Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti Review: GK110, Fully Unlocked

[somebodyspecial]

So I take my 3 AAA games and sell them for $100

Wishful thinking... Batman Origins = $20-25, Assassin's Creed 4 IV Black Flag & Splinter Cell Blacklist = $40. Looking at $50-55 after fees.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Batman-Arkham-Origins-PC-2013-Download-key-NVidia-Steam-/281182239451
Batman sold $29...others selling 30, and sure it will go up as they run out. The same will be said for AC4 which isn't even out yet. Once codes are nearly gone, people are looking at $60 right? Far higher than $20 you suggest as even batman shows. Right now they're competing with everyone who doesn't want the games...That changes as supply dries up and you're left with retail/amazon etc. Then bidding wars start

Either way, they're worth something, which is the point. And for the people who actually don't have them to begin with, they are like saving $120+ right? AC4 is $57.99 pre order at amazon. $50 for batman at amazon for PC. The larger point? AMD gives you none right?

The shield coupon can be sold too at some point (to anyone who had the card pre-coupons? or is there a rule against this?), though I'm thinking most are taking advantage of that particular offer since the big update for shield (or saving it for a while to use later?) since for $200 it blows away Vita (which is totally bombing) or 3DS in features and power, and also streams to TV etc (from your PC gpu or not). The game pad mapper software just opened up huge numbers of android games for it too. I think some shields will sell this xmas 😉 It's a portable media player with hdmi out also a great feature over vita/3ds. So it's not just the card you get. AMD will probably make a bundle by xmas but it will kill their bottom lines again. Also Jen has said he hopes there will be a new shield for every tegra release 😉 It's a long term plan.

I just wish they would announce a Billion for AAA Tegra games (over 5-10yrs). Vita/3DS titles avg 1-2.5mil per title for dev cost. AMP it up a bit and put out 25-50 each year. I wish they'd drop the dividend or something and divert it to this as it will sell products and some big hits can make a ton of money once you allow the rest of android to play them (maybe even port to browser, make them all in opengl/webgl on Unreal engine or something). Even if Shield totally flops you have all of android/pc to sell too quite easily ported. Who better to showcase Tegra features in games than NV? In a few months they are keplers...

 

[Quaddro]

Excellent card !!

But once again became most expensive one..😀 (for single card)

 

[iatemyelf]

People are sheep. Sheep are people. Come on sheeples, let's blindly buy Nvidia cards even when they are substantially more expensive and sometimes perform a smidge better. Let's buy them, because we are are blind and stupid, and would rather give the Green God our hard earned money instead of spending it on something more worthwhile. Let's do the illogical thing, and buy a poor value product because hey, logic is boring. Geforce; the opiate of the masses.

bah

 

[Rum]

Excluding the possibility of bias, it's important to note the various performance results from one site to another. Tom's has the 780Ti winning the majority of benches while others have the 290x on top for the same applications. I believe this is representative of real world end user scenarios. Individual cards and total system variances IMO will result in the 780ti and 290x performing pretty much on par at higher resolutions. Therefore it really comes down to prices or preference but I don't know too many smart people who choose to waste $s ever even 1%'s. Win for AMD.

I read 9 review sites. Noone has the 290X as better performer of or on par with GTX780ti and all agree with Tom's Hardware review.
Anandtech
Guru3D
Hardware Canucks
HardwareHeaven
PCPerspective
TechpowerUp
Bit-Tech
Vortez
Tom's Hardware
And when I am saying noone, I mean noone.... 780ti is a faster GPU and not by 1%. Most of the reviews go around 10% more than the jetloud uber mode.

edit: By the way Chris, is there any chance you would test R9 290 (non-X) retail too?
edit2: Great review as always
edit3: Any news on 780ti Black editions? (1ghz + 6 or 12GB VRAM)

