***Official Reviews Thread*** Nvidia Geforce GTX Titan - Launched Feb. 21, 2013

[VulgarDisplay]

I'll take a good blower style cooler over an aftermarket one any day of the week.

I'd take better power circuitry over a good blower style cooler myself...

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I'd take better power circuitry over a good blower style cooler myself...

Something wrong with Titan's?

I dunno I took several reference 470s to +60% overclocks on water so I haven't had any reason to concern myself with reference quality or 6+6 not providing enough power.

Titan seems to be a step above typical reference, though I could be wrong, is there any evidence to suggest otherwise?

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Something wrong with Titan's?

I dunno I took several reference 470s to +60% overclocks on water so I haven't had any reason to concern myself with reference quality or 6+6 not providing enough power.

Titan seems to be a step above typical reference, though I could be wrong, is there any evidence to suggest otherwise?

I guess not the power circuitry as much as the 265w TDP wall. I'd assume the Lightnings are beefed up in the VRM department and are unlocked.

 

[2is]

I'd take better power circuitry over a good blower style cooler myself...

Agreed, my reference 680 can only OC about +90-100 MHz on the core regardless of voltage

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Agreed, my reference 680 can only OC about +90-100 MHz on the core regardless of voltage

Pretty much if I was in the market for Titan I would care less for the reference cooler and put it under water and use the lightnings better power circuitry to feed the monstrosity.

 

[chimaxi83]

Ryan said in the AT review that Nvidia isn't allowing AIBs to create custom PCBs or go around that 265W hard limit, was that wrong?

 

[Keysplayr]

The Titan is better than any single GPU out there at stock so I wouldn't worry about how far it can o/c. Which happens to look pretty decent btw.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I guess not the power circuitry as much as the 265w TDP wall. I'd assume the Lightnings are beefed up in the VRM department and are unlocked.

Is nvidia providing warranty to MSI for Lightnings? How did that work with GK104, I thought Nvidia made them remove things like EvBot and overvolting?


GTX 470 only had 5+2 phase power, 480 for reference had 6+2, neither had any issues taking overclocks past 300w.

Doesn't Titan have 6+2 with better quality chips? I'm pretty sure Titan is a stout reference design, the only question is if AIBs can get past the voltage limit (with warranty).

 

[Elfear]

The Titan is better than any single GPU out there at stock so I wouldn't worry about how far it can o/c. Which happens to look pretty decent btw.

What's the fun in that though? :biggrin:

Half the allure of a new video card is tinkering with it to see how high she clocks. Besides the gap between Titan and the $400-500 cards isn't that big so overclocking potential is important IMO.

 

[3DVagabond]

Was just kidding Keys, I'm sure nobody took it seriously.

Considering the crap Groove took because he had the audacity to complain about his 480's, why wouldn't people take it seriously? As is often the case when someone is outspoken they get accused of being a shill. Even though Groove is a very loyal nVidia customer.

So, it's good to hear you were kidding, but I think /sarc tags would be a good idea around here.

 

[Keysplayr]

What's the fun in that though? :biggrin:

Half the allure of a new video card is tinkering with it to see how high she clocks. Besides the gap between Titan and the $400-500 cards isn't that big so overclocking potential is important IMO.

Why don't you ask owners here if they are having fun or not. Definitely another thread about it here.
I rarely ever overclock my GPUs but do on occasion when I benchmark. Never when I game.
The CPU however must be fast enough to feed the GPUs, so that I'll o/c, but not a ton. But that's just me.

 

[BoFox]

What a hypocrite, overclocking only the CPU and not the sexy GPU?!? Ha, jk!

 

[3DVagabond]

Something wrong with Titan's?

I dunno I took several reference 470s to +60% overclocks on water so I haven't had any reason to concern myself with reference quality or 6+6 not providing enough power.

Titan seems to be a step above typical reference, though I could be wrong, is there any evidence to suggest otherwise?

