That's reference for reference, I agree. But... Titan X didn't have any custom cooled versions right? Whereas the 980ti did. And that's where the 980ti could beat the Titan X. The better custom 980ti's could beat a Titan X at their stock speeds (keeping in mind that many of these had factory base OCs). I remember seeing benchmarks comparing a few different 980tis to Titan X and some fell under, while some beat the TX.
But also, I gotta ask how well does a TX overclock? Cos I also remember from somewhere that the best OCing 980tis could beat the best OC from a Titan X. On cards one could buy (i.e. no custom water-cooled ones or that sort). These might be DigitalFoundry benchmarks if I recall.
Right now I'm so very tempted to go for a price drop 980ti as a temporary upgrade. Alas, I don't have a 1440p144hz monitor yet to make the best of it (and even if I did, it would likely be a FreeSync monitor anyway) and it's kinda just upgrading for the sake of upgrading. Not that I need it right now. And the funny thing is that original Titan X prices haven't dropped much at all.
Do Nvidia plan to trick people into buying the older one or something?