Nvidia Launches GTX 980 And GTX 970 "Maxwell" Graphics Cards ($549 & $329)
- Thread starter georgc
- Start date
SolidSnakeUS
Member
Posted this in another thread:
I was just thinking to myself, if I was willing to go SLI (for the money), but don't really have the board for it right now, and would get one card, should I just buy a GTX 980 and then get another later? Is it worth going for the 980?
I was just thinking to myself, if I was willing to go SLI (for the money), but don't really have the board for it right now, and would get one card, should I just buy a GTX 980 and then get another later? Is it worth going for the 980?
corrosivefrost
Member
Still looking for some feedback here:
If more details are needed, I'm currently running an i5 3570k with 8gb of ram (which I'll probably double around black friday).
Other than that, I'm just looking for someone to give me some pointers, especially now that I'm seeing all these variations in this thread like the Zotac models...
If more details are needed, I'm currently running an i5 3570k with 8gb of ram (which I'll probably double around black friday).
Other than that, I'm just looking for someone to give me some pointers, especially now that I'm seeing all these variations in this thread like the Zotac models...
The GTX 970 is a high end card priced competitively. The GTX 980 is an enthusiast card priced with an enthusiast premium.
I recommend two GTX 970s. My 2 cents.
j0hnny_385
Member
Running BL2 maxed out fully at capped 60fps on a GTX 970 at 1920x1200.
No issues whatsoever.
maneil99
Member
Yes, I have the same case, you can remove the HDD case if you are using under 3 SSDs/HDDs but even if you don't it will fit, I have a 780 in mine. Your Mobo will be fine it has PCI-E 2.0 which might lose you .5% performance tops
L0st Id3ntity
Member
Guys
For 4k gaming, should I get 3/4 980s or wait and get 2 990s or whatever they will be called.
Thanks.
For 4k gaming, should I get 3/4 980s or wait and get 2 990s or whatever they will be called.
Thanks.
If you go 4k I'd hold out a tiny bit longer for the Pascal series cards and just enjoy a maxed out 1080p with "eloquent" 4k performance with a dual 980 setup.
Smart advice.
Unless you don't mind upgrading again soon, I'd say that you'll probably want more than 4GB vRAM at 2160p that the 980's have.
Yaska
Member
I finished the game with occasional dips with 580 gtx (3x native resolution), so yes.
Sure, but emulation is more CPU bound than anything. Fast Intel processor is what you really need.
That is more CPU bound than anything. My 2500k @4.2GHZ was able to handle it, yeah.
Kinematic9
Neo Member
I am having some drops as well, using Evga 980 SC - I think it seems to be related to Physx. I haven't tried updating to the newly released drivers yet, so these are the launch drivers. Not sure if those would help.
Felix Lighter
Member
There is a Dolphin benchmark you can run here:
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-new-dolphin-cpu-benchmark-no-game-required
Like others have said, it's most dependent on your CPUs single thread performance. Haswells get a big bump compared to previous generations clock for clock.
maneil99
Member
They just released a new bios, all new card's are running the new bios and DBA levels are 7-8dba's lower in idle and load
Wildschwein
Member
I'm definitely thinking that its Physx related. I've tried both drivers and every .ini tweak I could get my hands on.
Its really bizarre. No issues in other games whatsoever. Hell, I picked up Crysis 3 last night just to compare and it ran beautifully.
Hawk269
Member
I game at a real 4k resolution with GTX Titans and many of my games exceed the 4gb limit of the 980's. I am waiting for the next batch of cards. A friend brought over his SLI 980 rig to test on my 4k display and performance is there and exceeds my original Titans, but the 4gb limit, especially for some future proofing is why I am waiting. If they introduce 980 8gb, I might jump on 2 of them.
