Though delayed by a month, today marks the official release of NVIDIA's Titan Z graphics card, the dual GK110 beast with the $3000 price tag. The massive card was shown for the first time in March at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference and our own Tim Verry was on the grounds to get the information.
The details remain the same:
Specifically, the GTX TITAN Z is a triple slot graphics card that marries two full GK110 (big Kepler) GPUs for a total of 5,760 CUDA cores, 448 TMUs, and 96 ROPs with 12GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus (6GB on a 384-bit bus per GPU). For the truly adventurous, it appears possible to SLI two GTX Titan Z cards using the single SLI connector. Display outputs include two DVI, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort connector.
The difference now of course is that all the clock speeds and pricing are official.
A base clock speed of 705 MHz with a Boost rate of 876 MHz places it well behind the individual GPU performance of a GeForce GTX 780 Ti or GTX Titan Black (rated at 889/980 MHz). The memory clock speed remains the same at 7.0 Gbps and you are still getting a massive 6GB of memory per GPU.
Maybe most interesting with the release of the GeForce GTX Titan Z is that NVIDIA seems to have completely fixated on non-DIY consumers with the card. We did not receive a sample of the Titan Z (nor did we get one of the Titan Black) and when I inquired as to why, NVIDIA PR stated that they were "only going to CUDA developers and system builders."
I think it is more than likely that after the release of AMD's Radeon R9 295X2 dual GPU graphics card on April 8th, with a price tag of $1500 (half of the Titan Z), the target audience was redirected. NVIDIA already had its eye on the professional markets that weren't willing to dive into the Quadro/Tesla lines (CUDA developers will likely drop $3k at the drop of a hat to get this kind of performance density). But a side benefit of creating the best flagship gaming graphics card on the planet was probably part of the story – and promptly taken away by AMD.
I still believe the Titan Z will be an impressive graphics card to behold both in terms of look and style and in terms of performance. But it would take the BIGGEST NVIDIA fans to be able to pass up buying a pair of Radeon R9 295X2 cards for a single GeForce GTX Titan Z. At least that is our assumption until we can test one for ourselves.
I'm still working to get my hands on one of these for some testing as I think the ultra high end graphics card coverage we offer is incomplete without it.
Several of NVIDIA's partners are going to be offering the Titan Z including EVGA, ASUS, MSI and Zotac. Maybe the most intersting though is EVGA's water cooled option!
So, what do you think? Anyone lining up for a Titan Z when they show up for sale?
I really love the software
I really love the software you get with Nvidia but there pricing the last 2 years has been out of control.
Maybe this is indeed just for professionals but with 4k gaming coming, what is left for the gaming enthusiast?
Do we all have to run dual cards just to get smooth frame rates in 4k now?
Yes, because 4k is literally
Yes, because 4k is literally 4 times as hard to compute as 1080p, and how Crysis 2 was difficult to run at 1080p, let alone 4k.
Be realistic.
It should of had 3
It should of had 3 displayport and dual link DVI port. What if someone with $$$ wanted an a ASUS Swift for fast pace FPS, an LG 34um95 for 4k productivity and a ASUS PB287Q all at the same time without the hassle.
If people want to pay the price for this, well its their choice, but nvidia failed in the output logic.
I really don’t see to many
I really don’t see to many people out there that will buy a $3000.00 video card.
specially when it’s slower
specially when it’s slower for gaming than a $1500 AMD card (which is already overpriced considering the cost of a 290x) or 2×699 Nvidia cards,
sure there is the CUDA DP stuff, but even 2x Titan B is so much less expensive.
if it had higher clocks than a 780 Ti/Titan Black, 12GB per GPU not total and a nice watercooler maybe it could be worth 2k.
lol so much for Jen-Hsun
lol so much for Jen-Hsun Huang marketing this card for professional developers. They are clearly marketing this towards gamers just like the original Titan and the Titan Black.
For 10 years I’ve supported Nvidia, but if this shit doesn’t end I’m done with them. I see the trend they started taking with the 600 Series and it isn’t pretty.
Yeah, I don’t understand
Yeah, I don’t understand where the extra $1000 makes any kind of sense… Two Titan Blacks literally give you better gaming and workstation performance for 66% of the price. Needing 2 less slots available isn’t worth the price of a kickass gaming system…
So this is going to the Cuda
So this is going to the Cuda Developers, and those financial/stock traders where every millisecond equates to millions of dollars, and who have no need for any graphics, other than the ability to display the running charts. Once the professional(non Graphics)/scientific users have bought up all of these that Nvidia can sale at top dollar, expect them to be released at a lower price point, after Nvidia releases its next generation of graphics. Not having to provide, and certify, these SKUs for professional graphics software(Quadro offers that at a higher price) Nvidia is hoping for a niche market with a higher level of profitability, those Quadros cost a lot, because the professional graphics software driver certification and support takes a lot of money to develop/maintain. Nvidia is now focusing on its next generation of graphics products, while keeping its reputation of having a competing SKU available, at a much higher price, to AMDs top offering, and working on besting AMD next time around. Oh those bragging rights, and the same old same old.
