GAINWARD GTX 780 Phantom 'GLH' Review

Anything with ‘Goes like hell’ in its title should appeal to us speed freaks. Join us as we put the GAINWARD GTX 780 Phantom ‘GLH’ through its paces…

Product on Review: GTX 780 Phantom GLH
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Gainward
Street Price: £629.99 inc VAT (at time of review)

Goes Like Hell! Not simply ‘OC’, ‘Super’ or even ‘Ultra’. This edition, as the name implies goes faster than anything on this material earth, matched only by beings from an unearthly plane of existence. How true this is we will see later in the review but with a heavily overclocked NVIDIA GTX780 at it’s heart, coupled with the innovative and powerful ‘Phantom’ cooling design, on paper at least you would expect a graphic card of this nature to very fast but hopefully not as hot as hell!

We loved the new Phantom cooler when we first examined it in our Gainward GTX770 Phantom Review so we know just how capable it is. It did however seem a little over the top to put such a fine example of cooling prowess on what is essentially a tweaked GTX680. The cooling power of the Phantom deserved a bigger challenge so to that end Gainward not only offered up the GK110 core – the same core used on NVIDIA’s finest GTX TITAN but also overclocked the ‘hell’ out of it. With the reference speeds of 863/6008 (core/memory) clocked to 980/6200 it is one of the highest factory overclocked cards available (at time of review). These overclocked figures result in a GPU BOOST 2.0 clockspeed of 1033MHz. A GTX780 running at ‘stock’ over 1Ghz? Goes like hell indeed!

Memory overclocking is also extremely important with the new range of graphics cards. This is something some manufacturers forget or at least appear reluctant to address because while these factory overclocked cards come with the core overclocked, few have the memory tweaked from reference speeds. Thankfully this is not the case with the GTX780 Phantom ‘GLH’ as the memory also receives attention, albeit with a mild 200MHz (effective) overclock. We know that there is much more speed that can be obtained from those delicious Samsung chips but any factory overclock is welcomed, especially on the memory.

Previously know as ‘Golden Sample’ cards, the ‘Goes Like Hell’ range are still heavily stressed by the engineers at Gainward to ensure the clockspeeds are rock solid stable. Some cores will inevitably fail the test and be dropped further down the range. Those that meet the benchmark clockspeeds are reserved for the ‘GLH’ range. This is simply called speed-binning and has been occurring for years not only with GPU manufactuers but perhaps most notably in the CPU arena where the likes of Intel will speed bin their CPUs with the best creamed from the proverbial silicon pile. We hope to test just how much those engineers left in the tank of this GLH edition but given the already very large overclock, we don’t expect there to be a lot!

Specification

As you can see from the Specification sheet above, the Gaiward GTX780 has a massively increased overclock. This results in it (obviously) being faster than a reference design but interestingly, on paper at least, having the slight edge over GTexel production over the mighty GTX TITAN. While it still has half the amount of memory available of the TITAN, the memory bandwidth available is also higher.

Above we can see a breakdown of an individual SMX. We were happy to see NVIDIA increasing the memory size to 3GB of GDDR5 along with the 384-bit memory controller. This gives a healthy boost over the 2GB found on the GTX680. 3GB is plenty for todays gaming however with games becomming increasingly demanding, we would have liked to have seen 4GB of GDDR5 which would have positioned the GTX780 neatly between the outgoing and flagship models.

Features

Kepler GPU Architecture
NVIDIA’s Kepler GPU architecture has been designed from the ground up not just for maximum performance in the latest DirectX 11 games, but optimal performance per watt. The new SMX streaming multiprocessor is twice as efficient as the prior generation and the new geometry engine draws triangles twice as fast. The result is world-class performance and the highest image quality in an elegant and power efficient graphics card.

NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0
This brand new technology allows gamers to push PC performance to the maximum with precise controls. GPU Boost 2.0 intelligently monitors work with even more advanced controls like GPU temperature target, overclocking, and overvoltage to ensure the GPU works at the ultimate performance.

GeForce Experience™
The easiest way to optimise your games and keep your drivers up to date, The GeForce Experience application automatically notifies you of new driver releases from NVIDIA. With a single click, you’ll be able to update the driver directly, without leaving your desktop.

