System Setup and 3DMark
MSI GTX 780 Ti Gaming 3G Specification |
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GPU Comparisons |
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| Graphics Card | Peak Core Clock (MHz) |
Stream Processors |
Memory Clock (MHz) |
Memory Bus (bits) |
Graphics Driver | |
| MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti Gaming 3GB | 1,046 | 2,880 | 7,000 | 384 | GeForce 340.52 | |
| Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Vapor-X 4GB | 1,030 | 2,816 | 5,300 | 512 | Catalyst 14.7 RC | |
HEXUS Graphics Test Bench |
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| Hardware Components | HEXUS Review | Product Page | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-4770K (3.50GHz, 8MB cache, quad-core) | June 2013 | Intel.com |
| CPU Cooler | Corsair Hydro Series H75 | March 2014 | Corsair.com |
| Motherboard | Asus Z97-A | May 2014 | Asus.com |
| Memory | 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1,866MHz | - | Corsair.com |
| Power Supply | Corsair AX760i | - | Corsair.com |
| Storage Device | Crucial M500 240GB SSD | July 2013 | Crucial.com |
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite Series 600T | October 2010 | Corsair.com |
| Monitor | Philips Brilliance 288P6LJEB/00 (3,840x2,160) | - | Philips.co.uk |
| Operating system | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) | October 2012 | Microsoft.com |
HEXUS Ultra-High-End Benchmark Suite |
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| GPU Benchmarks | Mode and Resolutions | Quality Settings |
| 3DMark | DX11 at 1,920x1,080 and 2,560x1,440 | Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme |
| BioShock Infinite | DX11 at 3,840x2,160 | Ultra Preset |
| Crysis 3 | DX11 at 3,840x2,160 | 0xMSAA, 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 | Ultra Preset |
| General Benchmarks | Description | |
| Power Consumption | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and while playing Far Cry 3 | |
| Temperature | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and while playing Far Cry 3 | |
| Noise | A PCE-318 meter is used to record noise levels when idle and while playing Far Cry 3 | |
Test Notes
We already know that overclocked 780 Ti cards make light work of gaming at 1080p or indeed 1440p - past reviews have provided thorough confirmation on multiple occasions. To make things more interesting, and testing with the latest available drivers, we've made today's review a head-to-head comparison between the £500 MSI card and Sapphire's award-winning Radeon R9 290X Vapor-X, which can now be purchased for £420. The two competitors represent some of the best single-GPU technology currently available from AMD and Nvidia, and both are being put to the sword at an ultra-high-end 4K (3,840x2,160) resolution on a lovely-looking Philips Brilliance 288P6LJEB/00 monitor.
Before we get on to actual performance numbers, we need to address a potential 4K compatibility problem. For reasons we've thus far been unable to explain, our 4K Philips monitor exhibited unwanted flickering when attached to the AMD Radeon GPU. An online search suggests that ours isn't an isolated issue, and we've reached out to AMD for an official response or diagnosis. The same problem hasn't yet occurred when using Nvidia GeForce hardware, but we'll report back when we hear more.
[Update] AMD has provided HEXUS with a new driver - Catalyst 14.7 RC3 - however it doesn't appear to have resolved the aforementioned 4K compatibility issue. We're informed the updated software will be made available to all users via the official AMD driver page later today (August 14), so you may have more luck.
3DMark
3DMark is the latest version of this hugely-popular synthetic benchmark. Making use of DX11 features such as tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading, it provides modern-day results and is available as a free download.
The simulated benchmark suggests that the performance gap between the two cards is on average less than three per cent. There's barely anything in it, and given the Radeon's lower street price, MSI's card isn't looking quite as attractive as it needs to in order to justify the £500 fee.
But truth be told, synthetic benchmarks aren't a whole lot of fun. Real-world gaming is what these cards are designed to do, so let's see how they fare in a range of titles at 3,840x2,160.