ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Review
Category : NVIDIA
Published by Marc Büchel on 23.05.13
Today the NDA regarding NVIDIAs new GeForce GTX 780 is ending. In this context ASUS was kind enough to provide us with a reference card and obviously, we've had to check what this thing is actually capable of. The GTX 780, like the GeForce GTX Titan, is based on NVIDIA's monstrous GK110 chip, which is made from 7.1 billion transistors. In case of the GTX 780 there are twelve SMX units activated and not 14 like you get with the GTX Titan. Nevertheless, this card is going to perform like hell.
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On the following pages we will show you the strengths and weaknesses of the ASUS GTX 780.
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Technical Data / Specifications
With the ASUS GeForce GTX 780 you get a card which has been built entirely according to the reference design. The ASIC quality measured on our sample was 70.8 % which is quite a bit below average considering it being at 73 % on the cards we had in our hands.
About ASIC quality:
NVIDIAs latest flagship GPU is based on their massive Kepler GK110-300 chip, which is manufactured by TSMC using the latest 28 nanometer process technology. With the GeForce GTX 780 you get twelve SMX units which results in 2'304 CUDA cores. Following the specs further, there are 192 TMUs, 48 ROPs, a 384 bit wide memory interface and 3 Gigabyte of GDDR5 memory, which is clocked at 1'502 MHz (effective 6'008 MHz). In the end there is a memory bandwidth of 288 Gigabyte per second. Concerning the GPU's clock speeds it runs at a base clock of 863 MHz and a boost clock of 900 MHz. During our tests the highest boost clock we measured was 992 MHz and the average boost clock was at 940 MHz.
The GTX 780 also supports GPU Boost 2.0. The very first version of GPU Boost stopped overclocking the GPU when a certain power target was hit. This new second version of GPU Boost stops overclocking the card, when a certain temperature is being reached. This makes sense since the temperature is the bigger inhibitor than the power target in most cases. In this case the temperature target is 80 degrees Celsius. In other words, as long as the GPU runs at less than 80°C it will keep overclocking until the maximum frequency has been reached. This is why in our case the average boost clock was 40 MHz higher than the typical boost clock NVIDIA advertises. Things will get even more interesting if you equip the GTX 780 with a watercooler and then increase the voltage a little bit. In this case frequencies way above 1'000 MHz should be absolutely no problem at all. NVIDIA even leaves it up to the user where he wants to set the temperature target. Therefore it's no problem to set the temperature target to for example 85°C to get an even higher boost frequency.
| nVidia GeForce |
GeForce GTX Titan |
ASUS GTX 780 |
GeForce GTX 680 |
| Chip | GK110 | GK110 | GK104 |
| Process | 28 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Transistors | 7.10 Billion | 7.10 billion | 3.54 billion |
| GPU clock | 837 MHz | 863 MHz | 1'006 MHz |
| GPU Boost clock | 876 MHz | 900 MHz | 1'059 MHz |
| Memory | 6'144 MB GDDR5 | 3'072 MB GDDR5 | 2'048 MB GDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 1'502 MHz (6'008 MHz) | 1'502 MHz (6'008 MHz) | 1'502 MHz (6'008 MHz) |
| Memory interface | 384 Bit | 384 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 288'400 MB/s | 288'400 MB/s | 192'300 MB/s |
| TMUs | 224 | 192 | 128 |
| Shader Cores | 2'688 (14 SMX) | 2'304 (12 SMX) | 1'536 (8 SMX) |
| ROPs | 48 | 48 | 32 |
| Maximum board power | 250 Watt | 250 Watt | 195 Watt |
| PCB Type | Reference Design | Reference Design | Reference Design |
| Lenght (PCB - Total) | 27.0 - 27.0 cm | 27.0 - 27.0 cm | 25.6 - 25.6 cm |
| Cooler | NVIDIA Reference | NVIDIA Reference | NVIDIA Reference |
| MSRP | $999 | $649 | $499 |
NVIDIA decided to equip the GTX 780 with the same cooler they already equipped their GeForce GTX Titan with. In this case you get a so called vapor chamber, quite a large heatsink and an advanced fan regulation system. Disassembling the GeForce GTX 780 really takes some time, since there is an astonishing number of screws and NVIDIA is using lots of different types. Once the cooler has been removed you can see thermal pads on the bottom side. NVIDIA decided to provide the GPU as well as the memory chips and the VRM area with cooling. The actual cooling is being handled by a blower type fan, which NVIDIA places in a metallic frame. Talking about the "advanced fan regulation system" would mean that we repeat the story with the power target. Therefore at this point we refer to the the above paragraph.
