Conclusions and Final Thoughts
Performance
We have gone through a ton of data today so I am going to make this conclusion page brief. As a high end graphics card, the new GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB finds itself in an interesting spot. For 1920×1080 gaming there is no reason to own a $999 GPU and definitely not this one. At 2560×1440 the TITAN definitely perks up and finds itself easily the most powerful single GPU on the planet. If we want relative performance you can expect the TITAN to be anywhere from 20-60% faster than the GeForce GTX 680 and anywhere from 20-50% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition depending on the game.
The real question comes from the GeForce GTX 690 and its dual-GK104 goodness. In nearly all cases, the performance of the GTX 690 is better than that of the GTX TITAN. The one case where that isn't true was in our 5760×1080 Crysis 3 testing that definitely can take advantage of the 6GB frame buffer on this beast. The GTX 690 is limited to 2GB per GPU so it has the same problems as running a pair of GTX 680s in SLI. You might be able to make the conclusion that for single display gamers the GTX 690 is the better of the two $999 cards while for multi-display gaming the GTX TITAN is better; we'll know soon.
The other competition for the GTX TITAN is the Radeon HD 7970 in CrossFire and the GTX 680 in SLI. We showed you some SLI numbers and the GTX 680s are consistently faster than the GTX TITAN as well. CrossFire we left out, as I have explained thoroughly on the previous page, for now. But, while frame rate performance is better on the SLI GTX 680s, the GTX TITAN is a better choice when it comes to noise, power consumption, space occupied, and overall "cool" factor. Couple that with the potential for GPGPU work down the road, and you might find it reasonable to pick the TITAN over the cheaper GTX 680s.
Features
The primary features of the GTX TITAN include the new GPU Boost 2.0 technology, the great acoustics and the capability to try some display overclocking. These are great but I don't find them able to swing our decision one way or the other with much force. Consider them add-ons.
Pricing and Availability
- GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB: $999
- GeForce GTX 690 4GB: $999
- GeForce GTX 680 2GB: $459
- Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB: $459
NVIDIA says the GTX TITAN will be available starting next week in retail channels and through system builders. I am guessing the inventory will be limited so if you want one of these cards you had better keep your eyes and browser windows open.
UPDATE: You can now preorder the ASUS GTX TITAN model at Newegg for $999. Oh, and $5.62 shipping…
Final Thoughts
There is still much to discuss and learn about both GK110 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB graphics card. We plan on spending more time with it as the next couple of weeks progress. We'll have more on the Frame Rating Capture system, how the TITAN reacts in Surround multi-display gaming tests, and more on the CrossFire versus SLI battle. For today though, if you want the fastest single GPU card on the market, the TITAN is the king of the hill until those Olympians roll in…
Our NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Coverage Schedule:
- Tuesday, February 19 @ 9am ET: GeForce GTX TITAN Features Preview
- Thursday, February 21 @ 9am ET: GeForce GTX TITAN Benchmarks and Review
- Thursday, February 21 @ 2pm ET: PC Perspective Live! GTX TITAN Stream
I just spent a little over
I just spent a little over $1100 on 3 x 7970’s and against my friends new Titan, I basically walk over him in all benchmarks.
Except that Crossfire is a
Except that Crossfire is a sham. You get no better performance than one card. Read the article before spouting. And Tech Report and Hardocp. Runt frames a real disaster for Crossfire as they can be seen, measured, and exposed, unlike the fraps number which includes totally degraded frames in their fps number you rely on. Latencies have long been an issue with AMD cards and this clarifies in Crossfire.
Great work Ryan keep up the
Great work Ryan keep up the great work…by the way how do we support your site make donations !!!!! p.s I’m loving my tri sli titans this is the card I have been waiting for my hole life… been builbing systems starting back in the voodoo days finally 6000×1200 plays like butter nvidia is really something eh!!