1. Introduction2. Nvidia Geforce GTX Titan X3. High Res Gallery4. Testing Methodology5. 3DMark Vantage6. 3DMark 117. 3DMark8. Unigine Heaven Benchmark9. Grid AutoSport (1080p and 1600p)10. Grid AutoSport (4k)11. Thief (1080p and 1600p)12. Thief (4k)13. Tomb Raider (1080p and 1600p)14. Tomb Raider (4k)15. Metro Last Light Redux (1080p and 1600p)16. Metro Last Light Redux (4k)17. Thermal Dynamics / IR Thermometer Readings18. Acoustics Performance19. Power Consumption20. Overclocking21. Closing Thoughts22. View All Pages

Nvidia have had huge success with their Maxwell architecture. The GTX980 has not only held the performance crown since the launch but sales figures have helped Nvidia reap in record revenue. As we know, technology development never stands still, and today we look at the new (single GPU) flagship model, the Titan X. This is Maxwell architecture in full flight and is set to pose a serious challenge for AMD to overcome in the coming months.

The new Nvidia Titan X is based around the physically large GM200 die and is built on the 28nm process.

This is an extended 28nm die, 50 percent bigger than the one found on the GTX980. There are two more GPC clusters, enhancing the specifications to 3,072 cores and 192 texture units.

GPU	GeForce GTX 750ti (Maxwell)	GeForce GTX 960 (Maxwell)	Geforce GTX 970 (Maxwell)	GeForce GTX 980 (Maxwell)	Geforce GTX Titan X
Streaming Multiprocessors	5	8	13	16	24
CUDA Cores	640	1024	1664	2048	3072
Base Clock	1020 mhz	1126 mhz	1050 mhz	1126 mhz	1000 mhz
GPU Boost Clock	1085 mhz	1178 mhz	1178 mhz	1216 mhz	1076mhz
Total Video memory	2GB	2GB	4GB	4GB	12GB
Texture fill-rate	40.8 Gigatexels/Sec	72.1 Gigatexels/Sec	109.2 Gigatexels/Sec	144.1 Gigatexels/Sec	192 Gigatexels/Sec
Memory Clock	5400 mhz	7010 mhz	7000 mhz	7000 mhz	7000 mhz
Memory Bandwidth	86.4 GB/sec	112.16 GB/sec	224 GB/s	224 GB/sec	336.5 GB/sec
Bus Width	128bit	128bit	256bit	256bit	384bit
ROPs	16	32	56	64	96
Manufacturing Process	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm
TDP	60 watts	120 watts	145 watts	165 watts	250 watts

The Nvidia Titan X has 32 more ROPS than the GTX980, totaling 96. The memory interface has been set at a broad 384 bit … comprised of 6 x 64 bit pathways. This is more in line with the older generation of Nvidia hardware, like the GTX780 Ti – as the newer hardware has depended extensively on colour compression algorithms to improve overall efficiency.

Many readers are still under the impression that the Titan range of cards are not designed for gamers, but as I have explained multiple times, Nvidia have been marketing Titan hardware to the gaming enthusiast for years. Don't take my word for it – the Titan Z for instance, according to Nvidia is a ‘gaming monster'. The Titan Black ‘gives you the added horsepower to drive your most graphics-intensive games' – all on the Nvidia website here.

According to industry insiders, over 85% of all Titan sales are to the gaming enthusiast.

It is true that many professionals may have considered a Titan oriented graphics card, due to the double precision support. The standard Titan can handle DP calculations at 1/4 SP speed – which when compared directly to the 1/24 rate of the GTX780 Ti, is incredibly quick. The GTX 980 is rated at 1/32 SP and the Titan X is unfortunately no quicker. If you need a graphics card for double precision processing capabilities, then the Titan X is not for you – it is actually slower than the Kepler based Titan hardware from the previous generation.

Nvidia obviously want you to pay more for Double Precision performance, and they (not surprisingly) have a range of wallet sapping Quadro cards on offer, designed to deliver the goods. An example is the Quadro M6000 – built on the same GM200 die as the Titan X, but with much better DP performance. Just be prepared to pay out the ying-yang for the pleasure.


Our review sample came direct from Nvidia, unfortunately I haven't been very well in recent weeks so our review has taken a little more time than usual.

While I don't often focus on packaging, I have to admit that I do like how Nvidia send out their reference samples – The Titan X is presented in a beautifully effective black box with the card slotted into a base.


This is how the Nvidia Titan Black should have looked. Nvidia have built this card on a black PCB, with some minor silver accenting to highlight the fan and brand name. It is a beautifully effective looking card design, although I have always thought the Nvidia reference cards were leagues ahead of AMD, in regards to appearance anyway. Sadly no backplate on the card, which is a little disappointing on such a premium board.

