The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Review: Maxwell Mark 2
by Ryan Smith on September 18, 2014 10:30 PM ESTBioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite is Irrational Games’ latest entry in the Bioshock franchise. Though it’s based on Unreal Engine 3 – making it our obligatory UE3 game – Irrational had added a number of effects that make the game rather GPU-intensive on its highest settings. As an added bonus it includes a built-in benchmark composed of several scenes, a rarity for UE3 engine games, so we can easily get a good representation of what Bioshock’s performance is like.
Even with advanced depth of field effects, our highest end video cards are starting to run away with Bioshock: Infinite. That is particularly true for the GTX 980, which in a game that NVIDIA frequently does well in further props up the GTX 980’s advantage. Only at 4K are the R9 290XU and GTX 980 anywhere near close, otherwise at 1440p it’s a 37% performance advantage. GTX 780 Ti on the other hand holds much closer, still falling behind the GTX 980 but only by around 5% at sub-4K resolutions. This does make for a good moment for showcasing the GTX 980’s greater ROP throughput though; as we crank up the resolution to 4K, the 780 Ti falls further behind, especially when we’re at lower quality settings that leave us less shader-bound.
On an absolute basis 120Hz/144Hz gamer should have a blast even with a single GTX 980 at 1080p, while purists will need more performance for 1440p than the 85fps the card can offer. And at 4K the GTX 980 is doing very well for itself, almost cracking 60fps at High quality, and becoming the only card to crack 40fps with Ultra quality.
This will be one of the weaker showings for the GTX 980 over the GTX 680 though; at sub-4K resolutions it’s only a 60-65% performance improvement.
Meanwhile Bioshock is the first of 5 games we can reliably measure with the FCAT tools to check for frame pacing consistency. Bioshock is a bit more erratic than most games in this respect, and while our general rule of thumb for an excellent performance from a single card is 3%, our recording for GTX 980 is a bit higher at 3.5%. On the other hand at 4K it measures in at just 2.3%. So while frame pacing is going to be a bit of a rubber stamping process overall, we can confirm that GTX 980 is delivering a good frame pacing experience in Bioshock.
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Kutark - Sunday, September 21, 2014 - link
I'd hold on to it. Thats still a damn fine card. Honestly you could probably find a used one on ebay for a decent price and SLI it up.IMO though id splurge for a 970 and call it a day. I've got dual 760's right now, first time i've done SLI in prob 10 years. And honestly, the headaches just arent worth it. Yeah, most games work, but some games will have weird graphical issues (BF4 near release was a big one, DOTA 2 doesnt seem to like it), others dont utilize it well, etc. I kind of wish id just have stuck with the single 760. Either way, my 2p
SkyBill40 - Wednesday, September 24, 2014 - link
@ Kutark:Yeah, I tried to buy a nice card at that time despite wanting something higher than a 660Ti. But, as my wallet was the one doing the dictating, it's what I ended up with and I've been very happy. My only concern with a used one is just that: it's USED. Electronics are one of those "no go" zones for me when it comes to buying second hand since you have no idea about the circumstances surrounding the device and seeing as it's a video card and not a Blu Ray player or something, I'd like to know how long it's run, it's it's been OC'd or not, and the like. I'd be fine with buying another one new but not for the prices I'm seeing that are right in line with a 970. That would be dumb.
In the end, I'll probably wait it out a bit more and decide. I'm good for now and will probably buy a new 144Hz monitor instead.
Kutark - Sunday, September 21, 2014 - link
Psshhhhh.... I still have my 3dfx Voodoo SLI card. Granted its just sitting on my desk, but still!!!In all seriousness though, my roommate, who is NOT a gamer, is still using an old 7800gt card i had laying around because the video card in his ancient computer decided to go out and he didnt feel like building a new one. Can't say i blame him, Core 2 quad's are juuust fine for browsing the web and such.
Kutark - Sunday, September 21, 2014 - link
Voodoo 2, i meant, realized i didnt type the 2.justniz - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 - link
>> the power bills are so ridiculous for the 8800 GTX!Sorry but this is ridiculous. Do the math.
Best info I can find is that your card is consuming 230w.
Assuming you're paying 15¢/kWh, even gaming for 12 hours a day every day for a whole month will cost you $12.59. Doing the same with a gtx980 (165w) would cost you $9.03/month.
So you'd be paying maybe $580 to save $3.56 a month.
LaughingTarget - Friday, September 19, 2014 - link
There is a major difference between market capitalization and available capital for investment. Market Cap is just a rote multiplication of the number of shares outstanding by the current share price. None of this is available for company use and is only an indirect measurement of how well a company is performing. Nvidia has $1.5 billion in cash and $2.5 billion in available treasury stock. Attempting to match Intel's process would put a significant dent into that with little indication it would justify the investment. Nvidia already took on a considerable chunk of debt going into this year as well, which would mean that future offerings would likely go for a higher cost of debt, making such an investment even harder to justify.While Nvidia is blowing out AMD 3:1 on R&D and capacity, Intel is blowing both of them away, combined, by a wide margin. Intel is dropping $10 billion a year on R&D, which is a full $3 billion beyond the entire asset base of Nvidia. It's just not possible to close the gap right now.
Silma - Saturday, September 20, 2014 - link
I don't think you realize how many billion dollars you need to spend to open a 14 nm factory, not even counting R&D & yearly costs.It's humongous, there is a reason why there are so few foundries in the world.
sp33d3r - Saturday, September 20, 2014 - link
Well, if the NVIDIA/AMD CEOs is blind enough and cannot see it coming, then intel are gonna manufacture their next integrated graphics on a 10 or 8 nm chip and though immature will be a tough competition to them in terms of power and efficiency and even weight.remember currently pcs load integrated graphics as a must by intel and people add third party graphics only 'cause intels is not good enough literally adding weight of two graphics cards (Intels and third partys) to the product. Its all worlds apart more convenient when integrated graphics outperforms or able to challenge third party GPUs, we would just throw away NVIDIA and guess what they wont remain a monopoly anymore rather completely wiped out
Besides Intels integrated graphics are getting more mature in terms of not just die size with every launch, just compare 4000s with 5000s, it wont be long before they catch up.
wiyosaya - Friday, September 26, 2014 - link
I have to agree that it is partly not about the verification cost breaking the bank. However, what I think is the more likely reason is that since the current node works, they will try to wring every penny out of that node. Look at the prices for the Titan Z. If this is not an attempt to fleece the "gotta have it buyer," I don't know what is.Ushio01 - Thursday, September 18, 2014 - link
Wouldn't paying to use the 22nm fabs be a better idea as there about to become under used and all the teething troubles have been fixed.