[PCPER] The NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z Review

[PcZac]

Somehow any product expensive product is a joke and a failed product if there's cheaper alternatives? I guess professional cards like firepro and quadro are a joke, and so are Xeon processors, high end displays, and luxury watches, phones, and cars. Man, that's a lot of failed products.

 

[Relayer]

PCB components dump plenty of heat into the case, as those thermal images show. A lot of that PCB heat is GPU heat radiating from the side of the CPU not in-contact with a heatsink.

Again, more rationalizing on your part with zero evidence to back it. It doesn't even make any sense. The entire GPU, front and back, will be a similar temp. It's not that large that the back of the chip will be an appreciably different temp from the front. If it was the chip would overheat as the transistors all need to be cooled. Remember heat travels to cold. That's just physics. So, the heat from the back of the chip will be drawn to the front and to the block too.

 

[trungracingdev]

Somehow any product expensive product is a joke and a failed product if there's cheaper alternatives? I guess professional cards like firepro and quadro are a joke, and so are Xeon processors, high end displays, and luxury watches, phones, and cars. Man, that's a lot of failed products.

Think of it like this. You have a Camry and a Accord which are similar. Now if the Camry was $25,000 and the Accord was $50,000. The Accord is looking very bad now isn't it?

 

[RamonGTP]

Somehow any product expensive product is a joke and a failed product if there's cheaper alternatives? I guess professional cards like firepro and quadro are a joke, and so are Xeon processors, high end displays, and luxury watches, phones, and cars. Man, that's a lot of failed products.

No, not any expensive product. Just expensive products that fall behind in nearly every metric while costing twice as much as a competing product.

Try and keep up.

If I can get a 32" 4K display from HP for $2000 and a 32" 4K display from Dell has a worse color gamut, narrower viewing angles and costs $4000, the Dell product is a joke.

 

[PRIME1]

If I can get a 32" 4K display from HP for $2000 and a 32" 4K display from Dell has a worse color gamut, narrower viewing angles and costs $4000, the Dell product is a joke.

Of course the HP display needs a 220 outlet, doesn't work with the color blue and needs to be hooked up to the faucet to cool it.

 

[mjygvfesz]

small performance gain but people will still buy them

 

[RamonGTP]

READ MY POSTS. I never said the Titan Z (or the 780 Ti) would heat the case less than the 295X2, so that's a totally moot point.

Quote from post #315:
"Also, please note, I NEVER said a Titan Z would throw less heat into your case than the 295X2. I only said that the difference between the Titan Z and the 295 X2 (when looking at heat radiated into a case) wouldn't be as large as one might expect from looking at the two cards and their respective cooling solutions. This thermal image backs up that idea, as the 295X2 is throwing out plenty of heat there (in-spite of the AIO water cooler)."

If Titan Z wouldn't heat the case any less then the 295X2 by way of PCB radiation, then PCB heat generated between two effectively cancel each other out, which means the difference would be exactly what everyone here would expect because at that point, the difference is where the hot air is largely getting exhausted. I underline the word difference because you don't seem to have a grasp on the meaning of the word. I also suggest you take a logic class or 3, because you're clearly lacking it here.

Seems like we're all reading your posts just fine, you just haven't a clue as to the implications of what you're saying.

 

[Unknown-One]

Think of it like this. You have a Camry and a Accord which are similar. Now if the Camry was $25,000 and the Accord was $50,000. The Accord is looking very bad now isn't it?

The Accord's asking price is looking very bad in that scenario... but all else remained equal (the accord itself didn't change), so it shouldn't physically look any different than it always has.

Again, more rationalizing on your part with zero evidence to back it.

What do you mean, exactly? What was rationalized? What doesn't have evidence?

The GPU is soldered to the PCB, and the GPU generates A LOT of heat. It's exceedingly obvious that some of that heat will be transmitted to the PCB. Solder is a rather good thermal interface material, after all.

It doesn't even make any sense. The entire GPU, front and back, will be a similar temp.

...you just explained exactly why it makes sense. If the front and back of the GPU are the same temperature, and one side is in-contact with a heatsink while the other is in-contact with the PCB... then there's an obvious opportunity for heat to transfer to the PCB.

It's not that large that the back of the chip will be an appreciably different temp from the front.

Exactly my point! Both sides will be hot. That means there's a hot surface in-contact with PCB with solder as a thermal interface material.

