NVIDIA TITAN Xp

NVIDIA TITAN Xp

NVIDIA TITAN Xp in 2025: A Powerful Veteran Serving Professionals and Gamers

April 2025


Introduction

The NVIDIA TITAN Xp, released in 2017, remains a legend among enthusiasts and professionals. Despite its age, this card is still utilized in specific scenarios due to its architecture and memory capacity. By 2025, it no longer competes with the latest GPUs, but it continues to attract budget-conscious professional users and collectors. Let's explore who might still find the TITAN Xp useful today and for what purposes.


1. Architecture and Key Features

Pascal Architecture: A Legacy from 2017

The TITAN Xp is built on the Pascal architecture (16 nm), which set the foundation for a revolution in energy efficiency. Its GP102 core includes 3840 CUDA cores and 12 texture units. However, it lacks support for modern technologies such as RTX (ray tracing) and DLSS, which were introduced in Turing (2018) and Ampere (2020).

Unique Features for Its Time

In 2017, the TITAN Xp stood out with its support for FP16/Half Precision to accelerate computations, which was relevant for machine learning. However, today even budget Ampere cards (like the RTX 4060) outperform it in AI rendering capabilities.


2. Memory: GDDR5X and Bandwidth

12 GB GDDR5X: Is It Enough in 2025?

The TITAN Xp is equipped with 12 GB GDDR5X and a 384-bit bus with a bandwidth of 547.7 GB/s. In comparison, modern mid-range cards (like the RTX 4070) use GDDR6X with 504 GB/s but benefit from better memory and cache optimization.

Impact on Performance

In games with high-resolution textures (like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty), 12 GB is sufficient for 4K, but due to the low memory speed (11 Gbps), there can be delays. For professional tasks (like rendering in Blender), the memory size is still relevant, but its speed lags behind even budget RTX 4060 Ti (16 GB GDDR6).


3. Gaming Performance: Outdated, But Functional

Average FPS in Popular Titles (Ultra Settings):

- Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p): 45-50 FPS (without ray tracing);

- Hogwarts Legacy (1440p): 35-40 FPS;

- Counter-Strike 2 (4K): 90-100 FPS.

Resolution Support

- 1080p: Comfortable for most games from 2020-2023, but in the latest AAA titles (like Starfield), drops to 30 FPS are possible.

- 4K: Requires reducing settings to Medium-High.

Ray Tracing: No Support

The TITAN Xp does not have RT cores, so any ray tracing games (like Alan Wake 2) can only be run with software emulation, resulting in FPS reductions of 2-3 times.


4. Professional Tasks: Strengths

3D Rendering and CUDA

Thanks to its 3840 CUDA cores, the TITAN Xp still handles rendering in Blender or Autodesk Maya. For instance, the BMW Render scene in Blender Cycles takes 8.5 minutes (compared to 4 minutes on the RTX 4070).

Video Editing and Scientific Computing

In DaVinci Resolve, the card shows stability when handling 8K footage (without effects), but it falls behind newer GPUs in export speed. For scientific tasks (like MATLAB), its FP32 performance (12 TFLOPS) is comparable to the RTX 3060.


5. Power Consumption and Heat Generation

TDP of 250W: System Requirements

- Power Supply: Minimum of 600W with 8+6 pin connectors.

- Cooling: The reference NVIDIA cooler (blower) is noisy under load. A case with good ventilation (3-4 fans) or a water cooling replacement is recommended.

- Temperatures: Up to 84°C in stress tests, which is close to critical levels.


6. Comparison with Competitors

NVIDIA RTX 4070 (2023):

- Pros: DLSS 3, ray tracing, 5888 CUDA cores, TDP 200W.

- Cons: 12 GB GDDR6X (narrower bus).

- Price: $550 (new) versus $400-450 for a TITAN Xp (if you can find a new one).

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (2023):

- Pros: 12 GB GDDR6, support for FSR 3.0, energy efficiency.

- Cons: Weak CUDA stack for professional tasks.

Conclusion: The TITAN Xp falls short in gaming but maintains a niche for CUDA tasks where compatibility with older software is vital.


7. Practical Tips

Power Supply and Compatibility

- Choose a PSU with a margin (650-750W) and 80+ Gold certification.

- PCIe 3.0 x16 will not be a bottleneck, but the card will work fine on motherboards with PCIe 4.0/5.0.

Drivers and Support

- NVIDIA discontinued official support for the TITAN Xp in 2024. The latest drivers are version 545.xx (December 2023).

- For professional software (Adobe, Autodesk), use Studio Drivers 536.99.


8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- 12 GB of memory for rendering and editing.

- High FP32 performance.

- Affordable price on the secondary market ($250-300).

Cons:

- No support for RTX/DLSS.

- High power consumption.

- Outdated drivers.


9. Final Conclusion: Who Is the TITAN Xp For?

- Budget-Conscious Professionals: If you need to render on CUDA or work with legacy stations where compatibility is crucial.

- Enthusiast Collectors: For building retro-style PCs or upgrading older systems.

- Gamers: Only if you're playing titles from 2017-2020 or are willing to compromise on settings.

Alternatives: For $500-600, it’s better to consider newer RTX 4070 or RX 7700 XT – they offer modern technologies and warranty.


Conclusion

The NVIDIA TITAN Xp in 2025 is a prime example of a "workhorse" that can still deliver, but requires an understanding of its limitations. It's not for everyone, but for those who value proven reliability and specific capabilities, it remains a viable option.

Basic

Label Name
NVIDIA
Platform
Desktop
Launch Date
April 2017
Model Name
TITAN Xp
Generation
GeForce 10
Base Clock
1405MHz
Boost Clock
1582MHz
Bus Interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
Transistors
11,800 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
16 nm
Architecture
Pascal

Memory Specifications

Memory Size
12GB
Memory Type
GDDR5X
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
1426MHz
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.
547.6 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.
151.9 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.
379.7 GTexel/s
FP16 (half)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. 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.
189.8 GFLOPS
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.
379.7 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.
12.393 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

SM Count
?
Multiple Streaming Processors (SPs), along with other resources, form a Streaming Multiprocessor (SM), which is also referred to as a GPU's major core. These additional resources include components such as warp schedulers, registers, and shared memory. The SM can be considered the heart of the GPU, similar to a CPU core, with registers and shared memory being scarce resources within the SM.
30
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.
3840
L1 Cache
48 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache
3MB
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.
1.3
OpenCL Version
3.0
OpenGL
4.6
DirectX
12 (12_1)
CUDA
6.1
Power Connectors
1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Shader Model
6.4
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.
96
Suggested PSU
600W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)
Score
12.393 TFLOPS
3DMark Time Spy
Score
10356
Blender
Score
973
OctaneBench
Score
176
Vulkan
Score
85824
OpenCL
Score
63099

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS
12.536 +1.2%
12.393
11.946 -3.6%
11.373 -8.2%
3DMark Time Spy
20998 +102.8%
10356
8037 -22.4%
6131 -40.8%
Blender
1813.5 +86.4%
973
495 -49.1%
251 -74.2%
OctaneBench
1328 +654.5%
176
87 -50.6%
47 -73.3%
Vulkan
254749 +196.8%
132317 +54.2%
85824
59828 -30.3%
34493 -59.8%
OpenCL
126692 +100.8%
84945 +34.6%
63099
39179 -37.9%
21990 -65.2%