GeForce GTX 780 Unboxing & Performance Review

[LinusTech]

UNBOXING
 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The GTX 780 from NVIDIA brings the technology and honestly most of the performance from the GTX Titan to the "numbered" series. In no particular order, here are the things I think are most important and special about this card.

 

 

GPU Boost 2.0

 

I covered this in detail in my GTX Titan overclocking guide, so I'm not going to say too much other than that it's way better than GPU Boost 1.0. You can set a target clock speed, an allowed voltage, and a target temperature and the graphics card basically does the work for you.

 

 

 

GeForce Experience and ShadowPlay

 

The GeForce Experience, which keeps your graphics drivers up to date and recommends settings to run your games at for the most optimal possible experience is now out of BETA. NVIDIA is not only leading the charge here on helping gamers get the most out of the expensive hardware they just bought, but they are also looking to continue to improve the services offered by adding something called ShadowPlay, which is going to make use of the onboard H.264 encoding hardware in the graphics chip to record gameplay videos.

 

The system overhead will much lower than solutions like FRAPS and the files will be compressed on the fly making them much smaller. Not only that, but NVIDIA is claiming only about a 5% performance hit to just have it running all the time. You can set a buffer time up to 20 minutes, which will allow you to "set & forget" then when something epic happens, go back and retrieve it. Very cool.

 

 

Quiet Operation

 

The GTX 780 has the dubious honour of following the GTX Titan, which was an ambitious card when it came to thermals and acoustics. It achieved its goal of super quiet operation while keeping thermals under control largely due to GPU Boost 2.0. The good news is the 780 has that too and it also has a new fan profile that aims to prevent unnecessary ramping up and down of the fan making for a less distracting gaming performance. It's noticeable and it works.

 

 

A Smooth Multi-GPU Experience

 

Multi-GPU micro stuttering and performance anomalies have always been the elephant in the room for these solutions, and it's for that reason that people like the one writing this article (that's me) usually recommend to use a single card solution whenever possible. Lately, however, there's been a lot of evidence coming to light that suggets that NVIDIA's SLI experience comes much closer to the single GPU user experience than the competition. Something to think about if you view SLI as an upgrade path. 

 

 

Performance

 

TLDR: It's really really fast.

 

Here's our test bed:

 

 

I'll let the graphs and the videos do the talking here. First 1080p

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now 2560x1440

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

It's been a while since I could recommend a GTX *80 card. 480 & 470, 580 & 570, and 680 & 660 Ti all performed so close that it was hard to recommend the higher end card. Now I think we're about to see a big change. GTX 780 due to its "Titan DNA" dominates the single GPU performance charts and from a price to performance ratio actually makes much more sense than a GTX Titan. I guess all that remains to be seen is how the rest of the GTX 700 series gets fleshed out by NVIDIA and whether that recommendation remains in the coming weeks and months...

 

 

 

[iAsuno]

Let's see.....

It smashes other cards at 1440p! too bad i don't have money. -_-

Well.... pretty much everywhere  :lol:

 

Well, I'll be waiting for you GTX 770.

SOON.......

 

Shadowplay is pretty neat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I just keep editing this post as i progress through the review. forgive me)

[Guest]

Dayum. I'm glad I put my rig on hold - 780 party time.

[XiaoPigs]

Holy shit this is what we've all been waiting for. HUZZAH!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

Anyone who bought Titan got kinda screwed haha

[Lukiose]

$650!

Great job Nvidia, great price to performance ratio without compromising performance  :wub:

[BlackOutCrisis]

I'm glad my 7950 I just bought kicks ass at 1440p. Can't believe metro last light is so poorly optimized that a fucking 1000$ GPU can't run it at acceptable frame rates maxed out at 1440p lol

[david cassar]

1000 dollar single gpu performance for $650. Not bad.

[bradscoolio]

Dayum that's some awesome performance!

and yes, I love the new glamour shots!

[Benx70]

thank you for the Videos on the 780 GTX Linus, can you do a 780 gtx sli BF3 multiplayer review?

 

 

thanks

 

Ben 

[delet my acc pls]

Damn i want this card now but im going to wain until volcanic islands :(

[Lukiose]

Damn i want this card now but im going to wain until volcanic islands :(

True, with 20nm manufacture process super powerful graphics cards may just be around the corner... I shall not jump the gun, yet. (Not when i'm already running a 7950, despite the temptation lol!)

[Homicidium]

I closed my porn tab to watch this unboxing, but I didn't stop you know what. 

 

What a sexy looking piece of hardware that is! 

[Woodypc]

Come on AMD we need that HD9970, almost twice the grunt of a 7970. :)

[TechFan@ic]

So what were the clocks on the 780 in those tests ? you say all cards are overclocked but the 780 clocks are not included in the spreadsheet.

[delet my acc pls]

True, with 20nm manufacture process super powerful graphics cards may just be around the corner... I shall not jump the gun, yet. (Not when i'm already running a 7950, despite the temptation lol!)

Im going to build 7870 rig which i will be upgrading to 9970

[Nozbit]

It's a great card but in the UK it's £600 which is $900. 

 

it really is ridiculous how everywhere outside North America gets shafted in price.

[ALXAndy]

Wow didn't expect it to be this close.. Well actually I did, given that it's hard to keep a good GPU down.

 

I think I will stick with my GTX 670 SLI though :D

[7850OC]

Congrats for your new 2560x1440 Linus  :lol:

[rmonty]

Does anyone know if there will be a 5gb version of this card?

[Nicktrance]

I guess early Titan adopters are going to be even more pissed than I thought :lol:.

[ThijsClowting]

I'm looking forward to 30 May 2013, GTX 770  :D

[mybeat]

Does any one know if titan waterblock fit 780? 

[yassarikhan786]

The Gigabyte Windforce version beats the Titan on many titles when overclocked. Check out Tiny Tom Logan's review at OC3D. 

[7850OC]

Does any one know if titan waterblock fit 780? 

i tink they are for the Titan, and the 780 is the same (so you can use that one, but not sure yet)

[hAxx]

Love the new close shots of the hardware linus. +1 from me :D