EVGA GTX 760 Superclocked with ACX Cooling Video Card Review

We’re in the midst of a GTX 760 blitz and up today is EVGA’s GTX 760 Superclocked (SC) with ACX Cooling (hereinafter mostly just EVGA GTX 760 SC), which comes in with the highest stock clocks of the GTX 760s we’re going to be reviewing.

Specifications & Features

Joe (EarthDog) covered the basics in our GTX 760 launch review with MSI’s card, so we won’t spend too much time on it. The EVGA GTX 760 SuperClocked model is pretty obviously going to be overclocked from the reference frequencies (reference are 980 MHz base / 1033 MHz boost on the GPU & 1502 MHz on the memory)

EVGA GTX 760 SC Stock GPUz
EVGA GTX 760 SC Stock GPUz

As you can see, there is a healthy overclock on the GPU, with a 92 MHz increase to the base frequency and a 104 MHz increase to the rated boost (which is actually quite a bit higher when the GPU is running, as you’ll see later). The memory stays at reference clocks.

From EVGA’s site, here are the specs & features for the EVGA GTX 760 SC with ACX Cooling:

Core

  • 1152 CUDA Cores
  • Base Clock: 1072 MHz
  • Boost Clock: 1137 MHz
  • Bus: PCI-E 3.0
  • 2-way, 3-way SLI Ready
  • Texture Fill Rate: 102.9 GT/s

Memory

  • Memory Detail: 2048 MB GDDR5
  • Memory Bit Width: 256 Bit
  • Memory Clock: 6008 MHz
  • Memory Speed: 0.33 ns
  • Memory Bandwidth: 192.2 GB/s

Key Features

  • NVIDIA TXAA Technology
  • NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0
  • NVIDIA PhysX Technology
  • NVIDIA FXAA Technology
  • NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync
  • NVIDIA Surround
  • Support for four concurrent displays; two dual-link DVI connectors, HDMI and Displayport 1.2
  • Microsoft DirectX 11.1 API (feature level 11_0) with Direct Compute 5.0 support
  • NVIDIA 3D Vision Ready
  • NVIDIA SLI Ready
  • NVIDIA CUDA Technology
  • PCI Express 3.0 Support
  • OpenGL 4.3 Support
  • OpenCL Support

On paper it looks solid, let’s look at the real thing.

Meet the EVGA GTX 760 SuperClocked (SC)

EVGA has changed their packaging from mid-range GPUs of last year, choosing to outfit them in form-fitting plastic rather than some bubble wrap inside cardboard. This is a positive change and eco friendly as well; you could recycle it if you choose to.

EVGA GTX 760 SC Box
EVGA GTX 760 SC Box

EVGA GTX 760 SC Box
EVGA GTX 760 SC Box

Box Contents
Box Contents

GPU Clamshell
GPU Clam Shell

Most video cards don’t come with much in the way of accessories, but the ones included with the GTX 760 SC are solid. You get the usual case badge, instructions and driver disc. There is even a pair of stickers if you’d like to use them.

What impressed me was the power adapters – single-sleeved MOLEX-to-6-pin PCIe and MOLEX-to-8-pin PCIe adapters, so even folks that don’t have these power plugs on their PSU can enjoy some good looking wire management. In addition to those, you get a DVI-to-VGA adapter for those with older monitors.

Documentation & Driver Disc
Documentation & Driver Disc

Power & Video Adapters
Power & Video Adapters

Now the main event – the EVGA GTX 760 SuperClocked in the flesh. It is a very good looking card. The shroud is plastic, but it’s a premium-looking plastic, with a matte finish over most of the area but touches of glossy black and silver to make it stand out. I’m definitely a fan of the look of their new ACX (Active Cooling Xtreme) cooler.

EVGA GTX 760 SC
EVGA GTX 760 SC
EVGA GTX 760 SC
EVGA GTX 760 SC

The back of the card is black PCB (unlike MSI’s, frankly, ugly brown PCB) and as you can see this model’s PCB extends the length of the cooler.

Rear of PCB
Rear of PCB

I won’t blather my way through the rest of the card photos, but you can look through the slide show yourself.

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The GTX 760 is capable of three-way SLI and here are the SLI connectors to prove it.

SLI Connectors
SLI Connectors

Unlike some GTX 760’s, the EVGA offering comes with two power plugs – one 8-pin PCIe and one 6-pin PCIe. This card doesn’t have a massive TDP, but if it calls for extra power, it will definitely be available.

