If the 780Ti is a better performer than the R290 costing $400, why is the 780 Ti only worth $200 RS?
I was clearly discussing the relative standing of 780Ti which you cannot buy new against other cards it competes against. In that case, what is a fair price for a 3GB 780Ti against a brand new with warranty R9 390/970? What about 780Ti against a used after-market 290X such as Sapphire Tri-X? EVGA sells B-stock 780Ti for $190-200 from time to time so that's what it's worth to them.
Many, if not most of the 780TI's were factory overclocked that makes a performance difference from the vanilla 980TI's. A quick check of prices shows the R290 at around $290, not $200.
290 cost $400. That mean someone could have bought a 290, sold it today for $150, added $300 saved from not buying a 780Ti and gotten themselves a Fury or the best 980. Used 290s do not sell for $290. Since 780Ti cannot be bought new, the fair comparison to 290/290X cards should be used 290/290X.
If you want to compare to new cards, then it'd be $290 R9 390 or 970.
Most benchmarks of the 780 are with it boosting to under 1000mhz, overclock the thing to 1200mhz and it's pretty close to a 970. Best of all they can be picked up cheap now.
It's true they haven't aged particularly well but they're far from a potato.
This argument doesn't work in this case because 970, 980, 290, 290X, 390 all overclock and all have more VRAM. The only card the 780 OC can easily beat from that line-up above is the 280X/7970Ghz, but that argument hardly works in favour of the 780 since bitcoin mining made 7970Ghz free/way cheaper and 280X cost just $299, not $500-650 like the 780 did.
Today, 780 simply makes no sense since it's never cheap enough compared to used 290/290X cards.
When you take the $400 290 into equation that is just barely on the heels of the 780 Ti today then it truly seems like a terrible value.
That's my point. Reference R9 290s cost $800 vs. $700 780Ti. What do you get for $100 more today? This:
62% higher average performance and a setup that hardly warrants a serious upgrade.
As a side-bonus you'd still have 4GB of VRAM and most likely better DX12 performance too.
I think the judgement on GK110 so far has been a bit harsh. It is still a very capable card.
I think it hasn't been harsh enough. Using 290X is a cop-out since most people skipped 290X entirely and just got the 290. The comparison should really be 1x 290 or 2x290 vs. 780Ti. Either case makes 780Ti look horrendous. 780Ti was like taking $300 and flushing it into the toilet because back when 290/780Ti were battling it out, they were fast enough for older titles and now when you need the extra performance, 780Ti has nothing to show for that $300 spent.
Worse yet, $1400 780Ti SLI barely outperforms stock reference thermal throttling $800 290 CF. When you start looking at things from this point of view, 780Ti is one of the worst overpriced flagship cards. It cost way too much, and didn't deliver at all. At least when one max overclocked the 580, in the most demanding games it smacked 6970.
It'll be interesting to revisit next year to see how 3GB of VRAM and DX12 will impact 780Ti. I have a feeling it'll continue to age even worse.
I guess you can make the argument that someone who paid $650-700 for a 780Ti doesn't care about how well a card performs in 2 years or how much value it lost since they already moved on to 980Ti and they aren't exactly price sensitive. You'd have a point there. :thumbsup: