Asus 290X DCII vS 780Ti overclocked

Gregster · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:16

Overclocking Performance vs GeForce GTX 780 Ti
Now we have come to the page you all are really looking for. How does the overclocked ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC compared to an overclocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti. As we've shown a couple of pages back, we managed to overclock our reference GTX 780 Ti quite well, up to 1163MHz real-time frequency in-game with an 80% fan speed and temperature in the lower 70 degree C range.

The GT 780 Ti runs at 941MHz without an overclock, so going from 941 to 1163 is a very big overclock out of the GTX 780 Ti. Much bigger in terms of clock speed compared to the R9 290X. Plus, we got the memory from 7GHz to 7.6GHz. When you look at the results below just keep in mind that this is a reference GTX 780 Ti, no special custom cooling.

All tests are apples-to-apples at the same settings.

Battlefield 4 Multiplayer
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Overclocking the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC has resulted in performance that exceeds a stock clocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti in this game. The ASUS R9 290X DC2 OC is 11% faster than the GeForce GTX 780 Ti! This puts the ASUS R9 290X in a very good spot once it is overclocked, in this game.

However, when you also overclock the GeForce GTX 780 Ti the tables turn. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti receives a massive 17% performance improvement in this game over its stock clock speeds. That results in performance that now exceeds what the overclocked ASUS R9 290X DC2 OC is able to provide. The overclocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti is 5% faster than the ASUS R9 290X DC2 OC overclocked.

We aren't surprised at the large gain the overclocked GTX 780 Ti has over its stock clocks. The ASUS R9 290X also received its highest performance advantage in this game when we overclocked it. Apparently, this game responds well to overclocking both cards. We are also achieving a higher overall overclock with the 780 Ti, a much higher ratio, so that shows here over its stock clock performance.

Crysis 3
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In Crysis 3 the overclocked ASUS R9 290X DC2 OC slightly edges out the stock clocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti. However, once we overclock the GeForce GTX 780 Ti it receives a massive performance boost in this game as well.

The overclocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti is 15% faster than the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC video card overclocked.

Far Cry 3
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In Far Cry 3 the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC overclocked is able to outperform the stock clocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti. However, as has been true for the last two games the GTX 780 Ti owns the competition once it is overclocked. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti is a whopping 17% faster when overclocked compared to the ASUS 290X overclocked.

Tomb Raider
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Tomb Raider is a bit more tame, but the GeForce GTX 780 Ti chimes in at 7% faster than the overclocked ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC. The ASUS R9 290X DC2 OC is 15% faster than the stock clocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti however.

Summary
The GeForce GTX 780 Ti is basically being held back a lot by its clock speed. There is a lot more potential inside the GeForce GTX 780 Ti once you overclock it. Overclocking it past 1.1GHz really unleashes the power of this GPU, and we see in these graphs.

The overclocked ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC is able to outperform the stock clocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti. However, once you overclock the GeForce GTX 780 Ti the GTX 780 Ti simply owns the R9 290X at these clock speeds.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...ctcu_ii_oc_overclocking_review/5#.Ut5TZxBFAUE

The 780Ti is 5% faster than the 290X in BF4 when both are overclocked.
The 780Ti is 15% faster than the 290X in Crysis 3 when both are overclocked.
The 780Ti is 17% faster than the 290X in FarCry3 when both are overclocked.
The 780Ti is 7% faster than the 290X in Tomb Raider when both are overclocked.

Tame overclocks were used but from my understanding, the 780Ti is very low clocked from the off and has so much more headroom and as [H] say, it truly comes to life when overclocked. Sure the 780Ti is a little pricier compared to the 290X but if you want the top beast, you know what to get

JediFragger · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:20

Ti is a monster of a card!! Would love a pair

290X isn't that far off though, and better minimums

Silent_Scone · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:20

Doesn't surprise me. Mine is/are flying now I ripped off the cooler. Fairly tame clocks on the 290X & 780Ti in the review but still a good percentage quicker. The latest WHQLS are pretty nippy too which will obviously help. I see they've summarised of all places with words like "simply owns". Corgh, they've got a death wish haven't they?

Come on MSI Lightening, you need to turn the tables for AMD

Orangey · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:24

Correct me if I'm wrong but they say the Ti is 17% faster in BF4 than itself @ stock, not 290X.

That is a really tame OC on the 290X too, should be at least 1200 for a DCu II.

Gregster · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:26

Orangey said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but they say the Ti is 17% faster in BF4 than itself @ stock, not 290X.

That is a really tame OC on the 290X too, should be at least 1200 for a DCu II.

You are correct Sir and I have amended the OP

Both are crap clockers and another 100Mhz on both should be easily doable.

LtMatt · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:33

Only 1 out of the 3 heatpipes on the Asus 290 DCII cards makes any contact with the core so that explains the problem they had with heat on this particular AIB card.

Silent_Scone · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:34

1200mhz is pretty achievable on both. Hard to read your FPS results on a black screen though.

Kidding, kidding

But yeah, not sure why they didn't push further.

LtMatt said:
Only 1 out of the 3 heatpipes on the Asus 290 DCII cards makes any contact with the core so that explains the problem they had with heat on this particular AIB card.

Really? That's **** poor. Where did you read that?

LtMatt · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:42

MjFrosty said:
Really? That's **** poor. Where did you read that?

Can't remember, but one of the big sites picked up on it after the reports of high temps/poor clocks on the 290 DC II.

I posted about it here, maybe in the Asus DC thread. Someone then went and looked for it and found the article. Can't remember who it was now though.

Silent_Scone · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:45

Fair enough. Another thing in the cards defence is this?

