Conclusion
It is imperative that retail partners build on the launch of a new graphics architecture by releasing a diverse range of products. The GeForce GTX 750 and Ti are home to the Maxwell architecture that will power Nvidia's product stack for at least the next 18 months, potentially much longer.
Asus has taken the GTX 750 Ti GPU and decided there's real opportunity to build an enthusiast card around it. The OC version is that card and it lives up to the name by overclocking the core by approximately six per cent, to a peak 1,150MHz, but, disappointingly, leaves the memory speed at the default 5,400MHz.
This isn't merely the reference card differentiated by a sticker; Asus has a custom PCB and cooler that work well to keep temperatures and noise at very low levels. We feel there's little point in adding an awkwardly-placed six-pin power connector on a GPU of this ilk - faster partner cards do without - and the relatively large dimensions strike a dissonant chord against the small reference design.
Pricing is a key concern in the mainstream market, where one GPU's overclocked variants often overlap default-clocked cards from another. The Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti OC is currently priced at £135 and offers better performance than the GTX 650 Ti it effectively replaces in the Nvidia stack.
A new launch is always a tricky time to evaluate the value-for-money metric, and the situation is no different this time around as partner-overclocked GeForce GTX 660 GPUs, which are fundamentally faster and have Assassin's Creed IV thrown in for good measure, are still available for the same kind of price as the Asus.
The Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti OC is a solid card whose focus on enthusiast-level features feels at odds with the base Maxwell architecture. Yet, for all of our commentary, it's a very quiet and cool card that'll play your games at a full-HD resolution.
The Good
Very quiet and cool
Reasonable core overclocking
Better-than-reference components
The Bad
No memory overclocking
£20 premium over other OC cards
Awkwardly-placed power connector
HEXUS.where2buy
The Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti OC 2GB is available to purchase from Scan Computers*
HEXUS.right2reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
*UK-based HEXUS community members are eligible for free delivery and priority customer service through the SCAN.care@HEXUS forum.
