[H]ASUS STRIX GTX 780 OC 6GB Review - Exclusive

[Jaydip]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/06/11/asus_strix_gtx_780_oc_6gb_review_exclusive/1#.U5lMeUBkPwI

"....It looks like we have just seen the beginning of the VRAM war in games starting with Watch Dogs in 2014. This is the first game to dictate to us that having more VRAM is positive for the gameplay experience at 1600p and 1080p. We found that 3GB of VRAM really isn't enough to enjoy "Ultra" textures. The 4GB of VRAM on the Radeon R9 290X is much better at these resolutions. However, we worry that 4GB may itself be limiting when we try to run this game at "Ultra" textures at 4K resolutions or Eyefinity. That is where the even greater 6GB of VRAM on the ASUS STRIX GTX 780 OC could really shine. When we evaluate SLI we will look at this very closely.

In other places when we cranked up the AA setting to 8X MSAA, even at 1080p, the ASUS STRIX GTX 780 OC 6GB proved to be smoother and better compared to the standard GeForce GTX 780. AMD made a good decision in the AMD Radeon 7000 series of last generation to put 3GB on its high-end video cards, which was more than the competition. It was also smart to put 4GB of VRAM on the AMD Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X, again more than the competition's 3GB on the GTX 780 and 780 Ti. It is being proven now that more VRAM was forward thinking, and so for 2014 and 2015 more VRAM looks again to be important for games on the horizon."

It looks like we are approaching the VRAM wall very first, I honestly didn't belive the 780 6GB would be so much better.

 

[Qwertilot]

The fan technology/design seems rather nice too. I mean when even quite a few 750ti's seemingly don't turn their fans off at idle?

 

[3DVagabond]

Good performance and not bad value overall with today's market. Shows what companies can do with a mature design and the need to freshen their lineup. Too bad cards like this weren't released day one (or very soon after).

 

[Jaydip]

I believe NV didn't want to cannibalize their Titan/Titan Black sales.Is there a 780 Ti 6GB yet?

 

[3DVagabond]

I believe NV didn't want to cannibalize their Titan/Titan Black sales.Is there a 780 Ti 6GB yet?

The 780 when it came out removed any relevance Titan had as a gaming card. Even without the custom cooling and PCB. This card is just so refined and well executed though, it really makes prior efforts look half baked. (IMHO, of course.)

 

[Techhog]

Watch Dogs is too poorly optimized to be used as an indicator of a trend on its own. Wait to see how The Witcher 3, GTA5, BF: Hardline, Batman: Arkham Knight, and the like use VRAM before saying that we're hitting a wall.

 

[SPBHM]

Watch Dogs is too poorly optimized to be used as an indicator of a trend on its own. Wait to see how The Witcher 3, GTA5, BF: Hardline, Batman: Arkham Knight, and the like use VRAM before saying that we're hitting a wall.

watch dogs is probably poorly optimized I agree, but PC games are now going to be based on PS4 and Xbox One games, and both have access to a lot more than 3GB, and at the same time PC gaming is moving more towards 2560x1440 and 4K

I would expect most of the games being released next year to benefit from the extra memory

 

[3DVagabond]

Guru3D has a review as well. Here's the VRM temps. I know there are a number of people who label 100°C VRM temps as a design fail. Here we have ~104°

 

[Techhog]

watch dogs is probably poorly optimized I agree, but PC games are now going to be based on PS4 and Xbox One games, and both have access to a lot more than 3GB, and at the same time PC gaming is moving more towards 2560x1440 and 4K

I would expect most of the games being released next year to benefit from the extra memory

They use shared memory though, so it's not a forgone conclusion. 3GB definitely won't be enough for more than 1080p going forward, but thinking that 6GB will be necessary by next year is pushing it. I mean, the consoles only actually have 5-6GB of RAM+VRAM avaliable to use for games.

 

[Silverforce11]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/06/11/asus_strix_gtx_780_oc_6gb_review_exclusive/8#.U5mTvvmSxSk

It is heavily factory OC and its a shame [H] did not list the boost clocks ingame, this looks to be using more power than the Gigabyte 780 Ghz ed, which several sites found to boost to 1.2 to 1.25ghz out of the box in the game. They managed a 30-50mhz extra boost when they OC it, so these cards are running near their max out of box.

Thus the high power use compared to reference 780.

Also the extra vram seem to only benefit in WD.

But definitely 20nm flagship cards need to come with 6/8GB of vram.

 

[Face2Face]

Guru3D has a review as well. Here's the VRM temps. I know there are a number of people who label 100°C VRM temps as a design fail. Here we have ~104°

Reminds me of another Asus GK110 card... :whiste:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2379026&page=2

Sad....

 

[wand3r3r]

It looks like a nice card, especially compared with a 290x, however I would go for a solid 290 like the tri-x or DD for nearly $200 less which would be sitting very close to it, especially with a light OC. It isn't very good in that comparison (nor is the 290x, but I wouldn't recommend it either).

The fan technology/design seems rather nice too. I mean when even quite a few 750ti's seemingly don't turn their fans off at idle?

My second 290x in crossfire sits completely off (no fan, no core speed in afterburner) while idling. It fires up as soon as I start a game.

Guru3D has a review as well. Here's the VRM temps. I know there are a number of people who label 100°C VRM temps as a design fail. Here we have ~104°

That's pretty high, dunno if it matters long term or not. For mining I would be concerned.

A solid card, with few flaws (imo) other than the price, and the manufacturer. Try RMA it and and you'll wish it weren't asus.

