Is it possible to game on a 1080p monitor,with most of the eye candy turned on without having to spend $200 or more for a graphics card? Well, we saw the Fermi based NVIDIA GTX 650 Ti make that a reality on most games available at its launch. To date, only a few new games demand a more capable GPU to handle the job. With Fermi slowly fading from the shelves, it was only logical that a GTX 750 GPU take over the reigns. This is the first of Maxwell GPUs to launch. If NVIDIA’s advancement trend continues, we suspect it can handle some if not all graphic intensive games today, and more, like its predecessor.
That brings us to the MSI GTX 750 Ti OC TwinFrozr II video card, which is an even more enhanced GTX 750 Ti. The card is factory overclocked right out of the box. We have a few game titles to try out and hopefully, this budget, yet performance minded GPU measures up!
Features and Specifications
To add perspective, we see that MSI offers three cards based on the GTX 750 Ti. While there are vanilla models available, the OC are by far, MSI’s best bang for buck in their arsenal. The GTX 750 Ti GPU has about half the CUDA cores of the on paper GTX 760. In retrospect, the GTX 650 Ti has a few more CUDA cores making us wonder just how that will effect performance. Well, it all comes down to the new Maxwell architecture, which powers this new GPU.
The 28nm Maxwell offers better frequencies, more video memory, and efficiencies all around compared to Kepler which is hard to fathom. Maxwell provides two times the performance/watt efficiency of Kepler which means it’s ideal for lower wattage basic PCs, consumes a mere 60 Watts TDP meaning it doesn’t need an external PSU power source, is said to top 1250 MHz when overclocked, and the ideal card for small form factor (SFF) systems. Additional updates include an improved NVENC encoder so ShadowPlay works better, TXAA tuning, and PhysX support for games like COD: Ghosts. You can also stream games to your shield through your network.
Keep in mind those CUDA cores are important for rendering for both video games and video processing. But because they are used just a bit differently in the new Maxwell architecture, it might just be a surprise.
What’s in the Box?
The bundle is very basic. Users get the guide, product documentation, software disc, and video card. No cables, port adapters, or power adapters are included. The lack of cables makes sense because the card uses just the PCIE slot for power and the card has three video out ports: HDMI, VGA, and DVI. You’re all covered. Unfortunately, you won’t find any free game codes bundled with any models below a GTX 760. Although promotions from NVIDIA and retailers may change that outlook.
A Closer Look
Compared to a stock or reference GTX 750 or GTX 750 Ti (pictured earlier), the MSI GTX 750 Ti is muscular. It sports two 90mm cooling fans that are large enough they shouldn’t create that much noise during gaming. They sit atop a 3/4 inch thick aluminum heat sinks with only two heat pipes, suggesting the card must not get very hot at all. The VREG components on these cards don’t get hot either so no need to get crazy with a big heat sink.
In case you haven’t noticed, the GTX 750 Ti doesn’t require an external PSU power source. It draws its power directly from the PCIE slot. This is great for systems with smaller power supplies (like many pre-built systems on the market) as well as small form factor system builds, where tight quarters mean every cable counts.
Let’s have a look at the bundled software and utilities next.
Software Options: Gaming APP, MSI Afterburner, and Live Update 6
For those that aren’t familiar with MSI graphics cards, Live Update 6 is used for updating your video card’s BIOS, driver, or firmware. If you encounter any odd bugs, check MSI’s site or use LU6 to check for fixes. That’s always recommended before running any serious apps or benchmarks for the best possible experience.
Users have a choice of using either the Gaming APP or Afterburner, or both programs to overclock their video card. The Gaming App comes with three settings: OC Mode essentially puts your video card in overclock mode automatically; Gaming Mode which is the default automatically controlling fans and stock frequencies; Silent Mode which of course operates the video card as quietly as possible meaning lower dynamic frequencies. The snowflake sets the fan speed to maximum producing about 38 dB at two feet. Oddly, there’s no way to turn off the app with a simple push of a button. Instead, users have to right click on the tray icon to exit. The card worked perfectly with the Gaming App.
MSI Afterbuner came out swinging a few years ago proving to be one of the better GPU overclocking utilities around. Visually, it hasn’t been changed at all really. Most of the magic happens in the Core Voltage, Core Clock, and Memory Clock. The GTX 750 Ti OC already comes with higher factory GPU frequencies. Our sample card had a little extra overclocking to offer. The card topped out at +84 MHz Core Clock and +640 MHz Memory Clock. It isn’t nearly as high as some other samples but that’s the luck of the draw.
