EVGA’s reference GTX 780 meets the R9 290X OC

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i7 3770K (overclocked to 4.5GHz); Turbo is on. Supplied by Intel.
• EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard (Intel Z77 chipset, latest beta 03-12-13 BIOS, PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x using Plex chip), supplied by EVGA.
• 16GB Kingston DDR3 Kingston RAM (8x2GB, dual-channel at 2133MHz; supplied by Kingston)
• Noctua NH-DH14 CPU cooler plus 7 case fans, supplied by Noctua.
• GTX 780 Ti 3GB at reference speeds and also overclocked, supplied by Nvidia
• EVGA GTX 780 3GB, reference speeds; on loan from EVGA
• GTX Titan 6GB at reference speeds, supplied by Nvidia
• GTX 690 4GB at reference speeds, supplied by Nvidia
• Nvidia GeForce 770, 2GB, reference clocks, supplied by Nvidia
• VisionTek R9 290X 4GB at VisionTek’s +30MHz overclock speeds in Uber mode (1030MHz)
• VisionTek R9 280X 3GB, reference speeds; supplied by VisionTek
• VisionTek HD 7970 3GB at reference speeds; on loan from VisionTek
• PowerColor HD 7970 3GB at GHz Edition Boost speeds
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• Genius SP-D150 speakers
• Two identical 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers
• Two Kingston 240GB HyperX SSDs configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers; supplied by Kingston
• Cooler Master Platinum Pro 1000W PSU, supplied by Cooler Master
• Thermaltake Overseer RX-I full tower case, supplied by Thermaltake
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD
• Three 23″ ASUS VG236 3D Vision-ready 120Hz displays, supplied by Nvidia/ASUS.

Test Configuration – Software

• WHQL Catalyst 13.11 Beta7 (7970/280X), Beta8, and Beta9.2 (R9 290X); application controlled, Surface optimizations off, High Quality, Vsync off
• Nvidia GeForce WHQL 331.58 for GTX 770/780 ; 331.70 for the other GeForce cards; High Quality; Single-display Performance mode; Prefer Maximum Performance, Vsync off
• Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
• Latest DirectX
• All games are patched to their latest versions.
• Vsync is forced off in the control panels.
• Varying AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
• All results show average frame rates
• Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
• Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.

The Benchmarks

• Synthetic
  • 3DMark 11
  • Heaven 4.0
  • Valley 1.0
  • FireStrike/FireStrike Extreme

• DX9
  • Serious Sam 3 BFE
  • Alan Wake: Ameican Nightmare
  • The Witcher 2
  • Borderlands 2
  DX10
  • Crysis
  DX11
  • Alien vs. Predator
  • STALKER, Call of Pripyat
  • Lost Planet 2
  • Civilization V
  • Total War: Shogun II
  • Crysis 2
  • DiRT 3
  • DiRT: ShowDown
  • Batman: Arkham City
  • Battlefield 3
  • Max Payne 3
  • the Secret World
  • Sleeping Dogs
  • Sniper Elite V2
  • Hitman: Absolution
  • Far Cry 3
  • Tomb Raider: 2013
  • Assassin’s Creed 3
  • Crysis 3
  • BioShock: Infinite
  • Metro: Last Light
  • GRID 2
  • Splinter Cell: Blacklist
  • Batman: Arkham Origins

The above is our test bench.  Batman: Arkham Origins is ABT’s latest benchmark and it is replacing the recently shutdown Battleforge as game benchmark number thirty.

Before we get to the EVGA GTX 780 performance charts, let’s look at overclocking, power draw, noise, and temperatures.

Overclocking, Power Draw, Noise and Temperatures

Overclocking the EVGA GTX 780 is just as easy as overclocking the rest of the GTX 700 series using PrecisionX. What is not too surprising is that we were only able to overclock +25MHz past our maximum overclock of the original reference GTX 780 we received from Nvidia a few months ago.  We managed +150MHz on the core and +550MHz on the memory to reach a maximum Boost of 1162, well above Nvidia’s guaranteed Boost of 900MHz.Temperatures rarely reached 85C – even at maximum load. We were able to add an additional +150MHz over the Nvidia/EVGA base clock for the reference GTX 780. On top of that, we were able to add +550MHz to the memory clocks. We were able to go higher on the memory but stopped when we were no longer getting performance increases. Although we set the Power slider and Temperature sliders to maximum, we did not adjust the EVGA GTX 780’s voltage for testing although it allowed us to ad an additional+25MHz over what the stock voltage would allow.

Temperatures were never an issue and the fan profile remained at stock which meant that the EVGA GTX 780 3GB is also extraordinarily quiet at maximum load – the fan profile rarely went to 60% and the temperatures generally remained under 85C under the most stressful conditions and highest load in any game that we tested.  This is in stark contrast to the reference R9 290X which is a louder fan even when its fan is capped to 40% in Quiet mode.

Let’s head to the performance charts to see how the EVGA GTX 780 3GB compares with the reference GTX 770, as well as against the stock (925/1375MHz) and GHz Edition (1050/1500MHz) of AMD’s HD 7970. We are also testing against the R 290X at reference speeds in Quiet mode and in Uber mode, as well as at PowerColor’s factory overclock to 1030MHz in Uber mode.  As an added bonus, we are going to overclock the EVGA GTX 780 3GB as far as it can go without raising the voltage or adjusting the fan profile to see if we can narrow the performance gap with the brand new Nvidia flagship, the GTX 780 Ti, at reference speeds, as well as with the Titan.