[HardOCP] Asus DC II 290X max overclock versus GTX 780ti max overclocking review:

[el etro]

1) Titans cherry picked. [citation required]

2) 90% of more of its performance with a 450$ aftermarket card overclocked?

90%? You could buy an aftermarket GTX 780 OC card for 500-530$ and get 112-120% of Titan performance. The Titan is designed for CUDA development and super high resolution surround gaming with 6 GB of VRAM. But if you want a cheaper card, you can overclock the 780 and get a card that is up to 20% faster than the Titan.

The aftermarket 290 would be a good alternative. It performs really well. Very well even. But let's analyze this a bit further. I'm doing some statistics analysis right now, which seem to indicate that the chances of getting an aftermarket R9-290 for less than 500$ in the US is less than .05%. For some reason, there's a greater than 75% chance that an aftermarket R9-290 will cost you more than an overclocked GTX 780 aftermarket card. That's what my quick statistics analysis is indicating to me right now.

3) I'm trying to find anyone who mentioned 1.3ghz in this thread. Nope. Not finding it.

3) That's why the joker post suggests. Again the "GK110 chips going far from 1.2Ghz" history.

2)I think i write something wrong. I'm brazilian. I said that a overclocked aftermarket r9 290 can make competition to a 1.2-1.3Ghz GK110 powered card.

1)This is more of a assumption, knowing real histories of Titans going far from 1.2Ghz with modded bioses.
And no, Titan is not a acessible GPGPU product, but is a TOP class graphics card of its time. GPGPU capabilities of the card is a bonus to gamers that spent the biggest price ever on a video card.

More like 96% c4c, r290x is AMDs highest binned card, Titan is not.

I'm not sure what your last sentence is supposed to say. You want me to post 1400MHz Titan results?

290x is not a binned card, not on max overclocking aspect. If 3dmark site list 290(s) averaging 1150Mhz on air overclocks, it's because people are really getting there with the r9 cards. Site data from its competitor(GTX 78x) suggests the AvgOC achieved on cards is less than 50Mhz superior.

 

[SimianR]

The aftermarket 290 would be a good alternative. It performs really well. Very well even. But let's analyze this a bit further. I'm doing some statistics analysis right now, which seem to indicate that the chances of getting an aftermarket R9-290 for less than 500$ in the US is less than .05%. For some reason, there's a greater than 75% chance that an aftermarket R9-290 will cost you more than an overclocked GTX 780 aftermarket card. That's what my quick statistics analysis is indicating to me right now.

This is a more interesting discussion. I actually think an aftermarket 290 like the Sapphire Tri-X, even using the reference PCB, would be pretty competitive with aftermarket overclocked 780 cards. It would be nice to see some sites do some performance comparisons using two aftermarket cards instead of aftermarket vs reference 780/ti.

 

[OCGuy]

780ti is hands down the best card on the market. Hawaii was a last ditch 28nm attempt and poorly designed. However, without R9 290, we wouldn't have a fully unlocked GK110, so Hawaii is important.

Waiting for [H]Zone to comment, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I wish they posted Noise levels as well. I'd be interested to know how loud 80% fan is on the 780ti vs the custom 290x.

 

[thilanliyan]

780ti is hands down the best card on the market. Hawaii was a last ditch 28nm attempt and poorly designed. However, without R9 290, we wouldn't have a fully unlocked GK110, so Hawaii is important.

In terms of cooling, yes the reference 290 was poorly designed, but the performance itself is pretty good, especially if you have an aftermarket card with proper cooling that won't run into throttling.

 

[wand3r3r]

Good question. They said they tried using noise that a gamer could potentially use so it would have been interesting plus with the uber comparison for reference.

 

[wand3r3r]

780ti is hands down the best card on the market. Hawaii was a last ditch 28nm attempt and poorly designed. However, without R9 290, we wouldn't have a fully unlocked GK110, so Hawaii is important.

Waiting for [H]Zone to comment, but I'm not holding my breath.

So what's poor about the design since you don't state one factor such as heat there must be a multitude of bad design decisions.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Good question. They said they tried using noise that a gamer could potentially use so it would have been interesting plus with the uber comparison for reference.

I'm not really one to complain about a little fan noise. I just turn up my speakers a bit. However, it would be good info as 80% seems like a lot of fan.

 

[Pandamonia]

Can someone tell me if ALL 780 Ti be bios flashed for unlocking of voltage and power limits?

Anyone?

 

[Grooveriding]

Anyone?

The software voltage mod that works on the 780 does not work on the 780ti, but there are custom BIOS to increase power limits. So you are at the mercy of the silicon lottery and what it will give you at 1.21V.

If you want voltage control on a 780ti beyond 1.21, you need to get a Classified.

 

[chimaxi83]

780ti is a very nice card, no doubt. Not $700+ nice, but still impressive hardware. Good thing Nvidia finally decided to stop stringing everyone along on gimped chips and released this beast.

 

[Pandamonia]

The software voltage mod that works on the 780 does not work on the 780ti, but there are custom BIOS to increase power limits. So you are at the mercy of the silicon lottery and what it will give you at 1.21V.

If you want voltage control on a 780ti beyond 1.21, you need to get a Classified.

So what is a normal clock with the upped power limits?

 

[Grooveriding]

So what is a normal clock with the upped power limits?

Reference 780ti tends to wind up around 1150 average overclock from what I've seen. Bad cards are around 1100 and better cards do around 1200. Some very rare reference cards can do 1250-1300.

Problem with what you see on forums is that these are generally the clocks they could pass Unigine Valley at, not what they can actually game at consistently. Game stable reference 780ti overclock is going to be about 1150 as an average imo.

If you're buying one of these cards new there is no reason to get a reference card though, it just doesn't make sense. You can probably expect another 50-100Mhz over 1150 with a non-reference board from better power/maybe binning. For real juicy overclocks you need to get a Classified that allows voltage control above 1.21, which is the only 780ti I would pay for. The drawback with that card is that it gets really hot once you add more voltage and pushing it up above 1.3V for gaming should be done with watercooling.

 

[Pandamonia]

Reference 780ti tends to wind up around 1150 average overclock from what I've seen. Bad cards are around 1100 and better cards do around 1200. Some very rare reference cards can do 1250-1300.

Problem with what you see on forums is that these are generally the clocks they could pass Unigine Valley at, not what they can actually game at consistently. Game stable reference 780ti overclock is going to be about 1150 as an average imo.

If you're buying one of these cards new there is no reason to get a reference card though, it just doesn't make sense. You can probably expect another 50-100Mhz over 1150 with a non-reference board from better power/maybe binning. For real juicy overclocks you need to get a Classified that allows voltage control above 1.21, which is the only 780ti I would pay for. The drawback with that card is that it gets really hot once you add more voltage and pushing it up above 1.3V for gaming should be done with watercooling.

Classified is too expensive at £625 which is £100 more. I dont really see why id pay that extra to play games? Big increase in cost for 100mhz?

 

[Face2Face]

The MSI AB softmod (1.3v + LLC) works with all cards that use the NCP4206/8 voltage controller. Pretty sure the GTX 780ti reference uses the same voltage controller and most others as well -- minus the Classified. Skyn3t bios is a must for this type of voltage.

 

[wand3r3r]

Classified is too expensive at £625 which is £100 more. I dont really see why id pay that extra to play games? Big increase in cost for 100mhz?

I'd say you'd be better served with a 780 custom card already at 1200ish? I mean if you're concerned about cost.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

^ 780 GHz will boost out of the box to 1100+ and give you reference 780 Ti performance or thereabouts, with a decent memory offset and a little core you can get about half way to big 780 Ti OC's, beat most 290x water cooled results, but you won't reach 780 Ti big OC performance, even with a 1400MHz classified 780, Ti is just really strong.

Classified is too expensive at £625 which is £100 more. I dont really see why id pay that extra to play games? Big increase in cost for 100mhz?

Most likely there will eventually be a software soft mod for 1.3v and another for far more voltage than you'd ever want to use.

I'd never have bought a 780 if it was still voltage locked...

Stock reference reference voltage I'm lucky if I can do 1200MHz in Tomb Raider (which I find artifacts quite quickly and is actually harder on the core than even Crysis 3).

However with the voltage unlocked 1300/1350 gaming stable isn't out of the question with 1400 suicide artifact runs possible in OCN runs like Valley.

The MSI AB softmod (1.3v + LLC) works with all cards that use the NCP4206/8 voltage controller. Pretty sure the GTX 780ti reference uses the same voltage controller and most others as well -- minus the Classified. Skyn3t bios is a must for this type of voltage.

