# NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Core Configuration Revealed



## btarunr (May 22, 2015)

It looks like NVIDIA's GTX 980 Ti launch, which is imminent, won't be a repeat of the GTX 780 Ti, in that it won't be faster than the TITAN product at the time of launch. According to Korean tech publication HWBattle, the GTX 980 Ti will feature fewer CUDA cores than the GeForce GTX TITAN-X, at 2,816. NVIDIA gets that count by disabling 2 of the 24 SMM (streaming multiprocessor Maxwell) units on the GM200 silicon. The texture memory unit (TMU) count will be proportionately lower, at 176 (compared to 192 on the GTX TITAN-X). The ASIC bears the model number GM200-310, according to older reports.

We can't take a call on the ROP count and L3 cache amount. Normally we would deduce that it has a full complement of 96 ROPs, but given that Maxwell allows SKU designers to disable components in a way they previously couldn't, it's possible that the GTX 980 Ti could have a different ROP count than the GTX TITAN-X, just as the GTX 970 has a lower "effective" ROP count at 56, compared to the GTX 980, despite the same memory bus width. We know from other reports, that the GTX 980 Ti will feature 6 GB of memory. The TDP is a very arbitrary number, and 250W shouldn't surprise us. What also wouldn't surprise us is NVIDIA reusing the PCB and NVTTM (NVIDIA Time-to-Market) cooler design from the GTX TITAN-X (and several older SKUs). NVIDIA could allow its AIC (add-in- card) partners to come up with custom board designs from day-one.






Just a quick recap. 
SKU name: GeForce GTX 980 Ti
ASIC: GM200-310, 28 nm
2,816 CUDA cores
176 TMUs
Unknown ROP count
384-bit GDDR5 memory interface
6 GB standard memory amount




*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## the54thvoid (May 22, 2015)

To release a product weaker than the flagship and still very expensive means:

1) the Fiji XT is not as good as Titan X, or
2) the Fiji XT is better than Titan X and Nvidia want to get it to market before AMD steals the sales.

Oh dear, flip a coin - what is it?

EDIT: either way, looks like Titan or Fiji XT for me


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## Luka KLLP (May 22, 2015)

As long as it's also cheaper, I'm fine with it being slower than the Titan X. 
It's definitely gonna be an exciting couple of weeks in Videocard Land


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## dj-electric (May 22, 2015)

I love the smell of "we got the card, but gonna spill some info through pointing at other sources" before launches. 

I take all the info from now on as a fact. Thanks


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## qubit (May 22, 2015)

Ugh, something had to give, didn't it?  I don't like cut down GPUs.

With the 780 Ti, it was the same GPU as the Titan Black, but now they're giving us less, so the only way to get the top GPU is to spend £900. No thanks NVIDIA, I'm not that big a sucker.


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## rtwjunkie (May 22, 2015)

Sooo, my PSU should be enough for this with the rest of my specs?  I'm pretty sure 850W will have no trouble, just like reassurance.


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## dj-electric (May 22, 2015)

^ in SLI, yes.


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## lilhasselhoffer (May 22, 2015)

Green team believes that the 3xx series of cards must be crap because Nvidea is rushing to market with a cut down card.

Red team says this is a ploy by Nvidea to sell off its cards before the 3xx series comes and kicks its teeth in within a month.



How about some real world numbers from either side?  Until then a fanboy will draw whatever conclusion supports their particular delusion.  I just want to know which card will be better for the money.


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## 15th Warlock (May 22, 2015)

If AMD's new card ends up being faster than the 980Ti, I can see Nvidia releasing a fully featured GM200 card a là 780Ti with 6GBs of RAM to combat Fiji-XT.

Releasing a cut down card this soon may be a move to clear out the inventory of defective GM200 chips before AMD releases its new flagship card, either that or Nvidia anticipates Fiji is equal in terms of performance to a cut down GM200 or the high end model will be priced at around $800, making it more of a direct contender to Titan-X and/or a potential fully featured GM200 based card in the same price range.


