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Titan X upgrade?

Am*

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Quick question folks. I am seriously considering buying a Titan X due to its huge 12GB framebuffer. I've waited for Fury, which is far too slow at 1080; considered the 980ti until I read that it was cut down and has less than 8GB VRAM. As you can imagine, I am now pretty tired of waiting and now looking to upgrade.

I will be gaming at 1080p @120Hz in 3D Vision until I get a Ultrawide 3440x1440 monitor.

I have a few questions for Titan X owners specifically (which are deal-breakers for me):

Is it noisy at idle/load, compared to my ancient MSI GTX 460 Cyclone? (I also use this rig for music production so can't put up with a noisy PC).
Does it suffer from coil whine?
Does it throttle below boost clock on any demanding apps like Furmark?
Is 16GB RAM enough to run this card and use all its VRAM, or will I need to upgrade to 32GB?
Is a 2500K at 4.4GHz going to bottleneck it much, if at all?

I plan on using it for learning games development (UDK) and gaming for the next 3-5 years and want a final card to upgrade to and run my 2500K rig until I replace it with a whole new PC.

Thanks in advance, folks.
 
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i think you would be fine with 980ti.

your current 16GB RAM is enough. and 2500k will not bottleneck either card.
 

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I just cannot justify the extra €480 over a reference 980ti. From what I've read, 6GB will not hold you back in any way, shape or form.

EDIT: If you're serious about it, which you shouldn't be, it might not be whisper silent. I don't remember if Nvidia ever allowed other OEMs to make coolers for it, but you can watercool it I assume.
 
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Agreed with peeps above. Honestly it seems that a 980ti would be ideal for you. Seeing that you're concerned about noise, find yourself a 980ti with an aftermarket cooler on it (many of them disable their fans at idle and are quieter than reference under load).
 

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The titan x isn't whisper quiet nor the fastest card and is very overpriced. Look at that non-ref 980ti review on you. It's significantly faster and super quiet. That 6GB RAM won't hold you back, either.
 

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Agreed with peeps above. Honestly it seems that a 980ti would be ideal for you. Seeing that you're concerned about noise, find yourself a 980ti with an aftermarket cooler on it (many of them disable their fans at idle and are quieter than reference under load).

Just wanted to mentioned, there is less than £130 difference between the Titan X and a decent 980TI here. This makes the 980ti a ripoff in my eyes due to the low amount of VRAM and being cut down.

Also I would be looking to use the stock cooler.
 
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The titan x isn't whisper quiet nor the fastest card and is very overpriced. Look at that non-ref 980ti review on you. It's significantly faster and super quiet. That 6GB RAM won't hold you back, either.
haha, faster? i can overclock my titan x to 1400mhz easly.
980 ti at 1400mhz isnt as fast, because of shader difference
980 ti 2816 shaders.
titan x 3072 shaders.

with my vbios i can go up to max 425 watt TDP.
and if u want further performance then u can just solder some better/more solid caps on the board and ud get even faster card
 
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Just wanted to mentioned, there is less than £130 difference between the Titan X and a decent 980TI here. This makes the 980ti a ripoff in my eyes due to the low amount of VRAM and being cut down.

Also I would be looking to use the stock cooler.
OK well if you can live with the noise then it seems you are set on the Titan X. Tbh though the Titan X will run out of GPU horsepower before running out of vram, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that the same applies to the 980ti with 6gb vram which would make the 980ti the better buy but it is up to you of course.

From my point of view the only things the Titan X has going for it is the 12gb vram - which really only comes into play with multiple Titan Xs due to what I said above - and secondly the e-peen factor of being able to say that one owns the best/most expensive single gpu card.

edit; you can check out the noise values on W1zz's review here; http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan_X/28.html
 
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Speaking from a gamer who owns a Titan X, the card is quit while idling and you will only hear it when it reaches 70% load. Also It stays cool even when overclocked I have mine overclocked +250 on the GPU and +400 on memory and my temps never reach above 67 degrees. for anyone saying that the Titan X isn't the fastest single GPU is crazy. The 980 ti does come close for a cheaper price, but you will not be unhappy if you purchase a Titan X. I love the card and no matter what setting you configure on any game the Titan X handles it smoothly both on 1080 and 4k.
 
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Can confirm, I have a regular 1350 core OC on mine, and I don't let me fan go above 65-75 unless it's hitting 80C+...which only happens in a few games.
 

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Thanks a lot, folks. Just before I buy it, how is the coil whine on them? Is there any on yours at all? Do any programs like Furmark bring it out? This is probably my biggest concern buying a Titan X. Is it anything like in this video:

http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan_X/35.html

Or was this a faulty card being reviewed?

