Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti Review: GK110, Fully Unlocked

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Hot on the heels of AMD's Radeon R9 290X receiving acclaim for a fair price and high performance, Nvidia is launching its fastest single-GPU gaming card ever: GeForce GTX 780 Ti. It's quicker than 290X, but also more expensive. Is the premium worthwhile?

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.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
283 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 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.
    Reply
  • Lord_Kitty
    Can't wait for fanboy wars! Its going to be fun to watch.
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • expl0itfinder
    Keep up the competition. Performance per dollar is the name of the game, and the consumers are thriving in it right now.
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • 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 :)
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • Innocent_Bystander-1312890
    "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
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • 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?
    Reply