NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Vs AMD Radeon R9 290X Which is the best GPU for your money?
With the gaming industry reaching new peaks after the release of new-generation consoles, casual or hardcore desktop gamers are constantly looking to upgrade their hardware to keep up with next-gen games requirements. There are many options when it…
With the gaming industry reaching new peaks after the release of new-generation consoles, casual or hardcore desktop gamers are constantly looking to upgrade their hardware to keep up with next-gen games requirements. There are many options when it comes to GPUs, but the two giants, NVIDIA and AMD, are still the most popular brands when it comes to high-end graphics cards.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti and the AMD Radeon R9 290X are two of the most popular graphics cards offered by these two giants. Ever since their release at the end of 2013, both cards have been constantly compared, due to similar features, specifications and performance in gaming. At their release date, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti had a release price of $700, and the Radeon R9 290X had a more accessible price of $549.
GeForce GTX 780 Ti specifications
Engine:
- Base clock: 875 MHz
- Boost clock: 928 MHz
Memory:
- Standard memory: 3072 MB
- Memory interface: GDDR5
- Memory interface width: 384-bit
Thermal and power:
- Graphics card power: 250 W
- Minimum system power requirement: 600 W
- Power connectors: one 8-pin, one 6-pin
Other specs:
- Direct X: DX 11.1
- Open GL: 4.3
- Shader: 5.0
- Shader processing units: 2880
- Max resolution: 4096 x 2160 (W x H)
- HDMI connection: 1
- DVI connection: 2
- L2 cache: 1536 KB
- Pixel rate: 45 Gpixels/s
Radeon R9 290X specifications
Engine specs:
- Base clock: 1000 MHz
- Memory specs:
- Standard memory: 4096 MB
- Memory interface: GDDR5
- Memory interface width: 512-bit
Thermal and power:
- Graphics card power: 290 W
- Minimum system power requirement: 750 W
- Power connectors: one 6-pin, one 8-pin
Other specs:
- Direct X: DX 11.2
- Open GL: 4.3
- Shader: 5.0
- Shader processing units: 2816
- Max resolution: 4096 x 2160 (W x H)
- HDMI connection: 1
- DVI connection: 2
- L2 cache: 1024 KB
- Pixel rate: 64 Gpixels/s
Both graphics cards support 4K, a must for the majority of gaming fanatics. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti supports other technologies, as well: 3D Vision Surround, CUDA, 3D Vision, PhysX, TXAA, Adaptive VSync, GPU Boost 2.0, G-SYNC and GameStream. The Radeon R9 290X also supports other technologies: AMD PowerTune, AMD EyeFinity, AMD CrossFire.
Both graphics cards score very high when it comes to performance on many popular debate sites and communities. They currently have the same rating from FutureMark, with a score of 15630 points in 3DMark 11. Both hold the best ratings imaginable when it comes to gaming performance, and both are able to run most games at ultra settings effortlessly. Other popular debate sites rate the GTX to be slightly better in performance, but this can be due to the other system specs used in comparing the two graphics cards, or the driver versions used for them.
Performance-wise, both graphics cards are high-end powerful cards, with few differences in performance when it comes to some specific games. If you are looking for best value for money, the Radeon R9 290X is the obvious choice, but take into consideration the fact that it uses up more power than the GeForce GTX 780 Ti.
