EVGA at Computex: Prototype mechanical keyboard, a few GTX Titan Z designs

[Scorpus]

I stopped by EVGA's suite at Computex 2014, and the company had a few things on show that I found interesting. Pictured above is a prototype mechanical keyboard the company has been working on, featuring Cherry MX keyswitches and carbon fiber highlights.

The model they showed wasn't final, which was obvious from a few design oddities, but I liked the inclusion of a small screen above the keys to display in-game and system information. And it felt pretty good to type on despite being unfinished, as you'd expect from a mechanical keyboard.

EVGA was also showing off two Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z designs, one of which is their version with a water cooling block that you will be available to buy for a few hundred more than Nvidia's crazy $3,000 asking price. Another, seen below, is a custom air-cooled Titan Z that won't be available for purchase.

The reason why EVGA can't sell their air-cooled Titan Z is because Nvidia has tough restrictions on what OEMs can do with Titan products. The restrictions essentially prohibits the release of Titans with any modifications, including custom coolers, although Nvidia does allow some water cooled versions to be produced.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/57027-evga-at-computex-prototype-mechanical-keyboard-a-few-gtx-titan-z-designs.html

 

[Burty117]

In all seriousness though, who is actually going to buy a Titan Z when you can get 2 Titan Blacks for considerably less? I guess if your tight for space but that's a lot of money just to keep to a single slot design...

 

[VitalyT]

In all seriousness though, who is actually going to buy a Titan Z when you can get 2 Titan Blacks for considerably less? I guess if your tight for space but that's a lot of money just to keep to a single slot design...

And I don't understand how is it saving space with Titan Z in any way when it's official design takes up 3 slots because of its width, which is about the same as installing 2 Titan Blacks?

The only justification for this card is with games that do not support SLI well, but those aren't worth the price difference, to begin with.

 

[Burty117]

And I don't understand how is it saving space with Titan Z in any way when it's official design takes up 3 slots because of its width, which is about the same as installing 2 Titan Blacks?

The only justification for this card is with games that do not support SLI well, but those aren't worth the price difference, to begin with.

I was under the impression you still need SLI profiles for duel GPU cards?

You're right, 3 Slots isn't really space saving either, although some cases are tiny and support the 3 slot design, like the NCASE M1 for example, But still, this is a serious amount of money to put down for such a small case.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Who's going to get a titan black when you can get _______ for considerably less?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

In all seriousness though, who is actually going to buy a Titan Z when you can get 2 Titan Blacks for considerably less? I guess if your tight for space but that's a lot of money just to keep to a single slot design...

And I don't understand how is it saving space with Titan Z in any way when it's official design takes up 3 slots because of its width, which is about the same as installing 2 Titan Blacks?

The only justification for this card is with games that do not support SLI well, but those aren't worth the price difference, to begin with.

Isn't the... ahem "ZEE"... dual GPU? If it is, wouldn't it work as two cards would in SLI? If that's the case and games that aren't particularly SLI friendly, wouldn't you still have wasted $3K on a graphics card.
That said, who in their right mind would ever consider that card anyway at that price only to find it obsolete by lunchtime tomorrow?

 

[VitalyT]

Isn't the... ahem "ZEE"... dual GPU? If it is, wouldn't it work as two cards would in SLI?

No, not quite. For games with poor SLI support a single-slot card will be much better.

That said, who in their right mind would ever consider that card anyway at that price only to find it obsolete by lunchtime tomorrow?

Whoever got huge pockets, like I do, except mine are empty
I can see some videos on YouTube showing off 4-way SLI, that's 4 Titan-Z together. I don't know what kind of board it takes, but 12k for video cards is insane anyway you look at it...

 

[dividebyzero]

I can see some videos on YouTube showing off 4-way SLI, that's 4 Titan-Z together. I don't know what kind of board it takes, but 12k for video cards is insane anyway you look at it...

If it's SLI, then a maximum of four GPUs are supported - so, that would be four GTX Titan/Titan Black boards (Titan Z also only has a single SLI finger). Running four Titan Z's together wouldn't be a problem - excepting chassis and PSU limitations, but you'd be looking at an app that doesn't leverage SLI - Octane for example.

 

[RustyTech]

Their sales director was smoking the Magic Dragon when he came up with the $3,000 sales figure for the Titan Z...must have been some darn good stuff... :s

 

[Steve]

Isn't the... ahem "ZEE"... dual GPU? If it is, wouldn't it work as two cards would in SLI?

No, not quite. For games with poor SLI support a single-slot card will be much better.

Unless its a single graphics card that uses SLI which is the case with the Titan Z.

 

[Burty117]

No, not quite. For games with poor SLI support a single-slot card will be much better.

