Meet The GeForce GTX 980 Ti
This card’s story continues much like the Titan X before it, then. Nvidia’s GM200 drops onto the same 10.5”-long PCB, making life easy for anyone who might be replacing a GeForce GTX 780 Ti.
Because the 980 Ti halves Titan X’s memory subsystem, there are no packages on the back of the board; they’re all on the front. Twelve emplacements host 4Gb (512MB) ICs, which add up to 6GB. You’ll also notice the two SLI connectors at the top of the board. As expected, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti supports up to four-way configurations.
Nvidia again eschews the rear plate featured on its GeForce GTX 980. Apparently, the Titan X and 980 Ti are more likely candidates for SLI, and the improved airflow between dual-slot cards outweighs any reason to fill that space with extra metal.
Again, from our GeForce GTX Titan X review, “A plate sits on top of the PCB, cooling a number of the surface-mounted components. There’s a copper vapor chamber mounted to that, topped by a two-slot-tall aluminum heat sink. Nvidia’s reference design remains faithful to the centrifugal fan, which pulls in air from your chassis, pushes it over the plate, through the heat sink and out the back. Although blower-style fans tend to create more noise than axial coolers, we’ve seen enough cards based on this same ID to know they’re acoustically-friendly. (GeForce GTX 980 Ti) is no exception.”
In an effort to maintain the Titan X’s premium aesthetic, GeForce GTX 980 Ti is covered in an arguably less aggressive silver-colored aluminum shroud than the flagship. It’s the exact same color and texture as Nvidia’s 780 Ti. One small difference exists: there’s an extra bit of metal by the I/O bracket covering the bottom-most DisplayPort and DVI connector frames. This area was previously exposed.
Like the GeForce GTX Titan X and 980, 980 Ti includes one dual-link DVI port, one HDMI 2.0-capable connector and three full-sized DisplayPort interfaces. Between those five options, you can drive as many as four displays at a time. And if you’re using G-Sync-enabled displays, that trio of DisplayPort 1.2 outputs makes Surround a viable choice. In comparison, 780 Ti came with two DVI outputs, one HDMI 1.4a port and a full-size DisplayPort connector. Changes to the way enthusiasts are attaching their monitors are clearly affecting what Nvidia does with its display controller, reflected in a slow shift away from DVI, the addition of HDMI 2.0 support and more DP connectivity.
Power is delivered to the card through its PCIe slot (up to 75W), one six-pin auxiliary connector (another 75W) and one eight-pin lead (up to 150W). All told, though, 980 Ti is rated at the same 250W TDP as Titan X, and our benchmarks will indeed show that the two cards demonstrate similar consumption.
