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Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 And 980 Review: Maximum Maxwell

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September 19, 2014 5:09:20 AM

Nvidia shows us what second-gen Maxwell architecture can do with its new GM204 chip and the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 graphics cards that wield it.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 And 980 Review: Maximum Maxwell : Read more

More about : nvidia geforce gtx 970 980 review maximum maxwell

September 19, 2014 5:26:19 AM

Wow.......
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September 19, 2014 5:41:06 AM

I was waiting for Tom's review to make my final decision, the 980 is definitely going into my current 5960x build! I cant wait.
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September 19, 2014 5:41:13 AM

so how long before you do a round up?i mean this time i've seen some pretty crazy looking cards (Zotac's Extreme AMP! edition looks crazy and the Inno3D too)and EVGA has shown off ACX 2.0 which they claim to be the most efficient GPU air cooler in the world...so many to choose from also EVGA FTW has been nicely overclocked i've seen it performing almost on par with 980
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September 19, 2014 5:43:32 AM

byt he way... Last page 2nd sentence after the graph of Avg game performance.

I was hoping for more performance but the efficiency is quite nice. They just put pressure on the top end and gave us a price reduction, instead of overall performance gains.
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September 19, 2014 5:47:51 AM

Very nice, but I still want to see what the power consumption along with what might be possible with the drop to 20nm (since this is still 28nm).

Likely, we're going to see a Maxwell Titan equivalent come in the next year or so as these are a x04 much like Kepler with the 670/80s were and we're still going to be waiting to see what the x10 will be with the Maxwell architecture.
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September 19, 2014 5:48:18 AM

Why didn't you include an overclocking comparison? Why didn't you include the 780, but included the 770? Doesn't make much sense...
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September 19, 2014 5:48:28 AM

970 is the real story until the 980ti comes out - what a value proposition with the 970!

Good stuff here - but you guys were a bit slow on this one. Tom's Hardware is the first site I visit every morning. But with the delay of this article, I've been all over the net this morning on other sites that got their stuff out sooner.
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September 19, 2014 5:51:20 AM

Will there be a follow-up article about overclocking these cards? Other sites are showing results that both of the new cards are capable of 1500+ MHz on air (aftermarket coolers and even a few with stock coolers), which is a massive overclock. Looks like NVIDIA left the door open for some decent voltage increases, but many results have been in the 1450-1500 MHz range at stock voltage. I am a big fan of the thoroughness of Tom's articles so I am very interested in seeing overclocking results and analysis from this site.
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September 19, 2014 5:53:59 AM

I need this...
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September 19, 2014 5:58:40 AM

I want a 970, wow!
That's some flat out insane price / performance ratio right there!
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September 19, 2014 6:00:44 AM

MANOFKRYPTONAK said:
Why didn't you include an overclocking comparison? Why didn't you include the 780, but included the 770? Doesn't make much sense...


Same answer to both... no time.

We literally got the 970 for testing yesterday. The 980, we got the day before. We barely got the article out by this morning.

For those of you who want more info, we'll be spending more time with the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 in the weeks to come, don't you worry. ;) 
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September 19, 2014 6:04:29 AM

Since we know this is only the mid-size Maxwell chip (just like GK104 vs GK110), shouldn't this article title be "Medium Maxwell"?

I'm waiting for the real Maximum Maxwell myself. Unimpressed with these xxx04 launches from Nvidia.
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September 19, 2014 6:05:00 AM

Wonder what dual 970's would look like, the price is not that bad...
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September 19, 2014 6:06:35 AM

Why didn't you include an overclocking comparison? Why didn't you include the 780, but included the 770? Doesn't make much sense...
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September 19, 2014 6:14:33 AM

Performance aside, which OBVIOUSLY is stellar for current price/performance consideration.

The features that Nvidia has been rolling out constantly has been quite impressive, while many of them do not appeal to me at all, the sheer amount and in most cases quality of them is insane.

Well done Nvidia. Let's see what AMD responds with, my next main gaming machine purchase as of now are 2 x Nvidia GTX970.

EDIT : Im sure that its a good upgrade to my 2 x HD7950s :D 

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September 19, 2014 6:18:53 AM

cleeve said:
MANOFKRYPTONAK said:
Why didn't you include an overclocking comparison? Why didn't you include the 780, but included the 770? Doesn't make much sense...


Same answer to both... no time.

We literally got the 970 for testing yesterday. The 980, we got the day before. We barely got the article out by this morning.

For those of you who want more info, we'll be spending more time with the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 in the weeks to come, don't you worry. ;) 


Thank you! That answered a question I had in a previous GTX980/970 tease on the live news feed.

Do you guys have this problem often with Nvidia? You always seem to have fewer Nvidia board partner variaty and slower review releases on Nvidia GPUs.
More so than other websites.
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September 19, 2014 6:21:21 AM

Novuake said:
cleeve said:
MANOFKRYPTONAK said:
Why didn't you include an overclocking comparison? Why didn't you include the 780, but included the 770? Doesn't make much sense...


