Prices plummet for Nvidia GTX 900-series graphics cards, but you still shouldn't buy them

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Prices plummet for Nvidia GTX 900-series graphics cards, but you still shouldn't buy them.
Prices plummet for Nvidia GTX 900-series graphics cards, but you still shouldn't buy them

Read the article and discuss. :)

Since I've never seen the GTX 980ti scale properly on a DX12 game that was also on consoles, I would go with the GTX 1070 even if it was more expensive than the GTX 980ti. One thing that I have learned is that driver support is mightier than any amount of ROPs, CUDA cores, or VRAM. I would choose the newest and most supported tech 100% of the time.

Have fun!
 
Makes sense. Especially since that article is talking about the new market. The used market is where you should go if you really want to go SLI with your 9xx series card, today. Although it may just be better to bail out completely and go new. I did. :)
 
Nvidia drop driver/game support for older architectures AS SOON as the new cards hit the shelves... my poor Titans...
 
KazeoHin said:
Nvidia drop driver/game support for older architectures AS SOON as the new cards hit the shelves... my poor Titans...
Click to expand...
Yep this is what I feared. Once 1080 was annouced to be faster than Titan X I sold both mine for the cost of 2 1080's and never looked back.
 
Pretty much the rule with nVidia is, always buy new, or else buy AMD. I would, regardless, since the price cuts would not affect me. EG when 295x had a major price cut several weeks after release of maxwell, ours didn't receive any cuts until a few SEASONS after the US cut. I expect no different here with nVidia cards.

AMD is much less of an issue in this regard, they tend to support their cards for much longer.
 
I am more towards the whole "wake me up when DX12 implementation actually means I can turn on settings up while maintaining the fps".

For games that already is maxed without DX12, the point of DX12 becomes just a technological showcase.

While I do not want it to head in that direction, AotS DX12 arguments seem to be heading that way...
 
This is the big stink of DX12: It's not a magic bullet. Its not even the gun. Its the raw metals an machining equipment to build the gun and the bullet.

To take advantage of DX12, you have to put in TONS more effort and code much closer to the metal. DX11 is much less time consuming comparatively. So basically, Ubisonic arts and other code sweatshops aren't going to be producing anything that shows improvement over DX11 and Microsoft is... well, Microsoft.
 
"Prices plummet" is a little extreme. I've seen the older cards go down a little on the big retailers but "plummet" isn't the word I would use at this point.
 
Sp33dFr33k said:
"Prices plummet" is a little extreme. I've seen the older cards go down a little on the big retailers but "plummet" isn't the word I would use at this point.
Click to expand...

Retailers are slower to react, in my expereince the smaller the retailer the slower they will realize that 980ti for $529 is going to rot on the shelf as the world passes it by. Bigger places that have people on top of the news/industry realize earlier to say "Fuck it" and will sell the cards off and free up shelf space.

Like others have said, used is obviously the way to go if you are on a budget and want ultimate 1080p gaming for example. I've seen a few threads here and there where used 980tis prices are starting to begin wtih a 3... i.e. 350-380 or whatever. Just natural when (once supply catches up with demand) you can get a smoking hot 1070 that will run 1440p all day long for right at 400.
 
Sp33dFr33k said:
"Prices plummet" is a little extreme. I've seen the older cards go down a little on the big retailers but "plummet" isn't the word I would use at this point.
Click to expand...

From $650 to about $400 for a 980 Ti and you do not consider that a plummet? Hell, the U.S. stock market considers just a couple hundred points plummeting and that is nothing compared to this. Truth is, I regret getting this 980 Ti for $650 but, it is too late now so I will just enjoy it until I can't anymore. (My old 290x had much better long term value than this.)
 
chenw said:
Pretty much the rule with nVidia is, always buy new, or else buy AMD. I would, regardless, since the price cuts would not affect me. EG when 295x had a major price cut several weeks after release of maxwell, ours didn't receive any cuts until a few SEASONS after the US cut. I expect no different here with nVidia cards.

AMD is much less of an issue in this regard, they tend to support their cards for much longer.
Click to expand...

Meh that's only true for shitty ports from GCN based consoles.

