GIGABYTE GTX 780 GHz Edition Review

Overclocked or over done? We test GIGABYTE’s latest incarnation of the NVIDIA GTX 780 graphics card with the ‘GHz’ appeal…

Product on Review: GV-N780GHZ-3GD
Manufacturer and Sponsor: GIGABYTE
Street Price: £419.74 at time of review

We last took a look at the NVIDIA GTX 780 when GIGABYTE sent us their OC (Overclock) version. Today’s sample looks strikingly similar save for one key factor, this version has a much higher factory overclock. As the name suggests, this GTX 780 is pre-overclocked not only to 1GHz but a full 20MHz past that mark resulting in a GPU Boost 2.0 speed of 1071MHz! This makes the ‘GHz Edition’ the fastest NVIDIA GTX780 mass produced.

Speed is nothing without cooling and as you would expect, GIGABYTE have seen fit to include not only their amazing Windforce 3x heatsink but also a very swish backplate.

You could be forgiven for assuming this card hails from the ‘Super Overclock’ line of GPU’s, such is the performance but we won’t spoil it for you. Come on in, put your feet up as we take you through the latest speed demon from those crazy guys from Taiwan.

About GIGABYTE

GIGABYTE was founded in 1986, establishing our uncontested position in continuous technological innovation. By focusing on key technologies and achieving strict quality standards, GIGABYTE has been regarded as an innovative and trusted motherboard leader in the globe. To keep pace in a rapidly changing world, we have offered a comprehensive product line covering Motherboards, Graphics Cards, PC Components, PC Peripherals, Laptops, Slate Devices, Desktop PCs, Network Communications, Servers and Mobile Phones. We are dedicated to building up a full-range digital life, responding promptly and sonorously to consumer needs and desires.

Specification

Windforce Cooling

Chipset GeForce GTX 780
Memory Clock 6008 MHz

Core Clock Base / Boost clock; 1019 / 1071 MHz

Process Technology 28 nm

Memory Size 3072 MB

Memory Bus 384 bit

Card Bus PCI-E 3.0

Memory Type GDDR5

DirectX 11.2

OpenGL 4.3

PCB Form ATX

Digital max resolution 4096 X 2160(via a single HDMI connector and not supported with two DVI connectors)

Analog max resolution 2048 x 1536

Multi-view 4

I/O Dual-link DVI-I*1 / DVI-D*1 / DisplayPort*1 / HDMI*1

Card size L=292mm, W=129mm, H=43mm

Power requirement 600W (with two 8-pin external power connectors)

Features

Microsoft® DirectX® 11 Support 11.1 API (feature level 11_0)
Microsoft DirectX 11.1 API (feature level 11_0) DirectX 11 GPU with Shader Model 5.0 support designed for ultra high performance in the new API’s key graphics feature, GPU-accelerated tessellation

SMX
Next generation streaming multiprocessor built from the ground up for incredible performance and power efficiency.

NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0Technology
Dynamically maximizes clock speeds based on workload and allows enthusiast class controls such as temperature target and fan controls, extra over-voltage headroom and optimizations for water-cooling solutions. This allows greater customization and overclocking options and enables gamers to push performance to new levels.

Microsoft® DirectX® 11
DirectX 11 GPU with Shader Model 5.0 support designed for ultra high performance in the API’s key graphics feature, GPU-accelerated tessellation.

NVIDIA® 3D Vision® Ready1
Support for NVIDIA 3D Vision, bringing 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. In addition, you can stream 3D movies and 3D digital photographs from 3DVisionLive.com in eye popping, crystal-clear quality.

NVIDIA® 3D Vision® Surround Ready2
With a single GeForce GTX 680 you can expand your PC games across three displays in full stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate “inside the game” experience.* NVIDIA Surround also supports triple screen gaming with non-3D Vision monitors. Add in a fourth accessory display to get access to your email, web, or other applications while you game.

