As of today the NVIDIA Titan X is simply the fastest single GPU money can buy. Based on 3584 CUDA cores this is no wonder, yet - for apparent reasons - we're curious to find out how big the difference between the Titan X and other pixel accelerators is.
Presentation
The NVIDIA Titan X (Pascal) is currently the most expensive single-GPU graphics card available on the market. This pixel accelerator is based on the GP102-400A1 Pascal chip. As it's been with all the Titan cards before, also the Titan X (Pascal) is only available with a reference design, which means this card features the same cooler like the GTX 1080 Founders Edition but with a black paint job. Apart from that, end customers can only buy this card directly from NVIDIA's website. Furthermore there are serveral distinct system integrators globally building gaming PCs and workstations with NVIDIA Titan X (Pascal) cards. This adds a lot to the exclusivity of this particular pixel acceleartor and NVIDIA even goes to the point that one person cannot order more than two cards.
Browsing the specifications of the GP102-400A1 chip we find a whopping 3584 CUDA
cores, 224 TMUs and 96 ROPs. For comparison reasons, the GTX 1080 features 2560
CUDA cores, 160 TMUs and 64 ROPs. This means that, compared to the second fastest card in the NVIDIA line-up the GP102 features significantly more CUDA cores, TMUs and ROPs.
Looking at clock speeds we find a base clock set to 1'417 MHz and the boost clock is at 1'531 MHz, which in combination with the sheer number of CUDA cores is going to pack some serious punch.
As we already mentioned, the NVIDIA Titan X is a reference design card, which means there is apparently no factory sided overclocking. This card is set to work at 1418 MHz base clock and 1531 MHz
boost clock, while the typical boost clock is 1809 MHz when tested with 3DMark FireStrike, which in this case is representative for almost any game. Testing the card with Furmark, which forces the lowest typical boost clock, we noticed that this particular Titan X was at least running at 1733 MHz, while the voltage was as low as 0.85v.
A quick look at the memory specs reveals, that the 12 Gigabyte GDDR5X come from Micron, have been wired to the GPU using a 384 Bit wide interface, clocking at 1251 MHz (effective 10'008 MHz) and therefore offering 480 GB/s bandwidth. Compared to a GTX 1080, which cranks out 320 GB/s the memory bandwidth has been improved pretty drastically - actually by a whopping 50 percent.
Specifications
|
NVIDIA Titan X (Pascal) |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 |
NVIDIA Titan X (Maxwell) |
Chip |
GP102-400A1 Pascal |
GP104-400-A1 Pascal |
GM200-400-A1 Maxwell |
Process |
16 nm |
16 nm |
28 nm |
Transistors |
12.0 billion |
7.20 billion |
8.00 billion |
GPU clock |
1'417 MHz |
1'607 MHz |
1'000 MHz |
GPU Boost clock |
1'531 MHz |
1'733 MHz |
1'089 MHz |
Memory |
12'288 MB |
8'192 MB |
12'288 MB |
Memory clock |
1'251 (10'008) MHz |
1'251 (10'008) MHz |
1'753 (7'012) MHz |
Memory interface |
384 Bit |
256 Bit |
384 Bit |
Memory bandwidth |
480 GB/s |
320 GB/s |
337'000 MB/s |
Shader Cores |
3584 |
2560 |
3072 |
TMUs |
224 |
128 |
192 |
ROPs |
96 |
64 |
96 |
TDP |
250 Watt |
180 Watt |
250 Watt |
PCB Type |
Custom |
Reference Design |
Reference Design |
Slots |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Cooler |
NVIDIA Reference |
NVIDIA Reference |
NVIDIA Reference |
Launch Price |
$1199 |
$699 |
$999 |
[pagebreak]
The card
As noted earlier, the NVIDIA Titan X graphics card features a reference design cooler. What you get is a radial fan (blower-type) pushing warm are over a dense heat sink out of a case. The heat is being removed from the GPU and carried to the fin stack thanks to a vapor chamber, which is basically a very wide heat pipe. Apart from the GPU, the memory chips, as well as all other critical parts, such as the power design has been integrated into the cooling loop as well. Checking the connector cables, we see that there are two of them, whereas the black 4-pin cable connects the fan and the one with the white 2-pin plug is there to provide power to the backlight GEFORCE GTX logo on top of the card. Flipping the card around there is a nice looking back plate, which has also been equipped with thermal padding to help dissipating heat from the power design more evenly.
