GeForce GTX 980M Performance Testing

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The crew at PC Perspective have posted a GeForce GTX 980M performance testing article today that is certainly worth reading. Here's a quote to get you started:

Just like the desktop models, GTX 980M and GTX 970M are built on the 28nm process technology and are tweaked and built for power efficiency - one of the reasons the mobile release of this product is so interesting. With a CUDA core count of 1536, the GTX 980M has 33% fewer shader cores than the desktop GTX 980, along with a slightly lower base clock speed. The result is a peak theoretical performance of 3.189 TFLOPs, compared to 4.6 TFLOPs on the GTX 980 desktop.
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Well that looks like the specs of the GTX960 desktop from the 970M stats. 1280 cores, 192-bit bus, and 3GB DDR5. Wonder why nothing on the GTX 960 yet though?
 
actually have an MSI ghost 44 on my desk right now i JUST unboxed. Sadly I had to fork over 1800 dollars for it... nobody gives me free stuff to play with :-p


Got the 970M chip in it, and going to give it a run through it's paced -- very excite!
 
collegeboy69us said:
actually have an MSI ghost 44 on my desk right now i JUST unboxed. Sadly I had to fork over 1800 dollars for it... nobody gives me free stuff to play with :-p


Got the 970M chip in it, and going to give it a run through it's paced -- very excite!
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Same here, how are you liking it?

I had an Alienware 14, but it was stolen, so I basically got this free from the insurance money we got for the break in.

I have to say I'm liking this way better; from the keyboard, power and form factor.
 
Yup -- this thing is THIN and super light.

Can't believe it packs almost as much of a punch as a single R9 290. I'm happy with the 1080p screen but part of me wishes I could have tried the 3K screen for a week to see if I like it.

I am surprised though, this puppy gets HOT on the bottom when you are plugged in and gaming, was playing some Borderlanlds presequel everything maxed (amazing looking) and it was almost too hot to touch on the bottom.
 
Im more impressed that the performance from 880 to 980 is almost double while everything prior to that was incremental at best. But my biggest question is how throttling by individual laptop makers will affect the performance.
 
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I'm curious where I can get the following in a new quality built Windows gaming laptop.

Specs:
High end i7 QC, SLI 980m's, 32GB RAM, 2560x1600 or higher res (16:10 aspect ratio is a must), 15" or larger, and can hold two or more SSD's
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I'm shit out of luck aren't I?:(
 
Soooo, anyone want to help me out with recommendations for the following requirements?

Purpose: Gaming/Desktop Replacement/Business - I like to game and would like a machine powerful enough to do so if I find time to. I've got a 13" Macbook air from mid-2009. I love how portable it is but trying to multitask or edit multiple documents on a screen that small with so few pixels is an exercise in frustration. I'm going to graduate law school in November and take the bar in February. For the essay portion of the bar, I will be using a computer to type my answers

Cost: As little as possible, as always.

Timeframe - Anywhere between a month and a half from now and the middle of January next year.

Considerations(Not necessarily in this order) -

1) Power, because everyone like power, right? As I said, I'd like to be able to reasonably game on it. I don't expect to be able to play the newest games at max settings a year and a half after I get it, but I'd like to be able to play things at reasonable settings.

2) Screen Real Estate/Quality - Will be used for multitasking, editing multiple documents, spreadsheets, etc. My current crappy work computer has a resolution of 1,600x900 and it's a pain in the ass to work on. I've got a Yamakasi korean 27" IPS panel at home, so that's the sort of size and pixel density I'm used to. I'd like a 17" screen, bu if that will kill the hell out of a battery or increase the cost of the laptop beyond what I can spend, then I'll go down to a 15". I can't deal with a really crappy quality screen.

3) Battery Life - I'm considering getting something reasonably powerful because of Nvidia's new chips and how they allow powerful graphics processing while giving decent battery life. I don't know that I'm going to be able to plug my laptop in at the bar exam, so I'll need it to go at least 3 hours at a stretch, but, as always, more is better.

4) Price - Like I said, lower is better. Max price would probably be around $1,500. Since the holiday deals are speculated to be on low end laptops, I'm not holding out that much hope of getting a screaming deal on something, but it'd be nice.

Do any of you guys know of anything coming up that would be the best bang for my buck given the above considerations?
 
Bismo Funyuns said:
980m performed better than GTX Titan on Passmark's benchmark ranking:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
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I am still surprised the performance of this card is twice as fast as the 880M. The 980M has the same number of shaders, 100mhz extra on the base clock and some minor updates to the architecture. All this should equate to more not than a 20% improvement. But what you see is 100%? To further support my skepticism I offer this:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+980M&id=2976

Only 2 samples reported this measurement. I am taking this with a grain of salt until there is a sizable sample or at least a review from a credible source.
 
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one swell foop said:
Soooo, anyone want to help me out with recommendations for the following requirements?

