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Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti Review: GK110, Fully Unlocked

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283 Comments

Detailed Gaming Efficiency Results

Due to popular demand, we once again use our power consumption results at 1920x1080 for the efficiency computations.

Gaming Loop Performance

First, let’s take a look at the average frame rate and corresponding percentage comparison. As expected, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 780 Ti is the hands-down winner. The GTX 780 WindForce GHz Edition isn’t that far behind, whereas the GeForce GTX Titan is much more limited by its stock fan settings than the 780 Ti. A reference GeForce GTX 780 can’t really keep up.

Efficiency

It’s time to factor power consumption back into the picture. We’re looking at how much power each graphics card needs to generate its frame rate. It quickly becomes apparent that the latest spin of GK110, binned aggressively, does well.

Interestingly, the original GeForce GTX 780 is the winner, since it’s the closest to the processor's sweet spot. The other graphics cards get noticeably less efficient as their core frequencies increase. Gigabyte's GTX 780 WindForce GHz Edition is an interesting case, with an efficiency that’s close to a reference GeForce GTX Titan and a cooling solution that puts it ahead of the Titan.

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Summary
  1. GK110, Unleashed: The Wonders Of Tight Binning
  2. Meet The GeForce GTX 780 Ti
  3. Test Setup And Benchmarks
  4. Results: Arma III
  5. Results: Battlefield 4
  6. Results: BioShock Infinite
  7. Results: Crysis 3
  8. Results: Metro: Last Light
  9. Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  10. Results: Tomb Raider
  11. Results (DirectX): AutoCAD 2013 And Inventor
  12. Results (OpenGL): LightWave And Maya 2013
  13. Results (OpenCL): GPGPU Benchmarks
  14. Results: CUDA Benchmarks
  15. Gaming Power Consumption Details
  16. Detailed Gaming Efficiency Results
  17. Power Consumption Overview
  18. Noise And Video Comparison
  19. Unquestionably The Fastest Single-GPU Graphics Card
About the author
Chris Angelini & Igor Wallossek

Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.

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    Top Comments
  • expl0itfinder
    Keep up the competition. Performance per dollar is the name of the game, and the consumers are thriving in it right now.
  • bjaminnyc
    Excluding the possibility of bias, it's important to note the various performance results from one site to another. Tom's has the 780Ti winning the majority of benches while others have the 290x on top for the same applications. I believe this is representative of real world end user scenarios. Individual cards and total system variances IMO will result in the 780ti and 290x performing pretty much on par at higher resolutions. Therefore it really comes down to prices or preference but I don't know too many smart people who choose to waste $s ever even 1%'s. Win for AMD.
  • Lord_Kitty
    Can't wait for fanboy wars! Its going to be fun to watch.
    • Other Comments
  • faster23rd
    My heart broke a little bit for AMD. Unless AMD's got something up their sleeve, it's up to the board manufacturers now to get the 290X in a better competitive stance than the 780 ti.
  • Lord_Kitty
    Can't wait for fanboy wars! Its going to be fun to watch.
  • tomc100
    At $700, AMD has nothing to worry about other than the minority of enthusiast who are willing to pay $200 more for the absolute fastest. Also, when games like Battlefield 4 uses mantle the performance gains will be eroded or wiped out.
  • expl0itfinder
    Keep up the competition. Performance per dollar is the name of the game, and the consumers are thriving in it right now.
  • alterecho
    I want to see cooler as efficient as the 780 ti, on the 290X, and the benchmarks be run again. Something tells me 290X will perform similar or greater than 780ti, in that situation.
  • ohim
    Price vs way too few more fps than the rival will say a lot no matter who gets the crown, but can`t wonder to imagine the look on the face of the guys who got Titans for only few months of "fps supremacy" at insane price tags :)
  • bjaminnyc
    2x R9 290's for $100 more will destroy the 780Ti. I don't really see where this logically fits in a competitively priced environment. Nice card, silly price point.
  • Innocent_Bystander
    "Hawaii-based boards delivering frame rates separated by double-digit percentages, the real point is that this behavior is designed into the Radeon R9 290X. "

    It could also come down to production variance between the chips. Seen in before in manufacturing and it's not pretty. Sounds like we're starting to hit the ceiling with these GPUs... Makes me wonder what architectural magic they'll come up with next.

