GTX 980 / 970 Discussion

[Undesirable]

SLI this card and you have the 295x2, just cooler and quieter....and much more of both if you fit water blocks

i'm very impressed with this card

Are there going to be any waterblocks for the 970 though? All the EK blocks available for pre-order are for the 980.

 

[Uncle Petey]

I'm sure there'll be official blocks available soon enough considering how popular the 970's are/will be and that 670 blocks fit the ref design already (I think).
Do like the idea of needing less rad space for 3-4 of these than with, say a few 290's.

Dunno where the bus situation leaves them at higher res with multi cards though tbh. But that's another question entirely

 

[Marine-RX179]

"Waste" it? I highly doubt that, they'll be a bit faster obviously but hardly worth the cost over what he has now.

Yea. Nobody is arguing that the new 970/980 cards ain't decent, but it is sad to see some people getting over their head and try to walk over others for the sake of purchase justification

For a "new gen card" standard, they are far from "wasting" the top level cards on "last gen". Also, pair of 980 in SLI actually cost more than the reduced price 295 X2 (£880 vs £700), and won't go with a m-itx build (which would be the main target of dual-GPU single card anyway).

 

[shamus21]

posted this in 970 owners, whereas I should really posted it rather here:

I own 2x 2GB Asus GTX670 (OCed it's faster than 680s) in SLI.

is it worth selling and getting single 970 if I only game 1080p?

Do you have any problems playing the games you have if not just keep your set up for a little longer until you do.

 

[shamus21]

is it worth coming from a 680 to a 970?

Do you need the extra performance if not no, but if you do I would go for 2x 970 in sil to make the upgrade worth it. Buy one now and then get a second one later maybe around the winter holidays you probably save a few pounds or get a free game or two.

 

[shamus21]

There seems to be an awfully large price difference between the 970 and 980 given the relatively small performance boost. A 970 is £260 whereas a 980 is £440. You could very nearly buy 2 970's in SLi for the price of a single 980

If feels like Nvidia are marking up the 980 purely because it's the flagship card at the moment as it definitely doesn't justify the £200 price gap. From the benchmarks I've seen 2x970's in SLI are definitely the way to go for bang per buck high-end performance.

Not only the cost but the 256 bit bus on the 980 with a high overclock is holding it back. I said a few months back the I hope NVidia use 512bit bus on the 980.

 

[shamus21]

The AMD 295 is looking to be a poor buy now when they were on offer for £699.00 . Two 970 in sil will match if not beat it when overclocked for around the £550 mark and a lot cooler, less noise.

 

[JGBR]

780gtx users need not worry from what I can see in the benchmarks

 

[Digital X]

My 970 is arriving between 10am and 11am! super excited and my stepdad can then have my 670, so that's us both sorted.

 

[setter]

780gtx users need not worry from what I can see in the benchmarks

Yep, if you own a 780/780ti or AMD 200 series you should stick with them. I must admit I'm very impressed by the 970 myself. But it would be a bit daft to replace my 780's with 2 of them even though I could do it pretty cheaply.

 

[Born_2_Kill_83]

SLI this card and you have the 295x2, just cooler and quieter....and much more of both if you fit water blocks

i'm very impressed with this card

The AMD 295 is looking to be a poor buy now when they were on offer for £699.00 . Two 970 in sil will match if not beat it when overclocked for around the £550 mark and a lot cooler, less noise.

2X970 aren't faster than a 295X2 or CF290X's, was going to make the switch myself but the performance is behind on every review and bench I've looked at, yes it cooler which was the attraction for me but less grunt, especially at high resolutions. People are getting a bit over excited about the 970, it's a quick cheap card but lets not get carried away.

 

[Marine-RX179]

2X970 aren't faster than a 295X2 or CF290X's, was going to make the switch myself but the performance is behind on every review and bench I've looked at, yes it cooler which was the attraction for me but less grunt, especially at high resolutions. People are getting a bit over excited about the 970, it's a quick cheap card but lets not get carried away.

Yea that's basic the catch.

The 970 is only on par with the 780/290 performance wise, and for anyone with 290/780 want actual "upgrade" in terms of performance (even if it is tiny), they HAVE TO invest on the 980 instead of the 970, which is "conveniently" 70% more expensive than the 970

The 970 is a cracking card and upgrade for people that are upgrading from older cards, but for anyone with 780/290 going from what they got to a 970, it is really just a sidegrade (downgrade for 780Ti/290x owners). Though if selling their existing 290/780 will pay fully for the 970, then it would definitely worth doing.

