EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked ACX 3 GB (03G-P4-2784-KR)
EVGA Corporation has as many as eight (!) Variants of the GeForce GTX 780 in its assortment for every taste and budget. It is unlikely that we will be mistaken if we say that no other manufacturer has such a wide choice of the top NVIDIA video card model. Video cards differ not only in frequencies, but also in cooling systems, among which there are two options with water blocks for liquid cooling. Separately, I would like to note that the improvement of the produced line of EVGA video cards continues to this day. For example, a number of new dual-BIOS GeForce GTX 760-780 models have just been announced. Unfortunately, we have not yet received such a video card, but the one provided for testing EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked ACX 3 GB (03G-P4-2784-KR) is a very interesting product. However, first things first.The video card comes in a relatively compact box with key features listed on front side and them detailed description on the back:
Separately, we note the presence in the box of a small window through which a video card with a sticker pasted is visible, which allows you to make sure that this particular product is inside, and not something else:
We would call the complete set exhaustive. First of all, it includes two instructions (short and complete), as well as various informational and marketing stickers:
In addition, two adapter cables for connecting additional power, a DVI-to-D-Sub adapter and a CD with drivers and a utility are sealed in three separate bags:
A nice bonus in the package is a huge EVGA Gaming poster, which fans of this company can hang on the wall next to the system unit with the installed video card:
By the way, the video card is supplied in the USA, although it is produced in China. It costs $659, which is only $10 more than the recommended price for reference versions of the GeForce GTX 780. The warranty period is three years.
First of all, I would like to note that the EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked ACX is a compact (268x100x38 mm) and at the same time very beautiful video card. Although the shroud that covers the entire front side is made of plastic, it is covered with a matte paint with a grainy structure, so, coupled with two glossy fans, it looks amazing:
The “touches to the portrait”, which give the video card a unique and sophisticated look, are golden inserts with the name of the manufacturer and model of the video card, imitation of figured meshes, a varnished edge of the casing with the name of the cooling system, as well as “chrome-like” plastic inserts on the upper edge of the casing:
All of this certainly makes the EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked ACX one of the most pleasing and aesthetically pleasing top-end graphics cards out there.
We are already quite accustomed not only to the global changes in EVGA's 3D cards, but also to small improvements in the reference video cards, so the additionally sparse panel with outputs did not come as a surprise to us:
At the same time, the set of outputs is standard, it includes two DVI-I and DVI-D (Dual-Link), HDMI version 1.4a, and DisplayPort version 1.2. Connectors for additional power and SLI are typical, they are located in their regular places and are easily accessible, unlike, for example, MSI:
The cooling system of the video card is fastened with four screws around the perimeter of the GPU, so it was not difficult for us to remove it:
With a metal plate on video memory modules and power elements, it was somewhat more difficult, especially since even when it was turned away, it was tightly held on by thermal pads. Having removed this plate, it was easy to make sure that we were facing the most reference version of the GeForce GTX 780 printed circuit board:
Recall that the power supply here is carried out according to the “6 + 3” scheme, where six phases fall on the graphics processor, and three - on the video memory and power circuits:
GPU power is controlled by the ON Semiconductor NCP4206 controller:
The graphics processor is quite "fresh" - it was released on the 22nd week of this year (end of May) in Taiwan on a 28-nm process technology and belongs to revision A1. The crystal area is 561 mm2:
The base frequency of the graphics processor of the EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked ACX is increased by 104 MHz or 12.1% compared to the reference and is 967 MHz. In the forced mode, the frequency should increase to 1020 MHz, however, according to monitoring data, with the power and temperature limits increased to the maximum, the frequency reached 1097 MHz! Excellent factory overclocking, I must admit. However, this is not a record result for today's trinity of GeForce GTX 780. Let's add that according to GPU-Z, the quality of the GK110 die of our copy of the EVGA video card is 73.0%:
Looking ahead, we can say that this is the best GPU in terms of ASIC quality out of all six tested GeForce GTX 780.
The video card is equipped with three gigabytes of GDDR5 video memory, recruited by twelve microcircuits manufactured by Samsung Semiconductor marked K4G20325FD-FC03:
Their frequency corresponds to the reference and is equal to 6008 MHz. Unfortunately, even knowing full well about the excellent overclocking potential of these microcircuits and the excellent performance responsiveness to frequency growth with a 384-bit bus, almost all manufacturers continue to ignore the factory overclocking of video memory, although it could be raised to 6600 MHz without any fear by increasing the performance of the video card in resource-intensive modes using various types smoothing.
Thus, the characteristics of the EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked ACX are as follows:
The video card is equipped with an ACX (Active Cooling Xtreme) cooling system - an original development by EVGA. Structurally, the system is not so complicated, but at the same time it is worked out in detail and impeccably-qualitatively executed. The cooler consists of a fully nickel-plated aluminum heatsink with fans mounted on it, a plastic casing and a heat distribution plate:
The radiator uses four eight-millimeter heat pipes and one six-millimeter heat pipes at once, soldered to the copper base plate:
An interesting solution in the radiator is the perforation of individual plates round holes in a checkerboard pattern:
Apparently, the developers of the cooler were trying to increase the turbulence of the air flow passing through the fins, and thereby increase the efficiency of heat transfer.
The radiator is cooled by a pair of identical 92 mm fans manufactured by Power Logic:
Model PLA09215B12H is based on a double rolling bearing, so the manufacturer guarantees 12 years of trouble-free operation of the cooler. Thanks to the support of PWM control, the fan speed can be varied in the range from 1000 to 3300 rpm. Here's a promising cooler from EVGA. Let's check how good he is.
For studying temperature regime as a load, we used five cycles of the test of a very resource-intensive game Aliens vs. Predator (2010) at maximum graphics quality at 2560x1440 pixels with 16x anisotropic filtering using MSAA4x:
MSI Afterburner version 3.0.0 beta 14 and GPU-Z utility version 0.7.2 were used to monitor temperatures and other parameters. All tests were carried out in a closed case of the system unit, the configuration of which you can see in the next section of the article, at a room temperature of 25 degrees Celsius.
Let's take a look at the efficiency of the EVGA ACX cooler in auto mode and at maximum fan speeds:
So far, without taking into account the noise level, the temperature regime of the video card is quite satisfactory: in automatic mode, at a peak fan speed of 2100 rpm, the graphics processor warmed up to 74 degrees Celsius, and at a maximum of 3330 rpm only up to 62 degrees Celsius. That is, despite the increased GPU frequencies, the ACX cooler is definitely more efficient than not only the NVIDIA reference version, but also, for example, MSI Twin Frozr IV.
