MSI GeForce GTX 760 Gaming OC 2GB Video Card Review in SLI and 2D Surround

Legit Video Card Reviews

Earlier today we brought you a review of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB reference card. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 uses the GK104 "Kepler" GPU and has 1152 CUDA cores with a base clock speed of 980MHz, while the boost clock speed is 1033MHz. The 2GB of GDDR5 memory runs on a 256-bit bus and is clocked at 6008MHz (effective). Pretty impressive specifications for a desktop graphics card in the $250 price segment.

However, pretty much every NVIDIA board partner will be offering factory overclocked GeForce GTX 760 boards that run at even higher clock speeds along with custom GPU coolers for improved cooling. This is great for consumers as when you purchase a desktop graphics cards you have a a wide variety brands and models to pick from. The number of different cards can be daunting, but you can get exactly what you want. The very first retail board partner GeForce GTX 760 card that we will be looking at is the MSI N760 TF 2GD5/OC. We were told to call it the MSI N760 TF 2GD5/OC, but if you go by the retail box it would be the GeForce GTX 760 Twin Frozr Gaming OC Edition.

The MSI GeForce GTX 760 Twin Frozr Gaming OC 2GB looks nothing like the NVIDIA Reference card as you can see from the image above.

The MSI GeForce GTX 760 Twin Frozr Gaming OC is clocked at 1020MHz on the core and 1085MHz on the boost clock. This is a 4% overclock on the base clock and a 5% overclock on the boost clock.  The 2GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 1502MHz (6008MHz effective), so the memory has not been overclocked and is running at stock speeds.

MSI was kind enough to send over a pair of their GeForce GTX 760 Twin Frozr Gaming OC cards for us to try out in both single card and 2-way SLI.

The MSI GeForce GTX 760 Gaming features two 100mm (10cm) fans and the Twin Frozr IV GPU cooler that has 5 copper heat pipes. At start up the fans are audible but quickly fade to nearly inaudible.

MSI uses Military Class 4 components on the Gaming series card, so they have Hi-c CAP, new SFC and Solid CAP. The dual 10cm PWM fans have propeller blade technology with dust technology, so they spin backwards for a second when first started to prevent dust from blowing into the heat sink.

MSI went with an 8-pin and 6-pin PCI-e power connectors for their GeForce GTX 760 gaming edition card. MSI suggests a 500 Watt or greater power supply for proper operation.

Here we can see the video output connectors for the GTX760 card. It has a pair of dual-link DVI connectors, the bottom is a DVI-I while the top is DVI-D. Display Port is at the bottom left and HDMI is in the middle. The design looks is identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 reference card, so the video outputs are the same.

Here we have the back side of the card where it should be noted that this card uses a PCB that is 10.0" in length, but the GPU cooler extends past the card making it nearly 10.25" in length. This is about 0.75-inches longer than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 reference card. 

From this angle you can better see that the Twin Frozr 4 GPU cooler extends past the PCB and how it pushes air in all directions. Not much air is exhausted out of the chassis, so it will be interesting to see how the temperatures are during our SLI testin.

MSI is using SK hynix GDDR5 IC's that are marked H5GQ2H24AFR-R0C. These are the same exact ICs that NVIDIA used for the frame buffer on the reference card. According to the SK hynix website these specific IC's are rated to run at 6.0Gbps (0.3ns) at 1.5V.

Let's take a look at the retail box and bundle!

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Make Air Travel More Comfortable with a Beach Ball

Thanks to unsupportive seats you have to sit in for hours, flying is often literally a pain. You can reduce your chances of getting a sore, achy back on your next flight by bringing along an inflatable beach ball.

Physical therapist Doug Kelsey writes on the My Itchy Travel Feet blog that the adjustable beach ball is perfect for lumbar support:

Because the beach ball is filled with air, it allows you to move in your chair which in turn, moves your spine just enough to keep it from getting stiff.

Put a very small amount of air in the ball (once you’re in flight, the pressure change will increase the pressure in the ball so you don’t need much air). Place the ball in the small of your back. Increase or decrease the amount of air to your comfort level. About every thirty minutes, move the ball either up or down an inch or two. While in flight, periodically move side to side, forward and back for about a minute—kind of a small rocking motion of your trunk on the ball. When you’re done with the flight, deflate the ball and store for later use.

