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Nvidia Launches GTX 980 And GTX 970 "Maxwell" Graphics Cards ($549 & $329)

A bit surprisingly the Finnish retailer I got my MSI GTX970 from also has the free game deal now. I'm a bit annoyed tbh. Sent them email asking if I could get a code too but I'm really not very optimistic.
 
Is there some kind of chart anywhere where it shows what games use over 4GB of Vram in 1440p? I'm a bit worried about the 8GB cards being too expensive (Like the 8GB R290x) and I'm rethinking about going with a 4GB 970.
 
Heads up to anyone that ordered their card from Tiger Direct before the Pick Your Path promotion, I sent a customer service email directed to their 30-day price guarantee people on friday, and they just sent me a code last night.

This was for an order placed on 10/22.
 
Damerman said:
man, this issue is very pervasive. here is a video of my coil whine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTw0_duCIX8



I'm gonna call evga customer support to see what can be done about this. If i have to RMA, i'm gonna go for a 980.

quick question, what happens to my copy of Far Cry 4 if i return this card? also, i ordered a free backplate from EVGA, what will happen to that? i guess only evga can answer that.
Click to expand...

I don't know how severe it is in person, but in the video it doesn't really come off as that bad to be honest.
 
I think that's pretty bad. If it was that way with like 1000+ framerates only I'd personally would be happy with it but with just typical gameplay, that sound is just mind piercing. The more of these reports come in, the more lucky I feel for getting to good cards on my first try. If only I would have been as lucky with my CPU.
 
Felix Lighter said:
I think that's pretty bad. If it was that way with like 1000+ framerates only I'd personally would be happy with it but with just typical gameplay, that sound is just mind piercing. The more of these reports come in, the more lucky I feel for getting to good cards on my first try. If only I would have been as lucky with my CPU.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I think it seems to be rather on the quite side. It's definitly not loud. There is no High End Graphics Card without that noise when under heavy load. There are just people who don't notice it. As you can see, that dude has it on head height next to him on his table and no case around it. Of course he'll notice it.

He can RMA 10 cards and it won't get any better, I bet.
 
SliChillax said:
Is there some kind of chart anywhere where it shows what games use over 4GB of Vram in 1440p? I'm a bit worried about the 8GB cards being too expensive (Like the 8GB R290x) and I'm rethinking about going with a 4GB 970.
Click to expand...
I have't come across any as of yet. Even the infamous Shadow of Mordor was running at 1440p on ultra textures fine. It was using 3600MB to the full 4000mb depending on area.
 
Zafir said:
I have't come across any as of yet. Even the infamous Shadow of Mordor was running at 1440p on ultra textures fine. It was using 3600MB to the full 4000mb depending on area.
Click to expand...

I thought the game used about 5.3 of Vram at 1080p on Ultra from some pictures I saw with Afterburner showing the usage. Maybe I'm wrong.
 
Damerman said:
man, this issue is very pervasive. here is a video of my coil whine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTw0_duCIX8
Click to expand...

OKAY, not to make this issue seem like less than it is because I know a ton of people are very disappointed with the whine situation, but to me, that video seems to make this out to be hardly an issue at all? Maybe the sound quality is just not capturing it properly, but that amount of noise from the coils sounds like nothing to worry about to me. The fans on my current GTX560Ti make so much more noise than that already. From that video it sounds to me like if your case has the side cover on it and the tower is on the floor under the desk then you'll never even notice the coil whine anyway?

Or is that video simply not a good representation of the issue?
 
Felix Lighter said:
I think that's pretty bad. If it was that way with like 1000+ framerates only I'd personally would be happy with it but with just typical gameplay, that sound is just mind piercing. The more of these reports come in, the more lucky I feel for getting to good cards on my first try. If only I would have been as lucky with my CPU.
Click to expand...

Like I said, maybe it's different in person, but I didn't notice any noise in the video at all until Damerman put the camera in the PC. I don't have my own card yet to hear it in practice so maybe it's worse in person but if it is bad in person, I don't think the video does a great job of making it apparent.
 
Alo81 said:
Like I said, maybe it's different in person, but I didn't notice any noise in the video at all until Damerman put the camera in the PC. I don't have my own card yet to hear it in practice so maybe it's worse in person but if it is bad in person, I don't think the video does a great job of making it apparent.
Click to expand...

