Have NVidia missed the bus?

Uncle Petey · 14 Oct 2014 at 12:05

Nvidia's current top end gaming GPU is not an enthusiast card eh?

Shiari · 14 Oct 2014 at 12:06

Not an enthusiast card? I think a lot of enthusiasts grabbed 970s and 980s.

rtho782 · 14 Oct 2014 at 12:09

kazuya1337 said:
Pointless thread tbh, why would Nvidia produce a mainstream card and optimise it for a resolution virtually no one uses. 4K is a enthusiasts resolution and 980 is not an enthusiasts card.

I agree with you but if that is the case, it's interesting.

780 and 780ti are EoL. Titan Black is beaten in many benchmarks by 980, and is too far above 980 in pricing to really be the enthusiasts card, it's more prosumer FP64 for doing CUDA during the week and play Crysis at the weekends.

That kind of implies nVidia don't really HAVE an enthusiast card right now. I expect there to be a 980GX2 or 990 (i.e. a twin GPU GM204 card) but where does that sit? It's not really a 4k card, I guess it's made just for the RoG Swift as SLI 980 probably isn't needed for 1080p120 or 1440p60.

Even if this hypothetical card has a 16GB framebuffer (8GB per GPU) the 256bit bus would limit it in 4k.

So, that makes me think GM200 is around the corner. But that seems a hard sell as well, as I don't think we'll see GM200 in a consumer card until next year (just like GK110 was Tesla/Quadro only in the 600 series and only appeared in Titan and 780 later).

Until nVidia have an enthusiast card, 980 is going to be seen as one, in the same way as 680 and 690 were.

Orangey · 14 Oct 2014 at 12:10

You can bet if they had been able to make Maxwell the way they wanted they would be shouting about 4K non-stop.

It'll be plastered over the GM200 card box art. Wouldn't be surprised if they had it written on the box AND then put a sticker saying "4K!!!11one" on top as well.

Gibbo · 14 Oct 2014 at 12:17

Kaapstad said:
Dell 32" 4K monitor is great

Got it for a good price from OCUK

With a 32" screen text is just the right size on screen and no need to fiddle with resizing.

Very true, I forgot about 32" models, they still need to come down a lot in price though as 32" ones still have a huge premium.

Wizzfizz · 14 Oct 2014 at 12:17

kazuya1337 said:
Pointless thread tbh, why would Nvidia produce a mainstream card and optimise it for a resolution virtually no one uses. 4K is a enthusiasts resolution and 980 is not an enthusiasts card.

This.

Kelt · 14 Oct 2014 at 12:36

old gamer said:
i dont think 4k prices are to bad at the mo, i remember paying over £400 for my first 24" 1920x1200 and my friend paid £600 for his 24" dell,you young whipper snappers dont know how good you have it nowadays

Pah!

How about £700 for a 17" Iliyama CRT monitor bought around 20 years ago!

Peeps these days don't realise how expensive PC's used to be.

VincentHanna · 14 Oct 2014 at 13:41

A 17" CRT monitor in 1994 would be about that.

I had a 19" Iiyama in about 1999 and that wasn't anywhere near that.

~>Dg<~ · 14 Oct 2014 at 13:48

thing is even if decent monitors for 4k come to 300 quid you still need 1000 quids worth of gpu to play them.

thats why they wont become mainstream.

most people will grab 2560x1440 monitors instead.

Boomstick777 · 14 Oct 2014 at 13:48

kazuya1337 said:
Pointless thread tbh, why would Nvidia produce a mainstream card and optimise it for a resolution virtually no one uses. 4K is a enthusiasts resolution and 980 is not an enthusiasts card.

+1

By the time AMD's HBM and Nvidia's stacked memory launch, arguing over a few fps at resolutions we don't even use yet will seem utterly pointless, which it is..

The 970 and 980 are the cards to get right now, fast, low power use and all of Nvidia's decent features.