The NVIDIA Titan X graphics card, or to be precise our sample of
it, allowed a maximum stable overclock to 2050 MHz
for the GPU and 1425.6 MHz on the memory side. With these clocks we had to feed the GPU
with 1.062 Volts and the memory ran at stock voltages.
A closer look at the PCB shows that MSI equipped this card with a 7+2+1 phase digital power design. The GPU gets its current from seven phases, two phases take good care of the 12GB of GDDR5X memory and one additional phase is in charge of PLL.
The memory chips used are made by Micron and carry the model number
6LA77-D9TXS. They are specified to run at 1250 MHz (10000 MHz
effective).
[pagebreak]
Photo Gallery
Delivery
The graphics card ships well bolstered in a foam made mold and apart form that there is a user's guide. That's it.
[pagebreak]
Test Setup
Motherboard |
|
CPU |
- Intel Core i7-6700K @ Default (Turbo On / HT On)
|
Memory |
- Klevv CRAS 2 x 8GB DDR4-3000
|
Graphics Cards |
Reference Cards
- AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB - 1266 MHz Boost
- AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB - 1206 MHz Boost
- AMD Radeon R9 FuryX 4GB - 1050 MHz Boost
- AMD Radeon R9 Fury 4GB - 1607 MHz Boost
- AMD Radeon R9 Fury Nano 4GB - 910 MHz Boost
- AMD Radeon R9 390X 8GB - 1050 MHz Boost
- AMD Radeon R9 390 8GB - 1607 MHz Boost
- NVIDIA GeForce Titan X 12GB - 1784 MHz Boost
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB - 1866 MHz Boost
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB - 1866 MHz Boost
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB - 1898 MHz Boost
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB - 1202 MHz Boost
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB - 1784 MHz Boost
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB - 1313 MHz Boost
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB - 1316 MHz Boost
- Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro 8GB - 1342 MHz Boost
- PowerColor Radeon RX 470 4GB Red Devil - 1270 MHz Boost
- ASUS ROG STIRX GTX 1080 8G Gaming - 2075 MHz Boost
- MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G - 1961 MHz Boost
|
Drivers |
- Windows 10 x64
- NVIDIA ForceWare - Latest
- AMD Crimson - Latest
|
Games and OS |
|
System Drive |
|
PSU |
- Seasonic Platinum SS-1000XP / 1000 Watts
|
[pagebreak]
3DMark - Time Spy - DirectX 12
[pagebreak]
3DMark Fire Strike - DirectX 11
[pagebreak]
3DMark - VRMark
[pagebreak]
SteamVR Performance Test
[pagebreak]
ArmA 3
1080p DirectX 11
ArmA 3 - Settings |
1080p |
1440p |
2160p |
- Sampling: 100%
- Texture: Ultra
- Objects: Ultra
- Terrain: Ultra
- Shadow: Ultra
- Particles High
- Cloud: Ultra
- PIP: High
- HDR: Standard
- Dynamic Lights: Ultra
- Visibility Overall: 3800
- Visibility Object: 3200
- Shadow: 100
- Bloom: 100
- Radial Blur: 100
- Rotation Blur: 100
- Depth of Field: 100
- SSAO: Very High
- Caustics: Enabled
- FSAA: 8x
- ATOC: All trees + grass
- PPAA: FXAA Ultra
- Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
|
- Sampling: 100%
- Texture: Ultra
- Objects: Ultra
- Terrain: Ultra
- Shadow: Ultra
- Particles High
- Cloud: Ultra
- PIP: High
- HDR: Standard
- Dynamic Lights: Ultra
- Visibility Overall: 3800
- Visibility Object: 3200
- Shadow: 100
- Bloom: 100
- Radial Blur: 100
- Rotation Blur: 100
- Depth of Field: 100
- SSAO: Very High
- Caustics: Enabled
- FSAA: 8x
- ATOC: All trees + grass
- PPAA: FXAA Ultra
- Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
|
- Sampling: 100%
- Texture: Ultra
- Objects: Ultra
- Terrain: Ultra
- Shadow: Ultra
- Particles High
- Cloud: Ultra
- PIP: High
- HDR: Standard
- Dynamic Lights: Ultra
- Visibility Overall: 3800
- Visibility Object: 3200
- Shadow: 100
- Bloom: 100
- Radial Blur: 100
- Rotation Blur: 100
- Depth of Field: 100
- SSAO: Very High
- Caustics: Enabled
- FSAA: 8x
- ATOC: All trees + grass
- PPAA: FXAA Ultra
- Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
|
[pagebreak]
Ashes of the Singularity
DirectX 11
DirectX 12
Ashes of the Singularity - Settings DX11 & DX12 |
1080p |
1440p |
2160p |
- Quality Profile: Extreme
- MSAA: 4x
- Point Light Quality: High
- Glare Quality: High
- Terrain Object Quality: High
- Shading Samples: Ultra
- Terrain Shading Samples: High
- Shadow Quality: High
- Texture Quality: High
|
- Quality Profile: Extreme
- MSAA: 4x
- Point Light Quality: High
- Glare Quality: High
- Terrain Object Quality: High
- Shading Samples: Ultra
- Terrain Shading Samples: High
- Shadow Quality: High
- Texture Quality: High
|
- Quality Profile: Extreme
- MSAA: 4x
- Point Light Quality: High
- Glare Quality: High
- Terrain Object Quality: High
- Shading Samples: Ultra
- Terrain Shading Samples: High
- Shadow Quality: High
- Texture Quality: High
|
[pagebreak]
Doom
Doom - Settings |
1080p |
1440p |
2160p |
- Vsync: Off
- Anti Aliasing: FXAA
- Colorblind Mode: Off
- Gamma: 1.0
- Motion Blur: High
- Chromatic Aberration: Yes
- Field of View: 90
- Graphics API: OpenGL 4.5
- Overall Quality: Ultra
- Resolution Scale: 100%
- Lights Quality: Ultra
- Shaodws Quality: Ultra
- Player Self-Shadow: Yes
- Directional Occlusion Quality: High
- Decal Quality: Ultra
- Decal Filtering: Anisotropic 8x
- Virtual Texturing Page Size: Ultra
- Refelctions Quality: Ultra
- Particles Quality: Ultra
- Compute Shaders: Yes
- Motion Blur Quality: Ultra
- Depth of Field: Yes
- Depth of Field Antialiasing: Yes
- HDR Bloom: Yes
- Lens Flare: Yes
- Lens Dirt: Yes
- Rending Mode: Default
- Sharpening Amount: 2.0
- Film Grain 1.0
- UI Opacity: 100%
- Show Performance Metrics: High
|
- Vsync: Off
- Anti Aliasing: FXAA
- Colorblind Mode: Off
- Gamma: 1.0
- Motion Blur: High
- Chromatic Aberration: Yes
- Field of View: 90
- Graphics API: OpenGL 4.5
- Overall Quality: Ultra
- Resolution Scale: 100%
- Lights Quality: Ultra
- Shaodws Quality: Ultra
- Player Self-Shadow: Yes
- Directional Occlusion Quality: High
- Decal Quality: Ultra
- Decal Filtering: Anisotropic 8x
- Virtual Texturing Page Size: Ultra
- Refelctions Quality: Ultra
- Particles Quality: Ultra
- Compute Shaders: Yes
- Motion Blur Quality: Ultra
- Depth of Field: Yes
- Depth of Field Antialiasing: Yes
- HDR Bloom: Yes
- Lens Flare: Yes
- Lens Dirt: Yes
- Rending Mode: Default
- Sharpening Amount: 2.0
- Film Grain 1.0
- UI Opacity: 100%
- Show Performance Metrics: High
|
- Vsync: Off
- Anti Aliasing: FXAA
- Colorblind Mode: Off
- Gamma: 1.0
- Motion Blur: High
- Chromatic Aberration: Yes
- Field of View: 90
- Graphics API: OpenGL 4.5
- Overall Quality: Ultra
- Resolution Scale: 100%
- Lights Quality: Ultra
- Shaodws Quality: Ultra
- Player Self-Shadow: Yes
- Directional Occlusion Quality: High
- Decal Quality: Ultra
- Decal Filtering: Anisotropic 8x
- Virtual Texturing Page Size: Ultra
- Refelctions Quality: Ultra
- Particles Quality: Ultra
- Compute Shaders: Yes
- Motion Blur Quality: Ultra
