NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Video Card Preview @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Video Card Preview - Today, NVIDIA launches its next video card. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti hits the market with ambitions of providing a cheaper alternative to GTX TITAN X-like performance, while priced closer to the GeForce GTX 980. This new video card is dropping at $649 and also drives the price of the GeForce GTX 980 down to $499.
 
Good to see confirmation of what we expected: near-Titan X performance for $650. Would be interesting to see in the full review VRAM usage as it's on everyone's mind if 4GB is still enough at 4k, and if 6GB provides any real benefit at present.
 
Good preview. Looking forward to the full review. I just checked Amazon and did not see any listed yet. I am very interested in this since I was considering a Titan X but this price range is much more appealing. I have two R9 290's. These are the first red cards I have used in a very long time. I'm not very happy with them. Many times Crossfire actually degrades performance and I end up just using one card. I want to switch back to Nvidia and these look like the cards that will do it.
 
cocheese256 said:
Good preview. Looking forward to the full review. I just checked Amazon and did not see any listed yet. I am very interested in this since I was considering a Titan X but this price range is much more appealing. I have two R9 290's. These are the first red cards I have used in a very long time. I'm not very happy with them. Many times Crossfire actually degrades performance and I end up just using one card. I want to switch back to Nvidia and these look like the cards that will do it.
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NewEgg has a bunch in stock right now. All reference versions, though. Only aftermarket cooler I see is the EVGA ACX and they're all sold out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007709 600565061

You can also buy direct from NVIDIA.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/geforce-gtx-980-ti/buy-gpu
 
I`m impressed with this GPU, the future looks really good for nvidia (too bad for AMD)
 
Decent newcomer. Was hoping this was going to be the bona fide Maxwell refresh complete with die shrink. Waiting for Pascal. *sigh*
 
DejaWiz said:
Decent newcomer. Was hoping this was going to be the bona fide Maxwell refresh complete with die shrink. Waiting for Pascal. *sigh*
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Are you the type of person who is always waiting? I can't think any release from any vendor in the past 5-10 years that didn't miss the mark on something vs a notion of what ideal is.

Finally, I can't tell you are trolling when it has been all but confirmed that Pascal probably isn't coming out to 2016.
 
T_A said:
I`m impressed with this GPU, the future looks really good for nvidia (too bad for AMD)
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At least wait for reviews of the 390X to come out before taking that hammer to the coffin nails...

DejaWiz said:
Decent newcomer. Was hoping this was going to be the bona fide Maxwell refresh complete with die shrink. Waiting for Pascal. *sigh*
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There aren't going to be any 20nm video cards, if that is what you're referring to. Pascal will be going to 16nm FinFET and isn't expected until at least summer of next year, going by the 18-24 month release cycle. The Titan X is the full Maxwell chip everyone was waiting for.
 
Trepidati0n said:
Are you the type of person who is always waiting? I can't think any release from any vendor in the past 5-10 years that didn't miss the mark on something vs a notion of what ideal is.

Finally, I can't tell you are trolling when it has been all but confirmed that Pascal probably isn't coming out to 2016.
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I do tend to wait a while between upgrades...usually around 2-3 years for GPU(s) and 3-7 years for CPU.

I'm not trolling at all...I was really hoping the 980ti was going to be a Maxwell refresh and die shrink, because I'm likely done with 28nm. I may move to the 900 series come Feb/Mar to get the benefit of lower power draw and heat output over my current 780s, but I'm on the fence. A lot will depend on how Skylake performs and overall cost if I decide to upgrade my whole system.
 
not reallt bad for AMD as the 390X is right arond the corner.....its not like there will be no response from AMD till the fall
 
Armenius said:
There aren't going to be any 20nm video cards, if that is what you're referring to. Pascal will be going to 16nm FinFET and isn't expected until at least summer of next year, going by the 18-24 month release cycle. The Titan X is the full Maxwell chip everyone was waiting for.
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I never mentioned size. I don't care if it's 22nm, 20nm or 16nm (and the rumor has been for a while that both AMD and nVidia would like to go straight to the smaller 16nm process). I'm just a bit disappointed that moving off 28nm is taking so damn long.
 
I'm so torn. As a 660Ti user at 1080p, my current card is a very capable gpu, but I do see it reaching the end of its life soon. Those vanilla 980s are going to come down in price soon, past the current price cut.

But so few games REALLY stress these cards...
 
DejaWiz said:
I do tend to wait a while between upgrades...usually around 2-3 years for GPU(s) and 3-7 years for CPU.

I'm not trolling at all...I was really hoping the 980ti was going to be a Maxwell refresh and die shrink, because I'm likely done with 28nm. I may move to the 900 series come Feb/Mar to get the benefit of lower power draw and heat output over my current 780s, but I'm on the fence. A lot will depend on how Skylake performs and overall cost if I decide to upgrade my whole system.
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yeah the days of waiting with baited breath for every video card and cpu release is over...i upgrade my cpu ever 2 years or so... and my CPU... every time the memory standard changes ..roughly... I will upgrade the board and CPU..

i miss the good old days when AMD held the cpu crown...and the fanbois were up in arms... good old days
 
Modred189 said:
But so few games REALLY stress these cards...
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Says someone gaming at 1080p with 2 million pixels. Try 4K @ 8 million or 3x eyefinity 1440p screens at 11 million pixels. ;)

The world's best GPU's whine under the strain.
 
