Skip to main content

Nvidia’s new Titan X offers monstrous performance for a monster-sized price

geforce website gtx1080ti reveal countdown nvidia titan x
Image used with permission by copyright holder
With Nvidia’s new Pascal-based Titan X graphics card on the market now, how is the card performing in reviews, and where can you get it? So far, the card seems to be performing extremely well review-wise, deemed as the best you can get on the market at this time. That’s not so surprising given the hardware backing the Titan X and its hefty $1,200 price tag. That said, if you’re a PC gamer on a tight budget, this card definitely may not be for you.

In a review by PC Perspective, the card managed to crank out 35 percent better performance than the GTX 1080 in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt set at a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. Using the same game and settings, it outperformed the GTX 980 Ti by 71-percent, the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X by 85 percent, and the GTX 980 in an SLI configuration by 29 percent. The 3,840 x 2,160 resolution showed a performance increase of 38 percent, 74 percent, 74 percent, and 29 percent, respectively.

In that same review, the Titan X had a graphics score of 13,498 during the Fire Strike Extreme benchmark in 3DMark. The GTX 1080 scored a 10,348 in the same test followed by the GTX 980 Ti (8,073), the GTX 980 (6,280), and the Radeon R9 Fury X (7,702). The closest competitor in the test were the GTX 980 cards in SLI, scoring a 12,292.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

“This is not a card for the budget minded,” PC Perspective reports. “It’s for people that have more money than time, more money than they need. Or maybe you just value PC gaming above anything else in your life — and that’s fine, I was there once. Before a wife, and kids … If you worry about how much you are spending on your gaming PC, do not buy the Titan X!”

Hot Hardware calls the Titan X an “absolute monster” in regards to performance. It’s “in another league” when compared to the previous Maxwell-based Titan X card from 2013, outpacing the older model by up to 60 percent while consuming less power. To show the card’s capabilities when overclocked, the site used the game Thief (DirectX 11) set at a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution and all the GFX features enabled.

According to the report, the overclocked card had an average frames per second rate of 68.9 and a minimum rate of 55.8. When not overclocked, the card managed an average of 62.4 frames per second and a minimum rate of 50.9 frames per second. The GTX 1080 only managed an average of 48.8 frames per second and a minimum rate of 41.3 frames per second. By comparison, the older Maxwell-based Titan X cranked out an average of 39 frames per second and a minimum rate of 31.1 frames per second.

Over on AnandTech, the site calls the new Titan X worthy as a successor to the previous 2013 model, as it raises the bar for quality and performance. In a test using Dragon Age: Inquisition, the review shows that the new Titan X is the only single-GPU card that can crank out more than 30 frames per second when the game is set to 3,840 x 2,160, Ultra Quality, and 0x MSAA. It actually fell behind two GTX 980 cards in SLI mode, and two Radeon R9 295 cards in Crossfire mode. The frame rates get even higher at this resolution when the settings are dropped down to “High.”

To grab the new Titan X graphics card, head over to Nvidia’s website right here. Right now, that seems to be the only place to purchase this monstrous graphics card by itself. Otherwise, system builders are throwing it into their configuration mix including Maingear, Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest, Origin PC, and NCIX.

Kevin Parrish
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
Nvidia’s new, $399 GeForce RTX 3060 Ti offers ray tracing support
nvidia geforce rtx 3060 ti announced

After a lot of speculation and anticipation, Nvidia has finally taken the wraps off of its GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card. The 3060 Ti joins Nvidia's other RTX 3000 series GPUs -- like the RTX 3070, RTX 3080 flagship, and enthusiast-class RTX 3090. With a price of just $399 when it becomes available tomorrow, December 2, it is one of the most affordable cards capable of playing ray tracing games on the market.

"We have a brand-new addition to our RTX 30-series of graphics cards," said Justin Walker, Nvidia product manager for GeForce. "It's my pleasure to introduce you to the GeForce GTX 3060 Ti -- a superpowerful new GPU with 16 shader teraflops, 32 RT teraflops, and 130 tensor teraflops. There's plenty of memory bandwidth, with a 256-bit memory interface running eight gigs of G6 memory."

Read more
Project xCloud vs. Nvidia GeForce Now: Here’s how they compare
xbox project xcloud hands on feat

PC gamers have a ton of different options when it comes to playing their favorite games. They can purchase titles directly on services like Steam or the Epic Game Store, and they can gain access to digital copies with the Xbox Play Anywhere program. What is shaping up to be the future of PC gaming, however, is game streaming, and two of the biggest contenders appear to be Microsoft’s Project xCloud and Nvidia’s GeForce Now.

The two game-streaming services allow you to play games your device couldn’t typically run, requiring just a moderate download speed to function properly. But when looking at xCloud vs. GeForce Now, you’ll see that they operate a little differently. We’ve detailed the two services so you can see which one will best fit your style.
Supported Platforms
Immediately, you’ll learn that Project xCloud and GeForce Now are not necessarily designed with the same users in mind. Project xCloud allows you to play Xbox One and PC games on your device of choice, including an Xbox console, a PC, a tablet, or a mobile phone. Because it supports the same cloud saving system already in place for Xbox Play Anywhere, this means you can drop one device, pick up another and continue playing your game from the same point.

Read more
Nvidia slashes the price of its RTX 2060 to $299 to battle AMD’s new RX 5600 XT
GeForce RTX 2060 against a black background.

To battle AMD’s approaching Radeon RX 5600 XT, Nvidia teamed up with its GPU partners to cut the prices of GeForce RTX 2060 cards. Nvidia’s non-super Founders Edition model now costs $299, down $50 from its original launch price back in January of 2019.

AMD’s Radeon RX 5600 XT arrives on January 21, 2020, for $279. The company expects it to outperform Nvidia’s GTX 1660 Ti, which also costs $279. AMD revealed the 5600 XT earlier this month during CES 2020, the first GPU from the company's new Radeon RX 5600 Series lineup.

Read more