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Today we look at the new customised high end card from Asus, the GTX780 Ti Direct CUII OC. This solution features a customised two fan cooler and out of the box overclocked speeds. We already know the GTX780 Ti is the fastest single GPU on the planet, so how does the tweaked ASUS card stack up?
The ASUS GTX780 Ti DirectCU II OC is equipped with the DIGI+ VRM circuitry which gives the card a 10 phase power design. Asus claim this reduces the card's power noise by 30 percent and makes it 15 percent more efficient.
| Ref Nvidia GTX780Ti | Ref Nvidia GTX780 | Ref Nvidia GTX Titan | |
| GPU | GK110 | GK110 | GK110 |
| Technology | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
| Transistors | 7.1Bn | 7.1Bn | 7.1Bn |
| ROP’s | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| TMU’s | 240 | 192 | 224 |
| CUDA Cores |
2880 | 2304 | 2688 |
| Pixel Filrate | 42.0 GPixel/s | 41.4 GPixel/s | 40.2 GPixel/s |
| Memory Size | 3GB | 3GB | 6GB |
| Texture Filrate | 210.2 GTexel/s | 165.7 GTexel/s | 187.5 GTexel/s |
| Bus Width | 384 bit | 384 bit | 384 bit |
| Bandwidth | 336 GB/s | 288.4 GB/s | 288.4 GB/s |
| GPU clock speed | 876mhz | 863mhz | 837mhz |
| Boost clock speed | 928mhz | 902mhz | 876mhz |
| Memory clock speed | 1,750mhz | 1,502mhz | 1,502mhz |
The new ASUS GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC is clocked higher than the reference GTX780 Ti. The GK 110 core speed has been increased from 876mhz to 954mhz.
Today we test hardware with a 30 inch Apple Cinema HD display (2,560×1,600) and with our ASUS PQ321QE Ultra HD 4K Monitor (3,840×2,160).
The 4K ASUS PQ321QE panel retails with a whopping £2999.99 asking price , however we would expect this cost to drop in 2014.
Setting up this monitor is simple with both AMD and Nvidia hardware (via DisplayPort cable) and we didn’t experience any issues. To achieve a refresh rate of 60hz after the Forceware or Catalyst drivers were installed we enable the Multi Stream Transport mode within a submenu of the Asus PQ321QE.
Today we test using the latest Catalyst and Forceware drivers (13.11 beta and 331.82 respectively).
The Asus GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC ships in a generic ASUS box, featuring red ‘claw marks'. A representation of the cooler is shown at the left side.
Inside the box is a software disc, which includes the Asus GPU Tweak overclocking tool. Asus also supply a power converter cable and some stickers.
ASUS supply these stickers to let the end user customise the appearance of their card, allowing them to match the colours of the motherboard. Only useful if your motherboard has red or gold heatsinks. That said, you could just leave it plain black, like we did in this review.
The GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC is a heavy card, due to the weight of the metal heatsink and oversized heatpipes. The rear of the card is equipped with a backplate, which helps reduce operating temperatures and improve stability under heavy load and overclocked conditions.
The card is SLI capable in 2 and 3 way configurations.
It takes power from two 8 pin PCI connectors, shown above.
The Asus GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC has two dual link DVI connectors, as well as a full sized DisplayPort and HDMI connector.
We have to mention the exceptional build quality of the Asus card. They have added support sections to the card to make it more rigid. There is even a metal support bracket between the cooler and the backplate – shown above.
The heatsink is a substantial bit of kit. There are five nickel plated heatpipes, four of which run into one side then into various positions, through the aluminum fins on either side of the core section. On the other side is a very thick heatpipe which runs into the larger rack of aluminum fins.
The GTX780 has 2304 CUDA cores and the GTX Titan has 2,688. The new GTX780Ti has a staggering 2880. The GTX780 Ti has 3GB of memory, identical to the GTX780, but it is clocked much higher – at 1,750mhz (7Gbps effective).
The reference GPU core is clocked at 876mhz, with a boost clock speed of 928mhz – higher than both the reference GTX 780 and GTX Titan. The Asus GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II is overclocked however, with a core clock increase to 954mhz.
