Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti review

No sooner had we declared the AMD Radeon R9 290X the best gaming graphics card, Nvidia released the GeForce GTX 780 Ti in an unexpected bid to reclaim the gaming crown.

Like the original Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 and the excellent Nvidia GTX Titan, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti uses Nvidia’s GK110 graphics processor to deliver images to your monitor. However, the GTX 780 Ti makes use of 2,880 CUDA cores, which is 576 more CUDA cores than the original GTX 780 and 192 more cores than the GTX Titan.

The GTX 780 Ti’s clock speeds have also increased to a 876MHz base clock speed and 928MHz boost clock speed from the original’s 863MHz base clock speed and 900MHz boost clock speed. The amount of graphics memory available to the card remains the same at 3GB. The GTX 780 Ti also has higher memory bandwidth than the GTX 780 and GTX Titan, at 336GB/s as opposed to 288GB/s.

To power the GTX 780 Ti you’ll need two PCI-E power adaptors: one 6-pin and one 8-pin. At 270mm in length, you’ll also need to make sure there’s enough room in your PC case to accommodate the GTX 780 Ti. As is common with high-end graphics cards, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti provides four of the most common graphics outputs: two dual-link DVI, one HDMI and one DisplayPort. You can also configure the GTX 780 Ti to output to three monitors with Nvidia’s Surround mode, which is great if you enjoy multi-monitor gaming.

Like most other current Nvidia cards, this one supports Nvidia’s new G-Sync technology. Built into a compatible monitor, it allows the screen to match the card’s frame rate output for a smoother gaming experience. It’s early days for the technology, but it’s a potential bonus you might want to take advantage of next time you buy a new monitor. For a full blow-by-blow of the technology see our sibling site BitTech’s Nvidia G-Sync Review.

IMMENSE POWER, LOW NOISE
In use, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is very quiet. It was almost silent when we used desktop applications and emitted a soft purr when we ran games, so soft that it was quickly forgotten almost as soon as the game had loaded.

We first tested the GTX 780 Ti with our Dirt Showdown benchmark at a resolution of 2,560×1,440 with graphics quality set to Ultra. The GTX 780 Ti produced an average frame rate of 86fps, which was lower than the AMD Radeon R9 290X’s average frame rate of 95 in the same test. We repeated the test and got the same result within one or two frames per second.

However, the GTX 780 Ti beat the Radeon R9 290X in all our other single-monitor Dirt Showdown tests. The GTX 780 Ti produced an average frame rate of 130fps at a resolution of 1,920×1,080 with graphics quality set to High, for example, whereas the Radeon R9 290X produced 111.5fps in the same test.

However, the GTX 780 Ti proved much faster in all conditions of our Crysis 3 benchmark test. At a resolution of 1,920×1,080 with graphics quality options set to Very High, the GTX 780 Ti produced an average frame rate of 46.4fps, whereas the Radeon R9 290X produced an average frame rate of 32fps in the same test. The difference in frame rates was still considerable when we increased the resolution to 2,560×1,440, with the GTX 780 Ti producing an average frame rate of 31.5fps compared to the Radeon 290X’s 22.6fps.

MULTI-MONITOR MAGIC
Given its immense single-monitor performance, the GTX 780 Ti is predictably capable of playing the latest games in Nvidia’s Surround gaming mode across three monitors. With three monitors attached to the GTX 780 Ti, resolution set to 5,760×1,080 and graphics quality set to Ultra, the GTX 780 Ti produced a smooth average frame rate of 56.2fps in Dirt Showdown. Curiously, the Radeon R9 290X once again beat the GTX 780 Ti in these optimal conditions, with an average frame of 66fps.

However, the GTX 780 Ti consistently beat the Radeon R9 290X when we reduced graphics quality, with the GTX 780 Ti producing 114.6fps with graphics quality set to High and the Radeon R9 290X producing 100fps in the same test, to show just one example.

Sadly, we didn’t get the chance to test the R9 290X with Crysis 3 across three monitors, but we did test the GTX 780 Ti. With graphics quality set to High, the GTX 780 Ti produced a fairly smooth average frame rate of 28fps. Reducing graphics quality to Medium had little effect, with the average frame rate rising to just 30fps.

COMMON EXPERIENCE
As is common with GeForce cards, users can download and install GeForce Experience, which is a utility that lets users record their game play to create videos that can be uploaded to social media. GeForce Experience also lets you optimise certain games so that they run at the highest frame rates.

We used GeForce Experience to optimise the graphics quality settings of Crysis 3. GeForce Experience set the Shading and Shadows options to High and Medium respectively, and set anti-aliasing to 1x SMAA. At these settings the GTX 780 Ti produced a very smooth and highly impressive average frame rate of 54fps at a resolution of 2,560×1,080. We recorded a minimum frame rate of 39fps and a maximum frame rate of 62fps.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti is a fantastic gaming card, and is easily the best gaming card currently available. It even beat the GTX Titan in our Dirt Showdown benchmarks. Other than the quirk with Dirt Showdown at optimal graphics settings, the GTX 780 Ti outperformed the 290X. If you want to play the latest games at the highest quality settings with the highest frame rates then you should seriously consider the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti as your next graphics card.