Clarification on 980 vs 780ti

[elletts]

Hi,

As someone who is looking to build a high end gaming machine, designed only for gaming, i was looking for some clarification on certain features between the 980 and 780ti, as I have read people are saying the 980 is better for gaming, yet the 780ti spec wise looks to beat it in more areas than not. (I know very little about this sort of thing ;P)

These are the 2 cards ive been looking at;

980: http://au.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=04G-P4-2983-KR&family=GeForce%20900%20Series%20Family&sw=
780ti: http://au.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=03G-P4-2888-KR&family=GeForce%20700%20Series%20Family&sw=

So I have a few questions as follows;

How important to gaming are cuda cores?
How important to gaming is the memory bandwidth, as well as 384bit over 256bit?
Whats the most important spec to look for when comparing cards for gaming?

Also any other advice as to why the 980 beats the 780ti will be appreciated, thanks

 

[ZandaThebigbluePanda]

cuda cores are like tiny'er' CPU cores now the 980 has less cores than the 780ti but the 980s cores are about 40% faster.

From what I've seen the gtx 980 does't beat the 780ti at all, its not meant to.
In fact there neck in neck... until you over clock the 980, now if we are talking about stock clocks only reasons to get the 980 over the 780ti is because 1: it tends to be cheaper 2: it uses less power 3: its quieter.

Now alot of these things are other peoples results. I will be buying a 980 next week. if this is still open i will post my tests

Edit:

Ps: I live in NZ soo i know the pain of techno prices.

 

[elletts]

Yea i live in Perth, Western Australia, so its ridiculously expensive here lol.

Also would anyone also recommend maybe holding off a couple months or so and wait to see if a 980ti is released?

 

[ZandaThebigbluePanda]

Yea i live in Perth, Western Australia, so its ridiculously expensive here lol.

Also would anyone also recommend maybe holding off a couple months or so and wait to see if a 980ti is released?

Tell me about it, auckland new zealand here. its about a 200% markup on everything.
If you can. please by all means wait for the 980ti but it may not be out until AMD releases there R9 3XXs.

But if you want, i can run some tests on my 980 when I get it.

 

[elletts]

Tell me about it, auckland new zealand here. its about a 200% markup on everything.
If you can. please by all means wait for the 980ti but it may not be out until AMD releases there R9 3XXs.

But if you want, i can run some tests on my 980 when I get it.

That would be awesome, thanks.

 

[ZandaThebigbluePanda]

I'm getting my new 980 within the next 36 hours, will have tests up in about 2-3 days

 

[ZandaThebigbluePanda]

just soo I know how the rest of your build compares to main rig can You post the specs,
My main is:
I7 4790k
8gb 2400mhz kingston ram
860watt corsair PSU
256GB SSD
1tb HDD WD blue
corsair 900D

Also I would like to know your case so I can at least estimate what temps you would run at

 

[ZandaThebigbluePanda]

extremely slow internet atm, just got my new machine built with the 980, downloading watch dogs right now. I will so do some bioshock infinite benchmarks.

 

[ZandaThebigbluePanda]

Bio-shock infinite(Ultra-1440p GTX 980):
min: 19.14
Avg: 79.79
Max: 295.57

Spoiler

Per Scene Stats:
Scene Duration (seconds), Average FPS, Min FPS, Max FPS, Scene Name
32.49, 72.78, 19.75, 295.57, Welcome Center
7.07, 73.21, 24.02, 90.70, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
21.78, 78.11, 19.14, 94.13, Town Center
8.11, 78.45, 36.10, 101.21, Raffle
9.09, 104.52, 41.69, 147.81, Monument Island
3.03, 111.41, 97.82, 114.09, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
81.58, 79.79, 19.14, 295.57, Overall


