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AMD have been taking all the headlines in the last month, releasing a slew of graphics cards – including the class leading (but noisy) R9 290 and R9 290X. The R9 290X managed to take the performance crown from Nvidia's GTX 780 and GTX Titan in the ultra high end at both 1600p and Ultra HD 4K resolutions. Nvidia have been hard at work behind the scenes however and today they release their new GTX780 Ti. The big question we need to answer … is it enough to push the formidable R9 290X into second place?
AMD's R9 290/X is undoubtedly a monster card, but as I mentioned in our coverage over the previous couple of weeks, they really did botch the reference cooling solution. Performance figures only tell part of the story and I couldn't help but feel monumentally disappointed with their new reference cooler.
We are sure AMD partners will be able to fix the cooling/throttling concerns, but in the meantime there are plenty of reference cards now available, if you are happy dealing with a lot of heat, or noise.
Nvidia have supplemented their flagship GTX 780, adding the ‘Ti' moniker to the name. This new card incorporates GPU Boost 2.0 technology ensuring that the GTX780 Ti is always running at the highest clocks possible. Nvidia claim that with Boost 2.0, they can guarantee a certain minimum level of performance no matter the workload that the hardware is dealing with, or the thermal/power conditions.
Nvidia have also added a new power balancing feature which helps to get the most out of overclocking the hardware. 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 one power source then the algorithm will take more power from others to compensate. We will look at overclocking this card later in the review.
| Nvidia GTX780Ti | Nvidia GTX780 | 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 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 CPU core is clocked at 876mhz, with a boost clock speed of 928mhz – higher than both the reference GTX 780 and GTX Titan. 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.
CUDA Developers, researchers and scientists will still want the GTX Titan because of the full performance double precision and 6GB frame buffer however the GTX 780 Ti is Nvidia's new flagship Gaming GPU.
This review today will feature comparisons against AMD's R9 290 and R9 290x. We also include results from an overclocked Palit GTX770, reference clocked Nvidia GTX780, 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.
Today we test hardware with a 30 inch Apple Cinema HD display (2,560×1,600) and with our new ASUS PQ321QE Ultra HD 4K Monitor (3,840×2,160). It will be interesting to see if the GTX 780 Ti's 3GB of GDDR5 memory will be a limiting factor powering the latest games at 4K.
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 beta8 and 331.70 respectively).
The reference Nvidia GTX780Ti ships with the traditional Nvidia ‘industrial' silver and black cooler. I have a fondness for Nvidia reference designs as they have proved to be relatively quiet in the past and technically much better than the AMD reference designs. This card is a dual slot design, measuring 10.5 inches long. The Geforce GTX logo is backlit in green, identical to the GTX 780 and GTX Titan reference cards.
The card is built around a black PCB.
The GTX780 Ti demands power from a single 6 pin and a single 8 pin power connector, shown above.
The GTX780 Ti is SLi capable in 2,3 and 4 way configurations.
The GTX780Ti has two dual link DVI connectors, as well as a full sized DisplayPort and HDMI connector.
The GK110 core is marked with a 425-B1 revision as shown above. Nvidia are using ultra high speed SK Hynix GDDR5 memory clocked at a whopping 7.0 GBps effective speed.
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 GTX770, reference clocked Nvidia GTX780, 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 beta8 and 331.70 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 / 1,250 mhz memory)
AMD R9 290 (947mhz core / 1,250 mhz memory)
Nvidia GTX Titan (837mhz core / 1,502 mhz memory)
Nvidia GTX780 (863mhz core / 1,502mhz memory)
MSI GTX780 Lightning (980mhz core / 1,502mhz 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.
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.
The Nvidia GTX 780 Ti is off to a promising start, taking top position in this Tessellation heavy Direct X 11 benchmark.
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.
A similar result to the previous Unigine Heaven Benchmark, taking top position with a record 72.1 frames per second.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.
Nvidia' GTX 780 Ti claims the top spot in the last generation 3DMark Vantage benchmark.
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.
The Nvidia GTX 780 Ti scores well in this Direct X 11 benchmark, just behind AMD's R9 290X.
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.”
Nvidia's new GTX780 Ti claims top spot in this benchmark, just slightly outperforming the AMD R9 290X in UBER mode.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 occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on.
A very impressive showing in the Direct X 11 based Alien V Predator taking top spot in our chart ahead of the GTX 780 Lightning and GTX Titan.
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.
No shift in position at the very top of the chart with Nvidia's GTX780 Ti claiming the highest position. The GTX Titan takes second spot at this resolution.
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.
This engine has always been favourable to AMD hardware and drivers and we were surprised to see the Nvidia GTX780 Ti claim top spot, above the latest AMD R9 290X.
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.
At Ultra HD 4K the Nvidia GTX780Ti takes the top position in the performance chart, by a single frame per second. The R9 290X in Uber mode does maintain a higher minimum frame rate throughout however.
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 Nvidia GTX780Ti is yet again the highest performing card in this test, averaging 63 frames per second, 3 frames higher than the R9 290X in UBER mode.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.
While all of these results are quite close, the GTX780 Ti and the R9 290X in Uber Mode maintain the highest minimum frame rates, just above the 25fps borderline.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 is very favourable to AMD hardware and we can see the AMD R9 290/X dominate this game.
