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

brain_stew said:
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.
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brain_stew said:
As Nvidia ship around twice the volume of AMD (and now AMD don't have a high end that gap will only widen) why would TSMC give AMD priority over Nvidia anyway?
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I'm just trying to think positive for them. Realistically, they are not in a great position right now, that's for sure.
 
Seanspeed said:
I'm just trying to think positive for them. Realistically, they are not in a great position right now, that's for sure.
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As long as they can offer enough competition that Nvidia still feels it necessary to drop a card like the 970 on the market from time to time then that's about all I can expect.

I've given up on the idea of ever actually owning one of their products.
 
Mrgrgr.

I don't know what to do.

I haven't had the money before now, but for a while I've been paying attention to GPUs for when I make my first build. I've always looked at the £200 range (give or take £40), which is what the Gigabyte 770 currently goes for (£240). But now I see the 970 at £300, and although it seems like a lot to me it makes more sense. It'll last a lot longer, partly due to that 4gb ram, it has the downsampling software which should make playing the big list of old games I have easier, and so on.

The frugalist (I don't think that's a word) in me says that a 960 will come if I wait (and a whole lot of other things, like building a machine for my 720p TV and using a 750ti), because I edge ever closer to that £1000 mark with a £300 card. But the long term thinker in me says that the extra £60 or so will make it last longer and I won't have to spend money on an upgrade as soon, especially if I have a 4gb card to keep me going vs a 2gb one.
 
Seanspeed said:
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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Thanks for the info. It seems really straight forward to do. Nothing hard.

I'm using an i5 3570k. How would you fare that CPU? and yeah, I'm gaming in just 1080p for now.

I guess overclocking will be the next thing I do on it. Time to learn it.

Sheesh, I'm asking noobish questions here and I've owned my system for 2 years :)

Still got a lot go I see.
 
SixFourMike said:
Mrgrgr.

I don't know what to do.

I haven't had the money before now, but for a while I've been paying attention to GPUs for when I make my first build. I've always looked at the £200 range (give or take £40), which is what the Gigabyte 770 currently goes for (£240). But now I see the 970 at £300
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I'm seeing 970's as low as £260. EVGA's is £263, which is the best one for the price so far.

Definitely splurge the little bit extra. You will regret it if you don't. I'm a cheap bastard myself, but this is a knockout card right here.

Hip Hop said:
Thanks for the info. It seems really straight forward to do. Nothing hard.

I'm using an i5 3570k. How would you fare that CPU? and yeah, I'm gaming in just 1080p for now.

I guess overclocking will be the next thing I do on it. Time to learn it.

Sheesh, I'm asking noobish questions here and I've owned my system for 2 years :)

Still got a lot go I see.
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You're good on the CPU. Overclock it, buy a 970 and be happy. :)
 
I'm looking at building a mini-ITX so SLI is out of the question. Why is everyone criticizing the 980's price? Isn't it cheaper than the 780ti? I realize the price/performance ratio isn't as good as the 970 but if I'm looking to play games at 1440p on a single card isn't it still the best bet?
 
obviously I don't know how the cards are going to scale, since no one appears to have tested 3 way sli with the 980, but the main reason I went three way is that three way is meant to *drastically* reduce micro stuttering (when compared to two)... and hopefully they'll actually scale pretty well too.

these things will be driving a ROG Swift (so 1440p at 144HZ) and hopefully my overclocked (to 4.7 GHz) 5930K will give them plenty of room to do what they need to do.

loads of unknowns right now, naturally, but this PC upgrade budget is about two years in the making. wish me luck!
 
SixFourMike said:
Mrgrgr.

I don't know what to do.

I haven't had the money before now, but for a while I've been paying attention to GPUs for when I make my first build. I've always looked at the £200 range (give or take £40), which is what the Gigabyte 770 currently goes for (£240). But now I see the 970 at £300, and although it seems like a lot to me it makes more sense. It'll last a lot longer, partly due to that 4gb ram, it has the downsampling software which should make playing the big list of old games I have easier, and so on.

