Introduction

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Had someone told us NVIDIA was going to launch the GeForce GTX Titan around this time a month ago, we'd have politely asked them to go jump off a skyscraper. Why? Because NVIDIA simply doesn't need it in its product stack at this time. The performance lead AMD's HD 7970 GHz Edition has over the GeForce GTX 680 is disputed at best, and the latter ships with better energy-efficiency and acoustics. The GeForce GTX 670 continues to beat the HD 7950 Boost Edition and the GTX 660 Ti trades blows with the HD 7950, with much better power/noise numbers. It's only with the "Pitcairn" based HD 7800 series that AMD appears to have a solid footing. Even at the ultra high-end segment, the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 690 scales near perfectly over the GTX 680. So what prompted NVIDIA to rush out the GTX Titan? Is it even being rushed out to begin with? We'll have to look back at 2012 for some answers.

When AMD launched its Radeon HD 7970 in December 2011, it appeared for a brief moment as though AMD was set for 2012. Brief, because there was more than just arrogance in NVIDIA's dismissal of AMD's new flagship GPU and the architecture that drives it. NVIDIA's "Kepler" GPU architecture was designed under the assumption that the HD 7970 would be much faster than it ended up being, so the company realized its second best chip, the GK104, had a fair shot against the HD 7900 series.

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The GK104 really was just a successor of the GF114 that drives the performance-segment GeForce GTX 560 Ti. What followed was a frantic attempt by NVIDIA to re-package the GK104 into a high-end product, the GeForce GTX 680, while shelving its best but expensive chip, the GK110 (which drives the GTX Titan we're reviewing today). The gambit paid off when the GTX 680 snatched the performance crown from the HD 7970 in March. AMD may have responded with the faster HD 7970 GHz Edition in June, but it flunked energy-efficiency and fan-noise tests big time. The GK110 wore a business suit before a t-shirt, since NVIDIA built the Tesla K20 GPU compute accelerator that powers the Titan supercomputing array out of it. Normally, you'd want your ASIC to pass consumer applications before enterprise ones, and Intel usually sells Core processors on new silicon before Xeon. The Titan supercomputer, by the way, is where the GTX Titan got its name from.

2013 is more than just another year for PC GPU makers. It's when game console giants Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo each plan to ship their next-generation game consoles. The WiiU is already out, the PlayStation 4 was unveiled yesterday, and the Xbox "Durango" could follow closely. A rare commonality between the three is that they're all rumored to be driven by AMD graphics. Although we don't expect either of those consoles to match the graphics processing prowess of even PCs from 2010, their mere introduction could draw an entire generation of gamers to adopt them, which could be bad for the PC platform. It's now more than ever that we need some action in the PC hardware scene, even if it means launching hardware such as the GTX Titan, which the product stack doesn't really need.

There's yet another factor at play. This one is more local to the PC platform. AMD recently announced the Never Settle Reloaded offer in which most of its performance-thru-extreme graphics cards across AIB partners ship with games that are extremely relevant to the season. These include Crysis 3, Tomb Raider (the new one), Bioshock Infinite, and DmC: Devil May Cry; CrossFire HD 7900 series buyers are rewarded with up to six games (add Far Cry 3, Hitman Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs to that mix). In comparison, NVIDIA's "Free to Play bundle" which gives you about $25~$50 worth of in-game currency (per game) with free-to-play games such as Hawken, World of Tanks, and Planetside 2, only makes NVIDIA look bad. AMD, in a recent teleconference, called the GeForce GTX Titan a reaction by NVIDIA to "Never Settle Reloaded" and AMD getting cozy with leading game studios in general.

Introduction of the GeForce GTX Titan at this time could, hence, be a product of unorthodox but effective market foresight on NVIDIA's part.

In this review, we will take a single GeForce GTX Titan for a spin by taking it apart and exploring some of its new features. We have also posted a GeForce GTX Titan SLI and Tri-SLI review.

<table class="tputbl hilight" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<caption>
GeForce GTX Titan Market Segment Analysis
</caption>
<tr>
<th scope="col"> </th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 580</th>
<th scope="col">Radeon <br />
HD 7970</th>
<th scope="col"> HD 7970<br />
GHz Ed.</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 680</th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 590</th>
<th scope="col"><strong>GeForce <br />
GTX Titan</strong></th>
<th scope="col">GeForce <br />
GTX 690</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Shader Units</th>
<td align="right">512</td>
<td align="right">2048</td>
<td align="right">2048</td>
<td align="right">1536</td>
<td align="right">2x 512</td>
<td align="right"><strong>2688</strong></td>
<td align="right">2x 1536</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">ROPs</th>
<td align="right">48</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">2x 48</td>
<td align="right"><strong>48</strong></td>
<td align="right">2x 32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Graphics Processor</th>
<td align="right">GF110</td>
<td align="right">Tahiti</td>
<td align="right">Tahiti</td>
<td align="right">GK104</td>
<td align="right">2x GF110</td>
<td align="right"><strong> GK110</strong></td>
<td align="right">2x GK104</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Transistors</th>
<td align="right">3000M</td>
<td align="right">4310M</td>
<td align="right">4310M</td>
<td align="right">3500M</td>
<td align="right">2x 3000M</td>
<td align="right"><strong>7100M</strong></td>
<td align="right">2x 3500M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory Size</th>
<td align="right">1536 MB</td>
<td align="right">3072 MB</td>
<td align="right">3072 MB</td>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">2x 1536 MB</td>
<td align="right"><strong>6144 MB</strong></td>
<td align="right">2x 2048 MB</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Memory Bus Width</th>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right">384 bit</td>
<td align="right">256 bit</td>
<td align="right">2x 384 bit</td>
<td align="right"><strong>384 bit</strong></td>
<td align="right">2x 256 bit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Core Clock</th>
<td align="right">772 MHz</td>
<td align="right">925 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1050 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1006 MHz+</td>
<td align="right">607 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>837 MHz+</strong></td>
<td align="right">915 MHz+</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Memory Clock</th>
<td align="right">1002 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1375 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1500 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1502 MHz</td>
<td align="right">855 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>1502 MHz</strong></td>
<td align="right">1502 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Price</th>
<td align="right">$430</td>
<td align="right">$390</td>
<td align="right">$400</td>
<td align="right">$480</td>
<td align="right">$750</td>
<td align="right"><strong>$1000</strong></td>
<td align="right">$1000</td>
</tr>
</table>

Architecture

The GeForce GTX Titan is based on NVIDIA's biggest chip for the "Kepler" micro-architecture, codenamed "GK110." First introduced as part of the Tesla K20 GPU compute accelerator, the chip is built on the 28 nanometer silicon fabrication process and packs a staggering 7.1 billion transistors. That's over three times the transistor count of Intel's 8-core Xeon "Sandy Bridge-EP" processor. Its component hierarchy is identical to that of other GPUs based on the architecture.