A closer look at the PCB shows that NVIDIA equipped this card with an analogue eight phase power design. Basically NVIDIA is using the exact same PCB like you get with the more expensive GeForce GTX Titan. The GPU in this case can rely on six phases and the memory gets an additional two phases. In our opinion this power design isn't too strong. We're quite curious to see the first custom designs from the NVIDIAs board partners. We're quite sure, that there will be some very interesting solutions.
The voltage regulation chips are identical too. Therefore we find a OnSemi NCP4206 from ON Semiconductur for the GPU and an unidentified Richtek 2-phase PWM labelled 0T=FA R1W chip for the memory.
The memory chips used are made by Samsung and carry the model number K4G20325FD-FC03. They are specified to run at 1'500 MHz (6'000 MHz effective).
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Preview
Delivery
The card ships well bolstered in foam made mold. Bundled with the graphics card there is a user guide, a driver CD that includes the overclocking tool GPU Tweak too, a power converter (2x6-Pin-PCIe to 1x8-Pin-PCIe) and a DVI to VGA adapter. If you're looking for game vouchers or something like that you'll be disappointed, since there is absolutely nothing like this in the box.
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Test Setup
Hardware
| Mainboard |
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| CPUs |
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| Memory |
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| Graphic Cards (Driver) |
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| Drivers |
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| Games and OS |
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| HDD |
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| PSU |
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3DMark 11 Performance
| Graphics Cards | Score | Graphics Score |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 15'687 | 19'411 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 14'918 | 18'303 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 14'256 | 16'676 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 13'064 | 14'742 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 11'565 | 12'291 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 9'972 | 9'924 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 9'712 | 9'855 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 9'153 | 8'912 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 8'553 | 8'497 |
| More is better | ||
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3DMark - Fire Strike Performance
| Graphics Cards | Score | Graphics Score |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 11'535 | 15'177 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 10'426 | 13'412 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 9'390 | 11'669 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 8'071 | 9'937 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 8'341 | 9'344 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 6'949 | 7'761 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 6'380 | 7'102 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 6'476 | 7'063 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 5'712 | 6'231 |
| More is better | ||
3DMark - Fire Strike Extreme
| Graphics Cards | Score | Graphics Score |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 6'160 | 6'905 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 5'456 | 6'092 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 4'927 | 5'400 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 4'150 | 4'544 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 4'198 | 4'330 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 3'432 | 3'549 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 3'125 | 3'245 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 3'153 | 3'216 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 2'818 | 2'896 |
| More is better | ||
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Unigine Heaven 4.0 Extreme Preset
| Graphics Cards | Graphics Score | FPS |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 2'431 | 96.5 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 2'238 | 88.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 2'040 | 81.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 1'809 | 71.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 1'567 | 62.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 1'274 | 50.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 1'124 | 44.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 1'058 | 42.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 1'024 | 40.6 |
| More is better | ||
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BattleField 3
| High Preset, 1980x1080, 4xMSAA, Ultra, SSAO | Average FPS |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 135.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 114.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 107.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 95.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 93.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 79.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 72.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 71.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 68.4 |
| More is better |
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Borderlands 2
| High Preset, 1980x1080, FXAA, no PhsyX, High | Average FPS |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 134.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 134.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 133.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 132.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 129.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 120.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 115.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 113.8 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 105.4 |
| More is better |
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Bioshock Infinite
| Graphics Cards | FPS |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 162.70 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 160.33 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 152.08 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 128.40 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 111.74 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 99.50 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 99.20 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 92.17 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 87.39 |
| More is better |
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Crysis 3
| High Preset, 1980x1080, 8xMSAA, Very High | Average FPS |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 43.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 39.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 36.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 32.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 31.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 23.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 21.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 19.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 17.8 |
| More is better |
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Call of Duty Black Ops 2
| High Preset, 1980x1080, 8xMSAA, High | Average FPS |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 196.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 193.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 175.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 154.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 131.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 107.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 103.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 96.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 94.0 |
