{"id":41195,"date":"2014-03-11T14:08:22","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T14:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=41195"},"modified":"2014-03-11T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T16:52:10","slug":"overclocking-galaxys-low-profile-gtx-750-ti-without-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/overclocking-galaxys-low-profile-gtx-750-ti-without-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Overclocking Galaxy’s GTX 750 Ti GC Slim without Limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

This evaluation focuses primarily on the performance of the Galaxy GTX 750 Ti GC Slim as it relates to the reference GTX 750 Ti<\/a> which we reviewed last month.\u00a0 The GTX 750 series are brand-new entry-level GM107 Maxwell architecture on 28nm, which bring incredible efficiency coupled with very good performance.<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/a>

Galaxy Slim, left; reference GTX 750 Ti, right<\/p><\/div>\n

We will compare performance to price as the reference and overclocked GTX 750 Tis are priced $159 at Newegg<\/a>, while the GTX 750 Ti GC Slim also sells for $159<\/a> including a free low profile bracket from the Galaxy Store.\u00a0 In fact, the Galaxy GTX 750 Ti Slim is the only low profile Maxwell card available which makes it perfect for\u00a0 use as a low-power gaming card for slim cases and for home theater PCs (HTPC). Besides comparing the Galaxy Slim at Galaxy factory clocks (GC) with the reference GTX 750 Ti, we will also overclock it further using the very latest WHQL drivers to remove the clock lock, mod the BIOS to remove the TPD limitation, and expand on using the GTX 750 Ti as the ideal stand-alone dedicated PhysX<\/a> card, by pairing two GTX 750 Tis with each other.<\/p>\n

The Galaxy GTX 750 Ti Slim’s Competition – the missing in action R7 265 – and Crypto-mining <\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly a month ago, AMD paper-launched the R7 265 which should be faster than the GTX 750 Ti at a MSRP of $149.\u00a0 Finally, last Thursday, a single SKU of the Sapphire R7 265<\/a> briefly appeared at Newegg only to sell out within a few minutes and before ABT could purchase it for benching.\u00a0 Evidently it has not made an appearance at any other North American etailer\/retailer since launch which only leaves the slower-than-the GTX 750 Ti, 2GB R7 260X,<\/a> which costs from $139-$159 at Newegg, to compete on price with the GTX 750 Ti.<\/p>\n

Even if the R7 265 makes it into general release, it is likely that there may be issues with AMD\u2019s being unable to hold pricing on the R7 265 at $149.\u00a0 Basically R7 265 is a slightly faster Pitcarin HD 7850-2GB (or a cut down R9 270) which already commands a premium and sells for up to $200<\/a> at US etailers due to its ability to mine alternate crypto-currency like LiteCoin.\u00a0 The R7 265 also has a board power of 150W, well above the 60W of the GTX 750 Ti.<\/p>\n

The R7 260X is not as desired a mining card in about the same performance class as an overclocked HD 7790, and it has already had its price adjusted downward to around $129 at Newegg<\/a> while the overclocked HD 7770s and HD 7790s still sit in the $110-120 range<\/a> along with the 260-nonX.\u00a0 ABT recommended the PowerColor R9 270X<\/a> which launched originally at $199 as a good value, while now it easily commands a $40-100 price premium<\/a> due to its demand as a mining card.\u00a0 Because of mining demands, the R9 270X is in the same $250 price range as the faster GTX 760.<\/p>\n

SiSoft\u2019s latest Sandra \u201cGPGPU Crypto\u201d benchmark indicates that Maxwell scores far higher than Kepler, perhaps due to more registers per SM and other architectural changes.\u00a0 It appears that the GTX 750 Ti may also be desirable as a mining card and we are interested to see if miners will buy them in large quantities and\/or if Nvidia can hold the price on its partners’ GTX 750 Ti cards since AMD is unable to control pricing with its partner cards.<\/p>\n

In our original evaluation<\/a>, we compared the reference GTX 750 Ti to the Sapphire factory overclocked Vapor-X HD 7770 which it demolished, as well as to Nvidia\u2019s last generation, the GTX 650 Ti which it replaced as significantly faster, and also to AMD\u2019s faster and more expensive ($200 plus) R7 270X. We also compared the new GTX 750 Ti to the GTX 480 to get an overall idea of the new GTX 750 Ti performance stock and overclocked compared with the Fermi flagship of less than 4 years ago, and it did quite well.\u00a0 And of course, we placed the GTX 750 Ti into a performance hierarchy all the way up to the R9 290X and the GTX 780 Ti.\u00a0 This evaluation uses the same WHQL drivers and focuses on the Galaxy GTX 750 Ti GC Slim at several stages of overclock including with the TDP limitation removed by a BIOS mod.<\/p>\n

