Nvidia Launches GTX 980 And GTX 970 "Maxwell" Graphics Cards ($549 & $329)

Ordered a ref 980 SC direct from EVGA EU. Couldn't help feeling like an idiot while doing so due to the perf gap being so small while price diff is huge but that ref cooler is just too sweet.

ETS2 with DK2 better run smooth.
 
Am I imagining things, but is Zotac GTX 970 noticeably shorter than other cards Maxwells?

1167955.jpg

This looks to be the case from the pictures.

Are there any reviews of this one yet or can anyone verify this?
 
Fwiw Maxwell supports DX 11.3 feature level whereas Kepler didn't even have full 11.1 support. It is much better placed for DX12.
Indeed, I'm expecting Maxwell to have all the 'SM6' features, making it properly dx12 compliant.
Many of the features advertised for Maxwell are known new features for DX12 as well.
 
I was always told that 4GB was too much for a 256 bit bus.
Not sure if it's worth it to upgrade from a GTX 770 or just possibly SLI 770s.
 
They do and it has completely changed my perspective on the technology. AFR was always a band aid solution for multiple GPU scaling, but having each GPU render one viewpoint each makes so much sense that I can't wait to see the results.

It should actually reduce latency whereas SLI traditionally increases it. The importance of this announcement can not be understated and the fact that Nvidia have fast, affordable and most importantly, low power draw cards with a large chunk of memory to go along with it is what makes it so exciting.

Mainstream gamers @ 1080p: Buy a GTX 970
High end gamers @ 1440p and above: Buy 2 GTX 970s.
Its unbelievable, almost. Really didn't see this coming.

1400p@90 FPS for CV1 on AAA looking games doesn't seems so crazy anymore.
That's the thing, isn't it? Much of the worry about how on earth people will be expected to run CV1 levels of performance has been alleviated. Not completely, obviously. Its still a mighty task, but this has brought it all into foreseeable reality.

Its just huge. An absolutely huge day.

I'll be getting one 970 now. And then probably another one later next year, near the time of CV1 release.
 
Indeed, I'm expecting Maxwell to have all the 'SM6' features, making it properly dx12 compliant.
Many of the features advertised for Maxwell are known new features for DX12 as well.

It's impossible to say for definite but yes, this is my expectation as well.
 
Which 970 should we buy? Asus Strix? Gigabyte G1? EVGA Superclocked? Palit Jetstream?

Are there any reviews covering all currently available custom models?
 
Pardon the ignorance but why is the 970 cheaper than the 780? Is the 780 still more powerful?
No, its not more powerful. 970 beats it everywhere(actually bests a Titan in most cases).

And the 970 is cheaper because Nvidia wanted to deliver a heavy blow to their competition, which seems to have landed right smack on the jaw.
 
I'm blown away by the 970 results. I really am.

Now I'm curious to see AMD's response.

What response? There's nothing they can do with the 290 series that will make them attractive at this point save cutting them to a margin crippling $200/$250 which isn't going to happen.

The only silicon that they may have up their sleeve is a full fat Tonga but that isn't going to get close to the GTX 970 and at anything more than $200 it will look overpriced.

I'd love to be proven wrong but at this point I've lost complete faith in AMD. They've also got a likely GTX 960 to watch out for which could very quickly hoover up their bread and butter $200-$250 segment. If Nvidia launch that card with 4GB GDDR5 and price it at $200-$230 then AMD are completely fucked.
 
I am kinda disappointed that the reference design only has 4 GB Ram on board. I still use my 580 and that one has already 3 GB Ram for christs sake. That card is from 2011!!!
I will wait until some vendors put in 6 or 8 GB Ram until i upgrade, does anyone have an idea if such an announcement was made already?
 
Made a quick and dirty mockup comparison of it and the MSI, it indeed appears to be considerably shorter and smaller.

I'm doubting this could be real and I'm thinking that the reality is that Zotac have selected the wrong picture.
 
Just how great is the 970? I was going to get the 980, but if I can get 1080/60 with the 970 for the foreseeable future that seems like the way to go.
 
I am kinda disappointed that the reference design only has 4 GB Ram on board. I still use my 580 and that one has already 3 GB Ram for christs sake. That card is from 2011!!!
I will wait until some vendors put in 6 or 8 GB Ram until i upgrade, does anyone have an idea if such an announcement was made already?

Reference 580s only had 1.5GB. 8GB cards will release later at a price premium.
 
What response? There's nothing they can do with the 290 series that will make them attractive at this point save cutting them to a margin crippling $200/$250 which isn't going to happen.

The only silicon that they may have up their sleeve is a full fat Tonga but that isn't going to get close to the GTX 970 and at anything more than $200 it will look overpriced.

I'd love to be proven wrong but at this point I've lost complete faith in AMD. They've also got a likely GTX 960 to watch out for which could very quickly hoover up their bread and butter $200-$250 segment. If Nvidia launch that card with 4GB GDDR5 and price it at $200-$230 then AMD are completely fucked.
AMD's best option now is to get a 20nm line out ASAP.
 
Just how great is the 970? I was going to get the 980, but if I can get 1080/60 with the 970 for the foreseeable future that seems like the way to go.

It's awesome. Really awesome.

AMD's best option now is to get a 20nm line out ASAP.

That'll likely mean just sitting and waiting until it's ready which is gonna cause a lot of pain in the mean time. They need to cut prices and improve their Never Settle offering to compete.
 
Looks good, but I'll keep my GTX780Ti, until Pascal probably.

