NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4 GB

[Maban]

Are you sure it is HDMI 2.0?
On MSI it says HDMI 1.4
http://us.msi.com/product/vga/GTX_980_4GD5.html#hero-specification

I have been looking everywhere for clarification but even on Nvidias site, they don't even list what type of HDMI support it is.
If it's 1.4, man they dropped the ball.

It is indeed HDMI 2.0

 

[D007]

It is indeed HDMI 2.0

I hope so because I have 2 on the way right now..lol

EDIT: I talked to EVGA on the phone just now and they verified HDMI 2.0.

 

[Maban]

I hope so because I have 2 on the way right now..lol

If you'd like to look at all of what Maxwell can do you can take a look at the whitepaper: http://international.download.nvidi...nal/pdfs/GeForce_GTX_980_Whitepaper_FINAL.PDF

 

[D007]

If you'd like to look at all of what Maxwell can do you can take a look at the whitepaper: http://international.download.nvidi...nal/pdfs/GeForce_GTX_980_Whitepaper_FINAL.PDF

Well thanks again.
I was getting tired of electric bills over 300 a month lol.

 

[The Von Matrices]

Why do they send such fancy boxes to the reviewers? I can say though that the Maxwell–Ampère equation is a nice touch.

 

[Steevo]

This is one of the most civil and well discussed threads I have ever seen on a open forum.


Keep it up fuckers!

 

[BiggieShady]

I'm astonished ... it took me time to put in perspective that GTX 980 SLI sips less power than a single 290X ... then it took me some more time to realize we are finally getting quiet air cooled SLI setups

 

[Sony Xperia S]

Why the "word F" is become a norm here?I though this were a civilized site.Or everybody already lose their minds for a piece of card?

In this case you are right.

No more usage of those words with f*** and s&I*.

Please, guys, let's keep a higher level of conversations.

 

[the54thvoid]

Can anybody Explain These

Spoiler

&

Spoiler

The second chart at least says SYSTEM power consumption. W1zzard uses card power consumption. A lot of reviewers measure system power - you need to double check the test set ups to see it sometimes.

Thumbs down, this feels more like an amateur review plus very biased they way it is written.

One thing is right though. Not much gain over a 780Ti. This feels more like a 880 at best.

The only bias people see on TPU from any of the reviewers is when it doesn't suit that individuals brand alignment. For all the civility we have on this thread, there is a small enough section of tears to show some folk can't take the truth.

Here's W1zz referring to the Titan Z (It had to make it into the thread, didn't it!)

is nowhere as obnoxious as the $3000 NVIDIA will ask for its GeForce GTX TITAN-Z since that is $1000 costlier than buying a pair of GTX TITAN-Black cards. In a way, NVIDIA’s marketing arrogance is working in AMD's favor.

Yeah, W1zz is biased, for sure.

 

[HumanSmoke]

In this case you are right.
No more usage of those words with f*** and s&I*.
Please, guys, let's keep a higher level of conversations.

I'm OK then. I never use the word f***, and seemingly you don't either

I promise to only use "fuck" and "shit" and not those weird "f***" and "s&!*" notations. Two thumbs up Sony, F*** and s&!* is for pussies!

 

[birdie]

Are you sure it is HDMI 2.0?
On MSI it says HDMI 1.4
http://us.msi.com/product/vga/GTX_980_4GD5.html#hero-specification

I have been looking everywhere for clarification but even on Nvidias site, they don't even list what type of HDMI support it is.
If it's 1.4, man they dropped the ball.

It's 100% HDMI 2.0 (enabled) - AnandTech specifically clarifies it.

 

[birdie]

Can we please stop discussing the single use of curse words in the article and move onto the article and GPUs themselves? It's getting boring.

 

[the54thvoid]

Can we please stop discussing the single use of curse words in the article and move onto the article and GPUs themselves? It's getting boring.