Two New Anti-aliasing Modes: FXAA and TXAA
Anti-aliasing smoothes out “jaggies” (jagged edges) but can be demanding on framerates. Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA) is a new antialiasing technology that produces beautiful smooth lines with minimal performance impact. And with Kepler based GPUs, you’ll be able to enable FXAA in hundreds of game titles through the NVIDIA Control Panel.

The second mode, Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TXAA), is an in-game option that combines Multisample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA), temporal filtering, and post processing for even higher visual fidelity.

NVIDIA SLI Technology
Used by the most demanding gamers worldwide, SLI technology lets you link up to three GeForce GTX 780s together for astounding performance. And with NVIDIA’s track record for fast and frequent software updates, you’ll not only get the best performance in existing games, but future games too.

NVIDIA PhysX Technology
Full support for NVIDIA PhysX technology, enabling a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience with GeForce.

NVIDIA 3D Vision Ready
NVIDIA 3D Vision brings a fully immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience to the PC. A combination of high-tech wireless glasses and advanced software, 3D Vision transforms hundreds of PC games into full stereoscopic 3D. Get up to 2x monitor and keyboard brightness with NVIDIA 3D LightBoost technology. In addition, you can enjoy 3D movies and 3D digital photographs from 3DVisionLive.com in eye popping, crystal-clear quality.

NVIDIA Surround with Up To Four Monitors
Nothing is as breathtaking as playing your favorite games across three monitors. At 5760 x 1080, the expanded field of view fully engages human peripheral vision and provides for the most immersive experience in racing and flight simulators. Add in a fourth display to keep tabs on chat, email or web while you are gaming.

NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync
Nothing is more distracting than framerate stuttering and screen tearing. The first tends to occur when framerates are low, the second when framerates are high. Adaptive V-Sync is a smarter way to render frames. At high framerates, V-sync is enabled to eliminate tearing, at low frame rates, it’s disabled to minimise stuttering. It gets rid of distractions so you can get on with gaming.

GPU Boost 2.0

GPU Boost caused a bit of a stir when it was first introduced because it did away with the traditional ‘absolute’ method of dictating MHz. Rather it worked by overclocking the card by different means. To achieve an overclock using GPU Boost, one increased the MHz and Voltage as per usual however the card would then ‘Boost’ when placed under load. So rather than having a fixed clockpseed, the GPU adjusts the clockspeed depending on load, ensuring the power is there when you need it rather than it being full on all of the time, thus saving power consumption and heat production by having the card overclock dynamically.

GPU Boost 2.0 is an evolution of this idea. The techs at NVIDIA have determined that GPU power was unnecessarily limiting performance when GPU temperatures was low. Instead of boosting GPU performance based on a power target, it is now based upon temperature with this temperature threshold being 80 degrees Celsius.

Because the boosting is now determined by temperature, noise levels are also reduced as NVIDIA claim the GTX TITAN delivers a better acoustic profile.

So to summarise, overclocking the card using GPU boost 2.0 means adjusting the temperature threshold, for example from 80c to 85c. The GPU clockspeed will then gradually increase until it reaches this new temperature and will be dynamically adjusted on-the-fly to stay within this threshold. Because of this it is much more difficult to claim one GPU is faster than another without having both working under precisely the same operating conditions.

It therefore should go without saying (but we will say it anyway) that the colder your card runs, the faster it should theoretically operate as a colder card allows overvolting and thus even higher clockspeeds.

GPU Boost 2.0 also features overvoltage control. NVIDIA make no bones that enabling this function will damage the long term operability of the graphics card and as with AMD’s overdrive, you have to acknowledge this fact before you can unlock the cards voltage control. We applaud NVIDIA for this because they have acknowledged that enthusiasts, like us here at Vortez, like to push hardware to the max and without voltage control, the whole process becomes so much more uninteresting and much more difficult.

So, because GTX780’s boost clock and voltage level are now tied to the GPU’s temperature, the voltage can be dialled higher which in turn will allow the GPU to attain higher clockspeed values. Obviously, increasingly board voltage, as with most other products, will gradually degrade the GPU through electron migration causing a premature death of the GPU. Voltage support will be offered on a board partner by partner basis however, we would be extremely surprised if it wasn’t enabled in every GTX780’s VBIOS.

We will see how GPU Boost 2.0 performs in our overclocking section later in the review.