Also, can't wait for the inevitable GTX 1080
p
:lol
 
What response? There's nothing they can do with the 290 series that will make them attractive at this point save cutting them to a margin crippling $200/$250 which isn't going to happen.

The only silicon that they may have up their sleeve is a full fat Tonga but that isn't going to get close to the GTX 970 and at anything more than $200 it will look overpriced.

I'd love to be proven wrong but at this point I've lost complete faith in AMD. They've also got a likely GTX 960 to watch out for which could very quickly hoover up their bread and butter $200-$250 segment. If Nvidia launch that card with 4GB GDDR5 and price it at $200-$230 then AMD are completely fucked.

Well... Nvidia have just cut the price of the 760 to $219:

Following the launch of its GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards, NVIDIA announced discontinuation of three of its top-selling high-end graphics cards, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, the GeForce GTX 780, and the GeForce GTX 770. The $549 GeForce GTX 980 cannibalizes the GTX 780 Ti and GTX 780; and is cheaper to make, with 2 billion fewer transistors, four fewer memory chips, and a lighter VRM; while the GTX 970 targets several key sub-$350 products, blasting the GTX 770 to irrelevance. NVIDIA also tweaked pricing of its GeForce GTX 760 performance-segment graphics card, which now starts at $219. The company is expected to launch its replacement, the GeForce GTX 960, some time in October, 2014.

http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/2...-ti-gtx-780-gtx-770-cuts-gtx-760-pricing.html
 
It's awesome. Really awesome.



That'll likely mean just sitting and waiting until it's ready which is gonna cause a lot of pain in the mean time. They need to cut prices and improve their Never Settle offering to compete.
Well yea, that *have* to cut prices now. I feel bad for them, cuz I know that's gonna hurt. They had Nvidia beat for bang-for-buck for a while now and it didn't seem to make a huge dent in marketshare. They can still hold on with pricing, but in terms of actually taking it to Nvidia? There doesn't really seem a good way to do that without putting out a new line of better performing cards.

But what can they do when TSMC isn't ready or prioritize other partners like Apple?
They'll have to wait, obviously. But release 20nm cards as soon as they can. Nvidia will probably sit on 28nm for a while now, leaving AMD a bit of wiggle room to outperform them for a time.
 
Reference 580s only had 1.5GB. 8GB cards will release later at a price premium.
Yeah i know that the reference design didn't have 3GB...i am a bit worried that 4GB "only" wont last that long because the PS4 and XBO have 5+GB available for games and console -> PC porting is often sloppy when it comes to VRAM management.
 
They'll have to wait, obviously. But release 20nm cards as soon as they can. Nvidia will probably sit on 28nm for a while now, leaving AMD a bit of wiggle room to outperform them for a time.

Yeah if they can be first to market with 20nm it'd be a great win for them. Just depends on whether they can secure 20nm chips and guarantee them out a decent bit before Nvidia. All comes down to timing.
 
4GB 970 GTX it is then, well at xmas time when I'm not broke :P

Seems like the perfect card for me, gaming at 1080p and it should be able to get 60fps in most games for a while I hope as long as I don't mind tweaking options (which I don't)
 
Gat dang that 970 is tempting. Are there any european sites selling them yet? I see one on komplett.ie for €350, was hoping to pick one up a bit cheaper than that if possible. Got a 2GB 770 like 3 months ago, might flip that toward the cost of a 970
 
Yeah i know that the reference design didn't have 3GB...i am a bit worried that 4GB "only" wont last that long because the PS4 and XBO have 5+GB available for games and console -> PC porting is often sloppy when it comes to VRAM management.

You'll be able to play every PS4/XBONE console port that's ever released just fine on a GTX 970. There. I said it.
 
So AMD is going to raise that never settle game count to 5 soon? The 970 alone destroys almost everything out there for $350 (OC).
 
I know it's not out yet, but do you guys think an upgrade from 670 to 970 would be good for GTA V? My 670 is a 2gb card. Don't know if that makes a big difference.

What sort of things do you have to do when removing and installing a different card to a system? No OS reinstall or anything like that, right?

I guess I'm gonna put my 670 on sale here on Gaf in the Buy/Sell thread later this year.
 
Gat dang that 970 is tempting. Are there any european sites selling them yet? I see one on komplett.ie for €350, was hoping to pick one up a bit cheaper than that if possible. Got a 2GB 770 like 3 months ago, might flip that toward the cost of a 970

Taking a quick look Scan have an MSI GTX 970 instock as well as a Gigabyte GTX 970 (well UK, not specifically European like komplett :P )
 
They'll have to wait, obviously. But release 20nm cards as soon as they can. Nvidia will probably sit on 28nm for a while now, leaving AMD a bit of wiggle room to outperform them for a time.

Nvidia are so far ahead in terms of efficiency now that a die shrink alone won't be enough to hit parity with Nvidia IMO. They need a die shrink and major architectural efficiency gains if they are to be competitive again. They're two full generations behind now.
 
I know it's not out yet, but do you guys think an upgrade from 670 to 970 would be good for GTA V? My 670 is a 2gb card. Don't know if that makes a big difference.

What sort of things do you have to do when removing and installing a different card to a system? No OS reinstall or anything like that, right?

I guess I'm gonna put my 670 on sale here on Gaf in the Buy/Sell thread later this year.
GTAV will probably demanding on your CPU, so that's something to think about too, but yea, a 970 should be great for GTAV. For anything, really, if we're talking 1080p.

Installing a new card is pretty much as simple as taking the old one out and putting the new one in. And apparently its good to uninstall your current video driver before installing the new card, then just reinstalling the latest driver update. Pretty easy upgrade to do.
 
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