Introduction
Nvidia's GeForce GTX 760 may have started out life as a last-generation GeForce GTX 670 minus an SMX unit, but keen pricing and well-overclocked partner cards have made it, in a roundabout way, one of the most convincing high-end gaming solutions available for roughly £200.
The ability to harness GPU Boost 2.0 and go like the clappers is what makes the card appealing, and as we've already seen, Palit's GTX 760 JetStream and Gigabyte's GTX 760 WindForce 3X are able to give the costly GeForce GTX 670 a run for its money as far as in-game performance is concerned.
Can EVGA go one better? To find out, the card churning through the benchmarks today is the GTX 760 Superclocked ACX, priced at £220.
EVGA has a range of GTX 760 models available, but this here is technically the bee's knees. As the name suggests, it's overclocked right out of the box and is equipped with a latest-generation ACX cooler.
The twin-fan design was first seen on the company's GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked ACX and proved to be well up to the task with excellent cooling performance and, subsequently, a decent amount of overclocking headroom.
Sticking to the same formula, the ACX cooler continues to use double ball-bearing fans for increased efficiency and lower noise, a PCB-covering baseplate that's said to reduce Mosfet and memory temperature, and dual heatsinks for extra fin volume.
The cooler shouldn't have any problem keeping a GTX 760 in check, we feel, irrespective of EVGA's out-the-box overclock. Keeping in line with what some of the competition has to offer, the Superclocked ACX card is shipped with a 1,072MHz core (up from 980MHz) and a specified Boost frequency of 1,137MHz (up from 1,033MHz).
Those keeping count will note that this isn't the fastest overclocked card on the market - indeed, Gigabyte's recently-reviewed WindForce 3X hums along at 1,085MHz - and, given that this is currently EVGA's best GTX 760, it's a shame the 2GB frame buffer frequency isn't overclocked at all. The GDDR5 memory runs at the default speed of 6,008MHz.
We've mentioned on more than one occasion that the small GTX 760 PCB could result in ultra-compact partner cards, but we've seen no such thing as yet. EVGA's Superclocked ACX is no shrinking violet, but it does keep to Nvidia's reference specification by measuring 9.5in long, and it isn't too heavy, either, tipping the scales at 654g.
The card is attractively designed and, based on our experiences with the ACX line thus far, we suspect there's going to be a fair amount of additional overclocking headroom. It's a shame there are no triple-A games included as part of the bundle - an area in which rival AMD cards are now particularly strong - though, EVGA does give registered users a a free copy of 3DMark Advanced Edition and Primal Carnage.
Custom cooler and core overclock aside, EVGA's card has plenty in common with Nvidia's reference design. Dual SLI connectors are available for those eyeing-up a bit of multi-GPU frolicking, power is source via six- and eight-pin connectors, and the usual quartet of outputs remain ever-present; DVI-D, DVI-I, HDMI and DisplayPort.
The perfect GTX 760 is, in our estimation, one that's priced below the £200 mark. EVGA's in risky territory by charging an extra £20 for the Superclocked ACX, but the card does benefit from the company's warranty and step-up program, the latter of which is now available at no extra cost to customers who register their product within 14 days.
