The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Review
by Ryan Smith on November 7, 2013 9:01 AM ESTHitman: Absolution
The second-to-last game in our lineup is Hitman: Absolution. The latest game in Square Enix’s stealth-action series, Hitman: Absolution is a DirectX 11 based title that though a bit heavy on the CPU, can give most GPUs a run for their money. Furthermore it has a built-in benchmark, which gives it a level of standardization that fewer and fewer benchmarks possess.
On a competitive basis Hitman: Absolution ends up being the second and last title where the GTX 780 Ti just doesn’t have enough performance to overcome AMD’s lead. Compared to where we were 2 weeks ago the GTX 780 Ti significantly cuts into the 290X’s lead, but in the end it’ll come up 3% behind. Though as with Bioshock we’re admittedly looking at another scenario where everyone is already past 60fps, so the absolute performance difference is somewhat academic.
As for our multi-GPU setups at 4K the story is much the same. Both 290X CF and GTX 780 Ti SLI get above 60fps, but it’s 290X CF that takes the top spot.
Looking briefly at our minimum framerates, as we’re approaching a CPU limited scenario we have a mix of results. Despite losing on averages, the GTX 780 Ti wins on minimums by 2fps, bottoming out at 64fps and making it the first GK110 card to offer a minimum over 60fps. On the other hand if we scale up to 4K and multi-GPU setups, the GTX 780 Ti SLI will clearly come up short versus the 290X CF, with the latter being the only setup to break 60fps there.
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bronopoly - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
Who plays at 60 fps? Surely not people playing games competitively.Tetracycloide - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
They don't include 1080p because they assumed no one would be stupid enough to buy a $700 card for 1080p gaming. I guess you showed them...Ryan Smith - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
We actually have the 1080p data, however we didn't publish it since it's not a resolution we're really expecting this card to be used with. When GPU Bench 14 goes live, that data will be available alongside everything else.bronopoly - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
I need 120 fps for my games when I'm using lightboost or 144 fps when I'm not using it. A lot of people aren't satisfied with 60 fps on good settings. When I go from a high framerate to something as awful as 60 fps, I usually restart my computer because I think something is wrong.Mondozai - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
The vast majority of people play at 60 fps. Including most people buying a high-end card. And the move is towards 4K over the next few years. You'll probably be stuck at 1080p for a long time if you insist on 120-144 fps while we will get 4K monitors next year for relatively affordable prices and even more so in 2015.That's your right. But cards like these are not going to be tailored towards people who want as high a fps as possible as opposed to as high a graphics fidelity as possible where 60 fps is the acceptable threshold. You can whine and bitch about it as much as you want. Won't make a difference.
HisDivineOrder - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
Where are these "properly-cooled 'GHZ' Editions of the R290X?" If they existed, you might have an argument, but they don't. So talk about what exists.Even HardOCP--between ignoring the ear-piercing sound of the 290X at 55% fanspeed--admitted they had seen and heard nothing of custom coolers for the R9 290/290X yet and that doesn't bode well.
So if you're waiting for a custom cooler to show up and save the R9 series, it looks like they're far, far away...
Tetracycloide - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
"Let's all pretend we suffer from a crippling lack of foresight!"OverclockedCeleron - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
1) Everyone knows what comes after a GPU announcement [hint: an avalanche of custom GPUs based on that GPU].2) Many reviewing sites have said that AMD is preventing their partners from producing custom R290X gpus until 780 Ti is released. Can you guess why ;-)?
bronopoly - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
Can I just make stuff up too?3) Insert wild speculation and conspiracy
Mondozai - Thursday, November 7, 2013 - link
Someone's got an NV card and wants to defend it to death :D