We will still use our Core i7-4770K at 4.0GHz which equalizes very well to our previous Ivy Bridge benches with Core i7-3770K at 4.5GHz.\u00a0 We use 2x8GB of super-fast Kingston HyperX \u201cBeast\u201d DDR3 at 2133MHz in an ECS flagship Z87 \u201cGolden\u201d motherboard.<\/p>\n

Let’s unbox and then test our Galaxy GTX 750 Ti GC Slim after we check out its features and specifications.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Features<\/h3>\n

\"installed\"<\/a>The Galaxy\u00a0 GTX 750 Ti GC Slim is physically much smaller than the reference version.\u00a0 It is considered “LP” or low-profile and can fit into low profile and slim PC cases.\u00a0 It comes with the stock bracket, but for a limited time, the low-profile bracket is free with a GTX 750 or 750 Ti Slim purchase from the Galaxy store.<\/p>\n

To the right, we see how much wider the reference version is than the Galaxy GTx 750 Ti GC Slim card when both are used together with the reference version dedicated to PhysX calculations.<\/p>\n

The Galaxy\u00a0 GTX 750 Ti GC Slim uses custom cooling for the GM107 GPU which is also powered only by the PCIe slot and it is recommended that you use a quality 300W PSU as a minimum.<\/p>\n

Let’s compare the Galaxy GTX 750 Ti GC Slim with the GTX 750 Ti reference version and pay particular attention to the Base and Boost clocks. You will also note that the Outputs are also quite different from the reference version.<\/p>\n

Reference\u00a0<\/strong> GTX 750 Ti Specifications<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First, the specifications for the reference GTX 750 Ti:\"750ti-specs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

GTX 750 Ti GC Slim Specifications<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here are Galaxy’s specifications for the GTX 750 Ti GC Slim – note the Base and Boost clocks (MHz) have been increased from 1020\/1085MHz to 1072\/1150MHz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
GPU Engine Specs:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CUDA Cores<\/td>\n640<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Base Clock (MHz)<\/td>\n1072<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Boost Clock (MHz)<\/td>\n1150<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Specs:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Speed<\/td>\n2700 (5400 effective)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Standard Memory Config<\/td>\n2048MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Interface Width<\/td>\n128-bit GDDR5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Bandwidth (GB\/sec)<\/td>\n86.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Feature Support:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OpenGL<\/td>\n4.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bus Support<\/td>\nPCI-E 3.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Certified for Windows 8<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Supported Technologies<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SLI Options<\/td>\nNot supported<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Display Support:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Multi Monitor<\/td>\n3 displays<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Maximum Digital Resolution<\/td>\n4096×2160<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Maximum VGA Resolution<\/td>\n2560×1600<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
HDCP<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
HDMI<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Standard Display Connectors<\/td>\nOne dual-link DVI, HDMI and VGA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Audio Input for HDMI<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Standard Graphics Card Dimensions:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Length<\/td>\n5.79 inches<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Height<\/td>\n1.57 inches<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Width<\/td>\n4.33 inches<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Power Specs:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Maximum Graphics Card Power (W)<\/td>\n60W<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Minimum System Power Requirement (W)<\/td>\n300W<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Supplementary Power Connectors<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Model:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Product Code<\/td>\n75IGH8HX9KXZ<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Although Galaxy left the memory clocks unchanged, they have increased the reference base clock from 1020MHz to 1072MHz – or by +52MHz.\u00a0 The boost clock has also been increased from 1085MHz to 1150MHz. It will be interesting to see how much further our own sample overclocks and what its Boost will reach.\u00a0 We were able to take advantage of the very latest WHQL driver released yesterday which removed the +135MHz offset limit to the clocks and we also got a modded BIOS which removes the TDP limitations.<\/p>\n

There is 75W total available to the GPU from the PCIe slot.<\/p>\n

More Features<\/strong><\/h3>\n

From Galaxy’s<\/a> website:<\/p>\n

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