The GeForce GTX TITAN X Graphics Card
The reveal from a couple of weeks back at GDC showed much of what you already want to know about the GeForce GTX TITAN X reference card. The design is pretty much identical to the previous TITAN cards, and even the GTX 980/GTX 780, but with a couple of tweaks to make it stand out this time around.
NVIDIA’s flagship GPU cooler remains mostly unchanged in style and design. I think that, in general, most people really like the look of these reference cards though I will be the first to admit that it might be time for a bit of a refresh – these cards have looked very similar for several years now. The aluminum cover on the TITAN X remains but this time is painted black and the TITAN label on the card is highly contrasted in silver.
The cooler on the TITAN X is a blower style design, but it uses a copper vapor chamber to keep the massive GM200 GPU under control. The advantage of the blower design is that hot air is removed from the case rather than just being blown around inside the case but it usually comes at the cost of some extra noise. We’ll have our own sound testing towards the end of the review but the GTX TITAN X produces about the same sound level as the GTX 780 Ti.
Interestingly, NVIDIA chose to not include a back plate with the TITAN X even though the reference design of the GTX 980 did include one that was both stylish and functional. If you remember, the GTX 980 back cover had a removable panel that would allow for additional airflow to stacked cards in a multi-GPU SLI configuration. According to NVIDIA, that was not enough this time around and the GTX TITAN X needs all the airflow it can get when stacked directly next to each other. Thus, a back plate was dropped in favor of a vanilla PCB design to facilitate better cooling and lower noise levels in SLI.
The display output configuration on the GTX TITAN X remains the same as we saw integrated on the GTX 980. It includes a set of three full-size DisplayPort connections, a full-size HDMI 2.0 port and a dual-link DVI connections. HDMI 2.0 means the card can power modern 4K TVs at 60 Hz frequencies and the DP connections allow for 4K and even 5K display support should you want to plan for that.
As I mentioned on the previous page, the GTX TITAN X only requires a 6-pin and 8-pin power connection to meet the 250 watt TDP requirement that it has set.
The card will support 2-Way, 3-Way and 4-Way SLI for those of you that want to spend all the money to get all the performance.
From a PCB design perspective, NVIDIA claims to have spent a lot time perfect it as well. It features a 6+2 power phase implementation with 6-phases for the GPU and 2-phases dedicated to the GDDR5 memory. The board design allows for a 110% power target setting for overclocking, or a 275 watt thermal limit.
To combat any issues with coil whine, NVIDIA is using polarized capacitors and molded inductors. These components have also been moved on the board towards the GPU at the front of the card. This is not to improve signaling but to allow these often hot components to get more of the airflow from the fan at the back of the card.
Even with the lack of a back plate, it’s hard not to fall in the love with the look and feel of the TITAN X. The metal housing and glass window looking through to the heatsink channels give this a high quality, aspire-to-own aura. Of course, I would hope that any graphics card with a $999 price tag would do just that!
very overpriced for what you
very overpriced for what you get, I was hoping they’d incorporate a 512bit memory interface and stick with double precision
They’re already pushing over
They’re already pushing over 600mm2 on the GPU. They seem limited by what they can do on the 28nm process.
Oh…oh god…MOTHER OF
Oh…oh god…MOTHER OF GOD…
http://www.imagebam.com/image/4dccee397912995.
It seems like most newer
It seems like most newer games work quite well with multiple gpu set-ups. At some point there is going to be little difference between 2 gpus and one gpu at twice the size except price. Two smaller gpus will probably be cheaper since the yield on a ~600 square mm part is not going to be good. For most of the games tested, a multi-gpu system is cheaper and better performing. Power is more, but with multi-gpu systems you are running multiple, independent high speed memory systems instead of a single memory system. Stacked HBM is supposed to be much more power efficient, so multiple smaller gpus with HBM may be the the best option eventually. Both the Titan X and the 390X are going to be priced out of the mainstream market. They are interesting to read about, but I doubt many people here are considering actually buying one.
Performance per dollar is
Performance per dollar is HORRIBLE, this is the card for people who have so much money they honestly don’t know what to do with it.
“As a hardware enthusiast,
“As a hardware enthusiast, it’s impossible to not fall in love with the GeForce GTX Titan X.”
Yes it is. Because despite what your “funny nvidia infomercial”, which you dare call a test, this card is a freaking rip-off.
It’s nothing more than this generation’s GTX580 3GB. Except that one was 550$. It’s gain over previous gen, be it performance or power efficiency, are nothing more than 780 over 580 or 580 over 280.
The fact the GTX 560Ti was 250€ and the 580 3GB 550€, and now the 960 Ti (oop, 980) is 550€ and the 980 (oops, TitanX) 1000€ should make any hardware enthusiast think twice before writing piles of advertising shit.
Wow, angry much ?
AMD
Wow, angry much ?
AMD overclocked one of their stupid bull cpu’s, then sold it on NewEgg for freaking $800.
I was LOL’ing so hard – a bunch of amd fanboys bought it, then it found to be flaky and a supreme power hog, then the price plummeted… to like $300, slightly above the best doggy cpu ad had
I mean how could amd rebrand then raise the price 300% ?
Now THERE’S A RIPOFF ! IT WASN’T EVEN A NEW CPU !
