NVIDIA GTX 980 Reviewed

[DanTheGamer11]

Ah so lower rpm, I wonder how the temps are at same cooling capability, the 970 looks real good

[Black64]

Huh.. Am I the only one wondering where the 8xx series is?

[ClayMeow]

Huh.. Am I the only one wondering where the 8xx series is?

Only in mobile....for some reason.

 

Odd for sure, but at least it's still in numerical order, unlike some other company that shall remain unnamed :cough:AMD:cough:

[bp9801]

The new desktop cards are using the GTX 9XX names to avoid confusion with the current 800M series, since those are already running high-end Kepler parts. So we get the GTX 980/970 on Maxwell for the desktop, and then presumably GTX980M/970M for laptops also running Maxwell. Better way to do it than to have a GTX 880M on Kepler, and then a GTX 880 on Maxwell. If you're a consumer who may not check out every enthusiast site around, you may be left wondering why your new desktop card can support certain features (DX12) your laptop can't.

 

 

As for the GTX 980, I echo Waco's sentiments.

[Bosco]

After using dual 980's I like them over the 780TI's. I find them to perform smoother as well in 4K.

 

I like the price point and the power draw is impressive.

[Guest_Jim_*]

 

Huh.. Am I the only one wondering where the 8xx series is?

Only in mobile....for some reason.

 

Odd for sure, but at least it's still in numerical order, unlike some other company that shall remain unnamed :cough:AMD:cough:

 

Same thing happened with the 300 series. I've a pair of my own theories about the skipping though:

• though DX12 isn't out yet, the leap from 200 to 400 was also nVidia's leap from DX10 to DX11, and here we have DX11 to DX12-ready/designed-for. (Even if Kepler supports DX12, these are likely the first to be designed to support it.) Could be coincidence or could be intentional.
• Nvidia is going to go to a new naming scheme soon, timed with full DX12 likely, and avoiding the 10xx names, but instead of leaving with the 800 series, they figured, 'do 900, makes more sense to leave on, to avoid the thousands.'

No idea what they may go to, assuming they do go to a new scheme, but personally I would hope they would just go to something based on the code names. With each new code name, the scheme can be reset, like the Maxwell 280 (2xx for the revision and 80 just being the top-of-the-line x80 they have been using) and then the Pascal 180 and Pascal 280, etc. That's my semi-logical brain though, instead of some marketing expert that gets paid to devise confusing labels. (How does one get that job?)

[Black64]

After using dual 980's I like them over the 780TI's. I find them to perform smoother as well in 4K.

 

I like the price point and the power draw is impressive.

Will we be seeing at 980 vs 880 vs Titan vs 780Ti vs 290x comparison chart?I am quite confused by all of these "high-ends" being released so quickly.

[Bosco]

Ya I am going to have Frank do something up as soon as he completes a couple of reviews.

[cchalogamer]

Honestly AMD/Nvidia is starting to look a lot more like AMD/Intel. 

 

In both sides AMD is behind in offering performance per watt, thankfully in top performance AMD isn't too far off and considering the relative age of the current top end GPUs they aren't looking too bad.  

 

I'm a little more concerned after seeing Tonga performance as to what AMD will end up doing in the high end.  Yes they made improvements but not as big as Nvidia on the move to Maxwell.  In some ways both AMD/Nvidia getting stuck on the 28nm process for so long is great for us as consumers in that they get pushed to innovate in the design vs relying on the process shrink every couple of years.  Thankfully Nvidia wasn't able to ride out Kepler any longer and had to do something to make 28nm work.  If we get the same benefits as a normal process shrink down the road on top of that we may be looking at some serious increase in performance over the next year or two.  

 

Another thing I know a LOT of people across the internet seem to be forgetting when not being "wowed" by the 980 is that it does NOT really replace the 780/780ti.  It's a performance replacement, but it's a launch much like the GTX 680 where later the 780 was a bigger chip and took its place as the "full" Kepler implementation. Once they do that again the 980 will likely be like the 680/770 became where the former "flagship" part becomes more mainstream and some of the GTX 980 owners will feel buyers remorse  (I have two friends who feel that way about their GTX 680s vs the 770s I had that cost me a heck of a lot less for the same cards with a bigger OC out the door)

[bishop245]

I want royalties for the use of my name in their new architecture

[Bosco]

I want royalties for the use of my name in their new architecture

 

haha

[ccokeman]

Does the 980 use a worse cooler(what were the rpms) than the 780 TI or is it that hot? O.o Was expecting a cooler card for 100W less

 

970 was the star tbh, also thanks for not using Mantle in bf4 like other sites, mantle should only really be on for worse cpus

It is the same cooler that has been used since the GTX Titan. It is rated for a 250 Watt TDP so with the 165 Watt TDP on this card it easily handles the load.