Are the GTX 970's & 980's already the best GPU's ever made?

555BUK · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:00

Historically it has taken newer (smaller) fabrication processes and/or increased transistor counts to make a new graphics card leap ahead of the opposition. This time NVIDIA have managed to increase performance and efficiency whilst cutting the number of transistors on an old fab process. Prices (for the 970) are also admirably low.

I wonder, does this make the 970/980 Maxwell's the best enthusiasts GPU's ever made?

wellibob · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:04

Plus points especially for the 970 are purchase price, performance and overclocking and then the actual running costs and heat it throws out. Anything from this point on needs to use less juice and yet gain in performance over previous generation.

RichIbizaSport · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:10

No.

The price isn't low. Think back to when the 8800 GT was released, it was ~£150

Now that was a good card for the price considering it was almost as fast as the 8800 GTX for less than half the price.

Orangey · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:10

wellibob said:
Anything from this point on needs to use less juice

No.

I don't care and neither do many others.

WesleyBurns · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:13

Always something else around the bend...

Squink · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:17

If your definition of the best gpu is one that's arguably no quicker than products released over a year ago, but are accompanied by an inexplicable amount of hype, then yes these are definitely up there with the best.

Orangey · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:17

mulpsmebeauty said:
If your definition of the best gpu is one that's arguably no quicker than products released over a year ago, but are accompanied by an inexplicable amount of hype, then yes these are definitely up there with the best.

Hear, hear!

old gamer · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:20

No doubt the 980 and 970 are good but imo i dont think they qualify for legend status like the mighty 8800 gtx

Fanatic · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:23

Orangey said:
No.

I don't care and neither do many others.

Why not? I would have thought less power = less heat = lower temps = more overclocking and less noise.

Orangey · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:24

You mean the noise from my pump? :confused:

Fanatic · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:25

We don't all have fish tanks near our PCs :confused:

[Damien] · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:30

old gamer said:
No doubt the 980 and 970 are good but imo i dont think they qualify for legend status like the mighty 8800 gtx

Or the 9800 Pro

old gamer · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:35

[Damien];27052152 said:
Or the 9800 Pro

True, the fact that these are rememberd shows how good they were, my brother in law is still using a 8800 gts i gave him god knows how long ago

Squink · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:42

[Damien];27052152 said:
Or the 9800 Pro

Or the x800xt pe for those who could find one. Just one of a number of cards in the history of gaming that have been genuinely twice as fast as the best of the preceding generation.

That or a cynical money maker like the 970 and 980 which don't enable previously unreachable new resolutions or game effects. In fact don't really enable much beyond a twenty quid per annum electricity saving on cards run 12 hours per day.

Bonjour · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:49

No.

That accolade would have to go to the Voodoo 2 or the original GeForce.

Bonjour · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:51

The X800XL was decent. You could invariably unlock the pipes to turn it into an X800XT, which was the best card at the time.

win8.1 · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:51

Fanatic said:
Why not? I would have thought less power = less heat = lower temps = more overclocking and less noise.

As far as less noise is concerned I would have thought the 980/970 because of their lower power consumption would be running at much lower fan speeds than my Vapor-x 290. One 970 user with ref cooler runs his card at 90% fan speed to get the same temps as mine at 39% fan speed. Now 39% is approx 1800rpm. Is the ref cooler on the 970 at 90% running less rpm than that?

What fan speeds does a good custom cooler like the G1 run at on a 970/980?

While the 970 has lower power consumption a 290 with a good custom cooler seems to match it in noise, performance at least.

LambChop · 14 Oct 2014 at 14:53

555BUK said:
Historically it has taken newer (smaller) fabrication processes and/or increased transistor counts to make a new graphics card leap ahead of the opposition. This time NVIDIA have managed to increase performance and efficiency whilst cutting the number of transistors on an old fab process. Prices (for the 970) are also admirably low.

I wonder, does this make the 970/980 Maxwell's the best enthusiasts GPU's ever made?

Of course they are, they are genius cards for the money. The price, performance, efficiency is nothing short of brilliant on this 28nm process. AMD could only dream of these numbers without bolting a fridge freezer to their cards and a small nuclear power plant to power them, and the fact they have zero answer to it yet. They will tell you its all about the 20nm as they have no response either perfectly sums it up.

Best GPU's ever made ? currently.... easily.

win8.1 · 14 Oct 2014 at 15:05

LambChop said:
Of course they are, they are genius cards for the money. The price, performance, efficiency is nothing short of brilliant on this 28nm process. AMD could only dream of these numbers without bolting a fridge freezer to their cards and a small nuclear power plant to power them, and the fact they have zero answer to it yet. They will tell you its all about the 20nm as they have no response either perfectly sums it up.

Best GPU's ever made ? currently.... easily.

What extra performance would a 970 have over my Vapor-x which has been out for a good while and how much lower noise would a 970 have compared to it's 1800rpm speed (39%) in Crysis 3 if it ran at the same temps of 72c?

wellibob · 14 Oct 2014 at 15:05

Orangey said:
No.

I don't care and neither do many others.

Well you damn well should do. Nvidia and I are like minded. Get used to it.

Competitor rules

Are the GTX 970's & 980's already the best GPU's ever made?

Mobster