Only if you stop double posting

In fairness, the topic is relevant as what we are seeing is grossly hypocritical behaviour that forums should call out. Sony used that rant forwarded at me and yet he's suggesting we all shouldn't swear? Yeah right. Using colloquial language is not an offense, using it to offend is. If is say, that gfx card is fucking awesome - that's OTT but not offensive. If I call someone a f****** douchebag - that is and I'd expect an infraction for it.

But back to the card.

I'd like to say back at BigMac he's right about the power issue - I see his point but we're just arguing from different landmarks. I'd be quite happy to have a card 30-50% faster than what I have now at the same energy cost, rather than card at the same performance with less energy cost.

But I know this card is only a 204 core and not the 210, so I'm still impressed. This chip replaces the 680 effectively, not the 780 or 780ti. What some folk are missing is that the GTX 670/680 and GTX 780/780ti are all Kepler cards. This is Maxwell and Maxwell is about 75% faster than it's predecessor - the GTX680 (the GK 104 core).

What we have is:

GK104 -> GM204 = about 75% better performance with the same power cost
GM110 -> GM210 = nobody knows yet.

Just because this is the 9xx series card, it is only one generation on from the 6xx series. If Nvidia didn't have such schizophrenic naming schemes for it's marketing, we'd all be clearer. So again, yes, performance is not that great over a 780/780ti but this is not the card it's replacing, the 980 replaces the 680 (architecturally), not the 780/780ti.

Now, if the GM210 is not way better than the 780/780ti, then hey, I'll be deeply unimpressed.

 

[Frick]

Dunno if anyone has said this, but an Extreme Edition would be interesting. Put some insane cooling on them, blow the power considerations to smithereens and see how fast they can get. Or is that what EVGA is doing with the kingpins or however you spell them?

EDIT:

http://www.techpowerup.com/205444/e...ak-new-records-with-evga-geforce-gtx-980.html

Waith yeah that's it. 2Ghz. Shitsticks.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Well I bought the faster clocked EVGA GTX 980 at Newegg. After seeing W1zzard's review I couldn't resist. After drivers mature the SLI scaling of the new architecture I might go SLI.

I remember.

Do you remember when AMD/ATI fanboys insisted power consumption was more important than performance when the GTX 480 came out? What will they say now?
I just hope AMD comes up with something that comes close in some way. We need competition to drive innovation.

 

[GhostRyder]

I'm astonished ... it took me time to put in perspective that GTX 980 SLI sips less power than a single 290X

No it does not? Even under max load it is not double because that would me a single 290X uses ~380 watts which it does not unless your factoring that theres a big inefficiency loss in SLI which cause power to not scale as high as it does max and drops it to ~150 watts. Decent SLI-4 way review...


On a different note, I think that with the GTX 980 overclocking is going to be something fun to watch. When we factor in the Lightning and classifieds I bet those will really bring something awesome to the table this go round. I would really like to see some of those hit the market.

 

[ZoneDymo]

The second chart at least says SYSTEM power consumption. W1zzard uses card power consumption. A lot of reviewers measure system power - you need to double check the test set ups to see it sometimes.

I think its not about the overall number, but how the cards stack up against the established cards and on those charts dont look nearly as efficient as portrait in the review here.

 

[BiggieShady]

No it does not?

Yeah, I meant entire system. Average at load I presume from pcperspective - I don't know how, but entire system with GTX 980 SLI needs less power at load than system with single 290X

 

[NorthboundOcclusive]

"Oh, and AMD seems fucked."

 

[N3M3515]

Dang, I was hoping this would be a nice improvement over last generation, but it is a mediocre upgrade at best... Now I will be waiting till April or May, for nVidia to bring something to the table worth spending my money on.... count me not impressed.

One can't ask too much from 28nm, let's wait for 20nm

 

[Stephen.]

Its been a while since i was in here, i see TPU is better than ever... nice review keep it up.

The GM204 and the 9xx naming i guess that hints most likely we wont see a refresh for Maxwell coz this apears to be the refresh already coz 750TI was the first gen Maxwell GM107, maybe next node be it 20nm or 16nm will be Pascal... just my thoughts.

