Reviews - Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (28nm Maxwell)

[scaryjim]

very interesting review and that power saving, seems that it cvould run in systems running <500 wt quality psu's!

198W gaming at the wall, even assuming an excellent 90% efficiency is < 180W DC draw. You could run one with a good quality 300W PSU and be right in the middle of its efficiency curve. Such overkill.

What I'll be interested to see is GM206 cards (presumably GTX960). They should be able to get something pretty special out of a ~ 100W TDP....

Hats off to nvidia: this is a great card - the push for greater efficiency has really paid off. Fingers crossed AMD can make similar gains from both their CPU and GPU departments in the near future: we need some decent competition at the high end....

[kalniel]

I thought the GM210 models would be the top tier performance cards. Was that a typo or have I missed something? I didn't have time to read the review so just scanned through the intro.

They try for GM200 but if there's any need for a respin (or in this case, a node shrink) then it's likely to be GM210. The '0' last digit is the top tier indicator. It could be that after GM210 we also get GM214 as some kind of refresh of the 980 from nVidia.

[Spiralking]

I think you're remembering wrong. Pixel shaded (1.3) water for Morrowind was only available on the nVidia geforce 3 ti cards. AMD and other nVidia cards had to make do with normal textured water on Morrowind. The code was actually developed by nVidia and given to Bethesda.

It was weird.. i'd given my Mum the cheaper AMD card and was shocked... I think i'm going to flip to AMD this time around.... I've got a 690 at the moment and my upgrade path is overkill with nvidia - I only have one slot available due to other custom needs in the box or i'd go 2 card sli... wonder what amd has up their sleeves as the offerings from Nvidia look like a fag papers improvement compared to the leaps amd seem to be making...

I'm wanting 4k and fast htz for the monitor... so willing to wait!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I thought the GM210 models would be the top tier performance cards. Was that a typo or have I missed something? I didn't have time to read the review so just scanned through the intro.

Well the original GK100 was supposedly cancelled and it was replaced by the GK110 at least according to what I heard at the time.

198W gaming at the wall, even assuming an excellent 90% efficiency is < 180W DC draw. You could run one with a good quality 300W PSU and be right in the middle of its efficiency curve. Such overkill.

What I'll be interested to see is GM206 cards (presumably GTX960). They should be able to get something pretty special out of a ~ 100W TDP....

Hats off to nvidia: this is a great card - the push for greater efficiency has really paid off. Fingers crossed AMD can make similar gains from both their CPU and GPU departments in the near future: we need some decent competition at the high end....

I am looking forward to the GTX960 as I am still stuck on a GTX660 myself.

Regarding AMD,TBH I am not sure why they released the R9 285. It has some power consumption improvements,but many of the production models were pre-overclocked and not really anymore efficient than an ancient R9 280, and sure it a few added features and improved tessellation performance,but its still quite large for what it is,especially since DP performance was depreciated and it uses less GDDR5 RAM modules.

Seems a rather pointless SKU once the GTX960 is launched. Unless OFC Tonga is more cut down than we thing. If it isn't,it sounds more like a marketing driven SKU.

[kalniel]

It was weird.. i'd given my Mum the cheaper AMD card and was shocked...

You were shocked that the cheaper card didn't have fancy water? OK...

as the offerings from Nvidia look like a fag papers improvement compared to the leaps amd seem to be making...

Hmm maybe you're getting AMD and nVidia mixed up throughout actually? These cards (980/970) are a big leap compared to their predecessors, the last AMD card (285) was more of a sideways step. Do check you are using the right term as it gets very confusing!

[LSG501]

Couldn't you even do 1 test that involves cuda, seriously not all of us use the gpu purely for gaming and with the new cuda architecture it would have been nice to see how it performs.

Having said that it has made me curious for the GM210....

[Ulti]

Wow, the power consumption and noise (or absence of) is amazing with this! Can't wait to see the lower models such as the GTX 950 and 960.

[shaithis]

nVidia following Intels recent R&D efforts, very nice to see, although I think it's going to be a few more years before we see the huge jumps in performance that the lower power consumption can bring.

[MaverickWill]

Is it just me that thinks this is a bit of a paper launch? I can only find a couple of models in stock on Scan, and none of the 970s. I can't imagine day 1 demand to be so high on the cards.

On the topic of the card, it looks like a brilliant performer. Really excited to see what overclockers can do once they get these under water!

[kalniel]

Is it just me that thinks this is a bit of a paper launch? I can only find a couple of models in stock on Scan

By definition therefore, no

[j.o.s.h.1408]

might wait for the 980ti card. am in no rush. the 780gtx i have does a good job.

[adidan]

Is it just me that thinks this is a bit of a paper launch? I can only find a couple of models in stock on Scan, and none of the 970s.

Scan have 970s, some are available for Monday delivery already http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-...81664-cores%29

[DavidM]

Or Saturday or Sunday delivery.

[Jasp]

Aye but Saturday ain't free lol

[RobinXe]

This seems like a no-brainer compared to a 780Ti. Better performance, even if only a little, for about the same money, and new fancy-bits to boot!

[kalniel]

This seems like a no-brainer compared to a 780Ti. Better performance, even if only a little, for about the same money,

At the moment it's about £70 more expensive (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-129-GI), which is maybe not worth the tiny improvement. But 780tis won't be around for long as it's much cheaper for nVidia to make the 980.