NVIDIA today introduced the GeForce GTX 780 GPU, an $650 graphics card and a follow-up to last year's GeForce GTX 680 based on a cut-down GK110 GPU, which first launched into the prosumer space with GTX Titan earlier this year.
In addition, NVIDIA has released to production the NVIDIA GeForce Experience software, which delivers to GeForce gamers drivers, advanced features and optimal playable settings (OPS) with the convenience of single click operation.
Designed for gaming enthusiasts, the GeForce GTX 780 boasts a Kepler GPU with 2,304 cores and 3GB of high-speed GDDR5 memory. The GeForce GTX 780 is based on the same GK110 GPU found in the Nvidia Titan, but with fewer functional units. Titan?s 14 SMXes have been reduced to just 12 SMXes, reducing the shader count from 2688 to 2304, and the texture unit count from 224 to 192. Other than that, the GTX 780 comes with all 48 ROPs tied to a 384bit memory bus just as Titan does. However, while the memory bus is the same width, NVIDIA has dropped Titan?s 6GB of RAM for 3GB.
Whereas GTX Titan had a base clockspeed of 837MHz, GTX 780 is clocked slightly higher at 863MHz, with the boost clock having risen from 876MHz to 900MHz. Memory clocks meanwhile are at 6GHz, giving GTX 780 the full 288GB/sec of memory bandwidth.
Titan had a 250W TDP and so does GTX 780.
The GTX 780 is a gaming/consumer part so it does not feature the uncapped double precision (FP64) performance found at the Titan. So although you can expect the GTX 780 can offer 90% of GTX Titan's gaming performance, it will offer a fraction of GTX Titan?s FP64 compute performance.
The card also supports NVIDIA's latest array of gaming technologies, including PhysX and NVIDIA TXAA, while the newest GeForce drivers reduce frame time variations to provide smoother frame delivery.
To satisfy gamer demands for customization and overclocking options, the GeForce GTX 780 includes NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0 technology, which automatically increases the GPU's clock speeds, while adding temperature target and fan controls, as well as extra over-voltage headroom and optimizations for water-cooling solutions.
A cast exterior aluminum frame and a vapor chamber cooling contribute to the exotic design of the card while adaptive temperature controllers reduce unnecessary fan speed variations and deliver silent operation.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 GPU is available now from Nvidia's add-in card suppliers, including ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, MSI, Palit, PNY and Zotac. Pricing is expected to start at $649 - about 50% more expensive than the GTX 680. We remind you that the flagships GTX 690 and Radeon HD 7990 offer much better gaming performance for much higher prices ($1000) and that the next-closest card below GTX 780 will be the GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition.
The GTX 780 is estimated to deliver an average of 90% of Titan's gaming performance for 65% of the price. It is also 80% faster than the GTX 580. And since AMD is not offering a card at thais price range, Nvidia's latest card is offering 20% more the performance of the more affordable AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition ($450).
Available exclusively to GeForce gamers, the NVIDIA GeForce Experience, now released to production, automatically configures the 3D setting for each game to ensure the best experience based on the system configuration. It notifies gamers of software updates and automatically installs GeForce Game Ready drivers.
