PNY GTX 780 XLR8 OC

Introduction Introduction With the release of the GeForce GTX 780Ti series it seems like 'standard' GeForce GTX 780's have seen their day in the sun and it's all bingo parlours and shuffleboard for the one time king of the video card realm. Quite literally the idea of a comparably fast and powerful GTX 780 would seemingly be a contradiction in terms as they still have 25% fewer enabled Cuda Cores and rely upon slower GDDR5 memory. Well PNY would like to have a word with you as that is exactly what they have demanded from their engineering department. With over 21 years of experience in the industry the engineers over at PNY were more than up to the task and took it with a zeal usually reserved for 'flagship' status cards. To accomplish this task they have torn down their stock 780 XLR8 reference card and rebuilt it stronger, faster and better. Firstly they have given this card a massive factory overclock and boosted the base clock from 863Mhz all the way past the Gigahertz barrier to 1,006MHZ - which is higher than most GTX 780s boost clock rating. This in turn has pushed the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC's boost clock rating to 1,059MHz. Because a GPU is only as fast as the RAM it is attached to, PNY's cracker jacks also overclocked the GDDR5 RAM modules from an effective 6,000MHz to 6,208MHz. To put these factory overclock levels in perspective, most 'overclocked' GeForce GTX 780s top out at way less than this and the GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC is easily one of the highest factory overclocked GTX 780's you can find.

To guarantee these high level overclocks PNY have used only highly binned GK110 cores, and if history is any indication this overclock may in fact be conservative with a lot more left in each of these GK110 cores 'tank'. To ensure that these already overclocked GPU's are happy and will not die an early death PNY have also thrown out the very decent reference rear exhaust cooler and instead gone with a fully custom, three fan unit that promises to not only be more than capable of cooling the hotter running components but also be much more mild mannered while doing it. In a move we are sure that is going to cause more than one ripple in the marketplace PNY were not satisfied with only creating a 780 powerful enough that it can compete against the 780Ti's they have also gone one better and given their all new GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC a price that is much, >much more palatable to consumers. Instead of demanding $600 plus for this new lean mean machine, they have only increased the price by $50 over a reference GeForce GTX 780's MSRP of $499! Add in a lifetime warranty to go along with all that power and PNY may just be able to pull off what as unthinkable not that long ago: create an actual great value GTX 780.

Specifications and Features Specifications and Features

A Closer Look at the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC A Closer Look at the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC

Let's start with the 800lb guerrilla in the room: that is one down right massive shipping container. Compared to even a full sized ATX motherboard's container this box is big. To be precise this rather aggressive black and green box is approximately 400mm by 355mm by 75mm in size. Usually we stick a 45 hollow point in to help put things in perspective but this box is so big that the big old forty fives looks as small as a couple 22 shorts! So while we felt the need to include them out of custom it was not going to help put the size of this box in perspective.

To help put it in proper perspective we could have uses a 'banana for scale' but even that can be confusing so we used our old EDC of choice a Kit Carlson designed Canyon River Knife & Tool M16 SFG. When open and fully extended this knife is 8.25 inches from the tip of its tanto blade to the end of its carbon fibre clad butt, and it is dwarfed by this box. Needless to say finding room for storing this box will be a larger than normal issue, but at least it will be easy to find if you ever need it! On the positive side, all this extra real-estate has been put to good use as the back of the shipping container plenty of information to help make an informed decision down right easy. Though once again PNY has distained the use of a picture of the actual XLR8 OC and the front is denude of any such images. Considering a full sized picture would have easily fit we find it conspicuous by its absence.

Making this shipping container so large also has another benefit: it allows for excellent internal protection. Unlike most cards, the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC comes nestled in thick foam which can take a lot of damage before the card would even notice it.