Same answer to both... no time.

We literally got the 970 for testing yesterday. The 980, we got the day before. We barely got the article out by this morning.

For those of you who want more info, we'll be spending more time with the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 in the weeks to come, don't you worry. ;) 


Thank you! That answered a question I had in a previous GTX980/970 tease on the live news feed.

Do you guys have this problem often with Nvidia? You always seem to have fewer Nvidia board partner variaty and slower review releases on Nvidia GPUs.
More so than other websites.


My bets are that no NVidia GPUs on the best GPU's for the $$ for the past several months earned Tom's a slight delay in the delivery of these GPUs. :ouch: 
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September 19, 2014 6:23:45 AM

vertexx said:

My bets are that no NVidia GPUs on the best GPU's for the $$ for the past several months earned Tom's a slight delay in the delivery of these GPUs. :ouch: 


Nah, doubt Nvidia is that petty.

More publicity is exactly that, more publicity.

Tom's has been around a long time and is trusted by A LOT of people.
Doubt Nvidia would compromise the user base.
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September 19, 2014 6:26:14 AM

Nvidia and Intel are so way ahead of AMD...
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September 19, 2014 6:26:15 AM

MANOFKRYPTONAK said:
Why didn't you include an overclocking comparison? Why didn't you include the 780, but included the 770? Doesn't make much sense...


Agreed that overclocking would have been interesting to see. But would including the 780 have added anything to this? The GTX 970 is already faster than an R9 290X.

The 770, at least, allows us to see the direct improvement from one x70 card to its replacement. Especially when they're approximately the same price.
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September 19, 2014 6:26:48 AM

Just read some of the benches again, dear lord those number at that price. Can not get over it...

Now lets see if they can satisfy my overclocking needs.

Hurry up with that portion Cleeve!
When can we expect it?
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September 19, 2014 6:27:46 AM

and just to add on while I am very excited about the better price/performance and performance per watt I would honestly say that while the increased efficiency is great, most enthusiast run a single gpu in a full atx case with ample airflow and because of that, I feel like features and price/performance, tend to dictate most purchases of gpu, not performance for watt (which isn't to say its not a good thing)
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September 19, 2014 6:29:53 AM

Interesting that the 290X has a better performance/$ ratio than the 980 at 1080p and matches the 980 at 4k.
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September 19, 2014 6:30:40 AM

Nossy said:
Nvidia and Intel are so way ahead of AMD...


Don't count AMD out of the GPU world yet, they still need to respond with their release.

As for AMD CPUs, I have given up in the enthusiast market, but still have high hopes for low cost and low power APUs bringing affordable gaming to mobile devices.
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September 19, 2014 6:33:10 AM

There's a mistake in the chart on the first page. There are 128 texture units in the 980 and not 104 like the 970.
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September 19, 2014 6:35:37 AM

Holy <mod edit> the 980 is impressive!
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September 19, 2014 6:35:40 AM

Sexy. Going to admit, I posted in the rumor thread for the GTX 880 by Broekhuijsen. Clearly, the thread was wrong with the misnomer, but we're guessing there right? Secondly, I was wrong about the specs. It did turn out to be a 4 GPC, 64 ROPs. It wasn't based off the 750ti's GK107. The GK107 had 5 SMMs per GPC, the GM204 has 4 SMMs per. The 2MB of L2 cache turned out to be shared, instead of scaling. They dropped 4GB memory instead of 3GB, and a 256 bus instead of 512. I admit when I'm wrong :) 

I do like how NVidia is pushing performance at the price points. I am hoping for a Maxwell gap closer between the 750ti ($145) and 760 ($225).
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September 19, 2014 6:36:01 AM

Maybe time to toss the 780ti's lol
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September 19, 2014 6:37:36 AM

MasterMace said:
Sexy. Going to admit, I posted in the rumor thread for the GTX 880 by Broekhuijsen. Clearly, the thread was wrong with the misnomer, but we're guessing there right? Secondly, I was wrong about the specs. It did turn out to be a 4 GPC, 64 ROPs. It wasn't based off the 750ti's GK107. The GK107 had 5 SMMs per GPC, the GM204 has 4 SMMs per. The 2MB of L2 cache turned out to be shared, instead of scaling. They dropped 4GB memory instead of 3GB, and a 256 bus instead of 512. I admit when I'm wrong :) 

I do like how NVidia is pushing performance at the price points. I am hoping for a Maxwell gap closer between the 750ti ($145) and 760 ($225).


Yeah that gap has always been very puzzling and also effects sales for Nvidia at anywhere between those prices, I don't get it.

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September 19, 2014 6:41:21 AM

Looking like another round of great competition in the GPU market. I'm looking forward to AMD's response. This past year has been great for us consumers with the R9 series and now Nvidia's 9 series.
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September 19, 2014 6:42:59 AM

iknowhowtofixit said:
Interesting that the 290X has a better performance/$ ratio than the 980 at 1080p and matches the 980 at 4k.


Very interesting.

I guess the raw resources of the R9 290x pays of more at higher resolutions.

