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

What games are you currently playing and at what resolution and frame rate?

If you are not struggling with the games and you are happy with the performance (and the in-game graphics settings) then it might not be worth your while at this time.

I read that anyone with a 600 series card or below would benefit from the 900 series but to be honest I wasn't struggling with games at 1080p 60fps (using a GTX 670 2GB). VRAM was a potential issue but several high profile games in the past two months seemed to have exaggerated problems.

It just really depends on what you are happy to put up with and whether it is financially worth buying a new card.
Keep in mind the 670 is about twice as fast as the 560 Ti... 560 Ti to a 970 would be a huge leap.

It is a 2600K.



Lately I've been playin The Evil Within at 720p 60FPS. Game crashes too often at anything higher. Since I don't have a display that supports higher resolutions, I aim to play most games at 1080p 60 fps.

Glad to hear my rig would support the card. Thanks for the help! :)

Excellent, the 2600K is still a great CPU for gaming. Keep in mind the crashing thing might be a separate issue, but in terms of raw performance I don't think you can go wrong with a 970.
 

It's another GPU coming out next year. They release new GPUs every year.

When will these new cards likely be back in stock? What's the usual case? A week? Two weeks? Three weeks?

If you're buying from Newegg, I see most of the cards come back in stock 2-3x a week at one point or another.
 
Performance jump from 28nm(?) Maxwell to 16nm next year ought to be bigger than from Kepler to Maxwell, right? Man the future is exciting.

almost definitely. The performance jump to the 900 series was pretty small. The real boon came in price and power per watt.
 
But weren't people saying that next year will be "big Maxwell" and Pascal is 2016? Then you're answer to my original post would be wrong :p (assuming Big Maxwell remains on 28nm)
 
almost definitely. The performance jump to the 900 series was pretty small. The real boon came in price and power per watt.

This is why I feel like a bit of a fool buying the 970. Don't get me wrong I am getting a few more fps out of games and I can increase settings on games like Shadow of Mordor to ultra but I do feel a bit annoyed at myself for being impulsive.

I always said I would get a new card when a big performance jump occurred but I can always sell it on; when the market is flooded with a tonne of 2nd hand cards seeing as so many people have jumped on board...
 
13700 after my first ever overclock, I think I can go beyond 14k with this card :) Extremly happy with my purchase (Gigabyte).

iRQl1Ebd7Rqi7.png

What is the standard clock speeds / boost speeds of your card and what have you been able to add on the clock speed / memory?

As for standard clocks, the GPUZ shows 1178 (1329 boost) for GPU and 1753 for memory.

I've cranked up the core voltage and power limit to the max in Afterburner, added 150 mhz to core clock and 500 mhz to memory. After the OC the GPUZ shows 1328 core (1479 boost) and 2003 memory.
 
But weren't people saying that next year will be "big Maxwell" and Pascal is 2016? Then you're answer to my original post would be wrong :p (assuming Big Maxwell remains on 28nm)

You're asking what the article means to you. It means another GPU line lol. That's what it would mean. The "Big Maxwell" is a titan type equivalent to my knowledge just another card in the Maxwell line.

This is why I feel like a bit of a fool buying the 970. Don't get me wrong I am getting a few more fps out of games and I can increase settings on games like Shadow of Mordor to ultra but I do feel a bit annoyed at myself for being impulsive.

I always said I would get a new card when a big performance jump occurred but I can always sell it on; when the market is flooded with a tonne of 2nd hand cards seeing as so many people have jumped on board...

I don't feel like a fool. For ~$350 I got a top of the line card that is capable of running all the newest games well. It is a huge improvement over my 660ti and well worth the ability to run the newest games that much better. If you felt like your old card was running all the current games quite well then maybe you might feel a bit foolish. I can see it.

I'm not one to pay $500+ for a card though and we're not likely to see this type of price to performance card in the next gen (we MAY but I don't think it's likely). It would have been a long year for my 660ti waiting for the next gen.
 
