NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti Review: 1080p Gaming without a Power Connector

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.

Our regular benchmark tests showed that the R7 260X and 750 Ti are about the same, with NVIDIA getting the slight edge. The differences are so minor, that the Best Playable settings for each game have been kept identical for both cards – giving us the benefit of gaining results for both Best Playable and apples-to-apples.

	Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti	46		56
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Environment:	High	Shadow:	Normal
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	Normal
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On
AMD Radeon R7 260X	51		60
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Environment:	High	Shadow:	Normal
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	Normal
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On

With the standard settings I use for AC IV, NVIDIA’s card came a little bit ahead of AMD’s. But something odd happened when I tested the card with the Best Playable settings: The roles reversed. I can’t summon the logic to explain why this is the case, but multiple tests proved these results to be consistent.

	Battlefield 4
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti	51		68
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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
AMD Radeon R7 260X	49		62
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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

NVIDIA’s 750 Ti somehow lagged behind the R7 260X in AC IV, but it manages the opposite with BF 4.

	Crysis 3
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti	36		55
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Anti-aliasing:	Off	Texture:	Medium
	Effects:	Medium	Object:	Medium
	Particles:	Medium	Post Processing:	Medium
	Shading:	Medium	Shadows:	Low
	Water:	Low	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes
AMD Radeon R7 260X	36		54
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Anti-aliasing:	Off	Texture:	Medium
	Effects:	Medium	Object:	Medium
	Particles:	Medium	Post Processing:	Medium
	Shading:	Medium	Shadows:	Low
	Water:	Low	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes

AC IV and BF 4 saw the tested cards swap places, but with Crysis 3, the results are what I’d consider identical.

	GRID 2
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti	49		59
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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:	High	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	Off	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra
AMD Radeon R7 260X	50		58
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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:	High	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	Off	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra

Once again, we see a difference of a mere 1 FPS. I don’t want to think of the caffeine kick required to notice that difference in the real-world.

	Sleeping Dogs
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti	62		75
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme
AMD Radeon R7 260X	62		71
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme

Sleeping Dogs is AMD’s game, but the latest optimizations in NVIDIA’s GeForce drivers helped give the 750 Ti a lead.

	Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti	60		72
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Texture Detail:	Medium	Shadow:	Medium
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	Off
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Field AO
	Anti-aliasing:	Off
AMD Radeon R7 260X	51		77
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Texture Detail:	Medium	Shadow:	Medium
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	Off
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Field AO
	Anti-aliasing:	Off

It looks like we couldn’t wrap-up the Best Playable results without some oddball findings. For whatever reason, AMD’s card performed better on average, but NVIDIA’s better at the minimum. Regardless of how these results are interpreted, though, one thing’s for sure: Both play at above 60 FPS, which is important.