When NVIDIA launched their first consumer GK110 card back in February with the GeForce GTX Titan, one of the interesting (if frustrating) aspects of the launch was that we knew we wouldn’t be getting a “complete” GK110 card right away. GTX Titan was already chart-topping fast, easily clinching the crown for NVIDIA, but at the same time it was achieving those high marks with only 14 of GK110’s 15 SMXes active. The 15th SMX, though representing just 7% of GK110’s compute/geometry hardware, offered the promise of just a bit more performance out of GK110, and a promise that would have to wait to be fulfilled another day. For a number of reasons, NVIDIA would keep a little more performance in the tank in reserve for use in the future.

Jumping forward 8 months to the past few weeks, and things have significantly changed in the high-end video card market. With the launch of AMD’s new flagship video card, Radeon R9 290X, AMD has unveiled the means to once again compete with NVIDIA at the high end. And at the same time they have shown that they have the wherewithal to get into a fantastic, bloody price war for control of the high-end market. Right out of the gate 290X was fast enough to defeat GTX 780 and battle GTX Titan to a standstill, at a price hundreds of dollars cheaper than NVIDIA’s flagship card. The outcome of this has been price drops all around, with GTX 780 shedding $150, GTX Titan being all but relegated to the professional side of “prosumer,” and an unexpectedly powerful Radeon R9 290 practically starting the same process all over again just 2 weeks later.

With that in mind, NVIDIA has long become accustomed to controlling the high-end market and the single-GPU performance crown. AMD and NVIDIA may go back and forth at times, but at the end of the day it’s usually NVIDIA who comes out on top. So with AMD knocking at their door and eyeing what has been their crown, the time has come for NVIDIA to tap their reserve tank and to once again cement their hold. The time has come for GTX 780 Ti.

  GTX 780 Ti GTX Titan GTX 780 GTX 770
Stream Processors 2880 2688 2304 1536
Texture Units 240 224 192 128
ROPs 48 48 48 32
Core Clock 875MHz 837MHz 863MHz 1046MHz
Boost Clock 928Mhz 876Mhz 900Mhz 1085MHz
Memory Clock 7GHz GDDR5 6GHz GDDR5 6GHz GDDR5 7GHz GDDR5
Memory Bus Width 384-bit 384-bit 384-bit 256-bit
VRAM 3GB 6GB 3GB 2GB
FP64 1/24 FP32 1/3 FP32 1/24 FP32 1/24 FP32
TDP 250W 250W 250W 230W
Transistor Count 7.1B 7.1B 7.1B 3.5B
Manufacturing Process TSMC 28nm TSMC 28nm TSMC 28nm TSMC 28nm
Launch Date 11/07/13 02/21/13 05/23/13 05/30/13
Launch Price $699 $999 $649 $399

Getting right down to business, GeForce GTX 780 Ti unabashedly a response to AMD’s Radeon R9 290X while also serving as NVIDIA’s capstone product for the GeForce 700 series. With NVIDIA finally ready and willing to release fully enabled GK110 based cards – a process that started with Quadro K6000 – GTX 780 Ti is the obligatory and eventual GeForce part to bring that fully enabled GK110 GPU to the consumer market. By tapping the 15th and final SMX for a bit more performance and coupling it with a very slight clockspeed bump, NVIDIA has the means to fend off AMD’s recent advance while offering a refresh of their product line just in time for a busy holiday season and counter to the impending next-generation console launch.

Looking at the specifications for GTX 780 Ti in detail, at the hardware level GTX 780 Ti is the fully enabled GK110 GeForce part we’ve long been waiting for. Featuring all 15 SMXes up and running, GTX 780 Ti features 25% more compute/geometry/texturing hardware than the GTX 780 it essentially replaces, or around 7% more hardware than the increasingly orphaned GTX Titan. To that end the only place that GTX 780 Ti doesn’t improve on GTX Titan/780 is in the ROP department, as both of those cards already featured all 48 ROPs active, alongside the associated memory controllers and L2 cache.

