GTX 970 and GTX 980 is officially launched

[exar333]

So which cooler is the recommended one?

I would say pick any of them if you are going for a single. The reference IMHO is a better option if you plan to run them SLI. Exhausting the heat is a good option if you plan for this airflow in your case.

 

[Attic]

Worth it to upgrade form a 680 or should I wait one more gen?

It's more that if you want to upgrade, the 970 is the only choice. Is the 680 delivering what you want for framerate? Do you want to upgrade?

Performance alone for upgrade, i'd say maybe. Why didn't you upgrade to the 780 or 780ti? (the 970 is not much different in performance from those cards). How much of a frame junkie are you? If the features interest you, such as DSR (killer for older games IMO) I think the 970 is a great upgrade for the 680.

 

[Cloudfire777]

It's more that if you want to upgrade, the 970 is the only choice. Is the 680 delivering what you want for framerate? Do you want to upgrade?

Performance alone for upgrade, i'd say maybe. Why didn't you upgrade to the 780 or 780ti? (the 970 is not much different in performance from those cards). How much of a frame junkie are you? If the features interest you, such as DSR (killer for older games IMO) I think the 970 is a great upgrade for the 680.

Why on earth would one want to upgrade to a hotter, noisier, worse in compute, and more expensive GTX 780 Ti?

GTX 970 or GTX 980, single card or SLI, thats the only choice there is now.

 

[Gloomy]

It's more that if you want to upgrade, the 970 is the only choice. Is the 680 delivering what you want for framerate? Do you want to upgrade?

Performance alone for upgrade, i'd say maybe. Why didn't you upgrade to the 780 or 780ti? (the 970 is not much different in performance from those cards). How much of a frame junkie are you? If the features interest you, such as DSR (killer for older games IMO) I think the 970 is a great upgrade for the 680.

DSR won't be enabled for older games. Nvidia has stated that games that don't scale UI past 1080p won't be allowed to use DSR.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/dsr/technology

That's 99% of games currently out, lol.

 

[Jurge92]

I would say pick any of them if you are going for a single. The reference IMHO is a better option if you plan to run them SLI. Exhausting the heat is a good option if you plan for this airflow in your case.

I'm not planing on running SLI. And for once, EVGA is the cheapest, although the MSI would look awesome in my NZXT H440. But I don't know if it's worth $60 more...

 

[Attic]

DSR won't be enabled for older games. Nvidia has stated that games that don't scale UI past 1080p won't be allowed to use DSR.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/dsr/technology

That's 99% of games currently out, lol.

Wow, damn.

From the [H] review I was really sold on this feature for use with most older games (my steam back catalog). [H] is going to do a follow up on this specific feature.

 

[sontin]

DSR won't be enabled for older games. Nvidia has stated that games that don't scale UI past 1080p won't be allowed to use DSR.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/dsr/technology

That's 99% of games currently out, lol.

Enabling DSR couldn't be easier: simply click 'Optimize' in GeForce Experience 2.1.2 when GeForce Driver 344.11 WHQL or newer is installed. Only games that lack UI scaling and/or support for resolutions over 1920x1080 are excluded from this feature. If you still wish to enable DSR in these games, perhaps for screenshot purposes, and in other games not supported by GeForce Experience, enter the NVIDIA Control Panel, select the DSR scaling factors you want to use, and select the corresponding DSR resolution in-game.

...

 

[cen1]

Wow.. kudos to toms for setting the new standards in power measurements. All of a sudden, other reviews look like a joke compared to that.

 

[Mand]

DSR won't be enabled for older games. Nvidia has stated that games that don't scale UI past 1080p won't be allowed to use DSR.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/dsr/technology

That's 99% of games currently out, lol.

That's...not at all what they said.

Games that don't either scale UI or support resolutions past 1080p won't be able to be automatically optimized in GeForce Experience.

What games don't have resolutions past 1080p, again?

 

[Subyman]

What is the purpose of the 3 holes here? 700 series has them too.

I know some specialty cards have a bracket that bolts onto the back to support the weight of the card. Mac Pros use this system. Perhaps those are holes to allow the bracket to be added?

 

[SeanJ76]

My 770 SC ACX sli-

Here's Highest Settings possible(which I know the reviewers didn't use)Tess Normal/Advanced Physx enabled-

I think I'll stick with my 770 SC ACX Sli :biggrin:

 

[SoulWager]

Wow.. kudos to toms for setting the new standards in power measurements. All of a sudden, other reviews look like a joke compared to that.

techpowerup has been doing this type of measurement for years.

 

[positivedoppler]

So Tom's hardware review.
Thinking back to the maximum versus average power consumption findings for gaming, one fact becomes abundantly clear: AMD’s issue is not absolute performance or the efficiency of its architecture, but rather that PowerTune technology can’t adjust the power consumption quickly or finely enough depending on the actual load. This is exactly where Nvidia scores most of its points with Maxwell.

So Maxwell's power saving is mostly software!?!? That's even more freakin amazing

 

[JDG1980]

Yep, this is an interesting part of the cards debut. Important for PSU selection IMO, you'll need more than you'd otherwise be led to believe by the cards TDP numbers.

Not unless the power supply is a complete piece of junk (and in that case you shouldn't be using it anyway). These kinds of loads are supposed to be smoothed out with capacitors.

Think about it: do you recall hearing any issues about the 750/750Ti damaging low-wattage PSUs or putting too much stress on the PCI slot's power output? I don't. Do you think Nvidia is going to put out a product to OEMs with false TDP ratings, only to be on the hook for all the damage caused when the corresponding PSUs turn out to be inadequate? I doubt it.

The Tom's Hardware oscilloscope charts are little more than a stunt.