GunzofNavarone said:
not reallt bad for AMD as the 390X is right arond the corner.....its not like there will be no response from AMD till the fall
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Indeed. But the 390x is not to compete with the 980Ti (its still hawaii based). That will be Fury,or whatever it ends up being named.
 
Ever since the GTX 980 came out, I've been waiting patiently for a GTX 980Ti. Unless a number of reviews report the Asus GTX 980Ti Direct CU III is garbage, I take the plunge to replace my GTX 780Ti DCII that has served me well, and will continue to do so in my second rig.
 
The witcher 3 is stressing my 660ti even at medium settings. But not a whole lot of games I've been playing have otherwise. Can't wait to see the full review on this card though, it's tempting as I have a 780ti on another computer running at 2560x1600. Thinking of selling off my 660ti, replacing it with the 780ti, and getting the 980ti for my high res monitor.....:D
 
"VRAM didn't seem to be the biggest issue, until we began playing Grand Theft Auto V. This game seemed to push the video card to a level where more VRAM would have been useful"

"6GB provided by the GTX 980 Ti was enough to handle each of these games. "

These two statements seem self-contradictory to me. Am I missing something?

Fixed. - Kyle
 
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Batman/Witcher 3 bundle extended to 980 Ti?
Seems to be the case but I have not seen an official statement from NVIDIA.
 
RadXge said:
Batman/Witcher 3 bundle extended to 980 Ti?
Seems to be the case but I have not seen an official statement from NVIDIA.
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Nope, you only get Batman with 980Ti ("while supplies last")



rpjkw11 said:
Ever since the GTX 980 came out, I've been waiting patiently for a GTX 980Ti. Unless a number of reviews report the Asus GTX 980Ti Direct CU III is garbage, I take the plunge to replace my GTX 780Ti DCII that has served me well, and will continue to do so in my second rig.
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I am planning to replace my Gigabyte 780Ti OC, and I am surprised why AnandTech wrote:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9306/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-ti-review/18 said:
GTX 780 Ti owners will almost certainly want to hold off for the next generation, despite the name.
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980Ti is around 40-50% faster than 780Ti (with identical TDP) , so why hold off for the next generation? There's not going to be a faster (nvidia) card for over a year.
 
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i play TERA online and in large raids with everything maxed and all kinds of eye candy blowing up... i get slow down on my r290X @ 1080..... not often..but any card be taxed in the right situation
 
Ducman69 said:
Says someone gaming at 1080p with 2 million pixels. Try 4K @ 8 million or 3x eyefinity 1440p screens at 11 million pixels. ;)

The world's best GPU's whine under the strain.
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Haha, yea. I recognize my situation FULLY. I'm just not in the market for that much real estate any time soon. But with the consoles struggling under 1080p@60fos, it seems like the ONLY way to push modern top-tier cards is to throw insane resolutions at them.
New graphics options and visual fidelity just doesn't do it.
 
Ducman69 said:
Says someone gaming at 1080p with 2 million pixels. Try 4K @ 8 million or 3x eyefinity 1440p screens at 11 million pixels. ;)

The world's best GPU's whine under the strain.
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I think it's also worth mentioning that pretty much no game is designed for 4K with appropriate texture quality and such. While I agree that a nice system with SLI/Crossfire is pretty much needed for decent 4K experience, I would still say it doesn't offer much for improving image quality for the reason mentioned above. Majority of games suffer worse performance on PC due to poor console ports so we have to have more firepower than it should require. Just my two cents...
 
T_A said:
I`m impressed with this GPU, the future looks really good for nvidia (too bad for AMD)
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eh, it's not all about the absolute high end. Nvidia was way late with the GTX960. We've been able to buy AMD's 280, 285, and 280x for $200/near $200, for months.

Even then, the 960 just meets those much older cards---already begs for a replacement. As it's just not a very compelling offering.
 
It's a pretty good value - not 970 good (Still beats it in price:performance), but a good deal nonetheless. That and spending more tends to get rapidly diminishing returns.

I think it's best to wait though and see what AMD has to offer. That and even if AMD doesn't have much (I hope they have something good), at least there will be "Lightning" variants.

My big complaint though is that it is possible in a few months, much like the 780 to 780Ti, we may see a full 3072 version of the 980Ti.
 
GunzofNavarone said:
yeah the days of waiting with baited breath for every video card and cpu release is over...i upgrade my gpu every 2 years or so... and my CPU... every time the memory standard changes ..roughly... I will upgrade the board and CPU..

i miss the good old days when AMD held the cpu crown...and the fanbois were up in arms... good old days
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I used to upgrade my GPU with every generation; sometimes multiple times within the same generation. But that was when upper-tier GPU's where about half the price that they are now, plus I was single, no kids, didn't have a car payment, no mortgage, etc...

