Introduction

The past five years of GPU product launches have shown that fourteen months can be a pretty long time to hold on to a product stack. After an unexpected launch of its 'wildcard' this February, the GeForce GTX Titan, NVIDIA turned its attention to its new-generation GeForce GTX 700 series piloted by the GeForce GTX 780 we have with us today. NVIDIA's choice of naming for the GTX Titan puts it in neither the GTX 600 series nor the GTX 700. It's just three months old, is holding on to a single-GPU performance lead unassailable by AMD, and has a $1000 price-tag. Its introduction didn't affect prices of the GeForce GTX 680, or anything below it, so NVIDIA clearly gunned for the premium. People bought into it, and owners we spoke to are extremely happy with it. We wonder how today's launch will affect them.



The GeForce GTX 780 has a lot in common with the GTX Titan. In the reference-design trim, the two cards are virtually indistinguishable unless you notice the lack of memory chips on the backside of the GTX 780. The two cards are based on the same 28 nm GK110 silicon, almost the same PCB, and most certainly the same space-age cooling solution that helped people draw their heavy wallets out for a $1000 invoice.



Unlike the GeForce GTX Titan and GTX 690, which aren't available in non-reference design trims by NVIDIA partners (with the exception of cards with factory-fitted water blocks), the GeForce GTX 780 will be sold with custom-designed air coolers and custom PCB designs further down the road. The GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 780 WindForce OC features a spanking new cooling solution designed in-house by GIGABYTE. It features an aluminum fin heatsink that's ventilated by a trio of fans. An advantage of such solutions is that the fans don't need to spin at high speeds to push a lot of air. The cooler features a well-chiseled cooler shroud design, which just might clinch the deal for GIGABYTE over NVIDIA's reference design cooler. The card is factory-overclocked and offers out-of-the-box GPU clock speeds of 954 MHz core and 1006 MHz GPU Boost against the 863 MHz core and 900 MHz GPU Boost of NVIDIA's reference board. While exact pricing is yet unknown, Gigabyte expects no premium for their GTX 780 WindForce OC.