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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Kutark - Friday, November 8, 2013 - link
The argument was never whether one or the other was a better value but rather which is the better card. Thats what this discussion is about. Anybody with their head not firmly planted in their ass can see the 290x is a good value. The problem is value changes from person to person. Some people don't care how noisy their video card is. Some people don't care how hot it runs under load. Those people would find that card to be an excellent value. Other people do care. For them it might be worth it to pay extra for a quieter card that runs 8-10c cooler. Just like some people don't give 2 shits about having leather seats in their car, and don't think a $2000 option for leather would be a good value. Others think its great.Secondly, the Ti only loses to the 290x at 4k resolution which is a complete non point as there is all of 1 4k monitor out right now and it costs 2x of what most people spend on their computer. Lets not also mention that to get decent framerates you need a minimum of 2x of the 780/Ti's or the 290/Xs, So we're talking about a 5k investment outside of the rest of your shit to play at 4k? Id be willing to bet less than 1 in million PC gamers have that much money into their rigs
Mondozai - Friday, December 13, 2013 - link
AMD fucked up with their reference cooler, and they fucked up with not providing data early enough to OEMs for aftermarket coolers. But comparing stock 290/290X to the GTX 780 Ti is misleading. You have to compare both cards when there are aftermarket coolers to both of them.But you don't do that. Why? Because you know an aftermarket cooler isn't going to be a big difference to 780 Ti, but it will make a massive difference to 290/290X.
Stock versions of both cards with aftermarket cooler from the same OEM will show very little variance in performance at higher(1440p and above) resolutions. Except that 780 Ti will remain completely overpriced.
Price to performance ratio isn't just about budget and middle segment cards. You can do the same to high-end cards. A 290X with an aftermarket cooler is simply going to beat out 780 Ti in anybody's but a fanboy's eyes. Sorry, but you're fanboying.
And I am saying that as an Nvidia card owner myself, but the fact remains that Nvidia has been able to rape the wallets of a lot of people for so long, and I blame AMD for this, that some people like you have internalized the raping and come to defend it.
I can only look at you with pity.
Owls - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
Ryan I'm sorry but the video card reviews as of late have been very poor in quality and objectivity. Stop rushing to be the first. I don't go to Anand to read a crappy review, that's what HardOCP is for.That said your testing is flawed with old games and comparing the Ti to be faster than a 290x that is in silent mode is disingenuous. We all expect better from this site.
ol1bit - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
First, Fantastic Review as always!As a side note, it's amazing to me that AMD can't get the performance with the same heat output as Nivida. After all they are a semi-big chip company, what gives?
FuriousPop - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
wow! as a current AMD owner, i must say it is impressive. Temps and noise great! - power consumption not as much as expected, but hey a good card indeed. Now if only we could see the benchmarks in the higher areas of 1600p+. If your going to make a comment of overkill at 1440p with SLi of these, then why not show 1600p then and see how it really matches up!?i know that it in the past has been AMD for >1440p and Nvid for 1080< but as of late, we are starting to see that change dramatically.
Can we please see some 1600p and 1600p+ res being tested on benchmarks! if there were already those benchmarks out and showed impressive results at higher resos i prob would of gone out and bought 2x of these ASAP. however will have to wait and see...
AnotherGuy - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
So Ryan, you made the R9 290 as a total disappointment because it had a little higher noise than the rest at the time, but now when you see the 780 getting close at 52dB this is a little high but ok for nVidia and they won...That is not fair.You need to control those emotions, think many times and then finally find the right words to describe a product, not let your first thought into the final conclusion of a review.
Ma Deuce - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
You need to control those emotions. Think many times and then finally find the right words to criticize a review, not let your first thought into the comment...290 is loud and hot and he didn't recommend it. Sorry man, it's not the end of the world though. You can buy it without their expressed written consent.
sf101 - Friday, November 8, 2013 - link
Anotherguy your right though on the 290x review they made it sound like the end of the world over the noise /temp and power use levels.Yet when Nvidia does it its ok.
And everyone just does a point in other direction look its super man type thing and pretends it didn't happen.
If your going to be nit picky about noise and heat then at-least be consistent from what I've seen both the 290 and 780ti are fairly close in wattage use now so there goes your TDP arguments.
And just because Nvidia has a better reference cooler doesn't change the fact that it still is using similar wattage to the 290/290x the only difference is Nvidia's cooler deals with it a bit better.
just finding the review a tad bias ,,,,,,,
Morawka - Friday, November 8, 2013 - link
the 290 got up to 62 dbformulav8 - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
Ryan's reviews has stunk for awhile now. I used to defend him and anand on appearing bias and such. But there does seem to be something. And the thing is that if it is true, they could care less. Literally