NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card Review
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti finally shows what the GK110 GPU has been capable after all these months. We weren’t told why NVIDIA didn’t release this card from day one, but it looks like they made the right move and were able to sell a ton of GeForce GTX 780 and GeForce GTX Titan cards in the mean time. When AMD took back the performance lead with the Hawaii GPU on the Radeon R9 290X video card, it made NVIDIA release a fully enabled GK110 card and that would be the GeForce GTX 780 Ti. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti didn’t crush the AMD Radeon R9 290X, but it did beat it nearly every benchmark and resolution that we tested. The test results speak for themselves and NVIDIA did take the performance crown back from AMD. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti is the fastest single GPU-powered card on the market today.
We were worried that overclocking might be a disappointment on the GeForce GTX 780 Ti since all the SMX units were enabled, but found otherwise. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti proved to be a great overclocker and we saw on average a 16.9% performance increase thanks to overclocking. In most game titles we were 17-22% faster than the GeForce GTX 780 at HD resolutions, so an overclocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti really raises the bar.
All that performance does come at a price though. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti had stellar performance thanks to the full GK110 GPU with 2,880 CUDA cores, but that caused an increase in power draw, noise levels and temperatures. The AMD Radeon R9 290X runs loud and hot, so the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti was able to sneak under the radar this time around. NVIDIA perfectly timed the launch of this card as it would have been massacred by enthusiasts back in February, but these numbers are now acceptable. Well played NVIDIA!
NVIDIA informed us that this is a hard launch, so the first NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti video cards should be available to purchase later today with more inventory coming next week. NVIDIA recently reduced the price of the GeForce GTX 780 to $499 and has priced the GeForce GTX 780 Ti at $699. The AMD Radeon R9 290X runs $549 and the AMD Radeon R9 290 is priced at just $399. This means that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti is more expensive than the competing cards. NVIDIA currently has a holiday game bundle that gives you three really good game titles: Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Batman Arkham Origins and Assassin’s Creed IV. On top of that there is a $100 discount on the NVIDIA SHIELD. The AMD Radeon R9 290X doesn’t have a game bundle at $549, so if you don’t already own these game titles, it does help the appeal of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti.
NVIDIA has managed to take back the performance crown and release a card that we have enjoyed using. We spent some time yesterday playing Battlefield 4 with the GeForce GTX 780 Ti at 2560×1600 with Ultra settings and had a perfect gaming experience. With our gaming headset on we couldn’t hear the GPU fan even though the system was just a couple feet away and running all out. This is the way gaming is meant to be played and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti delivers. If you want the fastest GPU that money can buy, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is it and it runs $699.
Legit Bottom Line: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti video card is the World’s fastest single GPU powered card!