EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked Video Card Review

Introduction

We've really seen a gap in the testing of NVIDIA GeForce video cards for the past few years, especially when it comes to the higher end segment. That's going to change now that we've sorted out our issues with NVIDIA, and that comes with evidence by the fact that not only do we have a GTX TITAN on hand, but we've actually got a pair on hand.

EVGA wasn't able to give us a full retail package for the cards we have on hand today, instead just the cards. It's not a huge deal, but it of course means that we won't be looking into the package of the card - we'll simply be getting straight into the card.

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Once we've taken a closer look at the card we'll then move onto checking out what's going on with the overclock that EVGA is offering because as you can see in the title we're dealing with a SuperClocked model here today.

Once we've done that it's all a fairly standard affair as we move into a quick look at our testbed, talk about the cards that you'll see in our graphs here today, and finally get stuck straight into the performance side of things where we can finally discover what this monster single GPU option from NVIDIA is capable of.

There's really not much more that needs to be said and to be completely honest I'm more interested in quickly taking a look over the card itself and getting into the performance side of things as we work on building our database of video card setups tested over the coming weeks.

The Card and Specifications

The Card

Looking at the GTX TITAN for the first time you can see we've got a mean cooling setup with a massive heatsink that can be seen over the top of the GPU via a see-through window. To the right you can see we've got a fan that draws cool air in and pushes it directly across the heatsink and straight out the back of the card. You can see the shroud also looks pretty awesome with the TITAN logo on the left and a little NVIDIA logo on the right.

If we take a swing around you don't really see anything that out of the ordinary or special. At the back you can see that power comes in the form of an 8-pin PCIe and 6-pin PCIe power connector. Closer to the front you can see we've got a pair of SLI connectors which give us the ability to run up to four of these cards together. While we won't be making use of them today, we will soon enough as we check out SLI performance in the coming days.

Checking out the connectivity side of things it's a fairly standard setup that we see from NVIDIA. While AMD have chosen to embrace multi DisplayPort, NVIDIA continue to go down the path of a Dual-Link DVI-D and DVI-I connector along with a full size HDMI and DisplayPort.

Specifications

As we mentioned earlier we're dealing with a SuperClocked version of the GTX TITAN from EVGA. Before we get into the specifics of the clocks let's just take a quick moment to cover what a reference GTX TITAN comes in at. Out of the box we've got an 837MHz core that runs at 876MHz via Boost. 2688 stream processors are present, 224 Texture Units and 48 ROPs. As for the 6GB of GDDR5 that sits on a 384-bit memory bus and carries with it a default clock of 6008MHz QDR.

Looking above you can see that EVGA have chosen to boost the core clock up to 876MHz which via boost brings it in at 928MHz. As for the 6GB of GDDR5, they've decided to leave that alone at the same 6008MHz QDR.

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.

While our single high-end GPU solutions from NVIDIA are extremely rare since we haven't looked at any since we updated our benchmark line up, we still manage to have a number of high-end setups included today with the NVIDIA side of things coming via SLI GTX 650 Ti Boosts setups - one running at stock and the other overclocked.

As for the AMD side we've got the HD 7790 in CrossFire along with the HD 7950 PowerColor overclocked to over 1100MHz on the core and the GHz Edition of the HD 7970.

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 that the EVGA GTX TITAN just has no problem dealing with any of these other setups. And you're not talking about performance that's just ahead of the competition, you're talking about being 40% faster than the HD 7970 GHz Edition.

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.

It comes as no surprise that when we move to Heaven that we've got some awesome performance coming out of the card here due to the heavy focus on tessellation under this benchmark.

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 performance is just massive and you're talking almost double the performance of other setups, including the HD 7970 GHz Edition.

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."

At the lowest resolution you can see there's not much difference between the GTX 650 TI Boost SLI OC setup. As we place more and more pressure on the card, though, you can quickly see the GTX TITAN separate itself, offering some truly awesome performance across the board.

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.

Just Cause 2 performance continues the trend of both awesome performance and numbers that are ahead of every other setup here.

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.

Massive numbers are continued to be seen across the board and you can see we're hitting a bit of a wall at around 150 FPS at almost all resolutions here.

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.

While the other setups when moving to 2560 x 1600 can get around the 60 FPS area, the GTX TITAN manages to blow through that number and give out a massive 79 FPS.

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.

