The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Review
by Ryan Smith on May 31, 2015 6:00 PM ESTMiddle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Our next benchmark is Monolith’s popular open-world action game, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. One of our current-gen console multiplatform titles, Shadow of Mordor is plenty punishing on its own, and at Ultra settings it absolutely devours VRAM, showcasing the knock-on effect of current-gen consoles have on VRAM requirements.
Another game, another set of benchmarks where the GTX 980 Ti and GTX Titan X are more or less tied. In this case the latest GM200 card closes the tiny gap even more, bringing the difference between the two down to 1-2% in favor of the GTX Titan X. Meanwhile the GTX 980 Ti’s advantage over the GTX 980 is as strong as ever, beating the most powerful of the GM204 cards by 30% or more.
On an absolute basis, as with Crysis 3 GTX 980 Ti won’t be enough for 60fps at 4K, but at 47.9fps it’s closer to 60fps than 30fps, representing a significant improvement in 4K performance in only a generation. Turning down the game’s quality settings to Very High does improve performance a bit, but at 53.7fps it’s still not quite enough for 60fps. The biggest advantage of Very High quality is alleviating some of the high VRAM requirements, not that the GTX 980 Ti seems to mind even at 6GB. Otherwise dropping to 1440p will give us a significant bump in performance, pushing framerates over 80fps once again.
Looking at minimum framerates, we find the one and only place under which the GTX 980 Ti may be struggling to keep up with its Titan sibling. While it held very close to the GTX Titan X in average framerates, the minimum framerate finds a larger, distinct gap between the two, with the GTX 980 Ti trailing by 8%. That said, minimum framerates are inherently more unreliable than averages, and other than a momentary dip the GTX 980 Ti is doing quite well here, so while it’s a less-than-perfect showing, I don’t believe we’re seeing any kind of real impact from VRAM differences. Note that the 4GB cards don’t seem to be worse off despite being short a further 2GB of VRAM.
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Laststop311 - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
The performance difference between the 980ti and 980 is WAY larger than the performance difference between the 980 and 970 yet the price gap is larger between the 980 and 970. The 980 was stupidly overpriced at 550 and is still overpriced at 500. It needs to be at the 420-430 mark.I would be upset if I just paid 550 for a GTX 980 and now for only 100 more I could basically have titan x performance.
chizow - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
And what value do you place on the 9 months that 980 users have been enjoying that level of performance? Again, if you think the 970 is the better deal, it is there for you to buy at $300-330. The 980 was overpriced by maybe $50 at launch, but it still dropped the entire price and performance landscape at the time where 780Ti was still $650+, 290X was $550, 780 was $450 and 290 was $400. In that context, it wasn't so bad, was it?In reality, Nvidia has no reason to drop the 980 as there is no pressure at all from AMD. All these price cuts are self-induced as they are simply competing with themselves and pre-emptively firing a shot across the bow at $650 with 980Ti.
Oxford Guy - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
"In reality, Nvidia has no reason to drop the 980 as there is no pressure at all from a card with 3.5 GB of VRAM that, in part, runs at 28 GB/s and has XOR contention."fify
chizow - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
"In reality, Nvidia has no reason to drop pricing on the 980, as there is no point in threatening the golden calf that may have single-handedly killed AMD graphics, 3.5GB VRAM and all."FTFY ;)
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 2.81%
AMD Radeon R9 200 Series 0.94%
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
I hope you're being paid for all this nonsense.Michael Bay - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
Oh the pain.chizow - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
Is it nonsense? I hope you are being paid for posting 3.5GB nonsense?darkfalz - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
I dunno. I can't really justify an upgrade from my 980 STRIX (which would then replace beloved 680 in my HTPC) - I was hoping for at least 40% improvement. Not really worth it for 20-30%. Better off getting another 980 and SLI it.darkfalz - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
I'm not sure why they aren't offering Witcher III as well as Batman. Why would a 970 get you two games? Not a great incentive to buy.SeanJ76 - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
Yeah this card barely surpasses my 770 Sli, and I mean BARELY! I think I'll pass and wait for another die.