It goes without saying, this is a two slot solution. Dimensions are 270mm by 110mm.

The Nvidia Titan X is SLi capable – in 2,3 and 4 way configurations. It takes power from a six pin and eight pin connector.

The card ships with a single DVI port, one HDMI 2.0 port (with HD audio and Blu-Ray 3D movie support), and three DisplayPorts. The move to predominately Displayport connectivity is inevitable and welcomed. If you wish, you can use all these ports at the same time for triple monitor gaming.

The reference Titan cards are always cooled by a single fan, as shown above. This fan spins and forces hot air out the rear of the case.

The reference cooler is not going to match the best custom coolers by Nvidia partners, but we have always found them to be reasonably quiet, and capable performers. More analysis of the cooling solution later in the review.

An overview of the hardware in the latest version of GPUz – as discussed on the previous page. The GM200 core runs at 1,000mhz (1,076mhz boost) and is built on the 28nm process. There are 96 ROPs, 192 Texture units and 3,072 CUDA Cores. The whopping 12GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 1753mhz (7Gbps effective) and is connected via a 384 bit memory interface.On this page we present some high resolution images of the product taken with a Nikon D810 camera with Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art Lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.







We tested all the solutions today at 1080p, 1600p and 4K resolutions. It goes without saying that if you are considering the Titan X for 1080p gaming, then you are wasting cash that would be better invested into other components. 4K is the main target area for a Titan X graphics card – although we have included 1080p and 1600p tests, as we always get asked for more resolutions.

If you want to read more about this, or are interested in buying the same Kitguru Test Rig, check out our article with links on this page. We are using an Asus PB287Q 4k and Apple 30 inch Cinema HD monitor for this review today.

Nvidia GTX Titan X (1000mhz core / 1,753mhz Memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.88

Comparison cards:
Nvidia GTX Titan Z (706mhz core / 1,753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.88
Sapphire R9 295X2 (1,018mhz core / 1,250 mhz memory) – Catalyst 15.3 beta
Asus GTX980 ROG Platinum (1,241mhz core / 1,753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Gigabyte GTX980 G1 Gaming (1228mhz core / 1,753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Inno3D GTX980 ‘iChill Herculez X4 Air Boss Ultra (1266 mhz core / 1753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
MSI GTX980 Gaming 4G (1216mhz core / 1753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Asus GTX980 Strix (1178mhz core / 1753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Asus GTX780 Ti Direct CU II OC (954mhz core / 1750 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Nvidia GTX980 Reference (1126 mhz core / 1753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Galax GTX970 OC Silent ‘Infinity Black Edition’ (1178 mhz core / 1753mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Palit GTX970 Jetstream OC (1152mhz core / 1753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
MSI GTX970 Gaming 4G (1140 mhz core / 1753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Palit GTX780 6GB (902 mhz core / 150 2mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Asus GTX970 StriX OC (1114 mhz core / 1753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09
Asus R9 290 Direct CU II OC (1000 mhz core / 1260 mhz memory) – Catalyst 14.12
OCUK GTX970 ‘Nvidia 970 Cooler Edition’ (1051 mhz core / 1753 mhz memory) – Nvidia Forceware 347.09

Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Unigine Valley Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
3DMark
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark

Games:
Grid AutoSport
Tomb Raider
Metro Last Light Redux
Thief 2014

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.

Game descriptions edited with courtesy from Wikipedia.Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.


This Direct X 10 benchmark is still relevant, as it highlights possible performance parameters with older games you may wish to revisit (or still enjoy today). The Nvidia Titan X performs exceptionally well, with the system scoring just over 60,000 points.
3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads. If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page.


Moving to a newer Direct X 11 benchmark highlights how well the Nvidia Titan X performs. It scores top of the single GPU chart, in behind the dual GPU Titan Z and R9 295X2.
3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance.

Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good.

To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.”


Not much between the Nvidia Titan Z and the new Titan X in the latest Futuremark benchmark, around 500 points in favour of the dual GPU solution.
Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

• Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
• Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
• Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
• Multicore CPU support
• Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
• Powerful C++ API
• Comprehensive performance profiling system
• Flexible XML-based data structures

We set Quality to ‘High', Tessellation to ‘Normal' and resolution to 1600p.

The Titan X pushes out ahead of the fastest GTX980 solutions, averaging almost 87 frames per second.
Grid Autosport (styled as GRID Autosport) is a racing video game by Codemasters and is the sequel to 2008′s Race Driver: Grid and 2013′s Grid 2. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on June 24, 2014. (Wikipedia).

On this page we test at 1080p and 1600p using the ‘Ultra' image quality profile with 8x MSAA.


