Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 And 980 Review: Maximum Maxwell

[zfreak280]

One article I read claimed that fab optimization was the lowest level of optimization with GM204 and that architectural improvements were the highest. I'm not convinced that is true, but correct me if I am wrong. Take the 970 vs 770 for example. The 970 has ~10% more Cuda cores and ~10% high clock speed over the 770. Based on these initial test results, if a 770 had 10% more cores and 10% more clock, then it would perform nearly identically to the 970. The 970 also uses more power than the 770, but only ~10% more. If you are getting the same performance per cuda core as before, but you are achieving higher over clocks and consuming less power, then it sounds like this is more of a fab optimization than an architectural optimization.

 

[IQ11110002]

980ti or Titan II on 20nm with display port 1.3 for future 4k 120hz screens that's what I want, Not midrange cards on same process as my 780's.
Mind you it is still full credit to Nvidia for bringing a pretty awesome architecture to the market, Performing more than 780ti while using 100w or so less power AND being cheaper this is exactly what the stagnant gpu market needs. I can't wait to see AMD's response which will force their new cards a little earlier and also lower current prices, Great times for consumers at last!

 

[smeezekitty]

980ti or Titan II on 20nm with display port 1.3 for future 4k 120hz screens that's what I want, Not midrange cards on same process as my 780's.
Mind you it is still full credit to Nvidia for bringing a pretty awesome architecture to the market, Performing more than 780ti while using 100w or so less power AND being cheaper this is exactly what the stagnant gpu market needs. I can't wait to see AMD's response which will force their new cards a little earlier and also lower current prices, Great times for consumers at last!

Beating all the current single cards on the market is hardly "mid-range"

 

[The_Icon]

The GTX 970 is the true master in my opinion: Killer performance for a midrange price point with ample room for overclocking. AMD should be really worried about this card.

As a R9 290 owner, I am quite jealous of this. Lets see how AMD responds to this.

 

[The_Icon]

2x GTX 970 in SLI for 630$ or less instead of a single GTX 980. For 80$ more, you are getting so much power.

 

[smeezekitty]

^^ Yeah .. too much price gap between the 970 and 980

 

[rdc85]

....Good stuff here - but you guys were a bit slow on this one. ...

they have been slow in the news section also, but again i would better read quality review instead rushed one.
so take your time ..

I'm wondering is the power spike will limit the PSU choice?
something like in R9 295X2, where some PSU can handle it because a better quality component/design
where the other fails even they have more than enough power ..

 

[Lascar]

So would it be worth me upgrading to the 970 if I have 2 R9 280xs in Crossfire right now? Would it be worth the performance boost?

Actually you would be killing yourself and wasting money, R9 280x in CF vs single 970? no question there.

So I'm assuming you're saying stay with the R9s ? Couldn't really tell with your answer. If I could sell the cards yeah I'd lose money but it would be coming out even in that department.

Yes sorry it was a bit of sarcasm there. You have a good thing going with the 2 xR9, keep them going. unless you are building a whole new cheaper priced system.

R9 280x is more or less gtx 770, and gtx 970 is more or less gtx 770 too. So lets say that you have about 2x gtx 970 already just maybe less performance on single card due to older tech. But that is just about it. I have a friend asked me last night if he should move from his 770 to his 970 and honestly it would be a waste. he would lose about a 100$ and have to invest another 100$ to see barely any difference.

For people intending to build a new rig with power efficiency in mind, this would be it. Otherwise i would not even recommend anyone to upgrade from an existing card as from r9 280x, 285, hell not even 270x i would tell them to add another 270x if their PSU can manage it.

 

[Lascar]

....Good stuff here - but you guys were a bit slow on this one. ...

they have been slow in the news section also, but again i would better read quality review instead rushed one.
so take your time ..

I'm wondering is the power spike will limit the PSU choice?
something like in R9 295X2, where some PSU can handle it because a better quality component/design
where the other fails even they have more than enough power ..

power spikes will not limit PSU choice. most PSUs if not all of them have tons of regulators to avoid issues 99% of the time.
My antec has gone through many thunderstrikes power cut, and lots of general power cut, and probably tons of power surges and it is still alive and its not even on surge protection or ups .

But in this case it is not current from the outlet to PSU. This case it is from the PSU to the GFX. Which means that momentarily the PSU will have to deliver a peak amount of energy to drive it, and any good bronze rated PSU will do that without issues provided it is not defective and can properly deliver its rated values.

Of course you may have to check ratings on the rails to be perfectly sure. but honestly these spikes do not seem threatening to me. And since these cards are fresh from the oven they may be needing some tweaks.

 

[TopLuca]

I wonder whg anybody would still pay for AMD's R9 290 series , no hate towards AMD as I own their cards and for the past while the price/performance of the 290 was tough to beat however with the release if the 970 that throne is taken and the features added by Nvidia were quite impressive even though some of them seem useless at the time however they have a very good build for the future. Hats off Nvidia surely now they can't be caught as they got price/performance right which was the main advantage of their counterpart.

