Asus GTX 750 Ti OC 2GB Review

We have been singing the praises of the Maxwell architecture since Nvidia launched it in February this year. It is such an improvement on the previous generation that Nvidia really do deserve an enormous amount of praise.

If you are a frame rate junkie then Nvidia's GTX 750 Ti may seem underwhelming at first, but pause for a moment and think of the potential for high end solutions down the line. The Maxwell architecture is unmatched in regards to performance per watt. In real world terms, the coolers on these graphics cards have to deal with less core heat, the fans can spin slower – which means less noise is emitted under any given situation.

Considering the GTX 750 Ti is manufactured on the 28nm process bodes well for the future. When Nvidia move to the 20nm process later this year we should see even bigger gains filtering up through the product line, including high end graphics cards that are faster, but run cooler and demand less power at the socket. It really is a win-win for their partners and we are positive that Nvidia have a very strong 24 months ahead of them.

So far we have reviewed the Palit GTX 750Ti Storm X Dual and the MSI GTX750 Ti OC Twin Frozr – both of which earned our highest award. The Palit card was overclocked almost to the redline at 1,200mhz right out of the box, performing exceptionally well in our tests. The MSI GTX750 Ti OC Twin Frozr was more modestly clocked, but shipped with an incredible Twin Frozr cooler, not often seen on a budget graphics card.

How does the Asus card compare?

First impressions are mixed. We generally do love the ASUS coolers and we noticed that ASUS have implemented an additional DVI connector, which earned it bonus points. Sadly when we scanned around the PCB, we noticed that this is the only GTX750 Ti solution we have tested which requires an additional 6pin PCIe power connector.

To compound matters, ASUS have bizarrely moved the connector close to the I/O backplate, which means you have to run the power cable the full length of the PCB to reach the connector. In some smaller cases this will be an issue. Even if you have a larger case it still looks messy.

Not only does the addition of a PCI E connector negate one of the major benefits of buying a GTX 750 Ti in the first place, but we found during our tests that the ASUS GTX750 Ti doesn't actually need the power from the connector, drawing only 63 watts of power when gaming, well within the rated 75 Watt limit of the PCI e slot.

We would also advise against using the bundled GPU Tweak supplied on the software disc when overclocking the ASUS GTX750 Ti. The memory clock speeds were limited to a measly 1,400mhz. Using MSI's Afterburner meant we could get stable clock speeds of 1,600mhz+ from the high grade Samsung GDDR5 memory. The final manually tweaked clock speeds were excellent, but sadly not markedly better than those we achieved with the Palit or MSI solutions.

Right now you can buy the ASUS GTX750 Ti from Overclockers UK for £131.99 inc vat. We have been instructed by ASUS however that prices will drop below the £130 mark next week on various etail stores.

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Pros:

• Excellent performance per watt.
• Quiet.
• Good overclocking headroom.

Cons:

• Ludicrous position for a PCIe 6 pin power connector.
• Doesn't actually need the 6 pin power connector.
• Weak out of the box overclock.
• MSI's Afterburner gave better overclocking results than ASUS GPU Tweak.

Kitguru says: A great graphics card from ASUS, with excellent overclocking potential, but the addition of an unnecessary 6 pin PCI e power connector and its bizarre location are bewildering.

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