To add more fuel to the fire - Games from my post at anandtech that are favoring 780ti at 2560 among other res where mentioned, and did the math on most where there was bigger wins (surely missed a few):
"While Anandtech still uses very few games and a useless warhead game:
Games 780 wins or dominates in 2560 ALL vs. UBER 290x (of course all worse for quiet mode, note bit-tech only does 1080p and 5760):
Skyrim (bit-tech w/hires texture packs, techpowerup without)
Assassins Creed 3 (techpowerup, 5.3%)
SplinterCell Blacklist (techpowerup, blows away 690, crushes UBER 36%, also same shown at overclockersclub even 5760)
Battlefield 3 (techpowerup, legitreviews, overclockersclub 1080/5760)
Battlefield 4 (bit-tech, but barely, same 1080p, tweaktown shows big loss? But guru3d shows big win@2xMSAA…LOL – guru3d shows losses below)
Batman Arkham City (overclockersclub at both 1080/5760)
Tombraider (legitreviews, techpowerup, tweaktown etc)
WOW Mysts of Pandaria (techpowerup, over 25% faster, over 20% 5760)
StarCraft 2 HOS (techpowerup, over 15%, beat 690 too)
Diablo 3 (techpowerup, over 15%, 20% in 1080p also)
COD Black Ops 2 (techpowerup 17%, again over 22% in 1080p also)
Sleeping Dogs (techpowerup)
Crysis 3 (techpowerup, bit-tech)
Bioshock Infinite (Techpowerup, bit-tech etc – everyone I guess)
Phantasy Star online 2 (tweaktown, 17%+, even beats 1065mhz OC 290x)
Lost Planet 2 (tweaktown, over 34%! Same vs. 1065mhz 290x, same 1080p)
F1 2012 (tweaktown, beats 1065mhz 290x also, all resolutions)
Dirt Showdown (tweaktown tie 2560, but wins 1200p/1680x1050)
Far Cry2 (tweaktown, anyone play this? Still they show it over 10% NV)
Guild Wars 2 (techreport, dominated by old 780, so 780ti will be better)
Medal of Honor Warfighter (guru3d 17%).

Maybe there's a reason anandtech has chosen their games? Still waiting for the NVIDIA PORTAL.

The point here? Gsync, GeforceExp, Physx, Cuda, streaming, shadowplay, lower noise, power, heat, 3 AAA games, massive OCing and all the games above with some major victories (BEFORE and overclock). This is without mentioning all the driver issues, including AMD admitting they have a current problem with “VARIANCE” with 290/290x and will fix that with a driver supposedly in response to Tomshardware article, Techreport etc about retails perf being lower than press cards. For anyone thinking $700 is a rip-off, I suggest you look at the numbers/features above. On top you need a new fan or wait for better models before I'd even touch 290x/290 due to noise."


Will go read a few of the links missing (forgot canucks, vortex, hardwareheaven etc...but most games are listed above minus a few everyone uses). You could add the ones missing from anandtech also (total war rome2 etc). Some of the wins above are very bad for AMD. With the features/3 AAA games I say it easily justifies the cost. And when you OC the crap out of both 290x/780ti the 780ti smokes it - linustechtips unboxing vid below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1JOhT015ww
FF to 8:35 for the benchmarks showing what I mean. OC to max=290x smoked. New fans won't change this (maybe water...but not many do this). People seem to forget you can OC the 780ti without adding water 😉

Gsync, Physx all proprietary garbage that most game makers and monitor manufactures will ignore because everyone is pushing towards open standard. Streaming/Shadow play meh even AMD has a solution for that called Raptr. 3 AAA games that are sub-par next. Massive OCing which the 290x made by aftermarket companies will match. Major victories??? Really with a card that cost 150.00 more I would have expected better from Nvidia, to beat a card with cooling and down clocking issues is no major feat. Both companies have had Driver issues at one point or another, nvidia's being the worst when it would disable the GPU fan and allow the card to burn up. Out of everything you are trying to talk up/praise for Nvidia, Cuda is the one major advantage they have, it is very well engineered and has a large foot hold in both the gaming and professional sectors.

As for the performance of the 780ti I for one expected it to beat the 290X especially it being at 700.00+ whatever companies slap on top of that price for their solutions. It's a great card no doubt but so is the 290X with the 290 taking the crown for best bang for the buck.

 

[Raheel Hasan]

So the best value
1. 290(non-x)
2. 280x/770
3. 760
4. 7870
5. 650ti boost

Going above 290(non-x) is like throwing money on road

 

[DoDidDont]

Wow I don’t think I have ever seen so many post’s for one review on Tom’s before!

Read a few reviews on various sites, a few variations in benchmarks but overall an amazing card!

I do wish people would stop making such dumb comments though on all the forums about Titan owners!

I own two Titans at the moment, and planned to get another two in the next few months, what’s changed since the launch of the 780Ti?… nothing! Still getting the Titans.

