NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 6 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 6 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 6 GB: The Resurrection of a Legend in 2025

Revamped classic for budget PCs — is it worth the attention?


Introduction

In 2025, the graphics card market is experiencing a technological boom: ray tracing, neural network algorithms, and 8K gaming have become standard. However, NVIDIA decided to surprise users by re-releasing an updated version of the legendary GTX 780 Ti — now with 6 GB of memory. This model is positioned as a budget solution for those who do not need the "bells and whistles" of RTX, but value stability and an affordable price. Let’s see how relevant this GPU is today.


Architecture and Key Features

Kepler Architecture: Nostalgia with an Upgrade

The original GTX 780 Ti (2013) used the Kepler architecture (GK110 chip). In 2025, NVIDIA retained the foundation but made key changes:

- Manufacturing Process: Transition from 28 nm to 16 nm (similar to Pascal), reducing power consumption.

- Computational Units: 2880 CUDA cores (compared to 2304 in the original), with a frequency increased to 1200 MHz.

- No RT Cores: Ray tracing and DLSS are not supported — this is a purely "raster" GPU.

Features:

- Support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (without DXR).

- NVIDIA Adaptive VSync and GPU Boost 4.0 technologies to optimize FPS.


Memory: More is Not Always Better

GDDR6: Speed vs. Volume

- Memory Type: GDDR6 (instead of GDDR5 in the original).

- Size: 6 GB — sufficient for 2025 games at medium settings.

- Bandwidth: 384 bits, 448 GB/s (compared to 336 GB/s in the original).

Impact on Performance:

The increase in memory and bandwidth has reduced FPS drops in modern games with heavy textures (for example, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty). However, at 4K, a 6 GB buffer becomes a bottleneck — frame rates drop by 20-30% compared to 8 GB models.


Gaming Performance: Modest Ambitions

1080p: Comfortable Gaming

- Apex Legends: 90-110 FPS (high settings).

- Elden Ring: 55-65 FPS (medium settings).

- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6: 70-80 FPS (medium).

1440p: Compromises Required

- The same Apex Legends: 60-75 FPS (medium settings).

- Starfield: 40-50 FPS (low).

4K: Only for Undemanding Projects

- Fortnite: 45-55 FPS (low, without RT).

- CS2: 100-120 FPS (high).

Ray Tracing: Not available — for RTX effects, external software (like Reshade with pseudo-ray tracing) is needed, which consumes 15-20% of FPS.


Professional Tasks: Minimal Capabilities

CUDA: Support Exists, but Power is Modest

- Video Editing: In Premiere Pro, rendering a 1080p video takes 30% longer than on an RTX 3050.

- 3D Modeling: Blender Cycles shows 120 samples/min (compared to 450 on RTX 3060).

- Scientific Computing: Suitable for basic tasks on Python/CUDA, but for ML and neural networks, it’s better to choose cards with Tensor Cores.

Conclusion: This GPU is useful for students or enthusiasts, but professionals should consider the RTX 4000/5000 series.


Power Consumption and Thermal Management

TDP: 180 W — more modest than the original (250 W) but higher than modern analogs.

Recommendations:

- Cooling: 2-3 fans or liquid cooling. Under load, temperatures reach up to 75°C.

- Case: At least 2 expansion slots + good ventilation (for example, Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact).


Comparison with Competitors

NVIDIA RTX 3050 (8 GB):

- Pros: DLSS, RT cores, TDP 130 W.

- Cons: Price $250 (compared to $180 for GTX 780 Ti).

AMD Radeon RX 6600 (8 GB):

- Pros: FSR 3.0, better optimization for Vulkan.

- Cons: Drivers are less stable for professional tasks.

Conclusion: The GTX 780 Ti 6 GB only wins on price but loses in functionality.


Practical Tips

- Power Supply: At least 500 W (recommended Corsair CX550M).

- Compatibility: PCIe 4.0 x16 (backward compatible with 3.0).

- Drivers: Support is valid until 2026, but updates are released less frequently than for RTX.


Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Low price ($180-200).

- Sufficient for 1080p gaming.

- Reliable build (reference design from NVIDIA).

Cons:

- No support for RTX/DLSS/FSR 3.0.

- High power consumption.

- Limited professional applicability.


Final Conclusion: Who is the GTX 780 Ti 6 GB Suitable For?

This graphics card is a choice for:

1. Budget gamers who are willing to play on medium settings without expectations for ultra graphics.

2. Owners of old PCs looking for a temporary replacement for a broken GPU.

3. Enthusiasts nostalgic for the "golden era" of Kepler.

However, if you plan to upgrade in the next 2-3 years or need modern technologies, it’s better to pay extra for the RTX 3050 or RX 6600. The GTX 780 Ti 6 GB is a symbol of a passing era, not an investment in the future.

Basic

Label Name
NVIDIA
Platform
Desktop
Model Name
GeForce GTX 780 Ti 6 GB
Generation
GeForce 700
Base Clock
875MHz
Boost Clock
928MHz
Bus Interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
Transistors
7,080 million
TMUs
?
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.
240
Foundry
TSMC
Process Size
28 nm
Architecture
Kepler

Memory Specifications

Memory Size
6GB
Memory Type
GDDR5
Memory Bus
?
The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.
384bit
Memory Clock
1753MHz
Bandwidth
?
Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.
336.6 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate
?
Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.
55.68 GPixel/s
Texture Rate
?
Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.
222.7 GTexel/s
FP64 (double)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
222.7 GFLOPS
FP32 (float)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
5.452 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units
?
The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.
2880
L1 Cache
16 KB (per SMX)
L2 Cache
1536KB
TDP
250W
Vulkan Version
?
Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.
1.1
OpenCL Version
3.0
OpenGL
4.6
DirectX
12 (11_1)
CUDA
3.5
Power Connectors
1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Shader Model
5.1
ROPs
?
The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.
48
Suggested PSU
600W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)
Score
5.452 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS
5.796 +6.3%
5.154 -5.5%