BATTLE OF THE BOLTS! -- GTX 780 Lightning vs. R9 290X Lightning @ 1080p --

[Techhog]

How is that Batman result even possible?

Good point. Every other benchmark I've seen shows that it favors Nvidia... PhysX perhaps?

 

[rtsurfer]

Good point. Every other benchmark I've seen shows that it favors Nvidia... PhysX perhaps?

See my Edit above.
It is indeed not right & we are looking into it.

Give us some time.

 

[Techhog]

See my Edit above.
It is indeed not right & we are looking into it.

Give us some time.

Gotcha.

 

[Face2Face]

Thanks gents. Great work on the shootout. That 780 really does need some better ram. Probably would have tipped the results to favor the 780 if it came with Hynix/Samsung.

Can't complain, you gave me a great deal on it. Not sure if you knew? but I can actually get this card at a stable 1502Mhz in BF4 SP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmK3ChEctaQ

I topped it out @ 1529MHz in a valley run running 1.45v. Pulling about 800w from the wall running valley.

Pretty sure the card can do close to 1600MHz with a full block.

 

[DiogoDX]

How is that Batman result even possible?

290X have great performance with AAx8.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/gr...eforce-gtx-780-ti-directcu-ii-oc_7.html#sect3

With no AA AMD have poor performance because nvidia gameworks and warner blocked AMD driver optimizations.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Cool comparo, nicely done gents

780 lightning $550 290x lightning $680 20ish% price difference. I know which one I'd buy....

 

[spinejam]

Can't complain, you gave me a great deal on it. Not sure if you knew? but I can actually get this card at a stable 1502Mhz in BF4 SP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmK3ChEctaQ

I topped it out @ 1529MHz in a valley run running 1.45v. Pulling about 800w from the wall running valley.

Pretty sure the card can do close to 1600MHz with a full block.

...lmao, were your lights flickering?

 

[Face2Face]

...lmao, were your lights flickering?

If they were on the same circuit I am sure they would have My 750 watt basic PSU was screaming in pain..

 

[Elfear]

Can't complain, you gave me a great deal on it. Not sure if you knew? but I can actually get this card at a stable 1502Mhz in BF4 SP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmK3ChEctaQ

I topped it out @ 1529MHz in a valley run running 1.45v. Pulling about 800w from the wall running valley.

Pretty sure the card can do close to 1600MHz with a full block.

That is crazy. Never explored the upper reaches of that card so I'm glad you did.

 

[Lonyo]

Maybe bench BF4 while playing together on a server if you both have it?
Might be a way to get reasonably comparable results from actual gameplay. TDM with lots of players would be best.

 

[rtsurfer]

How is that Batman result even possible?

Good point. Every other benchmark I've seen shows that it favors Nvidia... PhysX perhaps?

Batman Arkham Origins Scores

Alright I redid the Benchs & I got almost the same scores (off by 1 FPS, but I didn't disable my Antivirus & such as I did for the original run). So I can conform & prove that my 290X Lightning gets the same scores as in the charts.

I was skeptical at first when a few people pointed out that the scores weren't right because I remembered that Batman is an Nvidia sponsored game & as far as I remember Nvidia cards had better performance than AMD at launch. Also it turned out that I did the Bench a bit differently than Face2Face, so I was worried that might also have caused a discrepancy, but it turned out alright. I don't know if it is the drivers maturing or AMD had better performance with Tess ON, or both, but right now I get higher scores than the 780.

Maybe bench BF4 while playing together on a server if you both have it?
Might be a way to get reasonably comparable results from actual gameplay. TDM with lots of players would be best.

While I would like to do that, I still believe the results wouldn't be consistent enough to be compared. Plus, I tend to be pretty busy working so I have hardly anytime to game anyways.
Sorry.

:$

just curious; noise level of both at stock and max overclock ?

Man, I dont think either me or Face2Face have the equipment required to do proper noise comparison tests.

 

[Silverforce11]

I topped it out @ 1529MHz in a valley run running 1.45v. Pulling about 800w from the wall running valley.

Pretty sure the card can do close to 1600MHz with a full block.

... how is that even possible? LOL @ PCIE specs.

 

[TheGoat Eater]

nice to see this post - I love my 290X Lighting and I am sure you guys could also do a comparison of how many people you have knocked out with these bricks

 

[Belkov]

Nice.
Face, now all brands put elpida on their 780s... You can find samsung or hynix mostly in old batches...

