780Ti improvements over time

[Rasier]

Hey guys, I'm looking at picking up a used 780Ti and I know there were some disgruntled folks about NV not optimizing Kepler anymore and focusing on Maxwell. Saying how the specs didn't match its performance. How is it today? I wasn't able to find any reviews on performance with the 780Ti over the different drivers, nor much online in general about this. But it feels like the world forgot about the 780Ti/Kepler..

 

Also, I think a good market price for one of these is about $250, do you agree? I'm kind of leaning heavily towards $250 being better placed towards a 970 myself and finding one on sale. But a buddy just bought a 980Ti and is offloading his old card so I can probably get a decent deal out of this 780Ti if I want to.

 

Just wondered how the whole performance optimization of Kepler panned out in the end.. if I'm getting something performing according to its specs or something still gimped by Nvidia?

 

Thanks.

[Citadelen]

Every time a new generation of Nvidia cards comes out they tend to stop optimizing for it, that's why the 290X is better than the 780Ti now.

[ShadowCaptain]

SNIP

 

I use a 780ti, its still a very very good card, for example Mad Max run at 1440p ultra - everything maxed at 60fps consistently

 

Ive been playing fallout 4, MGS V, and most other new games at 1440p 60fps Ultra,  - it really does a great job

 

BUT

 

it is old, and it will get worse as time goes on, its also limited by 3GB VRAM ,

[Sakkura]

If you're willing to pay $250 for a used 780 Ti, why not look around for a used 290X? Should certainly be available at that price, if not lower.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

It isn't that they were gimped. They are just not a priority for nvidia. And the misconception deepened after amd kept optimizing for the gcn cards.

[jjohnthedon1]

Also amd have basically been using the same architecture since the 7XXX series so they have gotten better with there drivers

[Rasier]

I've read that there was a Kepler-boosting driver release but I couldn't really get any hard info or data on it.

 

If you're willing to pay $250 for a used 780 Ti, why not look around for a used 290X? Should certainly be available at that price, if not lower.

 

Yeah I know. I can get a 390 8GB which is faster here in the States as well, I've seen them go for 200USD on one occasion. But NV does carry a bit of a premium. I tend to buy AMD like many do, I buy them when they're a bargain or cheap thrill. When I spend more money, I tend to give it to Nvidia just for perceived premium value of the driver quality and overall product refinement.

 

For example, my existing card (AMD) when playing a Youtube video, will cause flicker on the screen (running 3 monitors) as the clockspeeds ramp up. This doesn't happen on any NV cards that I've seen including the 780Ti. Anyway, I love my AMD card, it has served me well, so I'm not trying to cause a flamewar. I'm just being honest.
 

One area I haven't researched well is the 780Ti heat/power/noise vs a 290/390 either. I assumed NV wasn't obviously to Maxwell levels with the 780Ti/Kepler, but it was as good as the GCN parts in that regard if not better.

 

I just wanted to see what people had to say in general about the 780Ti topic. Anyone want to give their two cents please do so. I will say I am hesistant at $250 for a 780Ti, I was originally going to wait for the 16nm cards to upgrade.

 

Since 1996 I've bought 2 3dfx cards, 2 ATI/AMD cards, and 11 Nvidia cards. Before 3D landed big in 1996, I just used whatever was around then. S3, Cirrus Logic and ATI. So I mostly have experience with Nvidia, and horrible experiences with ATI but my experience with this AMD card hasn't been bad so I'm completely willing to go AMD again unless this 780Ti is a great deal. A look at the market right now tells me the 390 is the best thing going, best sale price I've seen is ~200USD, a good sale price is 250USD and they can regularly be found for 300USD.

Which puts a lot of downward pressure on a card like the 780Ti. I just never knew much about it or that gen.

[don_svetlio]

@Rasier

well, firstly, for your AMD card - are you running the latest Crimson BETA driver? If so, did you do a clean install (if you had a different card or older drivers before) via DDU? That is a MAJOR cause of driver issues on BOTH AMD and Nvidia.

A 780 Ti is currently getting beaten by a 970 and even more so by a 390. In one game it even got beat by a 960. The reason is they simple don't optimize that much for newer games and engines. A 290X is probably the way to go as it offers 15% more power than a 970 and 20% more power than a 780 TI. Power draw on both is pretty much identical and heat output (depending on the cooler) isn't an issue.

Driver premium is currently not applicable as an argument as almost anyone would tell you that Nvidia's drivers have taken a major turn for the worst ever since Witcher 3 came out in may - some even argue that AMD is starting to take point. Just to illustrate - my Y50's 860M is currently using the August WHQL driver since all others after it are unstable and result in constant freezes and crashes (though I use a laptop, take it with a grain of salt - yet this IS Maxwell - GM107)

I'd like to be able to tell you the Kepler GM200 is a good card for the price and a year ago it was AWESOME for 250$ but now it simply isn't worth considering the driver support it's getting is lacking to say the least. Not to mention the VRAM is a major bottleneck in some games.

[Rasier]

Yeah I'm running the point release of Crimson. I always do clean installs, this machine was formatted just a few months ago and I've always used DriverSweeper. I haven't used DDU but DS has never let me down.

I'll give DDU a try though next time, thanks for the mention. The flickering is well known with most if not all AMD cards with multimonitor configs. I've found people reporting it from the 390 to the 5000 series.

 

It's true AMD's drivers are pretty good today, it helps that GCN really hasn't changed in ages. So I'm not sure if it's brilliance, or just not changing anything.. but they've worked well for me for a long time (up until Crimson I always used WHQLs).

 

I would personally still say NV has a checkbox in the software support area myself. They have their multithreaded driver (a real accomplishment TBH) and like my video clockspeed flicker issue, just less niggling bugs. They also seem to be there with game ready drivers.

That said, I have more interest in AMD for the async compute functionality and the fine grained preemption for context switching. Both which should help with VR if that takes off. BUT those features don't really help today and we don't know for a fact they will in the future until it happens. And add in the non-TriX cards are pretty loud and hot and NV has an edge.

 

But yeah I agree with you @don_svelio, at 250USD the 780Ti probably isn't worth the time and effort installing it. Maybe if I can pick it up much cheaper than that I'd go for it.

Do you have any particular evidence for the driver support lacking though? I can't find much online about that, mostly just rumors and Witcher 3 issues which to my knowledge were mitigated.

[Rasier]

I ended up passing on the 780Ti at $250 and even $200. I was offering him some other stuff in a trade with the cash, and I can't really justify paying much for a 780Ti when looking at the 970/390. I didn't want to lowball him to where it would need to be to have it make sense.

 

Thanks!

[armycombatvet7]

If you're willing to pay $250 for a used 780 Ti, why not look around for a used 290X? Should certainly be available at that price, if not lower.

 

I'm selling my 780Ti used right now for $250, brand new with box