EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classified 3 GB review

Gregster · 29 Jan 2014 at 20:55

NVIDIA's latest addition to their lineup is the GeForce GTX 780 Ti. Built around a fully unlocked GK110 Kepler GPU, it comes with 2880 shaders, which boosts the card's performance beyond that of the GTX Titan. Unlike the GTX Titan, which has 6 GB, the GTX 780 Ti comes with 3 GB, but that difference won't have an effect on even the latest titles.

The GeForce GTX 780 Ti is designed to be a gamer's card throughout. It has all the muscle any game could possibly need and has another thing going its way: better thermals. Despite the "GK110" featuring more transistors than "Hawaii" (7.08 billion vs. 6.20 billion) and, hence, a bigger die (561 mm² vs. 438 mm²), GK110-based products are inherently cooler because of higher "Kepler" micro-architecture performance-per-watt figures than AMD's "Graphics CoreNext," which translates into lower thermal density and, in turn, lower temperatures and less noise. Energy efficiency and fan noise are really the only tethers NVIDIA's high-end pricing is holding on to.

EVGA's new GTX 780 Ti Classified comes with a fully customized PCB and cooling design. Overall, the card is larger now, which provides additional area for the cooler to occupy. The card also comes with a large overclock out of the box which has the card run at 1020 MHz base clock.

The first EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classified cards are showing up in retail right now, priced around $750, which is quite an increase from the reference design price. Let's see if the card can live up to those expectations.

Bench Results

EVGA's GTX 780 Ti Classified is available online for £639.95.

Stunning performance
Overclocked out of the box
Good overclocking potential
Supports voltage control and EVGA EVBot
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag coupon included
Fast 7 Gbps memory
Dual BIOS
Native full-size HDMI and DisplayPort
Support for CUDA/PhysX

Not as quiet as other GTX 780 Ti cards
Relatively big price increase
High non-gaming power consumption
Memory not overclocked
9.6 EVGA's latest GTX 780 Ti Classified comes with the highest out-of-the-box performance we've ever seen from a single GPU graphics card. It is the fastest GTX 780 Ti we tested so far. Averaged over our benchmark selection, we see the card 10% faster than the stock GTX 780 Ti and almost 20% faster than AMD's R9 290X. 20% is a big deal, so EVGA's GTX 780 Ti Classified is the way to go if you want the highest performance and can afford it. The card is even a few percentage points faster than the previous generation's dual-GPU flagships, the GTX 690 and HD 7990.
EVGA has completely revamped the PCB with the GTX 780 Ti Classified. They reorganized things, switched out the voltage controller and added port headers for EVGA's EVBot accessory. Unfortunately, EVBot is currently sold out, with no info on when we'll see more. We also find a dual-BIOS on the card, which will help experts with liquid nitrogen maximize the card's potential. For everyone else, the dual-BIOS is a lifesaver in case something goes wrong during BIOS flashing.
We've seen the dual-fan ACX cooler on several cards from EVGA before, and it does a very good job at keeping the card cool. While it is also a bit quieter than the NVIDIA GTX 780 Ti reference design, it is far from the quietest GTX 780 Ti option available at the moment. Temperatures are, on the other hand, lower than on most other cards on the market, which suggests EVGA focused more on temperature than on fan noise (a bit too much in my opinion). Please consider that the Classified is very tall. It is 14 cm tall and might not fit into some cases.
Power consumption in idle is surprisingly high, around 10W higher than comparable GTX 780 Ti cards. While 10W is not a lot, it can still add up, especially when you leave your system running 24/7. Power draw during gaming is increased, too, but performance per watt is actually better than on the NVIDIA reference board since the card runs much faster than the stock GTX 780 Ti.
Right now, we are seeing first EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classifieds pop up in stores like Newegg and Amazon. EVGA's own shop also has some stock, currently at the lowest price of $750, which is a $100 premium over stock cards, a significant and for the typical gamer, I find, steep increase. Other custom design GTX 780 Ti cards come at $700-$710, while performing not much different than the Classified.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_780_Ti_Classified/1.html

A good review there and another shameless copy and paste from me. You can see in some games that the Classy beats out both the 690 and 7990, which is incredible. It is safe to say that this card performs with ease in all games.

tommybhoy · 29 Jan 2014 at 21:01

Gregster said:
You can see in some games that the Classy beats out both the 690 and 7990, which is incredible. It is safe to say that this card performs with ease in all games.

It's more a 780GTi than a Ti, impressive punch from the already impressive 78Ti. :cool:

Deceptor · 29 Jan 2014 at 21:01

Finally 300+ FPS in Diablo 3 at 1080p, everybody's (read: nobody's) prayer has been answered.