Unfortunately, while this box is literally big enough to store two of the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC's inside, PNY have skimped out on the accessories. In grand total you get a single dual 6-pin to single 8-pin PCI-E adapter, a driver CD, and a digital to analog adapter. Overall we were expecting even more from this Enthusiast Edition card, but given the more value oriented nature it is somewhat understandable. On the positive side this is the exact same accessory bundle which ships with the much more expensive GeForce GTX 780Ti XLR8 we recently reviewed.

Like any GeForce GTX 780 the new PNY XLR8 OC uses a 7.1billion, 28nm based GK110 core which has 2,304 out of a possible 2,880 Cuda Cores enabled. Also like a stock GeForce GTX 780, the 780 XLR8 OC uses three gigabytes worth of GDDR5 memory attached to a 384-bit bus. This however is where the similarity ends between a reference GeForce 780 and this custom 780. As mentioned in the introduction, PNY has used highly binned GK110 cores and given these golden chips an extremely high factory overclock and even overclocked the memory so that instead of 288GB/s of bandwidth it now is rated for 298GB/s.

As with anything in life there is no free lunch and with such increased performance comes increased heat output. This means the, very decent for what it is, 'reference' NVIDIA cooler would not be good enough to cool the hotter running parts. Instead of that 'stock' cooler PNY uses on numerous of their other Enthusiast Edition cards, they have opted for a triple fan custom design. A design which is not only able to handle the increased heat loads with aplomb but do so while actually decreasing the noise profile of the 780 XLR8 OC compared to a reference 7 series video card.

This custom cooler is able to do all this because under its metal fascia lies three heatsinks equipped with a total of seven 6mm heatpipes. These heatpipes are able to handle massive amounts of heat before becoming overloaded. To then transfer the heat from the fin arrays to the air PNY have opted for a rather odd configuration of a single 90mm flanked by two 80mm fans in a down draft configuration. Working together these fans can move substantial amounts of air at relative low RPMs - which in turn keeps noise levels to a minium. As an added benefit they push all this air over the board's various components not directly attached to the heatsink, thus keeping them cool as well.

This custom cooler design is and of itself very impressive, but what we found more impressive still was the fact that PNY was able to keep this custom cooler to a two slot form factor. This will make SLI'ing a pair - or more - of these cards a lot easier on most motherboards and the added room will help keep cool air reaching the fans.

The only real negative to this custom cooler design is that it makes an already large video card even larger. PNY may have once again used a reference GeForce 780's PCB, but the heatsink and cowling do overhang the board. This stretches the length of this card from 10.5 inches to an approximate 11.8 inches. This would be more than tolerable, but a good quarter inch of this added length has been done solely for aesthetic reasons. We have zero issues with PNY needing more room so as to have more cooling fins in their cooling towers, but this is simply making a card longer than it needs be for the sake of looks. On the positive side it is a very striking looking card and its black and with gold racing stripes certainly would make an excellent centerpiece for any LAN party system.

Also on the positive side is PNY has been able to keep the power requirements within reason - 250 watts - and as such this factory overclocked XLR8 OC 780 only needs a single 6-pin and a single 8-pin PCIE power connectors.

Oddly enough, PNY has not only decided against using a backplate for the PCB but they have also not included a backplate for the heatsink. This is odd as this is not a light heatsink and a metal reinforcing bracket around the core itself would have not raised an eyebrow. We assume PNY felt the stock screws did not need reinforcing, but it certainly is less than optimal nonetheless.

