Introduction
NVidia’s 700 series is almost on its way out with the imminent release of the 800 series next month but there are some strong and inexpensive cards out there still worth a look. If like us you have a few Mini ITX rigs kicking about, heat and space are going to be on your mind when thinking of an upgrade to your graphics power house.
The GTX 770 from PNY comes in a few forms, with factory overclocked, 4 GB versions and the XLR8 Enthusiast edition that we have here. As with most reviews we are going to run through synthetic and real life benchmarks.
The PNY XLR8 GeForce GTX 770 Enthusiast Edition is a stock specification of card with 2GB of video memory albeit with a non-reference three fan cooler. This should give room for stable overclocking and a more configurable sound profile depending on your preference. NVidia’s product page for the GTX 770 is here and PNY’s page is here
- CUDA Cores 1536
- Core Speed 1046 MHz
- Boost Speed 1085 MHz
- Memory Size 2048 MB GDDR5
- Mem. Interface 256-bit
- Mem. Frequency 7010 MHz (effective)
- TDP 230W-Active
- SLI 3-Way SLI
- Outputs Two Dual-Link DVI HDMI 1.4, Display Port 1.2
- Resolution 2560 x 1600 (Digital)
- Power Input 1x 8-pin Aux Input, 1x 6-pin Aux Input
- Bus Type PCI-Express 3.0 16x
So with the GTX 8xx (or 9xx?) already on the NVidia’s driver page, let’s see what this can do, but first, some product shots.
The box is nice and simple, with a signature feel about it. The contents of the box are minimal, though this version came with a Watch_Dogs free download, an NVidia promotion not PNY’s. The card itself has a sense of presence about it when unboxing due to the cooler and the weight of the card.
The cooler is like a Gigabyte custom three fan WindForce cooler which is always welcome. The plastic is gloss black with not much detail which some may find appealing. There is what would appear to be a backlit logo however it doesn’t light up, not sure if this is our card or it is just our misunderstanding.
PNY XLR8 GTX 770 Enthusiast Edition Graphics Card Review
Package and Bundle - 8
Performance - 9.5
Price - 9.5
Consumer Experience - 9.5
9.1
Overall we think this is an excellent card for the price, and although with the NVidia 8xx GTX (or 9xx GTX) just around the corner we don’t really see a reason to run out and upgrade if you had a card like this. This is the main conclusion we came too after running and reviewing this card. There is always a sweet spot card, CPU or even memory in a product range.