From what I understand, the chips in the 980's are already maxed out, so not sure if a TI model will have more performance outside of more VRAM, but who knows for sure.
jim2point0
Banned
Crazy that Planetside 2 is so CPU demanding that I get the same exact performance at 4K as I do at native res (2560x1440). FPS is 60-70 when I'm running around the world with drops to 30-40 during intense action (not even 1920x1080 improves this).
Planetside 2 at 4K is nice though. Some aspects of the UI don't scale too well though.
Planetside 2 at 4K is nice though. Some aspects of the UI don't scale too well though.
Oh man, so you're basically in the same boat, heh.
Hopefully soon we'll be off to greener pastures! I'm just hoping it actually comes wednesday. Then when Black Friday hits i'll be able to upgrade my monitor and BAM, i'll be set.
Brofist
Member
true story: I wish I got a 980 instead of my 2 970s
im already running into a lot of problems with SLI, or games just flat out not working with it :/
Sorry to hear that. As nice as SLI sounds I think most will agree having a single powerful GPU is a hell of a lot less hassle.
true story: I wish I got a 980 instead of my 2 970s
im already running into a lot of problems with SLI, or games just flat out not working with it :/
You will get used to it. Once you learn the ropes, it's really no problem at all.
I rarely ran into a game that you couldn't finagle a functioning SLI profile.
Wildschwein
Member
Installing Borderlands 2 to a Win7 partition seemed to completely fix my issues.
After I cleaned up some remnants of my old 5770 drivers, my Win 8.1 performance increased significantly, but I still had the occasional dip below 60fps. For whatever reason, my Win7 performance is noticeably higher. There's an increase in a range of 10-40fps.
I'm not sure if this is an issue with Borderlands 2, Physx, Windows 8.1, or some combination of the above. Or maybe it was just the difference with using a clean installation.
If some of you are also having trouble, that's one fix at least. My final results are in line with the windows issues I've seen reported with the game. In either case, once I got things sorted out, there were no drops below 40 on either setup in the most stressful areas of the game. Lowest drop on Win 7 was ~50. These are definitely Physx issues. Here's hoping The Pre Sequel is optimized a bit better.
After I cleaned up some remnants of my old 5770 drivers, my Win 8.1 performance increased significantly, but I still had the occasional dip below 60fps. For whatever reason, my Win7 performance is noticeably higher. There's an increase in a range of 10-40fps.
I'm not sure if this is an issue with Borderlands 2, Physx, Windows 8.1, or some combination of the above. Or maybe it was just the difference with using a clean installation.
If some of you are also having trouble, that's one fix at least. My final results are in line with the windows issues I've seen reported with the game. In either case, once I got things sorted out, there were no drops below 40 on either setup in the most stressful areas of the game. Lowest drop on Win 7 was ~50. These are definitely Physx issues. Here's hoping The Pre Sequel is optimized a bit better.
maneil99
Member
true story: I wish I got a 980 instead of my 2 970s
im already running into a lot of problems with SLI, or games just flat out not working with it :/
1 Great GPU > 2 Good GPUs
This is probably a really stupid question but does the 980 have nearly the overclocking potential as the 970 ?
Not knowing, I would guess 'no' because I would guess that a stock 980 is already somewhat closer to all of the power & heat limits compared to a stock 970.
Maybe that's not how it works, but I am asking.
Not knowing, I would guess 'no' because I would guess that a stock 980 is already somewhat closer to all of the power & heat limits compared to a stock 970.
Maybe that's not how it works, but I am asking.
intheinbetween
Member
after reading many 970/980 reviews, 980 isn't really worth it, it's barely a 20% more powerful than 970
j0hnny_385
Member
Holy shit! O_O
Will be interesting to see if there is a difference, I hope so.
Sutton Dagger
Member
Shit dude, that sucks. My G1 is absolutely whisper quiet. My 670 was loud in comparison.
I just ordered a Zotac GTX 970, the cheapest basic model, and I'm a bit afraid of how small the card is. I think I read somewhere that it is 20 cm long, the smallest GTX 970 yet.