 

[Frick]

Yeah, I meant entire system. Average at load I presume from pcperspective - I don't know how, but entire system with GTX 980 SLI needs less power at load than system with single 290X

... we have entered a phase in which we can power high end desktop systems with cheap 400W PSU's. Ye gods.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

... we have entered a phase in which we can power high end desktop systems with cheap 400W PSU's. Ye gods.

I would say 500Watt would be safe for SLI gtx 980 4GB and 400 watt would be safe for a single gtx 980 4GB. You want at least 100watt breathing room to make sure your PSU has a long life.

That being said, my 1200watt PSU is seriously overkill now.

 

[tajoh111]

At what point do you think the R9 285 was at all competition for the GTX 970 or 980? Its like saying the GTX 750ti was competition for the R9 290X, it was not even in the same category and was intended to fit into the area of mid range and replace the old mid range cards which a new architecture introduction. Which is exactly what it did, lower power consumption and more performance than the card it replaces...

The GTX 980 price point is not that bad but it seems horrid because the GTX 970 is at such a low spot. The GTX 970 is the real winner card here and seems to be the choice card right now. Its seated right where its expected to be considering its better overall than the GTX 780ti which costs more while using less power and containing more ram. Its an overall excellent launch.

From an design standpoint, the r9 285 is the competition for gm204 or the gtx 970 and 980. If you didn't know, Tonga cards are part the first of a new series of cards called pirate islands which is analogous to Nvidia's maxwell cards.

What makes r9 285 or the tonga chip the direct competitor to gm204 is they both will be the second biggest chip in the product stack. In addition, these two chips will probably have the closest die size compared to other chips around them for this uncoming generation. Having the same chip size also means, the GPU themselves cost a similar amount to produce.

Financially, what this means is Nvidia can charge more for their gpu chips for something that costs them a similar amount to produce as Tonga. This is a technological advantage that is producing a financial one.

The problem for AMD is the gtx 970, is shaving between 150 dollars off the profit margins of their chips and with these prices dropping, the rest of AMD product stack has to drop in price(a r9 285 doesn't make sense at 250 if an r9 290x is 299) to the extent where they might not make any money, atleast to recover the R and D they spend on it.

980 is nice card but wow some people have short memories.

AMD is already building a competitor for the 980X. When the 7970 came out, it was much better than the 580 "Oh no Nvidia is fucked" Then Nvidia release 680 a few months later 10% faster than 7970. Then AMD release the 7970 Ghz, same or better than 680Then Nvidia release 780 "oh no AMD is fucked" Then AMD release 290X matching 780 performance. Now Nvidia release the new generation 980 and "AMD is fucked again" even though AMD is already manufacturing a competitor.

You cant compare old gen to new gen. AMD and NVidia never release new generations at the same time, usually a few months apart.

4870 vs 280,same gen 4890 vs GTX285
5870 vs 480
6970 vs 580
7970 vs 680 same gen 7970 Ghz edition
290X vs 780 same gen 780Ti
390X vs 980 Hasn't happened yet

If there is some inside knowledge about the 390X, not being able to compete with 980 please let us know, otherwise its too early to write off AMD.

To reiterate the above, the 390x is going to be facing not facing the gtx 980, it will be facing the gm200 or 210 which is big maxwell.

390x or Fiji will be the replacement for Hawaii or 290x, 285 or Tonga will be the replacement for tahiti or 280 chips, For Nvidia, the gtx 980 is the replacement for the gtx 680 and the gm210 is a replacement for gk110 chips.

What this means is for cards sold above 200 dollars, AMD will be making cards using Tonga and Fiji while Nvidia will be making chips using gm204 and gm210. This yields two problems for AMD, since Tonga and Fiji are relatively new products to upcoming products, they can't drum up nee GPU in that product range in the near future. New chips take a while to produce and if the cards are not competitive against the competition, they have to take a price hit and wait a long time for the next generation to be developed to get back in the game. The second problem compounds this. Since gm204 chips smash Tonga chips, their big brothers, which are based on the same architecture are likely to have the same relationship(what also helps this prediction is gm204 and Tonga are so similar in size and power consumption). Meaning gm210 chips should smash Fiji or 390x chips.