I get that bus size is all AMD have to shout about right now..

AMD will launch something soon (Hopefully) and all these but my bus is bigger than your bus threads will hopefully go away..

Gerard · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:03

So apparently its pick and choose time as to with what gpu's NVidia are "Powering the 4K Revolution " with, and it would seem their current fastest cards don't count.

Jono8 · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:15

You need 2 x Titan Z's or 2x 295x2's to get near 60 fps in Crysis maxed out at 4k and we will be getting much better looking and more demanding games than Crysis 3 in the next few years I am sure.

4k just isn't feasible for the mainstream yet. The monitor cost isn't really the problem. It is the hardware needed to run stuff decently at 60fps+

Sure its doable now for people who can splurge £1000's on gaming hardware but those people wont be buying 970's and 980's will they. They will be buying multiple Titan Z's and 295x2's etc.

tommybhoy · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:17

kazuya1337 said:
why would Nvidia produce a mainstream card and optimise it for a resolution virtually no one uses. 4K is a enthusiasts resolution and 980 is not an enthusiasts card.

You better tell that to Nvidia with their new DSR feature/4K and the delighted benchers then...

The computing demands of 4K are high, however, requiring top-tier multi-GPU systems, until now that is. With Maxwell and the GeForce GTX 980, 4K G-SYNC is a reality thanks to Maxwell's technological innovations, its speed, and its 4GB of VRAM.

http://www.geforce.co.uk/whats-new/articles/maxwell-architecture-gtx-980-970

Hopefully it's simply requiring a driver optimisation/fix for 3+ SLi and not a design flaw.

Edit-

Jono8 said:
Sure its doable now for people who can splurge £1000's on gaming hardware but those people wont be buying 970's and 980's will they. They will be buying multiple Titan Z's and 295x2's etc.

No, they'll go full mental mode under water with 4 top end AMD/Nvidia instead of 2 dual cards as they are better suited for clocking.

Silent_Scone · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:24

SLI scaling on Unigine stuff is broken at the moment. Thought everyone knew that.

Also the 980 is still faster at 4k believe it or not. Not to mention dominating in the FSU bench.

Some people get fixated on paper specs for sure. I guess it's pure luck I'm in the top ten in a 4k bench with a GPU down on surrounding 290x 780ti scores

Squink · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:34

Nvidia havent so much missed the bus as deliberately left the house 10 minutes late to ensure they don't catch it. They know there's a bigger, better bus just waiting to leave the depot and all the people who prematurely jumped on the first bus will be required to get onto it when the first bus proves incapable of handling the steep hills ahead of it.

And the fare on this second bus won't be cheap, particularly for those people who got on the first bus and have to pay twice.

Silent_Scone · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:37

Prematurely.

Will you use that word in March when I'm still using mine and you're still waiting?

There is always another bus around the corner. Wasn't aware we were all waiting for the bend-over bus

old gamer · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:44

I dont care, by the time 4k is mainstream i will have a free bus pass

Gregster · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:57

I think the drivers need work. Even with 3 Titans, I see GPU usage dropping in places and I was seeing GpU usage like this. CPU is clocked at 4.625Ghz and ran the test at 1440P

GPU 1 = 84% usage
GPU 2 = 89% usage
GPU 3 = 92% usage

Drivers need some work.

old gamer · 14 Oct 2014 at 15:01

Gerard said:
So apparently its pick and choose time as to with what gpu's NVidia are "Powering the 4K Revolution " with, and it would seem their current fastest cards don't count.

I didn't know Christopher biggens worked for nvidia

Orangey · 14 Oct 2014 at 15:09

Silent_Scone said:
Prematurely.

Will you use that word in March when I'm still using mine and you're still waiting?

Who's "waiting"? Hawaii and GK110 against Maxwell is pretty much a wash. Worst release in years. We're enjoying our old cards that can embarrass the "new hotness". Makes them feel like a great investment. :cool: