GTX Titan Z - worth it?

[the54thvoid]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-202-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1966

GTX Titan Z for £999.

People will say no straight away but here are my thoughts. It's 2 Titan Blacks. All GK110 cores unlocked and running 6Gb each of Vram.

Moreover, I'd be popping a water block on and overclocking. I've read online that they'll hit 1000-1100MHz (without a waterblock).

Or is it simply still better for 2 x GTX 980's?

I'm thinking the extra cores on the GK110 give it an edge over the faster but fewer cores of GM204. I'm sure I've seen reviews showing GM204 lacking in certain areas, possibly due to the core count. Guru 3D puts the Titan Z overclocked on par with GTX 980 sli....

Maybe I'm thinking out loud but this could be Titan's swansong on Kepler, as the price (in UK at least) is falling it's becoming more 'realistic' at effectively £500 per Titan Black (at least overclocked to stock Titan Black speeds).

If I knew there was a Bigger Maxwell round the corner, that would obviously swing things but I'm looking at going 4K soon enough.

Can't wait for the comments - REMEMBER it's cheaper than two Titan Blacks by a couple hundred quid.

 

[RCoon]

Or is it simply still better for 2 x GTX 980's?

yep

*cough*

In reality the Titan Z (at stock clocks) will be about 10% faster (assuming performance = 780ti x 2) than 980 SLI (again, stock) Graphs proved that wrong, plus has extra VRAM.

980 SLI is cheaper by more than £200. Depends whether 6GB VRAM and 10% performance increase (on a good day) is worth it.

EDIT: Keep in mind OC will be limited on that card considering its VRMs. I'd warrant 980 SLI will overclock better under water, and maybe level the playing field when both are OC'd under water.

 

[the54thvoid]

yep

*cough*

In reality the Titan Z (at Stock clocks) will be about 10-15% faster (assuming performance = 780ti x 2) than 980 SLI, plus has extra VRAM.

980 SLI is cheaper by almost £200. Depends whether 6GB VRAM and 10% (on a good day) is worth it.

Add 2 waterblocks to those 980's...

Cost wise it's similar but I have two concerns with Maxwell in GM204 guise:

1) Cores. Maxwell does so well because it's clocks are soooo fast. Does the lower core count ( I know it's a different architecture) hinder it in other areas?
2) Memory, will 4GB be enough in future with 4K, 6GB is surely better? (I know there are 8Gb 980's in the works).
3) Power consumption. 980's in sli will obviously consume less power than a 'Z'.

I think if the Titan Z hit £800, it's be a no brainer unless the 980's dropped too or a GM200/210 came out at £600 with 50% on top 780ti perf.

All this speculation because Intel have failed to tempt me to move away from my 3930k X79 build in three years. So my PC budget still awaits a worthy cause.

 

[64K]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-202-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1966

GTX Titan Z for £999.

People will say no straight away but here are my thoughts. It's 2 Titan Blacks. All GK110 cores unlocked and running 6Gb each of Vram.

Moreover, I'd be popping a water block on and overclocking. I've read online that they'll hit 1000-1100MHz (without a waterblock).

Or is it simply still better for 2 x GTX 980's?

I'm thinking the extra cores on the GK110 give it an edge over the faster but fewer cores of GM204. I'm sure I've seen reviews showing GM204 lacking in certain areas, possibly due to the core count. Guru 3D puts the Titan Z overclocked on par with GTX 980 sli....

Maybe I'm thinking out loud but this could be Titan's swansong on Kepler, as the price (in UK at least) is falling it's becoming more 'realistic' at effectively £500 per Titan Black (at least overclocked to stock Titan Black speeds).

If I knew there was a Bigger Maxwell round the corner, that would obviously swing things but I'm looking at going 4K soon enough.

Can't wait for the comments - REMEMBER it's cheaper than two Titan Blacks by a couple hundred quid.

Well, from what I've seen a pair of GTX 970s trades blows with a Titan Z for a lot less money.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_970_sli_review,1.html

 

[RCoon]

1) Cores. Maxwell does so well because it's clocks are soooo fast. Does the lower core count ( I know it's a different architecture) hinder it in other areas?
2) Memory, will 4GB be enough in future with 4K, 6GB is surely better? (I know there are 8Gb 980's in the works).
3) Power consumption. 980's in sli will obviously consume less power than a 'Z'.

1) Yes. The IPC on maxwell ain't so great. OCing Maxwell cards net a lower fps-per-mhz than Kepler. Maxwell 100mhz clock bump will net less than a Kepler 100mhz clock bump.
2) Maxwell uses compression methods to reduce the overall load on VRAM, Kepler does not have this. In controlled circumstances, an identical benchmark would use less VRAM on a 980 than a 780ti
3) 980's in SLI would use almost half the power at stock. Overclocking is another matter. You're a highroller, you don't care anyway.

4) Big Boy 210 is around the corner. Wait.

