Which 780?

[JamesThresher]

I am in planning stage of a new high end build, however it's been a long time since i built a high end machine and I'm in need of some advice. 

 

I've decided on a single GTX 780 (It's primarily a high end workstation, but I do some gaming so the 780 seems to offer the best performance for cost, at least on the high end anyway)

 

The dilemma I have though is which 780 to go for, there are quite a few variants from a number of manufacturers.

 

I am intending on building a full custom water cooling loop, however I may run the system for a few months on stock air cooling while I get all the water cooling components together so this is a factor. Noise levels are very important too.

 

I'm not too concerned with super high end overclocking and pushing everything to it's limits, however I will be overclocking the system once the water cooling is in place. 

 

I run a triple monitor setup with 1 display port (2560x1440) and two DVI (both 1920x1080)

 

Which of the 780's on the market would you suggest? or shouldn't I worry and just pick whichever one is the cheapest :)

[crunzaty]

For the monitors you'll run i would recommend that you get a titan, you'll have some problem with the 3GB while running three screens^^

 

Also:

ASUS DCII

MSI Twin Frozr

Gigabyte Windforce

EVGA ACX

[JamesThresher]

I did consider a Titan, but whilst I'm not necessarily building to a budget as such, the Titan is considerably more expensing for only a small tangible performance gain.

 

I currently run the same monitors on a 1Gb 6850 and it seems to cope ok at the moment just running the desktop although newer games do struggle, albeit running at 2560x1440.

[JORDANonPC]

just something to consider while amds eyefinity supports different resolutions and different refresh rates of monitors nvidia surround only supports monitors with the same refresh rate and resolution so you will be running that 2560x1440 at 1080p if you run it with two 1080p monitors

[JamesThresher]

just something to consider while amds eyefinity supports different resolutions and different refresh rates of monitors nvidia surround only supports monitors with the same refresh rate and resolution so you will be running that 2560x1440 at 1080p if you run it with two 1080p monitors

 

Whilst I run the desktop over the 3 monitors I only ever game on the 2560x1440 monitor so I'm not too worried about surround support.

[91Chris]

I was told that EVGA still guarantee their cards if you watercool them, whereas pretty much no one else does.

That could be something to consider? 

[JORDANonPC]

Whilst I run the desktop over the 3 monitors I only ever game on the 2560x1440 monitor so I'm not too worried about surround support.

yeah i went back and read it again and thought maybe thats what you meant :p sorry for going a bit off topic there

[mathijs727]

Would go with the Asus one, it's so silent:

[JamesThresher]

I was told that EVGA still guarantee their cards if you watercool them, whereas pretty much no one else does.

That could be something to consider? 

 

That's a very good point. I think I'll probably go down the EVGA route because of this.

[Jumper118]

if you are water cooling then you are best off going with a reference one because you will have more choice of water blocks 

[Dragontail]

Having two evga 780 in sli reference design I must say they are awsome. Not under water yet, but soon. on air they overclock good also and boosts are now over 1200 mhz. And yes evga has no stickers on the screws with the warranty void bullcrap so its a good way to go if your planning WC-loops.

[A/C]

Would go with the Asus one, it's so silent:

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/35161-best-780-cooler/page-2#entry469514

[Bupalooga]

I actually emailed MSI warranty today about watercooling their cards. Your still covered if you replace the cooler aslong as you put it back on in the case of an RMA.

EVGA have this same wc friendly policy but i emailed MSI because the local store is sold out of EVGA 780's

 

Get a refence cooler card so that you know your waterblocks will fit. Iv heard around that the stock cooler is reasonabley quiet aswell.

Iv seen benchmarks between the 780 & Titan for 1440p performance:

& the extra ram on the titan didn't seem to show any significant benefit.

 

Im in the EXACT same situation as you are atm.

[A/C]

On that matter, does someone have/know where to find comparison graphs between the reference cooler and the others?

[Tredien]

Best I got are the techpowerup reviews since it has most models and were all made by the same person in the same setup.

 

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/?category=Video+Cards&manufacturer=&pp=25&order=date

 

Search for "GTX 780" for easier spotting. :)