The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Review
by Ryan Smith on May 31, 2015 6:00 PM ESTOverclocking
Finally, no review of a high-end video card would be complete without a look at overclocking performance.
From a design standpoint, GTX 980 Ti already ships close to its power limits. NVIDIA’s 250W TDP can only be raised another 10% – to 275W – meaning that in TDP limited scenarios there’s not much headroom to play with. On the other hand with the stock voltage being relatively low, in clockspeed limited scenarios there’s still some room for pushing the performance envelope through overvolting. And neither of these options addresses the most potent aspect of overclocking, which is pushing the entire clockspeed curve higher at the same voltages by increasing the clockspeed offsets.
GTX Titan X by comparison ended up being a good overclocker, and while we'd expect GTX 980 Tis to use slightly lower quality chips as part of the binning process, it should still overclock rather well.
| GeForce GTX 980 Ti Overclocking | ||||
| Stock | Overclocked | |||
| Core Clock | 1000MHz | 1250MHz | ||
| Boost Clock | 1075Mhz | 1326MHz | ||
| Max Boost Clock | 1202MHz | 1477MHz | ||
| Memory Clock | 7GHz | 8GHz | ||
| Max Voltage | 1.187v | 1.23v | ||
Overall we're able to get another 250MHz (25%) out of the GTX 980 Ti's GPU, and another 1GHz (14%) out of its VRAM. This pushes the GTX 980 Ti's clockspeeds up to 1326MHz for the standard boost clock, and 1477MHz for the maximum boost clock. The card is heavily TDP limited at this point, so it's unlikely to sustain clockspeeds over 1400MHz, but working clockspeeds in the 1300MHz range are certainly sustainable. Meanwhile interestingly enough, this is actually a slightly better overclock than what we saw with the GTX Titan X; the Titan was only able to get another 200MHz out of its GPU and 800MHz out of its memory. So GTX 980 Ti ends up being the better overclocker by 50MHz.
The gains from this overclock are a very consistent across all 5 of our sample games at 4K, with the average performance increase being 20%. Though not quite enough to push the GTX 980 Ti above 60fps in Shadow of Mordor or Crysis 3, it is enough to crack 60fps on Battlefield 4 and The Talos Principle.
The cost of that 20% overclock in terms of power and noise is similarly straightforward. You're looking at an increased power cost of 30W or so at the wall – in-line with the 25W increase in the card’s TDP – while on the noise front the GTX 980 Ti is pushed out of its sweet spot. Card noise levels will increase by around 4.5dB(A).
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chizow - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
780 was $650 at launch actually, and stayed there for some 6 months until AMD launched the 290X. The only way Nvidia will drop price on the 980Ti is if Fiji is both faster than it and priced similar, and even then Nvidia may not touch a thing.I think Nvidia knows what AMD has and they've already set the price points for AMD so that they won't have to change their pricing no matter what.
fingerbob69 - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
"The only way Nvidia will drop price on the 980Ti is if Fiji is both faster than it and priced similar" ...and given themselves a month's head start ...and AMD a whole month too look at this Ti and adjust accordingly (if even necessary).I think it's nVidia who's looking weak here. In the UK Scan/Overclockers are really low on AMD stock 290 thru to 290x ...big launch coming?
chizow - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
Yes, I'm sure it was AMD taking a position of strength to allow Nvidia to completely dominate the dGPU landscape for the last 9 months, unopposed, unchallenged since the GTX 970/980 launch, followed by the GTX 960, GTX Titan X, and GTX 980Ti. Makes perfect sense.Everyone expects a big launch from AMD sure, but I guess they are just waiting for Nvidia to tire themselves out first. I mean a quick scan in the US shows you can't find the GTX 980Ti anywhere, sold out instantly in a single day. AMD is just biding their time though for something big to pop out of a hole in the ground! :)
HeavyHemi - Saturday, September 12, 2015 - link
'Hole in the ground' if someone was buried a55 up. Ha...theuglyman0war - Thursday, June 4, 2015 - link
that would be a shame. It's been a long time since I pulled the trigger on my upgrade itches. Never thought it would be this long. ( gtx 480 tri sli at $399 with the starcraft release discount coupon )I think I assumed that the rise in pricing after gtx 580 was just going to be a short term fluke and that the world would return to sanity with resumption of the $499 pricing.
I imagine I would have probably have upgraded twice otherwise. I wonder if my demographic adds up to a significant lost market at the end of the day?
On the bright side...
Having waited this long, If I start buying used in two years the performance gain will be worth the loss of warranty considering the high cost.
NvidiaWins - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
Agreed. Nvidia has no worries when it comes to AMD next series gpu. AMD will not be able to compete with the 980Ti price point.n13L5 - Tuesday, August 4, 2015 - link
"Just wait for AMD's release and the price will have to drop."Exactly why all those Nvidia fanboys should shut their mouths:
If they were to succeed in maligning AMD to death, handing Nvidia a monopoly, Nvidia will have not only lost any reason to ever drop prices, they'll also loose any reason to rush new gaming cards out. They'd put consumer cards at the very back of the queue, to be released at Nvidia's convenience - because Nvidia gets better margins from HPC sales.
Frenetic Pony - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
Sir! You're trolling is commendable, the people biting, so serious. I salute you.StevoLincolnite - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
You're = You are.In this instance it is "your".
Leyawiin - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
Their, they're, there - no call for typo nitpicking. He who is free of guilt and all. As far as the 28nm bit, its probably ore of a well-poisoning comment by someone who leans towards the other camp.