Nvidia Titan X Pascal 12GB Review (Archive)

[somebodyspecial]

The 980Ti (Titan X beater) was introduced in May 2015, eight months after the 980's launch in Sept. 2014. The 780Ti (Titan beater) was introduced in Nov. 2013, six months after the 780's May 2013 launch.

If Nvidia is going to release a 1080Ti, it will be in early 2017 just based on history of the last two top end Ti intros running against those generations. And I am betting my money on them making one by socking some away to buy one for replacing my SLI 970s.

Thanks for the most factual response. I think your mostly right, mostly. I'm going to have more patience and wait it out. It'd be nice if I they're out & available by the holidays though. . .

They changed though based on TitanX. It doesn't come this quick usually, so I'm hoping release schedules from both sides goes on steroids Just price higher for top stuff so those of us that want it can buy it. Drop the prices later when you'd usually release this stuff. What is wrong with a longer selling cycle and just dropping more as time goes by? People who want it at Q1 pricing can wait IF you've got it to release before xmas just price it higher so anyone with the wallet can buy if desired. It only hurts other sales if priced incorrectly. IT certainly hurts the other guy if you're out top to bottom first.

AMD is missing some massive profits by going low-end low margin first especially with such a quick response from NV with 1060. They should have known a company with far more R&D and laser focus would have an answer immediately. They should have aimed high since NV clearly can't supply as much as they are selling in that end. IE newegg still only has 6 of 18 1080 models in stock just now. 1070 is much better at 16/23. Sales are fast enough nobody is below $429 yet at newegg. I don't expect to see under $400 until xmas unfortunately with not a single card on rebate either...LOL. AMD should have stuck to top down. Nvidia will have a blowout quarter I suspect in a week.

 

[somebodyspecial]

I'm glad you are thinking of dropping Project Cars from the list. I moved to a 1080 from my Fury X as I play it a lot on my Oculus, however the reasons they give for poor AMD benchmarks just don't stack up. They also claim to have never received any money from NVidia, despite the tracks being covered by NVidia advertising.

Why drop a game that has better sales than other racing games? Have you checked Steamspy and vgchartz? Both show it's got good sales for a racing game. If you're going to show a game in a genre, make sure it's a top seller, otherwise you're playing favorites. You should show what sells most in each category, and add more titles if you have time for very popular genre (again based on sales). You and others seem to be whining about NV winning something. AMD pays for games too, but if they're popular by sales I say bench them! IF sales suck, what is the point since nobody plays? Who cares who is behind a game, if it's selling tons of units? Data should be available if lots are playing it. Period. I don't care if a game is purely graphically intensive if there are zero people playing it.

In that regard I think synthetics are a complete waste of time since I can't actually play them. I'd rather see a few more REAL games added always. I'd also rather see less 4k since almost nobody plays there, and far more 1080p added (and 1440 if you must, but even that isn't played by many who don't have more than one card still). Until any res above 1080p hits 10% of the market you're wasting most of your viewers time and surely they'd rather see far more games for a better idea of what is going on WHERE we are actually PLAYING. When 95% of the audience is 1920x1200 or less what should you concentrate on? When this card is aimed at CONTENT creation, it is almost criminal to not test it vs at least 1080 and maybe 1 AMD card in some adobe/blender (very cheap and free in blender's case), maybe some 3dsmax/maya/cinema4d which toms has tested before many times. 90% of these cards will go to people trying to avoid the cost of a $5000 quadro and don't need pro support that comes with them (IE, indie people, etc). I'm not saying you need to throw out all 4k, but a game or two, or a later article concentrating on that and sli would be OK. It doesn't need to get equal treatment in every review. That's silly especially when content creation is king for this card but completely avoided in the review.

 

[somebodyspecial]

Granted this review is about the new Titan X, but look at that Vulkan benchmark and the relation between the GTX 1080 and the Fury X. To me that was the most interesting thing about this entire review. As more and more DX12/Vulkan/Other Low Level API's comes out, the value of AMD cards will increase, which will be very very nice.

The most interesting part about vulkan/doom is it isn't working right yet on pascal and bethesda is working on it. Until then, how can you tell what Nv's perf is on 1070/1080/titanx? Async doesn't work yet in this game for the NV side. I agree with benching based on sales, but you need to note it isn't working right on pascal for async as bethesda clearly states in their faq. You are basing your opinion on a non functioning NV side? 🙁 I posted the link to their faq previously.

 

[The_Prince2017]

There is a typo in the specs chart. You have written Titan X (GM100). It should be GM200

 

[DrBackwater]

Amuricans, complainning yet again, oh $1200 is too much, oh the 1080 too much, suck it up punks itss $1600 and i just paid.

