Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 & GTX 970 Review: First High-End Maxwell GPUs Arrive

All I said was I would like to see some new stuff thats all, I wasn't talking about it...

Makes me wonder when we will see a 980Ti with all those extra stuff the 980 was missing it should bump it up by quite a bit in terms of performance.
 
The 980 can't even hit 60 FPS on Last Light @ 1600p? Maybe I don't want to see the 4K results.
 
This is efficiency at its best. Intel had done this with there I-series cpu and now nvidia. Looks like AMD is a few generations behind when it comes to efficiency - both in cpu and gpu. And the price is competitive. I have a 770 with titan cooler yet I think I would pass this year. Will do upgrade to gtx 980 next year for sure.
 
wastedkill said:
All I said was I would like to see some new stuff thats all, I wasn't talking about it...

Makes me wonder when we will see a 980Ti with all those extra stuff the 980 was missing it should bump it up by quite a bit in terms of performance................................................
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Probably never, The GTX 980 is already the full deal so unless they decide to release something like a GTX 980 boost that is out of the cards.

The GTX 980 may seem to be pricey, but again the GTX 970 is a King!!! At the price of $330, its a killer deal and a pair of those seem to do rather well for even 4k on top of being great overclockers.
 
This reminds me of the 670 launch, when it was faster overall then a 7970 at 1080p by a hair and just as fast at 1600p for like the first 3 months/until AMD released more drivers later). Really wish they came out with a 4GB version at launch though, I'm stuck with my 2GB GK104 for now.

Stock benches are the most important benches and for the most part these GPU's are impressive, just not 4K impressive... users will need at least a pair of GPU's. Demanding games like Last Light and Crysis 3 might require 3 GPU's to clear 60FPS. You can always turn settings down.
 
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My goodness. They managed to get GTX 780 level performance with the GTX 970. In some games, it matches the GTX 780 Ti. It's the R9 290's kryptonite. AMD will have to lower their prices and it'll be interesting to see what they come up with to counter these new cards from NVIDIA.

I'm wondering if I should sell my 2x R9 280X and get a single GTX 970. I bought them for around $200 each and they're selling for $180-$200 on Kijiji. The performance of running two cards is great but they generate a lot of heat. And with my current gaming habits, the extra performance is wasted. I play a lot of Dota 2 and it isn't a demanding game so I only run one card with it.
 
My newegg account may have just taken a beating. There goes my purchase for the year.
 
Much better with the updated results. I'll probably get the GTX 970 in a few months when it's on sale around Black Friday and then migrate my GTX 770 down a system.
 
Just finished convincing my job that I need a 970 in my desktop at work - they're expediting the request now :)

Unfortunately I was too slow getting my personal 980s. After our review of the Gigabyte Gamer 980 showed up last night I decided on a pair of those... but by the time I got up to order it at 8:45 this morning it was already sold out. Guess I'll have to wait for the next batch.
 
Suddenly burst into tears and get orgasm simultaneously at once when read the review.. nice review!
even with a pair of gtx 970s could be the best bang for the buck
 
Why no benchmarks in 1080p resolution? It is the most common and mainstream resolution these days... I don't care about higher resolutions or the whole 4k gaming fad, before new media standard comes to replace 1080p Blu-ray movies. Not to mention everyone is streaming gameplay in 1080p.
 
LNCPapa said:
Just finished convincing my job that I need a 970 in my desktop at work - they're expediting the request now :)
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That's great hustle!
LNCPapa said:
Unfortunately I was too slow getting my personal 980s. After our review of the Gigabyte Gamer 980 showed up last night I decided on a pair of those... but by the time I got up to order it at 8:45 this morning it was already sold out. Guess I'll have to wait for the next batch.
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Scuttlebutt is that the GM 200 (384-bit, 3000+ cores) version of Maxwell could show up before Christmas....
 
AMD needs to drop their prices NOW! The 970 is $120 cheaper than the cheapest 290X here in Ontario (Canada Computers). There is NO reason to buy a 290 series card right now at their current prices.

Well done nVIDIA, well done.
 
Guest said:
Why no benchmarks in 1080p resolution? It is the most common and mainstream resolution these days... I don't care about higher resolutions or the whole 4k gaming fad, before new media standard comes to replace 1080p Blu-ray movies. Not to mention everyone is streaming gameplay in 1080p.
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Put it this way, more power than anyone would need for 1080p. At this point any of the top end cards previous or current would play a 1080p game well over 60 with everything turned up which really does not show power anymore. Higher resolution put cards aimed at the peak end into perspective because I think anyone here would say buy something cheaper if all your doing is basic 1080p 60hz gaming.