I don't like normally arguing but I'm pretty certain Titan Z being a duel GPU card would still require SLI profiles to work properly, therefore if a game wasn't SLI friendly you'd only get half the cards processing power or in other terms, a single GPU, which would be equal to a Titan Black.
I'm pretty certain this has been the case with all Duel GPU cards since they were invented.

I could be wrong but I'm 99.9% certain that's the case here. Which if I'm right, makes this card all the more pointless.

 

[Steve]

I don't like normally arguing but I'm pretty certain Titan Z being a duel GPU card would still require SLI profiles to work properly, therefore if a game wasn't SLI friendly you'd only get half the cards processing power or in other terms, a single GPU, which would be equal to a Titan Black.
I'm pretty certain this has been the case with all Duel GPU cards since they were invented.

I could be wrong but I'm 99.9% certain that's the case here. Which if I'm right, makes this card all the more pointless.

That is 100% correct. From a gamers perspective the Titan Z is a pair of GTX 780 Ti cards on a single PCB with at least a 20% reduction in clock frequency per core. SLI is required otherwise only one GPU will work. Amazingly Nvidia has managed to make the Titan Z even worse than the GTX 690 was in terms of value

 

[Burty117]

That is 100% correct. From a gamers perspective the Titan Z is a pair of GTX 780 Ti cards on a single PCB with at least a 20% reduction in clock frequency per core. SLI is required otherwise only one GPU will work. Amazingly Nvidia has managed to make the Titan Z even worse than the GTX 690 was in terms of value

In the UK this is the current prices:

780Ti - £480
Titan Black - £740
Titan Z - £2315

I literally do not understand how Nvidia think they will sell the Z for it's current price! Considering I can get 2 titan blacks fro much less money!

 

[cliffordcooley]

I literally do not understand how Nvidia think they will sell the Z for it's current price! Considering I can get 2 titan blacks fro much less money!

My question would be, is the Titan Z a better compute solution than 5 780Ti's? That is quite an expense just to compact all the compute power into only one card.

 

[Burty117]

My question would be, is the Titan Z a better compute solution than 5 780Ti's? That is quite an expense just to compact all the compute power into only one card.

Nope, 2 Titan Blacks are higher clocked so I would assume they would have more Compute power than a Titan Z, This is why I can't believe Nvidia is actually pricing it so badly. I hope no one buys it so they lower the price to something that at least makes sense, like around the £1600 mark.

For comparison:
2x Titan Blacks - £1480 (more powerful setup than a single Titan Z)
2x 780Ti - £960 (less powerful compute wise but for gaming, you'd be hard pushed to find a difference unless gaming in 4K resolutions).

1x Titan Z - £2315

Nvidia must be mad!

 

[DDG4005]

In all seriousness though, who is actually going to buy a Titan Z when you can get 2 Titan Blacks for considerably less? I guess if your tight for space but that's a lot of money just to keep to a single slot design...

Can Titan Blacks still be had? I haven't seen them for sale anywhere.

 

[Burty117]

Can Titan Blacks still be had? I haven't seen them for sale anywhere.

In the UK at least Blacks are plentiful, it's the normal Titan's you cannot find much of any more:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/6gb-...889mhz-boost-980mhz-cores-2880-dport-dvi-hdmi

 

[DKRON]

The titan Z's were designed originally as GPU's for supercomputers not for gaming, this is why they are slower then the 295x2 and more expensive because they are so much cheaper then any setup supercomputers use now, they are more in direct competition with AMD's firepower pro cards which are similar price. They just happened to be able to play games unlike the firepower or quadro cards but they can be used for the same purpose

 

[Steve]

The titan Z's were designed originally as GPU's for supercomputers not for gaming, this is why they are slower then the 295x2 and more expensive because they are so much cheaper then any setup supercomputers use now, they are more in direct competition with AMD's firepower pro cards which are similar price. They just happened to be able to play games unlike the firepower or quadro cards but they can be used for the same purpose

That's all true but it doesn't change the fact that the Titan Black was $1000 and the Z is $3000.

 

[DKRON]

That's all true but it doesn't change the fact that the Titan Black was $1000 and the Z is $3000.

know one complains about Quadro or Firepower cards being expensive?
Also kinda off topic while I have your attention, is anyone going to do a review of a 3440X1440 UltraWide QHD display sometime? Would love to see the difference between that and 4k performance wise

 

[Steve]

know one complains about Quadro or Firepower cards being expensive?

Well I am sure they do but that is a poor example that doesn't apply here. If you could get Quadro or Firepower performance for half the price using X card then maybe this example applies but for now it doesn't.

Also kinda off topic while I have your attention, is anyone going to do a review of a 3440X1440 UltraWide QHD display sometime? Would love to see the difference between that and 4k performance wise

Not from me.