I do 3d modelling and production rendering and need the 6gb of onboard memory for the large scenes I work with, plus the double precision in some app’s, so the 3gb slapped on the GTX 780Ti is not enough for my needs, plus the 780Ti has the same performance in single precision app’s and poor double precision performance.

No point saying people are dumb or sad about a product that no one knew would even see the light a few days ago! If we all waited for the next best thing, we would end up never buying anything! There are new Xeon E5 V2’s this quarter so am I peeved that I brought x2 E5-2687w’s last year? No way, I would have lost business this year if I hadn’t speeded up my workstations, crazy thinking that everyone has the gift to see the future.

If however I was building a new system just for gaming, I would never consider the Titan, as there were much cheaper SLI/Crossfire options at the time and still are.

From a work perspective, The Titan is a much cheaper and faster alterative to buying overpriced Quadro/Tesla cards, so no regrets whatsoever buying them, and I sourced the best price in the UK, so only paid 699 for each card. If I was only working on scenes using less than 3gb then I would definitely be considering the 780Ti for single precision app’s or a replacement for the aging 3GB 580’s.

From a gaming perspective, I don’t think any Titan owners are at all saddened by their purchases over a card that gets a few more frames per second, over a card that already has insane performance in any title, I certainly wont loose sleep over it : - )

Plus already having two Titans in Sli, that have nice gains over any current single GPU set up or the new 290X in crossfire from the sli/crossfire benchmarks I have seen, so again very happy from a gaming perspective, and having 4x Titans in a few months from both a work perspective halving production times, and gaming perspective will defiantly mean I wont need to think about upgrades for a few years, and can run any game at ultra setting on a multiple monitor set up, even for 4K that most other configurations will not be able to boast! 4x Titans is still bragging rights and something a single or sli 780Ti owner would still turn green about in benchmarks, and upping to 4x 780Ti’s would be the equivalent of buying 3 ½ Titans in the UK.

All Titan owners are happy ones I sure you, whether for work or play.

If however you brought a Titan only for gaming 3 days ago, then it would be understandable to be a bit down about this, but just a little.

Question is, will Nvidia be reconsidering their prices on the Titan now? They have proved that they were quite capable of launching the full might of the GK110 if pressured and at a cheaper price, more efficient and cooler than the Titan, for 100 to 150 pound less in the UK depending on brand and where you prefer to buy from. The Titan really should have been the GTX 780Ti with an extra 3gb onboard seeing as Nvidia were quite capable to do so, and I thought the Titan was priced just right between high end gaming and Tesla cards, but knowing now that Nvidia cold have priced the Titan a bit cheaper and fully loaded if pressured, puts Nvidia in a bad light, not Titan owners. Still an awesome card. If the 780Ti was launched with 6gb onboard and double precision at that price, then I’m sure Titan owners would be as unhappy as some people on forums think they should be.

 

[master9716]

Whats interesting is that Hardware info Has the 290x Running faster than the 780TI under 5760x1080 resolution in BF3 wich is something more people are currently running. And similar results between both on Bioshock at those resolutions . This isnt counting Amds core technology , I hate that the 290x uses so much power with multi monitors though.

 

[17seconds]

Amazing that Nvidia can take a nearly two year old GPU and still beat out the competition's new generation while being cooler, quieter, and more efficient. If anyone's questioning the cost, there's your answer. AMD is just that far behind right now in terms of technology, about two years.... and its only a few months until Maxwell hits the shelves.

 

[logainofhades]

Amazing that Nvidia can take a nearly two year old GPU and still beat out the competition's new generation while being cooler, quieter, and more efficient. If anyone's questioning the cost, there's your answer. AMD is just that far behind right now in terms of technology, about two years.... and its only a few months until Maxwell hits the shelves.

2yr old GPU? The 780 and 780ti are based on Titan. 770 and below are refresh of the GTX 6xx series.

 

[Novuake]

Amazing that Nvidia can take a nearly two year old GPU and still beat out the competition's new generation while being cooler, quieter, and more efficient. If anyone's questioning the cost, there's your answer. AMD is just that far behind right now in terms of technology, about two years.... and its only a few months until Maxwell hits the shelves.

I do not agree with you.

Normally a good measure of performance(and tech behind it) is to look at die size and transistor count behind the actual performance.

 

[Memnarchon]

I do not agree with you.