Larger memory bus, more compute, etc.

Still interesting though.
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September 19, 2014 6:46:01 AM

On other sites you can see a fully overclocked 970 on stock cooling can just beat out a stock 980, which makes it crazy good value (something not really addressed in this article). With a water loop or AIO Liquid cooler bracketed onto the 970, it looks like you might be able to push it even further as others were hitting thermal limits at maximum overclock, not voltage or stability limits. This card looks to be one crazy good value board if you are overclocking.
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September 19, 2014 6:56:27 AM

@vertexx: Depending on the resolution and depending on the game. :-)
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September 19, 2014 6:58:03 AM

Another typo page 2: "Microsoft has committed that it's new graphics API" -> its

Edit: More:

p2: "Imagine the room your currently in" -> you're
p2: "the inevitable future of real-time photorealitic game graphics" -> photorealistic
p6: "EVGA sent us the its superclocked take" -> us its
p10: "Despite it's status" -> its
p16: "that represent he average performance" -> the
p16: "but it's price definitely makes high-end performance more accessible" -> its
p16: "they have got it it where it counts" -> got it where
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September 19, 2014 6:59:11 AM

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh
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September 19, 2014 7:02:25 AM

dovah-chan said:
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh


I feel the same...
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September 19, 2014 7:06:00 AM

So when do we get $300 290X cards? And does AMD have any more high end cards coming?
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September 19, 2014 7:08:32 AM

4745454b said:
So when do we get $300 290X cards? And does AMD have any more high end cards coming?


I would think that GM200 still needs to arrive, but I guess we could still wait another generation for that.
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September 19, 2014 7:09:34 AM

Don, when you mention the Gigabyte "Golden Sample", why don't you fire up GPU-Z and read the ASIC score? It would be interesting to see the ASIC difference between the two chips.


In terms of Maxwell, consumers are all going to win. Prices are going to be dropping all over the place. The GTX 760 just had its price dropped, and the entire top-end Kepler line was discontinued. AMD cards are all going to be forced into big price cuts, and even then you'd have to think twice about purchasing one.

Hardware Canucks had a good summary of the situation:
"The GTX 980 must be causing a serious case of deja-vu for AMD. Back when the GTX 680 was launched, their Tahiti cards looked too expensive, too slow, too loud and too hot….and the situation hasn’t really changed this time around. In every almost every game the GTX 980 easily outmuscles their flagship R9 290X, consumes significantly less power and costs just $50 more. So what does this mean for AMD? They’re currently stuck with a power hungry, hot running architecture that is still quite competitive from a performance standpoint but some significant price cuts are desperately needed."
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-r...
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September 19, 2014 7:17:46 AM

Which should I buy ? 780ti or 980 ?
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September 19, 2014 7:20:02 AM

At the current pricing? 980
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September 19, 2014 7:21:53 AM

Anyone know why they skipped the "8" series and went right to "9"?
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September 19, 2014 7:22:31 AM

8 series are for laptops. 9 is for desktops
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September 19, 2014 7:24:21 AM

People need to understand something about Maxwell's supposed "boring incremental" performance over Kepler.

The fact is TDP is a ceiling for how much performance you can eke out of a GPU. Anything to lower it considerably means in the future you have a design you can work with to squeeze even more performance out of the architecture. We could say "screw that, give me the fastest card you can make!". But if we allowed runaway TDP, you would soon start seeing graphics cards that need a third power PCIe plug and take up three slots by default, or include a liquid cooler. Both of which would increase the initial cost of entry to enjoy high-end graphics.

Also since NVIDIA has a somewhat nontrivial chunk in all markets it participates in, it's easier to develop a power saving design for mobile and scale up, rather than build a desktop version and scale down. Remember, what saved Intel from going down a disastrous path of hot, inefficient CPUs? A design based on a highly power efficient mobile chip.

AMD is treading on thin ice if they can't match what NVIDIA is doing efficiency wise.
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September 19, 2014 7:28:52 AM

Should I get a 780 ti or a 980, the 780ti has been there for a while and it's still good while the 980 is completely new and some people are saying it will have a 8gb model in December, I really don't know what to get :( 
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September 19, 2014 7:33:19 AM

R u video editing or rendering? If not 8gb won't serve a purpose right now. Couple years from now? Maybe but by then cards will have already come out newer than the 980
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September 19, 2014 7:34:17 AM

Just ordered my GTX 980 as soon as I saw it pop up on Newegg after reading anandtech's review earlier, glad to see yours backs it up also. I've been waiting on Maxwell for over a year to upgrade my 560ti, people had me a bit nervous with all the talk of the 980 not even beating the 780ti, but this is pretty much an across the board improvement while also lowering cost and heat generation. One of the most all around solid GPU releases I've seen in a few years now.
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September 19, 2014 7:37:39 AM

azzazel_99 said:
R u video editing or rendering? If not 8gb won't serve a purpose right now. Couple years from now? Maybe but by then cards will have already come out newer than the 980


Gaming
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