Should I buy a brand new GTX 980

YoAndy · Feb 15, 2017

Hello guys I have the chance of buying a brand new GTX 980 (with warranty of course) for 275. or should I get a newer generation card?, or should I wait for Vega?

EpIckFa1LJoN · Feb 15, 2017

Vega and a 1080 Ti announcement are around the corner, AMD prices will probably drop, but Nvidia cards don't really go down after new cards, but you should probably wait and see how the Vega cards perform before you commit to old tech. You may be able to get something way better for 275 in the new Vega line.

BadAsAl · Feb 15, 2017

That price seems about right for a GTX 980 but without knowing the exact one you are considering it's hard to say.
As far as performance, that card scores 9622 on passmark and the GTX 1070 scores 10960 so it is not that far behind the newest generation. But the 1070 is around $400.
In the Bang for your buck department that is a decent deal in my opinion.

YoAndy · Feb 15, 2017

BadAsAl :

Is the Nvidia Geforce Gtx 980 Reference card Like the founders edition for the new generation and yeah that's why I'm interested in this card with this price because newer equivalents(performance wise) are almost twice the price

BadAsAl · Feb 15, 2017

So used ones go for around that price based on eBay sales.
Which card are you replacing if that is what you are doing?

YoAndy · Feb 15, 2017

BadAsAl :

The one I'm buying is brand new from a major retailer and is replacing a EVGA gtx 760 FTW

junkeymonkey · Feb 15, 2017

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3092193/components-graphics/nvidias-geforce-gtx-1060-is-a-250-gtx-980-killer.html

unless you got a older board that the 10 series may not work on that looks interesting the 1060 maybe the better deal

looks close ?

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1060/10.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_1060_STRIX_OC/8.html

why_wolf · Feb 15, 2017

I wouldn't the 480 and 1060 are in the same price bracket and their performance are all in spitting range of each other. No reason to buy old tech in that scenario unless the 980 was for less, which it isn't.

YoAndy · Feb 15, 2017

junkeymonkey :

My Motherboard is The Asus Rampage iii Extreme Board

BadAsAl · Feb 15, 2017

YoAndy :

Yup, so you are getting a new board at used prices... so I still think it's a decent deal. As others said you can get a GTX 1060 for the same price. The 980 benchmarks higher but maybe the 1060 does something else the 980 doesn't. You are probably going to have to do some research on each and decide.

junkeymonkey · Feb 15, 2017

'' Asus Rampage iii Extreme '' getting old I guess you can see back when the 900 series cards came out [gtx 970] some guys with z68 motherboards had issue with them working on them with out a bios update support ???

I don't see any issue with your board and these cards [yet] but seems the 900 series worked fine ??

seems a gtx 1080 working well here to post results

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/8745885

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/8746648

with a 1060
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/11925914

also don't forget the 10 series does ''NOT'' have native analog support on the cards as the older series does [why I went with a 980ti] and not supported under win-7 [another reason]

looks like what ever cards you feel is best and fully supports your needs stick it in and run it

EpIckFa1LJoN · Feb 15, 2017

The 980 is slightly better than the 1060 6GB so the good overclocked versions are in that wheelhouse. The 480 is slightly slower than the 1060 6GB, but is also even cheaper, You could get a 1060 6GB for about the same price as what you are looking at for the 980, or even less for a "in spitting distance" (I mean it's 10% of a difference between the Radeon 480 and the GTX 980 and also about $80 difference), but like I said I would wait to see what Vega has to offer they are supposed to be able to compete with the 1080 for about half the cost. Like I said you could possibly get a card that competes with the 1080 for the same price you are looking at.

And if Vega doesn't deliver, you can probably find a 480 really cheap at that point and just use them in SLI (I would bet you could get two for about $400 by then, if not now) and you could get 1070-1080 like performance.

But yeah price to performance the 1060 6GB has the 980 beat even at $275 (980 is a whopping 4% faster than the 1060)

junkeymonkey · Feb 15, 2017

''The 980 is slightly better than the 1060 6GB so the good overclocked versions are in that wheelhouse'' ??

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_1060_STRIX_OC/22.html

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1060/22.html

I dont see much of that there more like tit for tat

I choose the 900 series [980ti] cause it supports me and my needs unlike the 10 series where I got to now support it and its needs

EpIckFa1LJoN · Feb 16, 2017

Yes in general you can see the REFERENCE design of the 980 performs slightly (very slightly in most cases) better than the REFERENCE 1060. If you compare an OC'd 1060 to an OC'd 980 you would get the same results, but the only time the 1060 beats the 980 is when it is OC'd.

But its a close call there. A good 1060 (OC'd) will perform better than the reference 980, but the OP neglected to say WHICH 980 it is, So we have to go off the reference. In general the 980 will outperform a similar 1060. (The MSI Gaming X 980 will beat a MSI Gaming X 1060 6GB assuming they both exist.)

But again like I have been saying... I would wait to see what VEGA has to offer, because it will do 2 things, 1.) Lower the cost of current AMD cards, 2.) potentially match 1080 speeds for less.