Titan

680 Lightning

7970 Matrix

Nobody said there was anything wrong, but there's definitely room for improvement.

 

[BoFox]

The 7970 Matrix is sexy as hell!

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Titan

680 Lightning

7970 Matrix

Nobody said there was anything wrong, but there's definitely room for improvement.

Maybe if you're using LN2, otherwise it's pretty close to pointless. A few more MHz doesn't make either of those cards competitive with Titan.


The problem with Kepler isn't PCB quality, it's voltage limits. There has been nothing put forward that has shown me that Titan has a lacking PCB, the issue with Titan and all other Kepler chips is an extremely low voltage table.

Edit: I should say, I believe there are flashes that will increase TDP limits (which is pretty low with Titan), however I haven't seen any bios that will increase voltage to the GPU which is really what Titan will need. On chilled water it's going to do really well from reduced power consumption, but without the ability to add more voltage it's still going to be very limited.

 

[2is]

Not necessarily true. as I stated earlier, my particular 680 will not OC past 100 MHz stable even if I up the voltage. Once it gets past around 120% power factor, it just loses its little mind. Beefier delivery is a welcomed addition, even on air. It would also make for an overall cooler running card as you're not running the circuitry at full tilt all the time.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Not necessarily true. as I stated earlier, my particular 680 will not OC past 100 MHz stable even if I up the voltage. Once it gets past around 120% power factor, it just loses its little mind. Beefier delivery is a welcomed addition, even on air. It would also make for an overall cooler running card as you're not running the circuitry at full tilt all the time.

There is a wealth of factors that would affect that long before you could limit it to PCB. Low voltage table, how much voltage did you really add, less than .05v? There are plenty of people using the same PCB with 150% TDP flashed without issue.

Better VRMs would only matter in their own temp, it wouldn't affect gpu temps, and they would not affect overclocking unless reference was unable to provide clean stable power which with the 680 is probably not the case.

 

[2is]

There is a wealth of factors that would affect that long before you could limit it to PCB. Low voltage table, how much voltage did you really add, less than .05v? There are plenty of people using the same PCB with 150% TDP flashed without issue.

Better VRMs would only matter in their own temp, it wouldn't affect gpu temps, and they would not affect overclocking unless reference was unable to provide clean stable power which with the 680 is probably not the case.

I know what temps it would affect, that's why I specifically said "overall cooler running card" as to not get it confused with GPU temps. I raised the voltage varying levels all the way up to the maximum allowed by MSI Afterburner which I believe is .1v

Raising my voltage actually made it less stable, causing it to lock up sooner than it did when I had it at default. That points directly to the power circuitry as the limiting factor for my particular card. I also had a much more aggressive fan profile so an overheating GPU wasn't the cause, in case you were about to shift blame to anything but power circuitry.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I know what temps it would affect, that's why I said specifically said "overall cooler running card" as to not get it confused with GPU temps. I raised the voltage varying levels all the way up to the maximum allowed by MSI Afterburner which I believe is .1v

Raising my voltage actually made it less stable, causing it to lock up sooner than it did when I had it at default. That points directly to the power circuitry as the limiting factor for my particular card.

So you have a dud card, given your card reacts differently than many other reference 680 the last thing I'd sugest with that info is that all reference 680s have PCB limitations.

The first 470 I bought from Newegg locked up within 15 seconds if I added any voltage at all, I returned it and got another one of the same model that would take over 1150mv without issue.

 

[2is]

So you have a dud card, given your card reacts differently than many other reference 680 the last thing I'd sugest with that info is that all reference 680s have PCB limitations.

The first 470 I bought from Newegg locked up within 15 seconds if I added any voltage at all, I returned it and got another one of the same model that would take over 1150mv without issue.

Maybe so, but with better power delivery, even if I got a dud card I'd be able to OC higher than I am now. Point remains, better power delivery is always welcomed.

 

[3DVagabond]

Maybe if you're using LN2, otherwise it's pretty close to pointless. A few more MHz doesn't make either of those cards competitive with Titan.

