Introduction
With AMD’s R9 290 coming in at a price point of $399 Nvidia’s GTX 780 has been put under pressure at its $499 price point since the R9 290 more or less beats it for 100 dollars less. Nvidia was already on the defensive from the release of the R9 290X, forced to drop the price of its GTX 780 down from $649 to $499, but with the release of the R9 290 at a much lower price than expected the GTX 780 is surely due another price cut? Well Gigabyte aren’t hanging around for that to happen and they are instead doing something a bit different by making a GTX 780 “GHz Edition”. Yes you heard that right, a GHz Edition – that notorious AMD phrase which AMD used on the HD 7970 GHz Edition and HD 7870 GHz Edition. Gigabyte’s interpretation of a GTX 780 “GHz Edition” is taking the GTX 780 GPU and overclocking it from the stock 863MHz on the core and 900MHz on the boost, to 1020MHz on the core and 1072MHz on the boost. That’s a whopping 19% overclock compared to a stock GTX 780!
What else they’ve done with it isn’t that dissimilar from their GTX 780 WindForce OC we reviewed only a few weeks ago. They’ve slapped on their same impressive performing triple fan WindForce 3X cooling solution and to give it something a little bit special they’ve also put a rather suave looking backplate on. Of course Gigabyte’s modifications mean the price is going to go up a little, but only 10%, and that’s in return for a guaranteed 20% overclock, custom cooler and a backplate – sounds like a good deal to me!
Our particular sample came straight from Gigabyte HQ in Taiwan so it is nothing but a plain Gigabyte press box.
Inside we find the graphics card and absolutely nothing else. Of course the final retail version will be bundled with the usual accessories and the three games involved in the current GTX Bundle promotion which the GTX 780 is eligible for if bought at participating retailers (Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag, Splinter Cell Blacklist and Batman Arkham Origins).
Nice review 🙂 I’ve just bought this card and i’m quite glad it’s only a few Fps slower than a 780Ti but with a 100 quid difference. Typical Nvidia. Ha!
unigine only dx 11 ultra, no tessellation…it’s true?
Compare it with zotac 780 amp!
I purchased this card just the other day (should be here 23DEC13) and I was curious as to how the results were done for 5760x1080p? Were they done in SLI? I just find it hard to believe that one card can do that well in Metro Last Light and still get 32fps average with triple monitor. Not saying the card isn’t capable of it, but compared to my 7950 Crossfire, this card seems to be doing exceptionally well in that resolution with one card.
Hi there,
Sure well there isn’t much to explain other than we run the integrated Metro last Light benchmark at 5760 x 1080 resolution on Very High (not ultra) with AAA and 4 X AF. We of course have quite a high end system (3960X, 16GB of RAM, etc) which prevents bottlenecking. I’d say the results are difficult to predict especially as CrossFire often has driver issues and whatnot but in theory a pair of HD 7950s should be better!
Awesome, thanks for the info! It’s understandable for results to vary of course. I plan on buying another at some point. Went for this card and the Nvidia Shield for personal reasons so it will work out better for me in the long run than the 7950’s. Thank you for doing the great in depth review! Helped me a lot with my purchasing decision.
By the way, just tested BF4 in Triple monitor (no vsync) with ultra graphics and got an average of 50 fps! Could only do high with no AA on my 7950’s. Thank you again Ryan!
Did you have to overvolt the card to achieve the overclocking or did you leave it at stock voltage to obtain 40 core and 350 memeory?
Stock voltage and stock power limit. Overvolting made no difference
Why would some people consider a 3 year warranty not long enough?
ryan does the card come with any accesories??if not then how did u work it ?