NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 Pricing Revealed

[Prima.Vera]

OK, we have the cards and all, but where are the games? I mean, seriously. Except 2 or 3 games, this year was a complete disaster in gaming industry.
Absolutely no GPU worth to invest in for a new game.

 

[RCoon]

OK, we have the cards and all, but where are the games? I mean, seriously. Except 2 or 3 games, this year was a complete disaster in gaming industry.
Absolutely no GPU worth to invest in for a new game.

BF4 still runs like shit for a select few unlucky people.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I believe also that NDA's probably prohibit pricing releases too, so the price quotes here are speculation. That being said, I honestly do not fathom Nvidia charging top-level prices for what is a mid-level chip. The 780 and 780Ti had those prices because both are based on the top-level chip, not the mid-level, as the GM204 is.

No matter the performance, pricing should reflect the chip being used, not artificial image created by calling a GM204 chip based graphics card your "Flagship."

 

[Sony Xperia S]

BF4 still runs like shit for a select few unlucky people.

You will be very badly disappointed since GM204 doesn't offer anything new performance wise compared to GK110. What it was capable of delivery, will now only be delivered with lower power requirements. And nothing more.

nvidia is a really very very shitty company.

the 970 should be $250 and the 980 not more than $400.

nothing to see here, folks, move on and forget it. meh

 

[1d10t]

There is no reason to get new gpus anyways when crappy mobas are the most played games on the pc. Meanwhile, console peasants continues to get AAA GOTY games nonstop.

There's always a market for this.Like all that 4k craze or eyefinity like i do
No reason to buy stronger GPU above GTX 770 if you still playing at 1080p,unless you're number worshiper

 

[utengineer]

There's always a market for this.Like all that 4k craze or eyefinity like i do
No reason to buy stronger GPU above GTX 770 if you still playing at 1080p,unless you're number worshiper

Agreed. Since 4K monitors are going down in price, I imagine NVIDIA is addressing/targeting 4K performance with this launch having started the cards with 4GB VRAM. Hopefully the efficiency in power will give GPU manufacturers the ability to sell cards with high factory overclocks.

I gave you Thanks as well due to your 1080p comment. I have been running GTX580 3GB SLI since they launched. I run close to Ultra in all games at 1080p. Love these cards...great investment.

 

[Recus]

You will be very badly disappointed since GM204 doesn't offer anything new performance wise compared to GK110. What it was capable of delivery, will now only be delivered with lower power requirements. And nothing more.

nvidia is a really very very shitty company.

the 970 should be $250 and the 980 not more than $400.

nothing to see here, folks, move on and forget it. meh

So you are fan of phone priced at £467.99 but not a fan of $500 GPU. What?
-------------
Final GTX 980 specs: http://videocardz.com/52362/only-at-vc-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-final-specifications

 

[Frick]

So you are fan of phone priced at £467.99 but not a fan of $500 GPU. What?
-------------

You can't be serious. He longs for older days, which is pretty daft too.

 

[Sony Xperia S]

So you are fan of phone priced at £467.99 but not a fan of $500 GPU. What?

Hmm, interesting price. When I bought my Xperia S, I gave them something around € 270-280.

And yes, my sweet spot for a new videocard is approximately that but preferably around $250 max.

 

[RejZoR]

Agreed. Since 4K monitors are going down in price, I imagine NVIDIA is addressing/targeting 4K performance with this launch having started the cards with 4GB VRAM. Hopefully the efficiency in power will give GPU manufacturers the ability to sell cards with high factory overclocks.

I gave you Thanks as well due to your 1080p comment. I have been running GTX580 3GB SLI since they launched. I run close to Ultra in all games at 1080p. Love these cards...great investment.

You can have 64GB of VRAM, but if card can't process enough pixels and texels to actually benefit from it, all that VRAM is a waste of worlds resources, our time and money. But people buy them because more is always better, even if it really doesn't do anything to performance.

 

[GhostRyder]

There's always a market for this.Like all that 4k craze or eyefinity like i do
No reason to buy stronger GPU above GTX 770 if you still playing at 1080p,unless you're number worshiper

Indeed, and that is where these cards are targeted even with the 256bit bus. The extra ram is going to bring these cards in line for high resolution (Err Ultra HD) gaming with better efficiency.

I believe also that NDA's probably prohibit pricing releases too, so the price quotes here are speculation. That being said, I honestly do not fathom Nvidia charging top-level prices for what is a mid-level chip. The 780 and 780Ti had those prices because both are based on the top-level chip, not the mid-level, as the GM204 is.

Could not agree more, its still a little early to be judgmental because for all we know the pricing could end up being 100 bucks less or 50 more even. I also agree that the pricing should reflect the cards performance and not a number on your name.

Agreed. Since 4K monitors are going down in price, I imagine NVIDIA is addressing/targeting 4K performance with this launch having started the cards with 4GB VRAM. Hopefully the efficiency in power will give GPU manufacturers the ability to sell cards with high factory overclocks.

I gave you Thanks as well due to your 1080p comment. I have been running GTX580 3GB SLI since they launched. I run close to Ultra in all games at 1080p. Love these cards...great investment.

