NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card Review

Introduction

For a long time we used to see AMD and NVIDIA release similar models at the same time, but over the past few years, we've seen new GPU launches become separated. The only time that has changed in recent years is the release of the HD 7790 and GTX 650 Ti Boost, which saw both companies offer mid $100 models, just a few weeks apart from each other.

When it came to the dual GPU models, we saw a large gap between the GTX 690 that NVIDIA offered and the recently released HD 7990 from AMD. Not only that, though, after the GTX 680 came out, AMD months later released an updated version of the HD 7970 in the way of the GHz Edition, which helped them come back out on top in most areas.

Today we're seeing NVIDIA do refresh when it comes to the high-end single GPU segment with the release of the new GTX 700 series. The first piece to that puzzle comes in the form of the GTX 780, which is the video card we're looking at today. I think one of the most important things to remember is that the new GTX 700 series isn't designed to come out and replace the impressive GTX TITAN, which quickly became a fan favorite of ours.

We also don't know the rate of which the GTX 700 series will grow at. While we've heard rumors that a GTX 770 is coming, outside of that, we don't know what's going on. With NVIDIA also just recently releasing the GTX 650 Ti Boost, we're not sure if they'd be in such a hurry to release new mid-range models under the GTX 700 series name. The lack of rumors in that area also makes us feel that they're going to be at least a little while off. For now it's clear that NVIDIA want to take back its single GPU dominance in a more affordable fashion. As fast as the GTX TITAN is for a single GPU video card, the associated $999 price tag is hard for most people to swallow.

Being a reference video card that we're checking out today means that we don't have any kind of package to look at. Instead we'll just be getting straight into the card itself. We'll see just what NVIDIA is offering in the form of the GTX 780. We'll then cover the specification side of things and talk about the main highlights. From there we'll look at our testbed and cover the cards that will be in our graphs here today. Once we've done all that it's straight into the performance numbers.