Take a solid game from pc first developer like Blizzard and Kepler still shows solid performance

Overwatch PC - Test wydajności kart graficznych. Wymagań brak? | PurePC.pl
 
oopspowsurprise said:
man I got ripped off with my Gigabyte 980 g1 gaming. At least I feel like it.
Click to expand...

Ditto with my 980 Ti but, now it definitely is not worth selling used. (Now that you can get a new one for around $400.) Guess I will just have to enjoy what I have and wait a couple of years.
 
cageymaru said:
One thing that I have learned is that driver support is mightier than any amount of ROPs, CUDA cores, or VRAM. I would choose the newest and most supported tech 100% of the time.
Click to expand...
KazeoHin said:
Nvidia drop driver/game support for older architectures AS SOON as the new cards hit the shelves... my poor Titans...
Click to expand...

Where is this idea of Nvidia not supporting older cards coming from? My friend was running a 6 year old GTX470 until a few days ago. Aside from the card not being particularly fast anymore, there wasn't a single game that it couldn't run and it was still supported by the very latest game-ready drivers. I'm running fairly old cards myself, 3x GTX680, and I definitely don't have any driver or game support issues either.

Or by "support" do you mean that they don't have dozens of engineers trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of old architectures compared to trying to optimize new architectures instead? Hasn't that basically always been the case? That certainly doesn't mean that old cards stop working or that support has been "dropped" :rolleyes:

The newest Nvidia cards for which support has actually ended is the 2xx series, DX10 cards like the 260, 270, 280, 295, etc. Even then, the latest legacy driver (which they still update, and current legacy driver is only 3 months old) still works pretty damn well all things considered.
 
Quix said:
There is always something faster right around the corner.
Click to expand...

Absolutely but, there are better hardware investments for the money as well. I just prefer to stick to a budget but this time, I got hooked on having the latest, greatest and it cost me dearly. Not going to do that again if I can help it. :D
 
GotNoRice said:
Where is this idea of Nvidia not supporting older cards coming from?

Or by "support" do you mean that they don't have dozens of engineers trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of old architectures compared to trying to optimize new architectures instead? Hasn't that basically always been the case? That certainly doesn't mean that old cards stop working or that support has been "dropped" :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yes, why would you buy something old, that costs more than the new thing, and is only going to get basic driver support? If an Nvidia engineer thinks of a cool new feature and it will cost Nvidia time and money to figure out how to implement it for the old cards then why would they do it? I would choose a GTX 1070 over a 980ti everyday of the week just for the cutting edge driver support. Does that mean I'm telling people to upgrade every cycle? No, of course not! I'm saying don't buy old things that are more expensive than the new because it used to carry a premium price tag. It didn't suddenly go on sale and you're getting the deal of the century. It got replaced by something that is supposed to be more competent with more support from the parent company.

A GTX 1070 is $379 MSRP. I wouldn't spend much over $250 for a GTX 980ti with only basic driver level support. Nvidia not only changed the game with a node shrink, they also added in a ton of Pascal architecture only features. In this case it only makes sense to stick with the new. If it was just a slight speed increase as usual then I wouldn't hesitate to buy a GTX 980ti. There is more to this release than just a speed bump.

Now if you're the type to replace cards yearly then buy whatever you want. If you keep them for extended periods then a GTX 980ti for more than a GTX 1070 @ MSRP is a bad idea.
 
Stev3FrencH said:
Yep this is what I feared. Once 1080 was annouced to be faster than Titan X I sold both mine for the cost of 2 1080's and never looked back.
Click to expand...

That's what everyone says, yet the 1080/1070 release driver 368.25 brought performance improvements for maxwell cards, go figure
 
Michaelius said:
Meh that's only true for shitty ports from GCN based consoles.

Take a solid game from pc first developer like Blizzard and Kepler still shows solid performance

Overwatch PC - Test wydajności kart graficznych. Wymagań brak? | PurePC.pl
Click to expand...

Overwatch is designed for a different gaming environment than most of the AAA titles (CS, Diablo 3 are also amongst them) that they were designed to run on as a broad range of machines as possible.