 

[Lascar]

980ti or Titan II on 20nm with display port 1.3 for future 4k 120hz screens that's what I want, Not midrange cards on same process as my 780's.
Mind you it is still full credit to Nvidia for bringing a pretty awesome architecture to the market, Performing more than 780ti while using 100w or so less power AND being cheaper this is exactly what the stagnant gpu market needs. I can't wait to see AMD's response which will force their new cards a little earlier and also lower current prices, Great times for consumers at last!

Hmm i do not think amd will be updating their catalogue anytime soon. They are still working on when and how to deliver new architecture for CPU, and if they havent responded to 750Ti 2 months after its release, i do not see them doing it anytime soon.

 

[Lascar]

I wonder whg anybody would still pay for AMD's R9 290 series , no hate towards AMD as I own their cards and for the past while the price/performance of the 290 was tough to beat however with the release if the 970 that throne is taken and the features added by Nvidia were quite impressive even though some of them seem useless at the time however they have a very good build for the future. Hats off Nvidia surely now they can't be caught as they got price/performance right which was the main advantage of their counterpart.

I have always supported amd for their price performance ratio. Yup i was totally impressed this time and well, admittedly the 290 will outperform the 970 in most games but only by perhaps 8% which cannot justify 100$ more since the new maxwell releases. Pretty much everyone who has been amd supporter like me has been impressed really, mainly because of the price tag on first release. nvidia has never offered these kind of prices before and this is what is the most impressive.

 

[somebodyspecial]

Nvidia shows us what second-gen Maxwell architecture can do with its new GM204 chip and the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 graphics cards that wield it.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 And 980 Review: Maximum Maxwell : Read more

Someone else may have commented, but just in case: I'm I getting this correct in that you didn't benchmark any of the cards as shipped (the OC cards I mean?)? Why do you NOT show what I'm going to BUY if that is the case? I'm not sure why anyone EVER ships you guys a card that isn't reference when all you do is turn them into crap cards the second they arrive. The point of buying an OC card (or heck the point of them shipping it to you) is for you to BENCHMARK THEM AS BOUGHT!

What a waste of reading. Good article (a lot of good stuff but ruined by monkeying with the clocks), but I have to go elsewhere now to see how they REALLY perform. I have yet to purchase a REF card in my lifetime...LOL. Only an idiot would when something is right next to it on the shelf FAR above ref for either the same price or $10 difference. I don't understand why toms does this across the board. It is a stupid policy. Am I buying ref clocks when purchasing an Windforce OC? NOPE. I'm confused every time I read video card reviews at this site. "we're taking this factory overclocked card you'd NORMALLY buy, and neutering it in a way only morons would do to show you...well we don't know, stupid results you'd never get buying this thing they shipped us...You're welcome..." ROFL. Whatever. If you're going to do this crap, at least include the REAL clocks ALSO.

I'm having a really hard time not swearing at you guys (...Again...Every single time you review cards at toms, not you personally, I mean the entire site, should always benchmark AS SHIPPED TO YOU....).

Great engineering on NV's part, unfortunately this will lead to a price cut from AMD and probably yet another quarterly loss in the end here. Great for buyers, but not long term viability of AMD. The engineering of a company with no debt and cash in the bank is showing it's face here. You can see the results of the quarterly reports of both company's R&D here (NV going up 3-4yrs, AMD going down for 3-4yrs in a row....Now you're seeing results of that). On the bright side, I can't wait to see a 20nm maxwell. I'm uninterested in 28nm fakes even as good as it is. Amazing to see how good they can do with ~20% less space and massive transistor drop, but still only interested in 20nm (the real deal from both sides).

 

[Lascar]

Nvidia shows us what second-gen Maxwell architecture can do with its new GM204 chip and the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 graphics cards that wield it.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 And 980 Review: Maximum Maxwell : Read more

Someone else may have commented, but just in case: I'm I getting this correct in that you didn't benchmark any of the cards as shipped (the OC cards I mean?)? Why do you NOT show what I'm going to BUY if that is the case? I'm not sure why anyone EVER ships you guys a card that isn't reference when all you do is turn them into crap cards the second they arrive. The point of buying an OC card (or heck the point of them shipping it to you) is for you to BENCHMARK THEM AS BOUGHT!

What a waste of reading. Good article (a lot of good stuff but ruined by monkeying with the clocks), but I have to go elsewhere now to see how they REALLY perform. I have yet to purchase a REF card in my lifetime...LOL. Only an idiot would when something is right next to it on the shelf FAR above ref for either the same price or $10 difference. I don't understand why toms does this across the board. It is a stupid policy. Am I buying ref clocks when purchasing an Windforce OC? NOPE. I'm confused every time I read video card reviews at this site. "we're taking this factory overclocked card you'd NORMALLY buy, and neutering it in a way only morons would do to show you...well we don't know, stupid results you'd never get buying this thing they shipped us...You're welcome..." ROFL. Whatever. If you're going to do this crap, at least include the REAL clocks ALSO.