GeForce Experience

GeForce Experience is a new application from NVIDIA that optimizes your PC in two key ways. First, it maximizes your game performance and game compatibility by automatically downloading the latest GeForce Game Ready drivers. Second, GeForce Experience intelligently optimizes graphics settings for all your favorite games based on your hardware configuration.

Some enthusiasts will view (excuse the pun) altering settings to get the very best from a game one of the ‘fun’ elements of owning a powerful graphics card. Others just want to play their game of choice without the endless testing and benchmarking to determine what settings work best. Many don’t have the inclination or indeed the time to learn what effect each setting has upon the games visual elements.It soon becomes a bind when upon a new driver release those settings which were great before can be bettered (or lowered) for a better gaming experience. FXAA, TSAA, MMAA or simply AA. Low, medium, high, ultra texture settings along with overall visual settings can be all too confusing when configuring a games visuals and while it would be easy to just crank everything up to maximum and hoping for the best, this all too often results in choppy, unplayable gaming ruining the gaming experience.

NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience removes much of the guess work when configuring a game thereby giving users the means to jump straight into the game with the best optimised settings for there hardware.

This handy utility will also keep your GPU updated with the latest driver that can be set to automatically download, ready to be installed as soon as they are available and also it gives you access to the beta drivers.

How does it work?
GeForce experience requires an internet connection which, once connected to the NVIDIA Cloud datacenter will download optimal game settings that are tailored to your PC based upon CPU, GPU and monitor resolution.

Low end hardware will have the visuals reduced to improve framerates while high end hardware will inevitably have higher settings assigned. This is all done with a click of a button which ensures that the game not only looks great but perhaps more importantly, plays smoothly.

Testing of the settings are done by NVIDIA themselves who benchmark the game, set a framerate target to ensure smooth gameplay then adjust the settings to ensure both framerate and smooth gameplay are optimised.

In our own tests, the utility worked well and is great for those who want to jump straight into the game with the minimal of fuss and furore of adjusting GPU settings.

Our one complaint is that the supported games list requires expanding. While most of the popular games are supported, many, especially some older but very popular titles are not.

Packaging & Accessories

The packaging mirrors that of other Gainward Phantom cards in the NVIDIA range by having a simple design showing just the graphics card with product title beneath. The only difference aside from the ‘GTX780’ emblem is the GLH (Goes Like Hell) sticker toward the top right of the box.

Flipping the package over we see a wall of text and pictures describing the main feature set of the GTX780 Phantom ‘GLH’. Inside the box, after removing the outer sleeve, the GPU is held in place by a plastic anti-static brace underneath which lay the accessories which are separated from the GPU area by a sliver of cardboard.

The accessory list is basic but comprises of enough components to get you going including: A DVI/VGA adaptor, HDMI adaptor, driver CD and install guide. Purchasers of the Gainward GTX780 Phantom GLH will also get a redeemable code from participating vendors for the new Splinter Cell game; ‘Blacklist’.

First Look

At first glance you would be forgiven for thinking this is a passive cooling design however, there are actually 3 fans hidden beneath the exposed aluminium fins of the heatsink. The main heatsink is framed by a glossy plastic shroud which looks great, especially with the white highlights; ‘Gainward’ and ‘Phantom’. The shroud does however attract unwanted fingerprints thanks to its black mirror like appearance.

Sadly, the rear of the PCB features no backplate which is a shame for a card costing well over £600. To make matters worse, the PCB is not a pure black either. Instead what we get is a dark brown. Thankfully, this will not really be noticeable when installed in a PC enclosure.

From this angle you can see just how thick the card is. While not classified as ‘triple slot’ in that it is 2.5x slot width in use it will take up 3 slots of space on the motherboard.

Perhaps one of the best designs on the GPU cooling market at present is the ability of the user to remove fans from the Gainward Phantom card without removing the heatsink or shroud. This makes cleaning both the heatsink and individual fans very easy with the minimal of fuss thanks to just 3 thumbscrews holding the slot loading fans in place.

The card looks longer than it is because of the longitudinal fins however it is just 5mm longer than reference design at 27cm.

The I/O area is standard NVIDIA with DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI 1.4a and a DisplayPort 1.2 available allowing support for four concurrent displays.

As with all GTX780s, the Gainward Phantom variety affords us two SLI tabs meaning multiple cards can be linked from the same GeForce family.

the power requirements of the card are PSU capable of 600W with a 42A rating on the 12v line. It should also be noted that while Gainward provide an 8pin-MOLEX adaptor, your PSU will need a further 6 pins power cable to provide power for this card thanks to the 6+8pin power ports.