Coupled with the fully enabled GK110 GPU, NVIDIA has given GTX 780 Ti a minor GPU clockspeed bump to make it not only the fastest GK110 card overall, but also the highest clocked card. The 875MHz core clock and 928MHz boost clock is only 15MHz and 28MHz faster than GTX 780 in their respective areas, but with GTX 780 already being clocked higher than GTX Titan, GTX 780 Ti doesn’t need much more in the way of GPU clockspeed to keep ahead of the competition and its older siblings. As a result if we’re comparing GTX 780 Ti to GTX 780, then GTX 780 relies largely on its SMX advantage to improve performance, combining a 1% clockspeed bump and a 25% increase in shader harder to offer 27% better shading/texturing/geometry performance and just 1% better ROP throughput than GTX 780. Or to compare things to Titan, then GTX 780 Ti relies on its more significant 5% clockspeed advantage coupled with its 7% functional unit increase to offer a 12% increase in shading/texturing/geometry performance, alongside a 5% increase in ROP throughput.

With specs and numbers in mind, there is one other trick up GTX 780 Ti’s sleeve to help push it past everything else, and that is a higher 7GHz memory clock. NVIDIA has given GK110 the 7GHz GDDR5 treatment with the GTX 780 Ti (making it the second card after GTX 770 to get this treatment), giving GTX 780 Ti 336GB/sec of memory bandwidth. This is 17% more than either GTX Titan or GTX 780, and even edging out the recently released Radeon R9 290X’s 320GB/sec. The additional memory bandwidth, though probably not absolutely necessary from what we’ve seen with GTX Titan, will help NVIDIA get as much out of GK110 as they can and further separate the card from other NVIDIA and AMD cards alike.

The only unfortunate news here when it comes to memory will be that unlike Titan, NVIDIA is sticking with 3GB for the default RAM amount on GTX 780 Ti. Though the performance ramifications of this will be minimal (at least at this time), will put the card in an odd spot of having less RAM than the cheaper Radeon R9 290 series.

Taken altogether then, GTX 780 Ti stands to be anywhere between 1% and 27% faster than GTX 780 depending on whether we’re looking at a ROP-bound or shader-bound scenario. Otherwise it stands to be between 5% and 17% faster than GTX Titan depending on whether we’re ROP-bound or memory bandwidth-bound.

Meanwhile let’s quickly talk about power consumption. As GTX 780 Ti is essentially just a spec bump of the GK110 hardware we’ve seen for the last 8 months, power consumption won’t officially be changing. NVIDIA designed GTX Titan and GTX 780 with the same power delivery system and the same TDP limit, with GTX 780 Ti further implementing the same system and the same limits. So officially GTX 780 Ti’s TDP stands at 250W just like the other GK110 cards. Though in practice power consumption for GTX 780 Ti will be higher than either of those other cards, as the additional performance it affords will mean that GTX 780 Ti will be on average closer to that 250W limit than either of those cards.

Finally, let’s talk about pricing, availability, and competitive positioning. On a pure performance basis NVIDIA expects GTX 780 Ti to be the fastest single-GPU video card on the market, and our numbers back them up on this. Consequently NVIDIA is going to be pricing and positioning GTX 780 Ti a lot like GTX Titan/780 before it, which is to say that it’s going to be priced as a flagship card rather than a competitive card. Realistically AMD can’t significantly threaten GTX 780 Ti, and although it’s not going to be quite the lead that NVIDIA enjoyed over AMD earlier this year, it’s enough of a lead that NVIDIA can pretty much price GTX 780 Ti based solely on the fact that it’s the fastest thing out there. And that’s exactly what NVIDIA has done.

To that end GTX 780 Ti will be launching at $699, $300 less than GTX Titan but $50 higher than the original GTX 780’s launch price. By current prices this will put it $150 over the R9 290X or $200 over the reprised GTX 780, a significant step over each. GTX 780 Ti will have the performance to justify its positioning, but just as the previous GK110 cards it’s going to be an expensive product. Meanwhile GTX Titan will be remaining at $999, despite the fact that it’s now officially dethroned as the fastest GeForce card (GTX 780 having already made it largely redundant). At this point it will live on as NVIDIA’s entry level professional compute card, keeping its unique FP64 performance advantage over the other GeForce cards.