Elapsed Time (seconds), Average FPS, Min FPS, Max FPS, Scene Name
0.00, 80.58, 55.68, 83.19, Welcome Center
0.51, 81.86, 72.01, 96.04, Welcome Center
1.01, 82.05, 75.06, 83.87, Welcome Center
1.52, 82.35, 80.42, 83.01, Welcome Center
2.03, 81.76, 43.26, 295.57, Welcome Center
2.53, 80.96, 74.18, 82.69, Welcome Center
3.04, 79.73, 73.44, 81.47, Welcome Center
3.54, 80.51, 78.30, 81.78, Welcome Center
4.05, 76.71, 33.78, 81.41, Welcome Center
4.56, 79.04, 77.62, 79.95, Welcome Center
5.06, 77.05, 70.78, 79.18, Welcome Center
5.57, 75.12, 67.27, 77.64, Welcome Center
6.08, 66.45, 59.56, 71.80, Welcome Center
6.59, 56.28, 47.79, 65.37, Welcome Center
7.10, 59.06, 46.20, 66.29, Welcome Center
7.61, 59.93, 51.88, 66.47, Welcome Center
8.13, 55.80, 39.04, 60.99, Welcome Center
8.63, 56.60, 28.60, 67.04, Welcome Center
9.14, 58.02, 28.11, 71.45, Welcome Center
9.66, 54.63, 21.10, 68.55, Welcome Center
10.17, 59.98, 55.71, 64.15, Welcome Center
10.67, 64.36, 61.34, 66.30, Welcome Center
11.19, 63.37, 30.81, 76.62, Welcome Center
11.69, 67.65, 64.11, 69.84, Welcome Center
12.19, 67.75, 50.74, 78.69, Welcome Center
12.70, 61.49, 25.79, 74.79, Welcome Center
13.20, 66.45, 55.45, 74.21, Welcome Center
13.71, 62.22, 24.52, 80.58, Welcome Center
14.23, 64.32, 41.95, 70.12, Welcome Center
14.74, 63.16, 59.99, 71.04, Welcome Center
15.24, 73.94, 52.18, 85.80, Welcome Center
15.75, 83.32, 45.15, 94.01, Welcome Center
16.25, 78.87, 19.75, 96.16, Welcome Center
16.76, 81.95, 28.99, 93.11, Welcome Center
17.26, 85.13, 77.94, 86.59, Welcome Center
17.76, 72.87, 63.22, 84.97, Welcome Center
18.27, 65.56, 62.92, 66.73, Welcome Center
18.77, 69.65, 62.98, 82.02, Welcome Center
19.28, 87.18, 79.86, 91.04, Welcome Center
19.78, 88.09, 85.52, 89.77, Welcome Center
20.29, 88.33, 86.54, 90.71, Welcome Center
20.80, 85.82, 72.16, 88.09, Welcome Center
21.31, 84.34, 53.84, 94.58, Welcome Center
21.82, 88.82, 82.47, 91.47, Welcome Center
22.33, 87.12, 77.29, 94.24, Welcome Center
22.83, 80.60, 78.68, 83.05, Welcome Center
23.34, 85.22, 75.79, 88.88, Welcome Center
23.85, 76.28, 61.17, 87.97, Welcome Center
24.36, 65.43, 62.45, 68.14, Welcome Center
24.86, 64.38, 60.56, 69.35, Welcome Center
25.38, 70.33, 63.51, 74.01, Welcome Center
25.89, 76.45, 72.79, 79.73, Welcome Center
26.40, 76.46, 72.97, 79.80, Welcome Center
26.91, 73.57, 71.68, 75.12, Welcome Center
27.41, 70.10, 60.99, 75.94, Welcome Center
27.92, 69.51, 68.63, 70.37, Welcome Center
28.43, 69.59, 67.16, 71.21, Welcome Center
28.93, 69.98, 63.14, 71.59, Welcome Center
29.45, 70.31, 67.21, 71.12, Welcome Center
29.96, 69.72, 61.86, 71.22, Welcome Center
30.46, 69.98, 68.20, 70.86, Welcome Center
30.96, 70.02, 64.46, 73.05, Welcome Center
31.47, 70.09, 66.82, 72.23, Welcome Center
31.99, 73.71, 69.95, 76.67, Welcome Center
32.49, 75.92, 70.82, 77.87, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
32.99, 75.83, 64.87, 77.90, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
33.49, 77.01, 74.24, 78.30, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
34.00, 78.38, 75.60, 79.72, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
34.51, 79.10, 75.63, 81.38, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
35.01, 79.40, 73.55, 81.66, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
35.52, 79.33, 72.86, 81.56, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
36.02, 78.63, 70.17, 81.29, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
36.53, 68.60, 27.53, 81.59, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
37.04, 69.03, 34.65, 83.12, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
37.55, 65.25, 24.75, 90.70, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
38.05, 63.89, 24.02, 79.32, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
