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Report: GeForce GTX 980 Will Cost $599

By - Source: 3DCenter.org | B 51 comments

The rumor mill has churned out some pricing info for the upcoming GTX 980 and GTX 970.

The rumor mill is working hard on the upcoming Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards. Just yesterday we saw images of the new GTX 980, along with specifications, and today we finally have word on pricing information.

The rumored prices stem from a report on 3DCenter.org which states that the GeForce GTX 980 will carry an MSRP of $599, while the GTX 970 will cost $200 less at an MSRP of $399. Placing it on the product stack, if you consider that the GTX 780 Ti sells for upwards of $600 while a GTX 780 can be found for around $450, we would expect the GTX 980 to sit right between the two, while the GTX 970 will perform slightly slower than the GTX 780. This product stack placement is supported by the calculated benchmark scores.

Ultimately, the GTX 980 and GTX 970 will probably bring you performance levels very similar to their predecessors, for a similar price tag, with a lower TDP and larger frame buffer. The increased amount of graphics memory will help the cards drive higher-resolution monitors.

Do note that these are merely rumored prices. Hopefully, we'll know more when they launch later this week; we expect the announcement to come on September 19 during the Game24 event.

UPDATE: It has come to our attention that we misread the graphs, resulting in erroneous conclusions. Taking another crack at it, we can see that based on these numbers the GTX 980 appears to perform about 11 percent better than a stock GTX 780 Ti, with the GTX 970 sitting somewhere between the GTX 780 and the GTX 780 Ti. Note that the stock GTX 780 (clocked at up to 900 MHz) isn't even listed on the table. Ultimately, this means that the GTX 980 and GTX 970 appear to perform a lot better than a quick glance at the table would suggest. Commenters, we appreciate your sharp eye.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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  • 15 Hide
    Spanky Deluxe , September 16, 2014 9:09 AM
    Seeing as the 780 ti can be had for just over $600, I can't see the 980 being priced at $599 with performance a little lower than the 780 ti as leaked benchmarks are suggesting. What would be the point?
Other Comments
  • 15 Hide
    Spanky Deluxe , September 16, 2014 9:09 AM
    Seeing as the 780 ti can be had for just over $600, I can't see the 980 being priced at $599 with performance a little lower than the 780 ti as leaked benchmarks are suggesting. What would be the point?
  • 0 Hide
    Bartor495 , September 16, 2014 9:16 AM
    Quote:
    Seeing as the 780 ti can be had for just over $600, I can't see the 980 being priced at $599 with performance a little lower than the 780 ti as leaked benchmarks are suggesting. What would be the point?


    They'll probably lower the price of the 780 ti, just like what happened with the 780 when the 780 ti was released.
  • Add your comment Display all 51 comments.
  • 2 Hide
    CaptainTom , September 16, 2014 9:21 AM
    I'm sorry but this generation is kind of a fail on desktop if the 980 truly is no stronger than the 780 Ti. Now Laptops will get a VERY nice boost, but still this leaves Nvidia open for a massive reaming from AMD if they are not careful. If AMD really does release a 3072 SP monster with 7GHz memory and Tonga improvements they could stomp the 980 by at least 20-30%. That would be worth the power consumption too for ANY enthusiast.
  • 1 Hide
    Spanky Deluxe , September 16, 2014 9:22 AM
    Having read the German article, they're basing those numbers on pre-listings which are usually over-inflated so hopefully the originally rumoured price of $499 is what the 980 will actually be sold at.
  • 9 Hide
    rmpumper , September 16, 2014 9:23 AM
    Quote:
    Seeing as the 780 ti can be had for just over $600, I can't see the 980 being priced at $599 with performance a little lower than the 780 ti as leaked benchmarks are suggesting. What would be the point?