If it's due to overclocks, I plan on keeping mine at stock for most games - unless the game absolutely needs the extra performance.
 
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I will be gaming at 1080p @120Hz in 3D Vision until I get a Ultrawide 3440x1440 monitor.

Titan X for gaming ? is this a joke or what ?
buy GTX 980ti . unless you want to get a selfy picture with your 2 FPS difference (vs 980ti @ 3440x1440 )
 
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Titan X for gaming ? is this a joke or what ?
buy GTX 980ti . unless you want to get a selfy picture with your 2 FPS difference (vs 980ti @ 3440x1440 )
lol its bigger difference than that
 
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Am*

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Titan X for gaming ? is this a joke or what ?
buy GTX 980ti . unless you want to get a selfy picture with your 2 FPS difference (vs 980ti @ 3440x1440 )
The difference between them in performance/features is much bigger than it is in price and as I said before, the 980Ti is short on VRAM and won't last 2 years of stutter free performance. Go take a look at all the 780 Ti owners compared to Titan owners - 2 years ago people said a 780 TI is futureproof/has enough VRAM and now people with them are upgrading due to running out of memory. I've always followed the same mentality as you, as you can see, having a GTX 460 that had more than enough memory during its time, which now bites me in the backside in every new game because of the VRAM shortage.

Games nowadays double in VRAM requirements every 2 years or so, and with ~£140 between them it's not even a contest.
 
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This makes the 980ti a ripoff in my eyes due to the low amount of VRAM and being cut down.
Wait a second........

My friend, you have great advice here. Get the 980ti and its 6GB vRAM. That card will last you, at 1080p, 3-4 years. By the time 4 years rolls around it will be HORSEPOWER limited not vRAM limited.

Look at the 7970/280x for example (released 12/2011 - 3.5+ year old card). At 1080p, the 6GB version performs just as well as the 3GB version at 1080p. Only today, it is choking on some titles because of a lack of horsepower, not the 3/6GB that is on it. 6GB is plenty for 1080p gaming for the next couple of years easy. 1080p is quickly becoming more CPU bound then anything. Strapping on a TitanX or a 980ti you will have a glass ceiling on its performance, depending on your CPU overclock.

the 980Ti is short on VRAM and won't last 2 years of stutter free performance.
B.O.L.O.G.N.A.
 
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There's no real competitive advantage to the Titan X over the 980 ti, other than you couldn't buy a 980 ti 3 months ago. Probably the only reason I own one...That said, I am happy with mine. Worth the money...ehh probably not, now. Unless your hell bent on like...12880x2160 gaming...
 
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The difference between them in performance/features is much bigger than it is in price and as I said before, the 980Ti is short on VRAM and won't last 2 years of stutter free performance. Go take a look at all the 780 Ti owners compared to Titan owners - 2 years ago people said a 780 TI is futureproof/has enough VRAM and now people with them are upgrading due to running out of memory. I've always followed the same mentality as you, as you can see, having a GTX 460 that had more than enough memory during its time, which now bites me in the backside in every new game because of the VRAM shortage.

Games nowadays double in VRAM requirements every 2 years or so, and with ~£140 between them it's not even a contest.
Ehh personally I would also agree with most of the consensus here. Get a GTX 980ti over a Titan X as from my readings its a better all around card than a Titan X especially when you factor in price. Yes the Titan X has a higher shader and VRAM count but the amount of VRAM on the GTX 980ti is more than enough for quite some time even at 4K. The GTX 780ti and others before it have ram issues because of the slow evolution of VRAM on the cards for the longest time while resolution skipped up a bit and consoles moved up a generation. Consoles currently can only give up to 6gb to games (Err maybe 6.5 right now I cannot remember exact but the amount of ram on the system is 8) which means games will generally still be focused at 1080p and even with higher texture packs and such it will not scale up ram usage enough to exceed 6gb for quite awhile. Note that cards like the GTX 780ti have half the vram of the GTX 980ti which comparing history had a lot lower vram increases (IE GTX 580 1.5gb, GTX 680 2gb, GTX 780/ti 3gb).

The other thing to note is the GTX 980ti has better variants than all the stock GTX Titan X's for higher overclocking and also they have been known to stock hit a little higher than a Titan X.

Personally, I would get a GTX 980ti hands down over the GTX Titan X in every situation I can think of. There is no reason to invest the extra money at this point since you can easily match its performance and the extra VRAM will just sit around twiddling its thumbs. I play 4K currently on every game set to Ultra with 3 290X's which only have 4gb and I have not yet had a problem with VRAM usage causing any issue in games. So with a GTX 980ti you should have plenty of VRAM for years to come.
 