Power Connectors
Power Connectors

The video outputs are standard NVIDIA fare for this generation – two Dual Link DVI, an HDMI and a full size DisplayPort output.

Video Connectors
Video Connectors

So far so good – a great looking card on the outside. Let’s take that cooler off and have a look at the card itself.

Under the Hood

Pulling the cooler off, you can see the meat of this three-heatpipe cooler. There is additional “cooling” (in quotes because it doesn’t seem to touch much) in the form of a metal plate on the rear third of the card.

Cooler Removed
Cooler Removed

Unfortunately the heatpipes don’t all make contact with the GPU. In theory the surrounding aluminum will transfer some of that heat to the third heatpipe, but direct-contact coolers like this benefit from the heatpipes, well, directly contacting the GPU. The larger two heatpipes definitely are spot on, so maybe this was intentional anyway.

TIM Pattern
TIM Pattern

Here’s that not-a-heatsink ‘heatsink’ up close.

Heatsink Under the Heatsink
Heatsink Under the Heatsink

Once that is removed and the TIM cleaned off, we have a nice looking cooler & card.

TIM Removed
TIM Removed

The finish on the heatsink is nice and smooth. It’s not a mirror finish, but you don’t necessarily want that anyway; you want something for the TIM to use for heat transfer and those machine marks are the perfect thing.

Smooth Finish
Smooth Finish

The cooler makes contact with all the GPU power section’s MOSFETs and contact was good throughout.

MOSFET Contact
MOSFET Contact

Here are a few more photos. Love these handy-dandy galleries!

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One more comment about the cooler – its fins vary in thickness all over the place. Some places, like in this photo, are thin, while others are quite thick. It’s all in the name of making the cooler low profile while offering all the cooling they can fit into it.

Heatsink Fin Thickness Variation
Heatsink Fin Thickness Variation

Ahh, now we move on to the GPU itself. That far right picture is very interesting. The PCB extends the length of the cooler, but it really isn’t used for much. The vDDR power phases are over there, but that seems to be about it. Even the power plugs are toward the GPU, right where they would be on a reference card. The 2 GB of memory is evenly distributed on the front and the back of the card.

EVGA GTX 760 SC PCB
EVGA GTX 760 SC PCB

EVGA GTX 760 SC PCB Rear
EVGA GTX 760 SC PCB Rear

Here’s that semi-bare PCB section up close. On the bottom reside the two vDDR power phases.

Extended PCB with RAM Phases
Extended PCB with RAM Phases

Moving forward you can see the GPU and front memory section.

GPU & Front Side RAM
GPU & Front Side RAM

EVGA has gone with a five-phase GPU power section in addition to the two smaller memory power phases you saw earlier.

GTX 760 SC GPU Power
GTX 760 SC GPU Power

GTX 760 SC GPU Power
GTX 760 SC GPU Power

GTX 760 SC GPU Power
GTX 760 SC GPU Power

The memory comes to the GTX 760 SC courtesy SK hynix. It is their H5GQ2H24AFR 1.5V GDDR5 memory operating at a speedy 1502 MHz.

Hynix vRAM Chip
Hynix vRAM Chip

Last, but not least is the GK 104 GPU itself.

Gk104 GPU
GK104 GPU

The GTX 760 SC is a good looking GPU, inside and out.

Test Setup

Our test setup has changed to the newest mainstream Intel platform and consists of a Haswell CPU (i7 4770K) running at 4.0 GHz with memory running at DDR3-1866 / 9-9-9-24.

CPUi7 4770K @ 4.0 GHz
MBASUS Maximus VI Extreme
RAMG.Skill TridentX DDR3-2600 @ 1866MHz 9-9-9-24
GPUsNVIDIA GTX 780
OSWindows 7 Professional x64

Installed on an ATX motherboard, the GTX 760 SC just reaches the edge of the board. Some GTX 760s (especially reference, if you can find any) will not quite make it to the edge of an ATX board, making some of the offerings better for LAN box / SFF / HTPC use.

EVGA GTX 760 SC Installed
EVGA GTX 760 SC Installed

Now that we’ve got it installed, let’s power up and see what happens!

Stock Boost 2.0 Frequency

Rated at 1137 MHz base boost, like most NVIDIA cards, this card boosts higher than that in real use. In the GTX 760 SC’s case, the actual boost clock is 1215 MHz.

