Hardware & Technical Titan X vs 980Ti

FuzzySpider · Dec 8, 2015

Let's assume your ladyfriend offered to get you one of these two graphics cards for Christmas, which would you go for?

To forestall accusations of laziness I have looked them both up. I have tried to research them. But I am way way out of my depth with this sort of thing. Clock speeds, GDDR3, GDDR5, VRAM, terror flops, and everything else. I honestly know less now than I did before yesterday.

So which would it be if you faced this terrible choice? The Titan X or the 980Ti?

Zieman · Dec 8, 2015

http://www.hwcompare.com/18787/geforce-gtx-980-ti-vs-geforce-gtx-titan-x/
If I were to buy one, I'd go for the 980 Ti, but if got to choose which one to get as a present, I'd ask for the Titan X.

Patrick_68000 · Dec 8, 2015

12 GB can be interesting for the future seasons of ED. After, it is a question of money. Because the two cards are excellent

Porina · Dec 8, 2015

Basically I think it comes down to cost . Is there a cost to getting the Titan X? I don't mean necessarily out of your own pocket. If cost considerations were totally removed, I think is most cases you would go for the Titan X. If you were paying for it, even indirectly, the 980 Ti is almost as good for a lot less, so would be the more sensible choice.

There is one minor "but..." moment. In the Horizons beta, I've seen max GPU ram usage of 5.5GB out of 6 GB on my 980 Ti, driving 3440x1440 at Ultra. I don't know, would the 12 GB make a tangible improvement if you were to go to even higher resolutions like 4k? Or would future optimisations in game code negate the need for massive amounts of memory? Even running 1920x1200, the 3GB on the 280X was all consumed so it does seem like if you have video ram, it will probably get used to hold something.

Karnath · Dec 8, 2015

As a Titan X owner my personal advice would be to go for the Ti, apart from the obvious cost difference some of the Ti models due to their aftermarket cooling designs and higher clock speeds can quite easily out perform the Titan.

Example
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_page...rce_gtx_980_ti_platinum_edition_review,1.html

As Porina mentioned, although I mainly play ED with a DK2 I do sometimes switch to @ 3840x2160 monitor and often see the VRAM reach excess of 5GB with the new Horizons beta and who knows what this could rise to with future expansions

But if I was doing all over again I would of bought a Ti also it's cheaper if you ever want yo go SLI should the extra performance ever be required

Zelos1983 · Dec 9, 2015

Titan X is better, 980 TI is more affordable, while still being a top of the line card.
However, I find situations in which more than 6GB VRAM are used on my GPUs.

@Karnath
there are aftermarket coolers and factory OCed Titan Xes available as well. So I doubt you could outperform it with a 980 Ti.

FuzzySpider · Dec 9, 2015

Ok guys, you convinced me to go the 980 Ti route. Thanks for the responses, have some reps.

I didn't consider the point about SLI - it would be much better to do that with a couple of 980 Tis. I want to get either a Vive or an Oculus when one finally comes out (Alien Isolation with the DK2 is my favorite thing ever), and I'll probably want to try an SLI then if what I have heard about each eye monitor using a separate graphics card under SLI is true.

One more question, which might seem easy but is something I have had trouble figuring out - I currently have a 970 with a 650W power supply. When I replace it am I going to have to upgrade my power supply?

Zieman · Dec 9, 2015

FuzzySpider said:
One more question, which might seem easy but is something I have had trouble figuring out - I currently have a 970 with a 650W power supply. When I replace it am I going to have to upgrade my power supply?

If it is a good brand 80+ Bronze (or better) certified PSU, then it should suffice for one 980 Ti. If you're going to SLI it later, then you need a beefier PSU.

Porina · Dec 9, 2015

The 980 Ti as standard has a TDP of 250W so that makes a rough guidance on power needs. Given most cards are factory OC it might be higher, so maybe count on 300W running flat out. A decent 650W PSU would still have capacity spare as CPUs wont generally take much more than 150W max unless heavily overclocked (typically far less), and other components don't tend to be thirsty. You would be looking for a beefier PSU if you want to go SLI later.

lysan · Dec 9, 2015

Zelos1983 said:
Titan X is better, 980 TI is more affordable, while still being a top of the line card.
However, I find situations in which more than 6GB VRAM are used on my GPUs.

@Karnath
there are aftermarket coolers and factory OCed Titan Xes available as well. So I doubt you could outperform it with a 980 Ti.

The Titan X is not better for gaming, only if you're modelling 3D stuff. I got a zotac 980TI AMP extreme and it beats the X in most game tests.

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/ZOTAC-GeForce-GTX-980-Ti-vs--9223372036823115232

GuruNot · Dec 9, 2015

FuzzySpider said:
Ok guys, you convinced me to go the 980 Ti route. Thanks for the responses, have some reps.

I didn't consider the point about SLI - it would be much better to do that with a couple of 980 Tis. I want to get either a Vive or an Oculus when one finally comes out (Alien Isolation with the DK2 is my favorite thing ever), and I'll probably want to try an SLI then if what I have heard about each eye monitor using a separate graphics card under SLI is true.

One more question, which might seem easy but is something I have had trouble figuring out - I currently have a 970 with a 650W power supply. When I replace it am I going to have to upgrade my power supply?

Check out the following site : http://www.evga.com/power-meter/ , it is quite useful for getting a gestimate of power requirements. EVGA G2(Superflower) PSU's are rather nice anyway , especially if you can add on to the end of your present

Zelos1983 · Dec 10, 2015

Lysander lysan said:
The Titan X is not better for gaming, only if you're modelling 3D stuff. I got a zotac 980TI AMP extreme and it beats the X in most game tests.

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/ZOTAC-GeForce-GTX-980-Ti-vs--9223372036823115232

Your benchmarks are biased. They took 1 Ghz version of the Titan X vs. the 1.2Ghz version of the 980Ti. You can easily overclock the Titan X as well (it often comes factory-OCed).

With the same clock rate (1Ghz according to the text), the Titan X performs better:
http://www.tested.com/tech/pcs/529725-testing-geforce-gtx-980-ti-4k-benchmarks/

Further, the lack of VRAM will pose an issue in the forseeable future. More than 6GB are already being utilized in some games.

Granted, the difference is small, which is why I would recommend the 980Ti for price/performance reasons, and the Titan X only when money plays no role.

lysan · Dec 21, 2015

Zelos1983 said:
Your benchmarks are biased. They took 1 Ghz version of the Titan X vs. the 1.2Ghz version of the 980Ti. You can easily overclock the Titan X as well (it often comes factory-OCed).

With the same clock rate (1Ghz according to the text), the Titan X performs better:
http://www.tested.com/tech/pcs/529725-testing-geforce-gtx-980-ti-4k-benchmarks/

Further, the lack of VRAM will pose an issue in the forseeable future. More than 6GB are already being utilized in some games.

Granted, the difference is small, which is why I would recommend the 980Ti for price/performance reasons, and the Titan X only when money plays no role.

Well, when you OC the TI you are so close that the cost for the X is just not worth it. When the game utilize the 12Gb there would be a new card ready for sale, and you could just jump on that one. The TI use almost the the same components as the X, and its only nerfed a tiny bit on the shaders.