Closer Look

Before removing the cooler we noticed a couple of ‘no-entry’ stickers, presumably removing these will invalidate the 2 year warranty. The first of these stickers covers not a screw head as expected but a small resistor. As you can see, the OV Unlock beneath tells us that this resistor likely restricts what voltage can be applied to the card and those changing it (to allow higher voltage ranges) will also invalidate the warranty. No complaints there.

What we do object to is the increasing number of manufacturers restricting the removal of heatsinks. While this example has great contact and sufficient, quality TIM we have seen some examples of TIM application that left a lot to be desired. Even the best applied TIMs by manufacturers can often be bettered by applying an aftermarket brand such as our favourite – Arctic Cooling MX-4. Regardless of this fact, Gainward are not alone in restricting the removal of heatsinks for this or other purposes such as adding a GPU waterblock.

Throwing caution to the wind, we removed the cooler. The cooler is held in place with 12 screws. A further four spring loaded screws hold the core to the coolers copper baseplate.

The cooler comprises of a brushed copper basplate with aluminium surround out of which spring 5x 8mm nickel coated copper heatpipes that stretch along the finned array of the heatsink.

The last piece of cooling is the steel midplate which cools down the VRMs and memory sinks and transfers heat via thermal pads.

Detailed Look

The PCB design is one which will be familiar to high end users with the VRM area positioned closest to the power ports for efficiency and clean power. The 12 256MB memory modules frame the GK110 core.

The VRM is made up of an 8 phase PWM design for the core two phases left for the memory. This 8 phase design will reduce both EMI and choke noise to ensure the most efficient power delivery possible to the core which in-turn should increase the overclocks of available to the card. Each of the phases also take advantage of DrMOS, further reducing circuit noise and producing less heat than normal MOSFET operations.

the memory chips used on the Gainward design are those very same chips used on reference versions which is no bad thing as these Samsung chips love being overclocked as we will see later in the review.

Finally we reach the trimmed down GTX TITAN core. While the core features 12 of the theoretically possible 15 available to GK110 is benefits from an overclocked clockspeed taking it past that of the GTX TITAN in terms of raw speed. The TITAN however has more cores (14) to play with so how this clockspeed vs cores battle pans out we will find out next…

Test Setup & Methodology

How we test graphics cards

Testing a graphics card is an extremely lengthy process. We sometimes see reviews where a graphic card has been tested using out of date equipment, out of date games and out of date drivers. While the latter can be excused due to the sheer amount of driver updates making a thorough review impossible we will however notify the reader when we have used a different driver to the normal for example a pre-release driver. For the most part however we will always use the same hardware and where possible the same drivers unless a newer driver rectifies an issue we have encountered or significantly improves performance to such an extent that continuing with an outdated driver is not feasible.

Frame Time Analysis
We have also seen the emergence of frame time analysis. We covered this in a separate article here: GPU Reviews: Why Frame Time Analysis is important so we won’t go into the reasoning again but to summarise, our testing comprises both FPS testing and perhaps arguably more importantly, frame time analysis. We also look at overall performance by equating averages across the games and finally before concluding our review we take a look at value for money.

HardwareWith the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

High End Graphics cards on test:

GAINWARD GTX780 PHANTOM ‘GLH’ 3GB GDDR5
(Forceware 320.49)
INNO3D GTX760 ICHILL HERCULEZ 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
GIGABYTE GTX770 WINDFORCE 3X OC 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
ZOTAC GTX760 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.39)
NVIDIA GTX760 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.39)
]NVIDIA GTX760 2GB GDDR5 SLI(Forceware 320.39)
SAPPHIRE DUAL-X HD7950 3GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 13.6 beta)
CLUB 3D HD7970 royalAce 3GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 13.6 beta)
GAINWARD PHANTOM GTX 770 2GB GDDR5 (Forceware 320.18)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2GB GDDR5 (Forceware 320.18)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB GDDR5 (Forceware 320.18)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 4GB GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN SLI 12GB(2x6GB) GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
NVIDIA GTX680 2GB GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
AMD HD7970 3GB GDDR5 (AMD CAT 13.3 beta)

Motherboard: ASUS P9X79 Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler – Corsair H100

