During testing we quickly went from first liking to respecting this impressive piece of engineering. No matter what the game, be it an AMD or NVIDIA centric, the PNY GeForce GTX 780Ti XLR8 acquitted itself with aplomb. It may not be as powerful as a dual card SLI solution, but for a non-factory overclocked video card this 780Ti XLR8 is as powerful and as future proof as you will find this side of dual core monstrosities.
Equally impressive and arguably more important, is with the PNY GeForce GTX 780Ti XLR8 consumers really not need worry about if a game has been optimized for AMD or NIVIDIA cards. It is a well-known fact that both AMD and NVIDIA spend a lot of time and effort ‘one upping’ each other and influencing game developers to give their cards an advantage over the competition. This can lead to situations where PC gaming enthusiasts actually have to choose the card that is best optimized for their games instead of choosing the card they want. When a system is equipped with one of these 780Ti XLR8’s, such worries become less critical. Much like a gigantic wrecking ball the 780Ti XLR8 has the horsepower to simply muscle its way through any inefficiencies and lack of optimization an unscrupulous developer may have placed in its path. At higher resolutions you will still have to lower some of the post processing levels, but the amount of concessions you have to make is as low as you are likely to find this side of the $700 mark.
While we may liken it to a wrecking ball a more apt metaphor is to say that the PNY GeForce GTX 780Ti XLR8 is vide card equivalent of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde; however unlike that monster, this is the kind of ‘monster’ you would actually want to hang out with. During the day when you don’t need all that horsepower this card will stay as quiet and as well-mannered as any Victorian era gentleman, but at night when you want to get down and party the monster will come out and help you ravage the pixelated beasties with glee. Unfortunately, because PNY has used the stock the NVIDIA cooler a – and much like the hard partying Mister Hyde – this card can get somewhat loud and noticeable.
This noise profile combined with lack of even more overclocking headroom is the greatest weakness of this seven hundred dollar card. For this amount of money were hoping for a bit more headroom, but this is a problem all stock GTX 780TI’s suffer from. Helping to balance this out – and unlike most video cards – PNY offers a lifetime warranty on this wee beastie and that alone makes this card a solid choice in the flagship card marketplace. For its combination of amazing performance, decent if uninspiring noise profile, backed up by a great warranty there really is a lot to love about the PNY 780Ti XLR8 and very few things to dislike. As long as you can afford its asking price the PNY GeForce GTX 780Ti XLR8 would make a great addition to any hardcore, PC gaming enthusiast’s system.
