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The Nvidia GTX980 Ti is yet another extremely powerful graphics card set to cement Nvidia's authoritative position in the high end sector. The architectural enhancements discussed earlier in the review mean this new card is significantly quicker than the GTX980, and the extra 2GB of GDDR5 will most certainly help improve the Ultra HD 4K gaming experience. The limited 4GB of memory on the GTX980 has posed a quandary for many potential 4k gamers.
I still firmly believe that 4K is the future of gaming. This is one of the many reasons that the PC platform will deliver a better gaming experience than any console- right now most console games are running at a mere 720p or 900p. Playing the Witcher 3 and Grand Theft Auto 5 at 3840×2160 via a capable system really is such a life affirming experience.
Right now we have only been able to publish results from the reference GTX980 Ti, but as our overclocking results indicate Nvidia partners are likely going to release some highly overclocked custom solutions in the coming weeks.
If you are gaming on a 1080p or 1440p panel then the GTX980 Ti could be easily classed as overkill. This card is really designed for higher resolutions such as 1600p and Ultra HD 4K. The GTX980 makes for a more sensible, cost effective choice at 1440p.
Unfortunately if you want to game at 4k and maintain a constant 60+ frames per second in the most demanding Direct X 11 titles, you still need two high end graphics cards. The GTX980 Ti is muscular GPU, but adding another will certainly drive those all important minimum frame rates into the super smooth 60+ zone.
As we mentioned earlier in the review, AMD have two solutions right now for 4K gaming. On a budget, the Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC 8GB is a decent option, but in a single card formation it will struggle to produce acceptable frame rates with the latest, most intensive game engines. The R9 295X2 is still the most powerful graphics card on the market, and has received a massive price reduction is recent weeks, to under £600 inc vat. This is a solution that derives its performance from the brute force power of two R9 290X cores running in Crossfire. While the card is quiet and deadly effective, it does demand a huge amount of power to be taken from the 12V rail of a power supply. Also, without a Crossfire driver profile, performance drops dramatically. We do much prefer highly efficient single GPU solutions such as the Titan X and GTX980 Ti.
Nvidia have been unable to confirm pricing with us, even in the days just before launch. We did speak with some of our etail partners and they told us that pricing for the reference card will be around £539.99 inc vat, with custom solutions from premium partners such as Asus likely to be priced right up to £599.99. We have also heard that GTX980 prices will probably drop by around $50 in the coming weeks, although again this has not been officially confirmed.
The GTX980 Ti is no small expense, but when you consider the 12GB Titan X is still retailing for £900+ there is some serious money to be saved by opting for the new card. It is not like you will be sacrificing a ton of performance either, as an overclocked GTX980 Ti will outperform a reference clocked Titan X. If you can live without the extra 6GB of memory, it seems like a no-brainer to us.
For now, we patiently await the next generation high end solution from AMD and hope they can issue a challenge. Check back on KitGuru for updates in the not too distant future.
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Pros:
- astonishing performance.
- built for 4K gaming.
- reasonably quiet for a reference cooler.
- plenty of overclocking headroom (25% from our review sample).
- reference cooler works great for SLi configurations.
- Likely to be £300+cheaper than the monster Titan X.
Cons:
- Custom cards from partners likely to be close to £600.
- No backplate.
- A little coil whine under extreme circumstances.
KitGuru says: If you don't want to spend £900 or more on a Titan X and don't mind losing 6GB of GDDR5 memory, the GTX980 Ti is clearly the most powerful single GPU graphics solution on the market. A great choice for a new 4K gaming system.
Disappointed kitguru….No 1080p ?
a 980 will already have no issue with 1080p…Anyone who buys a card this powerful has left 1080p behind
I wouldn’t say its overkill for 1440p….I personally have been waiting for a card that can get me great fps at this resolution. Sure a 980 will get me 60 fps in most games…but hell I have a 144hz refresh rate, and I love me some 100+ fps smoothness, even to the point that with my current 770, I crash my settings down just to make things smoother
Why the 21 page format? It’s quite annoying to keep scrolling and clicking. Why not shorten it into a 7 page format, by saying putting the games on one page, the benchmarks on another, the temperature and power efficiency, etc.
Good review though, wasn’t expecting one this soon, and unless AMD pull the stops out with Fury, then looks like I’m finally going to be upgrading for the first time in 4 years now! (had a chronic case of ‘wait-and-see’ syndrome).
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/geforce-gtx-980-ti/buy-gpu advertised for 649.99 on Nvidia’s site
Not really, what if I want to game on max settings for years to come and am still happy with the 1080p resolution?
Not everyone is a resolution whore.
I am going through the same “wait-and-see” syndrome. Pls halp.
Should I wait for Intel Broadwell processors that are coming this fall along with whatever NVIDIA is going to roll out this year (if any)
or should I build a system with a i7 4790K and 980Ti ?
I see almost no sites are testing compute performance for the 980Ti … I assume NVIDIA have forbidden this …
Enjoy holly days kitguru … kEEP READING
Pascal’s not coming till next year…Nvidia’s using HBM2, and a new process for it, so it’s not possible for them to get it out before December.
It all really depends on what you’ve got now, how long you’ve been waiting and how much you want to spend. If you’re rocking a 680/780 I’d say wait. I’m on a practically ancient 1.5GB 580 now, so this is my stop!
Wait a couple weeks to see what AMD does. I’ve never bought from the Red team before, but everything we’re hearing about Fury is making it seem like it’s gonna wipe the floor with the 980Ti (ok, bit of an exaggeration). HBM1 could prove to be huge, and the card is incredibly small and has a hybrid cooling system, which is perfect for the SFF build I’m after.
In terms of Broadwell…honestly, it doesn’t matter. Any i5/i7 will be more than enough, and yes, that extends all the way back to Nehalem.
Are you planning on using it for a bit of mining? (see what I did there?)
I play with an EIZO FORIS FG2421 monitor 240Hz in Turbo Mode and need 240 FPS constantly in 1920×1080.
Só,a GTX 980TI is not enough for some titles such as : GTAV,Witcher3 and só on.
I will wait for Pascal next year.
hate this advert spam crap
Now that is overkill, unless you’re some kind of MLG pro gamer who only plays shooter games in tournament’s. I’d take 4k at 40-60 fps over 240fps at 1080p any day of the week.
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Great review Kitguru
Maxwell Ti is Best GPU for a future proofing 4K gamine solution and its great performance per watt will enable its partners to offer highly overclocked version. Compute performance has no value to gamers whatsoever but the 980Ti 6GB of memory sure does for 4K gaming.