Go for 28nm or wait until 20? (GTX 9xx)

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Hello all,

This is a simple question. I have a GTX 670 and am looking to upgrade. I have my eyeing the 980, but it is still using 28nm.

Should I wait for a 20nm GTX? Will it deliver a reasonable improvement over the 980 to justify my wait?

Thanks for any replies.

Regards,

Stefan
 
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NBSN
Well, my thoughts are to wait until whatever comes after the 900 series. The 980 will be a significant improvement...but it also depends on what games you play and what display you are using. If you are just using a 1080p 60 hz display, then the 670 is still a viable GPU for most games for the next year or two. Sure you probably won't be maxing out games in two years with it at 60 fps...but I would personally wait.

Of course the thoughts of skipping a generation of GPUs come to mind...and you already skipped the 700 series, so going for 900 series would work out. And you could still sell the 670 for a bit to help with the cost of upgrading...or use it another build...or as a dedicated PhysX card if that is viable (don't know if it is...
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bluejayek

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We can't really know what the performance will be on the 20nm node, or when it would arrive.. there are significant production issues being worked out!

That being said, since the 980 was just released we can expect it will be several months before new cards will come.

However, based on benchmarks the 970 is about 20% better than the 770, which is 20% betetr then your 670. The performance difference will be noticeable.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-8.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2014-vga-charts/16-Battlefield-4-1080p,3608.html
 
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NBSN

NBSN

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Well, my thoughts are to wait until whatever comes after the 900 series. The 980 will be a significant improvement...but it also depends on what games you play and what display you are using. If you are just using a 1080p 60 hz display, then the 670 is still a viable GPU for most games for the next year or two. Sure you probably won't be maxing out games in two years with it at 60 fps...but I would personally wait.

Of course the thoughts of skipping a generation of GPUs come to mind...and you already skipped the 700 series, so going for 900 series would work out. And you could still sell the 670 for a bit to help with the cost of upgrading...or use it another build...or as a dedicated PhysX card if that is viable (don't know if it is since the tech shift).
 
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Tormidal

Tormidal

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Id recommend getting a 9xx series GPU either way. The amount of money you'll save by switching from the power hog 6xx's is worth the change.
 
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That wasn't the point of the question...
 
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I run a 1080p 120hz monitor, so I can enjoy above 60fps
 
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NBSN

NBSN

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The other posters have made comments regarding the 980 being better and less energy hungry...both true. If you want to run games maxed on your monitor, then I would say go for it. If you are happy with your current performance then you would not be looking to upgrade...so yeah do the 970 or 980.
 
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Still, my logic is this:

If the 20nm will provide significant or "reasonable" performance upgrades over its 28nm predecessor, and it will be released in the upcoming months, I would wait for it.

If the 20nm doesn't provide such a big boost, I'd go for the 980 right now so that I have more time with the new GPU before the next cycle comes in.

I guess, sort of, I was asking on anybody with expertise on the subject of 28nm vs 20nm nodes to see if it is worth waiting for the next GPUs
 
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G

Guest

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That is true. I have no serious complaints about current performance; I settled down compared to when I had an obsession with upgrading.

Thanks for your reply.
 
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NBSN

NBSN

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Not a single person on this forum could tell you what NVidia are doing with the GPUs in the technical stage for the 20nm. We can only speculate based on experience and knowledge. Yes the 20nm could be coming in the next months...but that likely won't happen until end of 2015 or early 2016 at the earliest....and maybe even closer to the end of 2016.

There will always be the biggest baddest GPUs coming out...or should I say the smallest and baddest GPUs coming out...and it is all about getting what will meet your needs for immediate and future, til the next upgrades. If you are happy with your current GPU, then wait...otherwise get the 900 series. If you want to keep waiting and waiting for the smaller architectures...then why wait for just 20nm...why not 18nm or 16nm? Just saying.
 
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NBSN

NBSN

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I feel the upgrade obsession...and honestly thankful that between my awesome self control (only added an extra 3 TB HDD since my system build in December 2013) and my being poor the past several months...I have not upgraded anything else. I did not really need to anyway...but as you know...it is hard to not do sometimes because of the shiny stuff... :)

I have a GTX 780 Ti SC ACX and I love this GPU. I had planned on SLIing in the future...but now I will probably just end up going with whatever comes out after the 900 series and switch my current GPU into a dedicated PhysX card or put it into another build. Kinda sad since I planned on having multiple GPUs...hence I have a 1200 watt psu and the ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition motherboard...aww now me sad.
 
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bluejayek

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About the perfomance upgrades to 20nm...

1) It's really hard for anybody here to give a true answer, as there is no definitive information... as no GPU on this node has been made, or at least, no company has told us about that.

2) That being said, there have been a lot of production issues with the 20nm node. This is why it has been delayed so long. Production on the 20nm node at TSMC started at the start of this year, but the first runs were for mobile devices as they are a larger market. http://wccftech.com/tsmc-begins-20nm-volume-production-gpus-node/

3) Old info, my it is possible TSMC is only having a single process at 20nm, rather then multiple ones for different classes of devices. This is referring to sizing the transistors etc. slightly differentely for either performance or low power applications. Since the biggest market is mobile, this probably means the process is optimized for low-power mobile applications. This could translate into lower performance than we might otherwise expect for GPUs that appear on this node (at low power though)
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1261566

Anything else I would say is just speculation.
 
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