While the GK104 features four graphics processing clusters (GPCs) with two streaming multiprocessors (SMXs) each, the GK110 features five GPCs with three SMXs each. The SMX design hasn't changed: it still houses 192 CUDA cores each, so the physical CUDA core count on the chip works out to 2,880. The GeForce GTX Titan feature-set only includes 2,688, since one of the 15 SMXs is disabled. This probably helps NVIDIA harvest the GK110 wafers better by giving TSMC room to get one SMX "wrong."

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The GK110 features a total of 240 texture-mapping units (TMUs), but since TMUs are contained within SMXs, the GTX Titan ends up with 224. Since raster operations processors (ROPs) are tied to the memory bus width on the Kepler family of GPUs in general, the GK110 features 48 as compared to the 32 on the GK104. Speaking of memory, the GK110 features a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. To our surprise, NVIDIA made 6 GB the standard memory amount. While no game needs that much memory, even at 2560 x 1600, NVIDIA is probably looking to stabilize 3D Vision Surround performance. The GTX Titan lets you set up a 3D Vision Surround setup with three 2560 x 1600-pixel displays.

In terms of clock speeds, the GeForce GTX Titan core doesn't get anywhere close to the 1 GHz mark, which is characteristic of every big chip from NVIDIA. The core is clocked at 838 MHz, with a nominal GPU Boost frequency of 878 MHz, while the memory is clocked at 6008 MHz, so the card ends up with a memory bandwidth of 288 GB/s.

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With the GeForce GTX Titan, NVIDIA also introduced its second generation GPU Boost technology. The technology allows GPUs to increase their core clock speed and voltage beyond nominal values while respecting a set power target. The new GPU Boost 2.0 takes temperatures and additional power draw into account when adjusting core clock speeds and supportive voltages. This ensures that even stressful applications get the benefit of higher clock speeds so long as the GPU isn't overheating, which should particularly please enthusiasts who overclock their cards using such sub-zero cooling methods as liquid nitrogen or dry-ice evaporators.

The Card

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Visually, the GeForce GTX Titan resembles NVIDIA's GTX 690. It uses the same sexy unibody design with a magnesium alloy shell and Plexiglas window. Unlike the GTX 690, there is only a single window, and the fan has been moved further to the back, which makes sense as there is only one GPU to cool now. Length of the card is 27 cm, which is a bit shorter than the GTX 690.

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Installing the card requires two slots in your system.

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Display connectivity options include two DVI ports, one full-size DisplayPort, and one full-size HDMI port. You may use all outputs at the same time, so triple-monitor surround gaming is possible with one card.

The GPU also includes an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible, which includes HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies support.

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Two SLI connectors are available, which means you can pair the GTX Titan with up to three other GTX Titans for a Quad-SLI rig - if you can afford it.

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Pictured above are the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods, etc., please include a link back to this site, or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

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NVIDIA's cooler uses a complex heatsink base with vapor-chamber technology to cool the GPU, memory chips, and secondary components. A backplate is not included.

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In order to measure real-time power consumption of the card, NVIDIA has placed a single Texas Instruments INA 3221 power sensor on their card. This chip replaces the three INA219 sensors that were used on earlier cards, providing space and cutting on cost.

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The card requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCI-Express power cable for operation. This power configuration is good for up to 300 W of power draw.

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NVIDIA uses an OnSemi NCP4206 voltage controller on the Titan. We have seen this controller on many designs before. It is a cost effective solution that does not provide any I2C, so advanced monitoring is not possible. Please note how it sits on its own PCB, which means we could see different voltage controllers in the future. The GTX 680 uses a similar approach, but the variety of voltage controllers was relatively low.

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The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Samsung and carry the model number K4G20325F0-FC03. They are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective).

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NVIDIA's GK110 graphics processor was first introduced as a Tesla-only product to power demanding GPU compute applications. NVIDIA has now released it as a GeForce GPU too. It uses 7.1 billion transistors on a die size that we measured to be 561 mm². The GPU is produced on a 28 nanometer process at TSMC, Taiwan.

Test System

<table class="tputbl">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Test System - VGA Rev. 25</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th width="120" scope="row">Processor:</th>
<td align="center">Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.6 GHz<br />(Ivy Bridge, 8192 KB Cache)</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td align="center">ASUS Maximus V Gene<br />
Intel Z77</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td align="center">2x 4096 MB Corsair Vengeance PC3-12800 DDR3 <br />
@ 1600 MHz 9-9-9-24</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td align="center">WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td align="center">Antec HCP-1200 1200W</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Software:</th>
<td align="center">Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Drivers:</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">NVIDIA: 310.70 WHQL<br />ATI: Catalyst 13.1 WHQL<br />GTX Titan: 314.09 Beta</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Display:</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">
LG Flatron W3000H 30" 2560x1600<br />
3x Hanns.G HL225DBB 21.5" 1920x1080
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Benchmark scores in other reviews are only comparable when this exact same configuration is used.

All video card results were obtained on this exact system with exactly the same configuration.
All games were set to their highest quality setting unless indicated otherwise.
AA and AF are applied via in-game settings, not via the driver's control panel.

Each benchmark was tested at the following settings and resolutions:

1280 x 800, 2x Anti-aliasing. Common resolution for most smaller flatscreens today (17" - 19"). A bit of eye candy turned on in the drivers.
1680 x 1050, 4x Anti-aliasing. Most common widescreen resolution on larger displays (19" - 22"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
1920 x 1200, 4x Anti-aliasing. Typical widescreen resolution for large displays (22" - 26"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
2560 x 1600, 4x Anti-aliasing. Highest possible resolution for commonly available displays (30"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
5760 x 1080, 4x Anti-aliasing. Typical high-end gaming multi-monitor resolution. Very good looking driver graphics settings.

Alan Wake

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Alan Wake, released in 2012 for the PC, is a highly successful third-person horror shooter that revolves around the adventures of novelist Alan Wake who has to battle the "darkness" that takes over living and dead things. Alan's signature flashlight is used to strip the forces of darkness of their protection, which makes them vulnerable to conventional weapons.

The engine of Alan Wake uses DirectX 9, but features complex lighting effects that make it quite a demanding title. We benchmarked with the highest settings possible.

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Assassin's Creed 3

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Assassin's Creed III, published in 2012, sees series protagonist Desmond Miles relive the memories of his 18th century ancestor Ratonhnhaké:ton (aka. Connor), giving you an experience many of the series' fans craved for: that of an assassins in colonial America during the American Revolution.

Based on a rehashed AnvilNext game engine that uses Havok CPU physics, Assassin's Creed III is the most graphics-intensive member of the franchise, depicting North American landscapes in great detail.

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Batman: Arkham City

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Batman is back on the LCD screen with Batman: Arkham City, a sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum by Rocksteady Games and WB. It was released on the PC platform in November of 2011. Batman is imprisoned in Arkham City, an infamous district of the DC Universe that contains the scum of Gotham, most of whom Batman helped put in there. In order to get out, he must go through scores of baddies. He also encounters many of the iconic super villains along the way and is not entirely alone in his endeavour.

Batman: Arkham City uses the same Unreal Engine by Epic as Batman: Arkham Asylum, but it has, thanks to the engine's modularity, been overhauled and equipped with the latest technologies, including a graphics engine that takes advantage of DirectX 11.

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Battlefield 3

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Arguably one of the most anticipated online shooters of recent times, Battlefield 3 is the latest addition to some of the most engaging online multiplayer shooter franchises. It combines infantry combat with mechanized warfare and includes transport vehicles, armored personnel carriers, main battle tanks, attack helicopters, and combat aircraft; pretty much everything that goes into today's battlefields. Its infantry combat is coupled with role-playing elements, which makes the experience all the more engaging. It also has a single-player campaign that adds a few gigabytes to its installer.

Behind all this is a spanking new game engine by EA-DICE called Frostbite 2. It makes use of every possible feature DirectX 11 has to offer, including hardware tessellation and new lighting effects, to deliver some of the most captivating visuals gamers have ever had access to. Not playing this game on the PC is a grave injustice to what's in store. Faster PCs are rewarded with better visuals.

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Borderlands 2

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Borderlands 2 is the successor to the famous first-person shooting game that doesn't take itself seriously. You get to pick from one of several characters that have unique abilities to make short shrift of the game's futuristic enemies. Set on the planet of Pandora, you have to help the local population wage intense battles against Handsome Jack of the evil Hyperion Corporation to discover a vault full of advanced future tech.

The game uses a heavily modified version of Epic's Unreal Engine 3, which is still running in DirectX 9 mode, but it does offer plenty of appealing visual effects.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is 2012's annual dose of the franchise. Refreshingly, it places our gun-wielding protagonists in a near-future setting where military arsenal has become a little too smart for our comfort, and has fallen into the wrong hands. Black Ops 2 is a Treyarch development, and does, as such, beat Infinity Ward's productions in visual detail. It uses a new game engine that has been optimized for the capabilities of DirectX 11 hardware, which means it stresses such hardware properly.

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Crysis

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After the tremendous success of Far Cry, the German game studio Crytek released their shooter Crysis in 2007. The game was by far the most hyped and anticipated game in 2007, and forums were full of "Can my system run Crysis?" threads because of its high hardware requirements. Just like in Far Cry, the plot evolves on a small island with a thick and richly detailed jungle world. A lot of attention has been given to small details like accurate physics. When you, for example, fire on a tree trunk, it will shatter and the tree will fall over and leave a stump behind, and enemies in a car can be stopped by shooting the tire of the car. The game graphics are, even for today, top notch, yet the game still runs well on most computers.

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Crysis 2

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Crysis 2 takes the player into an alien-infested New York City. The game adds a tactical options mode that allows for several ways to attack a heavily infested enemy location. The new Nanosuit 2.0 that the player uses offers more freedom in ability use. Multiple abilities can, for example, be used at the same time. To better accommodate a given play-style, weapons can be customized with silencers, laser sights, or even a sniping scope.

For rendering, Crytek's CryEngine 3 is used. It comes with reduced system requirements compared to the first Crysis game. Since Crysis 2 is a multi-platform game with major development focus on the console, the graphics on launch day were only DirectX 9. DirectX 11 functionality was added later in a patch. We used the DX11 version and the high-res texture pack for our benchmarking.

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Diablo III

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Blizzard's Diablo 3 is the latest release in one of the most popular action RPG series of all time. You, the hero, will experience epic adventures on your journey to defeat Diablo, the master of Hell. Diablo 3 set the record for the fastest-selling PC game by selling over 3.5 million copies on the first day of its release. It was also the most pre-ordered game on Amazon.

Blizzard's DirectX 9 engine provides the player with an isometric view on the action. The game has been tuned to run well on most computer systems, which lets as many players as possible experience the game. We tested Diablo 3 running at the highest image-quality settings available.

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Far Cry 3

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In a nutshell, Far Cry 3 is everything gamers missed in Far Cry 2 (after Crytek was tossed out of the franchise by Ubisoft), and even Crysis 2 (in which Crytek swaps the tropical paradise setting for grim, apocalyptic New York).

Ubisoft got quite a few things right about the tropical paradise in Far Cry 3. You play the survivor of a perfect island holiday gone wrong as you and a group of friends are captured by a group of local terrorists. The DirectX 11-optimized version of the Dunia Engine recreates jungles, beaches, and the ocean in stunning detail if your hardware can keep up.

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F1 2012

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F1 2012 is an official implementation of the Formula One 2012 circus with accurate teams, drivers, and cars. Two highlights of the game are its extensive realism options and its detailed weather effects. You pick a driver and get to race over several races - constantly improving your skill to impress the big teams for a contract with them, which would mean driving for the world championship with a faster car.

The game is based on an improved Ego 2.0 engine Codemasters uses with all of their recent racing titles, and it features the latest in DirectX 11 technology. We used the highest details setting available for our testing.

