Thin TiO2 films were grown on Si(001) and SiO2 substrates by reactive dc magnetron sputtering (dcMS) and high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) at temperatures ranging from 300 to 700 °C. Both dcMS and HiPIMS produce polycrystalline rutile TiO2 grains, embedded in an amorphous matrix, despite no postannealing taking place. HiPIMS results in significantly larger grains, approaching 50% of the film thickness at 700 °C. In addition, the surface roughness of HiPIMS-grown films is below 1 nm rms in the temperature range 300–500 °C which is an order of magnitude lower than that of dcMS-grown films. The results show that smooth, rutile TiO2 films can be obtained by HiPIMS at relatively low growth temperatures, without postannealing.