NVIDIA FXAA Technology
Shader-based anti-aliasing technology available from the NVIDIA Control Panel that enables ultra-fast anti-aliasing in hundreds of PC games.

NVIDIA TXAA Technology
Support for new temporal anti-aliasing technique that delivers the ultimate combination of image quality and performance.

NVIDIA 3-way SLI® Technology3
Industry leading NVIDIA SLI technology offers amazing performance scaling in games across up to three GPUs.

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 Adaptive Vertical Sync
Dynamically enables vertical sync based on your current frame rates for the smoothest gaming experience.

NVIDIA CUDA® Technology
Unlocks the power of the GPU’s processor cores to accelerate the most demanding tasks such as video transcoding, physics simulation, ray tracing, and more, delivering incredible performance improvements over traditional CPUs.

NVIDIA® PureVideo® HD Technology
The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video.

PCI Express 3.0
Designed for the new PCI Express 3.0 bus architecture offering the highest data transfer speeds for the most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications, while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest support.

Dual-link DVI
Able to drive flat-panel displays up to 2560×1600 resolution over a DVI connector.

DisplayPort
Drive the latest DisplayPort panels with support for resolutions up to 2560×1600.

HDMI4
Support for HDMI including GPU accelerated Blu-ray 3D support, x.v.Color, HDMI Deep Color, and 7.1 digital surround sound.

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 cards deliver 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 GTX760’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 GHz Edition of the GTX 780 comes packaged in familiar GIGABYTE garb. Being part of the 450w OUT range of cooling, GIGABYTE are keen to push the Windforce design as being one of the best on the market and this is exemplified by the 450w OUT moniker, below which is the BOOST speed of the GPU; a whopping 1071MHz!

Flipping the box over, we find a breakdown of what makes the Windforce cooler so good with highly detailed 3D diagrams. The obligatory feature list is printed beneath in multiple languages along with the power requirements of the graphics card.

By removing the outer high gloss sleeve we are greeted with a Matt Black box, inside of which we see a neatly packed graphics card. Beneath this we find the accessories (above) which include an installation guide, driver disc and two 8pin – twin Molex power adaptors. While basic, GIGABYTE provide pretty much all you will need to get you started. Perhaps the only item missing is a VGA-DVI adaptor however it is unlikely that a user will use a VGA input with such a high end card so GIGABYTE have seen fit not to include any such adaptor which seemed fair to us. Qualifying NVIDIA cards are of course entitled to some nice free games courtesy of NVIDIA (currently Assassins Creed: Black Flag) although there was no information pertaining to this within the packaging.

First Look

This isn’t the first time (or the second) that we have cast our eyes on the new Windforce cooler. We will admit we were not completely sold on the new design in that while it is not distinctly different from the old design, rather it has made some improvements where none were needed. We will also confess that the new design has grown on us of late and because of the below, the card complete with cooler looks stunning..

We believe the inclusion of a backplate should be a prerequisite of all high end graphics cards. Not only does it assist the cooling and improve card strengthening but it also looks the dog’s danglys! We would refute anyone who says this neither looks immense nor heightens the visual appeal of the card. OF course there will be those who state that a backplate does little for cooling and while this is tru in many cases, for a card that is pre-overclocked to within an inch of its life, or likely to be then any assistance in overclocking can only be a good thing.

The great looks don’t stop there either as from a side profile we find GIGABYTE have seen fit to emblazon ‘GHz Edition’ along its midriff. We do like this, a lot! Our only complaint is that as you can see from the picture above, the backplate reads upside down? We think it would be better to see the letter set as one would view it with the card in-situ.

The card is a long beast with dimensions of L=292mm, W=129mm, H=43mm so you should take care when hoping to add this to a SFF style build.

The I/O area is identical to that of most other recent NVIDIA GPU’s in that it has DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort sockets available.

