Gigabyte is currently offering three different GeForce GTX 780, one reference, the WindForce3 2.0 and the OverClock 2.0. Today we are going to have a look at the fastest one, the OverClock 2.0. 2.0 indicates the revision of the card, or improved PCB in this case, as the only difference with the previous revision 1.0 lies within the PCB type. The revision 1.0 was equipped with the reference PCB while this one features a custom design. We're curious to see what the combination of a high factory overclocking and Gigabyte's WindForce 3X 450W cooler can achieve.
With the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 you get a factory overclocked card which features
a custom PCB as well as a custom cooler. The ASIC quality
measured on our sample was 77.4 % which is a bit higher than the average.
About ASIC quality:
Gigabyte's GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 is based on NVIDIA's massive Kepler GK110
chip, which is manufactured by TSMC using the latest 28 nanometer process
technology. With the GeForce GTX 780 you get twelve SMX units which results in
2'304 CUDA cores. Following the specs further, there are 192 TMUs, 48 ROPs, a
384 bit wide memory interface and 3 GB of GDDR5 memory.
Since Gigabyte didn't bother overclock the memory, the latter stays clocked
at 1'502 MHz (effective 6'008 MHz). In the end there is a memory bandwidth of
288 Gbps.
On the GPU you find quite a decent factory overclock with a base clock of 954 MHz and a
typical boost clock of 1'006 MHz. During our tests the highest boost clock we
measured was 1'097 MHz and the average boost clock was also 1'097 MHz.
The card also supports GPU Boost 2.0. The first version of GPU Boost stopped overclocking the GPU when a certain power target was hit. This new second version of GPU Boost stops overclocking the card, when a certain temperature is being reached. This makes sense since the temperature is the bigger inhibitor than the power target in most cases. In this case the temperature target is 80 degrees Celsius. In other words, as long as the GPU
runs at less than 80°C it will keep overclocking until the maximum frequency has
been reached. This is why in our case the average boost clock was 91 MHz higher than the typical boost clock
the manufacturer advertises.
nVidia GeForce
GeForce GTX Titan
Gigabyte GTX 780 OC
V2
ASUS GTX 780 DCU 2 OC
GeForce GTX 780
Chip
GK110
GK110
GK110
GK110
Process
28 nm
28 nm
28 nm
28 nm
Transistors
7.10 billion
7.10 billion
7.10 billion
7.10 billion
GPU
clock
837 MHz
954 MHz
889 MHz
863 MHz
GPU Boost
clock
876 MHz
1'006 MHz
941 MHz
900 MHz
Memory GDDR5
6'144 MB
3'072 MB
3'072 MB
3'072 MB
Memory
clock
1'502 (6'008) MHz
1'502 (6'008) MHz
1'502 (6'008) MHz
1'502 (6'008) MHz
Memory
interface
384 Bit
384 Bit
384 Bit
384 Bit
Memory
bandwidth
288'400 MB/s
288'400 MB/s
288'400 MB/s
288'400 MB/s
TMUs
224
192
192
192
Shader Cores
2'688 (14 SMX)
2'304 (12 SMX)
2'304 (12 SMX)
2'304 (12 SMX)
ROPs
48
48
48
48
TDP
250 Watt
>250 Watt
>250 Watt
250 Watt
PCB Type
Reference Design
Custom Design
Custom Design
Reference Design
Lenght (PCB - Total)
27.0 - 27.0 cm
26.9 - 28.8 cm
26.7 - 28.7 cm
27.0 - 27.0 cm
Height (PCB - Total)
11.0 - 11.0 cm
11.0 - 12.6 cm
12.0 - 14.2 cm
11.0 - 11.0 cm
Slots
2
2
2
2
Cooler
NVIDIA Reference
WindForce 3X
ASUS DirectCU II
NVIDIA Reference
MSRP
$999
$XXX
$XXX
$649
Gigabyte decided to equip their GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 with their very
own cooling solution answering to the name WindForce 3X 450W. This one features
two 8mm and four 6mm copper heatpipes. Soldered to the heatpipes you find the fin stack
which is being fed with fresh air via three 80mm fans. They carry the model
number T128010SU and have been inclined in order to blow the air away better at
the top of the card.
Overall the cooler is well manufactured but the copper base that is far from the
mirror finish, since it looks industrial. Around the base you find an aluminium part
which is used to fix the cooler to the PCB and also to cool the memory thanks to
thermal pads.
The rear fin stack has been equipped with an aluminium plate to cool the
MOSFETs of the GPU power design. A thermal pad has also been used in this
case.
A closer look at the PCB shows that Gigabyte equipped its card with a
8+2 phase power design. The GPU gets its current from eight phases and the two
phases left take good care of the memory.
Checking the
voltage regulation chip we find a digital 8-phase synchronous buck converter
NCP4208
from ON (ON Semiconductor) that support I2C. Furthermore there is an
unidentified Richtek 2-phase analog PWM labelled 0T=FA V2A taking care of a stable
current supply for the the
memory.