 

[the54thvoid]

1) Yes. The IPC on maxwell ain't so great. OCing Maxwell cards net a lower fps-per-mhz than Kepler. Maxwell 100mhz clock bump will net less than a Kepler 100mhz clock bump.
2) Maxwell uses compression methods to reduce the overall load on VRAM, Kepler does not have this. In controlled circumstances, an identical benchmark would use less VRAM on a 980 than a 780ti
3) 980's in SLI would use almost half the power at stock. Overclocking is another matter. You're a highroller, you don't care anyway.

4) Big Boy 210 is around the corner. Wait.

Point 3 - But I do. I'm a great defender of Maxwell because of it - And why I don't run 2 780ti Classifieds
Point 4 - How long is this corner?

 

[RCoon]

Point 3 - But I do. I'm a great defender of Maxwell because of it - And why I don't run 2 780ti Classifieds
Point 4 - How long is this corner?

Mmm. You have a 780ti already dontcha... That changes things for me. I'd rather go for 780ti SLI over Titan-Z because they perform better, have better OC potential, and it makes more overall sense (plus cheaper). However, if you're an energy conservationist like me, I'd go 980 SLI.

This corner won't arrive until 980/970 sales halt, but more likely when AMD release something that becomes a temporary minor thorn. You know the game.

 

[EarthDog]

For 1440p, no. Unless you are some FPS snob and require 120FPS to match your monitor, there is no way in hell I would get that over a single 980 for your resolution. Seeing as how you have a 780ti already... no way in hell i would upgrade either. LOL!

Also, IPC is fine, its SCALING from overclocking that doesn't seem to be as good. But hell, with LESS shaders/ROPS/TMUs its FASTER so IPC is there.

Wait for their next dual GPU card (what people are calling the 990).

 

[OneMoar]

wait for the 990

 

[the54thvoid]

Now, when I do get the next card, someone at TPU gets a Classified 780ti Hydrocopper for bargain basement price

 

[Finners]

Come on mate, Deep down you know its not worth it. Only games your playing atm is BF4 and COD and they run fine on your 780Ti.

Wait it out, then spoil yourself with the full fat maxwell card with a wide bus and 8gb on VRAM, In guessing at March time next year but that will be a nice upgrade!

 

[the54thvoid]

Come on mate, Deep down you know its not worth it.

It's still a decent price for what it is. I'll not buy one, I'll hold off - though amazingly, CoD AW is so shitty I've had to drop my OC by 100Mhz as it's unstable....

But two Titan Blacks on a stick for £1000 - it is good value compared to two Titan Blacks.

 

[Vario]

Just wait for 980ti/990 or whatever.

 

[BiggieShady]

If you are a developer who is coding double precision CUDA apps, then and only then you have a real reason for buying it ... the best non-real reason is 'I just have darn too much money'

 

[GhostRyder]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-202-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1966

GTX Titan Z for £999.

People will say no straight away but here are my thoughts. It's 2 Titan Blacks. All GK110 cores unlocked and running 6Gb each of Vram.

Moreover, I'd be popping a water block on and overclocking. I've read online that they'll hit 1000-1100MHz (without a waterblock).

Or is it simply still better for 2 x GTX 980's?

I'm thinking the extra cores on the GK110 give it an edge over the faster but fewer cores of GM204. I'm sure I've seen reviews showing GM204 lacking in certain areas, possibly due to the core count. Guru 3D puts the Titan Z overclocked on par with GTX 980 sli....

Maybe I'm thinking out loud but this could be Titan's swansong on Kepler, as the price (in UK at least) is falling it's becoming more 'realistic' at effectively £500 per Titan Black (at least overclocked to stock Titan Black speeds).

If I knew there was a Bigger Maxwell round the corner, that would obviously swing things but I'm looking at going 4K soon enough.

Can't wait for the comments - REMEMBER it's cheaper than two Titan Blacks by a couple hundred quid.

Based on what you have I am inclined to agree that you should wait it out for the next big thing (GTX 990 or whatever its going to be called) because in all honesty the difference is going to be miniscule instead of just buying another 780ti (If you really wanted more of a bump). The Extra Vram is needed for 4K no doubt (comparing to 3gb I mean) but either way unless you went with Dual Titan-Z's your still going to need a little more power to run it very effectively.

I would say if your really wanting 4K and to replace you HC 780ti then I would get the GTX 980's hands down because 4gb is enough for now to handle it because (Someone already made this point) of the new compression methods being implemented on top of the extra performance of the new GPU's. Sure scaling on overclocking the 980's may not be as great as Kepler, but on a dual GPU card especially your going to be limited a lot more than a couple single GPU cards on what you can push. I would tell you to just wait it out for a bit and grab yourself the next big Dual GPU card because most likely it will fall into a similar price point that Titan-Z is at now and provide you with a better overall experience in the long run.

This is just my opinion on the matter of course.