As for standard clocks, the GPUZ shows 1178 (1329 boost) for GPU and 1753 for memory.

I've cranked up the core voltage and power limit to the max in Afterburner, added 150 mhz to core clock and 500 mhz to memory. After the OC the GPUZ shows 1328 core (1479 boost) and 2003 memory.

People must be using different units when talking about memory speed, because I see 8000Mhz, 4000Mhz and everything in between mentioned. And now you say 2000. It's confusing to say the least. I need a crash course in this stuff.
 
But weren't people saying that next year will be "big Maxwell" and Pascal is 2016? Then you're answer to my original post would be wrong :p (assuming Big Maxwell remains on 28nm)

There will probably still be the titan maxwell variant next year, and a 16nm maxwell... and pascal/stacked dram nvlinkery etc in 2016 still.

Do I get a cookie for correctly assuming there will be no 20nm desktop GPUs?
 
People must be using different units when talking about memory speed, because I see 8000Mhz, 4000Mhz and everything in between mentioned. And now you say 2000. It's confusing to say the least. I need a crash course in this stuff.

I just type the values straight from GPUZ.
 
This is why I feel like a bit of a fool buying the 970. Don't get me wrong I am getting a few more fps out of games and I can increase settings on games like Shadow of Mordor to ultra but I do feel a bit annoyed at myself for being impulsive.

I always said I would get a new card when a big performance jump occurred but I can always sell it on; when the market is flooded with a tonne of 2nd hand cards seeing as so many people have jumped on board...
The jump to the 900 series was a small jump in terms of how much it moved the high end game on. But how big a leap the 970 was for you depends on what specific card you had before. From a 670, the 970 was about 50% more powerful for me. I don't know what you came from, but unless it was like a 770, 780, 7970 or something, I imagine you're seeing bigger gains than you realize.

And of course it depends on what games you play. I played Ryse recently and my 970 was put to *really* good use there. Pretty much max settings plus supersampling to really make it look super clean all at 60fps. That was a stunning experience. We're gonna see more and more demanding games and options for you to exercise the 970's capability in. I'm quite happy to feel prepared for The Witcher 3, for instance. Of course, if you're doing nothing but playing Diablo 3 or last-gen games, then yea, your 970 probably isn't proving to be any huge upgrade.
 
The jump to the 900 series was a small jump in terms of how much it moved the high end game on. But how big a leap the 970 was for you depends on what specific card you had before. From a 670, the 970 was about 50% more powerful for me. I don't know what you came from, but unless it was like a 770, 780, 7970 or something, I imagine you're seeing bigger gains than you realize.

And of course it depends on what games you play. I played Ryse recently and my 970 was put to *really* good use there. Pretty much max settings plus supersampling to really make it look super clean all at 60fps. That was a stunning experience. We're gonna see more and more demanding games and options for you to exercise the 970's capability in. I'm quite happy to feel prepared for The Witcher 3, for instance. Of course, if you're doing nothing but playing Diablo 3 or last-gen games, then yea, your 970 probably isn't proving to be any huge upgrade.

I don't think anyone has seen as big a jump as I did, coming from Intel HD2000 (in the i5-2500) to the 970. I only had the 970 for a couple of days before I returned it, and I only tested a handful of old games on it, but it was a revelation. Nothing had prepared me to the kind of image quality and performance that can be achieved with these cards, not even the PC Screenshots threads (images are 0fps!). I was blown away and can't wait to get one again when they're in stock.

I've been gaming extremely lightly in recent years (mostly PS3 and 3DS) and I thought I will continue to become less and less interested in playing, but seeing games running with supersampling and at 60fps made me go "Yeah I can totally see myself playing like this. I don't mind this at all!" :)
 
Well I finally bit the bullet and got this card.

