discussion The NVIDIA TITAN X 12GB Review Comment Thread

[Dark Knight]

That is some serious power. Holy smokes.

Yes performance wise it is the single fastest GPU that currently exists but when you begin to look at it from other angles aside from performance that price tag and other limitations really make it seem like a very limited-edition product (which it really is) that casts doubt on it's use and validity in a real-world scenario. To begin here are a few factors that should be considered:

1. No voltage unlocking (not even .38mv)
2. No Canadian RMA option
3. No partner option (must come directly from Nvidia)
4. No double precision performance like GK110
5. It's not a fully unlocked GP102 product
6. It's priced at $1200 USD versus the previous GK110 and GM200 pricing of $999
7. Duties and taxes and shipping (as it would be shipped from Nvidia directly)

So while it is a HALO product outside of that it's value quickly diminishes. However it should provide further incentive to AMD to release a counter product.

 

[ontariotl]

To be perfectly honest with you, I'm still not sold on 4K either. Give me a 144Hz, 16:9, 2560x1440, 30" monitor and I'm in heaven.

Fair enough, but you don't need to spend 1200US card to enjoy that. Just glad you didn't give it a DAM good, DAM good value, or innovation award. I see a few reviewers that got their hands on the card and giving it a gold seal of approval. That gave Nvidia's asking price justification to go up even further on the next launch.

Well what can be said? I think it would run my 1440p ultrawide just fine! :haha: I think including the 1440 results in the review is a good call (no offence intended ontariotl) because that resolution is becoming the new 1080p and so seeing a cards performance at that res is certainly beneficial. I would love if HWC would add 3440x1440p for a least a few of the really crushing games. I know the performance would be in between 2560x1440 and 4K, but it would still be nice to see actual numbers because the difference isn't linear. The price, yes crazy, and I was going to ask who this card is really for until I read the review conclusion. I think you summed it up perfectly SKYMTL. And I'm with you, my responsible self wouldn't let me buy it, but who wouldn't want that level of performance in their games if they could find the money? It would be amazing!!!

But who knows... I didn't think I would spend north of $1K on the monitor either but I have an X34 on my desk now and I couldn't be more pleased! ... well I could be a little more pleased if I added... :biggrin:

No offence taken whatsoever. We all have a voice here. Spending 1k on a monitor can be justified as its a product that stays with you longer after a few refreshes of video card product that you will likely make in its lifetime. As much as I would love the ultrawide aspect of 3440x1440, the problem I have with it is most gaming developers are not supporting it natively (21:9 in general). Jumping through hoops to mod an ini file or using a 3rd party app gets tiresome and frustrating just like in the eyefinity/surround gaming days a few years back which is why I abandoned it. Even Crysis which before ultrawide came to the consumer level supports 21:9 natively. Why can't ALL newer games follow suit?

This is an embarrassing release for Nvidia not only are they not allowing any partners to sell that card (which means that Canadian RMA is not an option) but they do not allow non-reference designs or voltage unlocking (which was allowed on Kepler for example). Then to top it off they named it the same as Maxwell's Titan and haven't provided any real differentiating features. It's a money grab and I agree with SKYMTL for that.

I'm not going to consider this video card especially not at the price point of $1200 USD. That's more than what the previous Titan's were priced at and it still lacks compute/workstation capabilities unlike the original GK110 Titan's.

Also saw someone on Kijiji in Toronto trying to sell one for $2300 when even after conversion it's nowhere near his "firm" asking price. I had a good chuckle when I looked at his asking price because even with tax the person that posted the ad is taking advantage of gullible consumers.

Just like Nvidia trying to sell this at $1200US, there is always someone that will try to capitalize their slice of the pie as well. Unfortunately there will probably be a sucker to take them up on that offer.
I think Nvidia is holding this card to themselves as they probably don't have the yields to distribute to their partners this time around. I also think it's Nvidia is testing the grounds on how much someone is willing to pay for the next latest and greatest since there is no competition in the high end at the moment.

What AMD needs is pretty clear:

- AVOID HBM AT ALL COSTS. HBM1 gives them limited capacity while HBM2 adds an overly complicated design, huge cost increases and limited benefits over GDDR5X.

- Somehow achieve GTX 1070 / GTX 1080 performance at a comparable TDP level. With the 14nm obviously falling short of expectations on the TDP front, that may be a challenge. A card that hits under GTX 1080 FE performance levels with a TDP of 200W+ would be a disaster.

- Make sure there's product in the channel.

That should be pretty simple right? Right?