Normally a good measure of performance(and tech behind it) is to look at die size and transistor count behind the actual performance.

Isn't GTX780 a 561 mm² 7,1b transistor chip? Then why it looses from R290X of 438 mm² and 6,2b?
Also 780ti has the same transistors (and mm²) as 780, why its 25% faster?
Also I can take the examples of GTX480vs580/570 etc etc...
So transistor and die size isn't the only things that matter...

 

[animalosity]

R9 290 is looking great!
780Ti averages only 2-5 frames more in most titles.
$300 for 2-5 frames?
Nvidia.. get real.

I agree man. Obviously AMD is still on Beta drivers, not to mention once the heating issues are resolved with partners boards such as Windforce (Gigabyte) and ASUS's DCUII units, we will see a true competition that will pretty much render the 780 TI 100% pointless at its price point. Im not saying it isn't a good card. I'm saying a $400 card (290 non-x) has the testicular fortitude to hang with a $700 card.

 

[Novuake]

I do not agree with you.

Normally a good measure of performance(and tech behind it) is to look at die size and transistor count behind the actual performance.

Isn't GTX780 a 561 mm² 7,1b transistor chip? Then why it looses from R290X of 438 mm² and 6,2b?
Also 780ti has the same transistors (and mm²) as 780, why its 25% faster?
Also I can take the examples of GTX480vs580/570 etc etc...
So transistor and die size isn't the only things that matter...

I did not say it was, there is clock rate to consider to, and actual ACTIVE die size, GTX780 has a lot of resources disabled.

 

[Memnarchon]

I did not say it was, there is clock rate to consider to, and actual ACTIVE die size, GTX780 has a lot of resources disabled.

Actually you are refering to lasercutting they do to disable the SMXs. 😛 yeah I agree with that. Also GF110 dispite being less transistors than GF100 had better performance at the same SMXs. (GTX570vsGTX480).

 

[Novuake]

I did not say it was, there is clock rate to consider to, and actual ACTIVE die size, GTX780 has a lot of resources disabled.

Actually you are refering to lasercutting they do to disable the SMXs. 😛 yeah I agree with that. Also GF110 dispite being less transistors than GF100 had better performance at the same SMXs. (GTX570vsGTX480).

Precisely, another indication that technology has moved forward.

 

[popatim]

The ARMA3 3840x2160 graph shows the GTX770 beating the 780Ti, I assume this is an oopsie so can you please correct it.
Thanks

 

[gsxrme]

My SLI gtx680s lives on! Core at 1300mhz and memory at 7ghz. I careless till maxwell comes.

 

[kaitheus]

IMHO, the R9 290 non X version is the best price to performance value atm, Especially once aftermarket cooled versions start to pop up 😛. $420-$440 for a 290 is still a steal in my eyes lols.

 

[randomizer]

Chris, what settings do you use for the Blender test scene? Those results are very strange.

For starters, I can render that scene (assuming it's the Mike Pan scene with the orange BMW) in 85s with a GTX 560 Ti 448 core, and that's using non-ideal tile size of 120x67. For a GTX580 to need over 80s is crazy. Tile size is everything though, and you can make a card look fast or slow just by changing those two X and Y values. The same goes for CPUs.

Secondly, Cycles is purely single-precision FP, so the Titan's significant double-precision FP advantage is not causing that performance difference.

 

[technoholic]

So far i had these impressions:

1- GTX 780 Ti is a good overclocker card. I am not saying this to compare it to AMD's offerings. I see AMD's cards are faster clock for clock. But 780 Ti has more space to stretch its muscles (out of the box).

2- Nvidia worked hard on their cooling design which can even be compared to those proven designs by third parties. AMD's reference design is ridiculous when compared. GTX 780 Ti consumes same level of watt but gets cooled more efficiently

3- 512 bit memory bus creates much heat. For irony's sake, i see a new HD 2900XT at AMD's side (names are similar too lol)

4- Both companies came to the limits of their 28nm tech. I see limited improvement and no new cards down the road for this level

5- In many reviews i see anomalies and strange performance issues from both sides (in SLI/Xfire mostly). It seems there will be a lot of driver fixes/boosts

6- I would like to see SLI/Xfire frame pacing investigations. Also did AMD improve their hardware/software for Xfire issues? Is this "bridgeless" design much better? Does it bring performance improvements?