LNCPapa said:
Just finished convincing my job that I need a 970 in my desktop at work - they're expediting the request now :)

Unfortunately I was too slow getting my personal 980s. After our review of the Gigabyte Gamer 980 showed up last night I decided on a pair of those... but by the time I got up to order it at 8:45 this morning it was already sold out. Guess I'll have to wait for the next batch.
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They are all out of stock around me as well, but you might still be able to pick up some reference ones somewhere though even those seem to be gone.
 
I'm concerned about the heavily watered down TDP that Nvidia is using. According to many reviews (including TechSpot's) these cards consume as much power as the GTX780 and R9 290 respectively under Furmark, and on most gaming scenarios the GTX980 which should be "sub 170w" consumes 20 or 30w more than AMD's just released R9 285 that is rated at 190w.

The efficiency is still awesome when you look at the numbers, but Nvidia is cheating on paper and you know this when they put 2x6-pin connectors on a "145w" card.
 
Guest said:
I'm concerned about the heavily watered down TDP that Nvidia is using.
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Charlie Demerjian alert!
Guest said:
According to many reviews (including TechSpot's) these cards consume as much power as the GTX780 and R9 290 respectively under Furmark
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Just as well people don't spend hours "playing" Furmark then isn't it.
Actual Furmark power consumption is ~190W - far short of the other cards you mentioned. Last time I checked, the R9 290 is marketed with a 275W TDP, not the 320W it racks up in Furmark. Likewise the GTX 780 nominally rated at 250W pulls 264W under Furmark.
power_maximum.gif
Guest said:
and on most gaming scenarios the GTX980 which should be "sub 170w" consumes 20 or 30w more than AMD's just released R9 285 that is rated at 190w.
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Not according to Scott Wasson at Tech Report (Crysis 3 workload)
power-load.gif

The efficiency is still awesome when you look at the numbers, but Nvidia is cheating on paper and you know this when they put 2x6-pin connectors on a "145w" card.
Click to expand...
Well, if they put a single 6-pin on it (150W total nominal) you'd likely have more wayyyyyyyyy people complaining about a lack of overclocking headroom and the restricted boost capability than praising Nvidia for their accuracy in TDP spec. Two 6-pins is good for 225W. and both have to be populated for the card to boot.
It's pretty common knowledge that high end SKUs tend to play fast-and-loose with their TDP ratings. It's also common knowledge that the target audience could care less otherwise they wouldn't buy AIB overclocked variants of the card with the same nominal TDP rating as the reference design. Want an example? Of course you do - you're concerned about this. MSI R9 290X Lightning....power consumption 250W ...actual: 293W gaming, 386W Furmark.

Well, it must be a pretty good launch when the most vociferous argument comes down to the card (more often than not running faster than base specification through employing the highest current draw it is able to in order to reach its max. boost) exceeding its stated wattage by 14 watts in stock configuration in a representative gaming environment.
 
Guest said:
I'm concerned about the heavily watered down TDP that Nvidia is using. According to many reviews (including TechSpot's) these cards consume as much power as the GTX780 and R9 290 respectively under Furmark, and on most gaming scenarios the GTX980 which should be "sub 170w" consumes 20 or 30w more than AMD's just released R9 285 that is rated at 190w.

The efficiency is still awesome when you look at the numbers, but Nvidia is cheating on paper and you know this when they put 2x6-pin connectors on a "145w" card.
Click to expand...

FYI we don't use FurMark for testing, just games.
 
Every Month some company makes something new . If this is slower than a 780ti for the same money why buy it? Nvidia is starting to get desperate and creating sh!t jus to say they have new stuff. I am going to stop upgrading as much there is no point in it anymore. Who designs new parts and they are not as powerful as the part it is replacing?
 
Frank Barnett said:
Every Month some company makes something new . If this is slower than a 780ti for the same money why buy it? Nvidia is starting to get desperate and creating sh!t jus to say they have new stuff. I am going to stop upgrading as much there is no point in it anymore. Who designs new parts and they are not as powerful as the part it is replacing?
Click to expand...

It is 16% faster than the GTX 780 Ti.
 
Steve said:
(Two hours later) Review updated! The original version of this review showed benchmarks based on an older version of Nvidia's driver that wasn't 100% optimized. Since then, all benchmarks have been redone and our conclusions have been updated to reflect those changes.
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Very very nice review Steve. thanks for taking my feedback about the coloring of the charts :). Best looking charts I have seen in a while.
 
JC713 said:
Very very nice review Steve. thanks for taking my feedback about the coloring of the charts :). Best looking charts I have seen in a while.
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Ohh good thanks, I wasn't aware I changed anything from previous reviews :)
 
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