GTX 780 Overkill for 1080p?

[Vesku]

A bit overkill for 1080P but most games will offer some GPU taxing settings you can turn on to leverage the extra GPU power. Also it will probably last you ~3 years as a top end 1080P gaming card if you don't mind having to give up some of those settings when the next gen console developers reach their stride and they start dropping XBox360/PS3 support.

 

[Shmee]

good find, and good on MSI to honor the cards warranty without cooler. Have fun!

 

[BoFox]

Nothing is ever overkill... try to force SSAA whenever possible - I've been trying since Voodoo 5 5500!!

 

[Scheeringa]

Overkill? What is that?

 

[UaVaj]

60hz display at 1080p with everything maxed out delivering a healthy 45fps.

all you need is a 580 - crysis3 excluded.

680 is a nice balance at 1080p.

780 (100%) is an overkill - exception is 120hz gaming or 3d gaming. given this exception - one 780 is barely cutting it either.

 

[UNhooked]

So got my Used OEM heatsink and turns out the screws with the MSI Gaming ed Gtx 780 are not compatible with the OEM heatsink. Fortunately I have the screws from my 7970 that under water. So they more or less worked nicely.

Second I noticed the PCB had a slight scratch exposing the copper. It didn't look deep so was hoping it was just superficial. Guessing a dab of clear nail polish should seal it. Also the PCB on one end looked like there was some liquid that had dried off. At this point I am just crossing my fingers and hope the card works.

So anyways I fire it up and no video. And I am look poop I got a dud. However I reset the bios and viola I have video. However at this point it doesn't really mean anything since the drivers weren't loaded yet.

Patiently install the drivers reboot machine and so far so good. But only a nice run of 3Dmark 13 will tell me if the card is working correctly or not.

So did a few runs of 3DMark 13 and scores around the 8.7K mark. Which sounds normal.

Next I noticed my boost clock goes all the way to 1045Mhz but throttles down at 80C. At first I thought my Heatsink install was not making proper contact but turns out this is normal. Also my fan wasn't ramping up as much as I thought it would. Probably the fan profile was tuned to the MSI Heatsink fans.

So I changed the fan profile in MSI burner and viola. Card now stays around 70C on load with boost staying at 1045Mhz.

Overall a very happy camper

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/883929

BTW the factory heatsink is one of the best I have ever seen. The fan even on 100% makes a nice whoosh sound compared to the jet engine on the 7970's

 

[Face2Face]

^ Sounds like you got everything up and running with a couple minor setbacks. Congrats on the purchase, you got a sweet deal on the card. Now it's time to OC the crap out of it. My 7950 has a graphics score of 9274 in 3Dmark13

- getting to close for comfort

Oh yeah Nvidia's new 780/Titan stock coolers are art compared the the crap AMD puts on their 7970 reference cards..

 

[Mark Rejhon]

780 (100%) is an overkill

You forgot:
- Stutter sensitive people
- Ability to max out AA in the best games
- Future games. Possibly Battlefield 4 maxed-out

Also, 45fps isn't necessarily fluid to some people -- some people really want framerate=Hz (framerate matching Hz) for the ultimate smooth effect.

 

[UNhooked]

^ Sounds like you got everything up and running with a couple minor setbacks. Congrats on the purchase, you got a sweet deal on the card. Now it's time to OC the crap out of it. My 7950 has a graphics score of 9274 in 3Dmark13

- getting to close for comfort

Oh yeah Nvidia's new 780/Titan stock coolers are art compared the the crap AMD puts on their 7970 reference cards..

Thanks for the comments. No overclocking this one since it's installed in the Node 605 which has very poor ventilation around the GPU area. The 7970 that I had before was literally cooking the case since it had the open fan design. Even made my 3770K reach 80C while gaming.

With this my CPU stays at 65C Now if I can find a creative way to watercool a Node 605, I'd be all for it. but for now it seems only an externally mounted Rad will do the trick.

 

[UaVaj]

You forgot:
- Stutter sensitive people
- Ability to max out AA in the best games
- Future games. Possibly Battlefield 4 maxed-out

Also, 45fps isn't necessarily fluid to some people -- some people really want framerate=Hz (framerate matching Hz) for the ultimate smooth effect.

excellent point. more gpu to push fps to make up for poor panel display.

60fps of perfectly timed frame delivery on a 60hz flat panel is as fluid as it gets. you could almost reach out and grab it.

 

[UNhooked]

Holy Sh**t I got another on ebay for $415 shipped

 

[Face2Face]

Holy Sh**t I got another on ebay for $415 shipped

WTF!!!

 

[UNhooked]

Dam my Bill me later will be reaching its limit at this level.

 

[Teizo]

I have another 760 on the way to run sli. However, with these ebay sellers selling cheap...looks like I may doing my gpu buying wrong lol...

780 sli...Yeah, that is definitely overkill for 1080p. But, what the heck. Have fun.

 

[UNhooked]

Naah I may have to re-think this. I may have to replace my 7970's with these.

 

[Face2Face]

I have another 760 on the way to run sli. However, with these ebay sellers selling cheap...looks like I may doing my gpu buying wrong lol...

780 sli...Yeah, that is definitely overkill for 1080p. But, what the heck. Have fun.

Nice :thumbsup: So it looks like you decided to go that route

Unhooked, yeah I mean 780 x2 > 7970 X 2.. More power to ya... Awesomeness

 

[UNhooked]

Well if I do that I'd have to use the GTX 680 for 1080p gaming. Guessing that should be fine.

 

[Teizo]

Naah I may have to re-think this. I may have to replace my 7970's with these.

Considering the performance coupled with the lack of noisiness...would probably be preferable

Nice :thumbsup: So it looks like you decided to go that route

Yeah, these MSI 760s run so quiet, and with the side vent fan I have on the way, I'll be able to keep temps down...and since I have the PSU and mobo for it....and the fact I am a major IQ whore lol...I wanted to give it a shot so I could run ssaa in my favorite games. I went back and forth on it wondering if it was worth the investment...but I figured since I kept being tempted by it I better just go ahead and do it.

I may actually down clock them with afterburner to conserve power since they will have plenty of power to play games, and just overclock them for benchmarks.

 

[UNhooked]

Considering the performance coupled with the lack of noisiness...would probably be preferable

I am going to have sellers remorse parting with the 7970's. Under water these cards are the bomb. Plus not to mention these have the single slot 7970s brackets so I can use all my expansion slots. With the 780's I am going to lose some due the double bracket design.

 

[Teizo]

I am going to have sellers remorse parting with the 7970's. Under water these cards are the bomb. Plus not to mention these have the single slot 7970s brackets so I can use all my expansion slots. With the 780's I am going to lose some due the double bracket design.

Oh, you have them water cooled. I didn't catch that for some reason. Can't get much more quiet than that. MSI's TwinFrz IV heatsink is really good though. Even at %100 it is not distracting.

Yeah, I understand those cards overclock extremely well. You could always keep them, of course. I usually always have a back up card laying around just in case I run into some issue and I have to RMA a card.

 

[3DVagabond]

How about a case with better cooling? Seems like everything else in your system is top rate gear.

 

[imaheadcase]

You forgot:
- Stutter sensitive people
- Ability to max out AA in the best games
- Future games. Possibly Battlefield 4 maxed-out

Also, 45fps isn't necessarily fluid to some people -- some people really want framerate=Hz (framerate matching Hz) for the ultimate smooth effect.

BF4 is just like BF3 in terms of performance. Most don't care about AA in games. GTX 580 is smooth enough for both of them.

 

[UaVaj]

BF4 is just like BF3 in terms of performance. Most don't care about AA in games. GTX 580 is smooth enough for both of them.

AA has a lot to do with pixel pitch and viewing distance.

on a smaller 22" 1080 panel with pixel being 0.247. you hardly need AA for desktop viewing.

in contrast - on a 27" 1440 panel with pixel being 0.234. those folks hardly need AA either for desktop viewing.

 

[UNhooked]

How about a case with better cooling? Seems like everything else in your system is top rate gear.

Which case are you referring to? If you are talking about the node, I really have no choice since that was the only case that I could find which had the right clearances and the right dimensions. Anything else was too big or didn't have enough room for one of the components

 

[2is]

When I bought my 680, I thought it would be overkill for 1200p. A year later I bought another one. Games like Crysis, Metro, Far Cry 3 saw a very nice boost.