GTX 980 worth the extra?

[bigmac121]

I was lucky was going to get a 970 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010) then I saw (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-261-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1812) which was £499 @ the time for £369.00 B Grade. It boosts @1565 No Contest. Happy with it. Not sure but mins were higher and it seems a lot smoother in games. DSR work very well in COD AW. Still need to test more games out. Games with low FPS as others has said its smoother. I have two monitors (see sig. Will try 1440P over the holidays and report back.)

 

[bru]

But AMD have their 20nm product ready to go and they have HBM which Nvidia won't have until 2016. If anything, next year is going to be tough for Nvidia.

Remember that 20nm was supposed to launch 6 months or so ago now. Maxwell was designed for it. The only reason the 970/980 were released @28nm was due to delays in bringing 20nm on stream and then, once it was ready, the iPhone 6 taking up all the capacity.

Feel free to mock me if it doesn't happen

In my heart I kinda hope your right, but my head is telling me that most of next year is going to be quite painful on the 28nm yet again GPU front.

 

[Stanners]

But AMD have their 20nm product ready to go and they have HBM which Nvidia won't have until 2016. If anything, next year is going to be tough for Nvidia.

Remember that 20nm was supposed to launch 6 months or so ago now. Maxwell was designed for it. The only reason the 970/980 were released @28nm was due to delays in bringing 20nm on stream and then, once it was ready, the iPhone 6 taking up all the capacity.

Feel free to mock me if it doesn't happen

Where is this AMD is ready to go with 20nm and HBM coming from?

 

[Evian]

Debating selling my Windforce GTX 780 OC, Buying OCUK's version of the 970 then another later for SLI, The power is much lower than SLI 780's, Is this a good plan ?

 

[facboy]

it's a waste of money imo, it's a side-grade. how long would you have to run the 970s at to break even on the power savings? probably years!

 

[rtho782]

I wish I'd just gone with 970s.

As for power savings, I'm saving about 300W over my old trifire 7970/7990 setup when at full load.

At 14p per kWh, and two hours of that a day (gaming, assuming I'm not playing some indy game with little gpu demand) I'm saving £8.68 a month.

Given that I often end up playing older or indy games, It's likely to be less than that, but I guess my 980s will have paid for themselves in 100 months, so like 8 years.

Of course, by that time I'd have upgraded both setups, more than once.

 

[Jong1]

Isn't it £2.60 saving per month (you're saving 300W, not 1KW).

 

[Kaapstad]

My 980s are costing me a fortune in electricity !!!

In this cold weather I have to have the electric fire on when I am using the 980s, something I don't need to do when using my 290Xs.

 

[rtho782]

Isn't it £2.60 saving per month (you're saving 300W, not 1KW).

Yes, my maths is apparently crap in the morning.

Oh well, only 330 months or so. That's 3 years longer than a mortgage.

 

[jonstatt]

??? Did you mean 2015?

There is certainly going to be a MAJOR step up in performance from both Nvidia and AMD in the first half of 2015, most likely by March/April, coming from FINALLY shrinking their process to 20nm, or just possibly even 16nm, after 3 years @28nm. This is going to deliver a much bigger improvement than 780 -> 980.

The latest rumours suggest that the 20nm process will be initially used for mobile solutions and not full scale PC graphics cards. So I think its fairly safe to bet that any release in March/April will be those mobile chips. I think it is quite likely that the replacement for the 9x0 cards will be about September next year (i.e. a year on). I think its far more likely we will see a 980TI, possibly a 990 etc etc.

I think the review article of the 970 vs 980 from PC Advisor is quite a good read.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/...0-vs-nvidia-gtx-970-graphics-card-comparison/

It also brings the 780Ti into the mix as well which is very interesting and may be a better option than a 970. The bottom line is that the 970 is better value than the 980, but the difference with the 980 is tangible. If you SLI a pair of 980s that difference increases further. If 120fps is your target, which for some it is, you are more likely to hit it with a pair of 980s. For example, if you consider their test of Battlefield 4 at 2560x1440 (a common current resolution), then the fps of the 970 is 54 and the 980 is 64. That's a 15% gain on the 980. If the 2xSLI adds about 65% that takes you to 89 for the 970 and 106 for the 980.

I am not saying the 980 is a great value proposition at all. I am just saying depending on your needs, it is the fastest single card right now and may just nudge you forwards in being able to hit your desired FPS at your desired detail levels in specific games whether that be in single or SLI configuration.

 

[Jong1]

AMD will be there in Q2 (probably early Q2). It's possible Nvidia will be a bit later, if so times will be tough. Sept is unlikely, but even if it were to be then, it's still not 2016.