First Impressions: GeForce 980 Ti

Goilveig · Jun 13, 2015

Well, I wasn't going to shell out the cash for a Titan, but when I heard that it's little brother the Ti has roughly 95% of the power for 55% of the price, I went out and bought the 980 Ti.

This is a single card, no SLI or anything. Asus manufactured, stock clocking and cooling. I have to say, it's quite the step up from my old GTX 780.

Best settings that I've found so far are:

In the GeForce Control Panel:
1.78 DSR (2560x1440) @ 25% smoothness,
4x AF (didn't really test any other settings here)
8x AA
8x (supersample) AA - Transparency

In game: Default High graphics options, keeping the OR quality slider at 100%.

All other GF settings, SweetFX settings, etc. are the defaults from the stickied OR setup thread.

This setup for me is virtually judder-free even in RES, except the occasional glitch when something is loading. Haven't tried a full station - most of the time I stay at outposts. Jumping to the "ultra" preset or jumping to 2.25x DSR will bring back small but noticeable judder.

Obviously I have a lot of other permutations to try, but this is quite the experience so far!

The Rifter · Jun 13, 2015

Nice, thanks for the Info! Plz keep us informed about your progression. A fps log would be nice. Have some rep.

Goilveig · Jun 14, 2015

Hmm, any good ideas on an FPS log besides MSI Afterburner? I think that logging software might actually be causing small stalls at times. I am attaching a log - this time I definitely noticed some periodic "microstalls" that you can see on the graph. This wasn't just typical judder - I hadn't experienced this before. Unlike with normal judder, my GPU output dropped during these stalls, it wasn't topping out and failing to keep up.

The other frame rate drops were typically places that I was I/O limited - the hard drive I have Elite on is not particularly awesome. Loading systems on the galaxy map was particularly poor.

SlackR · Jun 14, 2015

Hi

Thanks for this post... I'm heading back to the UK for the summer in three weeks and was going to stick one of these in my secondary unit over there (currently sports a 780 ti)

Think I'll wait and see what AMD come up with before ordering though

djbordie · Jun 14, 2015

can you try in game SS, dsr is the easiest as it is a dynamic super sample. in game super sample is way better quality. should offer you a better experience.
interested to know

Ryder35 · Jun 14, 2015

I also have a 980ti. 1.5 in game SS is doable at medium. Anything above medium and I get juddering. having said that with the limeted res and display quality not sure I can tell much difference on anything above medium.

seanwasere · Jun 14, 2015

keep everything low settings,
and rerun your afterburner analysis,
and you will still get judder, despite your gfx cards(s) setup,
gfx card is not the major cause of judder,

Goilveig · Jun 14, 2015

seanwasere said:
keep everything low settings,
and rerun your afterburner analysis,
and you will still get judder, despite your gfx cards(s) setup,
gfx card is not the major cause of judder,

On my 780, the graphics card was indeed a major source of judder, because the GPU would hit 100% and drop frames. Right now the microstutters do not seem to be related to GPU.

The Rifter · Jun 14, 2015

This log seems very familiar to me. The fps spikes in comparison to GPU load... Maybe its really Afterburner. Weird. Or its not gpu related anymore. Thank you!

Olmis Aremja · Jun 14, 2015

This is interesting, thanks for posting.
I had a 970 but wanted more power as I had to have everything on low when 1.5 SS. I have since sent it back to amazon as it was faulty

and I'm now waiting for the non ref 980 ti's to hit the shelves. Though It looks like the AMD's FIJI fury or whatever are going to be announced on Tuesday, so I'll probs wait a few days to order the Gigabyte G1 Gamingn 980ti and see what AMD has to offer, though I don't hold out much hope. I'm really missing Ed in VR at the mo and visiting this forum, but hoping this coming week i'll be able to get a card so can resume. Currently using my sons old 480, but not for gaming. I use my PC for work (from home) and having no VR has helped me catch up a little, so not all bad

Speak to u guys soon. All the best, Olmis

AdioKIP · Jun 15, 2015

Olmis Aremja said:
This is interesting, thanks for posting.
I had a 970 but wanted more power as I had to have everything on low when 1.5 SS. I have since sent it back to amazon as it was faulty and I'm now waiting for the non ref 980 ti's to hit the shelves. Though It looks like the AMD's FIJI fury or whatever are going to be announced on Tuesday, so I'll probs wait a few days to order the Gigabyte G1 Gamingn 980ti and see what AMD has to offer, though I don't hold out much hope. I'm really missing Ed in VR at the mo and visiting this forum, but hoping this coming week i'll be able to get a card so can resume. Currently using my sons old 480, but not for gaming. I use my PC for work (from home) and having no VR has helped me catch up a little, so not all bad Speak to u guys soon. All the best, Olmis

We're in the same boat. After reading the specs on the 980ti my 970 developed "problems" and Amazon was kind enough to offer a full refund. I'm waiting the next two weeks to see what AMD's new cards do. If they are competetive I will go AMD (970 was the first non AMD card I have owned since 2003). If not then I will get the EVGA 980ti.

