Best of Both Worlds? EVGA Geforce Titan X with Hybrid Cooling
Published:
The Nvidia GTX Titan X is by
anyone’s definition a monster of a GPU solution. 3072 CUDA cores running
at 1Ghz couples with 12GB of 7 Gbps GDDR 5 makes for both eye-watering
performance and an eye-watering price.
The
Titan X has especially proved popular as a “poor man’s choice” compared
to the similarly specified Quadro M6000. The raw hardware horsepower
between the two cards is essentially the same, but of course the
consumer-oriented Titan X lacks the optimized professional drivers and
software support the Quadro cards enjoy. Those benefits come at a steep
price however, so professionals who don’t strictly need those features
have found a champion in the Titan X.
The Titan X is one of the most power hungry cards Nvidia makes, although
relative to previous generations Maxwell based GPUs are positively
frugal. Better cooling is therefore desirable in itself, but lifting the
thermal ceiling also reveals that the Maxwell chip at the Titan’s heart
has a bit more performance to give yet.
So it comes at no surprise that the hybrid liquid-cooled EVGA card
pushes the GPU clock a little bit. The standard clock is now set at 1152
Mhz, with boost clock speed now hitting 1241 Mhz. So that’s an
improvement of between 15% and 24%. In absolute terms for a chip that’s
already so powerful that’s a significant improvement.
Memory speeds are the same, which makes sense given the design of the
hybrid cooler. The GPU is cooled by a zero-maintenance closed loop
system, but the memory and PCB still use plain old air cooling. This is a
good move actually, since there’s no lack of memory performance and
creating a cooler that covers all of these components would be expensive
and fiddly. Especially since separate upgrade kits are available for
owners of air-cooled Titan X cards and a full liquid cooler would
complicate self-installs.
The hybrid versions of the Titan X carry about a $100 premium over the
stock card, but given the market segment, the convenience and the
welcome increase in GPU performance it may just be worth it on balance.
The
Titan X has especially proved popular as a “poor man’s choice” compared
to the similarly specified Quadro M6000. The raw hardware horsepower
between the two cards is essentially the same, but of course the
consumer-oriented Titan X lacks the optimized professional drivers and
software support the Quadro cards enjoy. Those benefits come at a steep
price however, so professionals who don’t strictly need those features
have found a champion in the Titan X.