I'm having a really hard time not swearing at you guys (...Again...Every single time you review cards at toms, not you personally, I mean the entire site, should always benchmark AS SHIPPED TO YOU....).

Great engineering on NV's part, unfortunately this will lead to a price cut from AMD and probably yet another quarterly loss in the end here. Great for buyers, but not long term viability of AMD. The engineering of a company with no debt and cash in the bank is showing it's face here. You can see the results of the quarterly reports of both company's R&D here (NV going up 3-4yrs, AMD going down for 3-4yrs in a row....Now you're seeing results of that). On the bright side, I can't wait to see a 20nm maxwell. I'm uninterested in 28nm fakes even as good as it is. Amazing to see how good they can do with ~20% less space and massive transistor drop, but still only interested in 20nm (the real deal from both sides).

Start supplying them with reference cards then?

 

[mapesdhs]

Small point about the charts: the left-hand image navigation arrow obscures the LHS chart names. Maybe it's a js issue,
but I assume these image navigation arrows are supposed to hide themselves if the mouse is not over the image area?
On many charts it means one can't see which card is which in the middle part of the results.


Re pricing: $550 would be great, but alas at least here in the UK (delighted to still be in it btw!) the usual markup ripoff
is in action, typical prices equating to more like $700 to $750.

Ian.

 

[west7]

The gtx 970 is the first nvidia card that make me wanna buy it from a long time amazing performance for 330$ card

 

[azzazel_99]

All these double posts!!!!!!!! Stop the madness!!!!!!! On a lighter note the new evga precision X seems to have unlocked the voltage on the cards..... Anyone else seeing that on their 780 or 780ti's? Also seems to identify whether or not you have a classified card or not which is kinda cool. I thought only bios updates could unlock voltage but where the old precision x had a locked out voltage slider now it's unlocked and adjustable. Mine sit at 1150mv but I can go way up from there....

 

[miggtt699]

There's a mistake on page "test system and benchmarks" at the beginning, it says 9970 instead of GTX 970

 

[JSC_Tom]

FINALLY Nvidia comes back with a reasonable price/perf ratio. Kudos!

 

[Ninjawithagun]

I'm calling BS on the verdict. The overall performance of the new GTX980 is underwhelming at best. They are Nvidia's new mid-tier card family and are definitely NOT Worth upgrading to from my two GTX780s. On the other hand, the GTX 970 offers a great performance for price choice to those looking to upgrade from an older series card setup. I say no thanks and don't buy the marketing hype. I'll wait until the GTX980Ti is released before deciding again whether or not to upgrade.

 

[dalauder]

I would like some discussion of WHY the 970 beat 980 on watchdogs at 1080p. You run these graphics tests 3 times, right? So why does that consistently happen?

 

[LookItsRain]

I really want to see what happens to the prices on the rest of the market. Near 780 performance for 330 dollars. The 280x and 770 will have to drop in price to sell thus dropping the prices of the cards below them.
Well, would be great if this happened

 

[solkeher]

So a 970 SLI setup seems like the best deal...

Yep I'm totally getting two 970s

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I'm calling BS on the verdict. The overall performance of the new GTX980 is underwhelming at best. They are Nvidia's new mid-tier card family and are definitely NOT Worth upgrading to from my two GTX780s. On the other hand, the GTX 970 offers a great performance for price choice to those looking to upgrade from an older series card setup. I say no thanks and don't buy the marketing hype. I'll wait until the GTX980Ti is released before deciding again whether or not to upgrade.

Hype ? Underwhelming ? Historically, the jump here is HUGE.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_980/26.html
The 980 is 23% faster than the 780

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_780/26.html
The 780 is 17% faster than the 680

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_680/27.html
The 680 is 19% faster than the 580

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_580/27.html
The 80 is 13% faster than the 480

This is the largest increase generation over a generation that we have seen in quite a long time .... and with reduced power, reduced heat and drastically reduced pricing to boot.

Upgrading over a single generation ???? I don't see many people ever doing that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

I don’t recommend upgrading your graphics card unless the replacement card is at least three tiers higher. Otherwise, the upgrade is somewhat parallel, and you may not even notice any worthwhile difference in performance.

A 580 to a 780 is only a 2 tier jump. Unless it's about bragging rights, I can't see running out and upgrading GFX cards in a single generation.

 

[smeezekitty]

A 580 to a 780 is only a 2 tier jump. Unless it's about bragging rights, I can't see running out and upgrading GFX cards in a single generation.

I agree 100% although one exception to this is if graphics standards change in a way that cannot be made up with a driver update (like DX10->DX11)