Checking the overclocking potential of the EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked ACX video card showed that the GPU frequency can be increased by 70 MHz from the factory increased frequencies, and the video memory by 1320 effective megahertz:
As a result, the frequencies were 1037/1090/7328 MHz, which is pretty good for a top-end video card:
After overclocking, the peak frequency of the GPU reached 1163 MHz, and the temperature of the GPU increased to 78 degrees Celsius with a fan speed of 2190 rpm:
The result, in our opinion, is very good, but let's see what the other two participants in today's testing will show us. We add that the BIOS of the video card you can download from file archive.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC WindForce X3 3 GB (GV-N780OC-3GD)
The company in its range can boast immediately five GeForce GTX 780 models, but, objectively speaking, there are only three of them, since two of the five have already been simply re-released in new revisions. Nevertheless, we were given the video card of the first revision for testing, although it was the fastest from Gigabyte - GV-N780OC-3GD.Unfortunately, the video card came to us without a box and accessories, so appearance We borrowed the packaging from the official website:
The graphics card is manufactured in China and should be covered by a 3-year warranty. Retail price is $679.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC WindForce X3 is equipped with a three-fan cooling system that covers its entire front side. At the same time, the developers managed to create a rather elegant cooler with transparent fans and a sparse casing, so the video card does not look bulky:
Its dimensions are 292x129x43 mm. Outputs are standard for GeForce GTX 780…
...as well as additional power connectors with MIO connectors:
Unlike the EVGA video card, Gigabyte does not have a plate on the memory modules and power transistors, as it is an integral part of the main cooler. However, it is a little more difficult to shoot than EVGA. It is noteworthy that we again have a standard printed circuit board:
Naturally, the power circuit and the control controller are identical to the reference ones here:
The graphics processor also belongs to revision A1, but it was released 10 weeks earlier than the EVGA video card chip - at the end of March:
Its frequencies in 3D mode are 954/1006 MHz, which is 10.5% higher than the nominal reference GeForce GTX 780. At the same time, according to monitoring data, the processor frequency increased to 1058 MHz at peak load. Crystal quality (ASIC) is 62.1%:
3 gigabytes of GDDR5 video memory are typed in the same Samsung K4G20325FD-FC03 chips:
There are no deviations from the nominal in terms of memory frequency, therefore, in terms of specifications, the differences are only in the characteristics of the GPU:
The video card is equipped with a WindForce X3 cooling system, which, according to Gigabyte, is capable of dissipating 450 watts of thermal energy. This is quite enough to cope with the cooling of the 250-watt GeForce GTX 780. At the same time, Gigabyte engineers managed to place such an ambitious cooler within two PCI-E slots:
The radiator of the cooling system consists of two parts connected to each other by heat pipes. Tubes six. Four of them are 6 mm in diameter, and two are 8 mm. In addition to the copper base, from which the heat pipes come out, an aluminum plate with thermal pads is screwed to the base of the main radiator, which is in contact with the video memory chips. In turn, a copper plate is installed on an additional radiator, which is responsible for cooling the power elements of the power circuits.
Soldering was used at the points of contact between the heat pipes and the base and heatsink fins:
The radiator is cooled by three 80 mm Everflow T128010SU fans (the actual size of the impeller is 74 mm):
The improved plain bearing of these fans should last at least 50,000 hours, and their speed is regulated by the PWM method in the range from 800 to 4700 rpm:
Tested using the same methodology as the EVGA graphics card, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC WindForce X3 showed the same GPU temperature in automatic fan mode (74 degrees Celsius) and just 61 degrees Celsius at a maximum of 4730 rpm:
Auto modeMaximum speed
Checking the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC WindForce X3 for overclocking showed that the graphics processor is stable at plus 70 megahertz, and the video memory can be made to work at +1060 effective megahertz to its nominal frequency:
Since the base frequency of the Gigabyte video card is slightly lower than that of the above-mentioned EVGA, the final frequency with the same overclocking turned out to be slightly lower:
The overclocked video card warmed up to 75 degrees Celsius on the core with a fan speed of 2920 rpm:
At the end of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC WindForce X3 review - the traditional reference to its BIOS.
Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra 3 GB
Inno3D releases four variants of the GeForce GTX 780, and only one of them is made according to the reference design. The other three are interesting in their own way, and today we will test the fastest of them - Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra.The outer colorful shell of the box got lost somewhere, so we again borrow its image from the official website:
But the equipment was in place. It includes one adapter cable for connecting additional power, DVI-to-D-Sub and a CD with drivers, a coupon for downloading the latest 3DMark Advanced Edition, a power supply booklet and installation instructions, as well as a high-quality computer mat mice:
The video card is produced in China and costs $679. The warranty for this product appears to be also three years.
The Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra is the largest GeForce GTX 780 we've ever tested. Its dimensions are 302x112x58 mm, and if the length and height do not represent anything extra-ordinary for Hi-End video cards, then the thickness of the video card of 58 mm tells us that two PCI-E slots adjacent to the video card on the motherboard will be blocked at once:
At the same time, it should be noted that the Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra looks…how to say, powerful! Three 90-mm fans bordered with titanium-like metal inserts, a plate of the same style covering almost the entire back side, a transparent plastic overlay with logos of a series of video cards - all this equipment gives Inno3D the appearance of a real "fighter" with 3D graphics.
Video outputs, connectors for additional power and for SLI configurations for this video card model have not changed in comparison with the reference version of the GeForce GTX 780:
At the same time, instead of the limiting 250 watts of power, the Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra specifications indicate 265 watts with a power supply for a system with a single video card of 600 watts.
Having removed the cooling system from the video card, and then the heat distribution plate screwed through the board to the decorative plate on the reverse side, we saw the reference version of the GeForce GTX 780 printed circuit board for the third time today:
Even with the most careful examination of it, we could not find any differences from the standard version of the GTX 780 printed circuit board:
The GPU crystal differs in appearance from the previous two copies only in the week of release (end of February 2013)
But in terms of frequencies, Inno3D turned out to be the fastest graphics processor of all the GeForce GTX 780 we tested - its frequency formula is 1006/1046 MHz (+ 16.6%), and according to monitoring data, the frequency reached 1111 MHz. For a factory boost, the result is excellent, but let's see if the Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra can overclock even more, or has it already been squeezed out of it for us?
It is noteworthy that such high frequencies are guaranteed to a potential buyer with a very low GPU ASIC quality of 62.0%:
It is clear that we are talking about a specific instance of a video card, but this fact once again confirms that there is no direct relationship between the ASIC quality of a crystal and its ability to work stably at higher frequencies.