 

[toyota]

They use shared memory though, so it's not a forgone conclusion. 3GB definitely won't be enough for more than 1080p going forward, but thinking that 6GB will be necessary by next year is pushing it. I mean, the consoles only actually have 5-6GB of RAM+VRAM avaliable to use for games.

that makes no sense. as you can clearly see 3gb is not enough now for Watch Dogs. considering the next step up on a 780 is 6gb then yes 6gb will most certainly be necessary next year for running some games on ultra settings with ultra textures.

and the consoles "only" having 5-6gb means the opposite of what your logic is showing. previous consoles only had 512mb total so do you think you could play all games released during that time on max settings with 512mb of vram? of course not as many games utilized nearly 2gb of vram. so if anything future pc games could be using massive amounts of vram if even the consoles will be using 5 or 6.

 

[Techhog]

that makes no sense. as you can clearly see 3gb is not enough now for Watch Dogs. considering the next step up on a 780 is 6gb then yes 6gb will most certainly be necessary next year for running some games on ultra settings with ultra textures.

and the consoles "only" having 5-6gb means the opposite of what your logic is showing. previous consoles only had 512mb total so do you think you could play all games released during that time on max settings with 512mb of vram? of course not as many games utilized nearly 2gb of vram. so if anything future pc game could be using massive amounts of vram if even the consoles will be using 5 or 6.

This forum's contradicting views on being future-proof confuses me.

Anyway, I'm just saying that one poorly made game isn't a trend, so we need to see more.

 

[Attic]

That card looks great, but am I alone in thinking this 6gb ram should be on the 780ti?

Are the 780ti being offered with 6gbs?

Though I think between 780 with 6gb vs 780ti with 3gb, I'd go for the 780 6gb

 

[Attic]

This forum's contradicting views on being future-proof confuses me.

Anyway, I'm just saying that one poorly made game isn't a trend, so we need to see more.

I think we are somewhat sure that 3gb is the min for high end GPUs going forward. Anything above that will be more than likely advantageous down the road.

 

[Jaydip]

That card looks great, but am I alone in thinking this 6gb ram should be on the 780ti?

Are the 780ti being offered with 6gbs?

Though I think between 780 with 6gb vs 780ti with 3gb, I'd go for the 780 6gb

A 780Ti 6GB will cannibalize the Titan black sales.

 

[Face2Face]

I think future open world/sandbox games like Watch Dogs and GTA V are going to push the vram envelope, so the 6GB may be worth it in the long run if you plan on keeping your card long enough. Most current FPS games barley use 2GB of vram at 1080p. Metro Last Light, one the best looking games IMO uses less than 2GB of vram @ 1440p Maxed with 4XSSAA - internally rendering the game at 5K... and the textures looks great.

 

[Attic]

A 780Ti 6GB will cannibalize the Titan black sales.

That makes sense, but it leaves nVidia with a meaningful gap above the 780 non ti 6gb cards.

nVidia's high end now becomes 780 non ti 6gb OC'd cards at ~$580 to compete with 290x and then they have Titan Black 6gb for $1100 which is beastly but WAYYY to expensive.

Kind of insane we're looking at this scenario in the $500-$600 space IMO.

I think mining thew off pricing pretty bad, and still not recovered fully. I doubt nVidia could have kept their pricing so sky high if the 290 actually was available for $399 from launch.

 

[Qwertilot]

Still got one card with its fans going a bit in that sort of SLI set up The attraction to this sort of thing is going to be managing basically silent web browsing etc with gaming firepower on tap when you need it.

Of course silence fans probably more interested in smaller GPUs overall - I wonder if the fans on the mooted 750ti are ever going to come on

Suppose that in an ideal world you'd mimic the SLI effect, just using iGPU for desktop graphics and nearly powering off the dGPU until its really needed. Obviously quite hard.
(You'd think doing this with an AMD i/dGPU pair wouldn't be too impossible.).

 

[3DVagabond]

That card looks great, but am I alone in thinking this 6gb ram should be on the 780ti?

Are the 780ti being offered with 6gbs?

Though I think between 780 with 6gb vs 780ti with 3gb, I'd go for the 780 6gb

It's better for us that it's the 780. 780 ti is poor value. Putting 6 gigs of ram isn't going to improve that.

A 780Ti 6GB will cannibalize the Titan black sales.

The Titan series needs to be cannibalized, IMO.

 

[Silverforce11]

I think future open world/sandbox games like Watch Dogs and GTA V are going to push the vram envelope, so the 6GB may be worth it in the long run if you plan on keeping your card long enough. Most current FPS games barley use 2GB of vram at 1080p. Metro Last Light, one the best looking games IMO uses less than 2GB of vram @ 1440p Maxed with 4XSSAA - internally rendering the game at 5K... and the textures looks great.

It will depend on the game, Metro is very small levels with a low view distance, capped.

The fact that consoles have so much memory available to them means AAA devs will push it more in future cross-platform games.

We've been playing mostly games designed for a mobile (xbox and ps3 hardware spec is lol by today's standards) first and ported. That ought to say a lot about future-proofing and the requirement for more vram in top PC GPUs.

 

[Techhog]

I think we are somewhat sure that 3gb is the min for high end GPUs going forward. Anything above that will be more than likely advantageous down the road.

I agree with this. In fact, less than 4GB should not be considered "high-end" for next-gen cards. I just don't think that 6GB will be necessary for most games at 1080p or 1440p until late next year at the earliest. For multi-monitor and 4K, though? I see 6-8GB making a difference there.

 

[Jaydip]

It's better for us that it's the 780. 780 ti is poor value. Putting 6 gigs of ram isn't going to improve that.


The Titan series needs to be cannibalized, IMO.

Not gonna happen IMO :biggrin:

 

[Jaydip]

The OC review, looks very impressive imo
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...780_oc_6gb_overclocking_review/1#.U6E9lEBkPwI