Well then it should work as of right now, LLC mod will haywire your card with NCP4208 (which is what I have), but I believe that is because it has a more aggressive LLC offset to start with. Found a workaround using 09 instead of 00 here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35935494&postcount=71

 

[Face2Face]

Well then it should work as of right now, LLC mod will haywire your card with NCP4208 (which is what I have), but I believe that is because it has a more aggressive LLC offset to start with. Found a workaround using 09 instead of 00 here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35935494&postcount=71

Good info Balla - I am looking at the GTX 780ti club on OCN and they are showing that the softmod works for the Ti - It's in the OP.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1438886/official-nvidia-gtx-780-ti-owners-club/0_50

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Good info Balla - I am looking at the GTX 780ti club on OCN and they are showing that the softmod works for the Ti - It's in the OP.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1438886/official-nvidia-gtx-780-ti-owners-club/0_50

It uses the exact same 1.3v softmod as the 780, I imagine tools like this: http://www.overclock.net/t/1425102/updated-ab-b18-team-skyn3ts-unlocked-ncp4206-voltage-llc-mod-tool will work as well to give you well past 1.3, I believe max is something stupid like 1.6 or 1.7 as well as adjust LLC.

My card (GHz) seems to have a fatter power limit than some other models, I can run 1.28v on the stock bios before getting too close to the power limit and I'll start throttling. So there is still the problem of power limitations inherit in the bios (though solved by skynet bios), I found the 80.80 classified bios had an even lower power target threshold than my bios. Not sure if that is due to mismatch hardware or what, but I found it odd to say the least.

 

[Stuka87]

So the $700 card is faster than the $570 card. Why is this a surprise?

Yes the 780Ti is faster, but you have to pay for that extra performance. I think a better comparison would be a R9 290 vs a 780Ti. The 780Ti will be faster, but at a large increase in cost. Since 290's are nearly as fast as 290X's for a lower cost.

 

[Grooveriding]

Good info Balla - I am looking at the GTX 780ti club on OCN and they are showing that the softmod works for the Ti - It's in the OP.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1438886/official-nvidia-gtx-780-ti-owners-club/0_50

It's listed there, but it doesn't work. Start reading about 10-20 pages back from the current end of the thread. It works on the 780 because MSI had it written into Afterburner for their purposes and the code leaked. It doesn't work on the 780ti though.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

It's listed there, but it doesn't work. Start reading about 10-20 pages back from the current end of the thread. It works on the 780 because MSI had it written into Afterburner for their purposes and the code leaked. It doesn't work on the 780ti though.

That hurts, assuming you're going all out.

780 Ti is only about 10-13% faster than the 780 Clock for clock.

Say 1200 avg on the Ti with 1.2v and 1300 on the 780 with 1.3v+ which would explain why you can get close to most Tis with a decent 780, that was until the 780 Ti Classified I guess

I personally could never live with 1.21v, my card gains almost 100MHz going from 1.21 to 1.3v and another 100 going from 1.3v to 1.4v...

 

[Pandamonia]

^ 780 GHz will boost out of the box to 1100+ and give you reference 780 Ti performance or thereabouts, with a decent memory offset and a little core you can get about half way to big 780 Ti OC's, beat most 290x water cooled results, but you won't reach 780 Ti big OC performance, even with a 1400MHz classified 780, Ti is just really strong.



Most likely there will eventually be a software soft mod for 1.3v and another for far more voltage than you'd ever want to use.

I'd never have bought a 780 if it was still voltage locked...

Stock reference reference voltage I'm lucky if I can do 1200MHz in Tomb Raider (which I find artifacts quite quickly and is actually harder on the core than even Crysis 3).

However with the voltage unlocked 1300/1350 gaming stable isn't out of the question with 1400 suicide artifact runs possible in OCN runs like Valley.




Well then it should work as of right now, LLC mod will haywire your card with NCP4208 (which is what I have), but I believe that is because it has a more aggressive LLC offset to start with. Found a workaround using 09 instead of 00 here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35935494&postcount=71

780 Twin Frozr Gaming £379 Has custom mill spec parts but reference PCB design?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Yes, looks like a reference board to me.

That said they're generally pretty quick and quite. You can volt mod them though I wouldn't go quite as far as I would with my card.

 

[Pandamonia]

Yes, looks like a reference board to me.

They claim the caps and VRMS are different... So this is no good for decent clocks?