EVGA GTX 760 SC Stock Boost
EVGA GTX 760 SC Stock Boost

The ACX cooler is strong enough -even at the stock BIOS fan profile- to keep it away from the temperature target. So, barring quite high ambient temperatures (mine was around to 25 °C, which isn’t cold), you will probably see a consistent boost frequency just like this.

Overclocking

Voltage control isn’t quite nonexistent on the GTX 760, but it’s close. You get 0.012 V to play with. Even so, overclocking was very solid on this card. With 24/7 stability, the GPU added 100 MHz and the ever-strong Hynix memory went up 550 MHz (225 MHz actual).

PrecisionX Overclocked +100 / +550
PrecisionX Overclocked +100 / +550
EVGA GTX 760 SC - 24/7 Overclock
EVGA GTX 760 SC – 24/7 Overclock

After the overclock, the boost went up to an impressive 1319.5 MHz. The fan speed was a bit more aggressive when the card was overclocked but the fans were still very quiet. It kept the temperature far away from the increased 94 °C temperature target (about 70 °C max in Heaven).

EVGA GTX 760 SC - 24/7 Overclock Boost
EVGA GTX 760 SC – 24/7 Overclock Boost

Overclocking results impressed me, coming in at just over 100 MHz above the actual stock boost. Of course, all benchmarks and games must pass for an overclock to be considered 24/7 stable, but here’s a representative run of HWBot Heaven Xtreme at the 24/7 overclocked settings.

EVGA GTX 760 SC 24/7 Overclock
EVGA GTX 760 SC 24/7 Overclock

Temperature and Power Consumption

It is with apologies that I present these in chart form rather than in graphs. Our different test systems are great for testing performance, but not so much for power consumption and temperature; there are too many variables to share this data. Thus, the graphs will come in the next (and future) reviews.

As far as this card goes, its power consumption is solid for the performance it gives. The Haswell platform’s efficiency plus the GTX 760 SC’s low idle frequencies (135 MHz on the GPU) help lead to a very low 82 W idle power consumption. Loaded maximums are right at 260 W, with average loads in the 148-152 W range.

EVGA GTX 760 SC Power Consumption
Idle3DMark 11HWBot Heaven Xtreme
82 W262 W260 W

Temperatures were great, especially considering that the GPU is attempting to keep itself right at 70 °C using Boost 2.0’s temperature target. It couldn’t even make it up there during Heaven. Given more prolonged testing, I’m sure it would have made it to that point, but a small bump in fan speed via PrecisionX would knock it right down.

EVGA GTX 760 SC Cooler Performance
Idle3DMark 11HWBot Heaven Xtreme
31.0 °C63.5 °C67.5 °C

For cooling so well on the default fan profile in the card’s BIOS, EVGA’s ACX cooling system is really impressive. Add to that the fact that overclocked as far as the card would go with a more aggressive fan profile it still didn’t go above 71 °C in heaven, you’ve got a winning cooler here.

What’s more, the icing on the cake is that this thing is extremely quiet. There is a whisper of air when the fans spin up, but that’s about it. On the water loop cooling the CPU on this test system reside three ultra high speed Panaflo fans, under-volted to about 6.5-7 V. Those fans, running about as slow as they can without cutting off, were louder than the ACX cooler on this card when it spun up.

Performance Results

Our CPU & chipsets may have changed, but the testing method remains the same. We’ll be updating our testing methodology article in a bit, but all the testing is still applicable, with the addition of 3DMark Fire Strike. We’re probably ditching 3DMark03 for good too; I’m tired of writing “this is old” disclaimer!

To make a long testing story short – benchmarks are run at their default presets and games are run at 1080p with all the eye candy cranked to the max.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Starting off with 3DMark03 (old, irrelevant, only useful for benchmarkers that enjoy running it for old times’ sake), you can see the GTX 760 SC surrounding last generation’s GTX 670 SC. Thanks to its higher stock base & boost clocks, this EVGA offering is also scoring better than the MSI GTX 760 OC.

3DMark03
3DMark03

3DMark Vantage is looking good too. Perhaps we’re seeing a trend here – the GTX 760 SC at stock is just below last year’s GTX 670 SC and, overclocked, it’s just above it. When overclocked, this card is even putting up numbers near the reference GTX 770.

3DMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage

I think we can all see the trend here. It was quite surprising to see how close this card came to 10,000 in 3DMark 11. When overclocked, it’s giving the HD 7950 IceQ X2 a run for the money.