Again, it's obvious that this will result in GPU heat getting into the PCB.

Remember heat travels to cold. That's just physics.

Right, and the PCB is cooler than the chip. That means some of the heat from the GPU will transfer to the PCB.

So, the heat from the back of the chip will be drawn to the front and to the block too.

The heat from the back of the chip will be drawn to ANY location that is a lower temperature than the chip, that includes both the heatsink and the PCB (which is a huge part of why the PCB around the GPU is exceedingly hot in those thermal images posted earlier).

If Titan Z wouldn't heat the case any less then the 295X2 by way of PCB radiation, then PCB heat generated between two effectively cancel each other out

How is the difference canceled out if one is still putting out more heat into the case than the other? That's the opposite of canceled-out.

All I'm saying is the difference is smaller than one might expect, not that there's no difference.

which means the difference would be exactly what everyone here would expect because at that point, the difference is where the hot air is largely getting exhausted.

Except more hot air is exhausted into the case by the R9290X than a visual inspection of its cooling system would immediately portray (thus making the difference between it and a Titan Z, in regard to heat-radiated-into-case, smaller).

I underline the word difference because you don't seem to have a grasp on the meaning of the word. I also suggest you take a logic class or 3, because you're clearly lacking it here.

I know exactly what the word difference means. What part of my usage confused you?

One card puts out more heat than the other, ergo, there's a difference in heat output. All I'm saying is that difference is smaller rather than larger. I can't really restate this any more simply for you.

Seems like we're all reading your posts just fine, you just haven't a clue as to the implications of what you're saying.

Nope, once again, you've clearly demonstrated you've failed to read.

I've understood the implications of what I've said perfectly. You simply failed to read, misunderstood what you read, and went on an off-base tangent...again.

 

[trungracingdev]

Lets end this thread. You don't need to continue debating about useless matters like pcb heat that no one cares about. In fact, ive never seen anyone mentioned pcb heat until this thread.

If you go back and re-read the whole thread, its your opinion versus everyone else. You have explained your opinion many times, there is no need to repeat it again and again and again.

No one is going to buy the Titan Z because of the price and that's it.

You can talk about all the positive aspects of the Titan Z but in the end, no one would buy one because of its insane asking price PERIOD!

 

[Unknown-One]

Lets end this thread. You don't need to continue debating about useless matters like pcb heat that no one cares about. In fact, ive never seen anyone mentioned pcb heat until this thread.

I'm surprised you've never seen it brought up before. It's an issue that's been making the rounds recently thanks to Arctic Cooling's new graphics card heatsink designs.

They include PCB cooling, mounted to the back-side of the PCB, with no direct contact with hot components like VRMs. Cooling the PCB has proven to be fairly effective for them.

If you go back and re-read the whole thread, its your opinion versus everyone else.

What opinion would that be? That the Titan Z is overpriced? I've said that from my first post in this thread. Not against anyone with the opinion that it's overpriced, because that's the same opinion I have of the current asking price of the Titan Z.

Only difference is people in here are calling the card itself a failure and/or a joke when there's still nothing wrong with the card itself, only the asking price to get your hands on the card.

No one is going to buy the Titan Z because of the price and that's it.

Uh, ok? Did YOU read the thread? Because I never disagreed with that point.

Again, I've been pointing to the the price being a joke from my very first post in this thread... so what exactly are you on about?

You can talk about all the positive aspects of the Titan Z but in the end, no one would buy one because of its insane asking price PERIOD!

Again, what's your point? Never said anyone was going to buy it for the current asking price.

This really just goes right along with what I've been saying from the start: that the asking price is a problem.

 

[pcjunkie]

I think 7 days of theoretical back and forth with nobody changing anybody's mind is enough....amiright?

 

[PcZac]

Simple question.
If you want the most power single card GPU that doesn't use liquid cooling, what card is it?

 

[Crosshairs]

I suggest the both of you knock it off....put each other on ignore or whatever it takes but this public fighting stops now

 

[wand3r3r]

Simple question.
If you want the most power single card GPU that doesn't use liquid cooling, what card is it?

The PowerColor Devil 13 AMD Radeon R9 290 X2.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-173-PC

 

[Unknown-One]

The PowerColor Devil 13 AMD Radeon R9 290 X2.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-173-PC

Well, I guess that works, but it needed an even larger heatsink than the Titan Z (taller and longer) with three fans?

