**Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / 980 Review Thread**

[ubersonic]

My point is, if people really are concerned about power consumption now, why go for an overkill gaming rig for 1080P and overclock even further when one top end GPU (at stock clocks) is enough?

i.e. my stock 290 copes perfectly fine for pretty much current every game at max settings (I don't use AA) @ 2560x1080 except for crysis 3.

So your GPU has no trouble running at max settings, as long as you drop them to medium-high, oh well in that case...

I have a 2560x1080 set-up too and my over-clocked and water cooled GTX780 can't max out every game and neither can my R290 rig using this screen, I am actually thinking of moving to 970 SLI ATM.

 

[Ayahuasca]

My point is, if people really are concerned about power consumption now, why go for an overkill gaming rig for 1080P and overclock even further when one top end GPU (at stock clocks) is usually more than enough?

One top end GPU is not more than enough for many of us running 144hz monitors. It may be fine for you but 2 stock 970's use about the same power as some single cards and give you nearly double the FPS.

SLI 970's now mean I don't have to buy a new PSU either.

 

[andybird123]

My point is, if people really are concerned about power consumption now, why go for an overkill gaming rig for 1080P and overclock even further when one top end GPU (at stock clocks) is usually more than enough?

i.e. my stock 290 copes perfectly fine for pretty much every current game at max settings (I don't use AA) @ 2560x1080 except for crysis 3.


Kind of true (depending on CPU and OC...), but at the end of the day, it all adds up!

It probably isnt power consumption itself that people are concerned about, but buying a bigger power supply - if you can buy two 970's and still be using the same or less power than a sinlge overclocked 290X, then it can mean the difference between keeping a 650W/750W psu, or having to buy a new 900W+ one or even if building new, a decent 900W psu will still be a chunk of change more than a decent 750W one where there is more choice

Edit; case in point ^

 

[chaparral]

I don't understand what all the fuss is about with these new cards......apart from the price is a bit better....

most folk will not over clock there cards for 24/7 use.a stock 980 is on par with the gtx780ti. not a very big upgrade really......

They only a refresh and not a next gen

 

[Rusty0611]

How anyone with a pair of 290s cope with the excessive heat is beyond me

I struggle with one. There's no way I can survive another summer with it!

 

[terminator2k2]

They only a refresh and not a next gen

ah so its to keep the gravy train going.....one sec ill go and stair the big pot again

 

[chaparral]

AMD fans detected

Yes you can hear them from miles away!!!..

 

[Kaapstad]

Abraham Lincoln said most information on the internet is made up.

Then Jefferson Davis said he was talking rubbish.

Things really got out of hand when they started arguing about GPUs and the rest is history.

Abe points out that he can spend more on his NVidia cards.

 

[Nexus18]

So your GPU has no trouble running at max settings, as long as you drop them to medium-high, oh well in that case...

I have a 2560x1080 set-up too and my over-clocked and water cooled GTX780 can't max out every game and neither can my R290 rig using this screen, I am actually thinking of moving to 970 SLI ATM.

What games can't you max out? (and like I said, I don't use aa as it isn't really needed at this res. + sweetfx does a better job with no performance hit)

Only game where I have to drop settings a lot is crysis 3. No problems at all with far cry 3, metro last light (obviously with physx turned off), bioshock infinite, tomb raider, batman arkham origins, dead rising 3, watch dogs (although I use those mods on guru but then they also make the game look better than vanilla...) etc.

And this is with an i5-750 bottlenecking my 290 big time so when I get an i5 DC CPU, minimum and average FPS should be even better especially when running mantle.

One top end GPU is not more than enough for many of us running 144hz monitors. It may be fine for you but 2 stock 970's use about the same power as some single cards and give you nearly double the FPS.

SLI 970's now mean I don't have to buy a new PSU either.

Yup like I said, the only time I would worry about power consumption is if I had a weak PSU.

I see your point about 144HZ displays. That is why I am waiting for an appropriate gsync/freesync monitor, get buttery smooth performance even with 60HZ/FPS


Like I said, my observation was more the irony of people who are praising the power consumption area when this wasn't an issue before and these same people still overclock to the very max they can even though there is no need for it and yet they still say they care about TDP....

All of a sudden people are now concerned about power consumption when they haven't batted an eye lit for any of the previous GPU's which sucked juice like crazy.

For the people who need SLI/crossfire for the extra FPS @ 144HZ/4k res., I can see the advantage of lower power consumption for GPU's.

Don't most people have at least 700W PSU's these days as well though? Well the ones who have dual 780's and especially 290's do anyway

 

[Gibbo]

HI there


Just tested 970 and 980 again using 344.11 driver, simply wow:-




MSI 970 Gaming @ 1600/8400

Galax 980 @ 1550/8400

Mind blowing performance!!!!

 

[crinkleshoes]

Simply wow? Wow that they have repeated the 6XX series all over again and held back their top-end part in order to milk their consumers?

Really disliking Nvidia's business practices these last few years.

What a pathetic hardware release.

They have released the 680/770 successor in the 980... there is no 780ti successor on the market.

 

[Nexus18]

^^

AMD are no better, guaranteed they will probably bring something similar out in the next few months.

 

[ubersonic]

^^

AMD are no better, guaranteed they will probably bring something similar out in the next few months.

R9 295X3! complete with LN2 AIO XD

 

[stulid]

All I am waiting for Mr Gibbo boss sir, is the custom 980 models that are due October, can you not tell them I am waiting??

 

[Muzy]

The fuss is that there are thousands of gamers like myself who have been sitting on average cards or only upgrade every 2-3 years finally ready to upgrade, and the 970 in particular is an amazing deal, especially since we can knock off the cost of not needing to buy a new power supply. That's £80 I don't have to shell out.

I've made the jump from an AMD 6950 2GB to a 970

exactly, going from 580GTX to 970.

this upgrade will last me till the real Next Gen of GPU in 2016

 

[James J]

Simply wow? Wow that they have repeated the 6XX series all over again and held back their top-end part in order to milk their consumers?

Really disliking Nvidia's business practices these last few years.

What a pathetic hardware release.

They have released the 680/770 successor in the 980... there is no 780ti successor on the market.

The 970 is painfully good on price to performance ratio though, especially for Nvidia.

 

[chroniclard]

Simply wow? Wow that they have repeated the 6XX series all over again and held back their top-end part in order to milk their consumers?

Really disliking Nvidia's business practices these last few years.

What a pathetic hardware release.

They have released the 680/770 successor in the 980... there is no 780ti successor on the market.

LOL, nice one.

 

[llamadal]

No one is forcing you to upgrade, only a small percentage of the market will update with every release, many will skip a generation.

So many clearly hating for the sake of it, move along....

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here is the TH review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-11.html

Interestingly according to the TH measurement hardware,the GTX980 is quite dynamic in power consumption ranging from 100W to 290W.

It appears the secret sauce with Maxwell,is the ability of it to very quickly modulate power consumption to match load quickly,which helps keep power consumption on average quite reasonable,although GPGPU figures are OFC higher.

 

[almighty15]

Here is the TH review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-11.html

Interestingly according to the TH measurement hardware,the GTX980 is quite dynamic in power consumption ranging from 100W to 290W.

It appears the secret sauce with Maxwell,is the ability of it to very quickly modulate power consumption to match load quickly,which helps keep power consumption on average quite reasonable,although GPGPU figures are OFC higher.

So Maxwell isn't actually any more efficient then GK110.