At this point, let's examine Nvidia's reference design for the GeForce GTX 980. It's dressed a slight variation of the same classy outfit that the company debuted in the GeForce GTX 690. This isn't a particularly large card but it does have significant weight to it, some of which is attributable to the metal backplate.
| The Speeds And Feeds | |
|---|---|
| Form Factor | Dual-slot design |
| Length (from Slot Panel to End) | 268 mm (10.5") |
| Height (from Slot to Top) | 111 mm (4 3/8") |
| Depth 1 (from PCB to Front Cover) | 36 mm (1 5/16") |
| Depth 2 (from PCB to Back Plate) | 3 mm (1/8") |
| Weight | 1030 g |
| Connectors | 1x DL-DVI-I, 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort |
The 65mm radial fan is the same model used on the original GeForce Titan. Indeed, the design of the GeForce GTX 980 is almost indistinguishable from the titan at a casual glance (until you see the model number emblazoned on the side, anyway). The main visual difference is that the cooling fins behind the transparent cover are painted black.
The back plate has a nifty little door that can be removed if the user wishes to improve cooling when placed beside another card in SLI. As a point of interest, the Titan does not have a back plate.
Note the two 6-pin PCIe power connectors: it's odd to see so few pins on a high-end card. The GeForce GTX name glows in green when the card is in operation, of course.
Output options consist of three DisplayPort 1.2 ports, a dual-link DVI port, and a single HDMI port. This is the first graphics card with an HDMI 2.0 plug by the way, which allows for 4K video at 60 Hz. With the previous HDMI standard, two ports need to work in tandem to handle the bandwidth required by a 4K 60 Hz display.
- Introducing GM204: There's A New Maxwell In Town
- New Features
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Reference Card
- Gigabyte GTX 980 WindForce OC
- Gigabyte GTX 970 WindForce OC
- EVGA GTX 970 Superclock ACX 2.0
- Test System And Benchmarks
- Results: Battlefield 4 And Thief
- Results: Arma 3 And Grid Autosport
- Results: Assassin's Creed IV, Watchdogs, Far Cry 3
- A New Power Consumption Test Setup
- Power Consumption In Detail
- Power Consumption Overview
- Efficiency
- Temperatures And Noise
- Verdict









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.
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.
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.
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.
That's some flat out insane price / performance ratio right there!
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.
I'm waiting for the real Maximum Maxwell myself. Unimpressed with these xxx04 launches from Nvidia.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_970_SLI/
Depending on resolution, dual 970's are roughly equal to the 295x2 at only 2/3's the price.
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
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.
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 $$ for the past several months earned Tom's a slight delay in the delivery of these GPUs.
My bets are that no NVidia GPUs on the best GPU's for the $$ for the past several months earned Tom's a slight delay in the delivery of these GPUs.
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.