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Hitman: Absolution

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Hitman: Absolution sees our stealthy, classy, and barcode-laced baldie Agent 47 swing back into action, only this time he's on the wrong side of the line with his former handlers.

The game uses a rehashed version of Square Enix's Glacier 2 engine that supports DirectX 11 and is able to render large crowds without much overhead.

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Max Payne 3

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Max is back! The long anticipated third release in the Max Payne series is the first game developed by Rockstar, which took the title over from Remedy Entertainment. In this first-person shooter, using an over-the-shoulder camera view, you battle the bad guys using game-changing features like Bullet Time or Last Stand. The maps have scenic locations which take the player to places like New York, Sao Paulo, and Panama.

The Max Payne 3 game engine uses DirectX 11 with tessellation and very detailed textures. We tested the game with details set to the maximum possible.

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Metro 2033

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Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter that is set in a post-apocalyptic Moscow - inside the metro system as the name suggests. You will fight mutants or other humans who want to take away your shelter. The game has many gameplay elements similar to STALKER; the engine also has similar features. This is because two STALKER engine programmers left GSC Game World and started their own company to make Metro 2033.

The engine has support for all the latest eye-candy, like DirectX 11 and tessellation. Unfortunately, it leaves a less than satisfactory impression, which makes it a candidate that surpasses Crysis for highest hardware requirements. We tested the game in DirectX 11 mode with details set to "Very High".

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Sleeping Dogs

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Sleeping Dogs is a GTA-style crime/action adventure developed by Square Enix. You are Wei Shen, an undercover police officer who is infiltrating the Hong Kong triads. The game's unique combat system gives you significant freedom over your movement, the actions you take, and your counter-attacks - individual body parts can also be targeted.

A custom in-house engine was developed to provide DirectX 11 graphics through a deferred renderer. This makes complex characters and graphical effects required for a realistic view of the beautiful city of Hong Kong possible. We tested Sleeping Dogs at its highest settings, but disabled super-sampling.

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StarCraft II

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StarCraft II, released in July 2010, is a sequel to Blizzard's award-winning strategy game StarCraft. In the 26th century, three species, the Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg, are at war. The campaign takes you through many missions on different planets where you have to face various enemy factions or, sometimes, several of them at once. StarCraft II features a similar number of units - some of them new - as the original game. Due to the massive success of the first game, Blizzard chose to focus a large aspect of the game on multiplayer combat through Battle.net. The campaign serves as a good introduction to units and concepts, but the real action is in competitive multiplayer combat.

The StarCraft II engine only supports DirectX 9, but several patches have improved rendering quality and available options considerably. We tested the game using a recorded 1 vs. 1 multiplayer replay in the late-game phase. Please note that StarCraft II is very CPU limited on high-end cards, especially on lower resolutions, so you may not see much scaling between some cards. StarCraft II does not support multi-monitor gaming because it would provide an unfair advantage in competitive multiplayer as a larger portion of the map would be visible.

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The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

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This isn't just a game, but a masterpiece. TES: Skyrim is a very large sandbox game that rejects the quality-quantity inverse proportionality. By genre, TES: Skyrim is a role-playing game. It combines some of the best elements of older titles in the franchise with some new sandbox elements to churn out an extremely engaging and addictive game. It makes use of Bethesda's Creation Engine which isn't visually intensive in that it doesn't use taxing graphics features; instead, the game's presentation itself, with large open worlds, ends up taxing your hardware. Faster GPUs result in smoother gameplay with most eye-candy turned on.

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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

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World of Warcraft is the most successful massively multiplayer online game in the world, with far over 12 million monthly subscribers. The game is centered around the epic battle between the Horde and Alliance factions and many other races that get involved in a long and complex story line. Even though it has been released in 2004, Blizzard has always added incremental improvements to the graphics, especially with every new expansion. One key success of World of Warcraft is that it will run on a large number of slower systems while also delivering a decent graphics experience on high-end systems. We tested the game in DirectX 11 mode with details set to "Ultra".

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3DMark 11

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3DMark 11 is the very latest benchmark test from the house of Futuremark, which has given out some of the most comprehensive benchmark applications for PC enthusiasts and gamers. 3DMark 11, as the name might suggest, makes use of the Microsoft DirectX 11 API and puts every feature of it to use, creating astonishingly realistic visuals. In the process, it evaluates DirectX 11-compliant GPUs and lets gamers know what to expect from upcoming games that make use of the API in terms of visual realism. The tessellation and depth-of-field tests are of particular interest here. 3DMark 11 has no proper support for multi-monitor configurations.

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Power Consumption

Cooling modern video cards is becoming more and more difficult, especially with users asking for quiet cooling solutions, which is why engineers are now paying much more attention to the power consumption of new video-card designs. An optimized fan-profile is also one of the few things that board vendors can do to impress with reference designs where they are prohibited from making changes to the thermal solution or components on the card.

For this test, we measured the power consumption of the graphics card only via the PCI-Express power connector(s) and PCI-Express bus slot. A Keithley Integra 2700 digital multimeter with 6.5-digit resolution was used for all measurements. Again, the values here only reflect the power consumption of the card measured at DC VGA card inputs, not of the whole system.

We chose Crysis 2 as a standard test representing typical 3D gaming usage because it offers the following: very high power draw; high repeatability; is a current game that is supported on all cards because of its DirectX 9 roots; drivers are actively tested and optimized for it; supports all multi-GPU configurations; test runs in a relatively short time and renders a non-static scene with variable complexity.

Power consumption results of other cards on this page are measurements of the respective reference design.

Our results were based on the following tests:

Idle: Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1280x1024, 32-bit) with all windows closed and drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle mode until power draw was stable.
Multi-monitor: Two monitors connected to the tested card, both using different display timings. Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1280x1024 32-bit) with all windows closed and drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle mode until power draw was stable.
Average: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200, Extreme profile, representing a typical gaming power draw. Average of all readings (12 per second) while the benchmark was rendering (no title/loading screen).
Peak: Crysis 2 at 1920x1200, Extreme profile, representing a typical gaming power draw. Highest single reading during the test.
Maximum: Furmark Stability Test at 1280x1024, 0xAA. This results in a very high non-game power-consumption that can typically be reached only with stress-testing applications. The Card was left running the stress test until power draw converged to a stable value. We disabled the power-limiting system on cards with power-limiting systems or configured it to the highest available setting - if possible. We also used the highest single reading from a Furmark run that was obtained by taking measurements faster than the power limit could kick in.
Blu-ray Playback: Power DVD 9 Ultra was used at a resolution of 1920x1200 to play back the Batman: The Dark Knight disc with GPU acceleration turned on. Playback started around timecode 1:19, which has the highest data rates on the BD with up to 40 Mb/s. Playback was left running until power draw converged to a stable value.