    IB
  • bjaminnyc
    2x R9 290's for $100 more will destroy the 780Ti. I don't really see where this logically fits in a competitively priced environment. Nice card, silly price point.
  • Deus Gladiorum
    I'm going to build a rig for a friend and was planning on getting him the R9 290, but after the R9 290 review I'm quite hesitant. How can we know how the retail version of that card performs? Any chance you guys could pick one up and test it out? Furthermore, how can we know Nvidia isn't pulling the same trick: i.e. giving a press card that performs way above the retail version?
  • americanbrian
    Hoping to get a response this time. I am wondering if AA has any place in the ultraHD gaming world. I suspect that it gets cranked to 16x on ultra settings and I wonder if this actually is discernable witht he pixel density being so high. It is not like many people can spot a jagged edged curve when the "jag" is microns big.

    If it has a negligible impact on what it looks like I am wondering how performance is with single cards on ultraHD screens WITHOUT ANTI-ALIASING. Please could you investigate? or point me to somewhere that has. Cheers all!
  • catswold
    EVGA already has the "SC" rated cards both with the default cooler and their ACX cooler.

    Apples to apples it looks like the 780 ti will remain faster than the 290x even after we begin to see custom cooling AMD cards . . . but at a high premium.
  • rolli59
    Good buy compared to Titan but not the $500cards is what I read out of this.Good performance but questionable value.
  • eklipz330
    what i can't understand is how people can manage to stay loyal to the green team especially when they've been using monopolistic tendencies when it comes to pricing their cards... seriously, dropping a cards price point at the snap of a finger by hundreds of dollars, and they're still profiting like monsters i bet.

    and yet, people will continue to eat up their products like mindless sheep. guess a lot of people have disposable income.
  • aizatvader
    sigh....it's too expensive compared to the 290x and the 290 for the performance.Slap a waterblock on the 290x and this card and overclock both of them to the limit and we will se which one is better.Still,i'm not gonna pay an extra $300 for this card over the 290x
  • aizatvader
    sorry.i mean the r9 290
  • rmpumper
    One thing is certain - 290X is completely irrelevant. Either get a lot cheaper 290 with the same performance or expensive 780Ti with better performance.
  • Anomandaris
    This seems to be the bottom line... get the 780ti if you absolutely want the best and have money to burn (or wait a bit to see if they will indeed release the higher memory ones) and 290 for money vs performance.
  • bjaminnyc
    Excluding the possibility of bias, it's important to note the various performance results from one site to another. Tom's has the 780Ti winning the majority of benches while others have the 290x on top for the same applications. I believe this is representative of real world end user scenarios. Individual cards and total system variances IMO will result in the 780ti and 290x performing pretty much on par at higher resolutions. Therefore it really comes down to prices or preference but I don't know too many smart people who choose to waste $s ever even 1%'s. Win for AMD.
  • ojas
    Anonymous said:
    I'm going to build a rig for a friend and was planning on getting him the R9 290, but after the R9 290 review I'm quite hesitant. How can we know how the retail version of that card performs? Any chance you guys could pick one up and test it out? Furthermore, how can we know Nvidia isn't pulling the same trick: i.e. giving a press card that performs way above the retail version?

    Well, it is possible, but highly unlikely, given that Nvidia has a hard defined minimum clock rate, and a much narrower range...plus this is a reference board, it's fully possible that a retail card with a custom cooler will perform much higher (like the Gigabyte 780 in this article).

    And, it's not an issue with the Titan or the 780, which are both based on GK110...which has been out for months, and has stable drivers.

    Anonymous said:
    what i can't understand is how people can manage to stay loyal to the green team especially when they've been using monopolistic tendencies when it comes to pricing their cards... seriously, dropping a cards price point at the snap of a finger by hundreds of dollars, and they're still profiting like monsters i bet.

    and yet, people will continue to eat up their products like mindless sheep. guess a lot of people have disposable income.

    What i can't understand is why this has to be a ****ing war.

    When they had no competition, they charged a lot of money for their top end cards. No one was forced to buy these overpriced cards. If no one bought them, they'd drop prices. When AMD released solid competition, they dropped prices.

    That's how the market works. If you think AMD wouldn't do the same, well, what can i say..

    AMD haven't been in a position to do that for a long time on either the GPU or CPU front, which is why they haven't.

    When they tried to release an $800 FX CPU (this is without a monopoly or lead in the market, btw), no one bought it, and AMD had to drop prices by more than half.
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