Gregster · 29 Jan 2014 at 21:30

Deceptor said:
Finally 300+ FPS in Diablo 3 at 1080p, everybody's (read: nobody's) prayer has been answered.

Well if you take the bigger picture, most modern games are a little more stressing but I do agree that 300fps is a little overkill

Nickolp1974 · 29 Jan 2014 at 21:43

Not too bad at benching too! Does sound a bit like a mosquito at high clocks, fine though at gaming clocks of 1250mhz

Deceptor · 29 Jan 2014 at 21:50

Gregster said:
Well if you take the bigger picture, most modern games are a little more stressing but I do agree that 300fps is a little overkill

Oh the card has purpose absolutely. I'm just not sure benching Diablo 3 is one of them

chaparral · 30 Jan 2014 at 10:38

Maximum overclock of our sample is 1090 MHz GPU base clock (7% overclocking) and 1980 MHz memory (13% overclock).

that overclock seems crap.....

Fruitbooter · 30 Jan 2014 at 12:18

Its a shame these cards don't clock very well as they are fantastic already but with a bit more headroom I could maybe justify the price tag.

thefogo · 30 Jan 2014 at 12:44

chaparral said:
that overclock seems crap.....

I wonder what it's actual core speed in games was.

TAZOO7 · 30 Jan 2014 at 14:24

I love the EVGA cards, but having owned one i cant honestly they are worth the Extra Premium, defo not worth £110 to £130 over the MSI GAMING or GIGABYTE WF OC cards, and not guaranteed to overclock any better despite the 1.35mv headroom

TAZOO7 · 30 Jan 2014 at 14:26

thefogo said:
I wonder what it's actual core speed in games was.

i think i read 1173Mhz, mine does 1167 outta the box just for reference

Gregster · 30 Jan 2014 at 14:40

Fruitbooter said:
Its a shame these cards don't clock very well as they are fantastic already but with a bit more headroom I could maybe justify the price tag.

If you look at the bench threads, the Classified Ti's are overclocking very well. When this review was done, EVGA had issues with the BIOS but they have since fixed it and these cards fly.

thefogo · 30 Jan 2014 at 15:02

@TAZOO agreed. I'd only buy one if it was only slightly more expensive than others. The fact that it's not guaranteed to OC more than a reference card would prevent me from paying such a premium.
And 1173 is pretty naff. My ref card does 1250 on stock volts.

Nickolp1974 · 30 Jan 2014 at 15:06

thefogo said:
@TAZOO agreed. I'd only buy one if it was only slightly more expensive than others. The fact that it's not guaranteed to OC more than a reference card would prevent me from paying such a premium.
And 1173 is pretty naff. My ref card does 1250 on stock volts.

it dosn't just end at the core though, mine will do 1250 at stock, then i can go on and put 1.45v+ volts into it and it won't bat an eyelid, do that on a ref card and its likely to go POP!

Gregster · 30 Jan 2014 at 15:21

Nickolp1974 said:
it dosn't just end at the core though, mine will do 1250 at stock, then i can go on and put 1.45v+ volts into it and it won't bat an eyelid, do that on a ref card and its likely to go POP!

And you are not voiding your warranty in doing these volts, whereas any other 780Ti (except the KPE) will not allow you to do this.

JediFragger · 30 Jan 2014 at 15:37

No one can deny, that is ONE stunning card!! :cool:

Props to nVidia/eVGA where it's due...

Geeman1979 · 30 Jan 2014 at 15:41

Nickolp1974 said:
it dosn't just end at the core though, mine will do 1250 at stock, then i can go on and put 1.45v+ volts into it and it won't bat an eyelid, do that on a ref card and its likely to go POP!

Agreed!

The Classifieds can take the stick no problem.

Jase · 30 Jan 2014 at 15:54

I got my EVGA Classified last week and love it, everything from build quality to performance and it's really quiet to which was a nice surprise.

Nickolp1974 · 30 Jan 2014 at 15:59

Jase said:
I got my EVGA Classified last week and love it, everything from build quality to performance and it's really quiet to which was a nice surprise.

mine whines/squeals!!! only at high clocks/volts i thought it was the fans that did this???????

Gregster · 30 Jan 2014 at 16:11

Nickolp1974 said:
mine whines/squeals!!! only at high clocks/volts i thought it was the fans that did this???????

I had it with my 680 Lightnings. For me it was the phase capacitors going nuts but they quietened down after some serious benching. Very high frames for me as well.