GTX780 or GTX TITAN? We wondered the same as the cooler is near identical to the flagship card save for the GTX780 instead of TITAN moniker at the end of the card. This is no bad thing though because we loved the TITAN cooler so our feelings are mirroed with the GTX780 aesthetics being the best looking reference cooler to date. We don't know at present whether board partners will be utilising their own cooling designs however, we would advise against it as the reference design is more than sufficient both in terms of looks and performance.


Sadly, the back of the card also mirrors the TITAN in that there is no backplate protection. While this isn't uncommon with the majority of today's GPU's, we do like high end cards to have that 'little extra', especially given the cost. The black PCB is attractive enough but we prefer a matt finish over glossy. A minor point for sure and certainly a matter of personal preference.


The shroud appears to be aluminium and given the weight of the card you would be forgiven for thinking so however it is actually plastic. The cooler is a 3 part design with an acrylic window, plastic shroud attached via Allen screws to an aluminium mid plate. The window is a neat addition as it allows the users to see how dirty the aluminium finned cooling array beneath is getting after a period of time and thus when it requires cleaning.


Like the GTX Titan, the side of the card will illuminate in bright green 'GeForce GTX' when powered. We do like this little feature of the card however, it would also be good to be able to turn off the illumination as green may not be to everyone's PC case colour scheme.


Measuring 267x100x39mm, the GTX 780 is half an inch longer than a GTX680, matching the GTX TITAN in length while a little smaller than an AMD HD7970.