NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Overclocked - Closing the gap on the GTX TITAN

Introduction

Yesterday we checked out the newly released NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB video card and found ourselves impressed with what NVIDIA have been able to do with the new model. We found that at times performance was quite similar to the higher-end GTX TITAN, while the price tag came in a solid $350 cheaper.

With performance between the two high-end models from NVIDIA being quite close at times, we wondered how close we could get to closing the performance gap between these two models when overclocking was thrown into the mix. With a copy of MSI Afterburner already out supporting the GTX 780 as well adding voltage adjustment support, we've really got the opportunity today to see just what kind of real performance we can get out of the new GTX 780.

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Due to the fact that we've already looked at the video card in detail, we won't be going into too much detail about it again. If there's anything you want to find out, we highly recommend you head over to the original review that we linked to above.

From here we'll move straight into our testbed and quickly go over the cards that you'll be seeing in our graphs today. Once we've done that we'll cover how we went with overclocking before we get stuck into the performance and find out just how much we can close the gap between these two high-end GPU models from NVIDIA. Not only that, though, we'll see just how much more of a lead the new GTX 780 3GB can get on the aging AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition.

Benchmarks - Test System Setup

We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: Intel, ASUS and Corsair.

The video cards that you'll see in our graphs today are almost identical to what you saw in our original GTX 780 3GB coverage. The only difference is today we've of course got our GTX 780 3GB overclocked along with the GTX TITAN overclocked to just under 1000MHz on the core.

Below you can see just how we went with the overclocking side of things. Looking below you can see the reference clocks are 863MHz on the core which goes to 902MHz via Boost, while the 3GB of GDDR5 comes in at 6008MHz QDR.

With the voltage maxed out in MSI Afterburner, you can see we managed to push the core to a very strong 1023MHz or 1062MHz via Boost. As for the 3GB of GDDR5, that also got a nice bump to 6608MHz QDR. This is a strong overclock and should bring with it a decent boost in performance. How much? Well, there's only one way to find out exactly. Read on over the following pages.

The FPS Numbers Explained

When we benchmark our video cards and look at the graphs, we aim to get to a certain level of FPS which we consider playable. While many may argue that the human eye can't see over 24 FPS or 30 FPS, any true gamer will tell you that as we climb higher in Frames Per Seconds (FPS), the overall gameplay feels smoother. There are three numbers we're looking out for when it comes to our benchmarks.

30 FPS - It's the minimum number we aim for when it comes to games. If you're not dropping below 30 FPS during games, you're going to have a nice and smooth gaming experience. The ideal situation is that even in a heavy fire fight, the minimum stays above 30 FPS making sure that you can continue to aim easily or turn the corner with no dramas.

60 FPS - It's the average we look for when we don't have a minimum coming at us. If we're getting an average of 60 FPS, we should have a minimum of 30 FPS or better and as mentioned above, it means we've got some smooth game play happening.

120 FPS - The new number that we've been hunting down over recent months. If you're the owner of a 120 Hz monitor, to get the most out of it you want to get around the 120 FPS mark. Moving from 60 FPS / 60 Hz to 120 FPS / 120 Hz brings with it a certain fluidity that can't really be explained, but instead has to be experienced. Of course, if you're buying a 120 Hz monitor to take advantage of 3D, an average of 120 FPS in our benchmark means that in 3D you will have an average of 60 FPS, which again means you should expect some smooth gameplay.

Why are some graphs incomplete?

Adding new game benchmarks is a long, tedious and time consuming task as every video card has to be re-tested in those new benchmarks. Because of that reason we have always just evaluated our benchmark line up every six months. To stay up to date and current with the latest benchmarks and games available, we've changed our approach to adding new benchmarks.

Our benchmark line up will progress and be updated as newer more intensive games with benchmarks comes to light. While this will mean that initially you may only see a single video card in those particular graphs, as the weeks go on and we test more and more video cards, the results will grow quickly. This will help keep our benchmark line up as up to date as possible as we introduce and remove games on a constant basis.