7- Seems like one of the most interesting cards is the R9 290. Can the third party designs bring this card overclocked to the stock performance levels of GTX 780 Ti? If so it is an unbeatable performance for the price

 

[slomo4sho]

Batman sold $29...others selling 30, and sure it will go up as they run out.

Prices on games drop over time, you seem to not grasp that simple understanding. Also, there is no shield coupon, you have to purchase Shield as a bundle to obtain the $100 off and then try to resell it. Having basic understanding of the promo would go a long way to becoming disillusioned and back in sync with reality.

 

[GOM3RPLY3R]

I hate how people are bringing price into the factor. Of course it is the finial decision between getting the best or second best card, but the performance is what matters.

Sure the Ti costs $700, but it doesn't change the fact (and I checked 10 other websites for this) the the 780 Ti has better performance than the 290x, and in some cases the uber mode on the 290x.

Leave the price to performance for later. I'll give you an example. Remember when the 780 was $680 for the cheapest one? Well yeah, now the DCuII version from ASUS is only $500. I'm sure they made these changes in preparation for the 780 Ti, however, there is bound to be a price drop.

Look at it this way, the Titan is worse than the 780 Ti, yet Nvidia is leaving it at $1000 simply because it has 6 GB of VRAM. Otherwise, everything else on the 780 Ti is better: More Stream Processors, Higher Clock, More Cores, etc.

 

[nikoli707]

I hate how people are bringing price into the factor. Of course it is the finial decision between getting the best or second best card, but the performance is what matters.

Sure the Ti costs $700, but it doesn't change the fact (and I checked 10 other websites for this) the the 780 Ti has better performance than the 290x, and in some cases the uber mode on the 290x.

Leave the price to performance for later. I'll give you an example. Remember when the 780 was $680 for the cheapest one? Well yeah, now the DCuII version from ASUS is only $500. I'm sure they made these changes in preparation for the 780 Ti, however, there is bound to be a price drop.

Look at it this way, the Titan is worse than the 780 Ti, yet Nvidia is leaving it at $1000 simply because it has 6 GB of VRAM. Otherwise, everything else on the 780 Ti is better: More Stream Processors, Higher Clock, More Cores, etc.

agreed. go look at the 3dmark page and the 290x holds every record on every test in every configuration... and did this in only a week of being out.... and by considerable margins too, with beta drivers. as soon as the 780ti gets in the hands of the ln2 overclockers for the real work... i suspect it will retake the tops of the boards. yes i know... in real world air cooled thats what a lot of people care about... but there is no doubt the 290x is considerably faster than the 780/titan. performance is the only thing that matters.... it will be interesting to see just how close the 780ti and 290x are in "real" tests... not fake biased gaming tests.

 

[slomo4sho]

and in some cases the uber mode on the 290x.

Why would anyone compare to a 290X in silent mode if you are discussing performance?

Also, why wouldn't anyone argue price? High end single GPU cards didn't top $500 until the previous generation. Why be complacent and accept this new trend of price gouging? Have you missed the fact that Nvidias gross margins have been steadily increasing in the last few years?

http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/Releases/NVIDIA-Reports-Financial-Results-for-Third-Quarter-Fiscal-Year-2013-8b3.aspx

Just to put it in prospective, gross margins were 28.6% in Q1 2010.

Historical gross margins vs historical operating margins...

Revenue vs Net Income

 

[technoholic]

I hate how people are bringing price into the factor. Of course it is the finial decision between getting the best or second best card, but the performance is what matters.

Sure the Ti costs $700, but it doesn't change the fact (and I checked 10 other websites for this) the the 780 Ti has better performance than the 290x, and in some cases the uber mode on the 290x.

Leave the price to performance for later. I'll give you an example. Remember when the 780 was $680 for the cheapest one? Well yeah, now the DCuII version from ASUS is only $500. I'm sure they made these changes in preparation for the 780 Ti, however, there is bound to be a price drop.

Look at it this way, the Titan is worse than the 780 Ti, yet Nvidia is leaving it at $1000 simply because it has 6 GB of VRAM. Otherwise, everything else on the 780 Ti is better: More Stream Processors, Higher Clock, More Cores, etc.

If performance is what matters the most, is there anything out there that can beat an Xfired R9 290X setup in gaming? Did you pay attention to the Xfire vs SLI benchmarks at all? And i'll leave the debate "GTX 780 Ti is better than Titan" to the people that know what they are talking about.