When we overclocked it to 1.35v and 1115MHz with 5.67GHz memory the wattage increases by almost 100W.

Now I've not played with one since launch, but that is a cosmically inefficient overclock at that voltage isn't it? Or is it...

Especially if the cards getting toasty.

LtMatt · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:51

MjFrosty said:
Fair enough. Another thing in the cards defence is this?

Now I've not played with one since launch, but that is a cosmically inefficient overclock at that voltage isn't it? Or is it...

Especially if the cards getting toasty.

Found it.

I got it slightly wrong. There's 5 heatpipes and only 3 make any contact with the core. To be honest it looks like only two of them make decent contact. That's pretty poor tbh. I think they just used the Nvidia DC cooler version for the AMD card and its clearly not an ideal fit.

Cooler base with heat conducting paste - only three out of five heatpipes with contact

Source
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2013/asus-radeon-r9-290x-directcu-ii-oc-im-test/2/

Gibbo · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:54

What memory overclock did they achieve on the 290X?

Gregster · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:57

Gibbo said:
What memory overclock did they achieve on the 290X?

5.67Ghz Correction

humbug · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:58

Gibbo said:
What memory overclock did they achieve on the 290X?

1115 / 5670Mhz (1420)

Pretty tame overclocks.

Rasch · 21 Jan 2014 at 12:30

Ask Kaap to do a review of his cards at +1200 core.

Boomstick777 · 21 Jan 2014 at 12:32

The overclocked ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC is able to outperform the stock clocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti. However, once you overclock the GeForce GTX 780 Ti the GTX 780 Ti simply owns the R9 290X at these clock speeds.

Just what I wanted to read when I have a 780 Ti on it's way

LtMatt · 21 Jan 2014 at 12:35

Boomstick777 said:
Just what I wanted to read when I have a 780 Ti on it's way

I guess you won't want to read this either then from the same site.

The GTX 780 Ti does not dominate the Radeon R9 290X. Instead, it kind of helps prove that the Radeon R9 290X is a powerful (and power hungry) beast of a video card. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti with all its SMX units and CUDA Cores at play, is only equaling the performance and experience of the Radeon R9 290X. The GTX 780 Ti isn't overshadowing the R9 290X, or claiming a clear win or victory. The GTX 780 Ti is merely matching the gameplay experience of the Radeon R9 290X. In fact, the GTX 780 Ti is matching the R9 290X gameplay experience at a $150 premium.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/07/nvidia_geforce_gtx_780_ti_video_card_review/8#.Ut5pQBBFAQ8

Gregster · 21 Jan 2014 at 12:44

LtMatt said:
I guess you won't want to read this either then from the same site.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/07/nvidia_geforce_gtx_780_ti_video_card_review/8#.Ut5pQBBFAQ8

I can't argue with that Matthew and nVidia have done a 7970 special by releasing it seriously underclocked but when you ramp the pair of them up, the 780Ti kicks into its own, as proven by the overclocked results (and they were very mild on both cards).

Silent_Scone · 21 Jan 2014 at 12:45

It's an upside down happy face mate...lol.

The GTX 780 Ti does not dominate the Radeon R9 290X. Instead, it kind of helps prove that the Radeon R9 290X is a powerful (and power hungry) beast of a video card. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti with all its SMX units and CUDA Cores at play, is only equaling the performance and experience of the Radeon R9 290X. The GTX 780 Ti isn't overshadowing the R9 290X, or claiming a clear win or victory. The GTX 780 Ti is merely matching the gameplay experience of the Radeon R9 290X. In fact, the GTX 780 Ti is matching the R9 290X gameplay experience at a $150 premium.

Yeah?

1. Score 89.9, GPU nvTitan @1320/1901, CPU 2500k @5.0 khemist Link
2. Score 88.8, GPU 780ti @1295/1950, CPU 4960X @4.7 MjFrosty Link 322.21 drivers
3. Score 86.5, GPU nvTitan @1280/1802, CPU 3930k @4.8 whyscotty Link
4. Score 86.1, GPU 780ti @1208/1800, CPU 4770k @4.6 Dicehunter Link 331.82 drivers
5. Score 85.3, GPU nvTitan @1280/1879, CPU 3930k @4.625 Gregster Link 332.21 drivers
6. Score 84.8, GPU 780 @1400/1850, CPU 3770k @5.0 Geeman1979 Link
7. Score 84.5, GPU 290X @1200/1625, CPU 3970X @4.9 Kaapstad Link 13.11 beta 8 drivers
8. Score 83.5, GPU 780 @1424/1877, CPU 3930k @5.0 whyscotty Link 332.21 drivers
9. Score 82.9, GPU 780ti @1150/1750, CPU 4770k @4.4 zia Link
10. Score 82.6, GPU 290X @1200/1570, CPU 2500k @4.8 Marine-RX179 Link 13.11 Beta 9.4 drivers

..C'mooon theeeen

uksoldierboy · 21 Jan 2014 at 12:49

I felt terrible after i sold my 290X and popped in a 780Ti, i expected a noticeable increase in performance, but what i got was the same performance.

On the plus side the build quality of the 780Ti is incredible, felt extremely well made, looks epic and runs quiet.

Silent_Scone · 21 Jan 2014 at 12:51

uksoldierboy said:
I felt terrible after i sold my 290X and popped in a 780Ti, i expected a noticeable increase in performance, but what i got was the same performance.

On the plus side the build quality of the 780Ti is incredible, felt extremely well made, looks epic and runs quiet.

Yus. You're talking gnats **** differences in single card performance stakes...if you're happy with a 290X for the price then it's all good