On the positive side PNY have also not messed with NIVIDIA's reference output selection. In fact this rear two slot bracket is reference NVIDIA through and through. This means the same selection of two DVI connectors stacked above the other, a single full size HDMI, and a single DisplayPort connector. Also like any reference design the rear exhaust ports consist of one row of vents plus two additional vents below the row. While some hot air will escape via these vents they are not entirely needed as this cooler is meant to exhaust the lion's share of heat inside your case. As such we would recommend a good case with good internal air flow. Doing otherwise will negate a lot of the benefits associated with custom coolers and this high performance card will thermally throttle itself within a safe operating temperature range. Testing Methodology Testing Methodology To fully test the abilities of a given video card, we have used a blend of in-game benchmarks and custom recorded real world game benchmarking. For custom game play we have used FRAPS to record the minimum and average frame rates and to do so for a set period of time. All tests were run a minimum of four times and the scores are the average of all four runs. All games were patched to their latest version. The OS was a fresh clean install of Windows 7 with all latest hotfixes, patches and updates applied. All games were tested at the two of the most popular resolutions of 1080P (1920x1080) and then again at 1440P (2560x1440). This means each game’s tested was run a minimum of 8 times: 4 @ 1080P and 4 @1440P. Before testing Unigine’s Valley benchmark was run for 15 minutes to ‘warm up’ the video card. This was done to ensure that long term performance and not short term performance is being illustrated. The games used for testing were: Sleeping Dogs Metro: Last Light BioShock Infinite Crysis 3 Batman: Arkham Origins Tomb Raider Battliefield 4 Assassins Creed: Black Flag Call of Duty: Ghosts For stress testing we used Unigine’s Valley benchmark. For overclocking we used either the manufactures included software overclocking program or if necessary EVGA’s Precision X program. Drivers: GeForce 332.21 Main Test System Processor: Intel i7 4770K Memory: 16GB GSkill 2666 Trident X CL11 1.6v Motherboard: MSI MPower Max Z87 Cooling: Corsair H100i SSD: 1x Seagate 600 Pro 400GB, 2x Intel DC S3700 800GB SSDs. Power Supply: Corsair AX860i Monitor: Dell U2714H OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 Synthetic Game Benchmarks Synthetic Game Benchmarks In the Synthetic Gaming Benchmarks section we will show a number of benchmark comparisons of PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC and other comparable GPUs, using various benchmarks which come included with five popular modern PC games. This will illustrate how much performance the XX has to offer. To ensure that long term performance is and not short term performance is illustrated 15 minutes of Unigine’s Valley benchmark was run to ‘warm up’ the video card. Only then were any tests run on the now warm video card. Sleeping Dogs Gaming Benchmark Sleeping Dogs is an open world action-adventure video game developed by United Front Games in conjunction with Square Enix London Studios and published by Square Enix, released on August 2012. Sleeping Dogs has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are the Extreme display settings and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. World density is set to extreme, Vsync disabled, high-res textures are enabled, and shadow resolution, shadow filtering, screen space ambient occlusion, and quality motion blur are all set to high. Depending on the resolution you prefer for gaming you will see an approximate 16-18% increase in average performance compared to a pure vanilla GeForce GTX 780 and only lose about 3-4 percent compared to a full blown GeForce GTX 780Ti. While this is rather impressive this is on the average frame rate performance and averages only tell half the story. At the all-important minimum frame rate no single card will hit 30frames per second at 1440P unless you to turn the settings down from 'Extreme'; however by opting for this massively factory overclocked XLR8 OC you will be gaining nearly 4 frames per second over a reference 780 and only losing a about a half a frame per second compared to a 780Ti. That is awfully good performance and we doubt anyone would notice half a frame in real world gaming. At 1080P the differences between this 780 XLR8 OC and a reference 780Ti are a touch more pronounced; but once again a difference of less than 2FPS on the minimum performance results is not enough to justify the added $150 price premium. Metro: Last Light Gaming Benchmark Metro: Last Light Gaming Benchmark Metro: Last Light is a DX11 first-person shooter video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver released in May 2013. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features action-oriented gameplay. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play. Scene D6 was used and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are Very High for quality and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. DirectX 11 is used, texture filtering is set to AF 16X, motion blur is normal, SSA turned on and tessellation is set to high. The Metro LL results show a slightly wider gap between the 780Ti and this overclocked beast. With that being said a 4-6 percent increase in average performance is hardly worth the extra 150 dollars. On the other hand the additional $50 over a stock GTX 780 is money well spent. In return for this minor amount you get a 16-17 percent improvement with an approximate increase of 2 frames per second on minimum frame performance. To put that another way, by saving $150 you only give up one or two frames per second over a 780Ti on the minimums and about the same on average performance levels. Any way you slice it that is awfully good performance from a GTX 780 card. BioShock Infinite Gaming Benchmark BioShock Infinite Gaming Benchmark BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games, and published by 2K Games released in March 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are UltraDX11 (option 3) for quality and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1800. In BioShock Infinite we saw an 11-12 percent average performance increase with an additional four frames added to the minimum scores when compared to a reference GeForce GTX 780. Though what was really impressive was that this heavily overclocked 780 came within 1-2 percent of a reference 780Ti on average and offers only 1fps - at the most - on the minimums. That is what we call an overachieving 780! Tomb Raider Gaming Benchmark Tomb Raider Gaming Benchmark Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game published by Square Enix and released in March 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are Ultimate default settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 12560x1440 and 1920x1080. Tomb Raider is a tough game for NVidia cards when all the settings are maxed out. With that being said while the improvement over a stock 780 did drop to 11-12 percent this is still a double digit increase in performance for a single digit increase in cost. Even better is while you will give up low single digit average performance and about 1 frame per second on the minimums over what a stock 780Ti can do your wallet will be much happier with you as that amount of performance gain does not justify a greater than 27% increase in your video card budget! Batman Arkham Origins Gaming Benchmark Batman Arkham Origins Gaming Benchmark Batman: AO is an action-adventure video game published by Warner Bros and released in October 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 12560x1440 and 1920x1080. Anti-Aliasing is set to TXAA (high). Motion blur, Distortion, Lens Flare, Light Shafts, and Reflections set to On. Geometry, Dynamic Shadows, Depth of Field, and Ambient Occlusion all set to DX11 Enhanced. Once again the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC is swinging for the fences and is knocking them out of the park with the regularity of a metronome. Four to five frames per second minimum performance increase and only one or two less than what a reference 780Ti can do, what more could you ask for in a high end card that doesn’t cost a vertitable arm and a leg?! Battlefield 4 Gaming Benchmark Real World In-Game Benchmarks In the Real Gaming Benchmarks section we will show a number of timed real world game play results using FRAPS and four popular modern PC games. This will illustrate how much performance the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC has to offer and do so in a way which cannot be unduly skewed by driver ‘optimizations’ which have been included for the sole purpose of improving benchmark results. While not as common as it once was such optimizing is still not unheard of by either AMD or NVIDIA. Once again Unigine’s Valley benchmark was run for 15 minutes to ‘warm up’ the video card prior to testing. Battlefield 4 Gaming Benchmark Battlefield 4 is first person shooter video game, published by EA Digital Illusions CE and released in October 2013. Unlike most, this games does not include an in-game benchmark. This makes it perfect for more real world gaming tests. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded the first 90 seconds of the single player Tashgar level. An average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are Ultra pre-set for quality, with VSync disabled and a resolution of 12560x1440 and 1920x1080. At 1080P the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC came as close to tying the average performance of a 780Ti as we saw. At this level of performance the differences really are academic and we doubt anyone would notice a half frame per second reduction in performance. At 1440P the results were not quite as favourable, but a mere couple frames per second were all that separated the XLR8 OC from a reference 780Ti. Any way you look at it, that really is an impressive showing from this much more budget friendly card. Assassins Creed: Black Flag Gaming Benchmark Assassins Creed: Black Flag Gaming Benchmark Assassins Creed: BF is an historical action-adventure video game, published by published by Ubisoft and released in October 2013. Like Battlefield 4 this games does not include an in-game benchmark. This makes it perfect for more real world gaming testing. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded a custom run through Havana’s marketplace. An average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 12560x1440 and 1920x1080. Environment quality was set to very high, Anti-Aliasing was set to TXAA 4X, Ambient Occlusion set to HBAO+ (high), Shadow Quality set to ‘soft shadow’, Motion Blur and Volumetric Blur both set to On. Texture Quality, Reflection Quality, and God Rays all set to High. The more we used this card for gaming the more we loved it. Not only did it post amazingly close results to that of a reference 780Ti it also was noticeably less noisy while doing it. This card is not only an assassin of stock GTX780s and GTX Titans, but the 780Ti's of the gaming world need to watch their backs around this 'sandman'! Call of Duty: Ghosts Gaming Benchmark Call of Duty: Ghosts Gaming Benchmark Call of Duty: Ghosts is a first person shooter video game, published by Activision and released in October 2013. Since it does not include an in-game benchmark, it perfect for more real world gaming testing. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded 90 seconds of the single player ‘Ghost Stories' level, starting as soon as we resume control of Logan back on Earth. An average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 12560x1440 and 1920x1080. Image Quality, Textures Resolution, Normal Map Resolution, and Specular Map Resolution set to Extra. Screen Space Ambient Occlusion and Antistrophic Filtering set to High, Terrain Detail set to ON, and Anti-Aliasing was set to TXAA 4X. With Shadows, Distortion, Motion Blue and Depth of Field set to Yes. Obviously the slower GDDR5 ram speed and not fewer Cuda Cores is what holds this card back at higher resolutions. We say this as once again the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC is within in scratching distance of the extremely powerful 780Ti at 1080P but does fall back a step or two at higher resolutions. With that being said the difference at 1440P is only a frame or two per second in the difference and that minor amount is shocking considering the large increase in price the Ti's demand. Crysis 3 Gaming Benchmark Crysis 3 Gaming Benchmark Crysis 3 is a first person shooter video game, published by Electronic Arts and released in February 2013. While older than some of the others it is one of the most visually stunning games released to date and puts a lot of demands on the GPU. This makes it perfect for more real world gaming testing. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded 90 seconds of the single player ‘Post Human' level, starting as soon as soon as prophet is handed a Hammer II pistol by Psycho. An average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 12560x1440 and 1920x1080. Texture Quality, Game Effects, Objects, Particles, Post Processing, Shadows, Shading, Water, and System Specs all set to Very High. Motion Blurr was set to High and Lens Flare was set to On. Anti-Aliasing was set to MSAA 8X and Antistrophic Filtering was set to 16x. This is the only game test where the improvements over a stock 780 were in the single digits, but only at 1080P. The very fact that this only happened in one test at one resolution is remarkable to say the least and just underscores how powerful this card is. Of course this 'mere' 9.4% difference translates to 3-5 frames extra frames on the minimum side of things with and an extra 4-7fps on average. To us that is a large and noticeable performance boost to say the least! Temperature, Noise, and Power Analysis Video Card Temperature Results Temperature, Noise, and Power Analysis Video Card Temperature Results For all temperature testing the cards were used in an open test bed environment. Ambient temperature was kept at a constant 20°C (+/- 0.5°C) and if the ambient room temperatures rose above 21°C or dropped below 19°C at any time, all benchmarking was stopped until proper temperatures could normalized. For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Windows 7 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak temperature. For Load tests, we ran Unigine’s Valley benchmark for 20 minutes. Increased graphics performance, decreased temperatures and still only a two slot foot-print. What is not to love about this 3 fan beast?! Sound Level Test Results Sound Level Test Results While everyone "hears" noise differently there is one easy way to remove all subjectivness and easily compare different fans: use