It really is overkill to buy a Titan X for 1080p gaming, Even at 1600p resolutions, the card is averaging 125 frames per second, and holding above 100 frames per second at all times. Overkill.
Grid Autosport (styled as GRID Autosport) is a racing video game by Codemasters and is the sequel to 2008′s Race Driver: Grid and 2013′s Grid 2. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on June 24, 2014. (Wikipedia).

We test at Ultra HD 4k with 8MSAA. The Ultra Profile is selected for maximum image quality.

The Titan X can handle Grid Autosport at 4k resolutions, even with the image quality settings cranked, and 8 x Anti Aliasing enabled. It can hold a steady 60 frames per second, which is good to see.Thief is set in a dark fantasy world inspired by Victorian, gothic, and steampunk aesthetics. Garrett, a master thief who has been away from his hometown for a long time, returns to it, a place known only as The City, and finds it ruled with an iron grip by a tyrant called The Baron. While The City is ravaged by a plague, the rich continue to live in isolation and good fortune while the poor are forming numerous mobs against the authorities, Garrett intends to use the volatile situation to his favor. (Wikipedia).

We test with the ‘very high' image quality preset at 1080p and 1600p.

A demanding engine, even at 1600p, although the Titan X is up to the task.Thief is set in a dark fantasy world inspired by Victorian, gothic, and steampunk aesthetics. Garrett, a master thief who has been away from his hometown for a long time, returns to it, a place known only as The City, and finds it ruled with an iron grip by a tyrant called The Baron. While The City is ravaged by a plague, the rich continue to live in isolation and good fortune while the poor are forming numerous mobs against the authorities, Garrett intends to use the volatile situation to his favor. (Wikipedia).

We test at the ‘very high' preset for maximum image quality. Resolution is set to 4k for this particular test.

Unless you demand a constant 60 frames per second, we class Thief playable on the Titan X at 4K – frame rates are held above 30 at all times.
Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far. (Wikipedia).

We test with the ‘ultimate' image quality profile at 1080p and 1600p.


One of the best engines on the market, even today. At 1600p the Titan X is holding frame rates above 60 at all times – giving a super smooth gaming experience.Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far. (Wikipedia).

We test at Ultra HD 4k resolution with the ‘Ultra' image profile enabled.

Dropping the image quality a little means that the Titan X can hold a frame rate above 50 at all times, even at Ultra HD 4K.
On May 22, 2014, a Redux version of Metro Last Light was announced. It was released on August 26, 2014 in North America and August 29, 2014 in Europe for the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Redux adds all the DLC and graphical improvements. A compilation package, titled Metro Redux, was released at the same time which includes Last Light and 2033. (Wikipedia). We test with following settings: Quality-Very High, SSAA-off, Texture Filtering-16x, Motion Blur-Normal, Tessellation-Normal, Advanced Physx-On.


A demanding engine at 1600p. No problems for the Titan X to power – holding frame rates above 50 at all times.
On May 22, 2014, a Redux version of Metro Last Light was announced. It was released on August 26, 2014 in North America and August 29, 2014 in Europe for the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Redux adds all the DLC and graphical improvements. A compilation package, titled Metro Redux, was released at the same time which includes Last Light and 2033. (Wikipedia). We test with following settings: Quality-High, SSAA-off, Texture Filtering-16x, Motion Blur-off, Tessellation-Normal, Advanced Physx-off.

Ultra HD 4K separates the men from the boys – Most of the cards in the graph fall into what we would consider the ‘unplayable zone'. The Titan X manages to maintain good frame rates however, dropping a few times to around 40 frames per second.
The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 23c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.


Idle temperatures are great. Under load the card hits 84c after a short while. The GPU is using Nvidia's GPU Boost 2.0 which dynamically adjusts clock speed and voltage settings, factoring in temperatures.

We install the graphics card into our system and measure temperatures on the back of the PCB with our Fluke Visual IR Thermometer/Infrared Thermal Camera. This is a real world running environment.

Details on each test are shown below.

Above, a traditional heatmap analysis. Without a backplate on the PCB the card does get quite hot to the touch. A large portion of the PCB heats up to around 80c, with ‘hotspots' hitting almost 90c.

The above heatmap is using an alternative high contrast overlay to better show the hotspots. You can see several positions clearly – peaking around 90c.We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.

We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The Titan X is using a reference Nvidia cooler, which while not quite at the same level as modified solutions from Nvidia partners, handles the task reasonably well. We wouldn't say this was the quietest card we have ever tests, however fan noise is not that intrusive.

We ran several high frame rate tests to try and aggravate coil whine – it wasn't noticeable.To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Tomb Raider at 4k resolution and the synthetic stress test Furmark – recording both results.