38.55, 68.82, 34.77, 88.81, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
39.06, 65.78, 29.62, 88.13, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
39.56, 69.73, 59.37, 74.00, Town Center
40.07, 68.31, 25.30, 74.57, Town Center
40.58, 69.35, 46.53, 74.36, Town Center
41.08, 69.52, 53.47, 72.96, Town Center
41.59, 70.89, 60.40, 72.73, Town Center
42.09, 72.44, 65.16, 75.04, Town Center
42.61, 73.48, 71.82, 74.59, Town Center
43.11, 72.06, 49.88, 86.91, Town Center
43.62, 71.23, 36.36, 86.11, Town Center
44.13, 74.86, 69.46, 83.97, Town Center
44.64, 71.16, 53.76, 76.69, Town Center
45.14, 76.63, 71.14, 80.65, Town Center
45.65, 80.22, 53.60, 87.58, Town Center
46.16, 82.17, 68.80, 84.19, Town Center
46.67, 81.73, 77.70, 83.40, Town Center
47.17, 77.97, 69.48, 81.34, Town Center
47.67, 76.29, 65.92, 78.68, Town Center
48.19, 77.24, 73.42, 78.75, Town Center
48.69, 77.57, 66.71, 79.09, Town Center
49.19, 74.87, 30.49, 91.91, Town Center
49.70, 78.08, 67.95, 81.08, Town Center
50.21, 76.09, 44.41, 87.13, Town Center
50.73, 79.40, 73.62, 81.87, Town Center
51.23, 79.81, 73.64, 82.50, Town Center
51.73, 80.05, 69.94, 81.87, Town Center
52.24, 78.25, 38.15, 84.38, Town Center
52.75, 83.77, 78.36, 87.51, Town Center
53.26, 83.68, 38.87, 90.37, Town Center
53.76, 79.12, 19.14, 94.13, Town Center
54.26, 87.23, 80.18, 90.74, Town Center
54.77, 83.92, 47.60, 89.48, Town Center
55.27, 85.11, 77.04, 87.09, Town Center
55.77, 84.51, 82.44, 86.47, Town Center
56.28, 84.84, 83.27, 86.36, Town Center
56.79, 84.38, 78.46, 86.68, Town Center
57.30, 83.98, 76.66, 90.23, Town Center
57.80, 85.81, 83.52, 87.57, Town Center
58.30, 85.47, 75.86, 87.75, Town Center
58.80, 83.42, 73.19, 85.63, Town Center
59.31, 82.09, 75.25, 83.32, Town Center
59.82, 78.01, 73.33, 84.13, Town Center
60.33, 70.80, 33.11, 75.18, Town Center
60.84, 73.14, 66.81, 78.88, Town Center
61.35, 77.37, 64.83, 82.67, Raffle
61.85, 80.26, 76.92, 83.74, Raffle
62.36, 76.45, 38.06, 87.35, Raffle
62.87, 77.23, 62.71, 79.67, Raffle
63.38, 75.47, 67.16, 78.61, Raffle
63.88, 74.48, 65.90, 76.50, Raffle
64.39, 73.18, 69.43, 74.49, Raffle
64.89, 71.61, 42.66, 81.78, Raffle
65.40, 73.56, 67.16, 75.40, Raffle
65.90, 72.99, 36.10, 87.53, Raffle
66.41, 76.78, 73.99, 79.11, Raffle
66.92, 76.95, 46.40, 86.73, Raffle
67.42, 81.31, 74.23, 83.80, Raffle
67.93, 82.23, 63.66, 85.16, Raffle
68.44, 88.05, 78.66, 92.49, Raffle
68.95, 97.22, 87.40, 101.21, Raffle
69.45, 102.93, 92.55, 105.45, Monument Island
69.96, 93.42, 41.69, 105.09, Monument Island
70.46, 92.45, 80.53, 95.72, Monument Island
70.97, 91.50, 87.42, 93.81, Monument Island
71.47, 94.79, 86.00, 98.49, Monument Island
71.98, 99.26, 81.95, 130.72, Monument Island
72.48, 102.05, 91.31, 104.45, Monument Island
72.99, 102.81, 56.53, 121.89, Monument Island
73.50, 106.73, 94.95, 110.24, Monument Island
74.00, 109.53, 101.26, 111.22, Monument Island
74.50, 110.69, 109.72, 111.57, Monument Island
75.01, 110.83, 108.64, 112.19, Monument Island
75.52, 110.38, 96.05, 114.75, Monument Island
76.02, 109.88, 82.77, 147.81, Monument Island
76.52, 110.87, 102.65, 115.32, Monument Island
77.03, 111.19, 109.02, 112.14, Monument Island
77.53, 110.85, 98.02, 113.06, Monument Island
78.04, 111.16, 106.34, 112.33, Monument Island
78.54, 110.48, 98.91, 112.01, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
79.05, 110.82, 102.70, 112.06, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
79.55, 110.82, 97.82, 112.25, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
80.06, 111.82, 109.10, 113.82, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
80.56, 112.11, 99.55, 114.09, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
81.07, 112.40, 103.53, 114.06, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section