    The point would be to milk every penny from consumers until R9 3xx comes along.
  • 0 Hide
    TechyInAZ , September 16, 2014 9:25 AM
    Nvidia Geforce must not be focusing too much on performance (just compare the 980 to 780 ti and there isn't much of a performance increase), but mainly targeting high resolution monitors and lower tdp. Which is good since 4k is gona get really popular really fast so I'd say it's good they are sticking to focusing on memory and bandwidth.
  • 2 Hide
    MSgtGunny , September 16, 2014 9:36 AM
    Its almost like Nvidia is doing a tick tock cycle like Intel, they innovate on a tick and then shrink and reduce power consumption on a tock.
  • 2 Hide
    nikoli707 , September 16, 2014 9:43 AM
    we all knew this wasn't going to be the flagship maxwell gtx1000 or gtx1000ti based on the gm210 which will likely carry a 275w tdp and at least a 30% performance improvement over gk110. we will have to wait another year for that.

    that said… a 180w tdp is a huge improvement of worthy praise.
  • 9 Hide
    JackNaylorPE , September 16, 2014 9:55 AM
    The highest rated 780 Ti (aside from highly specialized versions aka KingPin) has been $600 every other week or so on newegg for 4-5 months. Asus 780 Ti is $580, Gigabyte's is $600.

    The 980 is what it is intended to be, a card faster than anything offered by the competition. The Ti or whatever card nVidia holds in it's back pocket won't be released till after AMD shows it's hand. To quote Yogi .... "It's déjà vu all over again"

    The question I am seeking to have answered is how much overclocking headroom they have will they leave .... stick with the typical 25% or drive the clocks up closer to the edge like the R9 series.

    Gotta read more closely before you draw conclusions on performance differences. The article is misleading in that it isn't comparing apples and apples. The 780 Ti in the graph that it is being compared with is overclocked. The base clock of the 780 Ti is 876 Mhz. The ones shown in the graph are at 928 (5.9% OC) and 1150 (31.3% OC). The stock 980 is 3% slower than the 31 % overclocked 780 Ti not the stock 876 Mhz 780 Ti. The 980's base clock is 1126/1127 depending on source.

    The 5.6% (1190 / 1126) OC on the 980 scores 13005
    The 5.9 % (928 / 876) OC on the 780 Ti score is 11096

    That's a 17% performance difference at the same ~ 6% OC
  • -1 Hide
    ohim , September 16, 2014 9:57 AM
    Instead of tic tock they should only do the Tock ... but likes some one above said .. they need to milk people for money. This way it would be worth buying new stuff...
    Or consumers need to get smart (yeah right) and buy only on the tock.

    And i always hate fan boys living in a fairy tale where they see their brand with over 30% more performance over the competition... you have nothing to base your assumptions on and you still make them ....
  • 1 Hide
    chaospower , September 16, 2014 9:59 AM
    The GTX 980 is shown to be better than the 780TI according to the numbers, why does the guy who makes these articles keep insisting it's slower?
  • 3 Hide
    JackNaylorPE , September 16, 2014 10:01 AM
    Quote:
    The GTX 980 is shown to be better than the 780TI according to the numbers, why does the guy who makes these articles keep insisting it's slower?


    It's all in how you interpret the data.... the graphs just say a 31% OC'd 780 Ti is 3% faster than a stock 980. See two posts up.

  • 2 Hide
    chaospower , September 16, 2014 10:13 AM
    I did see that, all it means is that only someone who doesn't understand the concept of overclocking would interpert the data as stated in the article. Aka, wrongly.
  • -1 Hide
    pills161 , September 16, 2014 10:20 AM
    Wow kind of a fail, I had actually kicked around the idea of upgrading my 780 to the 980 but the performance gains (stock) just aren't there and for $600 give me a break. I may wait until the non reference TI's come out, if price is better and OC potential is high I may reconsider.
  • 2 Hide
    JackNaylorPE , September 16, 2014 10:35 AM
    Quote:
    Wow kind of a fail, I had actually kicked around the idea of upgrading my 780 to the 980 but the performance gains (stock) just aren't there and for $600 give me a break. I may wait until the non reference TI's come out, if price is better and OC potential is high I may reconsider.


    The 980 is 17% faster according to the charts at same OC level ..... The 780 was 21% faster than the 680 in TPUs game summary .... not sure about firestrike.... we'll know in a few days. Still not much of a surprise.....certainly typical.