3DMark 11
3DMark 11

This is making me feel slightly bad for new GTX 670 owners. It wasn’t a bad purchasing decision mind you, but these just made that performance a whole lot cheaper.

3DMark Fire Strike
3DMark Fire Strike

More of the same here. Interestingly the stock HD 7950 IceQ X2 just barely beat the stock GTX 760 SC (and then got trounced when the latter was overclocked).

HWBot Heaven Xtreme
HWBot Heaven Xtreme

Synthetic testing is looking pretty solid, let’s put it to some real world use.

Game Testing

The trend continues vs. the GTX 670 SC, with its stock performance precisely half way between the stock & overclocked GTX 760 SC. Heck, overclocked, this GPU is only .1 FPS away from the reference GTX 770.

Aliens vs. Predator
Aliens vs. Predator

Wow, overclocked in Batman, the GTX 760 SC actually overtakes the reference GTX 770. That’s a solid $150 savings!

Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham City

Battlefield 3 sort-of puts the GTX 760 SC back in its proper place in the pecking order, with the stock GTX 770 slightly outpacing the overclocked GTX 760 SC. Out-performing the GTX 670 SC still remains constant and it also beats out the HD 7950 IceQ X2.

Battlefield 3
Battlefield 3

Kepler continues to compute its way to dominance in Civilization V. The GTX 760 SC couldn’t quite reach reference GTX 770 levels here.

Civilization V
Civilization V

Interestingly, the stock GTX 760 SC takes out the GTX 670 SC, with overclocking just making it stronger. Interestingly, so far we’re seeing a trend of about 10 FPS from stock-to-overclocked with this card. That’s a very healthy gain in anybody’s book.

Dirt 3
Dirt 3

Metro is our most difficult benchmark (except for one more that only I am testing) and it shows. While it’s not a young game, it sure does hammer on a GPU. Impressively, the overclocked GTX 760 SC just edges out the reference GTX 770.

Metro 2033
Metro 2033

Last, but not least, is a game only I am running for us. While the entire group may not have copies, I still think it’s valuable to include because of how much it hammers on cards. You think Metro is bad? You haven’t seen Crysis 3. “..but can it run Crysis?” is back, in a big way. The GTX 760 SC most definitely can run Crysis 3, and when overclocked it can do it just a smidgen better than a 1000 MHz HD 7970.

Crysis 3
Crysis 3

What’s impressive about this GPU is that it can overclock well enough to replace a step up from what it’s supposed to be replacing. Overclocked, it’s putting out numbers more comparable to the GTX 670 SC than the GTX 660 Ti. That stands to reason, since it’s pulled from the GTX 670 GK104 configuration, but it still feels impressive.

Pushing the Limits

For its price point, the GTX 760 SC is putting out some impressive benchmark numbers. For this section, the CPU was cranked to 4.9 or 5.0 GHz (depending on the bench) and the GPU pushed as far as it would go, stability be damned.

HWBot Heaven - 2125.846
HWBot Heaven – 2125.846

3DMark Vantage - 38081
3DMark Vantage – 38081

3DMark 11 - 9974
3DMark 11 – 9974

3DMark Fire Strike - 6738
3DMark Fire Strike – 6738

Obviously these results are not stable at all for 24/7 use, but we’re talking GPU speeds up to +125 MHz and vRAM speeds at +700 MHz (+350 MHz actual). Those are very solid numbers from what amounts to a mainstream-priced card. To get a card at this price point within spitting distance of 10000 in 3DMark 11 is very solid indeed.

Final Thoughts & Conclusion

Let’s start this section off with price. The reference MSRP for a GTX 760 is $249. Obviously, this card is pretty solidly overclocked (running 1215 MHz boost at stock) and has a great upgraded cooler to boot, so it will be a little more expensive. How much more? $10. That’s right, only ten bucks more. The EVGA GTX 760 SuperClocked (SC) retails for $259.99.

While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the GTX 760 for a 1440p or multi-monitor setup due to its 2 GB frame buffer, the fact is that it will do a great job for anyone running the most popular resolution today – 1080p. Monitors at that resolution are cheap and plentiful and at that resolution, this card will run most games (except the most demanding, like Metro 2033 and Crysis 3) at full eye candy without issue.

If you’re interested in higher resolutions, there will be GTX 760s available with a 4 GB frame buffer for ~$50 more down the road, but with the increased bus width on the HD 7950 and performance at or above the GTX 760’s level, I would still go the HD 7950 route for the same money.