At least nVidia makes a new MONSTER product with MONSTER RAM, instead of overclocking a failed dog then scalping fanboys.
The 295X2 just killed another
The 295X2 just killed another weak Titan.
The 295X2 is still top of the food chain.
The weak Titan X is too weak for 295X2.
AMD continues to bleed market
AMD continues to bleed market share and profits on discrete GPUs.
Nvidia gains market share in discrete and now holds a 76% to 24% advantage over AMD.
http://jonpeddie.com/news/comments/gpu-shipments-marketwatch-q4-2014-charts-and-images
AMD cuts the prices over and over again yet more gamers are choosing Nvidia over AMD.
Nvidia has high margins on the Titans (and they do sell out) whereas AMD has low margins on the 295X2 (2x GPUs, expensive cooling, more layers on PCB, etc) and still can’t get people to buy it. So sad (for AMD).
Fanboys make me laugh. If you
Fanboys make me laugh. If you don’t want what the Titan X offers, don’t buy it. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. But laughing and saying the 295X2 is still the best is just stupid. The 295X2 is 12.4B transistors and 600W of power that can only keep itself cool with an unwieldy CLC. AMD’s only selling for 700 bucks because nobody wants them. Is it still the fastest single PCB solution? Well, yes, but only sometimes… only if CF is implemented correctly. The 295X2 comes with so many compromises that nvidia clearly feels like they can charge a $450 premium over the GTX 980, and until AMD has something that can compete directly on a single GPU basis, its going to stay that way. Oh, and a bunch of sketchy leaked slides and rumors about the 390X mean nothing. If you’re using the 390X as proof of AMD’s superiority you’re a joke. Call me when the reviews drop.
PS- owner of 2 290x’s speaking
Prices at this level have
Prices at this level have very little to do with market demand or much of anything else. The volume of these super ridiculous high end cards is so low that they are mostly a marketing tool. Nvidia releases this Titan x with probably 2x the amount of ram that it could actually use and gets a lot of media attention ahead of any AMD releases. They are not going to make much on actually selling these things, especially since it doesn’t have high compute performance. They will certainly have a cut down version of this chip that will be a more reasonable price eventually.
For people actually willing to spend the money on this much performance, the r9-295×2 is still the better deal. I don’t care much about the number of transistors and such. The AMD solution is cheaper and performs better. Most gamers don’t care that much about the power consumption either unless it makes the card excessively noisy. I don’t see much of any reason that a gamer would buy a Titan x over the 295, so why wouldn’t you say that the 295 is still the better card? It seems that most modern games are handling dual gpu fine, and older games probably don’t need this level of performance anyway.
Agreed, despite your being
Agreed, despite your being too cowardly to register.
The transistor counts tell
The transistor counts tell you something about where each company is in terms of technology, but you’re right that they don’t matter directly. Instead it has a knock-on effect for the power and cooling requirements. Despite what AMD fanboys keep telling me, power DOES matter. Installing a CLC is a big logistical pain in the ass and fan speed needs to compensate to keep things cool. I couldn’t stand the fan noise on my 7970’s, let alone the 290X’s so I built a full custom loop just to shut them the hell up. Might not have needed to do that with more efficient cards that can run quieter on air.
And as far as performance, I have lots of recent games that still only use 1 GPU reliably. How many games have serious, sometimes gamebreaking issues at launch with SLI or CF? Happens a lot… flickering textures, stuttering, framerates bouncing all over the place or just straight up crashes. Titanfall and Evolve come to mind immediately. So yea, if everything is working the 295X2 is a better perf/$ card, but its so much more dependent on software that there will always be value in a single GPU solution. How much is up to you, but people who keep squawking about the 295X2 would have you believe otherwise.
So now crossfire always works
So now crossfire always works and amd drivers don’t suck….
SELL IT TO THE CARPETBAGGER BRO.
Stop talking sense!
Stop talking sense!
deleted. Was going to say
deleted. Was going to say deleted self, but that would have been ambiguous.
Yes the 295x has compromises
Yes the 295x has compromises
BUT I want one, but it won’t fit into the cases I own, as I already have watercooling CPU units inside. If they were Air cooled they would be flying off the shelf at that price point. Thats why most AMD ers are just doing crossfire.
PS. (I run AMD and Nvidia)
Priced here in Ireland @ 1250
Priced here in Ireland @ 1250 euros (Including tax 23%).
I want one, (Well 2 in SLI), but not ever at that price.
980 TI is basically going to be this card with less ram and speed aligned as to what the AMD 390x does. Prob june/july
So wait and see, seems to be the thing to do.
(If rumors are true then the TITAN X is about AMD 390x speeds)
PS. Never seen so may review cards issued………..
PPS. Guess I didn’t win the draw………..secret word was dress (Red)
I see a future with 3-phase
I see a future with 3-phase 208 and liquid nitrogen tanks.
Comon guys, Titan X
Comon guys, Titan X benchmarks on vanilla Skyrim? 🙁 Nobody buying Titan X is going to care about vanilla Skyrim performance on 1440p. Maybe 4k vanilla, but better, 1440p with mods.
Want to post a score for EVGA
Want to post a score for EVGA super-clocked version of this card. With factory settings and without additional overclocking I got on Fire Strike Extreme: Score: 8281, Graphics score: 8884 which is about 10% higher that reference card.