Question 1

Does this card suffer from 'video card sag' or does it have a supportive design / back plate?

Accepted Answer

This card comes with a supporting back plate and does not exhibit any "sag" when mounted into the PCI-Express slot on the motherboard.  You do need to make sure to use both screws for the mounting bracket that connects to the case once you have inserted the card into the PCI-E slot.  Also, the metal fin that sticks out from the card actually does have a purpose.  It serves as a passive heat sink as well as a handle for the removal of the card from the motherboard.  I hope this information helps.  This is a great graphics card for the price.  You won't be disappointed!

Question 2

What average Frames Per Second are you seeing on Battlefield 4 on Ultra Settings with this card?

Accepted Answer

Easily above 60fps on ultra, but you need an i7 processor to keep you there.  On 64 player servers I couldn't believe it but my core i5 3550 was bottlenecking me and causing fps drops.  On a side note, I just picked up a Xeon 1230 v2 processor for $220.  It's essentially known to be a "server" CPU but its actually an i7 3770 with hyper threading, only difference is no integrated gpu (why would you need it if you're buying this monster) and the core is at 3.3ghz instead of 3.4ghz.  An amazing deal if you ask me.  Just to give another point of reference, my overclocked 670 would average 34.8 fps on heaven 4.0 maxed at 1080p.  This card gets me 56.9 fps, which is a huge 63% increase.  This thing is as fast as a stock 780 ti.  You won't be disappointed.  Hope this helps.

Question 3

How loud is this supposed to be at about 50-60% fan, compared to idle when it is inaudible? I got this a week ago, and it is noisy under load at 50-60% fan. Also, is the middle fan supposed to be noisier than the outer two, because on my card it is noisier when card is under load.

Accepted Answer

For me, the fans are quite audible at the 50 - 60 percent range over their idle speeds. However, I believe this can be said about any fan and every card. In terms of how loud it is suppose to be, I can only say I'm fine with it getting as loud as it has too to keep this beast nice and cool whilst I benchmark. The performance this card puts out is stellar. We're talking near 780ti performance right out of the box.

Now for your middle fan being noticeably louder, I would suggest perhaps looking into an RMA if you are displeased as all 3 of my fans sound the same from idle to under load.

Hope this helped at least a little bit.

Question 4

I have a 1000w Power supply, can I run two of these in SLI?

Accepted Answer

Minimum requirements for one per the Gigabyte Box is 600W with a minimum of 12V Rail rated at 42A on the 12V Rail. I use the Rosewill 1000W Bronze PSU which has 4 12V Rails, 2 @ 20A and
2 @ 30A. The Gigabyte GTX 780 GHz Edition runs fine on it.

Running 2 of these cards, to give a ball-park figure, would probably be around 850W PSU but you also have to keep in mind what else is running on the PSU. If you have multiple HDD's and other components that feed off the PSU, then that also comes into play. To say a 1000W PSU will be fine, I can't without knowing how much the PSU is being utilized on other components.

I know it's not the answer you're looking for, but in a worst case scenario, if the PSU can't power up both 780's plus whatever else you're running, then you'll either get the dreaded BSOD or no video signal at all, just a black screen.

If that happens, then the PSU either doesn't have enough Amps on the 12V Rails to power all and run stable, or the PSU isn't setup for that powerful of a setup.

If you really want to run 2 of these, it's worth a try with your current PSU, and in another worst case scenario, you'll have to upgrade your PSU to run both.

Hope that helps and best of luck :)

Question 5

i bought this card a couple of months ago and it worked fine. now the card can barely play titanfall without crashing back to windows with a driver stop responding. i have tried everything from underclock\voltage to low gaming settings but it just does the same thing. i just read someones feedback on upgrading there power supply but he never mentioned if it works. i own a corsair hx750 power supply, does anybody have a solution please help me or ill just sell it and get the 780 ti?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately, I am in the same boat. I purchased this card recently and I am having crashes to black screen in graphically intensive games every 5 - 30 minutes depending on the game (Skyrim being the worst). I read that the PSU may have been the problem so I even paid another eighty bucks to upgrade to no avail. The problem appears to be fairly widespread with "solutions" on the forums varying widely, which tells me the 780 series has a number of issues.