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## uuuaaaaaa (May 22, 2015)

This are getting hot!

Meanwhile on Johan Andersson's twitter:

_This new island is one seriously impressive and sweet GPU. wow & thanks @*AMDRadeon* ! They will be put to good use _

https://twitter.com/repi

(Fiji xt picture included?)


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## rtwjunkie (May 22, 2015)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> ^ in SLI, yes.


 
So even up to SLI, you're saying?  So a single card no problem!


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## Petey Plane (May 22, 2015)

A 550W PSU is enough for a 980 and a 4790k, so yes, your 850W will be more than enough


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## bogami (May 22, 2015)

yak, Again , to us will sell unsuccessfully cut processor for a lot of money !Typically known problems which we have had with GTX970 will be present. And it's not Nvidia card that has driven six monitors so there can not be a realistic comparison of the abilities of the processor. Hardly anyone knows compare only a FPS here nVidia serves many tricks at the expense of unfamiliarity with operation.
AMD in to us new generation made a lot of technological advances and the 20 nm so I waited. On GTX980ti is nothing new, yet the new carrier substrate, they could not make even a year to us throw away lies the head, not to mention the price.


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## GhostRyder (May 22, 2015)

Well looks like it is after all going to be a cut down chip because it makes little sense to release something like that to undercut the Titan X's place in the lineup.  It would just butcher sales of it and make it less worthwhile than it already is compared to a lower priced version (980ti).  Cannot wait to see the performance of this card and how well it overclocks, hopefully we get a little more wiggle room on clocking this card than the Titan X!


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## rtwjunkie (May 22, 2015)

I'm still going to wait till both cards are out to decide what my next upgrade will be.  I want to see some good benchmarks and user opinions from both camps first.


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## 2big2fail (May 22, 2015)

the54thvoid said:


> 1) the Fiji XT is not as good as Titan X, or
> 2) the Fiji XT is better than Titan X and Nvidia want to get it to market before AMD steals the sales.



Considering the now confirmed crippled configuration of the 980ti and that nvidia is launching the 980ti 2 weeks earlier than Fiji, its definitely the second. The only thing amd has to do now to pull ahead until Pascal next year is either not ask Titan X prices or completely fuck up driver support.

However, if nvidia cuts prices on the 980 to $375-450, amd might be in trouble from sales hemorrhaging after such a big product launch (i.e. Fiji).


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## rtwjunkie (May 22, 2015)

2big2fail said:


> Considering the now confirmed crippled configuration of the 980ti and that nvidia is launching the 980ti 2 weeks earlier than Fiji, its definitely the second. The only thing amd has to do now to pull ahead until Pascal next year is either not ask Titan X prices or completely fuck up driver support.
> 
> However, if nvidia cuts prices on the 980 to $350-400, amd might be in trouble from sales hemorrhaging after such a big product launch (i.e. Fiji).


 
All i know is it's going to be exciting to pull out the popcorn and watch this unfold, either way!


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## Casecutter (May 22, 2015)

Given what W1zzard reported as _"*So what's all the fuss about?" *_with the TitanX this isn't looking as much. 

Knowing that TitanX Average/Peak power numbers where up like 42/32% respectively over a 980, moving the clocks on something like this won't make those numbers improve.  The upside if they use Samsung modules instead of what came about from 12Gb of inefficient (aka hot) Hynix, Nvidia could find some the saving there with half and better memory.  It probably going to come in slightly better perf/w,  but as the TitanX wasn't a great 4K, this won't appear to fair better.


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## 64K (May 22, 2015)

15th Warlock said:


> If AMD's new card ends up being faster than the 980Ti, I can see Nvidia releasing a fully featured GM200 card a là 780Ti with 6GBs of RAM to combat Fiji-XT.



