Nvidia's second consumer graphics card featuring the GK110 GPU became available at retailers today, marking the first release of the GeForce GTX 700 series of cards. The GTX 780 is nearly identical in appearance to the GTX Titan, which launched in February as part of the GTX 600 series, aside from half as many memory chips on its circuit board and different lettering on the shroud of the cooler.

The MSRP of the GeForce GTX 780 is 649 USD, 549 GBP, or 539 EUR, placing the card between the GTX 680 and the GTX 690 or GTX Titan in Nvidia's lineup in terms of price and performance. Compared to current offerings from competitor AMD, the GTX 780 falls between the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and the dual-GPU HD 7990.

While the GTX 780 can be had for hundreds of dollars less than the Titan, the performance of the cut-down GK110 card is comparable to that of the higher-end product. The Titan will remain as a premium product with twice as the video memory, greater memory bandwidth, more shading units, and one more SMX unit while the GTX 780 will appeal to those who seek more value for their money. As a result, those who purchased the Titan may not be as enthused by this release as owners of previous-generation cards looking for a significant upgrade.