Bonus: You'll have something to toss around if you head to a beach or park on your vacation.

Travelers, relieve lower back pain with this simple tip | My Itchy Travel Feet

Photo by Klim Levene.

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Run the Peacekeeper Browser Benchmark as a Power User Battery Test

Battery benchmarks tend to err on the side of casual use, offering higher numbers than many of us actually get on our laptops. If you want to know how long your battery will last under strenuous activity, however, the popular Peacekeeper browser test can give you a good idea.

The Peacekeeper test checks browser compatibility and speed by performing a variety of tasks, some more CPU-intensive than others. While most of us won't ever use our laptops at nearly full blast for the entire duration of their batteries, when you buy a laptop you don't just want to know the battery life you'll get from casual use but also the minimum. The Peacekeeper test, which lasts about five minutes, can run itself on a loop until your battery dies. When you start, you'll get a code that you can enter when you boot your computer back up to see how long it lasted.

If you want an accurate picture of how your battery stacks up under pressure, give it a try. You just scroll down to the bottom of the page where they hide the battery test link to get started.

Peacekeeper Browser Benchmark

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"No" Is the Button That Keeps Us On

Saying "no" can feel awful. It's often seen as rude, uncooperative, unfriendly, unhelpful, and so on. But for makers and creators, "no" is "the button that keeps us on," writes Kevin Ashton on Medium.

In his essay titled "Creative People Say No," Ashton eloquently points out all the reasons saying "no" is essential if you want to be productive:

Saying “no” has more creative power than ideas, insights and talent combined. No guards time, the thread from which we weave our creations. The math of time is simple: you have less than you think and need more than you know. We are not taught to say “no.” We are taught not to say “no.” “No” is rude. “No” is a rebuff, a rebuttal, a minor act of verbal violence. “No” is for drugs and strangers with candy.

Creators do not ask how much time something takes but how much creation it costs. This interview, this letter, this trip to the movies, this dinner with friends, this party, this last day of summer. How much less will I create unless I say “no?” A sketch? A stanza? A paragraph? An experiment? Twenty lines of code? The answer is always the same: “yes” makes less.

Saying "no" without feeling like a jerk isn't easy, but as another "no" advocate, Ernie Miller writes, "no" can be a beautiful word.

Creative People Say No | Medium

Photo by Phatic-Photography (Shutterstock).

Related We aim to please, and so saying "no" to a request can be a hard thing to do. We don't like to introduce negativity into the… Read…

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Gawker Texas Lawmaker Braving Backbreaking Filibuster to Stop Abortion Bill | Kotaku The Xbox One Vs

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The Sideswipe Home Screen

Grids of icons are so passé. Mycolorscreen user Bowker678 opted for a different look with a side bar with quick access to common apps.

Just about all of the features shown in this set up were built using Ultimate Custom Widget, though for posterity, here is a list of all the links you'll need to put this look together:

If you want a bit more information on getting started with UCCW, you can check out a tutorial here. The app is extremely powerful, but can be a bit daunting at first. As this home screen demonstrates, it can be used to create everything from the side panel to the status bar.

Do you have an awesome, tweaked-into-oblivion home or lock screen of your own that you'd like to share? Post it in the comments below, or on your own Kinja blog with the tag "home screen showcase" (no quotes). Be sure to include a description of how you made it so we can feature it as the next featured home screen.

Sideswipe v4 | Bowker678

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TuneSpan Splits Your iTunes Library Across Many Drives, Only $2 Today

OS X: Previously mentioned (and previously free) TuneSpan—the app that splits your iTunes library across multiple drives—went on sale today for $2, down from $15. If you've got a large music collection that won't fit on your primary drive, this app will solve your problem.

TuneSpan looks a lot like iTunes when you open it up, making it a familiar way to set locations for your music. You just pick the files you want to move and choose a drive to put them on. TuneSpan then updates your iTunes library file so iTunes knows to look for the files elsewhere. While you will, of course, need to have the drive connected in order to access the files you can put the music you play less elsewhere and just connect the drive when you need it. This way you can have one giant library without taking up an enormous amount of disk space.

Normally $15, you can pick up TuneSpan for 87% off on the Mac App Store today only.

TuneSpan ($2) | Mac App Store via AppShopper

Related If you don't want to manage multiple music libraries and would rather just have one, but your iTunes is eating up precious disk space, TuneSpan… Read…

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