Nobody is talking about making those cards competitive with Titan. Where did you pull that from?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Maybe so, but with better power delivery, even if I got a dud card I'd be able to OC higher than I am now. Point remains, better power delivery is always welcomed.

Sorry I just don't see how you're drawing the correlation, on air it seems impractical. You're limited quickly by heat and voltage, more heat means more voltage for the same clocks, more power drawn. I've never seen anything that indicates even with water that these "special" boards have anything over reference boards in the last. Where they matter is in extreme overclocks with phase/dry ice/ln2.

Nobody is talking about making those cards competitive with Titan. Where did you pull that from?

The idea that somehow a beefier PCB makes a card faster, it doesn't. It might allow higher overclocks, but that still based on silicon, doesn't matter if you have the best PCB in the world if you have a crap chip it's just going to woof down the power and do almost nothing with it.

Titan is capable of 265w based on Nvidia's limits, most likey guys picking it up will expand that quickly if you're right than we'll see Titans blowing vrms, if you're wrong than we'll see Titan still limited by voltage even with additional TDP headroom. Most likely the board is more than capable of delivering over 300w of power based on the specs of the chips on the board.

"Quality" mosfets and chokes is mostly pure marketing bs.

 

[2is]

Sorry I just don't see how you're drawing the correlation, on air it seems impractical. You're limited quickly by heat and voltage, more heat means more voltage for the same clocks, more power drawn. I've never seen anything that indicates even with water that these "special" boards have anything over reference boards in the last. Where they matter is in extreme overclocks with phase/dry ice/ln2.

I'm sorry you've completely ignored everything we've went back and forth about in the last few posts. The correlation is quite clear. You can ignore it, but it will still exist.

The idea that somehow a beefier PCB makes a card faster, it doesn't. It might allow higher overclocks, but that still based on silicon, doesn't matter if you have the best PCB in the world if you have a crap chip it's just going to woof down the power and do almost nothing with it.

Titan is capable of 265w based on Nvidia's limits, most likey guys picking it up will expand that quickly if you're right than we'll see Titans blowing vrms, if you're wrong than we'll see Titan still limited by voltage even with additional TDP headroom. Most likely the board is more than capable of delivering over 300w of power based on the specs of the chips on the board.

"Quality" mosfets and chokes is mostly pure marketing bs.

Umm, higher overclocks = faster. What if you DON'T have a crap chip? What if you have a golden one? and the board being capable of 300 watts is pure guess work.

So in essence, you've ignored all the benefits of better power delivery and substituted nothing but guess work and assumptions that the rest of the card will be crap so the better delivery won't matter. Nice reasoning /sarcasm

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I'm sorry you've completely ignored everything we've went back and forth about in the last few posts. The correlation is quite clear. You can ignore it, but it will still exist.

I believe I addressed everything you said, though I could be wrong. Can you point out exactly what I missed?

There is no proof you can provide that would show a reference board losing to a aftermarket board given the same chip and same cooling.

But by all means, believe the hype.

A better board on Titan would do jack crap. The only thing that would really affect Titan is voltage table and power limit increases. Which the only point of entry for your opinion, would be if magically both those happened and if Titan reference PCB was unable to provide the power the chip was capable of using which again is highly unlikely.

You would be quickly limited by other factors than PCB quality, such as thermal capabilities of your cooling (reference air would have a hard time handling 300+ watts of draw), and most importantly this generation, the actual clock threshold capabilities of the silicon. Which is around 1200-1300 generally with some exceptions both higher and lower.

 

[notty22]

I'm sorry you've completely ignored everything we've went back and forth about in the last few posts. The correlation is quite clear. You can ignore it, but it will still exist.

Where is your data points that your 'beefier' board components = higher o/c's.
Here is data from techpowerup on o/c's including the stock card at launch.
They are all close to each other.
Including a lightning.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviewdb/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA/GTX-680/