If I recall isn't it AMD/ATI's way of testing a smaller die on a lesser performance gpu to get the kinks out before they roll it out for their new flagship? It maybe falling short of expectations on the 480, but maybe Vega will improve on that TDP front.
I'm worried that AMD is waiting on stock levels for HBM2 to improve before rolling out Vega. They should have just gone the GDDR5X route as well. There is a time to experiment when you have the funds and can afford failure, but now isn't the time. AMD already had that with the Fury line and HBM. If your competition isn't jumping on the bandwagon, it's time to move on with good reason.
It makes me wonder if AMD could have matched 1070/1080's clock for clock with the 480, where would it be standing at this moment? I wish I had a 480 and at least a 1070 to match clock speeds (down clocking obviously) and see who really has the better performance in benchmarks putting aside the TDP level. I've seen cpu reviews like that in the past.
I remember in the golden days no one gave two shits about TDP levels. All it was "can it play it play Crysis?".

As for Make sure there's product in the channel. That can be said for Nvidia as well.

 

[Tyrann]

So this thing will cost $1600 CAD? lol. I was hoping to pay something like $400CAD for GTX1070 performance from AMD. Maybe the RX490? Gawd why is AMD just giving up the high end this year

 

[FreeKnight]

The only thing that's exciting about a Titan X release to me is that it probably means the 1080 Ti is next down the pipeline. Otherwise it's just too expensive to really even register as a sane purchase to me. If I was a combination gamer/developer maybe. But for a consumer this card is bonkers.

Sure it's not a alone in that regard, every Titan has been expensive. But I feel like the original Titan had a little more appeal as the 6GB VRAM was a real appeal when texture packs and games like Shadow of Mordor were hitting the 4GB limit. 12 GB isn't necessary in any gaming application I can think of. I guess there's an appeal for the FPS for the 4K crowd, but IMO a 1080Ti is almost certainly going to be such a better purchase in that regards it's worth a few months of waiting.

And besides.... 21:9 is so much better than 4K anyway

 

[SugarJ]

I wouldn't hold your breath for a 1080 Ti any time soon. There's nothing from AMD pushing the 1080 performance wise, there's no reason for Nvidia to launch another high-end card and EOL the 1080 for another 6-12 months.

 

[Dark Knight]

So this thing will cost $1600 CAD? lol. I was hoping to pay something like $400CAD for GTX1070 performance from AMD. Maybe the RX490? Gawd why is AMD just giving up the high end this year

$1600 is with conversion. You would have to pay taxes on top of that so you are looking at $1568.61 Canadian + $203.91 (taxes) for a grand combined total of $1772.52. I also didn't include shipping because who knows what carrier they would use for Canada (probably UPS for additional price gouging) and that would be at least another $30-60 US depending on the speed of the service chosen. I no longer have the Kijiji ad link but someone was selling the Pascal Titan X for $2300 Canadian which is hard to describe in words especially seeing as they priced it as "firm".

 

[Coach]

I wouldn't hold your breath for a 1080 Ti any time soon. There's nothing from AMD pushing the 1080 performance wise, there's no reason for Nvidia to launch another high-end card and EOL the 1080 for another 6-12 months.

Perhaps they want to fill a part of the market between the 1080 and the Titan XP? there will be some that want a 1080ti so shouldn't they provide them to make money in that segment too? I do not think that Nvidia plays the market based off of anything that AMD is now doing. Why then is the 1080 for sale? Nvidia is a machine and they are out to crush the market and if you are Nvidia, why not...

 

[turtletrax]

I don't t see a ti anytime soon either. No pressure, and haven't flushed the 1080 market yet. Only way I see it happening soon is if AMD brought a competitive card to market, and I think that is a long ways off.

 

[FreeKnight]

I wouldn't hold your breath for a 1080 Ti any time soon. There's nothing from AMD pushing the 1080 performance wise, there's no reason for Nvidia to launch another high-end card and EOL the 1080 for another 6-12 months.

I'm definitely not expecting it right away. But I could see a December release as an absolute earliest or early next year if nVidia has roughly the same release schedule as prior Titans. Not soon, but I can handle the wait. I just won't spend the cash for a new Titan.

But the points about competition from AMD are valid. If they don't have anything as high end competition, it's entirely possible nVidia will stretch out the wait period to try and capture more Titan X sales.

 

[Dark Knight]

I wouldn't hold your breath for a 1080 Ti any time soon. There's nothing from AMD pushing the 1080 performance wise, there's no reason for Nvidia to launch another high-end card and EOL the 1080 for another 6-12 months.

I don't forsee a 1080Ti either. If they released a 1080Ti it would cut into the sales of their Pascal Titan-X so they are making distinct actions and steps to ensure that there is no part that can undercut the Titan-X or their 1080. Nvidia also released that by releasing the 980Ti previously for Maxwell they hurt sales of the Maxwell Titan-X because the 980Ti offered 95-99% of the Titan-X (Maxwell) performance for much less of a cost (albeit still expensive especially in Canada).