Benchmarks
If you are a regular reader of our reviews you will know we like to test the latest hardware with the latest games and benchmarks on the market. Here are the games we have chosen:

Battlefield 3
Crysis 3
Far Cry 3
BioShock Infinite
DiRT: Showdown
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

We also take into consideration the benchmarkers out there so have included 3 of the more popular synthetic benchmarks available:

Unigine: Valley
Unigine: Heaven 4
Futuremark 3DMark Firestrike

Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…

Temperature, Acoustics and Power Consumption

Power Consumption

To test for power consumption we use the included iPower Meter found with our Thortech PSU. As system load figures obviously differ from idle it is extremely difficult to get an accurate figure of system draw and then simply take this figure away from the overall amount because each game will generate varying levels of CPU and hard drive activity. Dynamic power adjustments which fluctuate in game will also affect accurate power figures thus rendering any such power consumption calculations redundant at worst and approximate at best.

We will therefore take our system readings averaged over a benchmark run of Tessmark (100% load) and after 20 minutes of being idle in Windows 7. These can then be used as a comparison to other graphics cards to determine how much more or less power you can expect a GPU to consume.

Being one of the high end cards we didn’t expect nor receive miracles.It consumed a little more than the reference design but still fell under the power hungry AMD HD7970.

The Inno3D card consumed slightly more power than reference designs, most likely due to the extra fans and factory overclock.

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we would normally run Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained however we found that this throttled the card and resulted in spurious results. So we set Heaven running continuously for 20 minutes and used this as a temperature result as the card did not throttle with this application.

As with all the latest NVIDIA card temperature tests, the graph above can appear a little misleading because the way GP{U BOOST sets the temperature threshold. With our sample set to 80c, the card will keep increasing the ‘boost’ speed until either temperature or power limits are breached. So, even though our sample reached 80c, it should not be interpreted as being a hot card.

Acoustics

Despite the relatively small 3x fans, the card was surprisingly quiet on all but manual fan controls. During the most strenuous testing, the card barely reached a murmur. Bare in mind though that our test base station is a bench table and not an enclosed environment so to provide the card with clean, cool optimised airflow. A case environment will obviously differ depending on fan speed and airflow and thus the fan speed of the graphics card will adjust itself accordingly.

Let’s see how the card performs in our suite of benchmarks…

Futuremark 3DMark Fire Strike (Synthetic)

Fire Strike is the new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is Futuremark’s most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.

Unigine: Heaven 4 (Synthetic)

Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms.

Unigine: Valley (Synthetic)

Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.

Battlefield 3 (FPS)

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next installment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the parking lot scene on Operation Sword Breaker. High and Ultra presets were loaded at both resolutions.

Crysis 3 (FPS)

Crysis 3 from Electronic Arts is the fourth instalment of the Crysis franchise and sequel to Crysis 2. It uses the CryEngine 3 gaming engine which is perhaps the most advanced gaming engine to date and therefore the most demanding. The meme ‘Can it run Crysis’ has never been so apparent…

Far Cry 3 (FPS)

Far Cry 3 is a tropical survival shooter video game from Ubisoft Montreal and Massive studios. It’s open world design has similar traits to it’s forbear Far Cry 2 but it does it all so much better. With stunning visuals and settings to bring a PC to it’s knee’s, this game is so much more than the ‘just another console port’ it was reported to be.

BioShock Infinite (FPS)

Set in 1912 during the growth of American exceptionalism, BioShock Infinite is a thrid person shooter developed by Irrational games and published by 2K Games. It is the third instalment of the BioShock franchise. the game utilises the Unreal Engine 3, modifying it with their own lighting engine to present a visually stunning experience like no other.

DiRT: Showdown

DiRT Showdown is the new arcade racing game from the team that brought you the award-winning DiRT series, uncaged in 2012. Pick up and play controls combine with electrifying events, frenzied crowds and stunning graphics to deliver high octane, dive in and drive thrills from event one.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (FPS)

Skyrim is not a direct successor to the very popular Oblivion. Instead it takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The non-linear playing that made the Elder Scrolls such a popular series does however make a return along with the beautiful scenery the encompasses the world of Skyrim.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the drop down passage to Riverwood. V-sync was disabled to allow fluctuating (higher the 60) FPS for these runs. It is however recommended that v-sync is left enabled during normal gameplay due to the games dynamics.

