Although the Maxwell-based GTX750 Ti is a good value card in some parts of the world, South Africa is a completely different climate. We’re almost at the bottom of the planet, we eat dried meat and ride elephants to work, our internet connection is so slow that a pidgeon could transfer data quicker than ADSL and we have a weak currency. Importing anything from anywhere is expensive and by the hardware reaches our shores it’s usually jacked up in price absurdly. Earlier on I said that the GTX750 Ti wins in many metrics but fails in price/performance in our case and this quick price-check will show you why.

UPDATE: I’ve added in new pricing from Wootware and changed the average pricing to reflect the new figures. Still, Maxwell remains expensive given our current economic conditions.

The table below is a collection of prices as they appear on retailer sites today. Although Maxwell stock is very limited two retailers are advertising that stock is available, namely Rebel Tech and Titan-Ice. So far only Gigabyte and ASUS variants have showed up on ther map, but pretty soon they’ll be joined by variants from MSI, EVGA, PNY and Palit. Perhaps there’ll be some Zotac designs floating about as well.

In the table below there are prices indicated for various GTX750 Ti cards from the different retailers as well as prices of the card’s competitors. In the case of other Radeons and Geforce cards, no specific models will be shown in the table, only the cheapest variants that are shown as in stock. Prices for other graphics cards listed as “Out of stock”, “Limited stock” or “Call for availability” will not be included in the table.

The GTX750 and the GTX750 Ti launch into the local market at an average price of R2125 and R2820 respectively which puts them into some interesting price segments. Where the GTX750 is concerned the Palit StormX version from Titan-Ice is good value because it performs on par with the GTX650 Ti but doesn’t need that extra power connector.

If you were going to aim for a GTX650 Ti then the cheapest Maxwell variant would be a good and certainly cheaper replacement. Certainly Maxwell is a much better purchase over the Radeon HD7770 but you’ll need to seriously consider if the price difference is worth it for you. Against the even cheaper GTX650 or any of the leftover HD7730, HD7750 and R7 250 cards left in the retail channel, it’s a no-brainer purchase.

The GTX750 Ti is a harder sell because the average price of R2820 pushes it out of the segment it should be competing in. The Radeon R7 260X is much better value and doesn’t have high requirements when it comes to power either, although it won’t be as quiet as the Maxwell card.

In the same price range, almost everything else is a better buy if you’re not going to be overclocking. This includes the Geforce GTX660 which is pretty close to being phased out as well as the Radeon HD7870 and the R9 270, which is on par with the HD7870 but omits an unneeded 6-pin PEG power connector and is slightly more efficient overall.

However, most GTX750 Ti variants can be overclocked high enough to perform equally almost well as a stock GTX660 and still remain within the 75W power limit imposed on them by motherboard designs. If you’re not scared of a few sliders inside the Geforce software, netting that extra performance is dead easy.

In the end, Maxwell is a really good buy if you desire better efficiency from your GPU, quiet operation and need to run it without a beefy power supply. Trouble is, unless we start assembing and distributing these cards locally, we’re going to be at the mercy of international exchange rates and our location will continue to work against us along with the fact that we’re simply not a big enough market.

Further reading: Analysis: Nvidia Geforce GTX750 Ti

Discuss this in the forums: Linky