KFA2's GTX 780 HOF OC+ Comes with 6GB of Memory
Soon we'll be seeing a 6 GB variant of the KFA2/Galaxy GTX 780 HOF card on shelves.
KFA2, known as Galaxy in some parts of the world, has introduced a higher-overclocked version of its already-overclocked GTX 780 HOF – the GTX 780 HOF OC+. Not only is this card overclocked even further, it also comes with twice the graphics memory found on previous solutions.
The card looks identical to the original GTX 780 HOF from Galaxy, and it is based on the same board design. The GPU aboard the card is clocked in at 1019 MHz base and will boost up to 1071 MHz. It's not a great improvement over the older card, which was clocked at 1006 MHz with a 1058 MHz boost frequency, but what sets this card apart is the memory aboard. This card doesn't feature the standard 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, but rather 6 GB of memory clocked at the standard 6.0 GHz. All in all, pretty good specifications.
Cooling is taken care of by the massive triple-slot dual fan cooler, which is built with a dense aluminum fin array along with four 6 mm thick heatpipes. The shroud is made of both metal and plastic.
No exact word on pricing yet, although we can expect this card to be a tad more expensive than standard GTX 780 cards. We've reached out to KFA2 to ask for MSRP pricing; we'll let you know when we hear back.
Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
^^What you said. My SLI 680s are getting long in the tooth, and it's starting to show in newer games at 1440p. I need an upgrade NOW and am not sure I can hold out another 6-9 months before the top end 8-series come out. And likely when they do come out, they'll be as hard to get as the 680 was when it first came out (spend hours on NewEgg refreshing screens to see one in stock then lock it in the shopping cart and buy it *immediately*).
WTF Nvidia???
For those who want to upgrade now, what people want are 780Ti with 6GB,
not 780. If it's true that NVIDIA has canned 6GB 780Tis because they're
afraid of harming Titan Black/Z sales, someone at NVIDIA needs a good
slap round the head with a wet fish. The kind of people who might buy a
Titan because of its pseudo-pro specs are not the ones who would buy
a 780Ti 6GB instead if the latter was available, since the 780Ti doesn't
have the relevant pro features. Thus, all they're doing is forcing gamers
to either delay until Maxwell or buy AMD. Half the pro market can't use
the Titan anyway - it doesn't have ECC (critical for all sorts of tasks),
slow PCIe return path, missing cache features, etc.
What is wrong with NVIDIA these days? It feels like they're running
around dancing on the head of a pin. Just get the freaking 780Ti 6GB
released and you'll start seeing sales to gamers who have money to
spend. I can't see the same potential market bothering with a 6GB 780
because it's so much slower than the 780Ti (who cares about oc'd 780s
when there are plenty of cheaper-than-reference oc'd 780Tis?).
Irony is, they'd sell a bunch more 6GB 780Tis to solo pro users
who atm can't afford relevant cards (Titan/Tesla) and thus don't
buy anything at all.
Ian.
I agree; it was said NVIDIA didn't release such a thing because they thought
it would harm Titan sales, same IMO incorrect assumption they're making now.
Ian.
Some of us tend to buy used previous-top-end cards.
Ian.
Some of us tend to buy used previous-top-end cards.
Ian.
+1 here. I refuse to buy top of the line GPU, ever. I went for the GTX 770 this round because for one the 280/290's were grossly over priced due to bit coin mining, and the GTX 770 is literally a faster, cooler, and quieter GTX 680. Buying a card that cost over 500$ at date of release for 330$ and a 3 game bundle to boot was good "bang for the buck".
Based on the planned obsolescence I refuse to buy the 780 / 780ti / 290x tier cards. Not to mention I expect the usefulness of the 770 to expire within a short window of that of the higher tier cards.
Right on, Adroid! There's not much in my gaming system which was bought new:
http://www.overclock.net/lists/display/view/id/2415471
The RAM, 1TB SATA, all the fans, monitor, keyboard & mouse, they were all new,
but everything else was either used or new via normal auction for enormous savings.
The mbd for 87 UKP was a particularly good bargain (boxed, used & complete). For
the gfx, I wanted the speed of a 780, but the price of such was too high for me when
new, so two used 3GB 580s instead cost about 270 UKP total. More noise of course,
but that doesn't bother me as the PC is kinda out of the way.
I think my next upgrade might be the first time I'll buy all-new since I bought two
EVGA GTX 460 FTWs years ago when they first came out. Couple of Maxwells
perhaps, so I can drive a 4K TV at a decent clip (still using a PAL CRT telly atm,
going to skip HD entirely and jump straight to 4K in Oct/Nov).
Anyway, I digress. It'd be interesting to know just how many of these 6GB 780s
actually sell, and who the heck is buying them, for what purpose. Probably plenty
of suckers who think the 6GB will make a difference for gaming on their standard
res displays... :}
I'll get a 780Ti or two eventually for benchmarking purposes, but not until they've
become much cheaper 2nd-hand. I've waited a long time to get a 7970/GHz for the
same reason, finally bagged my first for 135 UKP recently. Results added, such
as they are (need to setup a tougher test, eg. repeatable Crysis or somesuch,
though CoJ does show the expected pure-GPU scaling):
http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgi.html#PC
Ian.
PS. Online stores here now show 6GB 780s coming from EVGA, ASUS and
MSI aswell.