Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Review

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CUDA And OpenCL

3ds Max 2013 and Iray

Nvidia’s big Maxwell-based graphics cards excel when it comes to Iray. We’re not even taking into account that the company has many new plug-ins for Iray in development, which will soon leave the beta stage and become available for end users.

Octane 2.7

The distances between graphics cards are just about as large as we’d expect them to be. Despite the fact that it loses two SMMs, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 Ti stays just under the full chip’s performance level due to our sample's higher GPU Boost clock rate.

Blender 2.73

Everything we just wrote applies here as well. We’ve purposefully chosen a tile size of 256x256 pixels, which is proven to be optimal for GPU-based rendering. The performance delta between cards is again almost the same.

CUDA: FluidMark

Synthetic benchmark results can be difficult to interpret, particularly when they deviate from real-world scores. This case is no exception, given the somewhat surprising outcome. Nvidia’s Quadro M6000, with its slightly lower core frequency, beats the GeForce GTX Titan X quite clearly. The reason for this can most probably be traced back to better-optimized drivers. Both Nvidia’s GeForce GTX Titan X and 980 Ti are slower than they should be based on their hardware.

OpenCL vs. CUDA: ratGPU

This comparison is admittedly not entirely fair, since it involves CUDA and OpenCL. However, it’s certainly not just due to the software's better CUDA implementation that the GeForce GTX Titan X, GeForce GTX 980 Ti and Quadro M6000 do so well.

OpenCL Rendering: LuxMark 2.0

We run all three levels of complexity enabled by LuxMark. The two new Maxwell-based flagships destroy their competition. Hawaii-based graphics cards might have been on top in this metric a while ago, but Maxwell supplants them in a significant way.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
327 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Larry Litmanen
    How important is gaming to you if you spend $500 on GPU and $500 on a monitor?

    I guess i am the only one paying for rent out there.
    Reply
  • alidan
    How important is gaming to you if you spend $500 on GPU and $500 on a monitor?

    I guess i am the only one paying for rent out there.

    i personally find 4k at sub 48 inch stupid... but than again, i had 800x600 monitors at 15 inches and played some games at 640x480 on 17 inch screens, i also played ps1 games, so once hd came around and was single gpu at 1080p i had no issues whatsoever with jaggies any more.

    im not paying 500+$ for AA
    im also not sacrificing that much processing power for AA
    hell im 1920x1200 at 24 inch... i dont use aa.

    granted, a monitor could last you 5+ years if you get a good one so you can see it as an investment, and a gpu, im learning more and more if you sell your high end gpu the moment a new high end gpu comes out, you can get a sizeable upgrade every year for under 100$ and you over all come out ahead.

    sorry im tired as hell, i just realized i dont know which way to meant your comment to be taken.
    Reply
  • Shankovich
    I'm writing this as seriously as I can, not being a fanboy: What is the purpose of the Titan X at this point? It lost its DP performance that made it a fantastic workstation-gaming hybrid. Also, it really sucks for people who bought a Titan X just a little over a month ago? That's ~$350 down the drain pretty much. Yea the Titan X has all that extra VRAM, but for what? 3 4K displays maybe, at which point a 980ti SLI would probably lose by about ~5% due to a few less CUDA cores.

    Again though, for most customers, the 980ti is the obvious choice. I just feel like nVidia totally screwed over most of their Titan X customers now. And why? Well, I really think the 980ti will be the cheaper answer to AMD's Fury or whatever Fiji will be called, Really interested to see how it will do. If Fiji beats the Titan X/980ti, it's rumored $800 price point would make the 980ti a somewhat compelling offer depending on how well it does.

    In the end, I'm loving this competition!
    Reply
  • wedouglas
    How important is gaming to you if you spend $500 on GPU and $500 on a monitor?

    I guess i am the only one paying for rent out there.
    How important is gaming to you if you spend $500 on GPU and $500 on a monitor?

    I guess i am the only one paying for rent out there.
    How important is gaming to you if you spend $500 on GPU and $500 on a monitor?

    I guess i am the only one paying for rent out there.

    If you don't have $1000 of discretionary income each year, you need a better job. Better question would be, what adult doesn't have $1000 for a graphics card and a monitor?
    Reply
  • SkyBill40
    And this is exactly why I've been waiting to buy a new vid card and display.

    Wowza.
    Reply
  • Eggz
    SOOOOO glad you're finally including the 780 ti in the graphs again! There were a lot of people with this card, and excluding it from the Tom's graphs made things harder to assess. Thanks!
    Reply
  • damric
    This GTX 980 Ti seems significantly better price/performance than the GTX 980. I will be recommending these for higher end builds.
    Reply
  • photonboy
    My first considered card since my GTX680 2GB. My only complaint is:

    NVidia only reference model? (sigh)

    I get the reasons. Minimal competition plus overclocking with better cooler beats Titan X hands down (for gaming). Plus, maybe we'll see non-reference later.

    FYI, the EVGA 980 Hybrid got 1600MHz on GPU. That's a fan on main card for VRM's etc and Liquid cooler loop just for GPU with 12cm rad/fan. Even if it "only" got 1300MHz for 980Ti that's still a 30% boost over stock 1000MHz but maybe 1500MHz is actually possible?

    So.. I'll wait a bit longer thanks.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    This really seems like a great card! Those frame charts show fantastic improvements over the 980. I was expecting more of a middle-ground between the Titan X and the 980 but it practically matched the Titan X's performance spot-on! All for $375 less.
    Reply
  • Knicks2012
    So whats the point of having a Titan X now?
    Reply