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4 Weeks with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI

Soldato
Joined
30 Mar 2010
Posts
13,417
Location
Under The Stairs!
No performance numbers, just living with 980 SLi.

The Bottom Line

Have I been happy with my Radeon R9 290X CrossFire system? Absolutely. A new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI setup will easily remind you what you would like changed about it however. The GTX 980 cards are so much cooler, and so much quieter than the 290X cards, it will astound you that these cards perform so incredibly well. The efficiency that NVIDIA has accomplished with this new Maxwell GPU is praiseworthy.

From a pure gaming performance standpoint, I am not upgrading in my move to 980 SLI from 290X CrossFire. From a comfort and usability perspective, the 980 SLI is twice the product 290X CrossFire is, or maybe a better way to say it would be that 980 SLI is half the product that 290X CrossFire is...half the heat and half the noise. Sadly that thinking does not extend to the half the price.

Today you can purchase a custom cooled Radeon R9 290X card for as little as $320 after MIR. The least expensive GeForce GTX 980 card for sale today is $549. If you are taking SLI into consideration that is a fairly big price bump for better efficiency. You can argue electric costs over time, but the simple fact is that it would take a hell of a long time to recoup $460 no matter how many hours a day you gamed.

Even though I am specifically talking about my multi-GPU experience, single card GTX 980 performance cannot be ignored. When you use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 in a single card configuration on a sub-4K single display, the GTX 980 not only is more efficient, it is simply a better performer, and by a good margin. Overclocking your GTX 980 will push the performance even further out from the R9 290X in performance.

For 290X CrossFire users, it is very hard to make the case that it is worth it to jump to a GTX 980 SLI setup. I am not writing this to try to sell you on one or the other. Even if you could sell your used 290X cards for $500, another $600 for a set of GTX 980 cards in order to get better efficiency, less heat, and less noise is a fairly steep cost.

If you are considering a new multi-GPU system, the pricing on the current crop of R9 290X cards makes CrossFire a lot more palatable wallet-wise than GTX 980 SLI. For a long term multi-GPU purchase, there is no doubt in my mind that you would easily be happier living with GTX 980 SLI day to day.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/10/30/4_weeks_nvidia_geforce_gtx_980_sli/1#.VFToJvmsW7s
 
Good read.

He changes GPUs too often for me to relate that well though. 690 -> Titan SLI -> 290x CF -> 980 SLI? He must be able to print money!
 
Really good to read an honest review from someone who doesn't seem to have a vested interest in either camp. Also good to see someone not using terms like "completely obliterates" because one card runs 2% better than another. Thanks for posting the link Tommy. :)
 
The biggest issue for happy living with the crossfire solution has got to be temps. If I had a pair of 290x's under water it would be just as easy to live with as a pair of 980's, Air-cooled is a different matter as someone already pointed out.
 
Not much credit is given to the 970 and 980 prices. No-one was buying the 290's till AMD started giving them away, its the only reason they sold after the 9xx release, and yet the 980 is compared to the price of AMD as it is now not when the 9xx was released.

If no one was buying the 290's before the 970 and 980 then the price would have dropped all by themselves, the price dropped after the 970 and 980 for fear of people not buying the 290, because what difference would the 970 and 980 make if people were already not buying.

The price is compared as it is of now is because the review is published as of now.

Monumental logic fail twice.
 
"AMD on Thursday said revenue from its computing and graphics unit fell 16% from the year-earlier period. Analysts believe Intel has been expanding its market share in PC chips at AMD’s expense. AMD said the segment had a $17 million operating loss, compared with operating income of $9 million in the 2013 quarter"

I do stand corrected, when I say no-one was buying the 290's, I should have said no-one was buying anything. A swing of $26m to a $17m loss.

There is zero logic quoting an article that points you in the direction to where AMD's haemorrhaging market share(cash)-cpu's then associating it to the part that is keeping them afloat-gpu's/apu's.

XbmBEyW.png
That's the reason AMD went from profitability to loss, the mining bubble burst=NOTHING to do with the 9 series.:p

Decent article, turned into nonsense.:o
 
If you guys thought he was talking crap, you should have just ignored. I have seen post after post doing the same but instead of getting all beat up about it, I just ignored them. The responses are no better than the original post and it all reads like playground bickering.
 
Because as usual, you have to come in with the same old exaggerated, biased crap that's seemingly designed to provoke reaction. Well done, it worked.
It's not even funny any more and your ridiculous obsession is bordering on mental disorder to be quite frank.
Seriously...sometimes I wonder if he get paid on per post basis everytime someone responds to his trolling :D

Actually regarding graphic card, I'm afraid it's has been the same for the couple of years...companies are only target their new products at people who have older cards...probably 2 gens old, while people already got a fair modern card(s) won't have anything meaningful to upgrade to from performance perspective. We use to be able to get fairly decent upgrade for same price range every two gen, but now two gen is around 3 years comparing to 2 years of the pass, and people have to paid more than their previous card to get decent upgrade (>50% increase).
 
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^LOL

Greg, you're right. and most of the time, I'll do the same. I won't apologise for saying what most of us think though.
If it reads a certain way, then so be it.

I am sick of this whole idea that if you respond, then you're just as bad mentality.
 
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A good read which echos what the majority are thinking :)

980 sli with a 4.6ghz 4770k pulling well less then 500w is nuts.
 
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