Considering the performance of the Titan X, the power demand under load when gaming, is very impressive. It demands 10 watts less under load, than the Palit GTX780 6GB we tested.
To overclock today we are using the latest version of MSI's Afterburner based on the excellent Rivatuner.


We managed to squeeze another 18% from the core before the system would hardlock or artifacting would occur. We don't tend to push the GDDR5 memory much on these cards as it has minimal impact on overall performance.

It is easy to increase the temperature threshold from 84c to 91c – the maximum possible. Power draw can be increased to 110%.


Overclocking the Titan X gave a healthy increase in performance. We recorded a score increase in 3DMark 11 from 22908 points to 25651 points – quite significant.

Since my first experiences with the Nvidia GTX750ti in early 2014, I was suitably impressed with the cool running Maxwell architecture.  While the GTX750ti was a budget card targeting a mass audience I knew at the time that great things lay ahead for Maxwell in the high end, and the GTX970 and GTX980 certainly didn't disappoint.

Nvidia are actually so far ahead of AMD right now that it seems astonishing – it is similar to the situation AMD face with Intel in the processor segment. We do hope that when AMD launch new products this year that they will compete and reinvigorate a rather stagnant, uncompetitive market.

The GTX Titan X is another knockout product from Nvidia, the new GM200 at the heart of the graphics card is a phenomenal design. There really is no competition for the Titan X right now – although even the GTX980 has yet to face any real competition.

Let me make it clear as I know some readers just skip to the last page in these reviews. If you are gaming on a 1080p or 1440p panel, then the Titan X is completely overkill. You will be better served with a less expensive GTX980 and by investing the additional money into other areas of the system, such as a solid state drive, power supply and memory upgrade.

The Titan X makes sense at 4K. It is able to power many game engines and maintain frame rates above 30 at all times. If you want solid 60+ frame rates, then you will ideally want two of these cards in SLI. There is no doubt that gaming at 4K is expensive and out of reach for even 90% of our audience.

The Titan X ships with a new black reference cooler, and it does a decent job. You will note I didn't say remarkable, because there is only so much this fairly restrictive design will handle. At default settings, the card is likely to run at 84c when playing games, constantly. As Nvidia haven't felt the need to fit a substantial backplate, hotspots on the rear of the PCB are hitting 90c, which while not dangerous, is certainly greater than I would like to see. Our testing earlier in the review with a Visual IR Thermometer/Infrared Thermal Camera highlights these points.

What alternatives are there? Nvidia have the Titan Z, which is generally a little faster than the Titan X, but it is even more expensive. The cheapest deals you are likely to find are around the £1,300 mark. It was never a high value card, and even though the prices have dropped in some stores from the launch price of £2,300, it still doesn't offer great value for money.

If you want to game at 4K, two GTX980's in SLi is a popular configuration, although the 4GB of GDDR5 is a limiting factor for many. The Titan X is equipped with a 12GB framebuffer although I do think this is a little excessive – the core is likely to run out of grunt long before any game would be calling upon anything close to the limits of the hardware. That said, the design and release of the Titan X does open the door for a 6GB GTX980 ti at a later date.

We all know the AMD R9 295X2 is a wonderful solution, but it is a dual GPU design, and requires Crossfire profiles to operate at full performance. AMD have made some strides with Crossfire in recent years, but I still prefer a single GPU solution as it is less problematic in the long run. That said, it is rather difficult to ignore the R9 295X2, as the price has dropped from £900 in recent months to £499.99 inc vat.

Will AMD be able to answer the Titan X in the coming months? If much of the information we are hearing right now is true, it could very well be a very interesting head to head battle.

Overclockers UK have a range of Titan X cards for sale already, with many still on pre-order. You can see the options over HERE. The cheapest model right now is OCUK's own version at £869.99, so it is certainly a considerable investment. The OCUK model is the best value of the cards on sale – remember they are reference designs anyway, so you will only be paying extra for a brand name from an Nvidia partner.

I would also like to thank Overclockers UK for their assistance in getting us some last minute hardware for comparisons.

Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.

Pros:

• Insanely quick.
• Titan Black has a silver cooler, Titan X has a black cooler? Hardly logical, but we like black.
• great for 4K gaming.
• unlikely to ever run out of memory.
• Overclocks surprisingly well.

Cons:

• no backplate and some hotspots on the PCB.
• Double precision is slow.
• 12GB of memory is excessive.
• The price of a second hand car.

Kitguru says: The Nvidia Titan X is a monster GPU targeting the 4K audience with deep pockets. It is mighty expensive, but if you must have the best, there is little competition.

Become a Patron!