Value For Money

We make a simple calculation for this set of results. For each game we add all of the resulting FPS totals together and then divide by the four sets to give us an overall performance figure. While the figures alone do not give you an accurate picture of how the card will perform in any given scenario, they do tell you, when averaged, which GPU is the more capable across all of the benchmarks and settings tested.

Gaming Experience (Frame Time Analysis)

Here we take a look at both average (black) and 99th Percentile (coloured) response times of the graphics cards. It is highly unlikely a user will notice any micro stutter (also incorrectly referred to as lag but the effect can be interpreted to be similar) at anything below 30ms but every gamers perception differs.

Comment

The graphs above may appear very daunting however, what you want to see is a smooth line (not fuzzy) with very few peaks and troughs. While you are unlikely to notice peaks and troughs below 30ms, any peak above 30ms may be seen as a stutter during gameplay. This will however depend greatly on your own perceptions. Multi card setups are more likely to show frame lag due to the nature of cross communicating to render frames.

Average and 99th Percentile response times (Frame Time Analysis)

Overclocking (GPU BOOST 2.0)

For overclocking our NVIDIA cards we will be using EVGA’s Precision too (ver. 4.0) as this gives us all of the options we require. Should you desire, then Gainwards own EXPERTool II and EXPERTmode is equally good.

Above is a screenshot of GPU-Z showing the reference (factory overclocked) speeds and reference boost clocks

Given that the card comes overclocked direct from the factory, we didn’t expect massive overclocks n the GPU core. We are however happy to report a respectable overclock was achieved. We managed to extract a further 135MHz from the core which resulted in a huge GPU BOOST speed of 1267MHz when placed under load and maxing out the power and Temp targets. This was achieved by upping the voltage on the card by the available 35mv. Furthermore, the memory also produced excellent results as expected with a extra 325MHz available.

Both core and memory could be pushed further separately but produced instability when clocked together.

After settling on our stable clockspeed which was verified by multiple runs of Unigine Heaven and 3DMark we benchmarked the overclock and compared it to stock results with Unigine Heaven 4.0 to evaluate the benefits of overclocking the GPU.

Conclusion

When we first reviewed the NVIDIA GTX TITAN, we were stounded by it’s raw speed and to that end it was hard to imagine any graphics card coming close in the near future. Today however we have sampled a card that can not only match it’s performance but also beat it on occasions. GTX TITAN defenders will rightly point out that the GAINWARD GTX 780 Phantom is a highly tuned pre-overclocked graphics card which is being compared to a reference card with reference clockspeeds. Overclock a TITAN and the TITAN would again take the performance crown.

While this is true to a certain extent, you have to consider that on a retail card vs basis, the Gainward card has the slight edge in all but the highest resolutions and settings. When you also take into consideration the cost difference between the two cards (£170 at OCUK) then the Gainward GTX780 Phantom GLH, despite its £629.99 price tag suddenly looks cheap in comparison. That huge price tag is what will however, put many users off.

Reference GTX780 models without a custom cooler can be bought for £550 so to pay £130 for a factory overclock and custom cooler may seem extortionate. While we cannot fully defend this price hike, you should also bare in mind that the PCB is also redesigned from reference and it is unlikely that a reference model will reach the rock solid stable clockspeeds that this Goes Like Hell edition attained. Here is where much of that money is spent because speed binning GPU’s is a time consuming process. Time equals money and if you want to save a lot of your time then buying a pre-overclocked card makes a lot of sense because you are not messing about finding a stable overclock, nor are you worried about bricking a £550 card because with the Phantom GLH, Gainward have taken this factors out of the equation. So while an extra £130 may seem expensive (and it is), it does begin to make sense when you look at the facts.

The simple overbearing fact is the Gainward GTX 780 Phantom lives up to its tag of ‘Goes Like Hell’. To match a GTX TITAN’s performance is one thing, to beat it is quite extra ordinary and for this reason it deserves our esteemed Elite and Gold awards.

To summarise:
The Gainward GTX780 Phantom GLH not only cools well but excels in churning out huge framerates. A headline card that demands respect from the competition it leads.

Pros
+ Innovative cooling design
+ Blistering speed
+ Quiet
+ Factory Overclocked

Cons
– Very expensive, even for a GTX780
– Warranty void if heatsink is removed