The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Review
by Ryan Smith on November 7, 2013 9:01 AM ESTMetro: Last Light
As always, kicking off our look at performance is 4A Games’ latest entry in their Metro series of subterranean shooters, Metro: Last Light. The original Metro: 2033 was a graphically punishing game for its time and Metro: Last Light is in its own right too. On the other hand it scales well with resolution and quality settings, so it’s still playable on lower end hardware.
For the bulk of our analysis we’re going to be focusing on our 2560x1440 results, as monitors at this resolution will be what we expect a single GTX 780 Ti to be primarily used with. A single card does have the necessary horsepower to drive a 4K monitor on its own, but only at lower quality settings. Even as powerful as GTX 780 Ti is, a pair of them will be needed to get good framerates out of most games if using 4K at high quality settings.
Looking at our Metro: Last Light results then, it’s the start of what’s going to be a fairly consistent streak for the GTX 780 Ti. Though it doesn’t improve on GTX Titan or GTX 780’s gaming performance by leaps and bounds, the additional SMX and increased clockspeeds means that it has little trouble pulling away from those cards and from AMD’s 290 series. As a result the GTX 780 Ti beats the GTX Titan by 11%, GTX 780 by 19%, and though it’s closer than normal, the lead over the 290X stands at 6%.
To that end in Metro it leads the pack of single-GPU cards, though it does come up just short of being able to average 60 frames per second at 2560. Anything over 60fps will require multiple GPUs; and even then GTX 780 Ti is fast enough that sometimes even a pair of GPUs (GTX 770 SLI) isn’t going to be appreciably faster.
Meanwhile looking at GTX 780 Ti SLI performance, the SLI setup tops the charts at 2560 for everything short of the 290X in uber mode, though in this case (like most cases) two high-end GPUs is on the verge of being overkill even at 2560. Otherwise looking at 4K, NVIDIA’s poor 4K scaling on Metro once again makes itself present here, with NVIDIA’s performance only minimally benefitting from the second card. In the case of Metro at 4K, the 290X CF is going to be by far the faster option.
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chizow - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
Figured Nvidia would not let the crown rest with AMD when they still had their trump card to play (full 2880SP GK110), so this is not unexpected at all.I still feel Nvidia comes out of this with a black eye however, while AMD started the price escalation with Tahiti for 28nm, Nvidia took this greed to a new level with 690/Titan pricing. $699 is what the high-end GK110 SKU should have sold for, max, and it should've arrived this time last year. The fact AMD had to undercut Nvidia pricing so badly with the 290/290X will be something Nvidia will have a difficult time living down for years to come.
The fact we will have 3 SKUs launched in such a short time since Titan released that outperform it at a fraction of the cost is an absolute slap in the fact to some of Nvidia's most loyal and spendy customers. Lesson learned for Nvidia, and certainly a lesson learned for many of their customers.
TheJian - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
Let me know when EITHER side makes more than they have in the last 10yrs. For NV that was ~800mil in 2007 (Q1 2008 TTM). For AMD it's ~500mil.http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/financi...
http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/financi...
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?fe...
A year ago 209mil for NV this Q. This year, 119m. Get the point? That's far worse than a year ago right? Lessons for Nvidia? Charge more every chance you get...LOL. Don't forget how much R&D etc costs. They are on Tegra4 now, and they haven't made a DIME on them yet total. Until they break 1Billion in Tegra sales it will continue to lose money robbing gpus cash. I highly doubt AMD's will break even for a while either once it hits. Also note it only took another 150mil or so in revenue to make 209mil last year. So basically they are selling the same crap for less right? 1.2B in revenue last year making 209mil. 1.05B revenue now, making 119.
Anyone thinking either side is ripping them off needs to learn how to read balance sheets. Start expecting slower release schedules, worse drivers, an less perf jumps until profits go back up.
hero4hire - Sunday, November 10, 2013 - link
Hail corporate!Price is just the price. If you feel safer with profits, branding, and fatter balance sheets as persuasive then look no further than the 80's American auto manufacturers as the greatest product around.
Hail corporate!
just4U - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
From the Article: "And though GTX Titan is falling off of our radar, we’re glad to see that NVIDIA has kept around Titan’s second most endearing design element, the Titan cooler"---
I am not in the market for a card yet. Quite happy with my 7870 from His... but overall, that cooler is the most interesting thing to come out of this generation of video cards. (Amd needs to take note of that to..)
You see people going the aftermarket route in regards to reference coolers that simply can't cut it. So it's about damn time NVidia got off their butts and designed something special. Both companies have been guilty of neglect with their shitty coolers.. leaving partners to think outside the box and fix the problem. That's helped to set them apart from each other but it doesn't address the fact that we get flooded with the sub par that sticks around as a lemon thru-out the life of each card.
just4U - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
Oh.. forgot to mention..I'd be more interested in this generation if they'd get temperatures under control. Not interested in any card hitting 80C+ under load... been there done that, and it can take it's toll out on your other hardware over time.
tomc100 - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
I will stick to my Radeon 7970 for now since my room gets pretty hot in the summer time so neither gpu is going to perform well for me in the summer even with the air conditioner turned on. Also, I'm hoping mantle will provide another 25-50% increase in performance in some games.Conduit - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
Thanks but no thanks. Who the hell pays $700 for a video card? I have a $200 card that plays all my games on ULTRA with AA at 60 fps.If I ever go for a high end card it will be a custom cooled R9 290.
nsiboro - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
2 thumbs up + 2 big-toe up !Trenzik - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
I have to admit $700 is a lot for a GPU, but its more of an enthusiast thing. You get obsessed with specs and frames :). I enjoy it.Makaveli - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
lol conduit,You mean at 1680x1050 right?