Elsewhere on a competitive basis, until such a time where factory overclocked 290X cards hit the market, the only real single-card competition for GTX 780 Ti will be the Radeon HD 7990, AMD’s Tahiti based dual-GPU card, which these days retails for close to $800. Otherwise the closest competition will be dual card setups, such as the GTX 770 SLI, R9 280X CF, and R9 290 CF. All of those should present formidable challenges on a pure performance basis, though it will bring with it the usual drawbacks of multi-GPU rendering.

Meanwhile, as an added perk NVIDIA will be extending their recently announced “The Way It’s Meant to Be Played Holiday Bundle with SHIELD” promotion to the GTX 780 Ti, which consists of Assassins’ Creed IV, Batman: Arkham Origins, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and a $100 SHIELD discount. NVIDIA has been inconsistent about this in the past, so it’s a nice change to see it included with their top card. As always, the value of bundles are ultimately up to the buyer, but for those who do place value in the bundle it should offset some of the sting of the $699 price tag.

Finally, for launch availability this will be a hard launch. Reference cards should be available by the time this article goes live, or shortly thereafter. It is a reference launch, and while custom cards are in the works NVIDIA is telling us they likely won’t hit the shelves until December.

Fall 2013 GPU Pricing Comparison
AMD Price NVIDIA
  $700 GeForce GTX 780 Ti
Radeon R9 290X $550  
  $500 GeForce GTX 780
Radeon R9 290 $400  
  $330 GeForce GTX 770
Radeon R9 280X $300  
  $250 GeForce GTX 760
Radeon R9 270X $200  
  $180 GeForce GTX 660
  $150 GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost
Radeon R7 260X $140  

 

Meet The GeForce GTX 780 Ti
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  • Kamus - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    I wouldn't buy that aftermarket cooler just yet.... I was about to buy one when I read that it's not cooling the VRM properly. Some guy bought 2 of them for his crossfire setup and started hearing whine from both cards. He concluded it was the crappy heatsinks that they provide for the VRM aren't up to the task.
    The VRM was exceeding 100 degrees. This resulted in games crashing and the loud whine I mentioned earlier. In the end, he put the regular AMD heatsinks back on, and that fixed the problem. Then he sold both cards and now he says he might just get regular 290's when they ship with custom coolers. Which isn't a bad idea at all, since those will probably outperform the reference 290x easily, for a lot less cash.
  • Margalus - Friday, November 8, 2013 - link

    so in other words, you have to spend another $100 for an aftermarket cooler to make the 290 a reasonable card?
  • milli - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    All you need is an Accelero Xtreme III. It proves that as soon as companies like HIS release better versions, the R9 cards will be silent, fast and cheap. I have a HIS HD 7950, a supposed loud card, that is completely silent.
    http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/20...
  • Sivar - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    I gather from the link that you natively speak German. Please note that, in English, "silent" means "absolutely no sound". I think the word you are looking for is "quiet". :)
  • HisDivineOrder - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    True, when custom cooled cards come out, that'll be great. None are announced and as far as I know no one's seen any. So you're waving your hands right now and saying, "When better cards come out, they'll be better!"

    You're talking about unannounced things you expect will come and save the day. I could easily say that overclocked variants of the 780 Ti are going to come and make everything better. Or that the GHZ editions of the 780 (non-Ti) are going to show up and magically make the price point logical again.

    But you know what? I'm waiting until what I think MIGHT happen actually DOES happen. Rather than daydreaming about HIS coolers or MSI coolers or Gigabyte Windforce coolers on the R9 series when they haven't shown anyone a sign of such a card yet. Are they coming? Sure, yeah, someday. Are they coming in 2013?