Idle, multi-monitor, and Blu-ray power consumption is fantastic. Over the years, NVIDIA has incrementally improved here and it shows, especially when compared to AMD idle power consumption.
Such low idle power consumption means you can have the GTX Titan beast sleeping peacefully inside your system while you are productive or browsing the Net - without worrying about power consumption or wasting energy.

Once you start gaming, the beast is unleashed - providing awesome performance with extremely reasonable power consumption. The GTX Titan provides much higher performance than the HD 7970 GHz Edition, but consumes less power! While power efficiency cannot compete with low-end cards, like the GTX 650 Series, it still makes the GTX Titan the most power efficient high-end graphics card available at this time.

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Fan Noise

In past years, users would accept everything for a little bit more performance. Nowadays, users are more aware of the fan noise and the power consumption of their graphics cards.

In order to properly test the fan noise that a card emits, we use the Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound-level meter (~$4,000). It has the measurement range and the accuracy we are looking for.

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The tested graphics card was installed in a system that was completely cooled passively. That is, passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, and passive cooling on the motherboard and on a solid state drive. Noise results of other cards on this page are measurements of the respective reference design.

This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified), the measurement was conducted at 100 cm of distance and at 160 cm off the floor. The ambient background noise level in the room was well below 20 dBA for all measurements. Please note that the dBA scale is not linear but logarithmic. 40 dBA is not twice as loud as 20 dBA. A 3 dBA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing perception is a bit different, and it is generally accepted that a 10 dBA increase doubles the perceived sound level. The 3D load noise levels were tested with a stressful game, not with Furmark.

NVIDIA has been pitching their "quiet", "silent", "inaudible" GTX Titan to us, and we were a bit skeptical of such a well-performing card delivering a low-noise gaming experience.

In idle, we see fantastic results. The card is essentially inaudible, which shows that NVIDIA did an outstanding job optimizing fan speed settings.

The card will be readily audible in most systems under load, but it is not nearly as loud as the HD 7970 GHz Edition. It is also significantly quieter than the GTX 690, which makes the GTX Titan the quietest high-end graphics card available.

NVIDIA's new Boost Clock 2.0 algorithm also provides additional software features that let you customize noise levels by trading performance for noise and vice versa. You basically pick a target temperature that the graphics card will try to match by adjusting boost clock, voltage, and fan speed accordingly. The out-of-the-box default is 80°C, which results in 38 dBA fan noise. We also tested with the temperature target set to 70°C, 90°C, and 94°C as reflected by the light-green bars in the second graph. The driver allows you pick a target as low as 60°C. In our testing, we could not achieve 65°C or below, since the boost clock algorithm will never clock the card below 535 MHz, which means the card can't cool down enough to reach those noise levels.

You still have the option to manually adjust fan speed by picking a fixed speed or changing the fan curve with the right tweaking utilities, which would let you enable a higher temperature target while still enjoying lower noise levels.

Unfortunately, NVIDIA does not provide any fan speed tweaking software of their own.

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Performance Summary

The graphs on this page show a combined performance summary of all tests and resolutions from previous pages. Each graph shows the tested card as 100% and all other cards' performance as relative to it. A sixth graph summarizes all tests in all resolutions to calculate the total relative performance of the review sample.

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Performance per Watt

The following graphs show the efficiency of the cards in our test group. We used the relative performance scores from the previous page and the typical gaming power consumption result.

These numbers are based on the performance summary with all the games included.

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Performance per Dollar

If you are looking for the best bang per buck, you will love this graph. We looked up the current USD price of each card on the popular online shop Newegg and used that value and all relative performance numbers to calculate the Performance-per-Dollar index.

These numbers are based on the performance summary with all the games included.

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GPU Boost 2.0

NVIDIA updated its GPU Boost technology with the GTX Titan. First introduced with the GeForce GTX 680 (detailed here, read it if you are not familiar with GPU Boost), GPU Boost replaces orthodox methods of clock speed control with speed-ranges between a nominal clock speed and a boost frequency. If the GPU senses an app could do with more performance, power-draw permitting, it automatically overclocks the graphics card. With GPU Boost 2.0, temperature is also taken into account to give the GPU dynamic overclocking headroom.

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The temperature-based boost limits could help enthusiasts who use extreme cooling methods, such as liquid nitrogen, by reducing the control of power-based boost, which would allow them to achieve higher clock speeds as long as they keep the GPU within a temperature limit. Also introduced is over-voltage: it allows you to manually adjust the GPU core voltage. On-the-fly adjustments are also possible, to stabilize your overclock offsets.

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The following graph shows how changes in GPU temperature drive the selected clock. We tested this with a static scene that renders the same scene each frame, which results in a constant GPU and memory load that would otherwise not be possible.

GPU clock is plotted on the vertical axis using the blue MHz scale on the left. Temperature is plotted on the vertical axis using the red °C scale on the right. Time is run on the horizontal axis.

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As you can see, clock behavior is fundamentally different to how Boost 1.0 behaved. The card immediately goes to its maximum boost clock (993 MHz) and stays there as long as temperature allows. Once the card reaches the temperature target of 80°C, Boost 2.0 will quickly dial down frequencies to slow down the temperature increase after which there is a brief period where Boost 2.0 will try to increase clocks again in hopes of a less demanding game scene, which could allow for higher clocks again. Once that proves futile (we used a static scene), clocks are dropped down to the base clock levels of 836 MHz to keep temperature at around 80°C. As the temperature rises, clocks stay at base clock. Only once the GPU reaches 95°C do clocks go down to 418 MHz to avoid damaging the card. Once the card reaches 100°C, it is shut off to prevent any damage (we had to block the fan intake for the card to actually run that hot).

Voltage increase

With Titan, NVIDIA introduces the option of voltage control called "overvoltaging". This lets enthusiasts unlock extra voltage in software to facilitate additional overclocking.

