Nvidia GeForce GTX 1000 Series (Pascal) MegaThread: FAQ and Resources

[BurgerandChips66]

I always turn off motion blur. I hate it. If I need to, I don't mind dialling down the AA a bit either. If I still need more fps I always turn shadows down if it helps... in some games 'medium' is enough for me.

As for the rest, I find little aesthetic difference between 'High/Very High' and 'Ultra'. Obviously if it doesn't affect the performance target I'll leave everything maxed out.

Playing on both PC and consoles reminds me that it's the performance that counts, not the eye-candy!

 

[U6b36ef]

Yes I am a 1080p max settings user, with my GTX 980. Note my monitor is only 22" (or 21.5").

I read an article about high vs ulta settings. The reviewer said they couldn't see any difference, compared to the performance drop. However I have not tried this recently. The last time I tried it was probably Crysis and the difference was obvious.

One game that I know the GTX 980 won't do max at 1080p, is Rise of the Tomb Raider. The Witcher 3 will not either. I recall even Fallout 4 won't. There are quite a lot of games, and new stuff like Shadow of War won't. The 980 won't have enough vRAM to run SoW max probably.

I am going to have a think about this idea of lower settings. However I played The Witcher 3 on max and loved it. I even ran it at 1440p DSR maxed out for sometimes.

There are some max settings that I think are important though. (Am thinking of Yuka's list.)
1. I found HBAO made all the difference in Fallout 4, compared to the lesser setting. It made F4 look more alive.
2. I like either to push to 1440p DSR or run anti-aliasing. I usually opt for FXAA. Some games just need more aggressive anti-aliasing at 1080p though. I find this important because it takes the sparkle off. E.g if you go to a town in The Witcher 3. Then look at 1080p with whatever TW3 uses for lower AA. Then switch to 1440p, the difference if clear. Alaising on characters is gone, and they don't sparkle as they move. They seem more colourful too. ...... While this is 1440p though, so for the same effect at 1080p. TW3 @ 1080p with max settings, and high AA, it's going to struggle a bit.

Therefor even at 1080p yes I think GTX 980 is getting a bit old. It does very well though and most games it keeps near to or constant 60fps. For games like Rise of the Tomb Raider, well simply I have not bought that yet. Firstly because I will wait for a sale, and secondly I may wait until I have a more powerful card.

 

[TMTOWTSAC]

Since the 1070 ti looks like a real thing and any day now, it makes me think Volta is quite a ways off. Nvidia will probably just keep milking Pascal/Pascal refresh for the foreseeable future. As tempting as it would be to blame miners and a lack of competition, it probably has more to do with the state of VRAM at the moment. Costs are bouncing around and competing standards are still fighting it out. AMD took a gamble being first with consumer HBM2 and it hurt margins. Nvidia has the luxury of being able to sit back and see how things shake out cost/performance wise between the new memory architectures. If they wind up being able to go with GDDR6 in 2018, it would put a big crimp on HBM2 adoption and manufacturer scaling, and that would be a real headache for AMD moving forward.

 

[U6b36ef]

I just did a bit of reading about high vs ultra. I came across a vid on a website. It said way back in the day of Crysis, settings mattered, and said low looked like potato.... That's what I recall; I remember the difference between high and v.high. I just carried this impression with me over time.

However the video expressed that more modern gaming very high is more likely to include post-processing. Now I am confused as to what to think. I did see differences between high and ultra in some of the examples in that vid I found.

I usually aim for ultra, and then turn off stuff that I don't need.

Either way though I have 1440p g-sync on my mind, so I think I will need a much more powerful card sometime.


@TMTOWTSAC,
faster RAM would be awesome. I hope it won't mean another huge price hike though.

I think Nvidia are releasing the 1070 Ti to compete with one of the AMD cards.

 

[U6b36ef]

I am starting to wonder if I should have jumped and bought a 1080 or 1080 Ti. The prices on Amazon UK have gone up a bit. The Asus 1080 Ti (non-OC version) has risen from £725 to £800. (The overclocked version up to £812.) .. The MSI has risen from £725 to £758. ..... The 1080 prices have risen a bit too.