I'm thinking this has been Nvidia's plan all along. There's plenty of time before Pascal to release a cut down GM200 for gaming and then a maxxed out full GM200 6 GB for gaming later on. Like they did with 780/780 Ti. Nvidia knows how to profit from an architecture for all it's worth.



rtwjunkie said:


> Sooo, my PSU should be enough for this with the rest of my specs?  I'm pretty sure 850W will have no trouble, just like reassurance.



I doubt with a single 980 Ti and the rest of your system at max with overclocks you will ever pull more than 450 watts so that puts you right in the most efficient zone for your PSU and you could even SLI them later on.


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## the54thvoid (May 22, 2015)

Got it figured out.

When Fiji XT drops and Titan X looks threatened, Nvidia green lights Titan X-treme.  This is very simply GM200-400 with all intact plus a balls to the walls unlimited power limit.  Core clocks at 1400Mhz, Boost 1500+.
It'll cost £1000 and be made only to say - we're still the best.  10 will be made.

At which point, AMD release Bermuda (390X2) and because the memory chips are on die, it'll be small and easy to manufacture (relatively speaking pcb wise).  The Bermuda dual card will be called Cronos, as this was the boss of the Titans.

I rest my case and I'm off to the patent office.


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## techy1 (May 22, 2015)

Worst case scenario for us - Nvidia got info that Fiji XT is nothing to be afraid of - can release gimped GM200 now and save non-gimped GM200 for latter (and for ridiculously rounded up price tags)


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## rtwjunkie (May 22, 2015)

@the54thvoid you missed your calling! Very creative.


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## Casecutter (May 22, 2015)

the54thvoid said:


> Got it figured out.
> 
> This is very simply GM200-400 with all intact plus a balls to the walls unlimited power limit.  Core clocks at 1400Mhz, Boost 1500+.


 The problem even with just 6Gb, I think "balls to the walls" clocks would end up with shocking Perf/W, and would make the legacy of Maxwell's design not remembered as significant when it was scaled up.


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## Fluffmeister (May 22, 2015)

Casecutter said:


> The problem even with just 6Gb, I think "balls to the walls" clocks would end up with shocking Perf/W, and would make the legacy of Maxwell's design not remembered as significant when it was scaled up.



Unlikely, the full GM200 running at 1410Mhz only increased the total system power consumption by 44 watts:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015...gtx_titan_x_video_card_review/13#.VV9iWJdViko


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## Nejc (May 22, 2015)

is this going to be full 6GB of full speed ram or is it going to be cca. 5,5GB as is the case with the 970?  (just curious)


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## rtwjunkie (May 22, 2015)

^^I wondered how long before this showed up.


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## Casecutter (May 22, 2015)

Fluffmeister said:


> Unlikely, the full GM200 running at 1410Mhz only increased the total system power consumption by 44 watts:


 
Yea, it’s amazing...  like W1zzard and Brent Justice got two completely different ends of TitanX production?  Brent OC like crazy and didn’t appear throttle, although that’s with fan at 100%.  Let’s see how W1zzard collects the data in a couple of weeks from now.


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## btarunr (May 22, 2015)

Nejc said:


> is this going to be full 6GB of full speed ram or is it going to be cca. 5,5GB as is the case with the 970?  (just curious)



That we don't know yet. Not until someone takes a 980 Ti, installs its driver, and runs GPU-Z to spit out ROP count, which is NOT backed by a lookup table. There's an actual method to count ROPs by software.


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## Fluffmeister (May 22, 2015)

Casecutter said:


> Yea, it’s amazing...  like W1zzard and Brent Justice got two completely different ends of TitanX production?  Brent OC like crazy and didn’t appear throttle, although that’s with fan at 100%.  Let’s see how W1zzard collects the data in a couple of weeks from now.



It happens, but if you honestly think Maxwell's perf/watt is suddenly going to tank on the 980 Ti I think you'll be disappointed.


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## Xzibit (May 22, 2015)

qubit said:


> Ugh, something had to give, didn't it?  I don't like cut down GPUs.
> 
> With the 780 Ti, it was the same GPU as the Titan Black, but now they're giving us less, so the only way to get the top GPU is to spend £900. No thanks NVIDIA, I'm not that big a sucker.