 

[stooeh]

There's a 970 SLI review linked elsewhere that puts the 970s ahead of 295X2 in a couple of games (the 295X2 in others) but overall the 970s are pretty darn close.

Considering you can get 2 970s for £520 making it a whole lot cheaper and using a lot less power - I'd say that was pretty exciting.

 

[Marine-RX179]

There's a 970 SLI review linked elsewhere that puts the 970s ahead of 295X2 in a couple of games (the 295X2 in others) but overall the 970s are pretty darn close.

Problem with the reviews is that almost all of them don't put overclocked 780/780Ti/290/290x/295 X2 performance result on the same bench, and people end-up keep looking at overclocked 970/980 performance vs the previous top-end cards.

I mean imagine a bench putting a GTX460 1GB overclocked to 950~1,000MHz vs a stock clock GTX470, and omitting the performance of overclocked GTX470...

 

[stooeh]

Well the review I was referring to (Techpowerup) says this 'Both cards have been set to run at NVIDIA reference clock speeds.'

I'm not dissing the AMD cards - if you have a 290X already the obvious choice is to get another for Xfire. Same if you have a 780/780Ti. So maybe it just exciting for old card user like myself

Another point is that generally the 970s outpeformed at 1600p and below but the 295X2 taking the lead at 4K or triple screen 1080p

 

[Marine-RX179]

Well the review I was referring to (Techpowerup) says this 'Both cards have been set to run at NVIDIA reference clock speeds.'

I'm not dissing the AMD cards - if you have a 290X already the obvious choice is to get another for Xfire. Same if you have a 780/780Ti. So maybe it just exciting for old card user like myself

Another point is that generally the 970s outpeformed at 1600p and below but the 295X2 taking the lead at 4K or triple screen 1080p

Well, someone who owned both the 970 and 780 confirmed that (with Heaven Bench) 970 at 1500MHz is just about to be on par/9 points behind with the 780 at 1240MHz, so looking beyond the power-efficiency, I think the 970's performance got hyped beyond what it really is...

 

[Boomstick777]

Well, someone who owned both the 970 and 780 confirmed that (with Heaven Bench) 970 at 1500MHz is just about to be on par/9 points behind with the 780 at 1240MHz, so looking beyond the power-efficiency, I think the 970's performance got hyped beyond what it really is...

'Says bitter AMD user'



Really though, a £260+ card that can beat the 290 / 780 and trade blows with the 290X and 780 Ti when clocked, and uses far far far less power than both, has all of the latest Nvidia features..

There is very little to moan about here, it still won't stop certain people trying though

AMD will release something soon and the cycle will continue as normal, as someone who buys on the best card they can afford and enjoys hardware regardless of brand it's all a bit comical reading some of he comments on the net.

The 970 is probably Nvidia's best performance VS price card ever. This is a good thing as AMD will have to respond in kind.

 

[ndaar]

The 970 is probably Nvidia's best performance VS price card ever. This is a good thing as AMD will have to respond in kind.

Don't know about best not sure if the classic 8800gts is around the same price V performance at the time.

 

[RanxZy]

Well, someone who owned both the 970 and 780 confirmed that (with Heaven Bench) 970 at 1500MHz is just about to be on par/9 points behind with the 780 at 1240MHz, so looking beyond the power-efficiency, I think the 970's performance got hyped beyond what it really is...

Yes realistically the 970 is doing just what a 290X can do but just a lot more efficiently and cooler.

This is still a big deal though because it allows sli users to snap at the heels of a 295x2 for £520 which is unheard of for NVIDIA.

 

[Boomstick777]

Nvidia's Onslaught Continues: GeForce GTX 980, GTX 970 Maxwell Cards Launched

Nvidia has taken the wraps off their latest flagship PC gaming graphics cards today, now known as the GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 970. In the high-end PC graphics arena, there are halo products that are built to lay down the gauntlet for the competition. And of course, Nvidia and AMD have been in a perpetual slugfest for many years, in an effort to claim the biggest, baddest 3D graphics engine on the planet. Sometimes graphics cards even push the boundaries of stable system power capacity with their light-dimming, pixel crunching, horsepower; though even in this juggernaught product segment, there are certain efforts made toward efficient computing. And that’s what these new graphics cards from Nvidia, based on their latest Maxwell GPU architecture, are all about.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davealt...force-gtx-980-gtx-970-maxwell-cards-launched/