Also, why did they use that fin orientation? The vented back-panel is almost totally useless (there's a heatsink fin running parallel to it, walling-off air from exiting through the rear vent). With that setup, all the heat from the card blows towards your side-panel and towards your motherboard... Not great. If you were already worried about the heat from a Titan Z in your case, that version of the 295X2 is a decidedly worse cooling scenario.

Surprised they didn't run the fins parallel to the slot and stick one 92mm or two 80mm fans on the tail-end of the card. The card would be about 25mm longer thanks to the thickness of the fan(s), but it would then be jettisoning almost all of its heat directly out the back of the case.

 

[PcZac]

It's a pre-order, not out yet.

 

[RamonGTP]

Well, I guess that works, but it needed an even larger heatsink than the Titan Z (taller and longer) with three fans?

Good, hopefully it will maintain boost clocks better than Titan Z. It certainly doesn't appear to be lacking in the power delivery department.

But yes, if I wanted "the most power single card GPU that doesn't use liquid cooling" it would be this one. Pre-order or otherwise.

 

[Brackle]

Good, hopefully it will maintain boost clocks better than Titan Z. It certainly doesn't appear to be lacking in the power delivery department.

But yes, if I wanted "the most power single card GPU that doesn't use liquid cooling" it would be this one. Pre-order or otherwise.

That last sentence just makes no sense at all LOL. It's like who want a noisy air cooler card over a quiet WC card (with the right fans).

It's like today when I met this guy on craigslist to do a trade for a 7990. He refered to Nvidia and vida, and Evga as vega.

Then proceeds to tell me that you cannot use an AMD card in an intel system because they don't like each other.

Luckily the 7990 I got was top notch and very cool to be shockingly honest. But yea some people are just idiots, and today made me realize you cant fix stupid.

 

[jbltecnicspro]

I've heard people say "Ne-vidia" when saying Nvidia.

 

[DejaWiz]

I've heard people say "Ne-vidia" when saying Nvidia.

Same. And after they just released this joke of a GPU, maybe people will wise up and start calling them NO-vidia.

 

[Unknown-One]

Same. And after they just released this joke of a GPU, maybe people will wise up and start calling them NO-vidia.

Seriously, what is this comment even supposed mean? How is the GK110 a joke, exactly?

Tapped out in 2011, and it's still being used in flagship products (and still providing better performance-per-watt than their competitors). That's a GPU with some serious legs, hardly a joke.

 

[Brackle]

Seriously, what is this comment even supposed mean? How is the GK110 a joke, exactly?

Tapped out in 2011, and it's still being used in flagship products. That's a GPU with some serious legs, hardly a joke.

The chip itself isnt a joke, its that the Titan Z is a joke.

 

[Unknown-One]

The chip itself isnt a joke, its the Titan Z is a joke.

You said GPU, though. The operative GPU here is the GK110.

If you meant the Titan Z, what makes the Titan Z a joke, exactly? Comparing against the 295X2 (reference card vs. reference card), the Titan Z is lower wattage, higher efficiency (better performance/watt ratio), has no water cooling requirement, has better case compatibility (due to shorter length and not needing a radiator), and all of that without being all-that-much slower.

Seems like some nice hardware (and note: that isn't to say that the 295X2 isn't also nice hardware. BOTH cards seem comparable, each with their own various plus and minus points).

 

[Brackle]

You said GPU, though. The operative GPU here is the GK110.

If you meant the Titan Z, what makes the Titan Z a joke, exactly?

/facepalm

It's because the PCB heats up the computer so bad that watercooling is useless. the only possible way to get proper cooling it to make a video card that is 2.5 slots and is air cooled. Watercooling is useless.

I think you mentioned this back on page 7? Or 13? Maybe it was 15....not sure but I mean you should you posted it.

 

[Unknown-One]

It's because the PCB heats up the computer so bad that watercooling is useless.

Huh? It was already shown in this thread that water cooling helps reduce (but not eliminate) PCB heat. It cools the GPU better so less heat migrates to the PCB in the first place. Hardly useless, but what's done with the PCB heat from there-on-out on the 295X2 is what I've been pointing towards as a sticking-point.