I wonder if this is due to mining or Amazon. I hope the prices will drop again.

Admittedly it's one thing knowing that the 1060/1070 is the best mining card. However some folk will still be buying the 1080/Ti to mine with.

 

[renz496]

Do you really need the performance now? If not better waiting for next gen.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Going back to the ultra vs high detail argument, turning down which settings definitely depends on the game engine and the game devs. There are certain settings in one game that look better at certain settings than another.

I think volta is coming out next year, that's my personal opinion. Since we got the 1070 TI, that mean's we aren't getting a Pascal Refresh, which probably means volta is actually closer than we think. The 1070 TI was merely a battle ax against Vega 56.

 

[U6b36ef]

With my 980, The Witcher 3 will not maintain 60fps, at 1080p max settings even with Nvidia hairworks turned off. Fallout 4 would drop under 60fps too. There are a few games that do it.

Plus I use Nvidia DSR at 1440p sometimes, because it tidies games up pretty well. I am also thinking of getting a 1440p monitor, as I need more screen space in Cubase.

Laying aside the high vs ultra settings debate, I still will need a bit more power. I'll need a lot more for 1440p, and clearly more vRAM.

However if I were staying at 1080p, I truly think I would wait for Volta. I still might do this, (meaning keeping my 1080p monitor and 980 for a while.) The 980 is still quite powerful, and keeps me relatively happy.

It depends really on what I do in the near future. Whether I lose it, with v-sync stutter and grab a g-sync monitor. That is very possible.

 

[TechyInAZ]

With how expensive monitors are right now, you might be better off just buying a 1070 or 1070 ti.

 

[U6b36ef]

Maybe. (I did think vaguely about it.) I was reading up about IPS monitors, and while smaller ones are reasonably priced, large ones are expensive to produce. Add onto that g-sync and the cost is prohibitive. Even if you can afford it, the cost is still a stumbling block.

I keep thinking over what to buy: monitor, card, Ti card. Never making up my mind. Prices have just increased on Amazon, and I am scared it might be mining that's done it. Either that or they are boosting prices now in anticipation for Black Friday. However stuff like GPU doesn't generally end up in Black Friday reductions.

I *think", that eventually I will end up with a bigger screen. Cubase really struggles on a smaller monitor. You end up continually sizing and re-sizing tracks. .. There is no way I want to go 4K or 1080p at maybe 27". (1080p would be aliasing like a beast. 4K would crush any GPU.)

Therefor I am going to need a more powerful GPU. I am also considering though that, I could run my GTX 980 for a while even with 1440p. It still has plenty of power. Since I am sure I would buy g-sync, I think I would OK for frame rate. Meaning 40fps would be no issue at all, as it would be stutter free. You can go down to 30 fps with g-sync. Even under 30fps, I read that the monitor sends two images the same at a time. Therefor keeping your image tear free. (You'd only get slide-show under 24 fps.)

 

[renz496]

Last pascal before volta?

https://videocardz.com/73863/nvidia-preparing-titan-x-collectors-edition

 

[TechyInAZ]

I hope it's a volta card, we don't need another pascal GPU.

 

[U6b36ef]

I just had another look on Amazon (UK), and they hardly have any cards. They don't have any 1080 Ti, in Asus, MSI, and their Gigabyte are on back order.

I wonder if there is some kind of slow down.

I was just figuring that a customer right now it might be better to wait for Volta. Basically because they are buying 1080 Ti, and 1080, at the same price as they were when released. However those who bought their cards a year ago will have had more use out of them.

 

[U6b36ef]

Update on what I have been chatting about recently, and to stuff folk were trying to help me with.

I bought a 1440p monitor (G-sync monitor). I will need a new card now, if I am to continue with max settings. I will have to choose between 1080 and 1080 Ti.

My GTX 980 struggles a bit at 1440p. However I thought it would be OK, and I have outlined why in a new thread. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-3567925/sync-worth-starting.html

 

[U6b36ef]

Finally decided and ordered the MSI 1080 Ti.

Here's hoping it has no coil whine. I figured I needed some more power to drive the 1440p monitor. Also the 1080 Ti will allow me to play in 4K DSR if I want.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Finally decided and ordered the MSI 1080 Ti.