Version Info: 32Bit Exe - 1.0.1643565 3/16/2014 12:00:00 AM
Commandline Used: DefaultPCBenchmarkMap.xcmap -ForceCompatLevel=7 -resx=2560 -resy=1440 -nosound -norumble -noPauseOnLossOfFocus -fullscreen -runfrombenchmarkbat -DEFENGINEINI=..\..\XGame\Config\DefaultEngineSteamworks.ini

Settings Used:
[SystemSettings]
StaticDecals=true
DynamicDecals=true
UnbatchedDecals=true
DynamicShadows=true
DirectionalLightmaps=true
DepthOfField=true
DiffusionDepthOfField=true
Bloom=true
Distortion=true
FilteredDistortion=true
DropParticleDistortion=false
bAllowDownsampledTranslucency=true
bUseMaxQualityMode=false
OnlyStreamInTextures=false
LensFlares=true
OneFrameThreadLag=true
UseVsync=false
VsyncTo60WhenUnder30=false
UpscaleScreenPercentage=true
AllowD3D10=true
AllowD3D11=true
AllowRadialBlur=true
EnableSoftwareOcclusion=false
EnableGPUOcclusionQueries=true
EnableDepthPrePass=false
bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=true
bForceCPUAccessToGPUSkinVerts=false
bDisableSkeletalInstanceWeights=false
EnableScreenSpaceAmbientShadows=true
EnableSPUScreenSpaceAmbientShadows=true
UseHighQualityLightShaftRendering=true
EnableSM5ShadowSystem=true
EnableSM5ShadowBlur=true
EnableLightShafts=true
EnableFXAA=true
EnableSM5FXAA=false
EnableHDAO=true
HDAOHighQuality=true
DisableAOFiltering=false
UseLowPrecisionColorBuffer=false
UseHalfResAmbientShadows=false
UseComputeShaderAmbientShadows=true
bInitializeShadersOnDemand=false
bEnableParallelApexClothingFetch=false
SkeletalMeshLODBias=0
ParticleLODBias=0
DetailMode=2
ShadowFilterQualityBias=3
MaxAnisotropy=16
MinShadowResolution=64
MaxShadowResolution=2048
MaxPerObjectShadowResolution=2048
CullCastersSmallerThanTexels=0
ResX=2560
ResY=1440
UnbuiltNumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=3
ShadowFadeResolution=128
LightFadeResolution=0
LightMinResolution=0
GraphicsQualityLevel=5
DisplayMode=1
MaxPrecachePrimitivesPerFrame=50
ApexDestructionMaxChunkIslandCount=2147483647
ApexDestructionMaxShapeCount=2147483647
ApexClothingAvgSimFrequencyWindow=60
ScreenPercentage=100.000
SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000
ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.273
ShadowDepthBias=0.012
ShadowDepthBiasWorstCase=0.003
CSMSplitSoftTransitionDistanceScale=4.000
CSMSplitDepthBiasScale=0.500
UnbuiltWholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=20000.000
ShadowFadeExponent=0.700
LightFadeExponent=1.000
DecalCullDistanceScale=1.000
SM5ShadowSunWidth=0.100
SM5ShadowSunWidthWorstCase=50.000
NewShadowPenumbra=8.000
NewShadowSplitPenumbraScale=0.500
NewShadowFilterWidth=2.000
ShadowCascadeScale=1.000
NewCSMSoftTransitionDistance=600.000
NewNonCSMSoftTransitionDistance=60.000
MassiveLODDistanceBias=0.100
CullDistanceBias=0.100
StaticMeshLODDistanceBias=0.100
SkeletalMeshLODDistanceBias=0.100
ParticleSystemLODDistanceBias=0.100
DistortionFadeResolution=1.000
DistortionMinResolution=0.000
SM5DiffusionNearBlurScale=0.600
SM5DiffusionFarBlurScale=0.350
OverallTextureStreamingBias=1.500
ParticleCountHardLimitScaleFactor=10.000
MaxDistanceToApplyOcclusionRotationalScaling=5000.000
ApexLODResourceBudget=1000000020040877300000.000
ApexDestructionMaxChunkSeparationLOD=1.000