Since I live in a dorm I can't use speakers for gaming because the walls are too thin so I only game with my headphones. This issue will not affect me fortunately but I still hope when I order mine I don't have any issues. Apart from the whine, there aren't any other issues with it I hope?
 
Alo81 said:
Like I said, maybe it's different in person, but I didn't notice any noise in the video at all until Damerman put the camera in the PC. I don't have my own card yet to hear it in practice so maybe it's worse in person but if it is bad in person, I don't think the video does a great job of making it apparent.
Click to expand...

I can hear it kick in just after the load screen but it is an absolute worst case scenario because the case is open and at head level right next to him. I guess my assumption was that it probably is more noticeable in person. The problem with coil whine more than volume is frequency. It can be so high pitched that even if it's relatively quiet, it seems to cut through all other sounds.
 
Damerman said:
man, this issue is very pervasive. here is a video of my coil whine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTw0_duCIX8



I'm gonna call evga customer support to see what can be done about this. If i have to RMA, i'm gonna go for a 980.

quick question, what happens to my copy of Far Cry 4 if i return this card? also, i ordered a free backplate from EVGA, what will happen to that? i guess only evga can answer that.
Click to expand...

I don't know what's up with these cards and obnoxious coil whine. I've been building computers since 1998, and the 970 STRIX I returned had the worst gpu coil whine I've ever experienced. I can deal with low level coil whine, but not the obnoxious levels a lot of these cards are outputting. Right now, I might roll the dice and order the GB 970 G1 and hope for Rev 1.1. I definitely won't be ordering any of these cards outside of Amazon anymore, that's for sure.
 
SliChillax said:
I thought the game used about 5.3 of Vram at 1080p on Ultra from some pictures I saw with Afterburner showing the usage. Maybe I'm wrong.
Click to expand...
It scales. If the card has more vram, it uses more vram.
Mengy said:
OKAY, not to make this issue seem like less than it is because I know a ton of people are very disappointed with the whine situation, but to me, that video seems to make this out to be hardly an issue at all? Maybe the sound quality is just not capturing it properly, but that amount of noise from the coils sounds like nothing to worry about to me. The fans on my current GTX560Ti make so much more noise than that already. From that video it sounds to me like if your case has the side cover on it and the tower is on the floor under the desk then you'll never even notice the coil whine anyway?

Or is that video simply not a good representation of the issue?
Click to expand...
It's probably a poor representation. My card has both the 60FPS low pitch buzzing and the whining at higher frames and I've tried recording mine but it just doesn't record very well.
 
Alo81 said:
I don't know how severe it is in person, but in the video it doesn't really come off as that bad to be honest.
Click to expand...

Mengy said:
OKAY, not to make this issue seem like less than it is because I know a ton of people are very disappointed with the whine situation, but to me, that video seems to make this out to be hardly an issue at all? Maybe the sound quality is just not capturing it properly, but that amount of noise from the coils sounds like nothing to worry about to me. The fans on my current GTX560Ti make so much more noise than that already. From that video it sounds to me like if your case has the side cover on it and the tower is on the floor under the desk then you'll never even notice the coil whine anyway?

Or is that video simply not a good representation of the issue?
Click to expand...

yeah, the video didn't really capture how loud it is. I'm thinking its the frequency at which the coil whine happens where my iphone can't pick up the sound. trust me, its very loud.
 
Thrakier said:
It's completely normal. You'll find some which are a bit more loud or a little bit more silent. RMA won't help and the 980 will do the same sound.
Click to expand...

it doesn't sound that loud in the video, but trust me, i've had an HD7950 for 2 years and it has never done the sound(at least not as severely as the 970) that this card is producing.The frequency is much more apparent in person than it is in that video.

Here is a more accurate video that does the sound justice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWYYRQRwYg0&feature=youtu.be
 
So what is the general consensus on buying one of the new cards? Get them now or wait for the 8gig version?

I'm currently preparing for a new PC since my current one wont be able to run a lot of games smoothly anymore (i7-920, Radeon HD7950 Vapor-X 3gig and 6gig RAM) and I have a PC planned out with a GTX980 4gig for 2069€ total. I'd rather get the 8gig for future-proofing but I'm not sure if my current PC is going to run games like AC:U or GTA V properly (it struggles with COD:AW already with low AA on 1080p) and I don't know how long it'll take for them to release the 8gig version. I really want to max out GTA V and play games like AC:U and Arkham Knight at acceptable medium/high settings on 1080p without the game slowing down to a crawl due to frequent fps drops.
 
