The GIGABYTE GTX780 Windforce x3 OC is a stunner of a card of that there can be no doubt. The smoked translucent fans with a glossy finish contrast well with the matt black steel shroud which features the Windforce moniker. Beneath the fans we can see a glimmer of copper heatpipe atop of twin aluminium heatsinks which bodes well for the cooling performance.


We love black PCBs here at Vortez and the GIGABYTE does not disappoint. We are glad they have chosen to stop using the blue PCBs of old as while black may seem a little duller than a coloured PCB, black is more appealing as it simply goes with the vast majority of colour schemes and themes.


From this angle we can see that GIGABYTE have improved things slightly from the GTX770 cooling design in that the fan cables are the correct side (the one we can’t see when installed). This makes for a much more appealing visual experience as the product looks so much neater without unsightly cables stretching across the length of the card.


The raised fans and heavily embossed shroud look excellent on a card of this stature. Measuring just short of 30cm at 292MM you will need a fair sized PC enclosure to house the card as it will overhang a standard ATX sized motherboard by 4cm.


The I/O area features DVI-I, DVI-D, DisplayPort and a HDMI port which is standard for the GTX780.


As this is a high end card you would expect full SLI capabilities and this is precisely what GIGABYTE give us with twin SLI tabs meaning this card can be linked up to as many other GPUs from the same family as your motherboard will allow.


The revision 2.0 card requires 2x8pin PCIe power cables rather than the standard 8+6 required for the both reference and Rev.1 cards. GIGABYTE recommend a 600W PSU which we think is about right, if somewhat a little overestimated in our opinion however you are unlikely to get twin 8pin power connectors on a PSU below the 600w recommendation anyway.