Purpose: Gaming/Desktop Replacement/Business - I like to game and would like a machine powerful enough to do so if I find time to. I've got a 13" Macbook air from mid-2009. I love how portable it is but trying to multitask or edit multiple documents on a screen that small with so few pixels is an exercise in frustration. I'm going to graduate law school in November and take the bar in February. For the essay portion of the bar, I will be using a computer to type my answers

Cost: As little as possible, as always.

Timeframe - Anywhere between a month and a half from now and the middle of January next year.

Considerations(Not necessarily in this order) -

1) Power, because everyone like power, right? As I said, I'd like to be able to reasonably game on it. I don't expect to be able to play the newest games at max settings a year and a half after I get it, but I'd like to be able to play things at reasonable settings.

2) Screen Real Estate/Quality - Will be used for multitasking, editing multiple documents, spreadsheets, etc. My current crappy work computer has a resolution of 1,600x900 and it's a pain in the ass to work on. I've got a Yamakasi korean 27" IPS panel at home, so that's the sort of size and pixel density I'm used to. I'd like a 17" screen, bu if that will kill the hell out of a battery or increase the cost of the laptop beyond what I can spend, then I'll go down to a 15". I can't deal with a really crappy quality screen.

3) Battery Life - I'm considering getting something reasonably powerful because of Nvidia's new chips and how they allow powerful graphics processing while giving decent battery life. I don't know that I'm going to be able to plug my laptop in at the bar exam, so I'll need it to go at least 3 hours at a stretch, but, as always, more is better.

4) Price - Like I said, lower is better. Max price would probably be around $1,500. Since the holiday deals are speculated to be on low end laptops, I'm not holding out that much hope of getting a screaming deal on something, but it'd be nice.

Do any of you guys know of anything coming up that would be the best bang for my buck given the above considerations?
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I am going to be snagging one of the new Alienware's that get announced on the 27th so I have an Alienware 17 loaded that will be in your price range..
 
Just an FYI - if you are looking at higher end gaming notebooks - the MSI GT72 will have GPU upgrade options directly from MSI down the line :) I have been looking at them and think I might strike when I can get an IPS panel and hopefully a 3K panel
 
Can't decide if this is worth a $300 cost difference...lol

I am not a graphics snob, but I am going to be hooking this up to a 3440x1440 monitor(LG34UM95) while at home...and am wondering if the 970m 6gb is better over the 870m 6gb at a difference of about $300 for the newer one.

Any opinions?
 
The performance difference is marginal, without looking I bet the 970 is just an overclocked 870. Besides, you can always go download a new firmware from techinferno and just tweak the clocks yourself and eliminate the throttling.
 
The GTX 970m uses a cut down GM204 (Maxwell) GPU. The GTX 870m uses a cut down GK204 (Kepler) GPU. It has a newer feature set and ranges from 30%-50% faster (variations due to workload and implementation differences).
 
limitedaccess said:
The GTX 970m uses a cut down GM204 (Maxwell) GPU. The GTX 870m uses a cut down GK204 (Kepler) GPU. It has a newer feature set and ranges from 30%-50% faster (variations due to workload and implementation differences).
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Firstly, 30% and 50% is a huge range and crazy expectation. CPU's don't even gain that much performance between architectures. The reality is the performance difference is closer to 15%,if not less, according to benchmarks. How that translates to actual games no one will know and IMHO its not worth 3 bills.

If you don't believe me you can start by looking through the benchparks of each card at the link above, but once again the sample size of the 970m leaves a lot to be desired.
 
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I don't understand why you are bringing up CPUs? Different design criteria and technology limitations.

But yes GPU performance improvements have been trending much higher than CPU performance per new architecture and per new product generation. Just looking at Intel processor for example the performance of the integrated GPU has been increasing much more per generation than the CPU.

Mobile GPU performance variance is going to be larger because you not only have to contend with the workload variance (due to being different architectures) but also chassis and system variance since those variables cannot be held constant unlike the desktop.

The passmark website? That is one dataset (which shows a ~25% difference by the way), also ask yourself how valid are passmark results for GPUs? Go to the videocard section for example and ask regarding the efficacy of passmark results and see what kind of response you get.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-launches-the-GeForce-GTX-980M-and-GTX-970M.127350.0.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nv...ile-gtx-970m-gtx-980m,27833.html#xtor=RSS-998
 
I stand corrected. If the link you provided is in fact accurate and can be attained on any machine, not just that particular test machine then those are some very impressive gains.

I too question passmarks benchmarks scores, that's why I was being more conservative than their scores.

Edit:

Here is the 980M in a MSI GT72. "It's about 35% faster than the GTX 880M". I feel that margin will be either the same or less between a 970 and an 870 and will depend on the machine. This is why I am skeptical.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8605/msi-gt72-dominator-pro-performance-preview/3
 
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