Wingers all below

 

[Compuser10165]

I expected this gpu to average around 60 fps or slightly less on demanding games at 4K and I guess I was right. Still, at least two more gpu generations before 4K 60 fps becomes affordable. Maybe then I'll do a monitor+gpu upgrade. P.S. I wonder how will they cut the vram for the gtx 1080 ti; they may put 12gb gddr5...

 

[Martell1977]

I expected this gpu to average around 60 fps or slightly less on demanding games at 4K and I guess I was right. Still, at least two more gpu generations before 4K 60 fps becomes affordable. Maybe then I'll do a monitor+gpu upgrade. P.S. I wonder how will they cut the vram for the gtx 1080 ti; they may put 12gb gddr5...

I wouldn't count on any "ti" versions until nVidia announces it. I bet there are still some nVidia fanboys out there waiting for the 960ti...

 

[reactive]

Why were you reviewers astonished that nVidia unveiled this at an AI event, not a gaming convention? This is an industrial strength card that will be used by 3D artists for fast rendering jobs, where nVidia's obscenely overpriced 'professional' Quadro cards are normally useless. Such a shame; Tom's Hardware used to provide very useful Maya and Blender 3D rendering benchmarks for these high-powered cards, now all you care about is silly gaming.

 

[Compuser10165]

I expected this gpu to average around 60 fps or slightly less on demanding games at 4K and I guess I was right. Still, at least two more gpu generations before 4K 60 fps becomes affordable. Maybe then I'll do a monitor+gpu upgrade. P.S. I wonder how will they cut the vram for the gtx 1080 ti; they may put 12gb gddr5...

I wouldn't count on any "ti" versions until nVidia announces it. I bet there are still some nVidia fanboys out there waiting for the 960ti...

I agree with you, the performance difference between the gtx 1080 and Titan X pascal is 20-30% (even less than it was on Maxwell). It would be difficult to squeeze a gtx 1080 ti as the difference is even less with custom models of the gtx 1080. Anyway, I have no intention to upgrade from my R9 390 now, only when 4K monitors with freesync (or g-sync) become affordable as well as the gpus powerful enough to drive them satisfactorily.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Why were you reviewers astonished that nVidia unveiled this at an AI event, not a gaming convention? This is an industrial strength card that will be used by 3D artists for fast rendering jobs, where nVidia's obscenely overpriced 'professional' Quadro cards are normally useless. Such a shame; Tom's Hardware used to provide very useful Maya and Blender 3D rendering benchmarks for these high-powered cards, now all you care about is silly gaming.

One of the reasons behind your surprise is that this is not a professional desktop card. Yes, you can use it for those purposes. But without the specially tested and qualified drivers that go with workstation cards, you may not get the same rock-solid reliability. A transient error is survivable in a video game; you would not want one while rendering a movie for the theater.

I'm not sure that gaming is "silly" in this context. This is a site for hardware enthusiasts; more such people game than do professional rendering. The top-end gaming market has driven graphics development more than the desktop rendering market, simply because it is much larger. Tom's does have a companion site for IT professionals, by the way.

 

[Sam Hain]

Overclocking???
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/73148-nvidia-titan-x-12gb-performance-review-18.html

You'd need H20 or aftermarket vendors to come into play with their cooling solutions... However, I do not recall any past Titan cards having vendor cooling solutions, other than slapping their name somewhere on the "redesigned" blower cooler design with one or two vendors bumping clocks a tad; i.e. ASUS and EVGA.

 

[Sam Hain]

Amuricans, complainning yet again, oh $1200 is too much, oh the 1080 too much, suck it up punks itss $1600 and i just paid.

Wingers all below

$1600, LOL!!! In 12 months (or so) this GPU will be upended by another NV offering. You do know that right? And for less than you paid by a LONG shot and including the actual list price of $1200. Chri$t on a bike man!

 

[rauf00]

Having 2x TXM under LC im not interested with such "side step" upgrade.

TXP cons:
-only 12GB VRAM (same like previous model)
-not full chip (GP102)
-low availability only thru NV shop (yield problems?)
-same with HB bridge
-nonsens shape of new bridge incompatible with water blocks (afaik at least EKWB)
-high temps on air (+90 'C) and throtling
-DPC Latency bug
-other drivers issues (mainly SLI, stutters with g-sync)
-presumably short life span (Volta early 2017?)
-mad price tag for cut down chip without HBM2 or any headroom (huge VRAM) like previous TX (1200$)
-overall card looks like 1080Ti which who knows maybe we will see sooner than later (remember ori Titan to 780Ti story?)

Pros:
-great single card for anybody wishing to upgrade from below 8GB VRAM
-ar. 2100Hz on air, best OC Pascal card (from base clock to OC %)
- 40-50% faster than TXM comparing OC vs OC in games
-perfect card for Batman AK, AC Syndicate, Just Cause 3, Doom all without SLI functionality 😉