On a normal card with a blower cooler, the blower helps eliminate PCB heat from the case, as any heat picked up by the PCB cooling plate is sent out the rear vent along with the hot air from the primary GPU heatsink.
The air-cooling components mounted to the 295X2's PCB don't really direct airflow at all (so any heat soaked up by the PCB is dumped into the case). That's less than ideal.

the only possible way to get proper cooling it to make a video card that is 2.5 slots and is air cooled. Watercooling is useless.

How is water cooling useless?

I mean, sure it's not for everyone (I certainly don't want to deal with it), but it's a totally viable cooling solution if you have the room for it, and don't mind the pump noise, and don't subscribe to the potential reliability issues.

I think you mentioned this back on page 7? Or 13? Maybe it was 15....not sure but I mean you should you posted it.

Mentioned what? I never said water cooling was useless. My only point was that it's less-effective at getting heat out of your case than it might initially appear (again, that DOES NOT say that it isn't an effective cooling solution).

 

[RamonGTP]

A friend of mine had a pair of water cooled 8800GTX back in the day. It was more-effective at getting heat out of the case than I initially thought. Processor ran cooler, hard drives ran cooler and he was able to get away with running the case fans on low which made for an overall quieter setup.

 

[wankelguy13b]

Mentioned what? I never said water cooling was useless. My only point was that it's less-effective at getting heat out of your case than it might initially appear (again, that DOES NOT say that it isn't an effective cooling solution).

Who has a better solution? Is the TitanZ cooling solution better at effectively getting the heat out of the case than the 295X2?

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

Who has a better solution? Is the TitanZ cooling solution better at effectively getting the heat out of the case than the 295X2?

Pretty sure we can all agree that the 295x has a better cooling solution, and that in general, water cooling is more effective at removing heat from your case ( granted you don't pull air in over the rads)

 

[Activate: AMD]

Well, I guess that works, but it needed an even larger heatsink than the Titan Z (taller and longer) with three fans?

Also, why did they use that fin orientation? The vented back-panel is almost totally useless (there's a heatsink fin running parallel to it, walling-off air from exiting through the rear vent). With that setup, all the heat from the card blows towards your side-panel and towards your motherboard... Not great. If you were already worried about the heat from a Titan Z in your case, that version of the 295X2 is a decidedly worse cooling scenario.

Surprised they didn't run the fins parallel to the slot and stick one 92mm or two 80mm fans on the tail-end of the card. The card would be about 25mm longer thanks to the thickness of the fan(s), but it would then be jettisoning almost all of its heat directly out the back of the case.

Its like after 20 pages of you vs the world you're just looking for things to complain about. Ever seen a custom fan design before? Its the same fin orientation that almost all (ex: 1, 2, 3) custom cooling solutions use and the back panel vent is almost always useless. They do it to keep the fins perpendicular to the heat pipes, the notable exception seems to be Asus' design. It really doesn't matter though since the whole goal is to create an open-air cooler. If they wanted to make a blower there are better designs than what you're describing anyway, but then again, even nV doesn't use a blower for the Titan Z so i'm not really sure what your complaint is

 

[Unknown-One]

A friend of mine had a pair of water cooled 8800GTX back in the day. It was more-effective at getting heat out of the case than I initially thought. Processor ran cooler, hard drives ran cooler and he was able to get away with running the case fans on low which made for an overall quieter setup.

But it's not as good as it could have been, because heat-buildup in the PCB was then being left inside the case rather than evacuated.

Which is what I've been getting at this whole time. I NEVER said it wasn't effective, it's just not as effective as it could be (which means the gap between it an normal air cooling isn't as large as it could be).

Who has a better solution?

That will depend entierly upon individual requirements. "Better" could simply mean the one that actually fits inside your case.

Is the TitanZ cooling solution better at effectively getting the heat out of the case than the 295X2?

That's going to depend a lot on your case.

Any case where you're forced to mount the 295X2's radiator blowing into the case will also result in 100% of the 295 X2's heat entering the case, where as the Titan Z always evacuates about 50% of its heat. So that's something to consider if you have limited mount-points for a radiator.

And if you start looking into Small Form Factor PC's... In theory, with a short case, a Titan Z could exhaust out the front and the back. Then it's as effective at getting heat outside of the case as any radiator, without all the additional complexity.

 

[Unknown-One]

Its like after 20 pages of you vs the world you're just looking for things to complain about. Ever seen a custom fan design before?

Yes I have, and they all tend to suck as far as heating up a case goes (when compared to traditional blower-style coolers).