For graphically demanding games, even ones that are not touted as "shitty ports", individual game optimisations from nVidia tend only to be from newest architecture.
 
oopspowsurprise said:
man I got ripped off with my Gigabyte 980 g1 gaming. At least I feel like it.
Click to expand...
We knew the relative performance of the 970 vs the 980 when they were released, you made the informed decision to pay a lot more for a little performance. That was a misstep by Nvidia, because the 980 simply wasn't worth the money for most of us, and they corrected it with the 1070/1080.
 
ManofGod said:
From $650 to about $400 for a 980 Ti and you do not consider that a plummet? Hell, the U.S. stock market considers just a couple hundred points plummeting and that is nothing compared to this. Truth is, I regret getting this 980 Ti for $650 but, it is too late now so I will just enjoy it until I can't anymore. (My old 290x had much better long term value than this.)
Click to expand...

A quick look at Amazon and the cheapest 980ti I see is $539, most are close to $600 or over $600. Newegg is better with a card that is $439 after a $30 rebate but the majority are over $500.

Looking over at Slickdeals, the MSI GTX 980ti Gaming 6G has been steeply discounted recently but the price is back up.
 
GotNoRice said:
Where is this idea of Nvidia not supporting older cards coming from? My friend was running a 6 year old GTX470 until a few days ago. Aside from the card not being particularly fast anymore, there wasn't a single game that it couldn't run and it was still supported by the very latest game-ready drivers. I'm running fairly old cards myself, 3x GTX680, and I definitely don't have any driver or game support issues either.

Or by "support" do you mean that they don't have dozens of engineers trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of old architectures compared to trying to optimize new architectures instead? Hasn't that basically always been the case? That certainly doesn't mean that old cards stop working or that support has been "dropped" :rolleyes:

The newest Nvidia cards for which support has actually ended is the 2xx series, DX10 cards like the 260, 270, 280, 295, etc. Even then, the latest legacy driver (which they still update, and current legacy driver is only 3 months old) still works pretty damn well all things considered.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The ONLY reason my GTX550Ti is in trouble is because I'm ALSO looking to upgrade the display (which is the bottleneck at anything above 1080p outside of DSR) - note that I bought a factory-refurb. Said Fermi is also running the SAME driver as the GTX1080/1070 - despite lacking DX12 support (the GPU - not the driver).
 
Snagged a 980 Ti Classified off of Newegg's Ebay store front for $409.99 (72.2% ASIC). Slapped a H55 and a Kraken G10 on it for $86, and without touching the voltage I am getting 1505/8000 rock steady at 55C max (looping valley or playing Doom).

Sure it's 10% slower than an OCed 1080, yet that setup cost me a lot less, and it is now much more quiet than any 1080 that has been released to boot! AND I can step up to a 1080 (or a Titan if they are released soon) if I want to and use the H55/Kraken G10 on it.
 
Newegg Canada did NOT get the memo.... GTX 980ti still going for ~$850, GTX 970 going for ~$500
 
The Fragile said:
They should perhaps fix their economy.
Click to expand...

It's nothing to do with the economy, and everything to do with the fact that everything is priced in USD.

If the value of the USD drops with relation to other currencies, it has no impact on the price of US goods.

If the value of the CAD drops with relation to other currencies, it leads to skyrocketing prices across the board.
 
KazeoHin said:
This is the big stink of DX12: It's not a magic bullet. Its not even the gun. Its the raw metals an machining equipment to build the gun and the bullet.

To take advantage of DX12, you have to put in TONS more effort and code much closer to the metal. DX11 is much less time consuming comparatively. So basically, Ubisonic arts and other code sweatshops aren't going to be producing anything that shows improvement over DX11 and Microsoft is... well, Microsoft.
Click to expand...

No - the real issue is Steam - which doesn't support DX12. (Does it support Vulkan?) Steam basically represents an artificial cap on game APIs - it also remains the most popular gaming service (whether because OR despite that cap is irrelevant - the cap is there, and it is, in fact, unique to Steam). Vulkan is (still) mostly, if not entirely AMD-biased at this point; until this is fixed to become neutral, any game that supports Vulkan as an alternative to DX12 will remain AMD-biased (which is why I asked about Steam and Vulkan support).
 
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