NVIDIA Launches Maxwell-Based GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 970 GPUs

MojoKid (1002251) writes NVIDIA has launched two new high-end graphics cards based on their latest Maxwell architecture. The GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 are based on Maxwell and replace NVIDIA's current high-end offerings, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, GTX 780, and GTX 770. NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 are somewhat similar as the cards share the same 4GB frame buffer and GM204 GPU, but the GTX 970's GPU is clocked a bit lower and features fewer active Streaming Multiprocessors and CUDA cores. The GeForce GTX 980's GM204 GPU has all of its functional blocks enabled. The fully-loaded GeForce GTX 980 GM204 GPU has a base clock of 1126MHz and a Boost clock of 1216MHz. The GTX 970 clocks in with a base clock of 1050MHz and Boost clock of 1178MHz. The 4GB of video memory on both cards is clocked at a blisteringly-fast 7GHz (effective GDDR5 data rate). NVIDIA was able to optimize the GM204's power efficiency, however, by tweaking virtually every part of the GPU. NVIDIA claims that Maxwell SMs (Streaming Multiprocessors) offer double the performance of GK104 and double the perf per watt as well. NVIDIA has also added support for new features, namely Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR), Multi-Frame Sampled Anti-Aliasing (MFAA), and Voxel Global Illumination (VXGI). Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 980 is the fastest single-GPU powered graphics card ever tested. The GeForce GTX 970 isn't as dominant overall, but its performance was impressive nonetheless. The GeForce GTX 970 typically performed about on par with a GeForce GTX Titan and traded blows with the Radeon R9 290X.

Comments

Only 4 displays, sticking to AMD.

[bongey]

Can only drive up to 4 displays , pretty much any AMD card can drive 6 displays. I don't want to play games but want more screen real estate for software development.

Re:Only 4 displays, sticking to AMD.

[bongey]

If you want more than 4 , you have to pay up from the quadro series. I had more than four in SLI on GTX 760 cards , until they did a driver update and set the max to 4.

Re:Only 4 displays, sticking to AMD.

[bongey]

No you are still limited to 4 displays, NVIDIA did a dick move and limits it to 4 in the driver. You have to have quadro card to have more than 4 displays. Note when I first got my 2 gtx 760 cards I could drive 6 displays, and then a driver update and they limited to 4 displays even in SLI.

Re:Tips?

[Kjella]

The R9 280 certainly doesn't count as low power (250W), the R9 285 is considerably better in that department (190W) and got some newer features to boot, with a $249 MSRP it should just barely squeeze inside your budget. To stay in your budget limit the nVidia alternative is GTX 760, but I wouldn't buy a Kepler card today, too hot and too noisy. Unfortunately there's not a Maxwell to match your specs, there's a gap between the GTX 750 Ti (which wouldn't be a performance upgrade) and GTX 970 (which blows your budget at $329).

Personally I was very surprised by the GTX 970 launch price though, the GTX 980 @ $549 was as expected but the 970 delivers 13/16ths of the processing power with the same memory size and bandwidth for over $200 less. I bought two to use in a SLI setup, in the games that scale nicely it's a kickass value. I suspect that by December this will have had some market effect at the $250 price point too, so I'd say check again then. Asking for advice 2-3 months out in a market that changes so quickly doesn't really make much sense.

Still 28nm

[Solandri]

At this point I think it's safe to write off TSMC's 20nm fab process. It's not gonna happen, with signs pointing to development being shifted to 16nm instead.

A lot of what you see going on in the GPU and mobile front is being dictated by the failure of TSMC and other fabs to transition to 20nm for processors (memory is a lot easier and reached 16nm in 2013). Intel made the transition from 32nm to 22nm last year with Haswell and Bay Trail. The other fabs were supposed to leapfrog Intel by going from 28nm to 20nm this year. They haven't, which is what's allowed Intel to produce Atom SoCs with power usage approaching that of ARM SoCs. ARM has the lower power tech, but Intel's smaller lithography is mostly wiping out that advantage. If you see Intel successfully make the transition to 14nm in 2015 while the other fabs can't get 16nm to work, things are going to get really interesting on the mobile SoC front..

The GPU front is bleaker. Both nVidia and AMD use third party fabs like TSMC, so there's no competitive advantage to be had. We've just had to suffer with stagnating product lines and slow product releases because the expected lower power consumption in GPUs from 20nm didn't happen in 2014.

Re:Still 28nm

[edxwelch]

I doubt that.
TSMC 20nm will be ready for GPUs a lot sooner than their 16nm process. The only reason there are no 20nm GPUs yet is because the initial ramp was fully booked out by Apple.
Meanwhile, a comparison of Apple's 20nm A8 density versus 14nm Core M, indicates Intel's 14nm may not have such a density advantage as they claim: https://www.semiwiki.com/forum...

Re:Looking for info on running 4k screens

[Kjella]

As I understand it 30p is okay for photo work, but a pretty big compromise for general desktop use so I wouldn't do it. I have a 3840x2160@60p 28" monitor hooked up over DisplayPort 1.2 using SST (single stream transport). It works very well, I can also hook it up to my 1080p TV at the same time on my GTX 670. Just bought dual GTX 970s to replace it though.

There are three ways to support 4K content:
HDMI 2.0
DisplayPort 1.2+ over SST
DisplayPort 1.2+ over MST

Avoid MST (multiple stream transport), it's not worth the issues. DisplayPort 1.2 has been around for a while, the screen is usually the blocker on whether you can use SST. My screen (Samsung UD590) can so I do and that works great. HDMI 2.0 is brand new, the GTX 970/980 are the first graphics cards to support them but I suppose they're the only means to hook up 4K to an UHDTV as I understand most of these don't have a DisplayPort. That's what it's designed to do anyway, but if you jump on HDMI 2.0 now you'll be the first to test it really. For me that's not even an option, I hook it through the sound system and that doesn't support HDMI 2.0 pass-through. I find it's not that essential at couch distance anyway, it's sitting up real close you notice it most.

Re:Looking for info on running 4k screens

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, I have a Seiki 4K 39" running at 3840*2160@30hz, for Autocad and GIS, it's like running a 2*2 19" 1080p monitor array without the bezels in the middle, works fine with my Nvidia GeForce GTX 560Ti, but I had to set a custom resolution in the nvidia control panel to use it at 4k@30hz and 1080p@120hz for gaming (the only TV I know to support this refresh rate without frame interpolation, which it doesn't have), and sometimes i set it at 4k@24hz for watching 1080p movies. Since the card doesn't have official support for 4k sometimes there is some loss of sync @ 4k@30hz or 1080p@120hz, I fix it setting the refresh rate to something lower or higher and back again. Color can be very good after calibration. The sound of the speakers in the TV it's pretty bad.

This TV only has HDMI 1.4a, VGA and component inputs, only supports 4k on the HDMI inputs.

The newly launched Nvidia GTX 980 and 970 support HDMI 2.0 and DP, so these can run 4k@60hz with TV and monitors that support it, I think some Samsung and LG TVs advertise HDMI 2.0 and DP.

The GTX 970 and 980 support multiple displays running 4@60hz simultaneously, 4 IRC.

here are a couple threads where I found most of the information before I bought it:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1442986/playing-with-my-seiki-se39uy04-got-it-to-do-1440p-at-60hz-playing-with-other-custom-stuff
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1756171