Will it be loud as hell? Is it going to run hotter than the other manufacturers' cards? What about the overclocking potential?
I can't help but think that there must be some drawbacks to it. There are cards that are 50 % longer than it. I had to buy a new GPU, though, and it was the only reasonably priced available, but here I am getting second thoughts anyways.
Will it be loud as hell? Is it going to run hotter than the other manufacturers' cards? What about the overclocking potential?
I can't help but think that there must be some drawbacks to it. There are cards that are 50 % longer than it. I had to buy a new GPU, though, and it was the only reasonably priced available, but here I am getting second thoughts anyways.
ISee
Member
There is already a smaller one (Mini ITX, ~18cm long). The standart Zotac Cards are normaly louder and warmer then the rest, you can overclock them but I wouldn't recommend it. I had to make the same decision around 2 years ago and picked up a zotac gtx 660ti for 295 (~35 cheaper then the other 'good ones'). Performance wise it was good, I had no troubles with it, it never crashed, it had no errors etc. but in very demanding games it was loud and hot (80°C) especially during summer.
This really does support the theory that the coil whine depends on your system. Hopefully another brand will do the job.
I strongly suspect my replacement ASUS 970 will also have coil whine in my system. It'll be completely surprising to me if it doesn't. If it's out of stock when Newegg gets it, I may angle to get a MSI replacement.
It's weird, my G1 doesn't have coil whine, but certain games that it can run really well, like the WoW title screen, it does have a kind of coil whine. I limit the frames, and it's not going over 144fps, but with certain games it still makes sound. It doesn't happen with every game though, so I'm sure what it is.
I tested some of them in my brothers PC and it didn't change anything. My previous GTX770 from Gainward had no coil whine.
It can't be my system. It's Nvidias fault. I've had plenty of GPUs and I've never experienced something like that.
jfoul
Member
I received my ASUS 970 Strix today. Installed without a hitch, and the 0dB mode works as advertised. The ASIC quality is 83.9%, which is the highest of any GPU I've owned.
I listened for the coil whine with two case fans running in silent mode. The Strix does have like a ticking coil whine during Metro LL, Valley Bench and Furmark. It's pretty noticeable if my ear is 6 inches or less from the card. I can't really hear it beyond one foot of the card, with my head at case level.
My EVGA 780 SC ACX didn't have coil whine in this same setup. I will hold onto the Strix for a couple days before deciding on a return. If I do, I might go with the EVGA 970 FTW.
I listened for the coil whine with two case fans running in silent mode. The Strix does have like a ticking coil whine during Metro LL, Valley Bench and Furmark. It's pretty noticeable if my ear is 6 inches or less from the card. I can't really hear it beyond one foot of the card, with my head at case level.
My EVGA 780 SC ACX didn't have coil whine in this same setup. I will hold onto the Strix for a couple days before deciding on a return. If I do, I might go with the EVGA 970 FTW.
By system I mean the combination of PSU, how silent your case is (i.e. some people might have it and not hear it with their case), if you play with frames unlocked or locked, etc.
From all accounts, it's way too common on the 970s. There has to be some sort of build issue going on here.
The ticking crap is the same thing I had on my STRIX which caused me to return it. It's buzzing on low FPS in 50% of the games/benchmarks I did and if you manage to get it into the high thousands fps, it's REALLY obnoxious whining.
jfoul
Member
After more testing this is definitely going back. When I go up in resolution past 1080p and enabled max AA this thing really hisses and ticks. It either ticks, or hisses depending on the game or benchmark. Now I have to deal with with awesome Newegg support. Great.
Do what I did, sign up for 30 day free Newegg Premiere. They pay for the shipping label on the RMA, no restocking fees and have priority shipping.
I saved myself $15 not having to pay for the shipping label plus I should get the return card quicker. And as long as it's within the 30 days, if I get one with the same problem I'll just refund it completely before premiere is up for no restocking fee and wait until a 970 revision rolls around.