Benchmarks - 3DMark 11

3DMark 11

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/

Buy It Here

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world's most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC's gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

Starting off with 3DMark 11 you can see we've got a really strong boost in performance out the gate. You can see compared to the other setups we're not that far behind the more expensive EVGA GTX TITAN SuperClocked here.

Benchmarks - Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Version and / or Patch Used: 3

Developer Homepage: http://www.unigine.com

Product Homepage: http://unigine.com/press-releases/091022-heaven_benchmark//

New benchmark grants the power to unleash the DirectX 11 potential in the gift wrapping of impressively towering graphics capabilities. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is ensured within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

Looking at Heaven performance you can see the overclock gives us a really strong boost to performance in both resolutions. We're not far behind the EVGA GTX TITAN, which is pre-overclocked out of the box.

Benchmarks - Phantasy Star Online 2

Phantasy Star Online 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.sega.com/?t=EnglishUSA

Product Homepage: http://www.pso2.com/us/html/index.html

Play Phantasy Star Online 2 and experience revolutionary combat in an action-driven, free-to-play multiplayer online RPG from SEGA. Take a journey into an immersive sci-fi fantasy narrative and explore mysterious worlds to unravel their secrets. Join fellow adventurers and fight against the legions of darkness to banish them from the galaxy.

Score explanation: Less than 2000: Please adjust your game settings because the processing load is quite heavy.

2000 through 5000: The game runs fine at the setting, if you have room, you can adjust some settings.

5001+: The game works wonderfully at this setting.

PSO2 really benefits from overclocking when it comes to NVIDIA video cards and you can see here that we're almost in line with the EVGA GTX TITAN SuperClocked.

Benchmarks - Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1

Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/

Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."

Looking above you can see the overclock just like PSO2 helps performance line up almost even with the much more expensive EVGA GTX TITAN SuperClocked.

Benchmarks - Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Dark Tower

Developer Homepage: http://www.eidos.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.justcause.com/

Just Cause 2 employs the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in Just Cause. The game is set on the other side of the world from the original Just Cause, on the fictional island of Panau in Southeast Asia. Panau has varied terrain, from desert to alpine to rainforest. Rico Rodriguez returns as the protagonist, aiming to overthrow the evil dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and confront his former mentor, Tom Sheldon.

Continuing on you can see we again see a little bump in performance at all resolutions that bring us closer again to the $999 GTX TITAN.

Benchmarks - F1 2012

F1 2012

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/

Product Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com

In F1 2012 players will feel the unparalleled thrill of becoming a FORMULA ONE driver with a host of new features, wide-ranging technical and gameplay advancements and extensive competitive and co-operative multiplayer components. F1 2012 will feature all of the official teams, drivers and circuits from the 2012 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, including the debut of the 2012 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX at Austin, Texas and the return of Germany's famous Hockenheim circuit to the calendar.

Checking out F1 2012 you can see there's not too much difference with the overall FPS as we hit that wall around the 150 FPS mark at its stock clocks.

While we're never a fan of hitting an FPS wall, at least this is one that is going to provide smooth gameplay, even on 120Hz monitors.

Benchmarks - Metro 2033

Metro 2033

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.4a-games.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.thqnordic.com/

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.[3] In March 2006, 4A Games announced a partnership with Glukhovsky to collaborate on the game.[4] The game was announced at the 2009 Games Convention in Leipzig,[5] a first trailer came along with the announcement.[6] A sequel was announced, currently titled Metro: Last Light.

Looking above you can see the overclock here helps actually put us ahead of the GTX TITAN at both 1920 x 1200 and 2560 x 1600. Along with that, you can see we've just got very solid FPS at all resolutions with a strong 81 FPS being seen at 2560 x 1600.

Benchmarks - Dirt Showdown

Dirt Showdown

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/

Product Homepage: http://www.codemasters.com/uk/dirtshowdown/360/

DiRT Showdown is the new arcade racing game from the team that brought you the award-winning DiRT series, uncaged in 2012. Pick up and play controls combine with electrifying events, frenzied crowds and stunning graphics to deliver high octane, dive in and drive thrills from event one.