At $259.99 though, if you want to game at 1080p the EVGA GTX 760 SC is very tough to beat. With its solid stock clocks, impressive overclocking results and a great cooler to boot, this card is the perfect fit for its market segment and is easily Overclockers Approved.

Overclockers_clear_approved

– Jeremy Vaughan (hokiealumnus)

About Jeremy Vaughan 197 Articles
I'm an editor and writer here at Overclockers.com as well as a moderator at our beloved forums. I've been around the overclocking community for several years and just love to sink my teeth into any hardware I can get my paws on!

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Avatar of hokiealumnus
hokiealumnus

Water Cooled Moderator

16,561 messages 26 likes

EVGA now has backplates available for this card, though the black PCB doesn't look bad by itself either.

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dostov

Overclockers.com Reporter

601 messages 0 likes

I'm sorry if I missed the info, but how big are the fans? I don't know if it's just me but they look quite big. :eh?:

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EarthDog

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner

77,939 messages 4,647 likes

I'm going to GUESS 90 or 100mm... They look to be about the same size as the MSI (which was 100mm IIRC).

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Avatar of hokiealumnus
hokiealumnus

Water Cooled Moderator

16,561 messages 26 likes

That's a very good question, it's not listed anywhere in the pdf specs or anywhere else I can find. My guess is 100mm. I'll measure them and report back. They're very quiet, even at higher speeds.

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Avatar of Ivy
Ivy

Member

1,631 messages 0 likes

A 7950 challenger released over 1.5 years after with a new name but still a Kepler architecture (and its actually slower or about equal speed such as a GTX 670)? :screwy:

OK, im out of understanding but at least everyone is enjoying it. My own analysis of the rather disappointing situation: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7508317&postcount=62

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Tarkaelos

New Member

3 messages 0 likes

EVGA GTX 760 SC w/ ACX High Temps

Hello,

I'm new to this site and have just finished my first high-end build. I'm a proficient tech but high-end gaming is new to me. My concern is that my EVGA GTX 760 SC is running too hot compared to everything I'm seeing from its reviews online. With stock settings and ambient temp around 30C, under load, the card always reaches the temp target. What am I doing wrong? the following excerpt from your review suggests this shouldn't be the case.

"The ACX cooler is strong enough -even at the stock BIOS fan profile- to keep it away from the temperature target. So, barring quite high ambient temperatures (mine was around to 25 °C, which isn’t cold), you will probably see a consistent boost frequency just like this."

Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

Case: Corsair Carbide Air 540
CPU: Intel i7 3770K @3.9ghz
Mobo: Gigabyte Z77-UD3H
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 1600 4x4gbs
GPU: EVGA GTX 760 SC w/ACX
PSU: Corsair CX750M
Other: Corsair H110 hydro cooler

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Avatar of Froggy
Froggy

Member

855 messages 0 likes

I would guess the airflow in your case is not sufficient and it is causing your card to get to hot.
I now own the card that was in that review and over OC'ed I am not seeing temps over 65C in Crysis Warhead

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Avatar of Tarkaelos
Tarkaelos

New Member

3 messages 0 likes

Maybe you can speak to my fan config and hydro cooler setup? I have 5 140mm fans in the case. Two in the front pulling in. One in the rear pulling in. And two on top pulling out through the rad. Do you suppose the rad may be getting in the way of allowing it to expel the heat properly? Should I do a push pull config and order two more 140mm fans for the underside of the rad?

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Avatar of Froggy
Froggy

Member

855 messages 0 likes

I just took a look at your case and it sounds like you have air coming & going out in the upper half of your case but the air down by the GFX card is totally stagnant and that could be why the video card is getting so hot.

Especially since the ACX cooler does not expel air out of the case, it just blows air all around the card.

As an experiment, remove all the PCI slot covers and if you have a spare case fan temporarily attach to the outside of the PCI slot area so it is pulling that hot stagnant air out of the lower portion of your case.

Then load up whatever application you are using that has been getting the gfx card so hot see what direction the temps change.

Please let me know the results.

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Avatar of Tarkaelos
Tarkaelos

New Member

3 messages 0 likes

Thanks for the advice. I'm currently waiting for 3 molex to 3 pin fan adapters to arrive because I don't have enough headers on my board to support anymore fans. I will definitely try your suggestion when I'm able. Just as a side note, I've re-timmed the card but to no avail.

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