While Dirt Showdown tends to favor the AMD offerings, you can see here that we continue to see the GTX TITAN do exceptionally well at all resolutions with a very smooth 68 FPS being seen at the highest resolution.

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.

No doubt the most intensive game we've tested in a long time, you can see that even the GTX TITAN manages to break into the 70 FPS realm at 1680 x 1050 here - something we haven't seen from other cards. 1920 x 1200 looks really good at 56 FPS, but overall the number is still a bit too low, and of course the 31 FPS at 2560 x 1600 just isn't an option.

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.

Across the board you can see that the GTX TITAN just doesn't have any problems competing with the other setups here at all resolutions.

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 trend of excellent performance and you can see at the highest resolution it's the only setup that is able to break the 100 FPS barrier.

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.

It comes as no surprise that we're hitting that FPS wall in the lower resolutions here with the GTX TITAN and just generally huge performance at the highest resolution.

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 IO Interactive and published by Square Enix. It is the fifth entry in the Hitman game series, and runs on IO 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 seems to have this wall where the minimum sits at around the mid 50 FPS mark and the average is around 70 FPS on NVIDIA video cards.

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.

1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 sees some fantastic performance with great numbers. You can see at 2560 x 1600 we have an impressive minimum in the 41 FPS number, but the 50 FPS average is a little too low. We'd prefer to see an extra 10 FPS and have that climb to around the 60 FPS mark for a solid gaming 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 performance is fantastic across the board. You can see at the highest resolution we manage to sneak over the 60 FPS mark with a 63 FPS average.

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.

With the AA and AF cranked right up it comes as no surprise that we still see very good performance out of the EVGA GTX TITAN in both resolutions.

While we see no issue at 1920 x 1200 under Metro 2033, you can see at the higher 2560 x 1600 resolution, we run into a number that sits a little below the 60 FPS mark.

Just Cause 2 performance looks good and you can see at both resolutions we're able to get past the 60 FPS mark.

Even the mighty EVGA GTX TITAN struggles under Sleeping Dogs when AA and AF is turned on. While we've got the best numbers out of the group here, you can still see we're below that 60 FPS number we want to see.

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.

Considering the performance of the card it comes as no surprise that we're dealing with quite a warm running video card. You can see idle sits pretty low, but when we're under load, the 81c temperature is at the upper end of the scale.

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).

I actually expected the EVGA GTX TITAN to run louder than it does - surpassingly considering the amount of performance the card offers, it's fairly quiet. The card could probably run a little louder if they wanted to which would help bring the temperature down.

With that said 81c isn't an issue and most would probably prefer the lower noise levels - NVIDIA and EVGA have done a pretty good job here with the fan profile.

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.

Power draw comes in at a little under 500 watt when under load. Again considering the performance of the card, this is pretty good and considering the price you should have a power supply that is more than capable of dealing with this kind of power draw.

Pricing, Availability and Final Thoughts

At $1019.99 the EVGA GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked is an extremely expensive video card, but you can't deny the great performance that it offers. We understand that the dual GPU option isn't for everyone, and the upcoming HD 7990 from AMD is something that doesn't really interest everyone. So, the price could be justified.

The GTX TITAN is just all about performance, and performance it offers. The numbers that we're getting out of this single GPU setup is quite amazing. You can see, though, that there's still room to move, as games like Nexuiz struggle after 1680 x 1050 and Sleeping Dogs with AA and AF on is still also an issue, even for such a powerful video card. While people continue to argue that there's nothing out there that can make use of the power of these video cards, we disagree with what they say.

The biggest issue with the model, though, continues to be the availability. Even at this price we continue to hear murmurs that NewEgg get only just a few cards here and there and they are then shipped straight out to people who have the product on back order.

While people say we continue to struggle in the current economy, we can't deny the fact that there's clearly a demand for video cards that top the four figure price range, like all those years ago. From the AMD side of things there's really no competition for this model - the HD 7970 GHz Edition while being a strong and capable card and also a lot cheaper, it just doesn't have this kind of power. You can see at times we're talking about gains on this single GPU card of around 50%.

It's safe to say that this video card isn't going to be for everyone purely because of the price. The fact that we should also see new NVIDIA cards come out in the coming months also means that the card might not be as appealing. With the limited stock, though, and the fact that people want performance now, the GTX TITAN is still the most attractive option for people who have money to spend and want just a really fast single GPU solution. You can see why the model is constantly sold out.