There is absolutely nothing to add regarding the memory chips of the video card, since they are identical to the chips of the two previous video cards of today's review:
On the other hand, Inno3D engineers did not disdain increasing the frequency of video memory and instead of the standard 6008 MHz, they flashed 6212 MHz into the video card:
The engineers who developed the Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 are especially proud of the original HerculeZ X3 Ultra cooling system:
They can be understood, because by sacrificing the thickness of the video card, they were able to build a cooling system, the efficiency of which is head and shoulders above all other original GeForce GTX 780. Moreover, among the latter there are much more famous brands than Inno3D. However, we will talk about efficiency a little later, but for now let's look at the cooler disassembled in detail:
The cooling base of the Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra is an aluminum radiator based on five nickel-plated copper heat pipes with a diameter of 6 mm. All tubes come out of the copper and also nickel-plated base in one direction, and then, intricately bending and alternating with each other, are separated into two independent radiators:
Three heatpipes pierce a large heatsink made up of multiple aluminum fins stamped with the name of the cooler's series. Two other tubes pierce the small radiator in the same way:
To all appearances, the fins are simply pressed onto the heat pipes, but the heatsink's construction is neatly and firmly assembled, none of the aluminum plates dangling on the heat pipes.
The heatsink and the video card itself are cooled by three 90mm CF-12915S fans manufactured by Colorful:
The fans are based on sleeve bearings and are likely to be quiet. They claim dust protection technology, as well as the ability to remove the impeller for cleaning and maintenance. The rotation speed is regulated by pulse-width modulation in the range from 1000 to 3300 rpm. In addition, in the upper part of the cooler - directly below the illuminated logo - there is a small switch with which you can turn off PWM control and activate the so-called boost mode of the fans, which will rotate at maximum speed.
By the way, the video card comes with a replaceable transparent plate, on which the user is invited to make his own logo and place it on the video card. Go for it, homemade ones! :)
Well, here is the promised efficiency of the HerculeZ X3 Ultra cooler:
Auto modeMaximum speed
What we have as a result: 61 degrees Celsius at the peak of the load in the automatic mode of operation of the fans at 1450 rpm and 50 (fifty!) Degrees Celsius at the maximum fan speed. Let me remind you, who is distracted by looking at the backlight of the video card, that we are talking about a top-class 3D card with a crystal area of 561 mm2, operating at higher frequencies. All the other GeForce GTX 780s that we tested earlier were nowhere near as efficient as the Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra. In our opinion, for such efficiency it is not at all a pity to sacrifice another blocked PCI-E slot on the motherboard.
Having started testing the overclocking potential of the Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra video card, we honestly did not hope that we would be able to squeeze some more megahertz out of it. Nevertheless, without loss in stability and image quality, the GPU frequency was raised by another 50 MHz, and the video memory by 960 effective megahertz:
The overclocked video card worked at frequencies of 1056/1096/1793 MHz:
And although according to monitoring data during testing, the processor frequency steadily increased to 1150 MHz, this did not become a serious problem for HerculeZ X3 Ultra:
63 degrees Celsius with a fan speed of 1490 rpm - impressive, isn't it?
Taking the BIOS of this outstanding graphics card from file archive, and move on to no less interesting sections of our article.
Noise level and power consumption
The noise level of video card cooling systems was measured using the CENTER-321 electronic sound level meter after one in the morning at full closed room an area of about 20 m² with double-glazed windows. The noise level was measured outside the case of the system unit, when the source of noise in the room was only the cooling system and its fans. The sound level meter, fixed on a tripod, was always located strictly at one point at a distance of exactly 150 mm from the fan rotor/cooler turbine. Motherboard, into which a video card was inserted with a cooling system installed on it, was placed at the very corner of the table on a polyurethane foam substrate. The lower measurement limit of the sound level meter is 29.8 dBA, and the subjectively comfortable (not to be confused with low) noise level when measured from such a distance is about 36 dBA. The fan speed was varied throughout the entire range of their operation using a special precise controller by changing the supply voltage in 0.5 V increments.In addition to the three video cards from the review, we included data on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 and the quietest video card of all the previously tested GeForce GTX 780, MSI OC Gaming, in the noise level graph. The vertical dotted lines of the corresponding color mark the maximum speed of the video card cooler fans, achieved during temperature tests in the automatic fan mode. Let's see what happened according to the graph and table:
If we focus solely on the noise level curves of video cards, it would seem that the Gigabyte video card is quieter than others, and MSI and Inno3D are louder. However, in practice this is not at all the case. With automatic fan speed control in a 3D load, MSI and Inno3D products turned out to be the quietest, while Gigabyte, on the contrary, is barely quieter than the reference NVIDIA video card. However, according to a subjective assessment, we just praise the Gigabyte cooler for the soft and rather comfortable sound of the fans, which does not agree with our measurement results. But Inno3D was noted for a rather annoying crackling of fans in the low-speed range of their operation, which is not the case with other video cards. As for the EVGA product, it was unfortunately relatively noisy in today's testing.
Measurement of system power consumption with various video cards was carried out using the Zalman ZM-MFC3 multifunctional panel, which shows the consumption of the system "from the outlet" as a whole (excluding the monitor). The measurement was carried out in 2D mode, during normal work in Microsoft Word or Internet "surfing", as well as in 3D mode. The load was created using four consecutive cycles of the "Swamp" intro scene from the game Crysis 3 at 2560x1440 pixels with maximum graphics quality settings, but without using MSAA anti-aliasing.
As expected, the power consumption of systems with different options GeForce GTX 780 differs insignificantly:
But an interesting fact is that the system with the highest frequency video card (Inno3D) was by no means the most demanding on the power of the power supply. On the contrary, its power consumption is slightly higher than the system with the reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780. At the same time, a more modest frequency EVGA video card in the same system unit and with an identical load consumes 20 watts more and almost the same as a configuration with a single GeForce GTX TITAN. However, when comparing video cards of the same model, we did not expect to get noticeably different results, which, in fact, happened. We add that for any of the tested configurations, a high-quality power supply with a capacity of 550-600 watts will suffice.
Temperature and noise summary charts for six tested GeForce GTX 780s
Taking into account today's article, we have already studied and tested six different variants of the GeForce GTX 780. Since the conditions for testing the temperature regime of these video cards and the method for measuring the noise level are the same, it was decided to reduce all the data obtained into two diagrams and into a table. We have included the noise level in the automatic mode of the coolers and at their maximum speed on a separate diagram, supplementing these results with data on the maximum temperature of the GPU. The graphics cards in the chart in each test mode are sorted in ascending order of GPU temperature. Let's see what happened:
In terms of cooling efficiency, we got five separate GeForce GTX 780s and one Inno3D, which cannot be compared with any other of the tested models. The performance of the cooler of this video card is so high that even at the highest frequencies its temperatures are much lower than the temperatures of the closest pursuer in each of the cooler modes. So the leader here in terms of cooling efficiency is more than obvious. The difference between other video cards is not so great, and MSI and Inno3D look better than others in terms of noise level in the automatic mode of fan operation.