This is extremely disappointing considering the rather steep price, and the fact that it can't be returned to Newegg because of the warranty. Now I'm stuck either hoping Nvidia releases some kind of fix, or face the horrors of Gigabyte's RMA system (it makes me nervous to deal with a site with numerous misspellings when there are hundreds of dollars on the line, and I can only assume the turnaround time would be weeks at least).

If anyone has any input on this issue, I'm all ears.

Question 6

I currently have this model in my build and I'm looking to add another to upgrade my PC's render times. Does anyone know if two of these can run on a CORSAIR HX 750W power supply? The power supply does say its SLI ready. Thanks!

Accepted Answer

Hi Ryan. Although the Corsair HX 750 can run many mid to low-range video cards in SLI, it definitely will not run two of these cards in SLI at the advertised speeds (you'd have to downclock a ridiculous amount, which defeats the whole idea of SLI). Just one of these cards uses 460 - 480 watts under a heavy gaming load (85%+ load). I currently have two of these in SLI with a core i7 3820 (oc'd to 4.6 @ 1.30v), 16 GB of Mushkin Red @ 2133 MHz, 1 hard drive, 1 SSD, 1 optical drive, and 1 MCP655 water pump on a Rampage IV Extreme. I routinely pull about 1050 to 1105 watts from the wall when the GPUs are under a heavy gaming load. When I take away the CPU oc, I still pull about 950 - 970 watts from the wall when under a heavy gaming load. At a minimum, my advice would be to go for a 1200 watt (100 amp), high-quality, single-rail power supply. Currently I'm using an older Corsair AX1200 Gold and I have no power related issues at all since the initial build about 4 months ago. Keep in mind these are beastly cards and each one requires 2, 8-pin PCIe power connections. Quick tip: it's good practice to leave yourself a little wattage headroom with power supplies, as they tend to run a bit cooler and last a bit longer as a result. Lastly, for any future builds you do or for any you're currently working on, there are a number of online "PC Power Supply Calculators", just do a quick search with that term.

Question 7

Will I still be able to fit it in my case without removing the drive bays if my case can fit GPU's up to 290mm and this card is 292mm?

Accepted Answer

What I can tell you is this. I ended up replacing my tower with a full tower. Height wise you of ample room. As far as case depth (from front to back) it was tight in my case, not because my hard drives were in the way but because the cables from the power supply to the mother and the SATA wires from the motherboard got in the way. I would suggest getting a full tower. A mid tower probably would not work.

Question 8

Can this card be overclocked?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it can go beyond the stock speeds it ships with. Gigabyte has an app called OC Guru II you can grab from their site. It alllows control over all sorts of settings (including fan profile) and monitoring of voltages, temps and speeds.

My GPU clock is currently OC'd to a base 1080/1132 MHz and runs at a "cool" 70-72C under load.

Question 9

If you could get your money back after buying this card and get a different one, would you? and if so which card? and why? (ie: GTX 780 ti? R9 290? R9 290X? or maybe a different GTX 780?)

Accepted Answer

No. This is the best version of the 780 to date, and the Ti, while having signifigant performance gains, is not something I'd buy. I avoid the bleeding edge market.

The overclocking software is both simple and fantastic, showing you real time stat changes. While I get lost with some of the ASUS ROG stats, the Gigabyte software is simple and 'seemingly' flawless.

As for AMD, I've had a terrible time with their drivers in the past. I know that with the consoles being AMD, we may see an upcoming shift in optimizations. But for a 2013 build, I wouldn't have it any other way.

i4770k + This = good enough for me.

Question 10

CAN I USE THIS CARD IN MY CORE 2DUE SYSTEM?

Accepted Answer

You probably could but you might have to worry about bottle necking the GPU. It may be feasible, however you may not get the maximum potential of the card. I could be wrong but that's my thought. Usually a lot of people have i5's to go along with the GPU.

Questions & Answers