| More is better |
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DIRT Showdown - Benchmark
| High Preset, 1980x1080, 8xMSAA, Ultra | Average FPS |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 127.74 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 106.22 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 94.44 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 85.76 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 83.44 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 79.66 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 72.66 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 66.58 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 58.08 |
| More is better |
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Far Cry 3
| High Preset, 1980x1080, 8xMSAA, Ultra | Average FPS |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 71.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 65.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 60.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 55.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 51.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 36.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 33.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 33.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 29.8 |
| More is better |
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Max Payne 3
| High Preset, 1980x1080, 8xMSAA, Very High | Average FPS |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 72.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 66.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 65.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 53.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 52.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 37.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 36.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 34.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 33.6 |
| More is better |
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Sleeping Dogs - Benchmark
| High Preset, 1980x1080, Extreme, High-Res Textures | Average FPS |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 84.5 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 83.1 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 75.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 66.3 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 56.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 51.7 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 47.1 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 45.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 39.5 |
| More is better |
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
| High Preset, 1980x1080, 8xAA, Ultra | Average FPS |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 132.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 131.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 131.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 130.8 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 116.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 109.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 106.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 98.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 98.4 |
| More is better |
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Metro: Last Light
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Power Consumption
| Power Consumption Idle* | Watts |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI (non ref design) | 69 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI (non ref design) | 69 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 68 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (non ref design) | 65 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 (non ref design) | 57 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire (non ref design) | 56 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 55 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 54 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 52 |
| *Entire system | Less is better |
| Power Consumption Load (FurMark)* | Watts |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire (non ref design) | 473 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 380 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI (non ref design) | 370 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI (non ref design) | 363 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 292 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (non ref design) | 262 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 238 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 220 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 (non ref design) | 210 |
| *Entire system | Less is better |
| Difference Idle/LoadDifférence Idle/Charge | Watts |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire (non ref design) | 417 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 312 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI (non ref design) | 301 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI (non ref design) | 294 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 240 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (non ref design) | 197 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 165 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 (non ref design) | 153 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 184 |
| More is better |
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Fan Speed / Noise Level
Fan Speed
Noise Level
For the noise level results, we measured the noise level using a decibel meter (Voltcraft SL-200) located at 1 meter away from the graphics card.
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Idle / FurMark / BF3
Idle Temperature
Idle, temperature is taken after 15 minutes @ 30 %, 50 % and 100 % fan speed.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature under Furmark
For FurMark, temperature is taken after 15 minutes of GPU Burn test @ 30 %, 50 % and 100 % fan speed.
We stopped the test when the GPU temperature hit 90°C.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature and fan speed under BattleField 3
For BattleField 3, temperature and fan speed values taken, are the highest achieved after 1 hour gaming @ auto fan speed.
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Performance/Watt
| Graphics Cards | Performance Index | Power C. (Watts)* | Performance/Watt*10 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 71.30 | 220 | 3.24 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 (non ref design) | 65.56 | 210 | 3.12 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 87.78 | 292 | 3.01 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 111.58 | 380 | 2.94 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI (non ref design) | 103.55 | 370 | 2.80 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (non ref design) | 72.91 | 262 | 2.78 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 65.80 | 238 | 2.76 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI (non ref design) | 93.67 | 363 | 2.58 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire (non ref design) | 111.44 | 473 | 2.36 |
| *Entire system | More is better | Less is better | More is better |
The "Performance Index" value is calculated as the sum of all benchmarks results divided by the amount of games (3DMark and Ungine not included into the calculation).
