. I dont really understand because for $200 more I could have 12GB of memory and a faster card aka Titan X
Highly doubtful that a Titan X will be faster than some of the AIB designed 980 Ti's.
Titan X is reference PCB and components little removed from the earlier GK100/GK110. The 980 Ti will come with vendor tweaked components.
Titan X is 8+6 pin. Many 980 Ti's will be 2x8pin with some significant headroom if previous cards like the Gigabyte G1 Gaming, Asus ROG cards and EVGA FTW/Classified are any indication.
Most Titan X's are 1000MHz core/ 1089MHz boost, and the highest clocked Titan X at the moment (EVGA's HydroCopper and Hybrid) has a lower boost (1241MHz) than the
base frequency of Zotac's GTX 980 Ti Amp Extreme (1253MHz base clock/ 1355MHz boost/ 7210MHz effective memory).
Probably safe to assume that Zotac's offering won't be the only high clocked 2x8pin custom card, and I have little doubt that 25-30% clock increase + increased usable board power will more than offset a 2 shader modules (8%) deficit.
LOL, I remember the days when the 5870, the top card at that time, was launched for 400$
))
And this was exactly 4 and half years ago.
During a period when AMD was still aimed squarely at the strategy of sacrificing profit line for increased visibility and continuing the rehabilitation started with the RV770. The landscape today is more about two heavyweights trading punches rather than one company resigned to offering 80-90% of the performance and fighting solely on performance per dollar and performance per watt.
Prior to the arrival of G80 and the R600 debacle, both companies offered comparative performance with no caveats...and a 7800GTX 512 or X1950 XTX were both nudging (or over in many markets) $600 apiece. The last couple of years have seen similar moves - far more new top tier cards have begun at $550 than below. If anything, you could say that the HD3000/4000/5000 were the exception that proves the rule - an exception borne out of necessity.