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

Haven't heard a peep from my MSI 970 4G yet, for those interested.

Encouraging. I have this card due tomorrow and I'm very excited. Should be a tremendous boost from my 6850. I'm a bit concerned about the coilwhine I keep reading about but I guess we'll see tomorrow.
 
I really hope EVGA sorts their shit out eventually because those extra 48mm on the MSI card are a huge deal for my case
 
Higher quality components. The 980 is Nvidia's current flagship product. They don't have to make as many sacrifices to hit an aggressive price point like the 970. That's why the 980 costs ~50% more, but only offers ~20% better performance. The extra money is going towards better build quality.

If you don't want to spend $630 on the Gigabyte G1, you can get a reference 980 for $549, which has a great Titan style cooler on it.
I can't believe I sold my 780 GHz to get myself in this mess. Lesson hard-learned, stick to cards that are or once were flagships, you get what you pay for, blah blah blah.

Anyway, ahem, the 980 actually costs 67% more. :P If I cave and get one only to discover coil whine yet again, words do not do justice to how furious I'll be. I also really don't like the Titan cooler; brushed Gigabyte metal shrouds and backplates look so nice in my machine. Maybe I'd give the Strix a shot.
 
Higher quality components. The 980 is Nvidia's current flagship product. They don't have to make as many sacrifices to hit an aggressive price point like the 970. That's why the 980 costs ~50% more, but only offers ~20% better performance. The extra money is going towards better build quality.

If you don't want to spend $630 on the Gigabyte G1, you can get a reference 980 for $549, which has a great Titan style cooler on it.
I can second this, the reference cooler on the 980 is excellent and quiet too (providing you set up your own fan profile). I haven't heard any coil whine either, except on the Heaven loading / exit screen where it runs at like 4000FPS lol.

I was messing around with Afterburner this evening as I haven't really pushed the card yet and managed to get 1450Mhz core / 3700Mhz memory stable. I could probably get it to 1500Mhz if I messed with the voltages a bit more but it's good enough. Tops out at 70c now (was running at 65c before my tinkering) so I'm hesitant to increase voltages anymore as I'd like to keep it well under 80c.

For anyone on the fence, this card is the mutts nuts!
 
Some French courier dude is enjoy a pair of 970s... First time in years something has gone seriously wrong with a delivery. CS say they can't locate, it had to be this one :(
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Anyone know the ETA on a new driver update for the GTX 970/980 or heck, Nvidia cards in general?

Mainly a proper SLI profile for Shadow of Mordor, the devs said it would be implemented soon a while back and nothing heard of since.

I figured maybe they will be implementing it with the new driver from Nvidia, however that is just wishful thinking.

We are nearly a at the 1 month mark since the last driver dropped, I was hoping some optimizations and SLI profiles would be implemented soon.
 
Has anyone actually received an MSI 970 from amazon since launch? The way it looks on nowinstock.com, they never got any in stock since the 19th
 
Will Zotac Amp fit in SLI on this board? Not sure if 3 slot or 2.5.

puIsMIt.jpg

You should be able to fit them, assuming the top and bottom slots are your 16x slots.

I have two omega amps in SLI on a rampage IV Formula... I'll take pics and upload them when I get off of work.

These cards are truly 3 slots..... serious behemoths.
 
You should be able to fit them, assuming the top and bottom slots are your 16x slots.

I have two omega amps in SLI on a rampage IV Formula... I'll take pics and upload them when I get off of work.

These cards are truly 3 slots..... serious behemoths.
Hmm, I think this goes 16/8/4, so in SLI it would be 8/8. Couldn't use bottom one even if I wanted to.

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Let's say the AMP would cover the X1 slot beneath that card. Second one goes into the next PCIE slot. Is this asking for trouble?

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Is this stupid with non reference, everything in my head is telling me it is stupid and not giving enough space to breath.

Or I will they be touching?
 
Hmm, I think this goes 16/8/4, so in SLI it would be 8/8. Couldn't use bottom one even if I wanted to.

4lF2eCNl.jpg


Let's say the AMP would cover the X1 slot beneath that card. Second one goes into the next PCIE slot. Is this asking for trouble?

O1EpmWn.png


Is this stupid with non reference, everything in my head is telling me it is stupid and not giving enough space to breath.

Or I will they be touching?

Yeah man I would not suggest having them that close! You'd have two fans basically getting all the air blocked back into them.

Here's what it looks like on my rampage IV formula:
LuU0miA.jpg
 
Where are people getting these cards? They seem to be sold out everywhere.

Relatively new to PC gaming question: How do you guys decide on brands? For the 680, I went with ASUS since they had some extra cooling on top of the reference design and I prioritized low heat and noise, but it came at a premium and I don't know if it was actually worth it.

Also, I wonder when we'll start seeing the game bundles...
 
