Battlefield 4

Kicking off our benchmark suite is Battlefield 4, DICE’s 2013 multiplayer military shooter. After a rocky start, Battlefield 4 has since become a challenging game in its own right and a showcase title for low-level graphics APIs. As these benchmarks are from single player mode, based on our experiences our rule of thumb here is that multiplayer framerates will dip to half our single player framerates, which means a card needs to be able to average at least 60fps if it’s to be able to hold up in multiplayer.

Battlefield 4 - 3840x2160 - Ultra Quality - 0x MSAA

Battlefield 4 - 3840x2160 - Medium Quality

Battlefield 4 - 2560x1440 - Ultra Quality

Battlefield 4 is going to set the pace for the rest of this review. In our introduction we talked about how the GTX 980 Ti may as well be the GTX Titan X, and this is one such example why. With a framerate deficit of no more than 3% in this benchmark, the difference between the two cards is just outside the range of standard run-to-run experimental variation that we see in our benchmarking process. So yes, it really is that fast.

In any case, after stripping away the Frostbite engine’s expensive (and not wholly effective) MSAA, what we’re left with for BF4 at 4K with Ultra quality puts the 980 Ti in a pretty good light. At 56.5fps it’s not quite up to the 60fps mark, but it comes very close, close enough that the GTX 980 Ti should be able to stay above 30fps virtually the entire time, and never drop too far below 30fps in even the worst case scenario. Alternatively, dropping to Medium quality should give the card plenty of headroom, with an average framerate of 91.8fps meaning even the lowest framerate never drops below 45fps.

Meanwhile our other significant comparison here is the GTX 980, which just saw its price cut by $50 to $499 to make room for the GTX 980 Ti. At $649 the GTX 980 Ti ideally should be 30% faster to justify its 30% higher price tag; here it’s almost exactly on that mark, fluctuating between a 28% and 32% lead depending on the resolution and settings.

Finally, shifting gears for a moment, gamers looking for the ultimate 1440p card will not be disappointed. GTX 980 Ti will not get to 120fps here (it won’t even come close), but at 77.7fps it’s well suited for driving 1440p144 displays. In fact and GTX Titan X are the single-GPU cards to do better than 60fps at this resolution.

NVIDIA's Computex Announcements & The Test Crysis 3
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  • IUU - Saturday, June 6, 2015 - link

    Wow ,Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4 hitting 80 fps at very high 2560x1440.
    Clearly there's much room for better graphics at lower resolutions.
    I would buy this card , but not if I knew the only benefit would be to
    run games at higher resolutions, that is, graphics has some way to go still
    and this card could accommodate such a prospect.
  • FlushedBubblyJock - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    the R9 295X2 has completely lost it's luster and value, forget it
  • looper - Sunday, June 14, 2015 - link

    This 980 Ti.... Is it the same physical size as my current 780?
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  • NvidiaWins - Thursday, June 18, 2015 - link

    I'll wait to see what this 980GTX "METAL" is all about before I order a new gpu. With 770 Sli I'm in no real rush, as the 980Ti just barley surpassed my Firestrike Score(less than 100 graphic points)
  • johnpombrio - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link

    I am just going through the AMD Fury X's reviews as it came out today with a ton of reviews (June 24th, 2015). It is excellent card and would have absolutely dominated the price point if this pesky GTX 980Ti just had not come along a month before AMD's much hyped launch. It cannot be such a coincidence that NVidia's card just happened to be so close in its benchmarks to the AMD's card. It is also such a coincidence that AMD set the price of their card at exactly the same price as NVidia. So my theory is that NVidia managed to get their hands on a reference Fury X and dialed in their 980Ti to match it. In the meantime, AMD was planning on charging a LOT more for their extremely well designed card (with its own built in water cooler and HBM) expecting the Ti to be launched much later this year but was forced to chop the price. If the price was cut, I don't expect the AIB manufacturers for the Fury X to be very pleased to have a lot less profit margin on the card. Three things may hold back the Fury X as well. One is that the Ti overclocks much better. Next is that the water cooler may or may not be welcomed by all considering its size and possible installation issues. Finally, AMD has been getting complaints by many folks over drivers (or lack thereof). Otherwise, a successful launch for both companies.
  • deteugma - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link

    It is extremely frustrating that none of the charts include the 970.
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