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Help choosing which 780 please?

Munimentum

Munimentum

Munimentum

Associate
Joined
24 Dec 2007
Posts
736
Hi, so I've decided to upgrade from a 7950 to a 780 and I'm sort of stumped for choice and not sure which to go for. I've got a list of possible options but have a couple of questions if anyone can help me.

Options:

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Classified "Dual BIOS" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (03G-P4-3788-KR) £443.99
1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 780 iChill HerculeZ X3 Ultra DHS Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £439.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 780 Lightning 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £419.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x "GHz Edition" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £399.95
1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 780 iChill HerculeZ X3 Ultra 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (C78V-1SDN-L5HSX) £389.99
Total : £2,103.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Now I'm leaning towards the EVGA classified just because it seems like it would be the best clocker, the quietest and people seem to swear by EVGA, but is it worth the extra cost?

I've heard great things about the Inno3d cards too, but what's the difference between those 2 Inno3d options? Is it literally just clocks?

How do the Gigabyte and MSI fair against these other cards? Are they cheaper due to lower clocks or are they just inherently cheaper due to brand cost?
 
All I can say is I recently bought the Gigabyte GHZ edition and have absolutely no regrets - its practically silent under normal operation, clocks reasonably well and performance is great - and thats on top of that I was quite reluctant to upgrade from my previous setup as I didn't think I'd really see enough gains from GTX470 SLI to justify spending the money.
 
I got the £390 Inno3D one yesterday. It is an absolute monster of a card. The cooler on it is absolutely huge. As you'd imagine, it does an excellent job cooling the card and is quiet in the process. Playing around with it a bit last night and this morning, I've got it past the DHS edition's stock clocks without any trouble, so I'd be hard pressed to justify the extra £50.
 
I have 3 780s.

1. Reference Gigabyte 780 - watercooled - max core clock 1345 MHz Core with 1.3V

2. MSI Gaming OC 780 - watercooled - max core clock 1355 MHz with 1.3V

3. EVGA Classified - not received yet - will remain air cooled and I expect between 1300-1400 MHz core with good temps.

Heard great things about the gigabyte GHz edition
 
Haven't played about too much with extra voltage but mine lets me increase it to 1.213 without any BIOS, etc. tweaks and does either 1289 or 1298 stable on that voltage (only played with it briefly so can't remember exact numbers).
 
Will the fact that I plan on overclocking it in the future when I need the extra juice make any difference? Especially considering I'll just be doing it on air, not watercooled.

Noise isn't really an issue to be honest as I run a 540 air with 3 front 120mm fans and an H100 exhausting out of the top, so I doubt I'd be able to hear anything over the ambient case noise anyway, plus it's under my desk and I wear headphones so a bit more noise isn't a dealbreaker.

Fulax said:
I got the £390 Inno3D one yesterday. It is an absolute monster of a card. The cooler on it is absolutely huge. As you'd imagine, it does an excellent job cooling the card and is quiet in the process. Playing around with it a bit last night and this morning, I've got it past the DHS edition's stock clocks without any trouble, so I'd be hard pressed to justify the extra £50.
Click to expand...

You could make the argument that the extra £50 lets you overclock comparatively further, or is that not the case? Do they have the same max clocks?

alex_123_fra said:
I have 3 780s.

1. Reference Gigabyte 780 - watercooled - max core clock 1345 MHz Core with 1.3V

2. MSI Gaming OC 780 - watercooled - max core clock 1355 MHz with 1.3V

3. EVGA Classified - not received yet - will remain air cooled and I expect between 1300-1400 MHz core with good temps.

Heard great things about the gigabyte GHz edition
Click to expand...

If forced to choose, which of those would you recommend based on my setup? (air cooled etc) I expect for most people it's going to be down to Gigabyte vs EVGA. I've heard great things about both and although the classified seems the better card I've heard really good things about Gigabyte's support.

Bear in mind tho I won't be buying this card until about a week from now possible, so the Gigabyte's price is going to go back up and I expect the EVGA will go on sale before it does again, if that changes things.
 
Last edited:
Munimentum said:
You could make the argument that the extra £50 lets you overclock comparatively further, or is that not the case? Do they have the same max clocks?
Click to expand...

The stock clocks just give you a base to work from; how high you can go depends on the silicon lottery. The DHS chips are binned, which weights the odds of the lottery in your favour but doesn't guarantee great overclocking headroom. For that kind of money I'd be looking at the KFA2 780 HoF. Fastest air cooled 780, they say.
 
So judging from the responses so far it's down to these:

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Classified "Dual BIOS" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (03G-P4-3788-KR) £443.99
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 780 HOF 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **ALL WHITE** £419.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x "GHz Edition" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £399.95
1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 780 iChill HerculeZ X3 Ultra 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (C78V-1SDN-L5HSX) £389.99
Total : £1,663.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).



With the Gigabyte leading the way, apparently. Unfortunately I'm still a bit torn as I know the Classified is probably the highest raw performing/clocking out of the bunch so I'm really not sure.
 
Rroff said:
All I can say is I recently bought the Gigabyte GHZ edition and have absolutely no regrets - its practically silent under normal operation, clocks reasonably well and performance is great - and thats on top of that I was quite reluctant to upgrade from my previous setup as I didn't think I'd really see enough gains from GTX470 SLI to justify spending the money.
Click to expand...

nitram100 said:
Well I just bought the gigabyte ghz edition, warranty swung it for me 3 years uk based.
Click to expand...

I have to echo this. I just received my Gigabyte GHZ edition and my experiences have been the same.

Fast, quiet, cloackable and UK support.
 
Munimentum said:
If forced to choose, which of those would you recommend based on my setup? (air cooled etc) I expect for most people it's going to be down to Gigabyte vs EVGA. I've heard great things about both and although the classified seems the better card I've heard really good things about Gigabyte's support.

Bear in mind tho I won't be buying this card until about a week from now possible, so the Gigabyte's price is going to go back up and I expect the EVGA will go on sale before it does again, if that changes things.
Click to expand...

Can't go wrong with either. Haven't received the classi yet but theoretically the classified should be binned for higher clocks (if I understood pgi correctly in another thread) so could clock higher than the GHz edition. I suspect it is mostly down to silicone lottery. EVGA have superb support too.

Have to say I was hugely impressed with the MSI gaming 780. Mine gets to around 1300MHz core at no more than max stock volts (just over 1.2v).
 
Rroff said:
All I can say is I recently bought the Gigabyte GHZ edition and have absolutely no regrets - its practically silent under normal operation, clocks reasonably well and performance is great - and thats on top of that I was quite reluctant to upgrade from my previous setup as I didn't think I'd really see enough gains from GTX470 SLI to justify spending the money.
Click to expand...

Exactly what he said ! word for word.
 
Ive been very tempted to do the same but I dont know if it would be enough of an upgrade from my 7970 especially if mantle is all thats its cracked up to be although I do miss team green. :)
 
I think you guys have nearly sold me on the Gigabyte, that's quite a bit of resounding praise it's received.

Whats the real world gaming performance difference between the two, and best case scenario overclocked clock differences? (Assuming good silicon lottery for both). Also, anybody know temp and noise differences between the two?

It's reached the point where I think I might order it now while it's on offer before I've even sold my 7950 so I can get this as an early christmas present for myself on the 24th :P
 
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