Then we summarized in a separate table all the frequencies of the tested video cards in the nominal mode of their operation and after overclocking. The best results are marked in red, the worst in blue:
At factory frequencies, the fastest, of course, is Inno3D, and the “slowest” one is Gigabyte. True, as we will see from the test results, such a difference in frequencies translates into only 1-2% of the difference in performance. As for the results in overclocking, the maximum base frequency of the GPU was also achieved on the Inno3D video card, however, in the forced mode, according to monitoring data, the maximum frequencies were found for MSI and EVGA video cards. The video memory was the best overclocked by the Palit product.
Now, having compared the overclocking of all the tested GeForce GTX 780s, let's bring the temperature of the GPUs of the video cards in overclocking and the noise level of their cooling systems in the automatic adjustment mode into one chart, as before, sorting the video cards from top to bottom in order of increasing maximum GPU temperature:
Inno3D is still in the lead, but now also in terms of noise level. Flawless graphics card for overclocking and comfortable gaming! Next, skipping the NVIDIA reference version by 75% of the turbine power, is Gigabyte, and then, with a small difference from each other, the trinity from Palit, MSI and EVGA. MSI is quieter in this trio than others, so with the same cooling efficiency, the choice of these three video cards is obvious.
Some performance tests
Since we have repeatedly tested the GeForce GTX 780, today we will conduct performance tests only in some of the most resource-intensive benchmarks and games. On the other hand, we decided to test all three video cards of today's review at their nominal frequencies, comparing them with the reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 and the fastest single-processor video card GeForce GTX TITAN.
There is nothing much to analyze here, so we left the diagrams without comments, but we were not too lazy to make summary diagrams for gaming tests.
The first pair clearly shows that the fastest of today's trinity GeForce GTX 780 performed by Inno3D is 8-10% ahead of the reference NVIDIA video card:
And according to the second pair of diagrams, we can conclude that the same Inno3D video card lags behind the GeForce GTX TITAN by a few percent:
That is, the Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra graphics card, overclocked at the factory to frequencies of 1006/1046/6212 MHz, is as fast as the reference GeForce GTX TITAN at nominal frequencies. And the difference in cost between them is more than 30%.
Conclusion
Common to all video cards tested today are such components as the reference printed circuit board, sets of outputs and connectors, the amount of memory and Samsung chips used, as well as slightly different performance and overclocking potential close to each other. In addition, all the original cooling systems for video cards turned out to be more efficient and quieter than the cooler of the reference version of the GeForce GTX 780. However, we did not expect otherwise. Now about the features.The EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked ACX is, first and foremost, the most beautiful graphics card of all the GeForce GTX 780s tested. In addition, the product is relatively compact, has increased GPU frequencies and is quite effective system cooling. We also note the outstanding EVGA bundle, as well as practically the same price as the recommended one. Among the shortcomings, one can single out an insufficiently quiet cooler, I would like the developers to pay special attention to this.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC WindForce X3 - can be called the standard version with the original cooler and increased GPU frequencies. The cooling efficiency is at a high level, the noise level is average - better than that of EVGA, but it falls short of the leaders of the tested GeForce GTX 780. In addition, the graphics card also looks nice because it only occupies two PCI-E slots.
Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra is the undisputed leader in terms of cooling efficiency, increased frequencies and dimensions. Of course, first of all, it is worth noting the HerculeZ X3 Ultra cooling system, the efficiency of which is at a level unattainable for other GeForce GTX 780 manufacturers. Perhaps only liquid cooling would be better, but this is a topic for a separate article. At the same time, we praise this video card for low level noise only in 3D mode, since in 2D the crackling of insufficiently high-quality fans was clearly audible. In addition, let's not forget about the three-slot design. Otherwise, Inno3D will only please its users, including really original backlighting, so we would have chosen this particular video card model.
So, in three articles, a total of six different GeForce GTX 780s were tested, as if summing up in today's material. We hope that this is not the end of our acquaintance with original Hi-End class video cards, since very interesting ASUS and ZOTAC products, as well as the latest MSI GTX 780 Lightning, which we hope to receive for testing in the near future, have not yet been covered.
Thanks to EVGA Corporation and Giga-Byte Technology Co., Ltd., as well as
Inno3D and personally Maria Mitina,
for video cards provided for testing.
It also makes sense to pay attention to the application Nvidia GeForce Experience, which is included in the drivers and is designed to help the user of the accelerator based on the Nvidia processor. Owners of 3D accelerators will encounter this program one way or another when installing drivers.
So that the user of this family of video cards does not bother with questions about what settings to set in each game in order to get the best ratio of quality and performance, Nvidia specialists have developed optimal sets of options (settings) for games.
The utility independently scans the Windows registry for already installed games, as well as folders with popular gaming systems Steam, Origin, etc., creating a list of games for a specific user. Then the utility scans the PC configuration to select the optimal settings for specific conditions. In the end, the program sets the optimal settings in those games that this version already "knows".
Moreover, even in games for which there are currently no settings in the database for a specific PC configuration, the program will try to select the settings that are as close as possible in terms of comfort, for which there is a special button to start the optimization process.
Geforce Experience also monitors the latest driver versions, constantly checks for updates and informs the user about the availability of new (even beta) versions. If necessary, the driver is downloaded using the utility itself, and installed from it.
And we return to the study of the card based on Geforce GTX 780.
Fee
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| Gigabyte Geforce GTX 780 Windforce OC 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI-E | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The card has 3072 MB of GDDR5 SDRAM placed in 12 chips on the front side of the PCB. The card requires additional power, and two connectors: one with six pins, the second with eight. About the cooling system.
We conducted a temperature study using the EVGA PrecisionX utility (author A. Nikolaychuk AKA Unwinder) and obtained the following results: Packing. In this case, this is technological packaging, not final.
