Introduction
The 'next-generation' consoles are just about catching up to 1080p, but in the world of PC gaming, things have moved up a further few notches through the emergence of 4K panels touting a lush 3,840x2,160 resolution.
Lovely as they are - and it's true, games have never looked so crisp - pushing this number of pixels requires some serious horsepower on the part of the accompanying GPU. And from what we've seen thus far, a single Radeon R9 290X or GeForce GTX Titan doesn't quite provide the talent that's needed to drive some of the latest games at such extreme resolutions.
But how about the new king of the realm, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti? With 3GB of fast GDDR5 memory and a full compliment of SMX units, encompassing 2,880 processors and 240 texture units, is this the card that's best geared toward 4K gaming? Yours for a cool $699 (£560), we're here to see if Nvidia's latest has the resources to take on ultra-high-res games by comparing it directly against AMD's crown jewel, the Radeon R9 290X.
Test Methodology
Comparison GPUs |
||
|---|---|---|
| GPU | Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti |
AMD Radeon R9 290X |
| Driver | 331.70 |
13.11 beta 8 |
| Process | 28nm |
28nm |
| Transistors | 7.1bn |
6.2bn |
| Approx Die Size | 551mm² |
438mm² |
| Processors | 2,880 |
2,816 |
| Texture Units | 240 |
176 |
| ROP Units | 48 |
64 |
| GPU Clock/Boost (MHz) | up to 928 |
up to 1,000 |
| Shader Clock/Boost (MHz) | up to 928 |
up to 1,000 |
| GFLOPS | up to 5,345 |
up to 5,632 |
| Memory Size | 3,072MB GDDR5 |
4,096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 7,000 |
5,000 |
| Memory Bus (bits) | 384 |
512 |
| Max bandwidth (GB/s) | 336.5 |
320 |
| Power Connectors | 8+6 |
8+6 |
| TDP (watts) | 250 |
250 |
| GFLOPS per watt | 21.38 |
22.52 |
| MSRP | $699 |
$549 |
HEXUS 4K Graphics Test Bench |
|
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i7-4770K (3.50GHz, 8MB cache, quad-core) |
| CPU Cooler | Intel reference E97378-001 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H |
| Memory | 16GB G.Skill RipJaws (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1,600MHz |
| Power Supply | Corsair AX760i |
| Storage Device | Crucial M500 240GB SSD |
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite Series 600T |
| Monitor | Asus PQ321Q (3,840x2,160) |
| Operating system | Windows 8 64-bit |
HEXUS 4K Benchmark Suite |
||
|---|---|---|
| GPU Benchmarks | Mode and Resolution | Quality Settings |
| Crysis 3 | DX11 at 3,840x2,160 | 4xMSAA, High Preset |
| Far Cry 3 | DX11 at 3,840x2,160 | 2xMSAA, Ultra Preset |
| GRID 2 | DX11 at 3,840x2,160 | 4xMSAA, Ultra Preset |
| Just Cause 2 | DX10 at 3,840x2,160 | 8xMSAA, High Preset |
| Total War: Rome II | DX11 at 3,840x2,160 | 4xMSAA, High Preset |
Notes
Just as before, we've run the best two cards from each team - GeForce GTX 780 Ti in the green corner and Radeon R9 290X in the red corner at 4K on an Asus PQ321Q monitor. In-game image-quality settings range from high to ultra-high. Note that we're continuing to use lots of GPU-bustin' antialiasing, to really put the hurt on the cards. The results will prove whether it's possible to game on a 4K-resolution screen, with top-notch settings, using the very best single-GPU graphics cards that money can buy.