Closer Look

The power requirements of the card are 600W PSU capable of delivering 42A on the 12v line. This power is transferred to the GPU through twin 8-pin PCIe power ports. If you don’t have this many 8pin cable available fear not because GIGABYTE have thoughtfully included a couple of Molex adaptors.

Fancy hooking this up to another GTX780? No problem. More than one 780? Still no problem thanks to the twin SLI tabs which will allow multiple cards to be linked together from the same family.

We couldn’t resist taking another shot of that backplate. The finishing is perfect and rounded off nicely with the silver screw inserts. Be warned though that this backplate cannot be removed without first removing the cooler as the backplate is attached via the inside of the PCB.

Dissipating heat from that huge heatsink are 3 ultra quiet, smoked/translucent PWM fans which we believe to be some of the quietest in the business.

Overall, the GIGABYTE GTX 780 GHz Edition looks very similar to the standard OC Windforce designs. The GHz edition does however have some improvements which make the best, that much better. There can be no denying this is one of the best looking graphics cards currently available which will match most PC custom builds around.

Let’s have a closer look shall we?

Detailed Look

Here we can see that GIGABYTE has switched back to a twin array heatsink design rather than the older 3 array. This has allowed GIGABYTE to create more surface area, thus increasing the cooling capacity of this heatsink (450w).

There are six copper heatsinks attached and flattened at the base plate. Two are 8mm with the remainder measuring 6mm in diameter. The layout of the heatsink are quite strange as five of them branch of to the separate finned array while one is bent back on itself to join the centralised 6 sintered ends.

The baseplate is 100% milled copped and is very flat. Each heatpipe is soldered to the baseplate for excellent heat conduction. As you can see, both the VRM and memory areas also receive active cooling being attached to the heatsink via thermal interface pads rather than being passively cooled.

The PCB is black which thankfully is the standard now with GIGABYTE cards. Not that this affects performance but it certainly adds to the aesthetic appeal of the card. The VRM is close to the power input areas and the main GPU is framed by the memory chips which is pretty much standard on high end graphics cards.

The VRM features an 8+2 design which is the same design as the ‘OC’ revision we reviewed last year. In fact, as far as we could tell, everything on the PCB is the same as found on the OC version!

The memory chips are however slightly different. The chips found on this version are SK Hynix and carry the product code of H5GQ2H24AFR R0C whereas the OC version carries vanilla Samsung chips. Because both Samsung and SK Hynix are closely linked due to their patent deal we would be surprised if either had a major advantage over the other.

Finally we reach the core of the card. Given that the PCB is the same we can only assume that the GHz variety of the GIGABYTE GTX 780 receive some form of speed binning to ensure each sample is capable of surpassing 1GHz without stability issues. In our tests we have yet to find a GTX 780 that could hit 1GHz but they do seem to struggle thereafter so it remains to be seen how much left the GHz edition has in its overclocking tank.

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:

GIGABYTE GTX 780 GHz Edition 3GB GDDR5
(Forceware 331.70)
HIS R9 280X ICEQ X2 TURBO 3GB GDDR5](CAT 13.11)
GIGABYTE R9 280X WINDFORCE 3X OC 3GB GDDR5(CAT 13.11)
AMD RADEON R9 290X 4GB GDDR5(CAT 13.11 Beta v5)
ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II 3GB GDDR5(CAT 13.11 Beta v1)
ASUS GTX760 DirectCU Mini OC 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
Inno3D iChill GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra 3GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
ASUS GTX770 DIRECT II CU OC 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
MSI GTX760 Twin Frozr Gaming 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
GIGABYTE GTX780 Windforce x3 OC 3GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
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…

Overclocking (GPU Boost 2.0)

For overclocking our NVIDIA cards we will be using EVGA’s Precision too (ver. 4.1) as this gives us all of the options we require. Should you desire, ASUS’ own GPU Tweak is equally good.