I miss the days when AMD processors where on top, as well. I was so giddy when I got my Venice 3000+ and tacked on a 33% OC while slightly lowering the Vcore. Then I got massively jealous of just about anyone that jumped to the first-gen Athlon 64 X2, especially the "holy grail" 4800+. I still remember reading the [H] preview and wanted one soooo bad because I was suffering from the same things that dual cores alleviated: playing games while doing other CPU-intensive tasks, like video encoding.

As for the 980ti, my feelings are quite the mixed bag: impressive that it comes so close to Titan X performance for approx. 65% of the price, but I'm disappointed that 28nm seems to be stuck in the mud. My goal for a GPU upgrade is to get a single GPU that meets or beats my 780 SLI, while power consumption of a dual SLI setup is the same or less than one of my 780s.

However, I realize the merits that Maxwell brings in terms of lower power consumption and heat output compared to Kepler, and with a decent bit of a performance increase, to boot.

My sights were heavily set on transitioning to dual 970's, but the 3.5GB VRAM issue makes me excessively apprehensive, especially if/when I do transition to a 1440p 144hz screen.

The 980ti is a solid performer for sure, but I can't justify spending $650 apiece to upgrade to the same 250W TDP and 28nm process as my existing 780s. If I do decide to ditch my Keplers for Maxwells come next Feb/Mar, then I'm likely going to hold out for a pair of 960ti or 970ti bearing 4GB VRAM (as long as there are no 970-like VRAM limitations and I get at least a 20-25% performance bump)...if NVidia is even going to make "Ti" variants of these existing mid and upper range gaming cards, that is...
 
T_A said:
I`m impressed with this GPU, the future looks really good for nvidia (too bad for AMD)
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I think you actually meant, too bad for Titan X owners. Only two and a half months after release, the $1,000 Titan X is only slightly faster than the $650 980Ti.
 
Anyone found any in stock? Besides that zotac @ newegg.
 
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after looking at those performance numbers, BRING ON PASCAL, good lord.

~30fps @4k and ~60fps @1440p, and those are with current games.

ill be waiting a while :mad: - i need ~3x the performance of the 980ti.
 
chameleoneel said:
eh, it's not all about the absolute high end. Nvidia was way late with the GTX960. We've been able to buy AMD's 280, 285, and 280x for $200/near $200, for months.

Even then, the 960 just meets those much older cards---already begs for a replacement. As it's just not a very compelling offering.
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The die of the gtx 960 is only 227mm2.

The r9 285 die size is 359mm2. While the rest of that lineup is 352mm2.

What is closer in regards to that die size is the gtx 970/980 lineup at 398mm2. And this is exactly why Nvidia's lineup doesn't need refreshing.

Nv because of it's performance and branding allows their small die which is akin to the size of the 270x(which is sold at about 150 bucks) to be sold at a higher price than a 285 which has a die size over 50 percent larger than the gtx 960.

And this is exactly why AMD hasn't been making money while Nvidia has been posting record quarters.

AMD inferiority at the moment is what is letting Nvidia make so much money and bump up their product stack.

If AMD was competitive like during the gtx 580/480 generation, the gtx 980 would be named the gtx 960, the gtx titan x would be the gtx 980. Instead we get this garbage situation where we have 1000 dollar cards and AMD's predicament where the only thing beside the console Gpus stops making money and has lead to AMD losing hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter.

If the only thing new in AMD product stack is fiji, they are in trouble. Fiji is not the type of card to be sold at high volume and the rest of Nvidia lineup is way to conservatively clocked that a pricecut or upclock of their cards is all it would take to prevent AMD from selling cards on anything rebranded.
 
cinnamonandgravy said:
after looking at those performance numbers, BRING ON PASCAL, good lord.

~30fps @4k and ~60fps @1440p, and those are with current games.

ill be waiting a while :mad: - i need ~3x the performance of the 980ti.
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That's a never ending wait. :)

Great article [H]. I hope there will be a SLI review and hopefully with VRAM limited games. OC vs OC reviews are always great too.
 
Modred189 said:
I'm so torn. As a 660Ti user at 1080p, my current card is a very capable gpu, but I do see it reaching the end of its life soon. Those vanilla 980s are going to come down in price soon, past the current price cut.

But so few games REALLY stress these cards...
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Using a 470 still. Feel no need to upgrade. Would still be on the 275 if it wasn't for that DirectX/Source Engine GPU driver crashing bug.
 
techrat said:
Using a 470 still. Feel no need to upgrade. Would still be on the 275 if it wasn't for that DirectX/Source Engine GPU driver crashing bug.
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that's correct if you only play minesweeper at 800x600.. =).. even my 780 its crap for actual gaming at 1080P..
 
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