Expect the giving us less to continue.  Pascal is emphasizing mix precision with more half precision 16-bit floating point.

Benefits
Less storage leads to more bandwidth, power savings

Cons
Less image detail, shadows, effects, real time changes, Even lazier gaming industry

At the moment it might not be a big deal for the current state of games but if the industry is to move forward and adapt more 4k games are going to have to start looking better and I don't mean just high resolution texture packs more detail is going to be required.


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## arbiter (May 22, 2015)

2big2fail said:


> Considering the now confirmed crippled configuration of the 980ti and that nvidia is launching the 980ti 2 weeks earlier than Fiji, its definitely the second.


Um i bet that 980ti will be pretty damn close to a 390x in performance. Disableing only 200 cuda cores won't effects performance that much, maybe 10% at most.



the54thvoid said:


> When Fiji XT drops and Titan X looks threatened, Nvidia green lights Titan X-treme.


A 4gb card that is if rumor is right 150$ cheaper which when spending 850$+ isn't much vs a card with 12gb ram that much of a threat? 4gb might work out for a short time but 4k gaming can use 4gb+. Funny how its Nvidia that has cards with more ram instead of AMD.



Fluffmeister said:


> it happens, but if you honestly think Maxwell's perf/watt is suddenly going to tank on the 980 Ti I think you'll be disappointed.



It should be around what Titan X should be maybe 25-50watts less, more likely closer to 25 since less memory chips to power.



btarunr said:


> That we don't know yet. Not until someone takes a 980 Ti, installs its driver, and runs GPU-Z to spit out ROP count, which is NOT backed by a lookup table. There's an actual method to count ROPs by software.



Funny how people think 390x is gonna be a titan killer but if early benchmarks by AMD are anything, it a little slower then a titan and 980ti looks like could be almost same as 390x which if 980ti sells cheaper then AMD could be in trouble before getting outta the gate.


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## Xzibit (May 22, 2015)

This reminds me of all those leaks that ChipHell had about a 6gb GM200 cut

Revisiting the rumored leaks






















They should re-calculate it and include TW3 make those Maxwells expecially the 960 move up a bit


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## Gavin Wun (May 22, 2015)

Xzibit said:


> This reminds me of all those leaks that ChipHell had about a 6gb GM200 cut
> 
> Revisiting the rumored leaks
> 
> ...



Hmm totally missed the GTX 9** 3GB one in the chart - that a GTX 960 TI?

But either way seems like I don't need to sell my Titan X to get a 980 Ti


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## Fluffmeister (May 22, 2015)

Heh, the graphs are fairly interesting despite that dodgy 3GB 960. It certainly could be another fine card for Nv, basically 90% of the performance of Titan X/Fiji XT, healthy 6GB framebuffer, Maxwell's famous performance per watt and presumably being cheaper to manufacture than something like Fiji they could slot it into a price bracket that makes it very attractive indeed!


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## Casecutter (May 22, 2015)

Fluffmeister said:


> It happens, but if you honestly think Maxwell's perf/watt is _suddenly going to tank_ on the 980 Ti I think you'll be disappointed.


"suddenly going to tank" are not my words.



Casecutter said:


> It probably going to come in slightly better perf/w,  but as the TitanX wasn't a great 4K, this won't appear to fair better.


 


Casecutter said:


> I think "balls to the walls" clocks would end up with shocking Perf/W, and would make the legacy of Maxwell's design not remembered as significant when it was scaled up.


As it wasn't great to being with.


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## Fluffmeister (May 22, 2015)

Yeah, let's see if it has "shocking" performance per watt.


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## dwade (May 22, 2015)

A gutted TItan X. And not just a VRAM nerf. That doesn't look like nVidia is scared of 390x.