The new GTX 780 Ti also has the highest Texture Unit count of 240, up from 192 Texture Units on the previous GTX780. The GTX Titan by comparison has 224 Texture Units.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later.
This review today will feature comparisons against AMD’s R9 290 and R9 290x. We also include results from an overclocked Palit GTX780 Ti, GTX770, reference clocked Nvidia GTX780, Nvidia GTX780 ti, an Nvidia GTX Titan and the class leading MSI GTX780 Lightning – all of which we have reviewed in the past. We also add in results from the fastest R9 280X on the market – the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition. We are using the latest Catalyst and Forceware drivers (13.11 beta and 331.82 respectively).
We are using one of our brand new test rigs supplied by PCSPECIALIST and built to our specifications. If you want to read more about this, or are interested in buying the same Kitguru Test Rig, check out our article with links on this page.
We are featuring results today with an Apple 30 inch Cinema HD Display at 2560×1600 resolution and an Asus PQ321QE Ultra HD 4K screen running at 4K 3840 x 2160 resolution.
Room ambient was held at 23c throughout testing.
Comparison cards:
AMD R9 290X (1000mhz core / 1,250mhz memory)
AMD R9 290 (947mhz core / 1,250mhz memory)
Palit GTX780 Ti JetStream OC (980mhz core / 1750mhz memory)
Nvidia GTX780 Ti (876mhz core / 1,750mhz memory)
Nvidia GTX Titan (837mhz core / 1,502mhz memory)
Nvidia GTX780 (863mhz core / 1,502mhz memory)
MSI GTX780 Lightning (980mhz core / 1,502mhz memory)
Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC (1000 mhz core / 1,300mhz memory)
Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition (1,150mhz core / 1,600mhz memory)
Palit GTX770 OC (1046mhz core / 1753mhz memory)
Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Unigine Valley Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
3DMark
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
Games:
Sleeping Dogs
Total War: Rome 2
Dirt Showdown
Tomb Raider
Metro Last Light
GRID 2
Splinter Cell Blacklist
Batman Arkham Origins
Battlefield 4
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.
Special thanks to Azettlor for the use of his demon in our graphs- ‘Kinjal Front'.
Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset.
A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.
Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.
Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:
- Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
- Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
- Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
- Multicore CPU support
- Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
- Powerful C++ API
- Comprehensive performance profiling system
- Flexible XML-based data structures
We use the settings shown above at 2560×1600.
Great results, just falling in behind the higher clocked Palit GTX 780 Ti Jetstream.
Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.
We test with the settings above both at 2560×1600.
Great results, only a couple of frames per second behind the Palit GTX780 Ti Jetstream. The Asus board is around 6 frames per second faster than the reference clocked GTX780 Ti solution.
Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.
The system scores 51,652 points, placing it around 2,000 points ahead of the reference clocked GTX 780 Ti solution.
3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.
Class leading results, right at the top of the performance chart, totaling 16,196 points in the graphics tests.
3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance.
Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good.
To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.”
The Asus GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC scores 11,975 points, only a couple of hundred behind the higher clocked Palit Jetstream version. The reference GTX780 Ti scores 11,165 points.
Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today. To test the cards we used a 2560×1600 resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occlusion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on.
No problems averaging high frame rates at these settings, dropping to 55 frames per second in the most intensive sections of the environment.
Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.
To test the cards we used a ULTRA HD 4K resolution (3840×2160) with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on.
The two overclocked GTX780 Ti cards are able to maintain a 30+ frame rate at all times at 3840×2160. Impressive results.Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series.As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights.
This game is still a system killer at these maximised settings. We test at 2560×1600.
Excellent results, averaging 44 frames per second.
Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series.As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights.
We used the ‘HIGH’ graphics level setting at 4K- 3840×2160. This uses a mixture of high and extreme graphics settings, detailed above.
By adjusting the image quality a little, we can still get smooth frame rates at Ultra HD 4k resolution. Results are almost identical between the Palit and ASUS cards.