Surprisingly enough, the game seems to perform almost as well on my 7950 as it did on my 970. I keep all settings on low and SS at 1.0 and the game is playable. After the 1.3 upate I actually get less studder on my 7950 then I did with 1.2 on my 970.

Did Amazon make any mention to you about the free games? I was expecting them to deduct the cost from my refund but they didnt and never mentioned it.

Olmis Aremja · Jun 16, 2015

AdioKIP said:
We're in the same boat. After reading the specs on the 980ti my 970 developed "problems" and Amazon was kind enough to offer a full refund. I'm waiting the next two weeks to see what AMD's new cards do. If they are competetive I will go AMD (970 was the first non AMD card I have owned since 2003). If not then I will get the EVGA 980ti.

Surprisingly enough, the game seems to perform almost as well on my 7950 as it did on my 970. I keep all settings on low and SS at 1.0 and the game is playable. After the 1.3 upate I actually get less studder on my 7950 then I did with 1.2 on my 970.

Did Amazon make any mention to you about the free games? I was expecting them to deduct the cost from my refund but they didnt and never mentioned it.

Well I have taken a gamble and pre ordered my 980ti this morning from Overclockers UK. Their ETA for the card I want is Thursday, so fingers crossed I hope to have it by Friday if they get enough in to cover the new pre orders.
Regarding Free games, I didn't get a free game with the initial purchase of my 970 so N/A for me.

jabokai · Jun 16, 2015

Anyone used nigelohara.com? They have a 980Ti for £504.84 (est stock 24th June) - decent saving, if they can actually deliver it.

AdioKIP · Jun 17, 2015

Olmis Aremja said:
Well I have taken a gamble and pre ordered my 980ti this morning from Overclockers UK. Their ETA for the card I want is Thursday, so fingers crossed I hope to have it by Friday if they get enough in to cover the new pre orders.
Regarding Free games, I didn't get a free game with the initial purchase of my 970 so N/A for me.

Now that they've announced, I'm waiting to see benchmarks on the R9 Fury. They priced it as a direct competitor to the 980 ti. I have a feeling since its priced the same, it wont be beating the 980 ti in performance. If it does it wont be by much or the 980 would be forced down in price... which wouldnt be a bad thing.

Olmis Aremja · Jun 17, 2015

AdioKIP said:
Now that they've announced, I'm waiting to see benchmarks on the R9 Fury. They priced it as a direct competitor to the 980 ti. I have a feeling since its priced the same, it wont be beating the 980 ti in performance. If it does it wont be by much or the 980 would be forced down in price... which wouldnt be a bad thing.

Cancelled pre-order of 980ti today after seeing bits of the AMD reveal last night and reading up a bit more, and with a release date of 24th June I'm sure I can find it in me to wait that little bit longer. Looking forward to seeing some benchmarks soon. I think if they are positive, e.g better than a 980ti in a gaming environment, I might go AMD. I hear a lot of conflicting talk about driver issues though, which is a slight worry, but I love the way they have led the field with the new HBM. How the hell I'd get that water pump thingy in the box though I don't know

Karnath · Jun 17, 2015

Take with a very large pinch of salt, can't say how accurate they are

adoredtv · Jun 17, 2015

I wouldn't trust those benchmarks too much but there are a few doing the rounds which basically say the same thing.

An interesting one from AMD themselves has the Fury X in a massive lead of around 35% (over Titan X) in FarCry 4 at 4K. I think that might be the real story, the card has a ridiculous amount of bandwidth to play with. It even has higher minimums than the Titan X's average.

And also the 980 Ti G1 Gaming...

Be aware that FC4 at 4K is a really graphically intense benchmark and AMD cards do well in those, as can be seen with the R9 290X just beating out the 980 (would normally be ~7% slower at 4K). Even if you overturn that the Fury X would appear to have at least 10% over Titan X and 20% over the 980 Ti. It'll win-some lose-some vs Titan X and I think the Fury Pro will go up against the 980 Ti.

That 500W water cooler for a 275W card is gonna make it an unbelievable overclocker too. I'm more interested in the Nano myself, probably 980 level performance with a lower TDP and massive amounts of bandwidth.

Judging by how many in the tech press are running scaremonger articles over the 4GB of VRAM, Nvidia appear to be a bit concerned by Fury X's performance.

Adam Lusardi · Jun 17, 2015

I have a question to you GPU experts.
I currently have a the DK2 on my DVI and TV to my Hdmi. The CV1, I would imagine requires a Hdmi for sound and the new gen. cards seem to be 1 Hdmi and display ports.
Does this mean switching or unplugging between CV1 and TV?

Karnath · Jun 17, 2015

Adam Lusardi said:
I have a question to you GPU experts.
I currently have a the DK2 on my DVI and TV to my Hdmi. The CV1, I would imagine requires a Hdmi for sound and the new gen. cards seem to be 1 Hdmi and display ports.
Does this mean switching or unplugging between CV1 and TV?

Could always use a splitter

Adam Lusardi · Jun 17, 2015

Karnath said:
Could always use a splitter

View attachment 45201

Already use a Dvi to Hdmi splitter just to take the strain off the DK2 cables at the back.
Guess it would work.