Using EVGA Precision, we increased the GPU voltage by the maximum level available (+0.038 V up to 1.20 V). We did not increase clock speeds, the power target, temperature target, or any other setting.

In all the following graphs, the blue line shows the performance improvement (or reduction) of the GTX Titan in comparison to its baseline performance at 80°C (black line). We used our test suite at 1920x1200 for all these tests. The dotted green line shows the average of the blue line.

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As you can see from the benchmark results, we enabled a very small performance gain just by making the new increased voltages available to the boost clock algorithm. Normally, overvoltage is used to stabilize manual overclocking, but it looks like NVIDIA's boost 2.0 is smart enough to exploit that potential on its own.

Temperature Target

Using software tools provided by the board partners, users can adjust the GPU temperature target to their liking. If you want the card to boost to higher clocks, for example, you can adjust the temperature target up (for example, from the default of 80°C to 85°C). The GPU will then boost to higher clock speeds until it reaches the new temperature target.

With GPU Boost 2.0 being temperature-dependent, NVIDIA suggests that adding a waterblock onto the Titan could result in additional performance benefits because the card can boost higher for longer, since it does not have to worry about GPU temperature getting too high.

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We set the fan speed of our card to maximum (which is limited to 85% by the vBIOS), adjusted the temperature target to 94°C (highest) and ran our test suite. The results show that real-life performance increases by an average of 2.5%. This is representative of what to expect of the card without any additional overclocking and with watercooling. In our test, the GPU temperature never exceeded 65°C, so any temperature limitations were effectively removed and the card could boost as high as the power limits would allow. It also shows that the card already comes with very decent fan settings out of the box, since increasing fan speed just to gain a little bit of performance is certainly not worth it.

GPU Boost 2.0 - Temperature Target

We now want to explore what changing the temperature target does to performance and fan noise.

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First, we increased the temperature target by +10°C, to 90°C. This resulted in a performance increase of 2%, a relatively small improvement for much higher fan noise (going from 38 dBA to 51 dBA).

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When set to the maximum possible temperature target of 94°C, an additional 0.5% performance is gained (+2.4% over the baseline at 80°C). This is certainly not worth the added noise (55 dBA now), at least for most users.

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You may also reduce the top temperature target to optimize the acoustic experience. The card loses a lot of performance with a 70°C target (-26%), but runs significantly quieter (30 dBA). If you value low noise, this option might still be viable as the card should still be fast enough to run most games.

Please also observe how on all these tests, the performance difference varies greatly between the games we tested.

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In a final test, we set the maximum temperature target to 94°C while also setting the maximum power target to 106%. The card can now draw as much power as allowed by NVIDIA while also running as hot as allowed by NVIDIA.

As a result, we see a performance increase of 2.33% over the out-of-the-box baseline. Please note that this is 0.1% lower than when we set 94°C as the target without a power increase. It is absolutely possible that the difference is due to random variations in benchmark runs. However, another possible explanation is that the increased power limit makes the card draw more power, which results in higher temperature, which means the card runs into the temperature limit a tiny bit sooner, so the card will drop clocks again.

Display Overclocking

With the GeForce Titan, NVIDIA introduces a new tweaking feature called "Display Overclocking". Yes, you heard right: you can now overclock your monitor. This kind of overclocking has technically always been possible and has often been called "non-standard display mode", but it was never integrated into the graphics drivers or promoted by a graphics vendor.

I'm sure you've seen a dropdown menu in your games, next to the resolution, that lets you select the refresh rate of the monitor. Unfortunately, most monitors report only one frequency, typically 60 Hz, so you are stuck with that particular choice.

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Even when you disable V-Sync, the monitor will not display frames faster than this setting, and higher framerates may cause tearing, so many users opt to enable V-Sync. V-Sync has a major drawback in some games, causing input lag and reducing the perceived smoothness.

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NVIDIA's new Display Overclocking feature lets you adjust the monitor's refresh rate - when supported. NVIDIA does not provide a software for Display Overclocking; board partners have to add support for this feature to their OC software. We used EVGA Precision for our testing.

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As you can see, it's really basic. There is a slider, which lets you adjust the display refresh rate, and an apply button to try out the new rate.

Our test bench monitor is a LG 30" W3000H. It runs its native resolution of 2560x1600 at 60 Hz. When I increased the Hz step by step, the highest setting I could reach without affecting the picture was 75 Hz. Brightness beyond that point suddenly went up and the monitor started displaying random pixel noise. NVIDIA tells us that overclocking the monitor is perfectly safe. You will just get visual errors or a black screen if the monitor can't handle the setting, and I tend to agree.

Going from 60 to 75 Hz is not a huge improvement, but sideways movement looks a bit more fluid as long as your card can maintain that framerate.

I also tried overclocking our cheap 1080p displays that we use for multi-monitor testing. With their native 1920x1080 at 60 Hz, the maximum overclock ended up being 66 Hz. The monitor would show a distorted picture beyond 66 Hz before displaying an "out of range" message on a black screen. Unlike typical overclocking, it seems as though each monitor of the same model is limited to the same frequency. I tried the other two monitors I have and they topped out at 66 Hz too.

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Last but not least, I tried my work monitor, a 30" Dell U3011. It runs the same 2560x1600 as on the LG 30"at 60 Hz. Here, display overclocking only reached a 65 Hz refresh rate.

Bottom line: your mileage will vary, but it's a feature that can turn out to be useful, especially if you are excited by 120 Hz monitors but lack the funds to get one.

One thing to note though is that I couldn't get display OC to work in full-screen mode, so you need to run windowed games. You use your normal desktop resolution, overclock the refresh rate using software, and start the game in a window (WOW's "Windowed (Fullscreen)" setting will work). The underlying issue seems to be that as soon as the monitor resolution changes, display OC is reverted because the mode change also causes a frequency change.

NVIDIA says Display Overclocking should work in full-screen, so it may just be a driver bug that can be easily fixed.

Overclocking

The overclocking results listed in this section were achieved with the default fan and voltage settings as defined in the VGA BIOS. Please note that every single sample overclocks differently, which is why our results here can only serve as a guideline for what you can expect from your card.

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Since NVIDIA sent us three cards for tri-SLI testing, we tested each one individually for maximum overclocking potential. This larger sample size provides a better view on what clock speeds can be expected.

The best card reached 1005 MHz GPU clock (20% overclocking) and 1755 MHz memory (17% overclock).