Here's hoping it has no coil whine. I figured I needed some more power to drive the 1440p monitor. Also the 1080 Ti will allow me to play in 4K DSR if I want.

Actually it's impossible to get 4k DSR exactly on 1440P, cause 1440P isn't a multiple of 4k, so if you want around 4k it's going to be like 3.8k and 4.2k ish. But you can run the full 5k res in DSR.

 

[U6b36ef]

Finally decided and ordered the MSI 1080 Ti.

Here's hoping it has no coil whine. I figured I needed some more power to drive the 1440p monitor. Also the 1080 Ti will allow me to play in 4K DSR if I want.

Actually it's impossible to get 4k DSR exactly on 1440P, cause 1440P isn't a multiple of 4k, so if you want around 4k it's going to be like 3.8k and 4.2k ish. But you can run the full 5k res in DSR.

OK cool. I hope I get Much fun out of it. I am putting a 100fps or 120 fps cap on my 144Hz monitor, to preserve wattage power usage. 100fps or 120fps is smooth enough.

Many of my games would not get high enough frame rates with my GTX 980. I figured the 1080 would do it but not for too long, so I ditched financial common sense and bought the 1080 Ti. ... Anyway I thought if mining moves prices up, better to get something now.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Mining should be going down, then we'll probably have another mining boom in 2020 LOL.

But FYI, my 1080 (not a TI) runs titanfall 2 and Star Citizen at 1440P at 90-100FPS.

 

[U6b36ef]

Mining should be going down, then we'll probably have another mining boom in 2020 LOL.

But FYI, my 1080 (not a TI) runs titanfall 2 and Star Citizen at 1440P at 90-100FPS.

Well Nvidia have creatively designed cards that have no output to a monitor, especially for mining. Hopefully that will ease pressure from us gamers.

Possibly I have bought at the wrong time. Like if I had bought even a few months ago, I would have had more time with a 1080 ti. ................ No point dwelling on that though.

With ref to what you say about frame rates. I am stunned that my GTX 980 is playing Doom at such high frame rates at 1440p. (My 1080 Ti is arriving tomorrow.) .. When I played Doom on my 1080p monitor and used DSR to 1440p, it would sometimes struggle. However I have played three level and been hitting 100fps no problem, (and I had it capped at 100fps). .. Same with Serious Sam 3 DLC, that I have been playing about with; 125fps no problem.

There are some games that are really struggling though. E.g. Homefront: The Revolution, The Witcher 3.

 

[renz496]

With homefront i think it is more of optimization issue. The game saw some struggles during it's development. For the witcher 3 that game simply that demanding.

 

[U6b36ef]

Homefront: TR, and TW3, are managing about the same fps. (New 1080 Ti, 1440p. Both max settings 80-20fps; capped at 120fps.) I think genuinely think Homefront: TR is underestimated as a game, and graphically. Excellent gunplay, and some visually great effects. ... Talking of great visuals, Doom on 27" (capped at 120fps), is bleed'n brilliant. I mean I liked Doom on my 22" and played it a lot. On 27" though with the superior colour accuracy, and better dot pitch, it's something else entirely.

 

[mr91]

Volta is out! Titan V!

 

[U6b36ef]

Has everyone noticed what's happening to Pascal card prices. All cards prices have rocketed up, due to crypto-mining.

Jaystwocents, and Hardware Unboxed have made videos about it too now.

 

[renz496]

Mining is just one factor. Nvidia have a habit to stop their production much earlier before the next series arrive. This is to make sure they don't have massive old generation in stock and have to give official price cut to encourage sales. Now combined with crypto demand that caused shortage and price increase that we see now.

Though i do heard another story. This coming from someone that deal directly with manufacturer. They said the GPU itself is still in good supply but right now there is simply no memory module to "complete" the package.

 

[U6b36ef]

Apparently there is also a wave of new gamers buying cards with the Chinese market. It's said that lots of Chinese people are taking up gaming and buying cards, to play Player Unknown Battlegrounds.


(EDIT sorry: This is for RAM prices for PCs and not for graphics cards.
I have heard of a lack of DDR4 due to it being taken up for use in phones too.)