YoAndy · Feb 16, 2017

EpIckFa1LJoN :

What I I don't like about the 1060 is the fact that it doesn't support SLI and above 1080p resolutions is bad for gaming that's why is not in my radar I'm looking for something more powerful that i can sli and play games beyond 1080p as a right now i can play battlefield maxed out with my overclocked gtx 760 at around 60fps. And I'm planning in using my 65'' LG 4k tv with my next cards and I can SLI 2 980s in the near future because one 1070 is about $400 they are expensive. But like some advice i have been getting here we don't know what vega is bringing soon

EpIckFa1LJoN · Feb 16, 2017

Yeah i'd wait for Vega, and if you're planning on 4k you might as well save up for something that is going to perform at least as well as a 1080, because even a single 1080 is going to have some trouble running some games in 4k. If you are dead set on running at 4k, you may want to look into the 1080 Ti when it gets announced as well, it will be pretty expensive, but from their talks it will offer Titan XP-like performance.

But yeah even with two 980's you're going to have some trouble with 4k, and that's also assuming the game is well optimized for SLI. Two Overclocked 980's slightly outperforms a single 1080 FE.

YoAndy · Feb 16, 2017

EpIckFa1LJoN :

You are totally right. Good that my motherboard supports quad SLI. I just don't feel comfortable paying what nvidia want us to pay for a gtx1080 for 4k or 2k gaming that's why i was considering multiples 980's

EpIckFa1LJoN · Feb 16, 2017

YoAndy :

It may support it but barely any game supports 3-way SLI, many games don't even work with a 3rd card in the system. It's an awesome idea on paper but in practice you might as well throw your money away. There's also the issue of the 980's sucking massive amounts of power compared to the single 1080 lol.

junkeymonkey · Feb 16, 2017

newer 10series only supports 2 way anyway I think in a series or 2 sli maybe a thing of the past its now just 1/2 heartily supported now or not too stable in programs or drivers . then I thing NVidia will remove a bit more of your overclocking abilities as well

''S''udden-''L''oss of ''I''ncome

good luck on what you do this poor old 980 ti sems do to all I ask and better supported of all my needs not just a few

junkeymonkey · Feb 17, 2017

at that price 275 for it ? must be one heck of a sale

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=185&sort=a8&page=1

is that price for some kind of E-bay seller ??

heck referbs are close to that price but still not as cheap ?

http://www.evga.com/products/productlist.aspx?type=8&family=GeForce+900+Series+Family&chipset=GTX+980

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007709 600536050

YoAndy · Feb 17, 2017

junkeymonkey :

I have a friend he used 2 at the moment we play BF4 and he gets way better FPS than a few of my friends with a single1080. The GTX 980 SLI completely destroys a single 1080 when going head-to-head. Almost all games, with the exception of Witcher 3, the 980 SLI was faster than the 1080 at both 1440p and 4K. The 1080 outperforms the 980 SLI in Witcher 3 specifically because the 980 SLI does not scale very well with that particular game. Thus, there are some situations where a single 1080 is advantageous to 980 SLI. Nonetheless, there are a lot of games that do scale well with 980 SLI and, in those instances, it smokes the 1080. Would be interesting to see the specs on 1080 SLI.

YoAndy · Feb 17, 2017

junkeymonkey :

I'm getting it at a mayor retailer locally where I live in the US, they have a sale for 275 new with warranty

junkeymonkey · Feb 17, 2017

EVGA Corporation NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (2x SLI) -- Number of GPUs = 2

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/1613/1085/500000?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel Core i5-4670K&gpuName=NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

ttry other combos

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/1613/983/500000?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel Core i5-4670K&gpuName=NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

of course you got to take in any CPU and gpu overclocking being used [maybe on the cpu part use non ''K'' chips to eliminate that part on the cpu side of things ? ]

non k 4670 980 sli

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/1614/983/500000?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel Core i5-4670&gpuName=NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

same 1080 sli [well no posted results ?? ]

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/1614/1085/500000?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel Core i5-4670&gpuName=NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

in single card the 1080 is better ??

rcald2000 · Feb 17, 2017

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SSC GAMING (06G-P4-6267-KR)
$249.99 after $10.00 rebate card ($4.99 Shipping)
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487275

In your situation, I'd purchase the card above. Equivalent performance to a stock 980, lower power usage, new generation GPU, double VR performance, and 6 GB of VRAM instead of only 4.

With that said, I'd wait three weeks for the announcement of the 1080 Ti at the upcoming PAX, to see if it slightly depresses low tier GPU prices, including the 1060.

FYI: GTX 1060 does not support SLI, however 980 does. That's not enough reason to opt for the older 980, but I thought that I should mention it anyway.

YoAndy · Feb 20, 2017

rcald2000 :

I don't plan on buying the 1060 because it doesn't support SLI and i'm planning on playing above 1080p resolutions. The gtx 1060 is a great card for 1080p but not really good pass that and by itself its weak compared with 980 SLI or the more expensive gtx1070

Should I buy a brand new GTX 980

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