a sound level meter. This way you can easily compare the various fans noise envelopes without us colouring the results and see what fans fit within your personal comfort level. Of course, we will endeavour to try and explain the various results - which are taken at a 15 inch distance from the GPU’s fan(s) - to help you gain an even better understanding of how loud a cooler's stock fan is, but even if you discount our personal opinions, the fact remains numbers don't lie. For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Windows 7 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak dB. For Load tests, we ran Unigine’s Valley benchmark for 20 minutes and recorded the peak dB. We knew it was a silent running card but these results did even surprise us. Remember the Decibel scale is logarithmic and a reduction of approximately 3dB is a halving of perceived noise levels, so a reduction of 6.7dB is a massive decrease in noise. Simply amazing is the only way to classify these results and this triple fan solution is as close to silent as you are going to find attached to factory high performance video card. System Power Consumption System Power Consumption To obtain accurate results we have connected the system to a Power Angle power meter that has in turn been attached to a 1500watt UPS. This ensures only 120volt power is supplied to the PSU and removes an variances that could potential crop up because of brownouts and power spikes. In order to stress the video card we have once again used Unigine’s Valley benchmark and ran it for 20 minutes to determine peak system power consumption. For idle results we have let the system idle at the Windows 7 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak idle power consumption. Considering this card comes with such a massive factory overclock the increase in power consumption was expected; however considering the boost in performance those 43 watts of additional power give you, not many will consider it a hardship. Of course if you plan on SLI'ing two of these cards you will want to make sure your PSU can handle the extra wattage demands. Overclocking Overclocking To discover our PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC sample’s overclocking abilities we used EVGA’s Precision X software and began raising power and thermal thresholds to the maximum allowed and then increased the voltage by 38mVolts – also the maximum permitted. Then using Unigine’s Valley benchmark we began stability testing. After much effort we were able to boost performance to a base clock of 1,145MHz. This is an additional 139Mhz over the already impressive factory overclocking settings and an amazing 284Mhz over a reference GeForce GTX 780! This is 13.8% percent performance boost over the already factory overclocked base clock settings and a whopping 32.7 percent improvement over a stock GeForce GTX 780! Put another way, when overclocked this GK110 runs 30.9% faster than a GK110 found in a reference GeForce 780Ti - which will certainly help make up for the 25% fewer enabled Cuda Cores. On the memory side of the equation we were able to boost the memory to an effective 7490Mhz, which is a 20.7 percent improvement over the card’s default 6208Mhz - an insanely high 24.8% boost over a reference 780's 6000Mhz - and even a 490Mhz boost over a reference GeForce GTX 780Ti's memory! Color us impressed. With such massive improvements in overclocking it came as little surprise to see this GeForce 780 actually outcompete a reference GeForce 780Ti. Considering this bad boy goes for $150 less than a vanilla 780Ti that to us is the epitome of a great value. Performance Summary and TL;DR Performance Summary and TL;DR In an effort to make sorting through all the results as easy as possible we have combined the results all of all the game results into an easy to digest summary format. By comparing the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC to its similar products in all the games you will be able to easily find the game(s) you are interested in, see the improvement and decide if the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC is the worth the investment. TL;DR Not everyone is interested in long but well-reasoned conclusions. Many simply want it distilled down to its barest essentials. In as concise a manner as possible this is our findings on the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC : With its drop dead gorgeous looks, excellent factory overclock and great performance the PNY GeForce GTX 780 XLR8 OC is a monster of a video card that lives up to its ‘Enthusiast Edition’ branding. Better still, thanks to its custom three fan cooler you can not only push GK110 core even further but can do so while still having as quiet a video card as you could ask for this side of water cooling. The lifetime warranty is simply icing on the cake and helps make this video card all the more desirable. Score Card and Summary Score Card and Summary Packaging & Accessories: 8 out of 10. The