Let us know how you like it. It's one of the 3 cards that are coming in stock locally next week, but I've been reading more negative things about it then good (I'm particularly concerned about fan noise and reportedly "power circuitry noise", not sure if the latter is the same thing as coil whine), so I'm not ready to bite again yet.
 
I’ve been delighted with my ASUS DCII GTX670 for the last two years and for my planned 970 upgrade was planning on sticking with Asus.
Are there any non-performance reasons to go for MSI or Gigabyte rather than Asus?
I’m more concerned with low noise than extra performance.

Have had my strix since September and no problems buzz or coil whine. Using a corsair 650 semi modular psu and a closed loop cpu cooler and I can only hear my junky bitfenix prodigy case fans at load.
 
So wait, are you saying you essentially "burned" your card in and now the coil whine is much less? Has anyone else tried this and succeeded?

My superclocked EVGA 970 is getting delivered today, so I'll know tonight if I won the lottery or lost. If it has bad whine, I wonder if I could just stress test it for a few hours and lessen the whine in the process...

I've done it with 2 MSI 970 cards, and the coil whine is gone as long as frame rate stays under 1000.
 
So where are we at on the 4GB vs. 8GB memory debate? Now with some of the newer games out, is 4GB enough?
 
Let us know how you like it. It's one of the 3 cards that are coming in stock locally next week, but I've been reading more negative things about it then good (I'm particularly concerned about fan noise and reportedly "power circuitry noise", not sure if the latter is the same thing as coil whine), so I'm not ready to bite again yet.

Fan noise will likely be covered up by the huge fans I have on my case. Possibly coil whine as well.

I'm more pro-coolness than anti-noise.
 
Let us know how you like it. It's one of the 3 cards that are coming in stock locally next week, but I've been reading more negative things about it then good (I'm particularly concerned about fan noise and reportedly "power circuitry noise", not sure if the latter is the same thing as coil whine), so I'm not ready to bite again yet.
I have the EVGA "FTW" edition and have had two cards with that "power circuitry noise."

It's worth noting that if all 970s are a lotto, then EVGA is not a bad route to take. The RMA process is super painless.
 
Just ordered a Asus 970 off Amazon (upgrading from a 560ti). It said that I'll get a free game code. Couldn't find any list of what games I could choose from. Anybody know?
 
I have the EVGA "FTW" edition and have had two cards with that "power circuitry noise."

It's worth noting that if all 970s are a lotto, then EVGA is not a bad route to take. The RMA process is super painless.


I wish I didn't have to keep reminding US-GAFers that not everyone is privileged with First World Problems :P

For some of us RMA is a tricky thing or even not a thing at all. I felt extremely lucky when my local retailer gave me a refund for the MSI card, but I highly doubt they'd accept a return for a relatively "noisy card".

Just ordered a Asus 970 off Amazon (upgrading from a 560ti). It said that I'll get a free game code. Couldn't find any list of what games I could choose from. Anybody know?

Far Cry 4, AssCreed Unity, or some car game.
 
I got the Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 (Rev 1.1) today. The build quality is up there with the Asus Strix. It's more rigid and doesn't sag slightly, like the Strix. The G1 is definitely louder than the Strix at load, and I miss 0dB mode.

This card also has coil whine. Menu and high fps coil whine isn't as bad, but all other game situation are the same or worse than the Strix. The card also has low coil whine at desktop.

Games tested
  • Alien Isolation (4K DSR w/vsync on & off) Medium coil whine
  • Alien Isolation (1080p w/ vsync on & off) Medium coil whine
  • Witcher 2 (1080p w/ vsync on & off) Medium/High coil whine
  • FFXIV (4K DSR w/ vsync on & off) High coil whine
  • FFXIV (1080p w/ vsync on & off) - High coil whine
  • Borderlands: The Pre Sequel (1080p w/ vsync on & off) - Ticking medium coil whine
  • Metro: Last Light (1080p w/ vsync on & off) Medium coil whine
  • Shadow of Mordor (1080p w/ vsync on & off) Medium/Low coil whine
G1 is about 11.75 inches long
5PIvzjll.jpg


UPDATE: Ran the card through some stress tests on another build, and the coil whine is still there. I also let the card run Alien Isolation at 4xDSR with Ultra settings for almost 4 hours. I'll check to see if the coil whine is lower when I can run some more tests.
 