I do a bit of 3d rendering, and have been considering using Octane. Are the new GPUs well-suited to it, or would I be better off waiting for ones with more VRAM?
 
What does coil whine even sound like? I don't think my card emits it, because when it's running a demanding game, all I hear are the fans spinning, is it more high pitched than that or super discernible?
 
Where are people getting these cards? They seem to be sold out everywhere.

Relatively new to PC gaming question: How do you guys decide on brands? For the 680, I went with ASUS since they had some extra cooling on top of the reference design and I prioritized low heat and noise, but it came at a premium and I don't know if it was actually worth it.

Also, I wonder when we'll start seeing the game bundles...

The first question ties in with the second lol.

Brand for me was first one in stock of ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI. Turned out to be ASUS.

Amazon is perpetually backordered but Newegg has gotten stock in maybe 2x a week of all three of those cards. MSI and ASUS more than Gigabyte from my observations.

What does coil whine even sound like? I don't think my card emits it, because when it's running a demanding game, all I hear are the fans spinning, is it more high pitched than that or super discernible?

If you don't know what it sounds like, you don't have it. :)

Check out youtube. Just search 970 coil whine. Plenty out there. There's buzzing and then the full on high pitched squealing. People might have the former and not even know it depending on their case and how far they are from it, etc. The latter will most likely be heard regardless. It's pretty bad.
 
I hear a small clicking sound on the gpu. It usually lasts about 10 seconds or so and then stops. I heard it yesterday two times in the 6 or so hours I had the gpu plugged in. Is this a problem? It seems to be running perfectly fine otherwise.
 
I hear a small clicking sound on the gpu. It usually lasts about 10 seconds or so and then stops. I heard it yesterday two times in the 6 or so hours I had the gpu plugged in. Is this a problem? It seems to be running perfectly fine otherwise.

Yes it shouldn't click.
 
New Linus video about Zotac 970s Omega and Extreme editions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GbfmIuL86k&feature=youtu.be&a

So the Amp Omega was able to overclock better... but I'm really liking the overall look of the Amp Extreme. He also mentions that the extreme has more cooling potential. I have the Amp Extreme ordered on Amazon, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. I might cancel it and just wait a little longer.

Yeah man I would not suggest having them that close! You'd have two fans basically getting all the air blocked back into them.

Here's what it looks like on my rampage IV formula:
LuU0miA.jpg

Are those the Omega? What are your temperatures? Your rig looks awesome!
 
So the Amp Omega was able to overclock better... but I'm really liking the overall look of the Amp Extreme. He also mentions that the extreme has more cooling potential. I have the Amp Extreme ordered on Amazon, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. I might cancel it and just wait a little longer.



Are those the Omega? What are your temperatures? Your rig looks awesome!

They are the omegas, and they run pretty cool with a custom fan curve. Quiet too. I haven't seen temps go over 75 with both of them loaded at 99% (playing Witcher 2 at 2560x1600 with ubersampling) . My bottom card is generally 5 degrees cooler.
 
Now I have discovered the buzz on my Asus strix 970 rearing its head on a second game. Final fantasy xiii and now the witcher 2. Had it on ultra and I heard it in a field zone. Its not very audible but it is noticeable because it changes pitch and comes and goes.

So far those are the only two. Sigh. Its not bad in the grand scheme of things. Nothing says I would RMA it and not get a worse one.

Games that have been just fine - cs:go, skyrim downsampled, batman origins, ass creed black flag, all benchmarks I've tried.
 
Has any consensus been formed on which vendor is most reliable and has the least issues? I'm leaning towards the ASUS card, but would love to hear impressions.
 
From a 270X well worth it, and from a 280X pretty worth it.
Thank you, looking at the benches I think I can hold out a little bit longer if it's those FPS gains, are there any technological differences I should watch out for? I'm looking for something that the cards add that would be impossible on the 280x/270x (testing out new games during development is my main focus)
 
wow , mobile GPU is becoming too close to desktop GPU

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2970424

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they are really closing the gap in pascal
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Wow that performance from a 980M is something else!! If I had the money to buy a laptop with a 980M I would in a heartbeat.


man, a 980m variant would be great for a wii u sucessor in 2017-2018.

I second that. NVIDIA mobile processors are really good, and they'll continue to get better. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft should go with Nvidia, unless AMD can come with a really good APU solution, which seems like they will. Anyways that 980M sure is powerful!
 
Wow that performance from a 980M is something else!! If I had the money to buy a laptop with a 980M I would in a heartbeat.




I second that. NVIDIA mobile processors are really good, and they'll continue to get better. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft should go with Nvidia, unless AMD can come with a really good APU solution, which seems like they will. Anyways that 980M sure is powerful!

well, we will at least get a variant of the alpha with a 980m by the end of next year so ill probably buy an alienware alpha then. having a console capable of high end graphics at 4k will be nice.
 
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