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## Casecutter (May 22, 2015)

dwade said:


> A gutted TItan X. And not just a VRAM nerf. That doesn't look like nVidia is scared of 390x.


Its' not about "scared", more just they got binned chips, and realize they need to them to get then out in the market.   Nvidia knows this is what they've got work with, and there no use waiting.  I don't think they have a good feel to what this whole Fiji +HBM can offer, hard to even project.   It's more about "getting out in front and control the message" smart marketing.  I won't be surprised if we have info of a GTX 960Ti very soon.


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## Xzibit (May 22, 2015)

dwade said:


> A gutted TItan X. And not just a VRAM nerf. That doesn't look like nVidia is scared of 390x.



Also remember that Maxwell is a poor double precision performer and there is only one Maxwell Quadro part being offered instead of a full line of products. That means more chips available for GeForce products


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## net2007 (May 22, 2015)

Question.. How do they disable the SMX units? Is there way to re enable them?


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## hapkiman (May 23, 2015)

I have to say I am hoping AMD comes through with the 390X.  They have a chance to redeem themselves and level the playing field a little with Nvidia.  I have an MSI GTX 980 4GB now and it's a great card, but at 3840x2160, from what I'm seeing a 390X might give me a bump in performance.

I originally had a XFX R9 290, and was very disappointed with it.  Not with its performance mind you, but with its drivers, its noise, it heat, and its power usage.  The 980 is a much better trouble free card with great drivers and I've not had a single problem with it.

But I'm ready to give AMD a chance again if the 390X proves to be better than my 980, and better than the 980Ti.


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## arbiter (May 23, 2015)

Xzibit said:


> This reminds me of all those leaks that ChipHell had about a 6gb GM200 cut
> 
> Revisiting the rumored leaks
> 
> ...



Those leak pages mean pretty much nothing. "19 games performance" grouped in to 1 bar yea that is a real reliable graph to go by.


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## qubit (May 23, 2015)

Nejc said:


> is this going to be full 6GB of full speed ram or is it going to be cca. 5,5GB as is the case with the 970?  (just curious)


970-gate all over again? I've been wondering that too.

Welcome to TPU. 



net2007 said:


> Question.. How do they disable the SMX units? Is there way to re enable them?


99% sure they fuse it off in the chip so there's no way to bring it back. Don't worry, if it was just a little BIOS hack, some clever enthusiast would find a way to reverse it.


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## ypsylon (May 23, 2015)

Bottom line of this whole debate:  if you want to buy new powerful VGA now wait 2 weeks or so.  Purchasing now maybe biggest mistake you ever made (unless you're in the elite club of people who have no concept of money - like Arab sheiks for example , for them 10k$ is like buying a hotdog).


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## erixx (May 23, 2015)

thanks BTARUNR!!!
As a (cunning) linguist, I LOVE a lot the revelations of esoteric (a.k.a. fuckedup) industry acronyms, like
"NVTTM [???](NVIDIA Time-to-Market) cooler design from the GTX TITAN-X (and several older SKUs [???]). NVIDIA could allow its AIC (add-in- card)[???]"

I just want to state clearly that to begin with there is NO NEED to use them AT ALL.

NVTTM = is just "nvidia own design"
SKU = is just "model"
AIC = is just 3rd party factories or whatever.

We are making a fake complex world. IT IS NOT complex at all. Let's be normal, please.


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## arbiter (May 23, 2015)

erixx said:


> "NVTTM [???](NVIDIA Time-to-Market) cooler design from the GTX TITAN-X (and several older SKUs [???]). NVIDIA could allow its AIC (add-in- card)[???]"


Least its a ref cooler that WORKS and can cool the card without card throttling to heck unlike another companies i won't name that would kill 20% of its performance after 5min.


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## Parn (May 26, 2015)

Not a fan of cut down GPUs as it makes me feel that I'm paying a premium for wastes/rejects from the manufacturer.


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## Fluffmeister (Jun 24, 2015)

Damn the 980 Ti is quick

I hope that humble pie is delicious.


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