Total War ROME 2 is the eighth stand alone game in the Total War series, it is the successor to the successful Rome: Total War title. The Warscape Engine powers the visuals of the game and the new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers on the battlefield, which in itself may contain thousands of combatants at a time. Creative Assembly has stated that they wish to bring out the more human side of war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city. This will be realised using facial animations for individual units, adding a feel of horror and realism to the battles.
We test with the ULTRA profile at 2560×1600. Details shown in the screenshots above.
The frame rates are very smooth throughout, dropping to just under 50 frames per second in the most intensive sections of the environment.
Total War ROME 2 is the eighth stand alone game in the Total War series, it is the successor to the successful Rome: Total War title. The Warscape Engine powers the visuals of the game and the new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers on the battlefield, which in itself may contain thousands of combatants at a time. Creative Assembly has stated that they wish to bring out the more human side of war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city. This will be realised using facial animations for individual units, adding a feel of horror and realism to the battles.
We test at 4K – 3840×2160 with the Very High Preset selected, as shown in the screenshots above.
The overclocked GTX780 Ti's dominate this engine at Ultra HD 4k resolution, averaging 50+ frames.Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007.
Today we test the hardware at 2560×1600 with the Ultra profile and 8 x MSAA.
This engine has always favoured AMD hardware, but the top results are very closely matched between AMD and Nvidia solutions.
Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007.
Today we test with the ULTRA profile, at 4K 3840×2160 resolution and with 8 times Anti Aliasing.
The AMD R9 290X in Uber mode dominates this game test – averaging 51 frames per second.
After a delayed release from late 2012 to March 2013, the game received much anticipation and hype. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far.
We use the ULTIMATE profile shown above and test at 2560×1600.
The GTX780 Ti cards dominate this benchmark, claiming the top three positions.
After a delayed release from late 2012 to March 2013, the game received much anticipation and hype. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far.
We test at 4K 3840×2160 resolution with the ULTRA profile setting enabled – details in the images above.
The chart positions don't change from 1600p to Ultra HD 4K resolutions. The GTX780 Ti is still top of the chart.
Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One survived the missile strike. 4A Games’ proprietary 4A Engine is capable of rendering breathtaking vistas, such as those showing the ruined remnants of Moscow, as well as immersive indoor areas that play with light and shadow, creating hauntingly beautiful scenes akin to those from modern-day photos of Pripyat’s abandoned factories and schools.
We test this game with the built in benchmark with very high quality settings at 1920×1080 – details shown in the image above.
Very closely matched at the top of the chart between the two overclocked GTX780 Ti cards, some distance ahead of the reference clocked version, in third place.
Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One survived the missile strike. 4A Games’ proprietary 4A Engine is capable of rendering breathtaking vistas, such as those showing the ruined remnants of Moscow, as well as immersive indoor areas that play with light and shadow, creating hauntingly beautiful scenes akin to those from modern-day photos of Pripyat’s abandoned factories and schools.
We test this game with the built in benchmark, with the settings detailed above. Direct X 11 mode, Quality is set at medium, 16 AF, normal Motion blur, Tessellation Normal, Advanced PhysX disabled and SSAA disabled.
No shift in position, moving from 1080p to Ultra HD 4k resolution. The GTX 780 Ti cards still hold the top positions.Grid 2 is the sequel to the racing video game Race Driver: Grid. It was developed and published by Codemasters. The game includes numerous real world locations such as Paris, numerous United States locations, and many more, and also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility.
We test at 2560×1600 with the Ultra image quality preset, as shown above. 8x MSAA was enabled to improve image quality.
An engine which has always worked well with AMD hardware, but the sheer power of the GTX780 Ti cards mean they claim the top positions.
Grid 2 is the sequel to the racing video game Race Driver: Grid. It was developed and published by Codemasters. The game includes numerous real world locations such as Paris, numerous United States locations, and many more, and also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility.
We select 4K 3840×2160 resolution and enabled the ULTRA profile with 8 times anti aliasing, as shown in the screenshots above.