Installation and driversTest bench configuration:
vsync is disabled. Test Results: Performance ComparisonAs a toolkit, we used (the next update of the software list is scheduled in i3D Speed for July):
conclusionsLet's start with the analysis Site accelerator rating, which shows us the functionality of video cards relative to each other and is normalized by the weakest accelerator - Geforce GT 630 (that is, the combination of speed and functions of GT 630 is taken as 100%). Ratings are maintained for 36 accelerators that we study monthly within i3D-Speed (the rating methodology can be found in any latest issue of i3D-Speed). Let's choose a group of cards for analysis from them, which will include the accelerator under study today, its analogue operating at nominal frequencies, and the closest competitors. And then we will analyze the occupied positions within this group. To calculate utility ratings, I used prices from retail sales at the beginning of August 2013, so they may not match those shown at the end of the article (always up-to-date and constantly updated). Rating of 3D accelerators website
It is very difficult to compare the GTX 780 with anything, because this accelerator is far behind the price of top products like Radeon HD 7990, GTX 690, GTX Titan, and single-processor Radeon HD 7970, GTX 680/770. The resulting ratings only confirm that the location of the GTX 780 matches its price. Curiously, the overclocked version of Gigabyte almost caught up with the much more expensive GTX Titan, and only the rounding of the results prevented the Gigabyte product from formally taking the lead. Usefulness rating (feature/price)
Well, we see a vivid confirmation of the above: due to the very high performance, comparable to the GTX Titan, coupled with the price at the level of the rest of the GTX 780, the Gigabyte accelerator took first place. Indeed, if we take the price range of 600-1200 dollars, then in this group the above-mentioned product will be the most useful. Gigabyte Geforce GTX 780 Windforce OC 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI-E- a great version of the GTX 780, which has not only greatly increased operating frequencies, giving it the ability to almost equal the GTX Titan in terms of performance, but also an excellent and almost silent cooling system. Of course, this product belongs to the level of premium accelerators, where prices are very high, and enthusiasts are interested in devices of this kind, so compare them with other products. price categories according to the ratio of costs to the resulting productivity is impossible. However, if a consumer wants to get a very powerful modern 3D graphics accelerator that can play all games in Full HD resolution even with additional options such as anti-aliasing and AF, and this buyer has the financial ability to pay $ 700, then this video card Gigabyte might be a good choice. The final decision traditionally remains with our readers (look at the prices below!). In the nomination " original design» (for September 2013) received an award card:
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They reign supreme in the high-end solutions segment. And during the long period of waiting for the new flagship Radeon, we decided to turn again to the top GeForces in order to consider one interesting non-reference model - the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Windforce.
Usually, our acquaintance with graphic cards begins with an inspection of the package and a description of the accessory kit. But in this case, a test sample that was not designed for retail sale came to us for testing. It is provided by the manufacturer in a plain black box. Adapters and cables are also not included, but they are all present in standard versions of video cards that are sold in stores.
The Gigabyte adapter can be immediately distinguished from the background of others thanks to the use of three fans. At the same time, the overall dimensions of the card are small - it occupies only two slots, and the length is 28 centimeters.
The metal shroud has a visor on the side of the graphics accelerator, which bears the Windforce logo. Fans with a transparent impeller look very attractive.
A stiffener stretches along the edge of the board.
The rear panel has all the required interface connectors: HDMI, DisplayPort and two DVI.
Gigabyte has a single cooling system for all components. An aluminum plate is fixed on the main radiator, which removes heat from the memory chips. A copper figured plate is soldered onto the other section of the radiator, which removes heat from the power components of the power supply unit.
Such a single structure of the whole design should provide excellent cooling of the board components. But this increases the load on the common radiator. The entire available volume under the cooler cover is used as efficiently as possible. The heatsink is very close to the board, so on its bottom surface we see an uneven structure with "steps" that make room for large electronic components - capacitors and chokes.
The design includes two sections that run through five heat pipes. The main section is reinforced with thick metal plates filling the gap between the thin plates. Together they form a massive compressed core, fixed with powerful bolts.
Heat pipes are laid in the grooves of the core, also fitted as tightly as possible to each other. A copper plate is soldered on top of them, in contact with the surface of the graphic crystal.
The entire structure is blown with three 80 mm Everflow T128010SU fans (the actual size of the impeller is about 75 mm). The legs to which the fans are screwed have soft pads on the side of the radiator, which will dampen possible vibration.
But under the cooler, we did not see anything new. The Gigabyte board is made strictly according to the reference design without any deviations.
The GPU is powered by six phases built on DrMOS chips. GDDR5 memory is powered by two phases. The GPU power management functions are performed by the NCP4206 controller, which is soldered on a small separate board.
The massive GK110-300-A1 processor is surrounded by a thick protective frame.
Three gigabytes of memory are filled with 12 Samsung K4G20325FD-FC03 chips.
The prefix OC in the model name clearly indicates factory overclocking. The base frequency of the GPU has been increased from the default value of 863 MHz to 954 MHz, and the official Boost Clock (average Boost value) has increased from 900 MHz to 1006 MHz. The memory has not been overclocked and operates at an effective frequency of 6008 MHz.
The ASIC of our copy is 66.6%.
Once again, we should recall the features of GPU Boost 2.0 in the new GeForce. The power limit is initially increased, so the main limiter is the temperature limit, which for the GeForce GTX 780 is 79 ° C by default. If this value is exceeded, the Boost frequency is reduced to normalize the temperature regime. For this reason, the Boost frequency of reference video cards varies over a fairly wide range and, to a certain extent, depends on the operating conditions. Non-reference versions with improved cooling have it easier - their cooling systems initially provide low temperatures, guaranteeing a stable frequency in gaming applications at the highest possible level. In this case, the card core worked at 1071 MHz, which is comparable to the MSI N780 TF 3GD5/OC, more than the ASUS GTX780-DC2OC-3GD5 , but less than the top versions from Palit and Inno3D .
After a 12-minute warm-up test with Ambush from the Crysis Warhead Benchmarking Tool (2560x1440, MSAA8x), the temperature did not exceed 73 °C. The Unigine Valley benchmark warmed up the card to 75°C. The test was carried out in an open case at 23-24 °C indoors.
Temperature indicators are not bad, at the level of many top versions from competitors. But the noise level is high. The fan speed reaches 2600 rpm, and in this mode there can be no quiet video card. MSI Gaming in similar conditions performed well at similar temperatures at 1400 rpm fan speeds, ASUS DirectCU II OC was slightly colder at 1700-1800 rpm and 27 ° C indoors.
This combination of temperatures and rotation speed indicates a low performance margin for the cooling system. That is, it is possible to achieve complete acoustic comfort, but due to the growth operating temperature It is possible to lower the frequency of the GPU. Out of curiosity, we tested it in Crysis: Warhead with the speed down to a comfortable 2000 RPM.
After reaching 78 ° C, after a while, Boost began to decrease by one step - up to 1058 MHz. Such a decrease is not critical. But if you continue to lower the speed of the fans, but it may become more noticeable.
