Since the release of the 20 series Graphics cards from Nvidia people were looking for the cheaper RTX 2060 Graphics card, but instead, Nvidia opted to release the Titan first. RTX 2060 is rumored to launch at the CES 2019, more details here.
As the name suggests the Titan series from Nvidia usually has the beefiest specifications in the consumer space. They are not as powerful as the Quadro series, but they have enough horsepower to blaze through anything owned by a consumer. So, without further ado, let’s get into the early review of Nvidia TITAN RTX Graphics card.
Design
First thing first, Titan Graphics card are only sold by Nvidia. If you have resources to buy one you can get one from Nvidia’s site or select stores. The design of the Titan RTX is mostly similar to the founder’s edition Graphics cards of this generation.
The outer shroud of the Graphics card is the card is built with machine ford dicast Aluminum with diamond edge cuts revealing every detail. The frame is specifically made lightweight for open and beautiful design. The color of the shroud is Gold which is the main difference between the Titan and the other RTX Founder’s edition Graphics cards.
The fans are also the same. Nvidia used the same 13mm dual design that keeps the GPU cool and overall acoustics of the card is also quiet.
Architecture
Like any other 20 series Graphics card from Nvidia, TITAN RTX is also powered by the Turing architecture. Turing architecture is based on TSMC’s 12nm process that shrinks the node better than the previous 16nm or 14nm process. There are not many advantages of the 12nm over the 14nm process, but the heat dissipation and efficiency of the processors are greatly enhanced by the process. The GPU used in the Titan is called TU 102 which is the same used to power the RTX 2080Ti.
The TU 102 present in the 2080Ti is locked while the Titan has the unlocked version. It means the blocked regions of the 2080Ti’s TU 102 are fully enabled in the Titan RTX. The die size of the GPU is 754 square millimeters and is loaded with 18.6 billion transistors. Though the number of transistors is the same, the addition of an extra cluster of SM units can change how the Graphics card perform in real life.
Specifications
Since it is the top consumer Graphics card, the specifications it has should justify the name, Titan. The processor has 6 Graphics processing clusters, and each cluster contains a raster engine and six Texture processing units (TPCs). A TPC contains a single Polymorph engine and 2 Streaming Multiprocessors (SM). At the SM level, there are 64 CUDA cores, eight tensor cores, and one RT core. Additionally, there are four extra SMs that are separated, and they have their own raster and polymorph engines.
Do the math and you will get 4,608 CUDA cores, 576 Tensor Cores and 72 RT cores. The clock speeds are also different; these are clocked at 1350MHz while the boost clock speed is 1770 MHz. The memory module they are using is now GDDR6 with the 384-bit interface instead of the traditional HBM2 memory. The memory is clocked at 7000 MHz while the data rate is now 14Gbps, the size of the memory is also titanic. It makes the overall memory bandwidth equal to 672 GB/s. It has a whopping 24GB of VRAM, the size of the VRAM explains the TITAN being a bridge between gaming GeForce and workstation Quadro series.
Such high numbers demand enough juice to power, and that is why the TDP of the TITAN RTX is 280 Watts. It requires two 8-pin connectors, and the recommended power supply should be above 650 Watts.
Performance
With such specifications, one can expect the Graphics card would do wonders in all games that you throw at it. No matter how heavy the task is, the Titan RTX should be able to breeze through it. This is what we will be checking right now. We already know that the ray tracing performance of the RTX 2080Ti is not good. Battlefield V is the only game that takes advantage of the DXR and the Ray Tracing, and 2080Ti barely handles the game with ray tracing on at 1440p. So the option to take the resolution up to 4k is out of proportion. On the other hand, the RTX 2070 is unable to get 60 FPS in 1080p when we turn on Ray Tracing.
So, the real test for the Titan RTX is going to be Raytracing. But let’s start the performance review by the benchmarks.
Benchmarks
Starting things off we have 3D Mark Fire Strike. The benchmark is not that taxing, but it pushes the CUDA cores to their maximum. In Fire Strike Ultra Titan RTX could only score 8,679 points which are roughly 700 points more than the 2080Ti. Those extra CUDA cores do help in single precision tasks as the score suggests. Next up wh have 3D Mark’s Time Spy, it pushes the cores and tests the performance of the VRAM too. Here Titan scored 6,938 points which were roughly 400 more than the 2080Ti. The reason for a smaller difference here is the same bandwidth of the GDDR6 memory used in both Graphics cards.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
With benchmarks out of the way, we can test games now. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is currently the most taxing game that we have ever tested. The dense open world and complicate design pushes the Graphics cards into their limits. 1080p and 1440p should be no problem for the Titan, 4k is what the things get interesting. The 2080Ti is unable to deliver a locked 60 FPS experience in the Shadow of Tomb Raider. The results are slightly better with the Titan, the average framerates playing at 4k ultra settings come out to be 61 which are just enough to cross the 60FPS mark.
Hitman
Hitman is another game that pushes the hardware to its limits. Though the game is a bit old, many Graphics card were not able to handle the intricate level design at higher resolutions. However, the game proved to be a piece of cake for the Titan RTX as it was able to output more than 100 FPS at 4k ultra settings. It is worth mentioning that Hitman favors AMD cards the most but here Nvidia’s greatest is handling the task quite easily.
Far Cry 5
The last game in our test bench is that does not have Raytracing is Ubisoft’s latest and greatest Far Cry 5. Though the game is running on the same old Dunia Engine, the huge map and the first person experience requires raw horsepower at 4k resolution. Titan handled this game easily too, at 4k ultra settings we were getting framerates easily around the 70s. But 70FPS was not enough to beat the RTX 2080Ti which was able to get an average framerate of 75. Strangely, After many runs, the average framerates remained the same.
Battlefield V
Lastly, we have the only Raytracing enabled title EA’s Battlefield V. The dice engine is not that taxing on the Graphics card as at 4k ultra settings with Raytracing off even RTX 2080Ti is able to output around 100 FPS. Same was the case with the Titan RTX. Things get interesting when we switch on DXR and Raytracing. At 1440p Titan RTX barely hit the 60FPS mark with average framerates ranging around 65 Frames per second. On the other hand, after the update, the RTX 2080Ti was able to score better than the Titan RTX. So, the Graphics card that is worth less than half of the price of the Titan RTX performs better.
Conclusion
The conclusion here is straightforward. Titan RTX is the Graphics card meant for enthusiasts only. People who always buy the Titan series will again buy the Graphics card. But if you have $2500 to spend on a Graphics card only and want absolute best, then I would suggest getting two RTX 2080Tis in SLI or NVLink. The performance that you will get by paying a hundred dollars less than the Titan RTX will be far greater.
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