 

[f1sherman]

Not worth it for you. A 1.3Ghz 780 is 30-40% faster than a stock 780 card so take all the scores online of a 780 and add 30%+ to them. 980 OC cannot beat that by 25-30%.

Here is 780 @ 1180 Mhz Boost only.

Kepler has been around for a while and you should know this already:

Boost clock does not mean actual ingame clock.
Clocks can go below or above depending on pwr load, temps, game profile, NvCPL/BIOS settings.

That is a Classy card, God knows how much it's actually boosting ingame

The other one is a reference card.
And again 1.4GHz boost clock does not mean its actually running at that speed ingame.

 

[Erenhardt]

While the new cards from nv top the charts I'm not sure if its wise to release so late in the process lifecycle. That is if you want to stay relevant when new node lunches.

It only makes sense If nv is not going to adopt 20nm soon. How will they compete if amd releases gcn2.0 @20nm yearly next year? It seems their tactic is to deny potential 20nm GPU sales by releasing cards with good price tags, which may seem those offer great value - which is true. But those will become obsolate as soon as 20nm amd gpus come out, which is just a couple of months away (probably being produced as we speak).

I don't think nv will replace those cards after a couple of month after introduction with new 20nm design, or will they?

 

[f1sherman]

I don't think nv will replace those cards after a couple of month after introduction with new 20nm design, or will they?

My money is on Really Big Maxwell debuting on 20nm.

Of course, they have to keep 28nm Maxwell around for a while.
Which shouldn't be to hard with architecture whose metrics mimics node advancement.

 

[Carfax83]

What's the best GTX970 to get?

Going by performance, the Gigabyte version is likely the best option.. It has the highest stock clock speeds and from what I've seen so far, the best cooler in terms of thermals.

It's more expensive however..

 

[toyota]

well crap I went ahead and ordered a 970. not much a jump at all but the 780 is only going to plummet in value even more the longer I wait. at least I can probably sale it on ebay for way more than here in the forums. I dont think the 970 will drop in value so fast even if big Maxwell comes since many people will be looking to SLI these at some point. screw the 980 for 550 bucks though as the 970 will get the job done at just 1080 with very little compromise on settings. plus I plan to get a gsync monitor at some point which will make dips below 60 acceptable.

 

[Abwx]

So Maxwell's power saving is mostly software!?!? That's even more freakin amazing

I would say that it is cached, the higher the throughput the less the apparent efficency, when i say apparent i mean that if the curve is integrated the power usage compared to a 780ti wont be half as claimed, at max throughput they consume comparable amounts.

 

[ShintaiDK]

While the new cards from nv top the charts I'm not sure if its wise to release so late in the process lifecycle. That is if you want to stay relevant when new node lunches.

It only makes sense If nv is not going to adopt 20nm soon. How will they compete if amd releases gcn2.0 @20nm yearly next year? It seems their tactic is to deny potential 20nm GPU sales by releasing cards with good price tags, which may seem those offer great value - which is true. But those will become obsolate as soon as 20nm amd gpus come out, which is just a couple of months away (probably being produced as we speak).

I don't think nv will replace those cards after a couple of month after introduction with new 20nm design, or will they?

Considering AMD just released GCN1.2 on 28nm. And there is absoluetely zero information about AMD going 20nm for GPUs.

Also the only information AMD gave about 20nm is, that they will ship something on 20nm in 2015. Nowhere have they said GPU or early 2015.

Its more likely just some 20nm ARM chip.

28nm is a node that will feel like its lasting forever.

 

[Carfax83]

While single cards are clear 980 > 290x, dual cards only ~catch up to the 290x crossfire.

290x crossfire is about equal to 980 sli

290x crossfire is only about even with dual GTX 980 SLI according to pcper results. It also appears that crossfire is probably smoother except in an NV sponsored title and skyrim. I'll await [h] and AT dual/tri card setups.

Computerbase.de and TPU show the new GTX 900s with equal or better performance in mGPU config compared to the R9 295x2. Even at 4K. It seems that the Maxwell cards definitely have superior SLI scaling compared to Kepler models, and 4K performance has improved significantly due to the higher ROP count.

 

[Carfax83]

well crap I went ahead and ordered a 970. not much a jump at all but the 780 is only going to plummet in value even more the longer I wait. at least I can probably sale it on ebay for way more than here in the forums. I dont think the 970 will drop in value so fast even if big Maxwell comes since many people will be looking to SLI these at some point. screw the 980 for 550 bucks though as the 970 will get the job done at just 1080 with very little compromise on settings. plus I plan to get a gsync monitor at some point which will make dips below 60 acceptable.

I'm Craiglisting my GTX 770s. Probably going to ask 280 for them.. The GTX 970s being priced so low caught me off guard. I was expecting them to be at least 400..

 

[Erenhardt]

I didn't mean to bring amd discussion up. What I wanted to say say is, there is 20nm production going on at TSMC. Knowing that keeps me from upgrading to another 28nm product.
The last node products loose so much value as soon as new node is available its not even funny.
If 970/980 would be a 20nm I wouldn't hesitate for a second.

GM210 to bring more performance would need to be much bigger than 400mm2 GM104. I don't expect to see 600+mm2 gpu. There is a way to pack all those xtors in <550mm2 - new 20nm node.

I would be really pissed if I got myself gtx980 just to see 550mm2 20nm 990TI plowing through benchmarks at the same power consumption as 980 as soon as early next year...

 

[Vesku]

Interesting observation! You maybe right. Perhaps samples were rushed to meet the launch.

I wonder why most vendors aren't going for the 3xDP + 1xDVI + 1xHDMI setup though. Still sticking with the old I/O config.

My guess is vendors had a large stockpile of DVI connectors.