Evga Geforce Gtx 780 Ti User Manual

EVGA's GTX 780 Ti SuperClocked with ACX cooler delivers truly impressive performance. While the GTX 780 Ti is very fast already, EVGA topped it by quite a big margin with their overclock out of the box and the new ACX cooler. ACX plays a significant role in these improvements as it enables the card to run cooler, which results in better performance due to NVIDIA's GPU Boost 2.0 mechanism. When the GTX 780 Ti reaches its temperature target (82°C), Boost 2.0 will reduce clock frequencies to keep the card below that temperature. But the EVGA 780 Ti SC never reaches 82°C, which results in highest Boost clocks being active almost all the time (except for when power consumption is exceeded). We verified this with our clock speed analysis on page thirty. We then see the card 6% faster than the reference design when averaged over our benchmarks. At 2560x1600, the difference is even bigger with 8%, which matches the GTX 690's average performance! It's also a whopping 14% faster than the R9 290X in 'Uber' mode and 20% faster than the R9 290X in 'Quiet' mode. Had EVGA overclocked their memory, too, which is certainly possible given the use of fast 7 Gbps GDDR5 chips, we'd have seen an even bigger increase in performance.
Our manual overclocking tests revealed that the card has lots of manual overclocking potential left, reaching 1160 MHz base clock, which is a 15% OC on top of the 15% EVGA includes out of the box. I'm a bit skeptical of whether we will see such high overclocks on retail boards, but only time will tell. As mentioned before, memory overclocks well, reaching almost 2 GHz (8 GT/s effective), which gives the card more memory bandwidth than any R9 290X, even with manual overclocking.
EVGA's ACX cooler does a very good job at keeping the card cool. Temperatures are comfortably low, well below the 82°C temperature target. Noise levels are significantly reduced, too, but given the 72°C we saw in our testing, EVGA could have let the card run a bit warmer, maybe 75°C or slightly higher, to procure even better noise levels. That said, EVGA does advertises their ACX coolers as providing better temperatures, so '10°C cooler' was probably a marketing decision.
With a price of $730, the card is certainly not cheap. Compared to the $700 reference design, the difference is $30. Looking at performance per dollar, the card is actually better in that metric than NVIDIA's stock GTX 780 Ti. EVGA also includes an additional game, 'Rise of the Triad,' bringing the game bundle up to four titles. The GTX 780 Ti is clearly a premium product, which its pricing reflects. If you need to save money and can take the noise, the AMD's Radeon 290 Series could be an alternative. While I haven't reviewed any other custom GTX 780 Ti cards yet, the EVGA GTX 780 Ti SC with ACX cooler definitely sets the bar high for the competition.

NVIDIA's first GTX 700 Series graphics card introduces the new lineup with impressive results. Built on the same GK110 graphics processor as the GeForce GTX Titan, it represents the best GPU technology NVIDIA has to offer at this time. Compared to the GTX Titan, the differences are relatively slim as NVIDIA disabled another streaming multiprocessor (SMX), which reduces the CUDA core count from 2688 to 2304. Also, the GTX 780 comes with 3 GB GDDR5 memory whereas the GTX Titan has 6 GB, and that's pretty much where the differences end.
When looking at the performance of the EVGA GTX 780 SC, we see performance that exceeds the GeForce GTX Titan by 3%. Compared to the GTX 780 reference design, the improvement is 9% on average and 13%(!) at 2560x1600. AMD's fastest single-GPU card, the HD 7970 GHz, is 24% slower—no danger at all. While AMD wants to put the HD 7990 on the performance throne, our own review shows that it is just not competitive enough, and also too expensive with $1049.
So what did EVGA do to make their card so fast—faster than the much more expensive GTX Titan? First of all, they increased the GPU clocks by more than 100 MHz (130 MHz higher than Titan). Unfortunately, memory clock is unchanged, which would have been an easy extra boost. Our manual overclocking confirms that there would be plenty of headroom for that. Now, the secret sauce seem to be the operating temperatures. NVIDIA designed their Boost 2.0 algorithm with temperatures in mind: if the card goes beyond 80°C, Boost 2.0 will reduce clocks to ensure the card stays at around that temperature target. EVGA realized this and designed a cooler that ensures the card will never reach 80°C, which keeps the additional throttling from taking effect. Just having a good cooler is not enough, you also need to find the right fan speed settings. It's easy to stay below 80°C with a fan that sounds like a leaf blower, but EVGA picked decent fan settings that are just as quiet as the reference cooler without falling into the 80°C performance hole.
EVGA's cooler is also one of the better-looking custom designs, but I do not think it can compete with NVIDIA's reference design cooler visually, which is without a doubt the best-looking one in the industry. EVGA was wise to choose matte colors and metal highlights to keep the cooler from looking plasticky. In terms of cooling performance, the ACX cooler is definitely a step forward: It improves temperatures while keeping noise levels in check. EVGA also highlights that it uses ball bearings while most other VGA card fans use sleeve bearings. On paper, ball bearings have a longer lifespan, but I seriously doubt there is a significant difference for a product that will only be used for a few years tops. Technically, ball bearings are noisier than sleeve bearings, but this doesn't seem to be an issue on EVGA's cooler. I do wish the card came with a backplate. Granted, unlike the GTX Titan, which has memory chips on the backside, the GTX 780 has nothing to cool, but a backplate would have certainly helped with the visual appearance of the card.
Power consumption in absolute numbers is slightly increased, but not enough to make any difference outside of the lab. What is interesting, though, is that even with increased performance delivered, power consumption does not go up accordingly. So, when looking at performance per watt, the EVGA GTX 780 SC ends up with quite a lead on the reference design, especially at 2560x1600, where it competes with the most efficient boards.
Not long ago, people were shocked by GTX Titan's massive $1000 pricing, and the GTX 780 isn't cheap either. NVIDIA's MSRP is $649, and EVGA's GTX 780 SC w/ ACX cooler is available online for $659, a very reasonable $10 premium. While it's not EVGA's fault, the general price of the GTX 780 is definitely too high when looking at the delivered performance. The card should, even after looking at its performance, be around $550. So it's overpriced, we kinda all knew that, but will NVIDIA get away with it? Absolutely. Many people bought the GTX Titan after the outcry on GTX Titan pricing but are extremely happy with the card. Countless forum reports are testament to that. These same people will now be sad as many fought with their wives/GFs/moms to buy a GTX Titan, because the GTX 780 offers pretty much the same performance at a lower price.
If you can't afford the GTX 780, don't worry about it. The GTX 770 will be launching soon, and GeForce GTX 600 cards are still strong. It's not like the GTX 700 introduces features that you absolutely must have to be able to play the latest games. Most gamers will even have a great time with a $200 GTX 660 that can play all titles just fine at full HD. But you now have options that cost less than 1000 USD if you want more.