- Depth of Field: Yes
- Depth of Field Antialiasing: Yes
- HDR Bloom: Yes
- Lens Flare: Yes
- Lens Dirt: Yes
- Rending Mode: Default
- Sharpening Amount: 2.0
- Film Grain 1.0
- UI Opacity: 100%
- Show Performance Metrics: High
|
[pagebreak]
Far Cry Primal
Far Cry Primal - Settings |
1080p |
1440p |
2160p |
- V-Sync: Off
- Graphics Quality: Ultra
|
- V-Sync: Off
- Graphics Quality: Ultra
|
- V-Sync: Off
- Graphics Quality: Ultra
|
[pagebreak]
GTA V
GTA V - Settings |
1080p |
1440p |
2160p |
- Ignore Suggested Limits: On
- FXAA: On
- MSAA: 8x
- VSync: Off
- Population Density: Max
- Population Variety: Max
- Distance Scaling: Max
- Texture Qualtiy: Very High
- Shader Qualtiy: Very High
- Shadow Quality: Very High
- Reflection Quality: Ultra
- Reflection MSAA: Off
- Soft Shadows: Softer
- Post FX: Ultra
- Motion Blur Strength: Min
- Anisotropic Filtering: X16
- Ambient Occlusion: High
- Tessellation: Very High
|
- Ignore Suggested Limits: On
- FXAA: On
- MSAA: 8x
- VSync: Off
- Population Density: Max
- Population Variety: Max
- Distance Scaling: Max
- Texture Qualtiy: Very High
- Shader Qualtiy: Very High
- Shadow Quality: Very High
- Reflection Quality: Ultra
- Reflection MSAA: Off
- Soft Shadows: Softer
- Post FX: Ultra
- Motion Blur Strength: Min
- Anisotropic Filtering: X16
- Ambient Occlusion: High
- Tessellation: Very High
|
- Ignore Suggested Limits: On
- FXAA: On
- MSAA: 8x
- VSync: Off
- Population Density: Max
- Population Variety: Max
- Distance Scaling: Max
- Texture Qualtiy: Very High
- Shader Qualtiy: Very High
- Shadow Quality: Very High
- Reflection Quality: Ultra
- Reflection MSAA: Off
- Soft Shadows: Softer
- Post FX: Ultra
- Motion Blur Strength: Min
- Anisotropic Filtering: X16
- Ambient Occlusion: High
- Tessellation: Very High
|
[pagebreak]
Rainbow Six Siege
Rainbow Six Siege - Settings |
1080p |
1440p |
2160p |
- VSync: Off
- Overall Quality: Custom
- Texture Quality: Ultra
- Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 16X
- LOD Quality: Ultra
- Shading Quality: High
- Shadow Quality: Very High
- Reflection Qualtiy: High
- Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+
- Lens Effects: Bloom + Lens Flare
- Zoom-In Depth of Field: On
- Post-Process Anti Aliasing: T-AA
- Multisample Anti Aliasing: MSAA 2X
|
- VSync: Off
- Overall Quality: Custom
- Texture Quality: Ultra
- Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 16X
- LOD Quality: Ultra
- Shading Quality: High
- Shadow Quality: Very High
- Reflection Qualtiy: High
- Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+
- Lens Effects: Bloom + Lens Flare
- Zoom-In Depth of Field: On
- Post-Process Anti Aliasing: T-AA
- Multisample Anti Aliasing: MSAA 2X
|
- VSync: Off
- Overall Quality: Custom
- Texture Quality: Ultra
- Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 16X
- LOD Quality: Ultra
- Shading Quality: High
- Shadow Quality: Very High
- Reflection Qualtiy: High
- Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+
- Lens Effects: Bloom + Lens Flare
- Zoom-In Depth of Field: On
- Post-Process Anti Aliasing: T-AA
- Multisample Anti Aliasing: MSAA 2X
|
[pagebreak]
Total War Warhammer
DirectX 11
DirectX 12
Total War Warhammer - Settings DX11 & DX12 |
1080p |
1440p |
2160p |
- Quality: Ultra
- Texture quality: Ultra
- Shadow detail: Ultra
- VFX detail: Ultra
- Tree detail: Ultra
- Unit detail: Ultra
- Depth of field: Off
- Screen space reflections: Off
- Anti aliasing: FXAA
- Texture filtering: Anisotropic 16x
- Water detail: Ultra
- Grass detail: Ultra
- Terrain detail: Ultra
- Building detail: Ultra
- Unit size: Large
- Porthole quality 3D
- Unlimited video memory: Off
- V-sync: Off
- SSAO: On
- Distortion effects: On
- Vignette: Off
- Proximity fading: On
|
- Quality: Ultra
- Texture quality: Ultra
- Shadow detail: Ultra
- VFX detail: Ultra
- Tree detail: Ultra
- Unit detail: Ultra
- Depth of field: Off
- Screen space reflections: Off
- Anti aliasing: FXAA
- Texture filtering: Anisotropic 16x
- Water detail: Ultra
- Grass detail: Ultra
- Terrain detail: Ultra
- Building detail: Ultra
- Unit size: Large
- Porthole quality 3D
- Unlimited video memory: Off
- V-sync: Off
- SSAO: On
- Distortion effects: On
- Vignette: Off
- Proximity fading: On
|
- Quality: Ultra
- Texture quality: Ultra
- Shadow detail: Ultra
- VFX detail: Ultra
- Tree detail: Ultra
- Unit detail: Ultra
- Depth of field: Off
- Screen space reflections: Off
- Anti aliasing: FXAA
- Texture filtering: Anisotropic 16x
- Water detail: Ultra
- Grass detail: Ultra
- Terrain detail: Ultra
- Building detail: Ultra
- Unit size: Large
- Porthole quality 3D
- Unlimited video memory: Off
- V-sync: Off
- SSAO: On
- Distortion effects: On
- Vignette: Off
- Proximity fading: On
|
[pagebreak]
XCOM 2
XCOM2 - Settings |
1080p |
1440p |
2160p |
- Vsync: Off
- Enable Framerate Smoothing: Off
- Preset: Custom
- Anti Aliasing: MSAA 2x
- Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
- Decals: Own Static
- Shadows: All Shadows
- Shadow Quality: Max
- Texture Detail: Max
- Texture Filtering: Aniso 16x
- Depth of Field: Simple
- Draw Distance: High
- High Res Translucency: No
- Bloom: Yes
- Dirty Lense: Yes
- Subsurface Scattering: No
- Screen Space Reflections: No
|
- Vsync: Off
- Enable Framerate Smoothing: Off
- Preset: Custom
- Anti Aliasing: MSAA 2x
- Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
- Decals: Own Static
- Shadows: All Shadows
- Shadow Quality: Max
- Texture Detail: Max
- Texture Filtering: Aniso 16x
- Depth of Field: Simple
- Draw Distance: High
- High Res Translucency: No
- Bloom: Yes
- Dirty Lense: Yes
- Subsurface Scattering: No
- Screen Space Reflections: No
|
- Vsync: Off
- Enable Framerate Smoothing: Off
- Preset: Custom
- Anti Aliasing: MSAA 2x
- Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
- Decals: Own Static
- Shadows: All Shadows
- Shadow Quality: Max
- Texture Detail: Max
- Texture Filtering: Aniso 16x
- Depth of Field: Simple
- Draw Distance: High
- High Res Translucency: No
- Bloom: Yes
- Dirty Lense: Yes
- Subsurface Scattering: No
- Screen Space Reflections: No
|
[pagebreak]
Power Consumption
[pagebreak]
Temperatures / Noise Levels
Temperature
Noise Level
[pagebreak]
Performance Index & Price
Performance Index
Price
AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB - 1266 MHz Boost |
|
AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB - 1206 MHz Boost |
|
|
AMD Radeon R9 FuryX 4GB - 1050 MHz Boost |
|
AMD Radeon R9 Fury 4GB - 1607 MHz Boost |
|
AMD Radeon R9 Fury Nano 4GB - 910 MHz Boost |
|
|
AMD Radeon R9 390X 8GB - 1050 MHz Boost |
|
AMD Radeon R9 390 8GB - 1607 MHz Boost |
|
|
NVIDIA GeForce Titan X 12GB - 1784 MHz Boost |
€1299 |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB - 1866 MHz Boost |
|
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB - 1866 MHz Boost |
|