No matter the performance, pricing should reflect the chip being used, not artificial image created by calling a GM204 chip based graphics card your "Flagship."

Indeed, heck there are many cards you can get away and keep Ultra or near Ultra at 1080p without breaking the bank. I have a friend still running 1.5gb GTX 580s which are finally showing age for him but he still can play most games near or at Ultra.

You can have 64GB of VRAM, but if card can't process enough pixels and texels to actually benefit from it, all that VRAM is a waste of worlds resources, our time and money. But people buy them because more is always better, even if it really doesn't do anything to performance.

Well yes but with the performance spots of these cards based on the leaked information and such they have enough in SLI to run many (if not most) games at 60FPS 4k in terms of raw power but VRAM would and was an issue as 3gb was just not enough. These two will have enough and should be decent cards for 4K with the options out there, and in all honesty we are not going to see single GPU 4k (Well with above 30 FPS) until probably the next series so its good to have some cards that can run together and achieve it. My 290X trio maybe a bunch, but together they can run 4k pretty effectively and I believe these will do the same based on number. But I guess time will tell...

 

[Casecutter]

Btarunr thanks for his revisionist history!

Let's go in the way-back machine to Nov 7th 2013 and what W1zzard said; "Here you are: The GeForce GTX 780 Ti, NVIDIA's gag-reflex to AMD's Radeon R9 290X. It took the $549 R9 290X and the humble $399 R9 290, launched over the past fortnight, to kick NVIDIA in its rear behind hard enough for price slashes anywhere between 17 and 23 percent to its then $650 GeForce GTX 780...
It's on this back-drop that the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is coming to town, a $699 graphics card that almost maxes out the GK110 silicon."

So business… usual. For what at this point is reported smaller die, cut the Bus to 256-Bit, while finally including 4Gb. All that when 3 month ago the narrative was "compete with better pricing", which on the surface a 970 in the between-time will do. Though, consider there's still 15/14 SMM part(s) that almost assuredly will appear, safe bet there's a 770Ti, and given the wide breadth between $400-600 it's price is who knows, Nvidia could let the 770 fade much like the 66Ti had, just perhaps quicker. Or more like a replay of the 780/780Ti releases, but quicker, which on that a 970 with a $100 drop in 3-4mo's would be interesting. That then begs the question of the 960 (which I understand is from the GM204) and release and price ($250?).

I see a 970 being a one-upsmanship to the 290/780, sure with improve efficiency. The 980 a good replacement for OC custom 780Ti (much what a 285 did for a 280); so not much if any movement on price, all the while cultivating the margins over the use of a GK110.

 

[utengineer]

You can have 64GB of VRAM, but if card can't process enough pixels and texels to actually benefit from it, all that VRAM is a waste of worlds resources, our time and money. But people buy them because more is always better, even if it really doesn't do anything to performance.

I am not a GPU expert; but, it appears NVIDIA is addressing that by giving us a GTX 980 card with 64 ROPs. The 780Ti only has 48. That is a huge increase and should benefit 4K since the ROP does the heavy lifting for those final pixels going to the monitor. I think a lot of people are underestimating this series.

 

[kdawgmaster]

I can already tell u guys this is false. I work at a computer store and its already in our system and its way higher. im our systems the GTX 980 reads at $800 and the GTX 970 at $500 now sometimes they place it a little higher to be on the safe side but we can expect the GTX 980 to be closer to 650-700 mark.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

What is NVidia smoking to think 980 will sell at $599? If reviews put the 980 between 780 and 780ti performance, good luck to them.

And lastly, it's not even their top tier, that would be the GM210.

 

[N3M3515]

There is a huge difference between the 980 and 970 specs-wise. A salvage part usually has one (possibly 2) compute units disabled. the 970 has 3 (13 SMM vs 16 SMM for the full-fat 980), By rights the 970 should be the 960 Ti and the 970 should be 1920 (15 SMM) or 1792 (14 SMM). If yields are bad there wouldn't be any 2048 shader GM 204's, so the obvious rationale is a GTX 970 Ti (975?) at a later date once it isn't in danger of cannibalizing GTX 980 sales too badly. The 20% hardware disparity is pretty much the same as that between the GTX 780 Ti and GTX 780 - except that the full-fat GK 110 didn't launch at the same time the 780 did.

Curious.

The GTX 980 should be a $100 cheaper. The GTX 970 at $399 more expected but ideally should be $50 less. I still wouldn't plump for either over a GK110 based on what I've seen.

+1
Did you remember when a new generation vcard was like 70% more perf than the one it was replacing, and the price the same? good old times... (add to that no more than a year and a half passed between generations, right now they have their mouths full saying "new generation" when in reality are no more than miserable refreshes and incremental updates)

 

[N3M3515]

I would prefer if they released vcards every 4 years a present to us a 100% perf. increase than these 15% yearly increases, fucking milking customers and stupid people. For every 15% increase they charge like 200 bucks premium and call it a "new generation" bs.