TimFL said:
So what is the general consensus on buying one of the new cards? Get them now or wait for the 8gig version?

I'm currently preparing for a new PC since my current one wont be able to run a lot of games smoothly anymore (i7-920, Radeon HD7950 Vapor-X 3gig and 6gig RAM) and I have a PC planned out with a GTX980 4gig for 2069€ total. I'd rather get the 8gig for future-proofing but I'm not sure if my current PC is going to run games like AC:U or GTA V properly (it struggles with COD:AW already with low AA on 1080p) and I don't know how long it'll take for them to release the 8gig version. I really want to max out GTA V and play games like AC:U and Arkham Knight at acceptable medium/high settings on 1080p without the game slowing down to a crawl due to frequent fps drops.
Click to expand...

I'm waiting to see pricing on the 8GB cards. If they're under 100$ the existing 4GB models I'll bite.
 
TimFL said:
So what is the general consensus on buying one of the new cards? Get them now or wait for the 8gig version?

I'm currently preparing for a new PC since my current one wont be able to run a lot of games smoothly anymore (i7-920, Radeon HD7950 Vapor-X 3gig and 6gig RAM) and I have a PC planned out with a GTX980 4gig for 2069€ total. I'd rather get the 8gig for future-proofing but I'm not sure if my current PC is going to run games like AC:U or GTA V properly (it struggles with COD:AW already with low AA on 1080p) and I don't know how long it'll take for them to release the 8gig version. I really want to max out GTA V and play games like AC:U and Arkham Knight at acceptable medium/high settings on 1080p without the game slowing down to a crawl due to frequent fps drops.
Click to expand...
what MOBO chipset and CPU are you planning on buying just out of curiosity?
 
Damerman said:
it doesn't sound that loud in the video, but trust me, i've had an HD7950 for 2 years and it has never done the sound(at least not as severely as the 970) that this card is producing.The frequency is much more apparent in person than it is in that video.

Here is a more accurate video that does the sound justice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWYYRQRwYg0&feature=youtu.be
Click to expand...

Okay,but all of these vids have the case opened and most of them are sitting next to the monitors. If you close the case and put it in the floor under the desk, is it still loud enough to be heard and annoying or does that mask the whine enough to not be a problem?

I'm thinking of ordering mine today, but man part of me wants to hold off and see if this gets fixed by the manufacturers.
 
Mengy said:
Okay,but all of these vids have the case opened and most of them are sitting next to the monitors. If you close the case and put it in the floor under the desk, is it still loud enough to be heard and annoying or does that mask the whine enough to not be a problem?

I'm thinking of ordering mine today, but man part of me wants to hold off and see if this gets fixed by the manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Well i can't really put it under my desk since there is no room. Plus when i close my case, the side panel is actually meshed, so it would make no difference whether its closed or open. thats how loud it is.
 
Damerman said:
what MOBO chipset and CPU are you planning on buying just out of curiosity?
Click to expand...

Only thing I'm pretty much set on is the CPU (i7-5930k with 6 cores, would love to get the 8 core one but I can't cope with the fact that it costs 400€ more) and the GTX980 (leaning more towards the 8gig version once it is available).

The rest should just work. Don't think I'll go for the mobo etc. in the current planned build, I pretty much just ordered by best ratings and checked for compatibility with the CPU etc. and called it a day (to find out what to expect in terms of pricetag). A friend of me is going to fine-tune & pick the mobo etc. later on (he's pretty experienced with PC building).
 
TimFL said:
Only thing I'm pretty much set on is the CPU (i7-5930k with 6 cores, would love to get the 8 core one but I can't cope with the fact that it costs 400€ more) and the GTX980 (leaning more towards the 8gig version once it is available).
Click to expand...

Any reason you need 40 PCIE lanes?
 
Addnan said:
Just tested this and yeah, both my cards are hitting 99% constant but it's not actually helping in any way. Same performance as single card.
Click to expand...

Just disabled sli and ran the benchmark again and there was a big difference in fps. Avg bench fps with sli was 92, single card was 54. That's max settings (except textures) at 1440p.
 
Havel said:
I patiently await GM200, but this has gotten me sad.
Click to expand...