The frugalist (I don't think that's a word) in me says that a 960 will come if I wait (and a whole lot of other things, like building a machine for my 720p TV and using a 750ti), because I edge ever closer to that £1000 mark with a £300 card. But the long term thinker in me says that the extra £60 or so will make it last longer and I won't have to spend money on an upgrade as soon, especially if I have a 4gb card to keep me going vs a 2gb one.
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Get an EVGA ACX for £260. The ACX cooler is very good and you should be able to overclock the card yourself at a later date to get 980 levels of performance should you need to.

You don't need to get the most expensive 970 models for it to be worth it.

Nipo said:
I'm looking at building a mini-ITX so SLI is out of the question. Why is everyone criticizing the 980's price? Isn't it cheaper than the 780ti? I realize the price/performance ratio isn't as good as the 970 but if I'm looking to play games at 1440p on a single card isn't it still the best bet?
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The price is being criticised because you can get a 970, give it a mild overclock and tada you have a 980.

The 980 just isn't worth the extra $$$.
 
Seanspeed said:
I'm seeing 970's as low as £260. EVGA's is £263, which is the best one for the price so far.

Definitely splurge the little bit extra. You will regret it if you don't. I'm a cheap bastard myself, but this is a knockout card right here.
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Time to give up on the idea of a Gigabyte card then? I automatically focus on them because of their reputation for RMAs etc in the UK, as well as the wins force cooler and consistently good reviews. Although EVGA seem to be a close second, at least on RMA.

I just read the 960 is expected next month. Although if I can get a 970 for £263 I think that is the way to go.
 
Nipo said:
I'm looking at building a mini-ITX so SLI is out of the question. Why is everyone criticizing the 980's price? Isn't it cheaper than the 780ti? I realize the price/performance ratio isn't as good as the 970 but if I'm looking to play games at 1440p on a single card isn't it still the best bet?
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what motherboard/case? Would it be possible to go for a micro ATX and therefore keep your options open for SLI later?

The issue with the 980 is relatively small increase in performance for huge increase in price. You could do SLI 970s for only a little bit more than a 980 and get significantly more performance.

980 is really only there as a 'people can afford it, lets make some margin' product - not meant for normal people :P
 
Nipo said:
I'm looking at building a mini-ITX so SLI is out of the question. Why is everyone criticizing the 980's price? Isn't it cheaper than the 780ti? I realize the price/performance ratio isn't as good as the 970 but if I'm looking to play games at 1440p on a single card isn't it still the best bet?
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980 is clearly preferable to a 780Ti at the moment, but that extra $200 over the 970 isn't getting you a whole lot of extra performance. Go for it if you need or really want a top-end single card, but its not the best value.
 
depending on how the price for the 980 translates into Euro I might get one of those. Hope it's close to 400€.
If not I'll get a 970 - should be fine for most games at 1080, right?
 
Any tips on euro/uk/ireland availability, on the 970?

I've spotted some on dabs, but they seem to be all on order or 3-4 days away. The latter are all a bit more expensive too.

I'm kind of thinking of building a new PC, maybe this is the right card.
 
I'm not going to complain about a $550 card that beats out a Titan Black and 780ti, but for me to not go with the 970 (OC at least) would be crazy. That's an AMAZING card for the price.
 
mrklaw said:
what motherboard/case? Would it be possible to go for a micro ATX and therefore keep your options open for SLI later?

The issue with the 980 is relatively small increase in performance for huge increase in price. You could do SLI 970s for only a little bit more than a 980 and get significantly more performance.
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I have an Ncase m1 v2 being delivered shortly. I guess i could always see about reselling it and switching to mATX but that seems like a pain.

I was budgeting around $600 for the graphics card anyay so maybe I"ll just consider it a $50 savings and not think what could have been.
 
