NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Review & Benchmarks

Final Thoughts & Conclusion 

There are a few very important factors to consider when talking about a head to head battle between the GTX 780 Ti and the R9 290X and those things are heat and noise levels. As you can see the R9 290X is running very hot and regardless of what Kool-Aid you are drinking a card running over 95C is running very hot. AMD would have you believe that this is just things as normal and its all good, but in truth heat has always been the enemy of graphics cards since their onset and AMD claiming that cards running that hot are just another day are just trying to fool you. The AMD R9 runs hot and it runs loud and there is no avoiding that, and that to me is the biggest separation between the two cards. Ran at its default speeds the GTX 780 Ti saw maximum temperatures in the 82C range, while the 290X ran at 94C, which in temperatures is a very wide margin.

Performance wise the GTX 780Ti beats the R9 290X, but c’mon folks we all knew that was coming and the thing is the 780Ti does not smoke the 290X; in fact it just beats the 290X by a small margin, which is all it essentially needed to do. It seems like NVIDIA just enjoys the game of cards as much as we like gaming as they are now just trying to beat AMD enough to say, hey we did it, but not smash them under Thor’s hammer. This works in AMD’s favor as well as NVIDIA’s as if NVIDIA were to lose AMD as a competitor then NVIDIA would be split up into smaller companies and forced to compete from within their own walls as no monopolies are allowed in the USA. For us this is good news as well as it means that card pricing will be very competitive as well, also a good thing for the holiday season. Hopefully we will see more price drops on some of our favorite cards from both camps, which would be a nice gift to many would be buyers on a budget.

You can see from all the tests results that when the AMD card is run in “UBER” mode it can almost keep up with the 780 Ti neck and neck and that is why we tested the gaming performance of the R9 290X only in that mode as quiet mode is for sissy boys and girls…I’m only kidding, but no real gamer is running his/her games in quiet mode. The thermal designs seen on the AMD R9 290X are like NVIDIA earlier GTX 480 that also ran like a lawnmower and just shows AMD having growing problems like NVIDIA did earlier on, but like NVIDIA, AMD will fix this and then they will have a more viable videos solution all around. NVIDIA is just further ahead on the curve right now and that gives them a small advantage in the thermal design area, and just like Intel also beats AMD at thermal design in the CPU game. AMD is always the underdog and there is nothing wrong with that as everyone cheers the underdog, as they are the great hope that keeps NVIDIA in check. Plus this competition drives the price war that only benefits the end-user at the end of the day when prices are dropped to keep us buying. For some people price is the beginning and ending of the buying conversation and for that group of users AMD has something to offer them, but for those who care solely about performance, price means little to nothing. Which group are you in? Or are you somewhere in-between and not biased by any sole factor and taking the whole picture in before making a decision? I fell the latter group will be pleased by what they see and read here today and not get mixed up in fanboy mentalities that at the end of the day are just feelings, not facts.

The NVIDIA GTX 780 Ti can do walking what the AMD R9 290X has to run to keep up with as seen by the thermal and noise differences between the two cards when ran at comparable performance levels. NVIDIA’s GTX 780 Ti is a card that can be put into any system and get a standard of performance that cannot be matched by AMD’s R9 290X as the 290X runs too hot to be used in many of the small form factor systems, as without proper airflow the 290X would simply overheat. There is price differences however of $150.00 that lies in AMD’s favor as the R9 290X costs $549.99 and the NVIDIA GTX 780Ti costs $699.99. So if cost is the major factor in your personal buying decision then AMD wins that point by a hundred dollar margin there is no disputing that. G-SYNC technology will also be a very good thing when its implementation is a simple upgrade to your monitor as for now it’s still in its infancy and will need time to grow. Right now only a select few partners will be selling them and that means buying an entirely new monitor, something many gamers simply cannot afford to do no matter how much they like it. At the end of the test day it is clear that the new NVIDIA GTX 780Ti is now the fastest single GPU card on the block, even if it costs a few bucks more and I am sure NVIDIA will sit fine with that as will AMD fans who will embrace the lower price of the R90290X. Where the AMD R9 290X has a very low threshold for overclocking due to its high temperatures, the GTX 780 Ti has loads of headroom for tinkering and overclocking and that will grab the attention of the pure enthusiast who care not for who makes the card, just who’s card kicks the most ass, and for the moment that crown goes back to NVIDIA.  Well played “Green Team” the ball is now back in the AMD court to come up with a faster solution, which I personally always look forward to here at Tech Of Tomorrow. Have fun everyone and thanks for reading.

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