News Nvidia's original GTX Titan benchmarked 11 years later — $1,000 card now 'barely usable' in modern titles, often beaten by AMD's sub-$200 RX 6400

[FoxTread3]

February 15, 2024 - I tend to "over buy", so I purchase the best PC parts I can afford. I'm not sure exactly when I purchased my EVGA GTX Titan, but it must have been when it was the best Nvidia GPU available at the time. My Titan has been great, has last a long time, and done everything I've needed it to do. It's running my desktop PC that I use for all of the basics but even has run a tank simulator called Steel Beasts without a problem. If I'm not mistaken the GTX Titan Black came out a short time later, and I was like "should I have waited to buy a new GPU?" Considering the comments about how well the Titan operates overclocked. I think that it shows that up until now, it was worth trying to "future proof" a PC system. I'm thankful that my Titan has lasted so long with all of the GPU drama that has taken place in the past year or so. Bitcoin mining, GPU shortages, and a questionable RTX 4000 series. Have made me glad that I have my EVGA RTX3080 Ti Ftw and the Titan 👍 👍 😊

 

[FoxTread3]

I've always liked the 700/900 series reference blower. Still have my GTX980 on a shelf.

I still have an EVGA GTX980 Ti. I'm not sure that it still works after having some motherboard issues, but I still have it in a box. I'll try to fire it up, (bad term?🤔😊) and see if it still runs if I get desperate 😊

 

[Eximo]

I still have an EVGA GTX980 Ti. I'm not sure that it still works after having some motherboard issues, but I still have it in a box. I'll try to fire it up, (bad term?🤔😊) and see if it still runs if I get desperate 😊

I bought the EVGA SC Reference 980 on launch day. And eventually was running a pair of them with water cooling. I recently swapped one out of my nephew's computer for my old GTX1080.

 

[FoxTread3]

I think their testing methods must have something wrong.

1. PCGH claims Doom Eternal getting 17.9 frames/second on a Titan. Not 179... less than 20. Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal famously run at over 100fps on almost anything.
2. PCGH shows Witcher 3 getting 30fps, but UserBenchmark shows multiple hits of the Titan getting ~45 fps on Witcher 3
3. UserBenchmark shows Overwatch getting 111fps on the Titan, while Overwatch 2 is curiously missing from PCGH's review.

I don't care to find more supporting benchmarks, I just think something's wrong with their testing.
I've used and seen a half-dozen 10-series cards in 5 computers and they absolutely crushed 1080p gaming (60+ fps) until Red Dead Redemption 2 had to be cut down to 30 fps to hold vsync.

February 15, 2024 - I'm not surprised by your observations. I have never had a problem with my EVGA GTX Titan running anything. Though I have to admit I haven't tried using it running the latest FPS games. I do run a tank sim called Steel Beasts, and while it is designed not to be a hardware crusher, it does require a decent GPU and CPU. I run the sim flat out for top performance and the Titan has never failed. I do use it in my desktop PC for less demanding work, and do my gaming using an EVGA RTX 3080 Ti Ftw in another desktop PC with a EVGA Z790 mother board and a i9 CPU. I really hope the Nvidia 4000 Super series prove to be worth the money, and don't have the problems that the 4000s had early on.

 

[derekullo]

V6 Mustangs are slow even in the year they're made! Those were never for real car enthusiasts.

Was my first car coming out of high school!
Parents didn't want me to hurt myself.
Sadly was totaled when I got t-boned in 2009

 

[bit_user]

I still have an EVGA GTX980 Ti.

I'm still using mine. I bought it for admittedly a rather dumb reason. I still had CRT monitors (nice ones, at least), and I figured it was virtually the best GPU that would ever be made which could still drive them. The GTX 1000-series had just launched, so the GTX 900 series GPUs were marked down quite substantially.

I have LCD monitors now, but haven't upgraded the GPU because it's still plenty for my needs. It's actually not in my main PC, so the additional power draw isn't generally an issue. I do expect to replace it within a year or so, but not with another top-tier card!

The thing that truly amazed me about that EVGA FTW card is that it had just 2 fans for 275 W TDP and yet I could stress it without it making much fuss or drama. Compared to the old piece of junk XTX-brand HD 7870 that it replaced, it was like a revelation in how well executed a GPU could be! Plus, it was my first card with a backplate, and the lack of "sag" also quite impressed me.

 

[bit_user]

Was my first car coming out of high school!

My first car was an old Volvo station wagon. When I got a real job, I replaced it with a newer, turbocharged Volvo.
: )

I don't drive a Volvo any more, but I don't feel unfaithful, as I think they're not the same cars as they were back then.

Speaking of old, slow Mustangs... back in high school, I had a friend who got one of the few 4-cylinder models ever made. It was practically an antique when he got it, but still new enough and not well-cared for that it was almost dirt cheap. At that age, almost any car was nice to have and the Mustang certainly had some pedigree to it. He got a few compliments from people who didn't realize how pathetic its engine was.

Another friend of mine had a 5.0 Mustang (also about 10 years newer) and really wasn't mature enough to handle its awesome power. It's somewhat miraculous he and the car both survived.

Sadly was totaled when I got t-boned in 2009

: (

 

[Cooe]

This article also COMPLETELY IGNORES how AMD's direct competitor to this card and GK102/"Big Kepler" (Titan, GTX 780/Ti) in general, the GCN 2 based Hawaii GPU ala the R9 290X still holds up GREAT considering how old it is!!!

It's literally like 2-3x faster than a GTX 780 Ti (which is already faster than the OG Titan) in modern games despite them mostly trading blows (if not Nvidia winning) way back when these cards originally came out! 😳🤯

GCN 1&2 (HD 7000/Rx 200 series) aged so, SOOOOOOOOO much better than Kepler, and arguably even Maxwell too! 🤷