EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC 2GB Graphics Card Review

For about as long as GPU-accelerated games have existed, an ideal performance target has been 60 frames-per-second. Owing thanks to this is the standard 60Hz monitor, which delivers its best result when the framerate matches its refresh rate. To make sure the monitor’s refresh rate and game’s framerate keep aligned, to avoid visible tearing, VSync should be enabled.

While I believe our Best Playable results will appeal to any gamer, they could especially prove useful to those intrigued by livingroom gaming or console replacements. The goal here is simple: With each game, the graphics settings are tweaked to deliver the best possible detail while keeping us as close to 60 FPS on average as possible.

Because our Metro Last Light and Total War: SHOGUN 2 tests are timedemos, and because this kind of testing is time-consuming, I am sticking to six out of the eight games I test with for inclusion here.

	Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	46		57
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080	Environment:	Very High	Shadow:	Very High
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	High
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760	48		59
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080	Environment:	Very High	Shadow:	Very High
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	High
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On

Both GTX 760s can handle AC IV: Black Flag just fine at 1080p with ambient occlusion turned off. For some reason, EVGA’s card scored a bit lower, but that’s due to this being a manual run rather than a timedemo (it’s not that I’m poor at manually benchmarking; rather, it’s the fact that the game has many variables that come into play from one run to the next).

	Battlefield 4
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	45		61
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Quality:	High	Texture Filtering:	High
	Lighting:	High	Effects:	High
	Post Processing:	High	Mesh:	High
	Terrain:	High	Terrain Decoration:	High
	Anti-aliasing Deferred:	Off	Anti-aliasing Post:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	SSAO
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760	45		61
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Quality:	High	Texture Filtering:	High
	Lighting:	High	Effects:	High
	Post Processing:	High	Mesh:	High
	Terrain:	High	Terrain Decoration:	High
	Anti-aliasing Deferred:	Off	Anti-aliasing Post:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	Off

With the reference-clocked GTX 760, I put all settings on High and disabled AA and AO. On EVGA’s card, I was able to enable SSAO while retaining the exact same framerate. Also, unlike AC IV, I was able to stick to the top 1440p resolution with BF 4.

	Crysis 3
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	43		63
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	Texture:	High
	Effects:	High	Object:	High
	Particles:	High	Post Processing:	High
	Shading:	High	Shadows:	High
	Water:	High	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760	39		61
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	Texture:	High
	Effects:	High	Object:	High
	Particles:	High	Post Processing:	High
	Shading:	High	Shadows:	High
	Water:	High	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes

It might not come as a huge surprise, but running Crysis 3 at 1440p on a $250 graphics card is hard. So hard, that I decided to bump down to 1080p and retain those High detail settings. For 1440p to become truly playable, you’ll need to disable too much.

	GRID 2
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	55		62
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	Ultra	Advanced Fog:	On
	Particles:	Ultra	Crowd:	Ultra
	Cloth:	High	Ambient Occlusion:	Low
	Soft Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Ground Cover:	High
	Vehicle Details:	Ultra	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	Off	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760	61		68
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	High	Advanced Fog:	On
	Particles:	Ultra	Crowd:	Ultra
	Cloth:	High	Ambient Occlusion:	Low
	Soft Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Ground Cover:	High
	Vehicle Details:	Ultra	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	Off	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra

At 60+ FPS, both GTX 760s handle GRID 2 great at 1440p, although EVGA’s card allowed me to boost the Shadow quality to Ultra (from High).

	Sleeping Dogs
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	61		73
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760	54		66
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme

As with most GPUs I’ve run through the Best Playable gauntlet, Sleeping Dogs is best-played when the anti-aliasing is degraded to Normal. Admittedly, this is just fine, since the game’s AA implementation is junk, at best.

	Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	52		65
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	High
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Off
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760	48		59
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	High
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Off
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA

Wrapping-up, both GTX 760s handle the same graphical details, but as expected, EVGA’s card gives the FPS a little boost.