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TekSpek GPU - Graphics
NVIDIA GTX TITAN Z Graphics Card

NVIDIA GTX TITAN Z Graphics Card


Date issued:

Not contempt for its fastest consumer graphics card to be the GeForce GTX Titan Black, Nvidia has today gone ahead and unleashed the GeForce GTX Titan Z. Forged from a pair of GTX Titan Black GPUs this single-card solution is Nvidia's most advanced graphics card to date.

When Nvidia first made its dual-GPU intentions known back in March 2014, it perhaps did not foresee that AMD would release a dual-GPU product of its own. The GTX Titan Z thus finds itself in competition with AMD's liquid-cooled Radeon R9 295X2 although they both target slightly different markets.

Specifications

GPU
Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z 12GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Black 6GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB
Launch date
May 2014
February 2014
November 2013
Architecture )
Kepler
Kepler
Kepler
Process (nm)
28
28
28
Transistors (mn)
14,200
7,100
7,100
Approx Die Size (mm²)
551 x 2
551
551
SMX Units
30
15
15
Processors
5,760
2,880
2,880
Texture Units
480
240
240
ROP Units
96
48
48
Peak GPU Clock/Boost (MHz)
876
980
928
Peak GFLOPS (SP)
10,091
5,645
5,345
Peak GFLOPS (DP)
3,363
1,881
223
Memory Clock (MHz)
7,000
7,000
7,000
Memory Bus (bits)
384 x 2
384
384
Max bandwidth (GB/s)
675
336.5
336.5
Power Connectors
8+8-pin
8+6-pin
8+6-pin
TDP (watts)
375
250
250
GFLOPS per watt
26.91
22.58
21.38

Sandwiching a pair of fully-equipped GTX Titan Black GPUs onto the same PCB results in a mammoth 5,760 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR5 memory, or 6GB per GPU. The memory retains its full 7GHz frequency but Nvidia has made some trade-offs with the GPU core clock in order to make air-cooling a possibility for the GTX Titan Z. A base frequency of 705MHz with an 876MHz boost clock means the GTX Titan Z isn't quite comparable to an SLI'd GeForce GTX Titan Black configuration.

At peak speed the GTX Titan Z carries 10TFLOPS of single-precision processing power with a combined memory bandwidth of 675GB/s. Such staggering numbers are among the highest seen on any single graphics card to date, making the GTX Titan Z a capable 4K workhorse, even if it's an expensive one.

The GTX Titan Z does go beyond gaming, too. Designed primarily for research, development and scientific communities the 12GB of frame-buffer is optimised for holding large datasets often required in those types of industries. The requirement for extreme precision in calculations, referred to as double-precision, sees Nvidia's GTX Titan Z leading the graphics field with over 3TFLOPS of capability. Suffice to say, in these sectors, accuracy and speed of calculation can save significant amounts of money.

New cooling

To accommodate two high-performance GPUs onto the same graphics card Nvidia's engineers devised an entirely new air-cooling system. A triple-slot footprint alludes to the complexity of the engineering inside. The GTX Titan Z deploys a similar style of aluminium shroud to other GTX 700-series graphics cards. A new addition is the custom-designed fan and triple-slot vented rear bracket for maximum heat dispersal directed to the outside of the chassis. Improved ducts into the enlarged vapour chambers and aluminium fins help deal with the additional heat of the second GPU, as well.

In order to more effectively scale performance between the two GPUs Nvidia has devised a system whereby power delivery can be imbalanced. More specifically, should one GPU require more power than the other, the GTX Titan Z can deliver that as necessary. This dynamic approach to load balancing allows the GTX Titan Z to adapt to the requirements of different applications.

Summary

The GeForce GTX Titan Z is easily the most advanced graphics card to come out of Nvidia's engineering department to date. Blending an elite formula of Nvidia's existing know-how in single-GPU technology and widespread professional software support, the Titan Z is nothing short of a supercomputer in its own right. If a single GTX Titan Z wasn't enough Nvidia also offer SLI scaling in up to three-way configurations, meaning six GPUs in total, for unmatched performance.

Scan Computers is proud to retail the largest selection of Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics cards in the UK. Please head on over to here to peruse our listings.