 

[etrin]

how much cheaper is elpida than samsung memory?
It seems that all cards are cutting corners and charging the max.
I picked up a G 780 with B2 and Hynix a few months ago on sale, still TOO DAMN HIGH
then say they are not making any money I CALL BULL#$#$.

anyway the 780 is showing its age the ti is just more of the same.
And XBIT shows that overclocking their sample even with Hynix memory didn't help performance.
So there has to be other limitations in the 780ti

 

[omeds]

Good job guys, seems 290x has a ~100mhz advantage over 780, without raising 780 memory bandwidth. IE- 780 at 1200mhz is close to 290x at 1100mhz.

 

[sao123]

Any chance you could repeat the lightning roundup for other titles?
I am particularly interest in how each handles World of Warcraft, a game which traditionally has favored non-sli NV cards.

 

[I/O]

To be fair the 290 is in competition with the 780 even though the 290 costs over $100 less.

 

[Face2Face]

Nice.
Face, now all brands put elpida on their 780s... You can find samsung or hynix mostly in old batches...

Thanks, most of the GTX 780 Lightnings that are being sold now come with SK Hynix modules instead of Elipda. When MSI released their R9 290X Lightning, their documentation stated they had issues procuring SK Hynix and Samsung GDDR5 modules when building the GTX 780 Lightning. This was mostly due to the SK Hynix fire and the PS4 using up most of the supply of Samsung GDDR5 modules. MSI knows that Elipda modules are not good for overclocking, and every time they were confronted about it, they stated the memory runs at it's intended specification. While this is true, it doesn't change the fact that most extreme overclockers were unhappy that MSI would even release a card with such underwhelming memory.

Any chance you could repeat the lightning roundup for other titles?
I am particularly interest in how each handles World of Warcraft, a game which traditionally has favored non-sli NV cards.

Probably not. The benchmarks provided here are all run using each games's benchmark utility. This is the only way we could provide consistent results.

 

[loccothan]

Newest Technology always win Great job with the R series from AMD, im waitnig for Pirate Island R9 390X GCN 2.1

 

[guskline]

Face2Face, I second Termie's comments. So good to see actual posters such as you and RTSurfer post results. What I like is your full disclosure of all of your system specs etc realizing that, though your machines are not identical, they are very typical of high end gaming machines.

Like most of us, I don't have access to all of the new video cards, so I rely on review articles. I notice more and more reviews fail to list all the system specs of the base machine so it's hard to make a good judgment of how the video card will actually perform.

BTW, I have a GTX780 Classified (OC core via modded BIOS 1306 - no boost and 1697 mem) water cooled with a EVGA block in my system below. I have it in my 3930K rig (specs below).

I also have a FX 8350 rig(custom water cooled cpu clocked to 4.6Ghz) with a Sapphire R9-290 Tri-X gpu. Your findings of how strong the 290x are don't surprise me one bit. I have been a real devotee of the Nvidia line since release of the GTX680.


The AMD R9 290/290X have really made me look at AMD and say, WOW, they are back in the game. The negative of high gpu heat has really been addressed by 3rd party vendors. This Tri-X cooler is really effective.

I would have no hesitancy in recommending EITHER a GTX780 or a R9-290. Can't wait to read all the 880 or 390 reviews to see what has changed.

BTW, is that core reading on the 780 bolt of 1450 for real?

 

[guskline]

Thanks gents. Great work on the shootout. That 780 really does need some better ram. Probably would have tipped the results to favor the 780 if it came with Hynix/Samsung.

Have Hynix in my 780 classified and I run 1697 on mem SOLID.:thumbsup:

Vram stays below 54C even stressed due to a full water block cooling and even though the EVGA Hydro copper is not the top block for keeping vram cool.

 

[I/O]

1260 on air? Jesus


It looks like the 780 ran out of shader power. Or something, 1450 and still losing to the 290X?

The 290x is a cut above the 780.

 

[guskline]

The 290x is a cut above the 780.

Agreed. Should be 780TI vs 290X or 780 vs 290.

That being said, I have one of the highest end 780's GTX780 Classified and one of the higher end 290s Sapphire r9 290 Tri-X. The Tri-X is handicapped being in my FX 8350 rig vs the 780 Classified being in my 3930k rig. That being said, the 290 is really solid.

 

[I/O]

Agreed. Should be 780TI vs 290X

True but the cards are still not in the same price or performance bracket.