Atleast gtx 680 and 7970 were very competitive with each other, so its not a surprise that their big brothers gtx 780 ti and 290x were competitive with each other. However the same cannot be said of Tonga and GM204. The 75 percent difference is massive(techpowerup charts).

If Fiji chips are uncompetitive with gm210 and are closer to performance to Nvidia gm204 chips like the gtx 980 or 970, their prices will have to reflect that. The problem is rumors suggest all in one cooling(expensive), big expensive 500mm2 + chip, high power consumption(complex board, with more expensive electrical components) which leads to a very expensive card to produce. If gtx 980 performs similarly to Fiji or 290x, all Nvidia has to do to kill the margins is drop the gtx 980 price a to 450 dollars and AMD is making no money(and will lose money from R and D expenditure). Nvidia will still make money on this price considering AMD is able to sell Tonga at 250.

AMD cannot afford to lose any more money. Their cash on hand is below what their threshold for operating is and their R and D budget has shrank(the whole companies R and D is more than 20% lower than Nvidias who doesn't research desktop CPU's) and real estate assets have been sold to prevent a bankruptcy.

AMD will remain open, they are resiliant and have the console program which is just enough to pay their debt interest. But they may be forced to contract further which could hurt their long term ability to compete.

 

[GhostRyder]

Yeah, I meant entire system. Average at load I presume from pcperspective - I don't know how, but entire system with GTX 980 SLI needs less power at load than system with single 290X

Well there is no doubt that a 290X uses much more power, its plainly obvious in that fact since the 980 uses less power than the 780ti which uses less power than the 290X. That being said I find it hard to see a second 980 only adding 100watts as that seem to be more of a low ball park seeing as how the power usage at high stress is around ~180watts for a single card on its own depending of course on clocks and cooler. However its still significantly less in the long run...

From an design standpoint, the r9 285 is the competition for gm204 or the gtx 970 and 980. If you didn't know, Tonga cards are part the first of a new series of cards called pirate islands which is analogous to Nvidia's maxwell cards.

What makes r9 285 or the tonga chip the direct competitor to gm204 is they both will be the second biggest chip in the product stack. In addition, these two chips will probably have the closest die size compared to other chips around them for this uncoming generation. Having the same chip size also means, the GPU themselves cost a similar amount to produce.

Financially, what this means is Nvidia can charge more for their gpu chips for something that costs them a similar amount to produce as Tonga. This is a technological advantage that is producing a financial one.

The problem for AMD is the gtx 970, is shaving between 150 dollars off the profit margins of their chips and with these prices dropping, the rest of AMD product stack has to drop in price(a r9 285 doesn't make sense at 250 if an r9 290x is 299) to the extent where they might not make any money, atleast to recover the R and D they spend on it.

Tonga is similar to the GM 107 chip in that it was a new chip to give a taste of something to come. Difference here is that it was designated to replace the aging Tahiti Architecture while showing us a few improvements and offering as a decent midrange price (Versus just putting the chip in a card slot that was not available yet). It was literally directly advertised as competing with the GTX 760 not the GTX 970 or 980 and was never intended to be such. Even its number is still in the 2XX series which puts it in line with the other cards in that series rather than the new next generation cards that will have more power to spare. The R9 390X is a ways off at this point but it going to be the competition for the 980 when its ready in the same way that the HD 7970 came out and then after a few months the GTX 680 came out to fight back. Its not any different from normal and its just how things work in the game.

AMD got hit with a curve ball not by the GTX 980, specifically the GTX 970 having such a low price point. The overall average still says the R9 290X is a bit higher depending on clocks for the R9 290X especially at high resolutions while the GTX 980 goes beyond it. It will likely fall to $350-$400 range and the 290 will fall to $300 while the rest of the cards get knocked into different areas to follow suit. As for the R&D discussion that is a different argument all together and better suited on a different topic as discussing much further on such things leads a thread about the review of a GPU spammed with the wrong type of discussion but AMD's R&D is not in danger of losing everything just because of this...