Overclocking potential is quite good. 1 GHz is probably possible with most cards. Memory clocks reached the levels we would expect given the high-quality GDDR5 memory chips used.

<table class="tputbl" width="425px">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="3">Maximum Overclock Comparison</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th width="210" scope="col"></th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Max. GPU Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Max. Memory Clock</th>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">GTX Titan, Serial #195</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">990 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">1780 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">GTX Titan, Serial #207</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">1005 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">1730 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">GTX Titan, Serial #235</th>
<td valign="top" align="center">1005 MHz</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">1755 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
Important: Each GPU (including each GPU of the same make and model)
will overclock slightly differently based on random production variances.
This table just serves to provide a list of typical overclocks for similar cards,
determined during TPU review.

Overclocked Performance

Using these clock frequencies, we ran a quick test of Battlefield 3 to evaluate the gains from overclocking.

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Actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 21.0%.

Voltage Tuning

It has been a long known fact that overclocking headroom increases as soon as you increase the operating voltage. Software voltage control on VGA cards has, until recently, been the exception and most users were not willing to risk their warranty by performing a soldering voltmod. Almost all current graphics cards have voltage control in order to lower power consumption by throttling voltage during idle and slight load.

In this section, we will increase the GPU operating voltage step by step before recording the maximum possible clock speed. Voltage is listed as the value that the voltage regulator reports through software, not actual measured voltage. The card was installed into a case with fan settings at default. Memory will not be overclocked. We will, with a card that has thermal throttling, reduce the operating frequency to keep performance as high as possible for a given voltage. Please note that the fan profile will have an effect on observed temperatures: if the card gets hotter, the fan will ramp up to reduce temperatures or keep them from rising too fast.

The following graph shows the overclocking potential we saw on our sample. GPU clock is represented by the blue line, which uses the vertical clock scale on the left. The scale starts at the default clock to give a feel for the card's overclocking potential over its base clock. Temperature is plotted in red using the °C scale on the right side of the graph. An additional graph shows full system power draw in orange, measured at the wall socket while running at the given voltage, clock, and temperature.

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Increasing GPU voltage did not yield much of an improvement. This seems to be largely caused by the limited voltage range. The highest setting is 1.2 V.

We also tried increasing the power limit to the maximum of 106% and raised the thermal target to 94°C, hoping it would allow for higher clocking potential.

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As you can see, we gained a bit more OC potential that way, but voltage scaling is not anywhere near what we've seen on some AMD HD 7970 GHz cards.

Temperatures

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Temperatures are great, which is of no surprise with Boost Clock 2.0 focusing on providing optimum temperatures for the card at all times.

Clock Profiles

Modern graphics cards have several clock profiles that are selected to balance power draw and performance requirements.

The following table lists the clock settings for important performance scenarios and the GPU voltage that we measured. We performed the measurement on the pins of a coil or a capacitor near the GPU voltage regulator.

<table class="tputbl">
<tr>
<th scope="col"></th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Core <br />
Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">Memory <br />
Clock</th>
<th align="center" scope="col">GPU Voltage <br />
(measured)</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Desktop</th>
<td align="right">324 MHz</td>
<td align="right">162 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.88 V</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Multi-Monitor</th>
<td align="right">324 MHz</td>
<td align="right">162 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.88 V</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Blu-ray Playback</th>
<td align="right">324 MHz</td>
<td align="right">162 MHz</td>
<td align="right">0.88 V</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">3D Load</th>
<td align="right">836-993 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1502 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1.00 - 1.15 V</td>
</tr>
</table>

The card uses NVIDIA's dynamic overclocking mechanism, which means it will dynamically adjust clock and voltage based on render load, temperature, and other factors.

For the graph below, we recorded all GPU clock and GPU voltage combinations of our 1920x1200 resolution benchmarking suite. The plotted points are transparent, so they can add up to indicate more often used values. A light color means the clock/voltage combination is rarely used and a dark color means it's active a lot.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N...vs_voltage.jpg

Value and Conclusion

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<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>

GeForce GTX Titan cards from various partners will be available for $1000.

</td></tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>

Single GPU, no multi-GPU issues
Very fast
Quiet during gaming
Low power consumption
Good overclocking potential
Sexy high-quality design
Extremely quiet in idle
Boost clock 2.0 adds new overclocking features
6 GB memory
Support for voltage control
Up to four active outputs
Native full-size HDMI and DisplayPort
Adds support for Display Overclocking
Support for CUDA and PhysX

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>

Really expensive!
No backplate
Voltage control very limited
Power limit can only be adjusted by +6%
Boost 2.0 adds more complexity to overclocking