    ...No one's seen one yet. Hell, there's more evidence of GHZ versions of the standard 780 than there are of custom-cooled R9 290/290x cards...
  • OverclockedCeleron - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    ... and your point is? You are happy with a 700-dollar-card, then good for you. I was only speaking up because I have noticed a significant rise of anti-AMD trolls (i.e. Nvidia PR Reps). Just read the first comment to this article and tell me you don't see anything wrong with it.

    So you like logic and you think you got it all sorted? Well, how about this: Try to judge the silicon and not the fan, i.e., install equally superior GPU air-based coolers, and then Overclock each card to the maximum stable overclock, and re-run the benchmarks. I know who will win, but I am not here to preach or daydream like you said.

    The point is, just because I realize the *actual* and *real* potential of something doesn't mean I am a daydreamer, it just means I appreciate that piece of silicon (i.e. R290X) and I realize that it is superior to the 780 Ti if it was not for that cheap heatsink.
  • TheJian - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    You're wrong unless you're saying NV will win after both are equipped with equal cooling and also, Superclocked 780TI has already been announced :)
    http://videocardz.com/47777/evga-launches-geforce-...
    https://www.evga.com/articles/00795/#2884
    1006/1072 out of the box. Dual classified has yet to be clocked. But would have to be faster than ACX version and they already have announce the water block model :)
    03G-P4-2889-KR GTX 780 Ti Dual Classified w/ EVGA Hydro Copper
    Currently you void your warranty pulling this on 290x or 290 right? Sure seems like OEM's have no trouble modding NV. I'm guessing AMD has to sort out this variance stuff before the OEM's can jump on board.

    Realizing AMD is getting beaten doesn't make you an NV PR troll...LOL. This doesn't mean AMD's silicon is junk, just it's beaten. I for one am glad they released it forcing NV's full SMX hand. That means we can all look forward to even better 20nm chips as they now have a much higher bar to beat on both sides. I own a radeon 5850 BTW, because I realized it was the best silicon when I bought it (8800GT before that). I go wherever the SILICON/features tells me. The 8800GT is still serving my dad's pc from 2007 (over 6yrs old!). I'm wondering if these 95C chips can make it that long ;) My 5850 will be serving him the second I get my hands on 20nm maxwell (if only for gsync unless NV's chip totally sucks).
  • Galidou - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    No need to be a genius to KNOW that the custom cooled cards will be WORLDS above this even if they are not out. If you did not realise how crappy that cooler is, it was crappy for 7970 cards and it's the sAme... Comon, a little more than 90 IQ is necessary to find out about that...
  • Toxicsix - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    More for less you say... Let's look at that. The 290X excels at 4K gaming and that's what AMD keeps cramming down our throat, how superior there product is at the highest resolutions. So If your looking at price performance you need to pair that 290X with a 4K display. Now let's look at some simple numbers shall we. 290X $5-600 + 4K Display $3k+ so your sitting at about $3500+ to get that top end performance. On the other hand you can spend $700 on a 780 Ti and pair it with an amazing 1080p monitor for well under 1k and the 780ti will stop all over Your 290X. Now your probably thinking that this isn't a "fair" comparison but you have to consider that the resolution is where these companies are going to try convince you that there card is superior. As it stands the 780 Ti is the King of 1080p gaming and it pisses me off big time that anadtech didn't even include 1080p benchmarks as this is where the majority of gamers are. If you want the best gameplay possible I would recommend getting the sweetest 1080p monitor you can find that will give you great refresh rates, low input lag and 3D capabilities if that's your thing and pair it with the fastest 1080p gaming card you can find which is now Nvidia's 780Ti. AMD has a great card in the 290X but we can't just look at price/performance based on the card alone we have to consider what were playing it into and look at the complete package as one.
  • Fan_Atic - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link

    I hate to say it but most of your points are completely moot. The reason no one runs 1080p benchmarks in these reviews is that it doesn't stress a modern card. Anything above the $200 price point can pull 60 FPS at max settings any more. No one in their right mind would spend $700 for a graphics card to play at 1080p when a $250 can provide a 60fps experience with the same settings. 1440p 1600p and 4k are the only things that remotely stress modern mid to high end graphics cards.

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