ZOTAC GeForce GTX 770 AMP! Edition Review

[section_title title=”Conclusion”]

Conclusion

Now that I’ve had the chance to have a play with a ZOTAC AMP! Edition GPU, it’s time to conclude my findings and figure out if this is a card worth purchasing, or if it is one best left on the shelf where it is sitting. There are a lot of things to take into consideration if you’re looking for that product that is just right for you, and for the vast majority of us, it’s the performance aspect. The noise levels certainly come highly in the hierarchy of what is important to many users in a graphics card, so let’s talk about its performance and then the other factors too.

The ZOTAC GTX 770 AMP! Edition is one of the fastest, if not the fastest stock clocked GTX 770 cards on the market which is definitely an accomplishment for ZOTAC. The fact that it is so highly clocked is great for those who just want to chuck it into their system and play games without the hassle of having to test overclocks for what can be anything from a few hours to a few weeks depending on how obsessed you are. The performance out of the box trounces on the ASUS GTX 770 DirectCU II in most benchmarks which is understandable as it is around 100MHz faster out of the box.

While the graphics card has a very high stock speed, its overclocking ability wasn’t that great and left for a bit more to be desired. I was only able to squeeze an extra 45MHz out of the core before it started to show graphical glitches such as artifacts and even the occasional black/blue screen. However, there are a number of things that can affect a graphics card overclock. Some manufacturers use a slightly higher voltage which will obviously allow for those extra few MHz and some have a better sample of the GPU core than others, which is down to the silicone lottery and not because some are cheaper or worse than others. It may just be that our sample overclocked poorly and that some others will blow this one out of the water, but I have to present my findings with what I have in front of me and I don’t have ZOTAC’s entire factory to my disposal to find out whether that’s indeed the case. Power delivery and temperatures will always play an important role in an overclocked situation but I don’t think that either of those were the deciding factor with this GPU.

If you’re a noise conciousness sort of person, this card may be something for you to consider as it is literally whisper quiet, even under heavy loads. Everyone does and always will have their own perception of what is or isn’t noisy, but from my stand point it was quiet. I am not the kind who likes my rig to sound like a hair dryer and silence, or as near to silent as possible, is a very important factor which I look for in a component before I purchase it.

I do think that the overall design of this card is something that is appealing to look at and I think that the difference in the fans, mainly its colouring, is something that makes it stand out from the crowd. As I mentioned previously, most manufacturers go with a standard black colour for their fan blades but ZOTAC have decided to be different by going with a tinted orange, which would look awesome in any black and orange build. The overall design, and effectiveness of the cooler on the ZOTAC GTX 770 AMP! Edition graphics card easily rivals the big giants such as ASUS and MSI.

For its price of roughly £260 depending on where you like to shop, it is a great card for the money. ZOTAC has a fantastic warranty offering too which beats all other manufacturers out there. You get an initial two years with the card but if you register the card on their website, you get an additional three years to make up a total of five years warranty. That’s definitely a big winner in my books. I know that I am unlikely to keep a card for that long but it is great to know that even if I ever did, it would be covered by the warranty service provided by ZOTAC.

Bearing all of the above in mind, it’s time to wrap up the review and give you my final thoughts. If you were looking for a powerful graphics card with an excellent, custom and quiet cooler, the ZOTAC should probably be on your list to buy. While it may not overclock as highly as some of the rivals out there, it is a beast out of the box and it easily copes with all of today’s games on the market and most likely will for a while to come yet. It’s 2GB of VRAM is somewhat limiting but that’s the only limiting factor I can see as there’s plenty of GPU grunt on the ZOTAC GTX 770 AMP! Edition. Again, as it may not overclock very well, due to the very high stock clocks and the admirable way it performed, I feel comfortable in giving this card an Editor’s Choice award due to everything that I’ve mentioned. The only thing that bothers me is the lack of a full card heat spreader but that’s a minor thing as the vital components have their own heat spreader anyway.

I’d like to take the time to thank ZOTAC for providing me with a GTX 770 AMP! Edition graphics card to review and I look forward to seeing more from them in the near future.