Performance/Price
| Graphics Cards | Performance Index | Price (€) | Performance/€*10 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 65.80 | 243 | 2.71 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 65.56 | 278 | 2.36 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 72.91 | 345 | 2.11 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti SLI | 93.67 | 452 | 2.07 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 SLI | 103.55 | 556 | 1.86 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 71.30 | 385 | 1.85 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Ed. CrossFire | 111.44 | 690 | 1.62 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 87.78 | 590 | 1.49 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 SLI | 111.58 | 770 | 1.45 |
| More is better | Less is better | More is better |
For the price we took the lowest price available on geizhals.eu, on the day the review has been published.
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Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| NVIDIA’s brand new GeForce GTX 780 is quite a nice piece of hardware. This reference card gives you a good overview what to expect from the new GTX 780 series, which is basically a scaled down version of the GTX Titan. The twelve activated SMX units are able make the GTX 780 almost 30 percent faster than the GTX 680, which is actually quite something. On another notice you get the same PCB as well as the same cooler NVIDA also puts on the GeForce GTX Titan, this means, that this card is adequately equipped and the noise level is ok. | - Performance | - Cooling | |
| Cooling / Noise Level | + | - | |
| GPU Temperatures weren't that good with a maximum of 81°C under heavy FurMark load with the fans locked at 50 % fan speed. There really are a lot of coolers that perform better. In Idle the noise level is good, but a soon as there is load being applied to the GPU the fan starts to wake up and it makes quite some noise. Overall the reference cooler isn't too bad, but still we're very curious to see what difference for example ASUS' DirectCU II cooler can make. We're definitely hoping that there will be GeForce GTX 780 card with really silent coolers. | - Loud under load | ||
| Performance | + | - | |
| A closer look at overall performance shows that the GTX
780 is
27 % faster on average in games than its predecessor, the GTX 680. In
case of highly demanding games, the performance difference between those
two cards goes all the way up to 40 percent. On the other hand, in games
like Borderlands 2 or Bioshock: Infinite, where you get 100 fps with a
GTX 680 already, you only see a ten percent performance gain. Taking a look at the clock speed shows that this card clocks at 940 MHz on average, when applying heavy 3D loads. At this point one can really see GPU Boost 2.0 doing it's job, since it always tries to get the maximum clock speeds out of the card, without overstepping the 80°C temperature target. A closer look at power consumption shows, that our test system, equipped with the GTX 780, burns 52 Watts under idle conditions and 292 Watts under load. Compared to all other cards we have in our test field, idle power consumption is quite good but under load one can really see, that the GTX 780 is a monster and therefore it's quite good at burning a lot of power. |
- Performance/Watt
- Power Consumption in idle |
- Power Consumption under load | |
| Recommendation / Price | + | - | |
| Should you be looking for a seriously quick graphics card, then the GTX 780 is a great choice. Sure, there is the GeForce GTX Titan, which is even faster, but it also costs quite a lot more. Mentioning the price brings us to the last point. As you can see the GTX 780 is almost 30 percent faster than it's predecessor. In our opinion increasing the price by a maximum of 30 pecent would be ok. If you check prices as of today, we see that the card is listed for about 700 US-Dollars. If you stop by at Newegg and check the price of their reference GTX 680 cards and add the additional 30 percent on top, you end up at almost 600 US-Dollar. We're quite sure, that when the first custom GTX 780 hit the shelves, the price of the reference GTX 780 will drop to the 600 US-Dollar mark. | - High-End Gaming | ||
| We gave the GeForce GTX 780 from ASUS the good 4 out of 5 stars. | |||
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Author: Marc Buechel (rewarder) m.buechel@ocaholic.ch