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 Ultra HD 4K results mirror our findings at 1600p, with the GTX 780 Ti slotting in behind the R9 290. 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.
Interesting to see the Nvidia card outperform the AMD R9 290X in this game, but it does so comfortably at these settings.
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 Nvidia GTX780 Ti manages to hold onto the top place in the performance graph, averaging 42 frames per second.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.
Excellent results, averaging 81 frames per second at 1080p, and leading the group by a clear margin.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.
At Ultra HD 4K resolution, the Nvidia GTX 780 Ti holds onto the top performance position.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.
The Nvidia GTX 780 Ti is matching the R9 290X frame for frame in an engine traditionally known to perform much better on AMD boards.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.
While the GTX780 Ti was matching the R9 290X at 1600p, the R9 290x pulls away 3 frames in advance of the Nvidia reference card at Ultra HD 4K.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.
The new GTX 780 Ti takes top position away from the highly overclocked MSI GTX780 Lightning, claiming top spot.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 resolution, the R9 290X and GTX Titan push past the MSI GTX 780 Lightning solution. The GTX 780 Ti however claims top performance position with a 3 frame rate margin.
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.
The new Batman Arkham Origins performs very well on Nvidia hardware and the Nvidia boards take the top positions in this test, with the GTX 780 Ti reference board outperforming the GTX Titan by 2 frames per second.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.
A very closely fought title, but the GTX780 Ti manages to just outperform the AMD R9 290X taking top position in the performance chart.
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.
The Nvidia GTX 780 Ti runs a little hotter than the reference GTX Titan and GTX 780, but when gaming it never pushed past 77c under load, in our specific environment. This is a significant improvement over the reference AMD R9 290X/290 cooler. Nvidia partners are also likely to be releasing improved GTX780 Ti cooling solutions over the coming months which will further drop load temperatures.
There is quite a discrepancy between the load temperature results when looking at the single fan R9 290 reference cooler (95c when gaming) and the single fan GTX 780 Ti reference cooler (80c when gaming). Nvidia explain that the AMD solution draws a lot of power and that dissipating this is a challenge for AMD because the 290 has a smaller die size. (455 square millimeters against 533 square millimeters from the GTX 780 Ti).
Nvidia sent over the image above, which shows thermal density comparison. This highlights the power per square millimeter, measured in watts per square mm of die area. The image shows that the R9 290X has a higher rating of 0.64 compared against the GTX 780 Ti 0.47 rating.
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 Nvidia reference cooler hovers around 1,100 rpm, emitting a very low level of noise. When gaming, the fan speed increases to around 2,000 rpm, generating around 34.6 dBa of noise. The pitch of the Nvidia reference fan is much less annoying than the AMD counterpart on their reference coolers.
The GTX 780 Ti is generally quite quiet, much like the reference cooled GTX 780 and GTX Titan. This is an excellent reference cooler.
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 GTX780 TI takes around 235 watts of power under gaming load, dropping to around 10 watts when idle.
To overclock the Nvidia GTX 780 Ti today we used the latest version of MSI Afterburner which is based on RivaTuner.
As we mentioned earlier in the review Nvidia have added a new power balancing feature which helps to get the most out of overclocking the hardware. 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 one power source then the algorithm will take more power from others to compensate. Time to test it out.
I don't think we have seen such incredible headroom from a high end core. Obviously all samples will vary slightly, but we managed a 28% overclock on the core before artifacting would occur. We weren't expecting a lot of headroom on the GDDR5 memory, especially at such high default speeds. We managed to increase this to 1,800mhz (7.2Gbps effective).
Even with the AMD R9 290X overclocked to 1,100mhz core, the GTX 780 Ti at 1,122mhz performs at a significantly higher level, scoring 17,522 points – a new record in our labs for a single GPU.
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.
Absolutely mega – love it ! thanks!
Yeah this is awesome – well impressed myself, but the price is painful. Ah well – plenty of GTX780 non TI bargains right now for close to £400.
I can’t wait to see what MSI do with this one – Lightning FTW!
Ultimate setup? the Kitguru test rig with two GTX780 TI’s and that ASUS monitor. time to start saving. lol.
Best review of the Ti today, took me a long time to read it all. im ordering one today, just need to get the best deal !
They do make good reference coolers – ive read on forums that people say they suck, but I still have a reference GTX780 from ages ago and I had hardly hear it in my case. this is just mega, but ill have to pass until January. Christmas coming up, need to buy presents!
Well this came out of nowhere, I didnt know Nvidia were making so many changes to the shaders/TMUs etc. I think this has to be the limit of this generation of hardware, but its phenomenal. next year I think Nvidia will get Ultra HD 4k smooth at 60fps in most titles at high IQ. next gen.
Or two 780 Ti’s!
I think the R9 290 is the besdt value for money card right now by a long shot. But, and its a big but – I dont want the reference cooler.
I have posted on many forums, such as Sapphire’s asking for release dates of toxic editions etc, but no one is answering. GTX780 Ti is too much money, even though it is clearly the new leader. I want the R9 290 but without the shitty cooling system 🙁 a lot of people are waiting AMD so get your finger out.
Just ordered two for my new rig – great review and very honest.