As we move into Dirt Showdown you can see the overclock helps give us a bit more breathing room across the board with the most appreciated coming in at the highest resolutions as we find our GTX 780 sits around the 60 FPS area.

Benchmarks - Nexuiz

Nexuiz

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.alientrap.org/

Product Homepage: http://www.nexuiz.com/

Nexuiz is an Arena First Person shooter coming soon to consoles. Nexuiz is fast paced with extremely competitive game play. IllFonic brings Alientrap Software's Nexuiz to next-gen gaming consoles around the world while staying true to the game play refined over the years through development. IllFonic introduces a new Victorian influenced art style that is simultaneously futuristic and sophisticated. Nexuiz for consoles is powered by CryENGINE 3.

Nexuiz sees some fantastic gains and you can see we're pushed into the 70 FPS realm at 1680 x 1050 with the GTX TITAN. The boost at 1920 x 1200 is also really strong, but you can see we still just fall a little shy of that 60 FPS number we want for solid gameplay performance.

Benchmarks - Sniper Elite V2

Sniper Elite V2

Version and / or Patch Used: Standalone Benchmark

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/

Product Homepage: http://sniperelitev2.com/us/age.html

Sniper Elite V2 features detailed sniping simulation with advanced ballistics, taking into account gravity, wind, velocity, bullet penetration, aim stability and more. Guaranteed to provide players with the most realistic simulation of military sharpshooting yet available.

Under Sniper Elite V2 you can see the strong overclock and strong gains help put the overclocked GTX 780 ahead of the GTX TITAN in this case at all resolutions.

It's a real testament to the new GTX 780 which manages to put out some great numbers.

Benchmarks - Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://eu.square-enix.com/en

Product Homepage: http://www.sleepingdogs.net/

The core gameplay of Sleeping Dogs consists of giving the player an open world environment in which to move around freely. Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The player controls Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer, as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization. On foot, the player character has the ability to walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and martial arts in combat. Players also drive a variety of vehicles including cars, boats, and motorcycles.

Sleeping Dogs continues the trends of strong gains and you can see across the board we get a good bump in performance. At the highest resolution you can see we've got a strong 95 FPS average present.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01

Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long

Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/

Buy It Here

The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

Across the board you can see a bit of movement in FPS, but we all know it's not really needed here, with solid FPS seen from all setups.

Benchmarks - Hitman Absolution

Hitman Absolution

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.ioi.dk/

Product Homepage: http://hitman.com/

Hitman: Absolution is an action-adventure stealth game developed by I/O Interactive and published by Square Enix. It is the fifth entry in the Hitman game series, and runs on I/O Interactive's proprietary Glacier 2 game engine. Before release, the developers stated that Absolution would be easier to play and more accessible, while still retaining hardcore aspects of the franchise. The game was released on 20 November 2012, which is in the 47th week of the year (in reference to the protagonist, Agent 47).

Hitman Absolution really sees no change when it comes to overclocking due to the fact that we hit a 54 / 69 FPS wall in the minimum and average department. We wish the wall was hit a little later, especially if you're using a 120Hz monitor.

Benchmarks - Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://www.nixxes.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.tombraider.com/us/base/agegate?refer=184&

Tomb Raider is an action-adventure platform video game. Published by Square Enix, Tomb Raider is the fifth title developed by Crystal Dynamics in the Tomb Raider franchise. As the first entry in a new Tomb Raider continuity, the game is a reboot that emphasizes the reconstructed origins of the culturally influential lead character Lara Croft. Tomb Raider was released on 5 March 2013 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows to universal critical acclaim.

Tomb Raider sees some nice gains in performance at all resolutions, but at the highest, while we've got a strong minimum, our average is still just a little bit too low for a solid gameplay experience.

Benchmarks - BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite

Version and / or Patch Used: Latest Steam Update

Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Benchmark

Developer Homepage: http://irrationalgames.com/

Product Homepage: http://www.bioshockinfinite.com

BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game and the third installment in the BioShock series. Previously known as "Project Icarus", it is being developed by Irrational Games and was released worldwide on the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms on March 26, 2013. BioShock Infinite is not part of the storyline of previous BioShock games but features similar gameplay concepts and themes.