What can we expect from this? Better power efficency and lower prices I assume? And similar or better performance than today's 970 and 980s?

Assuming they even bother moving maxwell to 16nm that really depends on how amd is doing/pricing things at around that time and how ready pascal is. I wouldn't expect any 16nm gpus till 2016 if they just think they can start volume production in July. It took 6+ months of "volume" production of 28nm before we were getting video cards. It will probably be a refresh similar to 700 series vs 600 series with no die shrink. Mind you the 780 was a cut down titan while the 770 was a 680 basically, so it's very possible the 1080(or whatever it is) will be significantly more expensive and better than a 980 while the actual difference between 900/1000 series is negligible. I doubt very much that they bump up pascal launch to 15...

There is always something better coming less than a year away ;/ just upgrade when the prices are okay for you for the performance change... which should be just about anytime the wind blows with an HD2000.
 
I am posting from my wii u and am too o lazy to figure out the math myself. can somebody tell me what dsr multiplication setting I use to get 2560 x 1440 on a 1080p monitor?
 
I got the Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 (Rev 1.1) today. The build quality is up there with the Asus Strix. It's more rigid and doesn't sag slightly, like the Strix. The G1 is definitely louder than the Strix at load, and I miss 0dB mode.

This card also has coil whine. Menu and high fps coil whine isn't as bad, but all other game situation are the same or worse than the Strix. The card also has low coil whine at desktop.

Games tested
  • Alien Isolation (4K DSR w/vsync on & off) Medium coil whine
  • Alien Isolation (1080p w/ vsync on & off) Medium coil whine
  • Witcher 2 (1080p w/ vsync on & off) Medium/High coil whine
  • FFXIV (4K DSR w/ vsync on & off) High coil whine
  • FFXIV (1080p w/ vsync on & off) - High coil whine
  • Borderlands: The Pre Sequel (1080p w/ vsync on & off) - Ticking medium coil whine
  • Metro: Last Light (1080p w/ vsync on & off) Medium coil whine
  • Shadow of Mordor (1080p w/ vsync on & off) Medium/Low coil whine
G1 is about 11.75 inches long
5PIvzjll.jpg

Wow. That sounds horrible.
 
I don't think anyone has seen as big a jump as I did, coming from Intel HD2000 (in the i5-2500) to the 970. I only had the 970 for a couple of days before I returned it, and I only tested a handful of old games on it, but it was a revelation. Nothing had prepared me to the kind of image quality and performance that can be achieved with these cards, not even the PC Screenshots threads (images are 0fps!). I was blown away and can't wait to get one again when they're in stock.

I've been gaming extremely lightly in recent years (mostly PS3 and 3DS) and I thought I will continue to become less and less interested in playing, but seeing games running with supersampling and at 60fps made me go "Yeah I can totally see myself playing like this. I don't mind this at all!" :)
Phew, that's an upgrade!

Well whenever you jump back in, things are gonna be rocking, definitely.

I am posting from my wii u and am too o lazy to figure out the math myself. can somebody tell me what dsr multiplication setting I use to get 2560 x 1440 on a 1080p monitor?
The multipliers are based on pixel count so its 1.78x.
 
I'm in the early process of my research for my Haswell-E build sometime around February. How much disparity is there between a good 970 and a 980?

I'm going to be doing SLI.
 
It's the normal one from the demo.

Hmmmm... Something's not right but I'd do some trouble shooting before returning it. Are you forcing anything weird through your drivers setting?

I'm in the early process of my research for my Haswell-E build sometime around February. How much disparity is there between a good 970 and a 980?

I'm going to be doing SLI.

I believe is about 15%.
 
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