Its the same fin orientation that almost all (ex: 1, 2, 3) custom cooling solutions use and the back panel vent is almost always useless.

Yup, and I avoid all of those like the plague

I had a particularly nasty run-in with the EVGA ACX cooler. Even after modding it, it was still never as effective as the Nvidia reference blower.

but then again, even nV doesn't use a blower for the Titan Z so i'm not really sure what your complaint is

Huh? What are you talking about? The Titan Z uses a dual-ended blower cooler. Air is pulled-in through the center and sent, parallel to the slot, through two fin-stacks.

It doesn't use a squirrel-cage fan, that's because airflow needs to go in two directions rather than just one.

 

[RamonGTP]

But it's not as good as it could have been, because heat-buildup in the PCB was then being left inside the case rather than evacuated.

Which is what I've been getting at this whole time. I NEVER said it wasn't effective, it's just not as effective as it could be (which means the gap between it an normal air cooling isn't as large as it could be).

You very specifically said less-effective than it might initially appear, and it wasn't any less effective than it appeared. It was more effective.

As far as it not being as "good as it could have been" you can take that and apply it to anything that isn't perfect, which is quite literally, everything. So no, that isn't what you've been getting at unless this entire time, you've been meaning to tell us that you're the master of the obvious.

 

[Unknown-One]

You very specifically said less-effective than it might initially appear, and it wasn't any less effective than it appeared. It was more effective.

Huh? Not sure what you mean. It's decidedly less effective than it appears because, as you yourself have mentioned, you hadn't heard of PCB heat being a problem before this thread.

There's a heat source that a normal blower cooler exhausts from the case, that the 295X2's cooler doesn't exhaust from the case, that you hadn't considered. Pretty clear that it was less effective than it initially appeared.

As far as it not being as "good as it could have been" you can take that and apply it to anything that isn't perfect, which is quite literally, everything

Great, so you don't disagree on-principal. I'll go ahead and apply it now.

A hybrid cooler that included a blower for the on-card components would have solved this particular complaint, and given the 295X2's cooling solution an even larger advantage if keeping heat outside of your case is a primary concern.

 

[RamonGTP]

Huh? Not sure what you mean.

That's expected

A hybrid cooler that included a blower for the on-card components would have solved this complaint.

Still wouldn't be as good as it could be. If it's possible to even cool it down by an extra .5 degrees or .001 db quieter it would be better, so by strict definition, nothing is as good as it could be.

Not that it matters either way, because that isn't what you said until a couple posts ago when you claimed you've been saying it all along.

And don't worry, I already know you're not sure what I mean.

 

[Unknown-One]

Still wouldn't be as good as it could be. If it's possible to even cool it down by an extra .5 degrees or .001 db quieter it would be better, so by strict definition, nothing is as good as it could be.

Your point being what, exactly? I never said it couldn't be even better than what I suggested.

Simply pointing out the simple fact that the difference between the two isn't as big as is immediately apparent, and I then suggested a simple change that would have removed a detrimental aspect of the 295X2's cooler on the basis that it could obviously be better than it is now.

A hybrid cooler that included a blower for the on-card components would have solved this complaint.

Not that it matters either way, because that isn't what you said until a couple posts ago when you claimed you've bee saying it all along.

What isn't what I said a couple posts ago?
What isn't what I claimed I've been saying all along?

No way to know what you're referring to here. And honestly, this is just leading towards a thread-lock at this point.

 

[Activate: AMD]

Yes I have, and they all tend to suck as far as heating up a case goes (when compared to traditional blower-style coolers).

Yes, its a trade off. Personally I'd rather have more big slow fans than a few small fast ones. If exhausting the heat out the back means a single fast fan to blow it through the hsf stack its just not worth it when I can have 5 120mm fans running at half the noise level pulling the air through my case.

Huh? What are you talking about? The Titan Z uses a dual-ended blower cooler. Air is pulled-in through the center and sent, parallel to the slot, through two fin-stacks.

