Nvidia GTX780Ti Review (1600p, Ultra HD 4K)

Nvidia have reclaimed the top performance spot with their GTX 780 Ti,  knocking AMD's just released R9 290X comfortably into second place. The performance of the GTX780 Ti at both 1600p and Ultra HD 4K resolutions is simply remarkable, especially when we factor in the modest heat output and low noise emissions.

If you are a regular KitGuru reader you will know that AMD's R9 290X is an extremely powerful graphics card which outclasses both GTX 780 and GTX Titan in the majority of situations at 1600p and 4K. Sadly this has been met with a rather substantial caveat – based around the ill performing reference cooler.

AMD clearly have had issues getting the R9 290X to maintain the full 1GHZ clock speed at all times, they even created a new software algorithm to hold core temperatures at 95c under load. While this is user adjustable, the only real option to improve the situation is to increase the maximum fan speed, and therefore noise emissions. If you drop the acceptable temperature below 95c without increasing fan speeds then more core throttling and performance penalties will occur.

I commented about this in my AMD launch articles, and it was particularly disappointing because the new AMD hardware is really impressive. AMD's biggest issue is keeping the hardware running within non throttling, safe, long term parameters. We are still waiting on custom third party cooling solutions from the likes of Sapphire which will hopefully redress the sad state of affairs for loyal AMD gamers. They may have gotten the pricing right, but without an improved cooler we have concerns about these cards long term.

As we explained earlier in the review, the GTX 780 Ti doesn't suffer from the same thermal density issues. The R9 290X draws more power per square millimeter which is partly responsible for the noted cooling concerns.

When we directly compare the reference Nvidia GTX 780 Ti against the reference R9 290X the temperature variable is 12-15c in favour of the Nvidia card at all times. Not only does the GTX 780 Ti refrain from core throttling under load, but it radiates less heat inside a chassis and won't burn your hand if you try to remove it immediately when powering down after a gaming session.

The Nvidia GTX780 Ti is an excellent choice if you have just bought a new Ultra HD 4K screen, such as the £3,000 ASUS PQ321QE 31.5 inch 4K monitor which we added into our labs this month. Playing the latest Batman Arkham Origins or Battlefield 4 at 3,840×2,160 on the GTX 780 Ti is the reason why the PC platform will always lead the way when it comes to cutting edge gaming. We initially had some concerns that Nvidia had outfitted the new board with 3GB of GDDR5 and not 4GB, but it doesn't seem to have a negative effect at Ultra HD 4K, even with high image quality settings selected in the latest Direct X 11 titles.

Another remarkable facet of the GTX 780 Ti is the core overclocking headroom. Nvidia are keen to promote their new power balancing feature, which seems to work wonders. The GPU gets power from three sources, the 6 pin and 8 pin connector and the PCI Express interface. When a user overclocks the hardware the power delivery can be unbalanced with power drawn from one source more than the others, potentially maxing out the clock speeds.

Nvidia say the new feature can direct power from one input to another, meaning that if you max out a single power source then the algorithm will take more power from others to compensate. In real world terms we managed to increase the core clock speed on our sample from 876mhz to 1,122mhz … an almost 30 percent increase. Obviously all samples will overclock slightly differently, but there is clearly plenty of room for Nvidia partners to release greatly enhanced versions of the GTX780 Ti in the coming months.

At time of publication we have been told that UK pricing of the GTX 780 Ti will be around the £550 inc vat mark. The older GTX780 has dropped in price recently to make way for this new, more powerful model.

AMD's reference R9 290X is hitting retail for around £450–£470, making it around £80-£100 less expensive than the GTX 780 Ti. There is no doubt in my mind that it beats the AMD R9 290X on a performance level, while emitting less heat and noise. The overclocking potential from the new Nvidia part is also staggering. At the end of the day only you can decide if the extra cost is worth it over the R9 290X, but even with the price premium we find Nvidia's GTX 780 Ti very difficult to ignore.

Nvidia have a ‘where to buy list' for the GTX 780 Ti – over here.

Discuss on Facebook – over here.

Pros:

• Better reference cooler than the R9 290X.
• quieter than the R9 290X.
• cooler than the R9 290X.
• faster than the R9 290X.
• Ultra HD 4K leader.
• massive overclocking headroom.

Cons:

• Is expensive.

Kitguru says: Runs cool, quiet and has massive overclocking headroom. The fastest single GPU graphics card on the market.

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