The EVGA GTX 770 SC 4GB Benchmarked

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i7-3770K reference 3.50 GHz/Turbo to 3.7GHz, overclocked to 4.5 GHz; HyperThreading is on, supplied by Intel.
• EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard (latest Beta BIOS, USB/PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x), supplied by EVGA
• 16 GB DDR3 HyperX Kingston “Beast” RAM (2×8 GB, dual-channel at 2133MHz; supplied by Kingston)
• EVGA GTX 770 Superclocked edition 4GB (1111/7010MHz and also further overclocked)
• Nvidia GTX 770, 2 GB (reference base clocks of 1046/7010MHz), supplied by Nvidia
• Nvidia GTX 780 (3GB; 863/6008MHz, reference clocks and overclocked) supplied by Nvidia
• Nvidia GTX Titan (6GB, 836/6008MHz, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
• Nvidia GTX 680 (2GB, 1006/6008MHz, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
• GTX 670 (2GB, 1006/6008MHz, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidi
• Nvidia GTX 690 (4GB, 1006/6008MHz, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
• Nvidia GTX 590 (4GB, 1607/1707MHz, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
• Nvidia GTX 580 (reference clocks) supplied by Nvidia
• Nvidia GTX 570 (reference clocks) supplied by Nvidia
• Power Color Radeon HD 7970 (3GB, stock and overclocked to GHz edition boost speeds 1050/6000MHz)
• AMD HD 6990, reference clocks, supplied by AMD
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• Genius SP-D150 speakers
• Two identical 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers
• Cooler Master Platinum Pro 1000W PSU
• Thermaltake Overseer RX-I full tower case, supplied by Thermaltake
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD.

Test Configuration – Software

• AMD Catalyst 13-8 Beta drivers; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver; use application settings; surface performance optimizations are off.  AMD Catalyst 13-5 Beta 2 was used to test the HD 6990.
• NVIDIA GeForce 326.19 for the GTX 770/780/TITAN. GeForce 320.39 drivers for the other GeForce cards. High Quality; Single-display Performance mode; Prefer Maximum Performance
• Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
• EVGA PrecisionX 4.21 overclocking and monitoring software
• Latest DirectX
• All games are patched to their latest versions.
• vsync is forced off in the control panels.
• Varying AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
• All results show average frame rates
• Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
• Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.

The Benchmarks

• Synthetic
  • 3DMark 11
  • 3D Mark 2013 Firestrike/Firestrike Extreme
  • Heaven 4.0
  • Valley 1.0
  DX9
  • Serious Sam 3 BFE
  • Alan Wake: Ameican Nightmare
  • The Witcher 2
  • Borderlands 2
  • Aliens: Colonial Marines
  DX10
  • Crysis
  DX11
  • BattleForge
  • Alien vs. Predator
  • STALKER, Call of Pripyat
  • Metro 2033
  • Civilization V
  • Lost Planet 2
  • Total War: Shogun II
  • Crysis 2
  • Dirt 3
  • DiRT: Showdown
  • Batman: Arkham City
  • the Secret World
  • Battlefield 3
  • Max Payne 3
  • Sleeping Dogs
  • Sniper Elite V2
  • Far Cry 3
  • Hitman: Absolution
  • Assassin’s Creed III
  • Crysis 3
  • Tomb Raider 2013
  • BioShock: Infinite
  • GRID 2
  • Metro: Last Light

Before we get to the EVGA GTX 770 SC’s performance charts, let’s look at overclocking, power draw, noise, and temperatures.

Overclocking, Power Draw, Noise and Temperatures

Overclocking the EVGA GTX 770 is just as easy as overclocking the GTX 700 and 600 series using PrecisionX. What is surprising is that we were able to overclock we. past our reference maximum base overclock of their GTX 770 SC at 1111/7010MHz to 1176/8210MHz.  We regularly saw boost to 1306MHz although temperatures never quite reached 80C – even at maximum load.

We were able to add an additional +65MHz over the EVGA base clock for a total offset of +135MHz over the 1046MHz base clock that Nvidia set for the reference GTX 770. On top of that, we were able to get +300MHz on the memory. We were able to go higher on the memory but stopped when we were no longer getting performance increases.

We did not adjust the EVGA GTX 770 SC’s voltage. Temperatures were never an issue and the fan profile remained at stock which meant that the GTX 770 SC is also extraordinarily quiet at maximum load – the fan profile rarely went to 60% and the temperatures remained well under 80C under the most stressful conditions and highest load in any game that we tested. The EVGA GTX 770 SC and the reference GTX 770 are both very quiet cards but the ACX cooler is quieter, especially under load.

Let’s head to the performance charts to see how the EVGA GTX 770 SC compares with the reference GTX 770 each at stock, Superclocked from EVGA’s factory and overclocked, as well as against the stock (925/1375MHz) and GHz Edition (1050/1500MHz) AMD HD 7970. As an added bonus, we are going to overclock the EVGA GTX 770 SC as far as it can go without raising the voltage or adjusting the fan profile to see if we can narrow the performance gap with an EVGA GTX 780 at reference speeds.