BioShock Infinite sees some great gains and at the highest resolution you can see the overclock helps move us from below 60 FPS to just over it with a sneaky 61 FPS being seen here.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF

High Quality AA and AF

While we test all our games with maximum in-game settings, turning on Anti-Aliasing (AA) and Antistrophic Filtering (AF) helps take the intensity of our testing to another level.

Here we see video cards go from playable FPS to an unplayable FPS and the real power houses continue to help break that 60 FPS mark we always aim for to provide a smooth gaming experience.

Far Cry 2 sees a bit of a boost, but you can see at both resolutions, we already got very strong FPS out of the GTX 780 3GB.

Metro 2033 sees a nice bump in performance and at 2560 x 1600 you can see we manage to take a decent chunk off that extra FPS needed to hit a 60 FPS average. You can see above, though, we do again just fall a few FPS shy of it.

Just Cause 2 sees a little performance increase and you can see at the highest resolution we move out of the 60 FPS realm and into the 70 FPS area, ensuring a better gameplay experience.

While Sleeping Dogs continues the trend of a nice little performance bump, you can see we still fall below the 60 FPS average we want for solid gameplay at both resolutions.

Temperature Test

The temperature of the core is pulled from MSI Afterburner with the max reading used after a completed run off 3DMark Vantage and the Performance preset.

Looking above you can see that overclocking really does nothing to the temperature. Both the idle and load are near identical, even with the extra voltage thrown into the mix.

We'll take a look at what happens on the noise side of things on the next page.

Sound Test

Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

Looking at the noise levels you can see they're slightly elevated, no doubt to help keep the temperature at a stable level. Saying that, the noise levels are only up a little, moving from a load level of 59.4 dB to 60.7 dB when overclocked.

Power Consumption Test

Using our PROVA Power Analyzer WM-01 or "Power Thingy" as it has become quickly known as to our readers, we are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind, it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into AC wall socket).

There are a few important notes to remember though, while our maximum power is taken in 3DMark06 at the same exact point, we have seen in particular tests the power being drawn as much as 10% more. We test at the exact same stage every time, therefore tests should be very consistent and accurate.

The other thing to remember is that our test system is bare minimum - only a SSD hard drive is used with a single CD ROM and minimal cooling fans.

So while the system might draw 400 watts in our test system, placing it into your own PC with a number of other items, the draw is going to be higher.

As you'd expect power draw is up in both the idle and load department. Idle sees a 20 watt increase, while load jumps up almost 50 watts coming in at just shy of 500 watts.

We recommend a good quality PSU in the 700 watt+ area to make sure you're covered with a system such as this one.

Final Thoughts

Out of the box the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB already does an excellent job of putting out some fantastic gaming numbers. Often we can see the model really doesn't sit all that far behind the epic GTX TITAN, considering the $350 price difference between the two models, this is really something quite special indeed.

With the gap at times being quite small, it doesn't come as too much of a surprise when we see the overclocked GTX 780 3GB close that gap to the point where there's almost nothing between the two models. At times you see the overclocked GTX 780 3GB even manage to sneak ahead. Most the time, though, we do see it continue to fall slightly behind its big brother the GTX TITAN, if not by only a few FPS.

Going through the results there's some important performance increases that are brought to the table with overclocking, which include times when we move below 60 FPS to over it, resulting in what we would call non-playable to playable. Along with that we also see times where we just get some extra FPS in that 60 FPS realm which we appreciate as it gives us a bit more breathing room for a solid gameplay experience.

Out of the box the GTX 780 3GB was already putting out some great performance numbers and when overclocked, you can see those numbers are improved even further, and of course extending its lead on AMD's Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition.

The big thing that GTX 780 overclocking brings to the table is an increase in value for the new NVIDIA model. Considering how overclocking closes the gap between this $649 card and the $999 GTX TITAN, the GTX 780 3GB instantly begins looking even more attractive.

It will be interesting to see what companies do when it comes to pre-overclocked retail models, but for now it's obvious that there's some decent head room to be had and NVIDIA has a good thing in the GTX 780.