The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Review
by Ryan Smith on May 31, 2015 6:00 PM ESTCrysis 3
Still one of our most punishing benchmarks, Crysis 3 needs no introduction. With Crysis 3, Crytek has gone back to trying to kill computers and still holds “most punishing shooter” title in our benchmark suite. Only in a handful of setups can we even run Crysis 3 at its highest (Very High) settings, and that’s still without AA. Crysis 1 was an excellent template for the kind of performance required to drive games for the next few years, and Crysis 3 looks to be much the same for 2015.
Once more we find the GTX 980 Ti and GTX Titan X virtually tied. Across all settings and resolutions the GTX 980 Ti stays within 97-98% of the Titan’s performance. Consequently GTX Titan X is ever so marginally better, but not enough to make any real difference.
This also means that GTX 980 Ti continues with its very strong lead over the GTX 980. Once more we’re looking at a 26-31% performance advantage for the latest member of the GTX 900 series, in-line with its price premium.
Meanwhile on an absolute basis, as one of our most punishing games this is also a good reminder of why even GM200 cards can’t quite pull off high quality 4K gaming with a single GPU today. Even without MSAA and one step below Crysis 3’s Very High quality settings, the GTX 980 Ti can only muster 40.9fps. If you want to get to 60fps you will need to drop to Low quality, or drop the resolution to 1440p. The latter will get you 83.2fps at the same quality settings, which again highlights GTX 980 Ti’s second strength as a good card for driving high refresh rate 1440p displays.
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Daroller - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
I had a GTX690, and I run SLI TITAN X. I've been running dual GPU setups for as long as they've been available. Dual GPU IS a hindrance. You'd have to be blind, stupid, or a rabid fanboy to claim otherwise. The 295x2 isn't exempt from that just because you dislike NV and harbor a not so secret love for AMD.Laststop311 - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
Yea cause using dual GPU's just sucks. Just adds a bunch more complexities and problems to everything. Always get 1 of the largest, fastest single gpu's you can get.Kutark - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
I guess if by crush you mean thermally crush. Then yes, you're absolutely correct. I mean, why not have a portable nuclear reactor nearby to power your video card!mapesdhs - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
Hope you enjoy your power bill, heat, worse stuttering, etc., and the numerous CF fails for all sorts of scenarios. I checked some forums, lots of moans about 15.5 for CF support.poohbear - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
Why didn't u include witcher 3 in the benchmarks? It's the latest graphics intensive game for sure & looks gorgeous!kyuu - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
It JUST came out. A significant portion of this review was probably carried out before it was even released. Not to mention its already had two patches that affect performance substantially.Oxford Guy - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
It looks horribly watered-down compared with the earlier demo, probably because they wanted so much to keep the VRAM requirements really low.chizow - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
@Ryan Any word on when we might see some SLI results? I know this is generally dependent on limited review samples, but vendors will probably start sending you cards soon yeah?Ryan Smith - Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - link
Not any time soon.NA1NSXR - Monday, June 1, 2015 - link
Those revised 970/980 prices are stingy.