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haha, faster? i can overclock my titan x to 1400mhz easly.
980 ti at 1400mhz isnt as fast, because of shader difference
980 ti 2816 shaders.
titan x 3072 shaders.

with my vbios i can go up to max 425 watt TDP.
and if u want further performance then u can just solder some better/more solid caps on the board and ud get even faster card
I think I'm detecting a bit of buyer's remorse here at having spent so much money on a Titan X when a non-reference 980 Ti easily beats it - and for far less money. ;) And that also includes noise performance.

I was thinking of the EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC+ with ACX 2.0 cooler previously which TPU reviewed. Look at the overclocked performance of that card compared to the Titan X - it just blows it away. Also, that crippled GPU is barely slower than the uncrippled version, at only about 2-4% difference. From TPU's reference 980 Ti review:
Despite a lower shader count (2812 vs 3072), but while running the same clocks, the GTX 980 Ti almost performs as well as the Titan X. Depending on the resolution, the gap is between 2% (1600x900) and 4% (4K), which I would say is pretty much the same unless you look at benchmarks and really playing games instead.

Overclocked performance comparison


The fact remains that the smart money is on a 980 Ti. The only way you can justify a Titan X over it is if you have some weird edge case where 12GB RAM actually makes a difference right now and that's it. I can't think of such an edge case, can you? Or you just like the look of it with its black cooler and have money to burn.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
Dina also seems to forget that you can do the exact same things to the 980ti that he did to his card to reach those clocks. Overclocking is a silicon lottery deal anyway. Congrats on a solid overclock on that $1K card though hoss.. I will be so close to that card with a 980ti I can sniff its silicon... oh and have $350 more in my pocket. ;)

Comparing overclocks is pretty silly considering. Think of it like fractions people... do to one side what you do to the other. It is especially silly when you are comparing an overclocked item versus non too. Come on peeps, let's use our heads a little bit... don't turn into Tom's! :p
 
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I think I'm detecting a bit of buyer's remorse here at having spent so much money on a Titan X when a non-reference 980 Ti easily beats it - and for far less money. ;) And that also includes noise performance.

I was thinking of the EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC+ with ACX 2.0 cooler previously which TPU reviewed. Look at the overclocked performance of that card compared to the Titan X - it just blows it away. Also, that crippled GPU is barely slower than the uncrippled version, at only about 2-4% difference. From TPU's reference 980 Ti review:


Overclocked performance comparison


The fact remains that the smart money is on a 980 Ti. The only way you can justify a Titan X over it is if you have some weird edge case where 12GB RAM actually makes a difference right now and that's it. I can't think of such an edge case, can you? Or you just like the look of it with its black cooler and have money to burn.

Not having to use SLI or Crossfire at 4k, made the Titan X completely worth it...especially 3 months ago. Would I buy one today? no..not really. The 980 Ti is very competitive at 4k, and a better value, I don't think anyone is debating that. But, Alot of those benchmarks I feel like don't overclock the Titan X that much, what clocks were the benchmark you linked using?
 

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Not having to use SLI or Crossfire at 4k, made the Titan X completely worth it...especially 3 months ago. Would I buy one today? no..not really. The 980 Ti is very competitive at 4k, and a better value, I don't think anyone is debating that. But, Alot of those benchmarks I feel like don't overclock the Titan X that much, what clocks were the benchmark you linked using?
It was the overclock for the EVGA review that I linked to. Here's the direct page link to it:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_980_Ti_SC_Plus/33.html

The GPU clock was a fair bit higher, as you could see, while the memory clock a bit slower.

I forgot to mention to Dina, that on top of this, the Titan X cooler isn't quite good enough to prevent the card throttling a bit when it's running hard, as W1Z pointed out. That EVGA cooler lifts that restriction which is part of the reason that it performs so much better.

The bold bit: you're seeing it rationally there about what you'd buy now and previously, but not everyone seems to be able to do that for some reason; yeah graphics cards are like shifting sands in that respect. Dina was debating that though and reckons the Titan X is worth it over a 980 Ti for gamers, when it clearly isn't, crippled GPU or no crippled GPU. I'll be interested to see her response...
 
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The Titan X is basically irrelevant at this moment, yes 12GBs of VRAM sound enticing, but chances are by the time you need that much VRAM other much faster cards will be around.

I don't expect another quantum leap in terms of graphic memory requirements in a long while, not until the next generation of consoles is launched anyway.

Yes, the CUDA core count is higher, and yes, with OCing Titan X is potentially faster than any 980Ti out there, especially if you can afford to put it underwater and prevent any thermal induced throttling, but the spread is not enough to justify the price difference in my opinion; the 980Ti will give you plenty of performance for current and most future generation titles.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
Considering it was ~4% behind on smaller resolution, that means it made no difference there in this testing.
 
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