only issues we have with this shipping container is its size. Simply put it is large enough to house two of these cards and finding room in your storage area for this box may cause problems. After all, you will want to keep this box if – heaven forbid- you have to RMA it and considering the warranty this means holding on to this box for a long time. On the accessory front, PNY should include more. An additional MOLEX to PCIE power adapter, case badge, something…. anything to help make the accessory list live up to the standards “Enthusiast Edition” connotes. Functionality & Aesthetics: 17 out of 20 With its black with yellow racing stripes the 780 XLR8 OC is one aggressive looking card; however it does have an air of elegance that is rare in this day of overly bombastic designs. While its appearance may not be to everyone’s liking the fact remains it is one of the more sophisticated examples of modern video card aesthetics. More to the point it would make a fine centerpiece for any high end custom PC build. Build Quality & Warranty: 19 out of 20 We have no problems with the extended nature of this design as the performance is there to back up the larger than usual footprint. However that the top fascia extends further than it has to and it has been done solely for aesthetics and that is hard to justify. On the positive side, and as long as you register it within one year of purchase, the PNY XLR8 OC comes with an unlimited warranty. That certainly goes a long way to alleviating such minor issues like extended footprints. Performance: 30 out of 30 With its excellent factory overclock and headroom for even more via manual overclocking the GTX 780 XLR8 OC provides nearly anything you could ask for in a high end video card. Better still this performance does not come at the expense of increased noise as its custom 3 fan cooler works and works well . For many consumers the video card will not be overly obtrusive even during extended gaming sessions and most case fans will be noiser. There simply is no where we could dock this card a point and is as close to perfect as you will see this side of Valhalla! Value: 19 out of 20 Considering this $550 GPU performs at nearly $700 GTX 780Ti level in ‘out of the box’ mode and can actually outperform those selfsame Ti cards with just a bit of effort, the value of this card is hard to beat. Of course it still is a $550 card so we have to deduct a point of its value for that. Final Score: 93 out of 100 Closing Statement Closing Statement In marketplace full of excellent video cards, the PNY GTX780 XLR8 OC stands proudly apart from the crowd. It may use the same 2304 CUDA core equipped GK110 found in the typical GTX 780, but this is not your typical GTX 780. Thanks to aggressive parts binning, a massive factory overclock and a custom 3 fan cooler design this GTX 780 is radically different than reference GeForce GTX 780s. The reason this video card is so special is because its design goals are radically different than the typical NVIDIA GTX 780. This video card has not been built to help you hunt virtual monsters; rather it is a monster which has been built to hunt other monsters and its prey of choice is the mighty GTX 780Ti. Compared to the more expensive GTX 780Ti, the XLR8 OC’s more reasonably priced of $549 makes deciding between the two down right easy for most consumers. Even though it costs $150 less throughout testing it consistently nipped at the heels of its more expensive 780Ti counterparts in stock settings. When manually overclocked, the 780 XLR8 OC was even able to outperform a typical GTX 780Ti without causing temperature or noise levels to get out of hand. Quite honestly the only GTX 780Ti that can fend off this beast would be custom 780Ti variants which have also been upgraded over a stock NVIDIA 780Ti. Considering these special 780Ti’s cost even more than the regular Ti’s the 780 XLR8 OC’s price to performance ratio is all the more enticing. When you consider that the XLR8 OC only demands a fifty dollar price premium over a stock NVIIDA GTX 780 choosing a stock GeForce GTX 780 no longer makes much sense. Much like Batman would not be as effective without his utility belt, the XLR8 OC would not be as fearsome a predator without its extremely impressive customer cooler. PNY's engineers really created something special with cooler as it not only keeps temperatures in check at the default factory overclocking levels, but begs for customers to push things even further. It is so effective that we doubt that the 780 XLR8 OC is even allowed to reach its fullest potential because of NVIDIA’s stubborn refusal to allow for higher voltages. In the end there is not much to dislike and a whole lot to like about the PNY GTX 780 XLR8 OC. As long as you can afford and can justify this level of performance the GTX 780 XLR8 OC deserves to be on your short list for further consideration. Overlooking it would be doing yourself a great disservice as it offers a lot of bang for your hard earned buck.