The overclocking potential of the core turned out to be quite standard. It was possible to overcome 1150 MHz, but with an increase in the operating voltage by 25 mV. At the maximum possible voltage, the card showed stability in the main tests at a frequency of 1163 MHz. But with this softvolt mode, another problem arose: power consumption increased and the maximum Boost frequency began to decrease due to exceeding the power limit. This limit itself, of course, has been raised to the limit, but this is only + 5%, which does not give much freedom. Even overclocking the memory affects the core frequency, because the overall power consumption of the card is being monitored. Strong overclocking of GDDR5 chips leads to a decrease in the Boost frequency by another step or two in heavy applications. The behavior is quite typical for the reference GeForce GTX 780. But we did not notice this on non-reference cards from the mentioned MSI, ASUS and even Palit. It looks like these manufacturers have managed to provide more power headroom for their cards. Gigabyte has not done any work in this direction. Therefore, there was no point in increasing the tension. After observing the change in frequency and strong drawdowns with softvolt mode, we decided to select the highest possible frequency at a standard voltage. Such a "ceiling" was 1137 MHz with a base value of 1024 MHz. The memory was overclocked to 7298 MHz - a good result at the level of other flagships.
With our settings, the card worked strictly at 1137 MHz in almost all tests. The Unigine Valley benchmark resulted in a minimal drop in overall core clock and occasional drops to 1097MHz. Even rarer drawdowns were seen in Sleeping Dogs
Fan speed in manual mode has been increased to 80%. Noisy, but the GPU did not warm up above 70 ° C. Characteristics of the tested video cards
The considered video adapter is compared with the participants of the recent testing of the Radeon R9 280X. In addition to the reference version of this competitor, MSI R9 280X Gaming 3G has been added, which corresponds to the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition in terms of frequencies.
The table reflects the official specifications of all participants. On the graphs, instead of the official average Boost Clock, the GeForce already shows the full operating frequency range, including barely reached peak values.
| Video adapter | GeForce GTX 780 | GeForce GTX 770 | MSI R9 280X Gaming | Radeon R9 280X | |
| Core | GK110 | GK110 | GK104 | Tahiti | Tahiti XTL |
| Number of transistors, million pieces | 7100 | 7100 | 3500 | 4312 | 4312 |
| Process technology, nm | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 |
| Core area, sq. mm | 561 | 561 | 294 | 365 | 365 |
| Number of stream processors | 2304 | 2304 | 1536 | 2048 | 2048 |
| Number of texture blocks | 192 | 192 | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| Number of render units | 48 | 48 | 32 | 32 | 32 |
| Core frequency, MHz | 954-1006 | 863-900 | 1045-1085 | 1000-1050 | 1000 |
| Memory bus, bit | 384 | 384 | 256 | 384 | 384 |
| Memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Memory frequency, MHz | 6008 | 6008 | 7010 | 6000 | 6000 |
| Memory size, MB | 3072 | 3072 | 2048 | 3072 | 3072 |
| Supported version of DirectX | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 11.2 | 11.2 |
| Interface | PCI-E3.0 | PCI-E3.0 | PCI-E3.0 | PCI-E3.0 | PCI-E3.0 |
| Declared TDP level, W | n/a | 250 | 230 | 250 | 250 |
test bench
The test bench configuration is as follows:
- Processor: Intel Core i7-3930K (3, [email protected].4 GHz, 12 MB);
- cooler: Thermalright Venomous X;
- motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Formula/Battlefield 3 (Intel X79 Express);
- memory: Kingston KHX2133C11D3K4/16GX (4x4 GB, [email protected] MHz, 10-11-10-28-1T);
- system disk: Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB (240 GB, SATA 6Gb/s);
- secondary drive: Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 (1 TB, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm);
- power supply: Seasonic SS-750KM (750 W);
- monitor: ASUS PB278Q (2560x1440, 27″);
- operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64;
- GeForce driver: NVIDIA GeForce 331.40;
- Radeon driver: ATI Catalyst 13.11 beta.
Test results
Let's start with the results in . The Gigabyte video card is 10-12% faster than the reference version, 31-34% better than the GeForce GTX 770 and 38-41% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (aka MSI R9 X280 Gaming). Overclocking gives another increase of up to 11%.
The difference between the reference and Gigabyte is smaller - from 4% to 10%. The card is initially faster than the extremely overclocked Radeon by 21-25%. In nominal terms, the latter is weaker by 40-48%.
Gigabyte brings the lead over the reference to 12% in Warhead. AMD's top performer is 37% weaker in minimum fps and 26% weaker in average frame rate. GeForce GTX 770 is behind the leader by 32-37%. Overclocking to 1137/7298 MHz provides another 12% increase in performance.
The video adapter in question can easily cope with even at a resolution of 2560x1440. Radeon R9 280X and GeForce GTX 770 without overclocking do not give an acceptable level of frame rate in this mode. The best AMD representative is 32% weaker. The maximum overclocking of Gigabyte allows you to achieve an advantage over the reference of 20%.
Our hero wins another impressive victory. This time it is faster than the reference by 13%, and overclocking gives another 8%.
The latest installment of Hitman is known for its love of AMD graphics solutions. Still, the GeForce GTX 780 outperforms the Radeon R9 280X, and Gigabyte has an even bigger advantage. It is worth noting the minimal difference between the two top GeForces.
When running through the "Ashes" level of the game, Gigabyte's results are 10% higher than those of the simple version of the GeForce GTX 780. The older Radeon from MSI, which is equal to the HD 7970 GHz Edition, is 25-28% weaker.
In the built-in gaming test, the situation does not change much. Radeon reduces the lag a bit in easy mode, but the inclusion of hardware PhysX puts it outside. But Gigabyte has an excellent result in such a difficult mode.
Sleeping Dogs
The advantage of Gigabyte over the reference is no more than 8%. The gap from the Radeon, which is identical in terms of characteristics to the HD 7970 GHz Edition, is almost 42%.
AMD cards are gaining ground in the newer 3DMark. Now the lag of their senior representative from the leader is 23%.
Energy consumption
Significant factory overclocking also provides higher power consumption by Gigabyte compared to the reference GeForce GTX 780. But in nominal terms and in overclocking, our hero turns out to be more economical than the boosted Radeon with a greatly increased operating voltage.
conclusions
The main advantage of the Gigabyte GV-N780OC-3GD is its high factory overclocking. Initially, the fastest NVIDIA video card (if you do not take into account the out-of-series GTX Titan) turns out to be 8-15% more productive. For a top product, this increase is quite significant. Although these are not record figures, some vendors have higher-performance versions of the GeForce GTX 780. Full overclocking potential at the level of a regular reference, which is explained by the use of a standard design board. With high factory overclocking, the card is colder than the standard version - also a significant plus. Thanks to these operating temperatures, the core constantly operates at maximum Boost. But to maintain this mode, a high fan speed is required, which negatively affects the overall acoustic background. And in this regard, Gigabyte is already losing to many accelerated versions of the GeForce GTX 780 from competitors. The cooling system, which has proven itself well on weaker cards, copes with the GeForce GTX 780 only at an unsatisfactory noise level. With manual RPM settings, you can reduce the noise to a comfortable level, but this is fraught with a slight decrease in performance after the chip temperature exceeds 79 ° C. However, this limitation can be easily bypassed by changing the corresponding slider in any utility for working with NVIDIA video cards. So it is quite possible to achieve an acceptable noise level without loss of performance. But the Gigabyte GV-N780OC-3GD will not suit users who are especially demanding on noise characteristics. The price tag will also play a role in the attractiveness of this model. It is by no means the most expensive among analogues from other manufacturers, so under certain conditions it may well become a good candidate for purchase.
