Recently, Nvidia announced a new high-end graphics card, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780. While it's significantly faster than the old GTX 680, the 780 is also $200 more expensive. This left a sizeable gap in Nvidia's pricing between the $379 GTX 670 and the $649 GTX 780. Today, Nvidia is launching the card designed to fill that gap—Nvidia GeForce GTX 770. Like the GTX 780, the new GTX 770 improves on its predecessor, the GTX 670—though in this case, the bump is more modest.
Unlike the GTX 780, the GTX 770 is also based on the GK104 GPU. Architecturally, it's identical to the GTX 680, with 1,536 cores, 128 texture mapping units (TMUs) and 32 raster operation units (ROPS). Its core clock is slightly higher than the GTX 680s (1,046MHz vs. 1,006MHz) with a boost clock of 1,085MHz vs. 1,058MHz. The one significant difference is the memory speed—the GTX 680 offers 1,92GBps of RAM bandwidth, while the GTX 770 pushes that to 224GBps. Total GPU memory is the same as the GTX 670/GTX 680, at 2GB, though Nvidia expects partners to release 4GB versions in the near future.
Compared to the GTX 670, the GTX 770 is a modest upgrade. The older GTX 670 had 1,344 cores and ran at 915MHz base, 980MHz stock. That means the GTX 770 is clocked ~10% higher than the GPU it replaces and has 15% more GPU cores. The GTX 770's price is the same as the GTX 670's was at launch ($399 list), but street prices for the GTX 670 have fallen since the card debuted; cards from multiple vendors can be had for $369.
The GTX 770, like the GTX 780, keeps the nifty Titan-style GPU cooler. Power requirements have bumped up a notch—the GTX 680 is a dual-six pin solution, while the GTX 770 uses an 8+6 configuration. The new card's other features are essentially identical to the GTX 670's—like Nvidia's other high-end GPUs, the GTX 770 offers a pair of DVI ports, one HDMI port, and one DisplayPort.
Performance
The primary points of comparison for the GTX 770 are the GTX 670, which it replaces, the GTX 680 (which it's based on), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, AMD's own competitor in this space.
Our performance comparisons were done using an Intel 3770K Ivy Bridge CPU, 16GB of DDR3-1600, a 256GB OCZ Vector SSD, and a 27-inch Asus VG278HE monitor at 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. GTX 690 performance was simulated using a pair of GTX 680s in SLI; tests have demonstrated that the performance delta between the two configurations is essentially nil. All of our tests were run at 1,920-by-1,080 resolution with maximum details set. Multisampled antialiasing was activated when available and turned up to 8x if possible. In Metro Last Light, the game's "SSAA" (super-sampled antialiasing) box is checked, rather than a specific level of MSAA.
In Shogun 2, the GTX 770 was significantly faster than the GTX 670 (40fps vs. 50fps) and edged out the GTX 680 by about 8% (47fps vs. 50fps). That's enough to leave the AMD Radeon 7970 GHz Edition far behind, with its score of 38.5fps. In Metro 2033, the tables were turned—there, the Radeon 7970 was the overall leader, at 56fps. The GTX 770's score of 33fps was slightly faster than the GTX 680 and GTX 670, with their scores of 31 and 30fps, respectively.
In the newer Metro: Last Light, the Radeon 7970 GHz Edition ties the GTX 680 at about 31fps. The GTX 770 was slightly faster, at 33fps, with the GTX 670 struggling along at 27fps. None of these cards were fast enough to drive this detail level smoothly— turning off SSAA. is practically required for smooth frame rates. In BioShock Infinite, all the cards turned in smoother results, with the GTX 670 at 65fps, the GTX 680 at 70fps, and the GTX 770 just edging past for 71fps. The Radeon 7970 GHz Edition's 68fps rate put it midway between the GTX 670 and 680, but you'd never notice the difference in this title. Civilization V's Late Game View benchmark test was an easy win for all these cards. The GTX 670, 680, and 770 are all packed in around 90fps, while the Radeon 7970 was slightly faster at 93fps.
How this breaks down in terms of price depends on how you look at the situation. Compared with the GTX 680, the GTX 770 is a tiny bit faster—typically on the order of 1 to 3 percent. That's not particularly surprising, given that the only difference between the two is that the GTX 770 has faster RAM—the GTX 680 simply wasn't hurting much in this regard. On the other hand, the official MSRP of $400 puts the GTX 770 close to the cheaper GTX 680s already on the market. Assuming that manufacturers actually target that price point, the GTX 770 is a slightly better deal than the GTX 680 it replaces.
The GTX 770 is, on average, 12.7% faster than the GTX 670 but it's also about 12% more expensive. That's a relatively constant value as far as the price/performance ratio is concerned, but, when combined with the GTX 780, it illustrates a trend: Nvidia is raising its average selling prices by tweaking GPU prices, clocks, and features. The Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan created a new $1,000 single-GPU price point, the GTX 780 has hopped up to $649, and the new GTX 770 cards offer slightly higher performance than the old family at a slightly higher price.
As for AMD, the HD 7970 GHz Edition generally trades shots with the GTX 670, which puts it a bit behind the GTX 680/GTX 770 in this comparison. To date, AMD has fought back against this performance disadvantage with aggressive pricing and the Never Settle games bundle. At present, that's four free games with a Radeon 7970—BioShock Infinite, Crysis 3, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, and Tomb Raider.
If you upgraded last year to a GTX 670, the GTX 770 isn't going to be enough of a jump to justify a new card. If, however, you're still back on a midrange GTX 500 card, the GTX 770 is worth consideration. It's slightly higher price point is justified by the increased performance.
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