Above is a screenshot of GPU-Z showing the reference (factory overclocked) speeds and reference boost clocks. As previously stated, the core clock is among one of the fastest factory overclocks available on the GTX780. We have also included the ASIC rating of our sample. The ASIC rating basically tells us how good the overclock will be. The higher the ASIC rating, the better the overclock is likely to be, particularly on air cooling at a given voltage. Average ASIC readings for our GTX 780s range from 70% to 80%. As you can see from the screenshot above, today’s sample is average and clearly not a ‘cherry picked media sample’.

In truth, we are still dubious as to the real value of this reading but time will tell. As we have been asked on numerous occasions to include it in our reviews we felt it only right to show it although please take any of these values with a pinch of salt until we can confirm whether it does actually mean a higher or lower overclock will be achieved.

Sadly our overclocking efforts soon became a frustration. At an already hefty 1020MHz, we were not hoping for much as some GTX780’s are not capable of this speed, let alone past it but we did manage to hit 1.1GHz (none boost) although it certainly was not stable at this speed. To hit some form of stability we had to reduce this figure to 1060MHz. This did however give us a boost speed of 1200MHz so we were very happy with this. Couple that speed with a very good overclock on the memory and we are confident that this card is not only one of the fastest pre-overclocked GTX 780s available but also hits similar heights of other GTX780s we have tested.

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.

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.

Power consumption was equivalent to its nearest competitors so we have no complaints in this department.

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.

An area where the Windforce once excelled was in the cooling department. Since the advent of Windforce, other manufacturers have been playing catch-up so the gap has lessened somewhat. Only the iChill could beat it (and convincingly!) although we suspect a different stock fan cooling profile was used for each card. The Windforce design can still hold its head quite high though because for what is the fastest overclocked GTX780 on test, it compares very well indeed.

Acoustics

The card was quiet throughout testing, only reaching above murmur level when placed under hours of stress but even then we would argue it would be heard over normal case fans.

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)

[fullimage=25207]

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 (FPS)

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.

Overall Performance

Here we take a look at the overall performance of the graphics card. This figure is determined by finding the average FPS across all of the settings used in a particular benchmark(game) to give us an overall value.

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.

Conclusion

The GIGABYTE GTX 780 GHz Edition is brilliant in almost every department. For starters it has to be classed as one of the best looking graphics cards available and this is indisputable whether you favour NVIDIA or AMD. Sure, we have seen the Windforce cooler before, both old and new versions but GIGABYTE have added to an already successful design by implementing backplate cooling and protection that not only does both jobs well but also looks gorgeous while doing so. It is also one of the fastest ‘out of the factory’ GTX780s available with a blistering 1071MHz ‘on-tap’ when you need it most. Having a factory overclock so high did however mean that manual overclocking is restricted, at least on our sample to a paltry 40MHz on the core. It did however overclock exceedingly well in the memory department.

There are very few negatives we can discuss about this card as it is just that good. If we were being picky then we would have liked to have seen a better selection of accessories as this is an area that separates an excellent product from a class leader. We would have liked to have seen an improved power configuration as currently it is the same as the OC version, right down to the R47 inductors. GIGABYTE have included SK Hynix memory which as stated clocked really well but other than this when you go beneath the skin of the card it is little more than an OC version with a higher factory overclock and backplate.

Not that this is a bad thing you understand as that card too was a Gold award winner but a £50 premium is a lot to ask for a backplate and higher factory overclock. If however you deem this worth it and many will, especially if you like to watercooling your products then we can thoroughly recommend this graphics card is it is silly fast with looks and cooling to match.

To summarise:
An overclocked, overclocked version of a graphics card that has one of the highest factory overclocks of the GTX 780 available. Did we mention it is overclocked?

Pros
+ Very high factory overclock
+ 450w Windforce Cooling design
+ Very quiet
+ Very cool (looks and performance)

Cons
– Little difference from the ‘OC’ version but £50 more expensive
– Little room left for GPU overclocking
– Sparse accessories