JimPanzer said:
depending on how the price for the 980 translates into Euro I might get one of those. Hope it's close to 400€.
If not I'll get a 970 - should be fine for most games at 1080, right?
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559€ on spanish retailer. It's not goong to be close to 400 including taxes.
 
I've been very happy with my Galaxy GTX 670 4GB, but as a VR nut, I think I should probably jump on this, especially with the VR Direct mode. (I can probably sell my old card for a decent return, it looks like, unless eBay floods with them.)

The question is, should I jump on the Gigabyte 970, or wait until I can locate a Galax version (of which there are two: Regular and Custom Overclocked) at a US retailer?
 
Brerlappin said:
Price of a 970 on Komplett.ie at 11am: €349
Price of same card at 12:22pm: €399

Fukken lol
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That's why I pulled the trigger as soon as I saw they became available.

The price of the 970 will go up over the next month or so due to high demand. There's been nothing like it since the 8800gt.
 
gofreak said:
Any tips on euro/uk/ireland availability, on the 970?

I've spotted some on dabs, but they seem to be all on order or 3-4 days away. The latter are all a bit more expensive too.

I'm kind of thinking of building a new PC, maybe this is the right card.
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scan and ebuyer were both showing stock of the MSI one, which is probably the one I'd go for personally
 
I upgraded to a 780 overclocked (not Ti) from a 580, I think I'll sit this one out as I don't feel like the performance jump is worth the price.
 
plagiarize said:
obviously I don't know how the cards are going to scale, since no one appears to have tested 3 way sli with the 980, but the main reason I went three way is that three way is meant to *drastically* reduce micro stuttering (when compared to two)... and hopefully they'll actually scale pretty well too.

these things will be driving a ROG Swift (so 1440p at 144HZ) and hopefully my overclocked (to 4.7 GHz) 5930K will give them plenty of room to do what they need to do.

loads of unknowns right now, naturally, but this PC upgrade budget is about two years in the making. wish me luck!
Click to expand...
A dutch site tested the 980 in 2, 3 and 4-way sli.
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6870 to 970 is looking good to save me a couple hundred bucks on my PC upgrade.

I think a 980 would be overkill as tempting as it is.
 
The 970 UK preorder prices on Scan are a little better than what I expected actually.

£263 for the more basic EVGA card or £274 for the MSI Twin Frozr V is very tempting. Had my eye on the Asus Strix for the fanless idle performance and backplate but doesn't seem worth a £37 premium.

If I can fetch £200 or so for my MSI Twin Frozr IV R9 290, which still has a couple of years left on the MSI warranty, might well jump ship.
 
Oh, what the hell? I wake up, see some of the ones I was considering are sold out on Newegg, and go to figure out which 970 to get instead. Then come back and Newegg isn't listing any of them anymore?
 
So... I got a 670 at the moment, should i buy a gtx 980 if i game at 2560x1440 or a 970 will be enough to get a smooth framerate on the upcoming games? I really can't decide, but there is a 200€ difference, and it seems a bit too much.

The CPU will not be a problem, i bought an i7 4770 few months ago
 
plagiarize said:
that's some impressive scaling at 4K! thanks for sharing this. obviously I'll expect 1440p to sit somewhere between these.
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I love how they are GPU limited in 3 way and 4 way SLI @ 1080p 4xMSAA in Crysis 3.

Those GPUs are just spanking that game.
GHG said:
Well at least I have an upgrade path then :P .
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As someone who has 3way SLI, I can happily recommend it. I have had almost no problem getting it working in games. The scaling and lack of microstutter have been wonderful (statistically 3 way has less runt frames/frame pacing problems). Only game I have had trouble with really Metro Last Light and Redux, but that is a fluke...
 
Are there any reviews specifically for the MSI 970? Just seen that CCL, who are only a couple fo miles from me, have them in stock.
 
Time to mercy kill my poor old 460. It had a good life.

Or maybe it'll go to my little sister, helping her build her first PC would be cool.
 
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