Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Review

Performance Analysis – Clash of the Titans

For the course of our testing, we’ve been lucky enough to test three GTX Titans in 1,2, and 3 card SLI setups, as well as a pair of HD 7970 3GB GHz Editions and a pair of dual-GPU Asus Ares 2’s, all on our brand new test rig. At 1,920 x 1,080 we’ve only tested single cards, saving the multi-GPU setups for 2,560 x 1,600 and 5,760 x 1,080 where they’re arguably more relevant.


In BF3 the GTX Titan took no time in showing its impressive advantage of the single GPU competition. At 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA its minimum frame rate of 103fps was 47 per cent higher than that of the GTX 680 2GB in the same test. However, despite their price parity, the GTX 690 4GB offers a 23fps advantage.

At 2,560 x 1,600 with 4x AA things get decidedly more competitive though. The Titan’s minimum frame rate of 60fps is again awesome for a single GPU card, offering a 50 per cent advantage over the HD 7970 GHz Edition and the GTX 680 2GB. Against multi-GPU competiton things get tougher though, with a pair of HD 7970 GHz Editions capable of a minimum frame rate of 82fps; 22 more than the Titan’s 60fps in the same test.

Adding a second Titan sees very good scaling, with a minimum frame rate of 111fps, although adding a third saw some diminishing returns as the three cards heated up and subsequently clocked down, with a minimum frame rate of 146fps a little behind the pair of Asus Ares 2s we’d managed to hang on to long enough to compare them to Titan.


For reasons that defy our efforts Crysis 2 is limited to 100fps at 1,920 x 1080, but the Titan still produced a minimum frame rate in excess of the GTX 690 4GB with 90fps, demonstrating the advantage that single-GPU cards can offer over their driver dependant completion.

At 2,560 x 1,600 that cap disappears and the Titan again proves its mettle against the 690 4GB, surpassing it in both minimum and average frame rate, thanks in all likelihood to its superior memory bandwidth, which is has proven a limiting factor in Crysis 2 in the past. The pair of HD 7970 GHz Editions again prove quicker though, with a minimum frame rate of 70fps. Both 2 and 3 –card SLI GTX Titans produce the same minimum frame rate of 91fps, with the 3-way setup adding 20fps to the average frame rate, while the pair of Asus Ares 2s again top the board with a minimum frame rate of 102fps.


Skyrim is a game that traditionally scales poorly with multi-GPU, and so it proved with the Titan’s performance at 1,920 x 1,080 with 8x AA when its minimum frame rate of 110fps bettering that of the GTX 690 4GB. At 2,560 x 1,600 with 8x AA the 690 4GB sneaks back in front with a minimum frame rate of 92fps to Titan’s 82fps, although this still sees the GTX Titan Surpass the pair of HD 7970 3GB GHz Editions. In multi-GPU setups Titan looks to be capped at an average of 180fps, with two cards running fractionally quicker than three.

In the Witcher 2 the Titan again tops the single-GPU rankings, but with a minimum frame rate of 85fps at 1,920 x 1,080 with 4x AA cannot better the GTX 690 4GB’s 96fps in the same test. At 2,560 x 1,600 with 4 xAA Titan is significantly out-performed by the dual-GPU 690, which produces a minimum frame rate of 74fps to the Titan’s 55fps. This still represents a 41 per cent improvement over the GTX 680 2GB however, and is only 6fps behind the minimum frame rate of a pair of HD 7970 GHz Editions.


While the GTX Titan may duke it out with multi-GPU setups in a number of circumstances, it holds a considerable advantage in power consumption. A peak system load of 348W is 50W fewer than a GTX 690 4GB and a whopping 216W less than a pair of HD 7970 3GB GHz Editions. Adding a second and third card increases this in 250-300W increments but even in 3-card SLI the trio of Titans pulls more than 200W less than a pair of Asus’ finest Ares 2s.

Moving finally to Unigine Heaven we again see the Titan easily crushing the single-GPU competition, but struggling against similarly priced multi-GPU setups. It’s score of 1671 points at 2,560 x 1,600 with 4x AA is a 50 per cent (!) increase over that of the GTX 680 2GB and 36 per cent increase over the score of the HD 7970 GHz Edition, but is still 372 points behind the GTX 690 4GB. Scaling here is at least very good for two cards, but the additional heat of a third card causes a reduction in clock speeds and thus the reduced scaling when using three GTX Titans in tri-SLI.

This test also allows us an easy metric with which to compare bang-per-buck and, as expected, it’s here that the GTX Titan really suffers. Rolling in only just ahead of Asus Ares 2 in the price/performance stakes in its single card configuration it looks to be considerably worse value than the GTX 690 4GB or a pair of GTX 7970 GHz Editions, and therein lies the rub.