considering the Palit GTX750 Ti KalmX is passively cooled there is a surprising amount of headroom available before instability occurs. We managed to push the core to 1,190mhz, or by an additional 16.6%.


The manual overclock helps boost performance significantly in 3DMark 11, pushing the card to around mid table.
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.

Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.

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.

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