Testing equipment was provided by the following companies:
- ASUS - ASUS PB278Q monitor, Rampage IV Formula/Battlefield 3 board;
- Gigabyte - Gigabyte GV-N780OC-3GD video card;
- MSI - MSI N760 TF 2GD5/OC and R9 280X Gaming 3G graphics cards;
- Intel- Intel processor Core i7-3930K and SSD 520 Series 240GB;
- Kingston - Kingston KHX2133C11D3K4/16GX memory kit;
- Syntex - Seasonic SS-750KM PSU;
- Thermalright - Thermalright Venomous X.
In February 2013, the GeForce GTX Titan was released and it was considered the fastest video card, it can be said that it broke all records. For a long time no one was able to catch up with her. After the GTX 780 was introduced, which was created just on the basis of titanium. In terms of performance, it is almost the same, but the price is several times less.
Let's look at its pros and cons.
- Pros: Pretty much all the specs from the GTX Titan;
- Cons: Much more expensive than the GTX 680 it was supposed to replace.
That is, we can say this is the same titanium, at a much cheaper price. But the price is lower for a reason, for this part of the functionality was cut. It has 2304 cores, unlike titanium, which has 2688 of them. The number of texture units has also been reduced.
The reduction also affected the RAM, it was reduced to 3 gigabytes. But in principle, this is not a problem, most of the games still do not use more than 4 gigabytes.
Specifications
| Technical process | 28 nm |
| Number of transistors | 7100 million |
| Core area | 561 mm 2 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 288.4 Gbps |
| Power Consumption (Max) | 250 W |
| Interface | PCI-E x16 3.0 |
| DirectX Version | 11.1 |
| Core | GK110-300 |
| Universal Conveyors (SPU) | 2304 |
| SPU frequency | 1926 MHz |
| Core frequency | 863 MHz |
| Memory frequency | 6008 MHz |
| Memory type | GDDR5 |
| Memory | 3072 MB |
| Memory bus | 384 bit |
| Texture Units (TMU) | 192 |
| Rasterization units (ROP) | 48 |
Manufacturer
COLORFUL GeForce GTX 780 3GB
The video card from this manufacturer is 17% faster than from Nvidia. To achieve this, a button was added to the slot plug, which can be used to increase the frequency to 1.006 MHz. The video memory operates at the usual frequency, the button does not affect it in any way.
The manufacturer supplied its own cooler. It consists of three fans. Some components have also been improved, they are able to withstand high frequencies and temperatures.
Instead of a 6-pin connector for additional power, now 8-pin. The video card is capable of consuming 375 watts given the PCI Express slot. In order for the video card to be stronger, a metal plate was installed at the back.
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB (03G-P4-2780)
This company has released as many as seven different GTX 780 graphics cards. Why is that? To understand this, you need to consider the characteristics. Most of the products are equipped with their own cooling system. Justified by the fact that the fans have special bearings that can last at least 12 years. And also an increase in the radiator reduces heating by 15%. But no one really needs this increase, since the radiator becomes larger and it’s already so easy to fit a video card, is it worth those 15%?
They understand that not everyone will like their cooling system. Therefore, for everyone, it offers to purchase both the reference version of the GeForce GTX 780 with serial number 03G-P4-2781-KR and a standard cooling system, and the overclocked version with a serial NVIDIA cooler of the GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked model and serial number 03G-P4-2783-KR .
Characteristics of the model from this manufacturer:
- Core operating frequency: 863 MHz, turbo frequency - 902 MHz
- Universal CUDA processors: 2304
- Memory type: GDDR5
- Memory capacity: 3 GB
- Operating frequency of video memory: 1502 MHz
- Bus 384 bit
- PCI Express 3.0 bus
- Recommended price: 23 990 rubles
GALAXY GeForce GTX 780 3GB
The design of this model is slightly different from others. It is made in white and gray colors, some coolers are only black.
There is a button with which you can adjust the fan speed.
Dual SLI bridges can be connected.
In general, it does not have anything special in terms of characteristics, it mainly differs in its design. It also accelerates well.
KFA2 GeForce GTX 780 Hall of Fame
It is distinguished from the reference models by higher frequencies. The clock frequency has been increased to 1.006 MHz. In boost mode up to 1.059 MHz. 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory operate at the usual frequency of 1.502 MHz.
Comparison of GTX 780 and GTX 950
| GeForce GTX 780 | GeForce GTX 950 | |
| Process technology | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Number of transistors | 7,080 million | 2,940 million |
| release date | May 23rd, 2013 | Aug 20th, 2015 |
| Production status | Active | Active |
| Video card frequency | 863MHz | 1024MHz |
| Boost Clock | 902 MHz | 1188MHz |
| Memory frequency | 1502 MHz 6008 MHz effective | 1653 MHz 6612 MHz effective |
| Memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Memory bus | 384bit | 128bit |
| Bandwidth | 288.4GB/s | 105.8GB/s |
| Number of shader units | 2304 | 768 |
| Number of texture units | 192 | 48 |
| Number of ROPs | 48 | 32 |
| Smx Count | 12 | (not set) |
| Pixel Rate | 41.4GPixel/s | 32.8GPixel/s |
| Texture Rate | 165.7 GTexel/s | 49.2 GTexel/s |
| Floating point calculations | 3,977 GFLOPs | 1,572.9 GFLOPs |
| DirectX Version | 12.0 | 12.0 |
| OpenGL Version | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| OpenCL Version | 1.1 | 1.2 |
| Shader version | 5.0 | 5.0 |
Overclocking
It is as hard to overclock as titanium. The first thing you can do is add a little to the base frequency of the GPU. But the frequency under load will still be limited by the power consumption and temperature values. For more overclocking, Boost 2.0 technology makes it possible to push those limits aside and surrender to one of them.
In the BIOS of the video card, there are special sensors that signal the reached temperature limits and other things.
Tests in 3DMark 11
Tests in games
| Battlefield 3 | Metro 2033 | Crysis 3 | Far Cry 3 | |
| GTX 780 | 108 fps | 54 fps | 41 fps | 51 fps |
| GTX TITAN | 107.8 fps | 55 fps | 42 fps | 60 fps |
| GTX 680 | 82 fps | 37 fps | 32 fps | 44 fps |
Conclusion
As a result, one thing can be said that it is a pity for the owners of titanium, they only overpaid such money in vain. The video card is very similar to it, its pros and cons, as well as the purpose are almost the same.