</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.0</th>
<td>NVIDIA's new GTX Titan shows the full potential of the Kepler architecture. Being based on NVIDIA's flagship GK110 silicon, it delivers outstanding single-GPU performance, easily claiming the title of "world's fastest GPU." Compared to the GTX 680, we see a real-life performance improvement of 30% at 2560x1600, or 23% when averaged over all resolutions. Why the focus on 2560x1600? You really should not bother using Titan on anything lower. NVIDIA has a solid lineup for full-HD gaming and below. Even a single GTX 680 can deliver very cozy framerates at 2560x1600, so Titan really only makes sense for the most demanding of gamers. The HD 7970 GHz Edition, which AMD recently declared "best GPU for enthusiast gamers," is far behind Titan in all regards, but it's half of the Titan's price. The real-life performance difference is about 25%. What positively surprised me is that, unlike other Kepler GPUs, the GK110 does not lose any performance at 2560x1600 (when compared to AMD cards).<br />
NVIDIA's dual-GPU flagship GTX 690 is still roughly 20% faster than the Titan though. While it suffers from the requirement to have proper game-specific SLI profiles for optimum scaling, NVIDIA has done a very good job here in the past, and out of the 19 games in our test suite, SLI only fails in F1 2012. Compare that to 6 out of 19 failed titles with AMD CrossFire. Looking at F1 2012, we can clearly see the benefits of having a single, powerful GPU. In that specific test, looking at 5760x1080 surround gaming, the GTX Titan makes short shrift of any other card by delivering over 50% higher frame rates - crucial for aspiring race drivers playing on three screens.<br /><br />
Visually, the GTX Titan is a nerd's wet dream come true. It uses the same industrial design as the GTX 690, with a unibody heatsink of magnesium alloy and nicely shaped curves. The Plexiglas window definitely adds to the experience and looks so much better than a random sticker. Holding the card in your hands really conveys the feel of a premium high-quality product. What I find really disappointing though is that NVIDIA did not install a backplate onto the card. While handling the cards, I always worried I might break something. A backplate would have alleviated those fears and added to the design. For its price, NVIDIA should have really included a backplate.<br /><br />
NVIDIA did not only focus on performance and design, but also on power/heat/noise. They introduced a new "GPU Boost 2.0" algorithm that takes into account temperature and power draw to find ideal clock speeds that provide maximum performance without compromising on power and heat. The GTX Titan is, as a result, the quietest enthusiast-class graphics card you can buy at this time - but clearly not inaudible or super quiet. While under heavy load, the fan noise difference is, compared to the Radeon HD 7970 GHz, like day and night. When the GHz Edition has to sound like a leaf blower to keep the card cool at its massive clocks and voltages, the Titan just plays it smart and dials back boost clock and voltage at the cost of a bit of performance, but for a whole lot less noise. Our Boost Clock 2.0 testing suggests that this equates to roughly 2.5% real-life performance, which is not insignificant and, in my opinion, well worth the reduced acoustic footprint. We previously reviewed the dual-GPU ASUS ARES II which is a tiny bit quieter under load, but it has to use a bulky and expensive watercooling solution to achieve that. During desktop work, the Titan really is whisper quiet, delivering an excellent low-noise experience while always keeping massive GPU power at its fingertips should you need it.<br /><br />
Power consumption of the GTX Titan in non-gaming states is fantastic; better than any enthusiast-class card we've seen before. It is actually lower than the majority of cards on the market today. This further supports the GTX Titan's ability to be an everyday graphics card that is ready for serious gaming. During gaming, power consumption is extremely reasonable too. While it won't beat the performance per watt of lower-end cards like the GTX 650 and HD 7750, it is certainly more efficient than the GTX 690 and GTX 680, and easily surpasses the HD 7970 GHz Edition in that metric. The GTX Titan uses slightly less power than the HD 7970 GHz Edition while being well over 20% faster. This efficiency is the fundamental reason for the low noise levels of the Titan, because less power consumed equals less heat produced, which creates less work for the cooling assembly.<br /><br />
Overclocking worked quite well on our samples (we checked OC potential for each one separately). It looks like you can expect clocks of around 1000 MHz (before boost), which is roughly a 20% increase. Memory overclocking worked well too and reached the clock speeds we typically expect of high-quality GDDR5 memory chips. Real-life performance gained after our overclocking session was around 20%, which means that overclocking scales well and isn't bottlenecked anywhere. We also tried the new overvoltage feature of Boost 2.0, but I have to say that with such a limited voltage range, there is really no point in opening that can of worms just to gain 10 or 20 MHz GPU. NVIDIA has stated that board partners can enable additional voltage options in their board designs, but the board partners we have talked to so far don't seem very excited about doing so.<br />
With Titan, NVIDIA introduced a new overclocking feature called display overclocking, which lets you adjust the monitor's refresh rate beyond the typical "60 Hz". In our testing, we saw mixed results that were dependent on the monitor used. One of our monitors did well and could handle up to 75 Hz, which does improve perceived smoothness in gaming. Other monitors were not so lucky and only managed around 65 Hz, which yielded no subjective difference. Display Overclocking seems perfectly safe, since the monitor will just go black and show an "out of range" message, so it's certainly worth experimenting with.<br /><br />
Now the bad news. The GeForce GTX Titan is expensive, really expensive. It comes at the same $1000 that currently gets you a GeForce GTX 690. As mentioned before, the GTX 690 delivers more performance than the Titan for the same amount of money, but relies on multi-GPU technology to do so. Titan does better in terms of power and noise, but asking such a massive price premium for it just seems unreasonable to me. Performance per dollar considered, the Titan is the worst choice you can make, but that can be said about various sports cars, yet any car will get you from A to B. With the GeForce GTX 680 and HD 7970 GHz Edition being available at around $450, I find it extremely hard to justify spending more than twice that amount of money for around 30% more performance. A more reasonable price for the GTX Titan would be between $600 and $700, but it looks like NVIDIA doesn't feel like they have to sell a ton of these cards. The GTX Titan is clearly positioned as a premium product, and like the GTX 690, I expect it to remain at a premium price point for as long as there is no real competition. <br /><br />
Super high-end cards like the GTX Titan typically sell a relatively low volume, which makes the GTX Titan a relatively minor product in terms of NVIDIA's sales revenue. However, having the single fastest GPU helps marketing even $200 mainstream products, yet I somehow feel the $1000 price-tag might hurt the brand more than help it. People could despise NVIDIA for pricing the card so prohibitively with such an obnoxiously high price, even if those same people would still not buy the card at, say, $700. Sure, the statement "NVIDIA has the fastest single GPU" holds true, but "NVIDIA has the most overpriced single-GPU card in 25 years of VGA history" is also equally true.<br /><br />
If you took a peek further down (I know you did), you saw that this card received our Editor's Choice award. To be honest, I've been going back and forth between Editor's Choice, Recommended, or even no award at all. I personally see Recommended as an award for products that barely missed Editor's Choice, but putting the "Recommended" stamp on the Titan with its high price doesn't seem right either. So should I give no award at all? That would be unfair as well. The GTX Titan is a fantastic graphics card, and I'm sure everybody would love to have one as long as they don't have to pay for it. Everything except for the price is great and denying the Titan any award just because its pricing is too high wouldn't do the product any justice. Personally, I would not buy the GTX Titan, and I'm not much of a gamer anymore, but if I were, I would certainly enjoy using the card, which kind of makes this card an "Editor's Choice".<br /><br />
If all you can think of now is the high price: Congratulations, you have realized that the Titan is not for you, and you shouldn't buy one. There are plenty of other choices that will deliver a great gaming performance at more sensible price points. The Titan is for those that really could care less if they spend $500, $1000, or $2000 on a graphics card.<br /><br />
If you are a mere mortal, but are willing to part with one of your kidneys, we also have a SLI and Tri-SLI review of the GTX Titan where we compare its performance against a 3x GTX 680, 2x GTX 690, and 3x HD 7970 GHz Edition configuration.
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</table>