It doesn't use a squirrel-cage fan, that's because airflow needs to go in two directions rather than just one.

eh, I tend to define "blowers" as coolers that exclusively exhaust to the exterior, but I guess thats just semantics. Do you define this card as being cooled by a blower? The fins are in the same orientation so some airflow will be channeled out the back... Either way the point is that the Titan Z is also a compromised card from the sense of heat dump into the case since half the air flows out the back,

 

[Deacon_Jones1988]

Been waiting for this review

Stay [H]

 

[maboblivion]

The obvious answer, is that if air cooling isn't good enough and water either..., to dunk the whole system inside oil (minus the PSU) and profit off the fried goods you'll make. Card will be paid off in no time. Bitcoin Frying

 

[Unknown-One]

Yes, its a trade off. Personally I'd rather have more big slow fans than a few small fast ones. If exhausting the heat out the back means a single fast fan to blow it through the hsf stack its just not worth it when I can have 5 120mm fans running at half the noise level pulling the air through my case.

That's the thing, though. I've consistently found that having a blower cooler keeps the system cooler, and simultaneously quieter, than running an open-air cooler (which then requires support from case fans).

With the blower cooler on my GTX 780, the whole case stays cooler, the case fans pretty much never have to spin above idle (600 RPM) no matter how much load I place on the CPU + GPU, and I only have to worry about my noise-canceling material covering the range of one GPU fan. The cooler case temperatures also means the blower cooler is feeding off of cool case air rather than its own heated exhaust air (so temps actually look pretty darn nice).

With the ACX cooler, I had an immediate oven-like scenario. Case fans had to be set to ramp-up in response to GPU temperature, otherwise the ACX would just recycle its own air and overheat. The additional hot air also made my CPU temps worse (requiring additional fan speed). And now I had to worry about noise-canceling the output of 5 fans instead of just one... which is pretty much impossible (no sane quantity of noise canceling foam has enough range for that).

All told, the ACX cooler made everything in my machine (except the GPU core) run hotter. The support it required (from case fans) also made the entire box louder under load. Net-loss.

Edit: Honestly, the only aftermarket solution that really interests me at all is this one from Corsair (since it doesn't delete the stock blower): http://www.anandtech.com/show/8105/corsair-presents-the-hydro-series-hg10-liquid-gpu-cooling-bracket
Looks like it would be easy enough to mod the stock shroud to enclose the top again, which would give you a solution with water cooling on the core + a blower pushing PCB / VRM / RAM heat out the back still. Only problem is finding an AIO water cooler that's actually quiet.

eh, I tend to define "blowers" as coolers that exclusively exhaust to the exterior, but I guess thats just semantics. Do you define this card as being cooled by a blower? The fins are in the same orientation so some airflow will be channeled out the back...

Still looks like an open-air cooler, in spite of Asus' attempts to direct some of the airflow from one of the fans towards the PCIe vent.

One fan doesn't channel airflow anywhere, and the shroud isn't complete enough to really enforce channeled-airflow. Also, even if this were a blower design, the heatsink extends past the PCI bracket vents (the overhanging bit would blow into the case)

Either way the point is that the Titan Z is also a compromised card from the sense of heat dump into the case since half the air flows out the back

Well, as mentioned, not as big a problem for small form-factor builds. One small mod to an ITX case and the exhaust heat from the Titan Z would never enter the box. SFF is a problem-area for the 295X2 in-general, as most SFF cases will have trouble fitting a card as long as the 295X2 and/or mounting a radiator.

Different advantages to each card in different situations.

If the Titan Z were a sane price, I'd love to get my hands on one and mod an ncase M1 to handle it. Venting the front-panel (and maybe adding a small bit of ducting) should allow a Titan Z to live comfortably in there.

 

[Relayer]

But it's not as good as it could have been, because heat-buildup in the PCB was then being left inside the case rather than evacuated.

Which is what I've been getting at this whole time. I NEVER said it wasn't effective, it's just not as effective as it could be (which means the gap between it an normal air cooling isn't as large as it could be).


That will depend entierly upon individual requirements. "Better" could simply mean the one that actually fits inside your case.


That's going to depend a lot on your case.

Any case where you're forced to mount the 295X2's radiator blowing into the case will also result in 100% of the 295 X2's heat entering the case, where as the Titan Z always evacuates about 50% of its heat. So that's something to consider if you have limited mount-points for a radiator.

And if you start looking into Small Form Factor PC's... In theory, with a short case, a Titan Z could exhaust out the front and the back. Then it's as effective at getting heat outside of the case as any radiator, without all the additional complexity.

So you think if the 295x2 @$1500 won't fit in my $49 case I should buy a $3000 GPU instead? /sarc

When we are talking this level of hardware, I don't think a case that will hold the 295x2 is a real big concern for 95% of the perspective buyers.