[MachineInfo]
OS: Windows 8
GraphicsVendor: 000010DE (NVIDIA)
DeviceID: 000013C0
DeviceName: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
IsDX11: 1
DriverVer: 9.18.13.4416
Physical Mem: 8039MB
CPUName: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Hyperthreaded: 1
NumProcessorsPerCPU: 1
NumLogicalProcessors: 8
NumPhysicalProcessors: 8
CoresPerProcessor: 8

MSI After Burner(Stress Test)

Spoiler

 

[elletts]

Nice

Well this is basically the parts i have selected so far, only thing missing is the GFX Card, which i might actually get the 980;

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/YtdY23

Any suggestions on what might be better alternative on different parts would always be welcome too.

Ive been saving for a long time for this

 

[renz496]

[

How important to gaming are cuda cores?

did you mean how many they are in general or how relevant nvidia CUDA to gaming?

How important to gaming is the memory bandwidth, as well as 384bit over 256bit?

as long as the memory bandwidth did not holding the cards performance. but bigger total bandwidth did not always equal to better performance. and bigger width bus vs smaller wifth bus is another popular topic when people talk about gpu. but most often i see people only look at one aspect when talking about memory interface. in general people like to believe bigger memory interface simply better without understanding why GPU maker pick smaller or bigger memory interface for their card. to me rather than memory interface (like 256 bit vs 384 bit) the more important aspect is total bandwidth and how efficient the gpu itself utilize all those available bandwidth.

Whats the most important spec to look for when comparing cards for gaming?

sometimes looking at the spec will only get you confused. rather than spec real world performance is more important.