We've already tested two GeForce GTX 780 Ti graphics cards with manufacturers' proprietary cooling solutions in our test lab, showing convincing results. The graphics card delivers good performance, although you'll have to make some compromises on noise levels. And the video card showed a slightly lower performance, but also worked quieter - at least in idle mode. Gigabyte's GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition promises the most powerful factory overclock without any compromise on the cooling system. Let's see what results we get in practice.
We switched to a new test system, so the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition base is not that big for comparison. We tested reference video cards from manufacturers and . Unlike the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan, NVIDIA quickly opened up the design of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti to its partners. And a week after the official announcement of the novelty, the first video cards with a modified cooling system began to appear on the market. The next step is to modify the design of the video card board and the power subsystem. Our test lab just received the first such video card - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition.
Gigabyte has several GeForce GTX 780 Ti models available today. A video card with a reference design GV-N78TD5-3GDB will cost from 24.6 thousand rubles in Russia or 530 euros in Europe with delivery to Russia. If you want to add factory overclocking and upgrade to a Wind Force 3X cooler of your own design, then pay attention to the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti Windforce 3X OC (GV-N78TOC-3GD) at a price of 23.7 thousand rubles in Russia or 540 euros with delivery to Russia. If you need the fastest (theoretically) GeForce GTX 780 Ti, then pay attention to the tested GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition (GV-N78TGHZ-3GD). Of course, it will cost more, 587 euros with delivery to Russia. How much such an increase in price is justified - you will find out in our review.
Architecture Information
| Retail price | 587 euros with delivery to Russia |
| Products webpage | |
| Technical specifications | |
| GPU | GK110 (GK110-425-B1) |
| Process technology | 28 nm |
| Number of transistors | 7.1 billion |
| 1.085 MHz | |
| 1.150 MHz | |
| Memory frequency | 1.750 MHz |
| Memory type | GDDR5 |
| Memory | 3.072 MB |
| Memory bus width | 384 bit |
| 336 GB/s | |
| DirectX Version | 11.0 |
| Stream Processors | 2.880 |
| texture blocks | 240 |
| 48 | |
| Pixel Fill Rate | 52.1 Gpixel/s |
| SLI/CrossFire | SLI |
The main characteristics of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Ti architecture are identical to any other GeForce GTX 780 Ti graphics card. The differences lie in the clock speeds of the GPU and memory. Gigabyte has increased the base frequency from 876 MHz to an impressive 1.085 MHz. That is, we get an overclock of 209 MHz or 24 percent. The Boost frequency has been increased from 928 MHz to 1.150 MHz, which corresponds to an increase of 222 MHz or 24 percent. We remind you that NVIDIA in the form of the Boost frequency indicates the minimum guaranteed frequency bar at which the video card will work. In practice, the frequency of GPU Boost 2.0 is much higher. But we will dwell on this a little lower. The memory of the Gigabyte video card is left at the standard 1750 MHz.
All other specifications are identical to NVIDIA's reference GeForce GTX 780 Ti graphics card, as is the 250W TDP. But due to factory overclocking, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition will certainly exceed this level of heat dissipation.
| Comparison of Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition with competitors | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | AMD Radeon R9 290X | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti |
| Retail price | from 21.5 thousand rubles in Russia from 440 euros in Europe |
587 euros with delivery to Russia | from 23.6 thousand rubles in Russia from 525 euros in Europe |
| Products webpage | AMD | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition Official Page | NVIDIA |
| Technical specifications | |||
| GPU | Hawaii XT | GK110 (GK110-425-B1) | GK110 (GK110-425-B1) |
| Process technology | 28 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Number of transistors | 6.2 billion | 7.1 billion | 7.1 billion |
| GPU clock speed (base frequency) | - | 1.085 MHz | 876 MHz |
| GPU clock speed (Boost frequency) | 1.000 MHz | 1.150 MHz | 928 MHz |
| Memory clock | 1.250 MHz | 1.750 MHz | 1.750 MHz |
| Memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Memory | 4.096 MB | 3.072 MB | 3.072 MB |
| Memory bus width | 512 bit | 384 bit | 384 bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 320 GB/s | 336 GB/s | 336 GB/s |
| DirectX Version | 11.2 | 11.1 | 11.1 |
| Stream Processors | 2.816 | 2.880 | 2.880 |
| texture blocks | 176 | 240 | 240 |
| Raster Operations Pipelines (ROPs) | 64 | 48 | 48 |
| TDP | > 250W | > 250W | 250 W |
In the table below, we compared the GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition with the reference model and the AMD Radeon R9 290X. Since it is difficult to compare technical information between AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards, we will make a comparison based on test results. Then we can answer the question of whether the higher price of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition compared to the reference card, as well as the less expensive AMD Radeon R9 290X, justifies itself.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition GPU-Z screenshot
The GPU-Z screenshot confirms the earlier information. We do not observe any contradictions.
With the advent of GPU Boost, the ratio of temperatures and clock speeds began to play an important role in determining the performance of video cards. This is true for both AMD and NVIDIA video cards. From both manufacturers, the reference video card coolers cannot cope with cooling the GPU below the limit bar, so the video cards do not reveal their full potential. This is especially annoying for AMD graphics cards with "Hawaii" GPUs, as there is no guaranteed Boost frequency, and Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X graphics cards often run at significantly reduced clock speeds. NVIDIA, on the other hand, provides a minimum guaranteed clock bar. In the case of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition, this threshold is 1.150 MHz. The following table lists the temperatures and clock speeds we got during our tests.
In previous tests of two video cards with coolers of their own design, we observed significantly lower values. The maximum clock frequency was 1.150 MHz, it was identical for the video card. For GeForce GTX 780 Ti video cards, three clock speeds are recorded in the BIOS. The base frequency and boost frequency often appear in the specifications, but there is also a maximum boost frequency. If the cooling system allows, a graphics card with support for GPU Boost 2.0 increases the clock speed to the maximum Boost bar. The two mentioned competitors in the BIOS have a maximum Boost bar of 1.150 MHz, while the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti has it increased to 1.228 MHz.
The Boost limit in all tests turned out to be 78 MHz higher than the bar set by NVIDIA. Of course, Gigabyte had to optimize the cooling system. It hardly makes sense to keep the GPU temperature below the 70 ° C bar if the maximum clock speed is reached. Also, by manually adjusting the upper Boost bar, you can squeeze even more performance out of the video card. This can be done in the usual way through software utilities, and directly in the BIOS.