That is false, ignore it. Sometime back, I learned that GM200 taped out only a couple months after GM204 on Overclock.net and there is plenty of die space even on 28nm for GM200 to exploit. GM200 is almost assuredly on 28nm and will be coming out in some form (probably workstations first) within the next few months. Samples were already being shipped around a few months ago as per cargo records:

https://www.zauba.com/import-gm200-graphics-hs-code.html

2015 is Maxwell territory, 2016 Pascal. Nvidia won't leave the market devoid of a performance increase for yet/over another year while AMD put something out. Which, BTW, is pretty much confirmed. A large 500 mm^2+ chip is coming from AMD (likely 28nm too) sometime in the first half of next year:

http://abload.de/img/synapse-design-500mm-ynsu8.jpg
 
Serandur said:
That is false, ignore it. Sometime back, I learned that GM200 taped out only a couple months after GM204 on Overclock.net and there is plenty of die space even on 28nm for GM200 to exploit. GM200 is almost assuredly on 28nm and will be coming out in some form (probably workstations first) within the next few months. Samples were already being shipped around a few months ago as per cargo records:

https://www.zauba.com/import-gm200-graphics-hs-code.html
Click to expand...

Interesting, especially about it still being 28nm.

Either way, I'm glad I am holding out until it arrives.
 
Finally returned to Team Green, picked up a 970 this evening. Went for the MSI Frozr, since I know its decent as my brother picked one up. Just hoping I dodge the coil whine issue, brother has said he's not been able to notice anything in normal use. I am looking forward to the fact this opens me up to the possibility of getting a Shield too.
 
Picked up Arkham Origins to use as kind of a test to push my 970 to the max. I need some help figuring out how to set things correctly.

Basically, with V-Sync enabled its locked at 60fps, with some dips. Without v-sync the framerate is over 60fps all the time but of couse theres some tearing. My monitor allows for 100, 120 or 144hz. What is the proper way to utilize my monitor's higher refresh rate? Am I supposed to have it set to higher hz with v-sync off? Does v-sync on make anything higher than 60hz refresh rate moot?

Additonally, should I always be setting v-sync in the game itself or outside in the nvidia control panel?
 
Got my MSI 970 Gaming edition ordered for $320 from TigerDirect. Ships Monday, lets hope I win the coil whine lottery because my PC is on my desk, with GPU at ear level.
 
jordn613 said:
Picked up Arkham Origins to use as kind of a test to push my 970 to the max. I need some help figuring out how to set things correctly.

Basically, with V-Sync enabled its locked at 60fps, with some dips. Without v-sync the framerate is over 60fps all the time but of couse theres some tearing. My monitor allows for 100, 120 or 144hz. What is the proper way to utilize my monitor's higher refresh rate? Am I supposed to have it set to higher hz with v-sync off? Does v-sync on make anything higher than 60hz refresh rate moot?

Additonally, should I always be setting v-sync in the game itself or outside in the nvidia control panel?
Click to expand...

It wont dip with Vsync if it mantains the framerate constantly. Some games have bad Vsync implementation so if you see lot's of stuttering with Vsync on, use programs like RadeonPro (works on Nvidia also) to force triple buffering Vsync which as far as I'm aware you cannot do with the Nvidia Control Panel because it works only with OpenGL.
 
Well, just contacted Newegg too about the GTX 970 I had bought September 24th, and they also gave me the free Ubi game from the newer promotion. :D
 
Man, Amazon is giving me nothing but grief with the promotion. Asked over chat when I could expect to receive my code for the free game and got told their promotions department would contact me. Just got an email from them saying they were sorry I missed the promotion and to basically tell me better luck next time. Thing is, my order was placed Nov 5th, which is within the promo period. It's really soured my opinion of the company and I'd recommend avoiding them in the future for these sorts of things, if you can.
 
Allnamestakenlol said:
Man, Amazon is giving me nothing but grief with the promotion. Asked over chat when I could expect to receive my code for the free game and got told their promotions department would contact me. Just got an email from them saying they were sorry I missed the promotion and to basically tell me better luck next time. Thing is, my order was placed Nov 5th, which is within the promo period. It's really soured my opinion of the company and I'd recommend avoiding them in the future for these sorts of things, if you can.
Click to expand...

Just ask another rep in chat. You just got a guy that didn't know what was up.
 
Meia said:
Well, just contacted Newegg too about the GTX 970 I had bought September 24th, and they also gave me the free Ubi game from the newer promotion. :D
Click to expand...

I was just able to receive a code from my 980 purchased on the 24th from Newegg. Thanks for the tip, it was worth waiting on the chat.
 
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