Excellent results at Ultra HD 4K, averaging 53 frames per second.
Splinter Cell Blacklist is the sixth installment in the series. The game begins with Sam Fisher and his old friend Victor Coste who are about to depart from Andersen AFB in Guam when an unknown enemy force destroys the entire base. Assisted by hacker specialist Charlie Cole, Sam and Vic manage to escape, although Vic is injured after protecting Sam from a grenade. Soon after, a terrorist group calling itself “The Engineers” assumes responsibility for the attack and announce that it was the first of a deadly countdown of escalating attacks (called “The Blacklist”) on United States assets, declaring that they will halt the attacks only after the U.S. government accomplish the demand of calling back all American troops deployed abroad.
We test with a series of high image quality settings as shown above and with 4x MSAA and 16 x Anisotropic filtering enabled.
No problems powering this game at 1080p, averaging almost 70 frames per second.
Splinter Cell Blacklist is the sixth installment in the series. The game begins with Sam Fisher and his old friend Victor Coste who are about to depart from Andersen AFB in Guam when an unknown enemy force destroys the entire base. Assisted by hacker specialist Charlie Cole, Sam and Vic manage to escape, although Vic is injured after protecting Sam from a grenade. Soon after, a terrorist group calling itself “The Engineers” assumes responsibility for the attack and announce that it was the first of a deadly countdown of escalating attacks (called “The Blacklist”) on United States assets, declaring that they will halt the attacks only after the U.S. government accomplish the demand of calling back all American troops deployed abroad.
We selected 4K – 3840×2160 resolution and the ‘High’ Graphics quality preset. Screenshots shown above.
At Ultra HD 4K you want to be playing this game with either a GTX780 Ti or the AMD R9 290X – they give the smoothest frame rates throughout.
Batman Arkham Origins moved development away from series creators Rocksteady Studios, and is written by Corey May and Dooma Wendschuh. The game’s main storyline is set five years before that of 2009′s Batman: Arkham Asylum and follows a younger and less refined Batman who has a bounty placed on his head by crime lord Black Mask, drawing eight of the world’s greatest assassins to Gotham City on Christmas Eve. The game is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman’s combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in both combat and exploration. Arkham Origins is the first game in the series to feature multiplayer gameplay.
We test at Ultra HD 4K with a mixture of high image quality settings and 2 MSAA, shown above.
A very demanding game and its clear that it runs better on Nvidia hardware. The GTX780 Ti cards dominate this engine, forcing the AMD cards to the bottom of the chart. That said the AMD R9 290X and 290 still hold playable frame rates.Battlefield 4 (also known as BF4) is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and published by Electronic Arts. The game is a sequel to 2011′s Battlefield 3. Battlefield 4 is built on the new Frostbite 3 engine. The new Frostbite engine enables more realistic environments with higher resolution textures and particle effects. A new “networked water” system is also being introduced, allowing all players in the game to see the same wave at the same time.Tessellation has also been overhauled.
We test at Ultra HD 4K with the high image quality profile, shown above. This was tested on the pre-16th December patch.
Smooth frame rate performance from the Asus GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC, holding a frame rate well above 30 at all times at Ultra HD 4K resolution.
The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes.Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.
These temperatures are very impressive, holding a gaming load value at 72c. The Palit GTX780 Ti JetStream cooler however outclasses the Direct CU II model by around 8c. The three fan Palit implementation is definitely superior
We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.
We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa.
Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
When idle, the fans spin at 1,100rpm and this rises to around 1,800 rpm when gaming. Furmark pushes the fan profile higher, to around 2,100rpm.
The Asus GTX780 Ti Direct CUII OC is not the quietest card we have tested and we do feel after reviewing the latest three fan Palit GTX780 Ti Jetstream that Asus should perhaps have considered adding another fan into their cooling system. If designed properly, air flow can be improved while reducing the speed of the fans, subsequently lowering noise emissions.
To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Crysis Warhead and the synthetic stress test Furmark and record both results.