    Quote:
    I did see that, all it means is that only someone who doesn't understand the concept of overclocking would interpert the data as stated in the article. Aka, wrongly.


    Well I can understand the rush to publish something and maybe missing the fact that none of the 780 Tis they put in the comparison chart were at stock settings. I agree author should have checked put videocardz.com shuda made that clear too.

    Then again, I'll bet the rash of articles poo pooing the 980 will run 2nd only to those poo pooing Apples new phone :) . We saw the same thing when the R9 series was released. All the focus was on power and heat and less on the fact that AMD was overclocking the crap outta these cards and providing a warranty on that performance. If you have ever had to argue with a manufacturer about a factory OC'd card not being able too run at factory OC, it's laborious.

    The fact that we only see a 6% OC in that chart I wonder if that's indicative of nVidia following suit.

    But 180 TDB .... dang you water cool a pair of those with a lot less radiator....a 360mm rad with 1250 rpm fans and ya done .... or even a 280 at 1400 rpm.

    I wouldn't doubt if nVidia does bump the price up $100 given the price of the 290x, if there's enough stock around still, why sabotage what they are getting for the 780 / 780 Ti. No doubt they have room to sell it at $499 and that's where it will go when AMD answers. Good for those that wait ..... not so good for early adopters.

  • 2 Hide
    Lamontiego , September 16, 2014 11:03 AM
    I want DP 1.3 and HDMI 2.0 with atleast 4g of memory with 15,000 3DMark GPU Score to even think of upgrading. Right now, R290 is my go to card mostly because of the 4g of video.
  • -2 Hide
    dirtyferret , September 16, 2014 11:05 AM
    makes me wish I hadn't sold my old GTX 980 on ebay several years ago....
  • 2 Hide
    DarkSable , September 16, 2014 11:09 AM
    Quote:
    we would expect the GTX 980 to sit right between the two, while the GTX 970 will perform slightly slower than the GTX 780. This product stack placement is supported by the calculated benchmark scores.


    No, Tom's, it's not supported by the benchmark scores. Go look at what the site that you're using AS YOUR VALIDATION says... out of three tests of the 980, two of them are faster than a 780ti, and one of them is 3% slower. That's not "between the 780ti and the 780."

    Do some research, or at least please read the articles that you're putting in your own stories.

    In addition, those are synthetic benchmarks. We have no idea how well these things are actually going to perform, which means that all articles like these are doing is adding fuel for the trolls and misinformed. (Who are mostly misinformed from your own incorrect articles.)
  • 1 Hide
    JackNaylorPE , September 16, 2014 11:12 AM
    Quote:
    I want DP 1.3 and HDMI 2.0 with atleast 4g of memory with 15,000 3DMark GPU Score to even think of upgrading. Right now, R290 is my go to card mostly because of the 4g of video.


    Have you found anything that shows a performance increase at 4 GB. Other than this, which shows that some games will show 1 fps or so gain at 5760 x 1080 at 4 GB, I haven't found anything indicating a performance advantage. Yes as it says in last paragraph, some games will use more than 2 GB, but the performance didn't change at all # 5760 going from 2 to 4 GB

    http://alienbabeltech.com/main/gtx-770-4gb-vs-2gb-tested/3/

    Quote:
    There is one last thing to note with Max Payne 3: It would not normally allow one to set 4xAA at 5760×1080 with any 2GB card as it claims to require 2750MB. However, when we replaced the 4GB GTX 770 with the 2GB version, the game allowed the setting. And there were no slowdowns, stuttering, nor any performance differences that we could find between the two GTX 770s.


    With this such a common subject of conversation, it's surprising that there is such a dearth of test data on the subject.
  • 0 Hide
    kardinin , September 16, 2014 11:19 AM
    Just about the only reason to upgrade would be for the larger RAM if you're going to play at 1440p or above. That's the reason I'm waiting, at least. Of course, I have a pair of radeon 5850s sitting around right now - ANYTHING will beat the pants off of these two stalwarts.
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