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB - 1898 MHz Boost |
|
|
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB - 1202 MHz Boost |
|
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB - 1784 MHz Boost |
|
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB - 1313 MHz Boost |
|
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB - 1316 MHz Boost |
|
|
Custom Design Cards |
Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro 8GB - 1342 MHz Boost |
|
PowerColor Radeon RX 470 Red Devil 4GB - 1270 MHz Boost |
|
|
ASUS ROG STIRX GTX 1080 8G Gaming - 2075 MHz Boost |
|
MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G - 1961 MHz Boost |
|
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
General |
|
+ |
|
The NVIDIA Titan X is simply the fastest single GPU graphics card out there so far. Compared to a reference GeForce GTX 1080 you get on average more than 20 percent more performance. With over 27 percent the difference at UHD/4K is even bigger. And this already shows what the Titan X is made for. This card is capable of producing over 50 fps in almost any game with details maxed out at UHD/4K.
Nevertheless, it must come quite expected that this much high-end, especially coming from NVIDIA, is anything but cheap. If you want a NVIDIA Titan X graphics card, you'll have to order it from NVIDIA directly and they'll charge you a whopping $1200 US or EUR 1299. But at least for this kind of money you do get the fastest single-GPU card money can buy these days. |
|
- Performance
- Design
- Cooler
|
- Price |
|
Cooling / Noise Level |
|
+ |
- |
As noted earlier, the NVIDIA reference cooler is definitely capable of removing the heat from this particular card. Unfortunately the card is not inaudible in idle, which means the fan is always spinning. Just out of curiosity we tested whether the fan really had to stay on in idle and pulled the plug. We then noticed that the card could be passively cooled in idle and therefore it would be great if NVIDIA, like most of their board partners, would put a preset in place, which makes the fan spin when a certain temperature limit has been reached. Under load the card is still well audible and the cooler maintains a maximum temperature of 84°C. |
|
- Inaudible in 2D
|
|
|
Performance |
|
+ |
- |
The NVIDIA Titan X is simply the fastest single GPU card we've ever had for testing. It keeps the second fastest card we're having in our charts on a safe distance, maintaining a 13.7% lead.
When it comes to power consumption we see that our system burns 68 Watts in idle and 341 Watts under full load. Overall power consumption is on the level we expected it to be and keeping in mind that this GPU features significantly more CUDA cores than a GeForce GTX 1080, it was clear from the beginning that there would be a well measurable difference. |
|
- Performance
|
|
|
Recommendation / Price |
|
+ |
- |
As we've already mentioned several times, the NVIDIA Titan X is simply the fastest single GPU graphics card money can buy these days and this level of performance comes at a very steep price of $1200 US or 1299 Euro. If it's only the fastest that is good enough for you then this is the right product for you. Should you be looking for something even remotely in the value for money region then you're entirely wrong with this card. |
|
- 2160p Gaming |
- Price |
|
The NVIDIA Titan X 12GB receives excellent 4 out of 5 stars. |