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November 7, 2013
PC

Hands-On: NVIDIA’s New GTX 780 Ti Gaming in 4K



Earlier this year NVIDIA released a new lineup of 700-series desktop GPUs with the GeForce GTX 780 taking the “flagship” position in this exciting new product family. Today, NVIDIA has expanded the capabilities of the GeForce GTX 780 with the introduction of the new GeForce GTX 780 Ti GPU. The GTX 780 Ti is available today at a starting price of $699.

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Graphics card with NVIDIA GTX 780 Ti GPU – NVIDIA’s new flagship gaming GPU (click/tap to enlarge)

The GeForce GTX 780 Ti pushes NVIDIA’s PC gaming capabilities to the next level and also includes many refinements and support for the latest gaming technologies. In this article, I’ll outline the specs and capabilities of this new GPU and also share experiences running the GTX 780 Ti with EA’s Battlefield 4 (BF4) at 1080p, WQHD, and 4K Ultra HD screen resolutions. The GTX 780 Ti is an exciting new piece of gaming hardware as you’ll see in this article.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Specs

Since the GTX 780 Ti is an enhanced version of the GTX 780, let’s take a quick look at the side by side specs for both of these cards and quantify the improvements:

GTX780-vs-GTX780Ti

With 25% more cores running even faster than the GTX 780, this new GPU builds nicely on the capabilities of the previous top gaming GPU from NVIDIA. I ran GPU-Z on my test gaming system to check out all of the detailed specs for the GTX 780 Ti:

GTX 780 Ti GPU-z Graphics Card View


GPU-Z display for the GTX 780 Ti GPU

On the inside, this is an amazing piece of gaming technology. On the outside, my reference card was definitely nice on the eyes, with typical reverse illuminated GEFORCE GTX lettering on the side:

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When installed in your PC these letters glow when your PC is powered up (click/tap to enlarge)

The GTX 780 Ti is designed to be both faster AND more efficient than previous NVIDIA gaming GPUs. Even with over 25% more horsepower and faster memory, the GTX 780 retains the 250W TDP of the GTX 780. This means you won’t need to worry about upgrading your power supply if you upgrade from the GTX 780 to the GTX 780 Ti. The GTX 780 Ti incorporates the latest thermal efficiency advancements from NVIDIA so that graphics horsepower can co-exist with optimized acoustics for quiet operation even when this GPU is pushed to the max. The GTX 780 Ti is also fully G-SYNC ready for displays that will ship with this technology in the near future. You can read more about G-SYNC here.

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The GTX 780 Ti supports dual DVI, full-size HDMI and full size DisplayPort connectors (click/tap to enlarge)

My GTX 780 Ti installed in just about 60 seconds thanks to the available 6-pin and 8-pin connectors I had available in my gaming PC. In this time I took out the GTX 760 and had the GTX 780 Ti installed and ready to boot the PC. I couldn’t wait to see what the performance would be like!

Gaming With the GTX 780 Ti

In order to test the performance of the GTX 780 Ti, I decided to use one of the latest and hottest PC games out there: EA’s Battlefield 4 (BF4).

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BF4 is an amazing FPS game that showcases the latest in DirectX graphics

The tests I ran were quite simple, I ran BF4 at three different resolutions, running each resolution at Medium, High, and Ultra graphics settings.

Here are the basic specs for the PC gaming rig I used:

  • OS: Windows 8.1 x64
  • CPU: Intel Core i7 950 3.06 GHz
  • RAM: 24GB GSKIL F3-10666CL9T2-24GBRL
  • Boot drive: Corsair Force 240GB SSD

BF4 @ 1920×1080

A ton of people game at 1080p resolution, so I thought I would start my tests there. The GTX 780 Ti is overkill for one 1080p display as you can see in the following side-by-side FRAPs FPS numbers:

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FRAPS FPS numbers for BF4 @ 1920×1080 resolution: Medium (left), High (center), Ultra (right) – (click/tap to enlarge)

BF4 @ 2560×1440

PC gaming at 2560×1440 resolution is a good “sweet spot” for graphics experience and value for the dollar. DirectX games look amazing on these displays, and you can get one (or more) of these displays without breaking the bank. BF4 looks and plays awesome with the GTX 780 Ti, but I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until I pushed the resolution to 4K!

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FRAPS FPS numbers for BF4 @ 2560×1440 resolution: Medium (left), High (center), Ultra (right) – (click/tap to enlarge)

BF4 @ 3840×2160 (4K Ultra HD)

I discovered that the GTX 780 Ti can handle BF4 in a single-GPU/card config no problem. At medium settings, BF4 was North of the 60 FPS boundary that I consider to be the threshold of meaningful human perception. To see what would happen, I turned graphics setting up to ultra, and still was able to get 30 FPS. Amazing!

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FRAPS FPS numbers for BF4 @ 3840×2160 resolution: Medium (left), High (center), Ultra (right) – (click/tap to enlarge)

Conclusion

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti[GG1] is an awesome new GPU that offers more power, more efficiency, and quiet operation. If you want the most out of your DirectX PC gaming experience, check it out!

I’ve got to go now as I have more “game testing” to do.

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