The card demands around 224 watts when gaming, which is very close to the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC which we also tested this week.To test today we used the version of ASUS GPU Tweak which is included on the optical disc supplied with the GTX 780 Ti Direct CU II OC. We unlocked the MAX GPU Voltage and MIN GPU Voltage options in the settings panel.
We managed to get 1,077mhz out of the core before we would experience minor artifacting and then hardlocking. This translates into a 12.8% overclock. We found that pushing the voltage any higher would lower overclocking potential and we found the sweet spot around +87 on Min GPU Voltage (mV) and +54 on Max GPU Voltage (mV).
These results are not as impressive as the Palit GTX 780 Ti JetStream OC, which we managed to push from 980mhz to 1,141 mhz (16.4%). That said, every card will exhibit different levels of overclocking capability so it is difficult to make generalised, sweeping statements based solely on the findings of a single sample.
On November 7th Nvidia reclaimed the top performance spot from AMD with the GTX780 Ti release. There is no questioning the performance of Nvidia's new flagship part at 1600p and Ultra HD 4K resolutions.
We still rate the Nvidia reference solution, as it combines low noise emissions with modest heat output. The same thing can certainly not be said about recent AMD reference coolers.
As impressive as the reference Nvidia board was, we knew there would be some room for improvement when partners tweaked the design. Our point was proved on November 23rd when we tested the Palit GTX 780 Ti JetStream OC.
While Palit often get overlooked for high end designs, the GTX780 Ti JetStream OC was actually one of the best graphics cards we have ever tested and pushed our expectations to a different level.
We have always praised ASUS for their Direct CU II cooler designs and there is no doubting that ASUS have improved on the reference design. The two fan cooler held a gaming load temperature at 72c which was seven degrees better than the reference cooler. Considering the increased clock speed and overclocking potential this seems reasonable … until we look at the performance of the JetStream cooler fitted to the Palit GTX 780 Ti sample.
Under the same conditions, the peak temperature of the Palit solution was 8c lower, hitting 64c under gaming load. As we know both Asus and Palit cards are equipped with high grade heatsink coolers based around thick copper heatpipes and direct touch technology. While the ASUS card is cooled by two large fans, the Palit engineers have adopted a tri-fan configuration. This has clearly been advantageous to the dissipation of radiated heat.
It goes without saying that ‘more is not always better', but the Palit JetStream cooler is an astonishing piece of engineering and sets the bar that others will definitely struggle to meet.
Out of the box, the Asus GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC is clocked at 954mhz, which seems quite modest, considering we managed to overclock it to 1,077mhz. Obviously every sample will overclock to a different level, but we feel that 980mhz would have been safe enough for ASUS to guarantee throughout the range.
The reference ASUS GTX780 Ti is priced at £599.99 inc vat. Asus informed us just before publication that the DirectCU II OC will only command a small price premium, hitting retail for around £620 inc vat.
ASUS are facing a real battle against Palit. The Jetstream GTX780 Ti is quieter, runs cooler and is shipped at a higher clock speed out of the box.
Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.
Pros:
- High engineering standards.
- very high performance at 1600p and Ultra HD 4K resolutions.
Cons:
- The three fan Palit GTX780Ti JetStream OC is better.
- The supplied gold coloured stickers are really only useful if you own one of the latest Asus motherboards.
Kitguru says: An excellent card from Asus, but it has a lot of competition at £600+.
Excellent looking card, but ih ave to say ‘gold stickers’? its that because they are the only company in the world to make gold coloured motherboards? blue and red and green would have been much better.
Good card though
I like ASUS GPU’s but they are always so expensive compared to other makes, this one seems priced ok, considering its a Ti, but the R9 290 is so much better value overall.
I agree with Ben. I guess the best option taking into account the price quality ratio is the Asus R9 290X. It´s not much more expensive than the R9 290 and it´s much better:
http://versus.com/en/asus-r9-290-vs-asus-r9-290x
It´s also over 100$ cheaper than Asus GTX780 Ti Direct CUII OC.
The R9 290X may be cheaper than the 780 Ti, but it’s not the best of the best! Asus GTX 780 Ti Direct CUII OC = The best of the best!