Test System
For testing, I’m using a system that better reflects where this card is targeted. We setup an Intel Core i5-3570K processor ($229), GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD4H motherboard ($185), Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 memory kit ($90), Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black hard drive ($70), and beQuiet 700 Watt PurePower 80Plus Bronze power supply ($75), to create an affordable but solid system. A Windows 7 Pro, fully patched and updated, is used to test all systems.
The above system with a relatively cheap case will cost around $800. These are good quality parts that should last for years to come. It’ll also be able to handle a more capable video card if a must-have game strikes your fancy, forcing another upgrade.
Let’s get to testing!
Gaming Benchmarks
All the games used were tested using 1920 x 1080 resolution and very high game details. Tessellation was set to normal if the option was available. Otherwise, everything here is DX11 mode and default. Three passes were performed of each game which determines the average.
3DMark11 – Performance Settings
This benchmark depends heavily on memory bandwidth, bit-rate, and CUDA cores in order to really score well. While the GTX 650 Ti has slightly more CUDA cores, the MSI GTX 750 Ti scores better due to higher frequencies. Don’t expect it to set any records.
Heaven Demo
This synthetic benchmark gives us an idea that the MSI GTX 750 Ti OC is just at the cusp of enough to satisfy most entry gamers. It may very well depend on settings. Here, we use 8x AA and normal tessellation. Extreme tessellation drops it down to around 22 frame averages. So keep that in mind when looking at benchmarks. Sometimes, game settings may need turned down.
Crysis 3
Even with Crytek’s recent financial woes, Crysis 3 is still the standard for PC gaming power. It loves bandwidth and bit-rate power which the OC has a limited supply of. It was choppy city unfortunately benching Crysis 3 at higher settings. Users may want to consider turning down settings to medium which allows about another 12 frame boost. Otherwise, consider a GTX 760 which will score around that of a GTX 670.
With that “Crysis” averted, let’s break out a few more gaming benchmarks and take it on home!
Metro: Last Light
Metro has so much going on at once, it eats up GPUs during the action. Keep in mind these are very high settings. Turning them down a bit or eliminating sampling can bring up another 14 frames or so which means a much more playable experience.
Assassin’s Creed III
AC3 is just a bit more detailed a game than many others. All those textures bring a lot of cards to their knees especially with maxed settings. The demo run is still relatively smooth as well as playable.
Battlefield 3 – Stock and Overclocked
Our sample card was only capable of +84 MHz GPU and +240 MHz memory frequencies. This is much less than NVIDIA’s note of reaching or topping 1250 MHz in their own overclocking of the base GTX 750. In the end, the card renders only a couple more frames. Otherwise, the card plays BF4 pretty well by default. It doesn’t drop too often enough to frustrate which is all that matters.
Noisy or Quiet Card?
The noise level depends on the GPU load of course. At stock idle, the card generates a mere 16 dB at the most. Gaming increases to about 24dB but didn’t seem to really get much louder. The more intensive game play sessions reach about 30dB on the average. That’s not bad at all considering that computer cases block about 10dB which means you won’t hear much.
Final Thoughts
The MSI GTX 750 Ti OC TwinForzr II is a very inexpensive video card, but you get a lot. Sure, you have to sacrifice certain GPU resource features like memory bandwidth, bit-rate, CUDA cores, and sometimes accessories like games, but that’s doesn’t seem to hobble it. This MSI card does not sacrifice stability or managing temps well without too much noise, and you do get a taste of NVIDIA’s latest generation Maxwell architecture at an entry level price. Because of its low heat, low power draw, and relative silence, you may not even know the card is working inside a decent computer case.
In terms of gaming performance, it’s going to depend on the resolution selected and texture settings checked. Especially when you’re talking about newer games. Using medium game settings, Crysis 3, Assassin’s Creed III, and even Metro Last Light will be decently playable at 1080p. Using higher game settings will push the card down just a bit too far, in our opinion. However, lowering or turning off tessellation will help greatly. Either way, I found using medium settings with tessellation the sweet spot and more than acceptable.
If you’re looking for a smart buy without sacrificing a good gaming experience, the MSI GTX 750 Ti OC TwinFrozr II is definitely for you. And at only $145 US/CA at most major retailers, there’s no reason why you couldn’t make this upgrade to any system, at any price point, that will see gaming duty.
Pros:
- Very attractive design
- Stable and reliable performance
- Respectably low fan noise
- Good card for 1080p medium game settings
- Still capable of DX11 tessellation with medium settings
- Great bang for the buck at $145!
Cons:
- Struggles with 1080p higher game settings
- Doesn’t overclock more (though it is already OC’d).
Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10.0
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