On the PCB we find another chip labelled INA 3221. The INA3221 from Texas
Instruments is a three-channel, high-side current sensor and bus voltage monitor
with an I2C interface.
The memory chips used are made by Samsung and carry the model number
K4G20325FD-FC03. They are specified to run at 1'500 MHz (6'000 MHz effective).
The card ships well bolstered in a foam made mold.
Bundled with the graphics card there is a driver CD and two power converters (2x Molex to PCIe-6pin
and 2xMolex to PCIe-8pin). The bundle is not pictured because our sample wasn't
shipped with the bundle.
Idle, temperature is
taken after 15 minutes @ 30 %, 50 % and 100 % fan speed.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature under
Furmark
For FurMark, temperature is taken
after 15 minutes of GPU Burn test @ 30 %, 50 % and 100 % fan speed.
We stopped the test when the GPU temperature hit 90°C.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature and
fan speed under BattleField 3
For BattleField 3, temperature and fan speed
values taken, are the highest achieved after 1 hour gaming @ auto fan
speed.
The "Performance Index" value is calculated as the sum of all
benchmarks results divided by the amount of games (3DMark and Ungine not
included into the calculation).
Performance/Price
Graphics Cards
Performance Index
Price
(€)
Performance/€*10
nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti
30.06
98
3.07
nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost
40.25
132
3.05
AMD Radeon HD 7870
48.80
160
3.05
AMD Radeon HD 7850
40.82
139
2.94
nVidia GeForce GTX 660
46.52
158
2.94
nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti
51.99
177
2.94
AMD Radeon HD
6870
30.93
110
2.81
AMD Radeon HD 7850
40.82
154
2.65
nVidia GeForce GTX 760
55.93
213
2.63
nVidia GeForce GTX 670
60.30
253
2.38
nVidia GeForce GTX
580
49.35
225
2.19
AMD Radeon HD
6950
35.91
165
2.18
nVidia GeForce GTX 680
66.70
307
2.17
nVidia GeForce GTX 770
69.98
333
2.10
AMD Radeon HD 7970
62.05
302
2.05
AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition
68.30
341
2.00
AMD Radeon HD
6970
40.13
261
1.54
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2
89.37
587
1.52
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DC2 OC
87.11
576
1.51
nVidia GeForce GTX 780
79.80
540
1.48
AMD Radeon HD
6990
73.04
564
1.30
nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN
85.50
832
1.03
More is better
Less is better
More is better
For the price we took the lowest price available on geizhals.eu,
on the day the review has been published.
The GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 from Gigabyte is a really nice
piece of hardware. The graphics card did well everywhere from
performance to power consumption and even noise level is great.
The build quality is on an overall very high level. There is only
the copper base of the cooler, that could have been mirror lapped for
example. As usual, we would like to see the memory being overclocked on
such a high end card.
When it comes to the bundle, there is virtually nothing in the box next
to the card. Gamers would love to get at least a free game when spending
a lot on a graphics card.
- Performance
- Cooling
- Design
- No Factory Overclocking on the memory
- Bundle
Cooling / Noise
Level
+
-
The WindForce 3X 450W cooler system from Gigabyte suits
the GeForce GTX 780 very well. GPU Temperatures
were good under load and very good in idle. The GPU did hit 85°C
under heavy FurMark load with the fans locked at 30 % fan speed (noiseless). Now
with the fan in auto, after
playing BattleField 3 for an hour the maximum temperature hit by the
GPU was 70°C. In this case the maximum fan speed was 54%,
translated it means a noise level of about 38 dBA. In other words, the
card isn't very silent, you hear it but it's silent. Cooling such a GPU,
even not overclocked, isn't a walk in the park. Yet Gigabyte did better
than nVidia and ASUS for exemple.
- inaudible in 2D
- Silent in 3D
Performance
+
-
The Gigabyte OC V2 is by far not the fastest GTX 780 on the
planet but it gives you enough performance over the reference card.
Thanks to the good cooler, the GPU was always running at a whooping
1'097 MHz under load. In this case the OC V2 is 13 % faster than the
reference card and 3 % faster than the ASUS DC2 OC on average in
the tested games. The Gigabyte card also outperforms a GTX Titan by 7 %.
A closer look at power consumption shows, that our test system, equipped
with the OC V2, burns 49 Watts under idle conditions
and 281 Watts under load. In both cases that's very good.
This Gigabyte variant benefits from a good performance/watt ratio but a
bad performance/price ratio like other GTX 780s.
- Performance/Watt
- Power consumption
- Performance/Price
Recommendation / Price
+
-
Looking up the prices on Geizhals we see that the cheapest offers
for a GTX 780 starts at 540 Euros accorss the EU shipping excluded. The
Gigabyte version tested here is being sold for about 590 Euros.
Everything considered we think that's a fair price for what you get.
- Gaming
We gave the
GeForce GTX 780 OC V2
from Gigabyte 4.5 out of 5 stars.