I’ll get 3
(it is good to
I’ll get 3
(it is good to have one spare in case something goes wrong).
i knew it, when i didnt see
i knew it, when i didnt see any reviews pop up i knew Nvidia was trying to limit the benchs comparaison to the 295×2.
guess AMD wins this bi-gpu battle, RDV in 2 years for the next one.
Pass
Pass
The 3000$ price is insane,
The 3000$ price is insane, but I’d like to think that this card is a “marketing-plan” card just like the original titan was, and that was quite expensive at it’s time, but 5-6 months later nvidia launched the 780 with the same performance for almost half the price and it was positively welcomed.
Maybe the upcoming 880 will have Titan Z-like performance for only half the price.
Except that 780 that was
Except that 780 that was “welcomed” upped the pricing scheme for x80 Series cards by $150 at launch (780 retail $649). If that wasn’t bad enough within a couple months they lowered it down to the appropriate $499 mark, which clearly shows Nvidia is milking AMD’s strategy in the market.
Now we got to fear if the 800/900+ generation cards are going to follow the same up-selling at launch.
People say original Titan owners got screwed, well so too did the 780 owners if pricing is the justification.
Release Day with lots of
Release Day with lots of press releases while No reviews? Kind of telling of the story!
I see Nvidia wanting to get (dump) the initial run they’ve made onto the channel / market and then be done with this with as little fan-fare as possible. That means giving out as few as possible to a couple sympathetic reviewers and sell the rest for those who see a cheap compute/Cuda option to hopefully cover a good portion of their costs.
Very good observations. You
Very good observations. You summed it up beautifully. I’m the happy owner of a beautiful GTX690 which is running flawlessly any game at max settings – that is in poor old Full HD :). I really don’t need 4K gaming, and let’s face it – even recent monsters as the R9-295X and Titan-Z don’t get to carry through all games with 60FPS on 4K… For now I really think 4K is overrated, at least from the pricing perspective, and also it is my personal opinion that GPU-s haven’t really caught with 4K yet.
Ryan you should call back
Ryan you should call back nvidia and ask them about their new marketing video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iww4DdPMdbs
they told you it’s directed to pro, then they release a PR selling it for gaming, and yet refusing to sample for benchs ???
It’s insulting and to be
It’s insulting and to be honest, fucking sick.
the only review i found was
the only review i found was from digitalstorm, and it’s really not up to the task, no minimum or maximum frame, no framerate, no temps at overclock no word on stability, stands to reason why digitalstorm got the sample xD
Silly Ryan always try’n to
Silly Ryan always try’n to excuse Nvidias actions. Down right comical. Didn’t having egg on your face with the DX11 driver teach you anything ?
NVIDIA PR stated that they were “only going to CUDA developers and system builders.”
I think it is more than likely that after the release of AMD’s Radeon R9 295X2 dual GPU graphics card on April 8th, with a price tag of $1500 (half of the Titan Z), the target audience was redirected. NVIDIA already had its eye on the professional markets that weren’t willing to dive into the Quadro/Tesla lines (CUDA developers will likely drop $3k at the drop of a hat to get this kind of performance density). But a side benefit of creating the best flagship gaming graphics card on the planet was probably part of the story – and promptly taken away by AMD.
You even linked the video yourself.
GeForce GTX TITAN Z Product Video (May 28, 2014)
Tom Petersen talks Titan Z for gaming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iww4DdPMdbs
I’m sure more excuses will follow.
well poor ryan has nothing to
well poor ryan has nothing to do with it, he just reported what Nvidia gave him as excuse for not sampling the Z for benchs, and Ryan been kind enough to wink in a subtile manner by posting the video, doesnt mean he is supporting the BS of Nvidia, but just that he doesnt really wanna get them mad at him.
so the bottom line is
the
so the bottom line is
the TitanZ is directed to Gaming mostly. Yes
but Nvidia doesnt want to see her 3000$ baby being beaten by a half priced competitor card, so all excuses are good for bench blackout.
the TitanZ has double precision for Cuda, but yet devs now are starting to understand that being supportive of a closed eco-system is bad for them, since they will get stuck with one vendor who will abuse of the situation, and things will change slowly but surely for cuda support