 

[64K]

+1
Did you remember when a new generation vcard was like 70% more perf than the one it was replacing, and the price the same? good old times... (add to that no more than a year and a half passed between generations, right now they have their mouths full saying "new generation" when in reality are no more than miserable refreshes and incremental updates)

Well, the card that the GTX 980 is actually replacing is the GTX 680 and it will no doubt be considerably faster. This is the first release of the GM204 replacing the first release of the GK104. The refresh of the GTX 980 (whatever they call it) will replace the refresh of the GTX 770. Nvidia has caused some confusion with their naming since GTX 680 came out. The big Maxwell will be the GM210 which will replace the GTX 780 and 780 Ti.

 

[Sony Xperia S]

I would prefer if they released vcards every 4 years a present to us a 100% perf. increase than these 15% yearly increases, fucking milking customers and stupid people. For every 15% increase they charge like 200 bucks premium and call it a "new generation" bs.

That's why I am still with my oldie but goldie R6870. It serves me perfectly well and I don't find a need to be fed by those consumer-trolls from nvidia.

Buy a new card once in 4-5-6 years and you will be doing great! But, of course, they can release meanwhile whatever they want and consider appropriate.

what I'm saying is basically that you do NOT need a new card every new year or two!

 

[GhostRyder]

Well, the card that the GTX 980 is actually replacing is the GTX 680 and it will no doubt be considerably faster. This is the first release of the GM204 replacing the first release of the GK104. The refresh of the GTX 980 (whatever they call it) will replace the refresh of the GTX 770. Nvidia has caused some confusion with their naming since GTX 680 came out. The big Maxwell will be the GM210 which will replace the GTX 780 and 780 Ti.

Indeed, but even comparing year to year the GTX 580 - 680 the new 680 was much faster than its predecessor (Heck the 670 was faster) while this is actually turning out to be more of a match but with lower power consumption. Of course that's based on leaks still but either way it still is going to come down to the end results.

I am also curious after seeing the full specs how far the clocks have been pushed for this card as well. It is significantly higher speed base and boost than that of any of the previous cards which makes me wonder how far overclocking this card will hit. We could run into this being pushed up to 1400+mhz, or just up to 1300mhz on a great card which would lead me to believe they heavily overclocked this card to match performance of previous gen cards.

 

[Roel]

I would prefer if they released vcards every 4 years a present to us a 100% perf. increase than these 15% yearly increases, fucking milking customers and stupid people. For every 15% increase they charge like 200 bucks premium and call it a "new generation" bs.

Or just buy a new card every 4 years, it would basically be the same. You make the choice to buy something.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Or just buy a new card every 4 years, it would basically be the same. You make the choice to buy something.

Indeed, if people are getting milked it's their fault.

 

[64K]

Indeed, but even comparing year to year the GTX 580 - 680 the new 680 was much faster than its predecessor (Heck the 670 was faster) while this is actually turning out to be more of a match but with lower power consumption. Of course that's based on leaks still but either way it still is going to come down to the end results.

I am also curious after seeing the full specs how far the clocks have been pushed for this card as well. It is significantly higher speed base and boost than that of any of the previous cards which makes me wonder how far overclocking this card will hit. We could run into this being pushed up to 1400+mhz, or just up to 1300mhz on a great card which would lead me to believe they heavily overclocked this card to match performance of previous gen cards.

But bear in mind that the GTX 680 was a die shrink as well as a new architecture so the increased efficiency allowed room to increase the performance per watt over the GTX 580. Maxwell is a more efficient architecture but it's still going to be on the 28nm process so this is a little different from the transition from the 580 to the 680. Really if you want to look at it the way it should have been. The GTX 680 (GK104) replaced the GTX 460 (GF104).

The GTX 680 was quite a leap in performance. It took a lot of people by surprise including AMD.

 

[GhostRyder]

But bear in mind that the GTX 680 was a die shrink as well as a new architecture so the increased efficiency allowed room to increase the performance per watt over the GTX 580. Maxwell is a more efficient architecture but it's still going to be on the 28nm process so this is a little different from the transition from the 580 to the 680. Really if you want to look at it the way it should have been. The GTX 680 (GK104) replaced the GTX 460 (GF104).

The GTX 680 was quite a leap in performance. It took a lot of people by surprise including AMD.

True, but I am also looking at it from the point of a new generation card (On top of the name jump as well). I do not think that this card is bad as it has more VRAM, excellent clocked VRAM, high boost and base clocks, and to top it off greater efficiency while performing well. It just with the price and where the leaks lie (Which I still believe could end up being wrong and we will all get a shock) its not really winning any wars or really providing an excellent value even with viewing it as a top dog card with a price knock up. The 970 seems to be the real deal here with its performance spot and price point on top of all the aforementioned upgrades.

I still think your next gen card no matter what the chip is labeled (Or where it is supposed to fall) because this is still the GTX 980 and it should perform better than the previous highest contender. I guess though because the GTX 780ti is a wildcard we could then say well this does outperform better than the GTX 780, but it depends on your viewpoint. I still will reserve my final judgment when we actually see it in the full light.

 

[Slizzo]

As long as I will be able to get another 780 for around $300 I'll be happy.