Palit GeForce GTX 780 Super Jetstream review

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Conclusion

Conclusion

You know, it is hard not to like any GeForce GTX 780. The reference card from NVIDIA is already great. But once we started testing the board partner boards, aah yes... that's where we start to shout phrases like excellent and impressive. It's exactly that what counts for the Super JetStream card as honestly, you'll be having a very hard time trying to find something negative. 

The performance that the Palit GeForce GTX 780 Super JetStream is able to deliver is downright impressive. Locked and loaded with the JetStream cooler it remains very silent and keeps this GPU chilled down at a cool 65 Degrees C temperature whilst being under full game load/stress. It really is one of the finest GeForce GTX 780 cards available on the market. We had a great time testing this graphics card. Coming from a GeForce GTX 680 you can expect a good 30% more performance and looking down from a GeForce GTX Titan, the performance difference is only roughly less than 2% and we have even seen a win or two over Titan here and there thanks to the fact that this card can boost really high. So yeah, the performance level remains close to a Titan. 

Aesthetics

Armed with the latest revision of the JetStream cooler the card runs a good 15 Degrees Celsius colder opposed to the reference cooler whist remaining drop-dead silent. This revision is a triple-slot cooler though, with two 80mm and one 90mm fan. I think overall it just looks great. The 8-phase VRM design PCB is customized and I can spot merely quality components ensuring a longer lifespan of this product, lovely. The looks, well the cooler in its all black design, the subtle and silent fans combined with a hint of beige/gold makes this a good looking package alright. Great looking and very sturdy I must state as well. There is a metal plate at the top of the card so the card cannot bend when seated horizontally in the PC, missing however is a full cover back-plate. The one downside, it eats away three PCI slots, personally i don't care as I have the room for it. But I'm sure there will be a handful of you disliking it. It remains a trade-off though, as in return you get to enjoy sheer silence and cool temps.

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Cooling & Noise Levels

The NVIDIA reference coolers do their job well, but they follow the temperature target of 80 Degrees C. With the JetStream cooling technology the GPU will get roughly 400 to 450W of cooling power thrown at it. As a result the temperature target might remain at 80 Degrees C, but we have never seen the card pass 65 Degrees (overclocked 72). Now if the temperature is that low there is an extra benefit... the power and temp limiters do not kick in, allowing the product to boost a little higher than usual. So this is why the card is so darn close to the GeForce GTX Titan. Noise wise I am very happy as well. In its default configuration you cannot hear airflow when the GPU is under stress installed in a PC. Even whilst overclocked at the level we'll discuss over the next paragraphs, it remains silent. And that, my Gurus, is very impressive.

Power Consumption

The suckin' juice factor. Again not bad, the card is rated as having a 250 Watt TDP, we measure pretty much 246 Watts. From the top of my head that's roughly the same number as GeForce GTX 580 had two years ago. Compared to that product you have nearly double the performance at the same wattage. That 250 Watt TDP will also make running multi-GPU solutions a bit more easy. With two cards we think an 800 Watt PSU would be sufficient. So while it's not great to have a GPU sucking up 250 Watts it could have been a lot worse. So, perspective is the word I'd like you to keep in mind.

Game Performance

The card in most scenarios will be what, 5% slower than the GTX Titan and sometimes faster, compared to GTX 680 it seems 35%, maybe 40% faster. Drivers wise we can't complain at all, we did not stumble into any issues. And with a single GPU there's no micro-stuttering (if that ever bothered you) and no multi-GPU driver issues to fight off. Performance wise really there's not one game that won't run seriously good at the very best image quality settings. I mean, Metro Last Light at 2560x1440 at very high quality is doing almost 50 FPS on average, I rest my case kind Sir.

Overclocking

With the release of GTX Titan, GTX 780 and GTX 770, a thing or two have changed, the new boost modes can now also be configured with temperature targets relative to maximum power draw and your GPU Core frequency offsets. Saying that, I realize it sounds complicated, but you'll have your things balanced out quite fast. This GPU with the JetStream cooler can take 1150 MHz fairly easily, at that stage you'll add another 10% performance already. Our tweak made the GPU run at just above 1200 MHz depending on temperature, power draw and load. For a processor with a gobsmacking 7 Billion transistors, that is just impressive stuff really. If only we had a little more GPU voltage at our disposal... *sighs*

 

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Concluding

Palit's Super JetStream version of the GeForce GTX 780 really is an exemplary product. I mean okay, 3-slot size aside, from A to Z it is such a gorgeous product to own. It is sturdily build with good components quality, it's darn fast in performance as it comes close or often as fast as a GeForce GTX Titan. 

The overall design is quite unique and next to all that gorgeous performance, there still remains to be room left for tweaking. Overall the product is just impressive and has great aesthetics. The product is slowly becoming available in the stores but please be careful, there will be a normal and an OC Super edition, our sample specifically is the NE5X780T10FB-1100J SKU. The MSRP pricing for the card is expected to sit at EUR 599 (incl. VAT), and sure, I concur that the price remains the only obstacle for this product series, as with that budget it is out of reach for many. Don't forget to check out our other GeForce GTX 780 content & related downloads. 

But this is sheer sweetness, we reward the Palit GeForce GTX 780 Super JetStream edition with our top pick award. Expensive sure, but you should see the smile on my face right now :)

Let me give you some advice bastard. Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.” 

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