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GeForce GTX 980 and 970 Cards From MSI, EVGA, and Zotac Reviewed

MojoKid writes: In all of its iterations, NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture has proven to be a good performing, power-efficient GPU thus far. At the high-end of the product stack is where some of the most interesting products reside, however. When NVIDIA launches a new high-end GPU, cards based on the company's reference design trickle out first, and then board partners follow up with custom solutions packing unique cooling hardware, higher clocks, and sometimes additional features. With the GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980, NVIDIA's board partners were ready with custom solutions very quickly. These three custom GeForce cards, from enthusiast favorites EVGA, MSI, and Zotac represent optimization at the high-end of Maxwell. Two of the cards are GTX 980s: the MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G and the Zotac GeForce GTX 980 AMP! Omgea, the third is a GTX 970 from EVGA, their GeForce GTX 970 FTW with ACX 2.0. Besides their crazy long names, all of these cards are custom solutions, that ship overclocked from the manufacturer. In testing, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980 was the fastest, single-GPU available. The custom, factory overclocked MSI and Zotac cards cemented that fact. Overall, thanks to a higher default GPU-clock, the MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G was the best performing card. EVGA's GeForce GTX 970 FTW was also relatively strong, despite its alleged memory bug. Although, as expected, it couldn't quite catch the higher-end GeForce GTX 980s, but occasionally outpaced the AMD's top-end Radeon R9 290X.

66 comments

  1. !DX12 by tysonedwards · · Score: 2

    What surprises me is that these manufacturers are advertising the cards as supporting DX12, yet at Microsoft's Press Conference, they said that these cards weren't going to support the *entire* DX12 spec... Sort of makes is generation of PC GPUs a "why bother" moment at best, or a deceptive marketing moment at worst.

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    1. Re:!DX12 by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Where did they say this?

      Nvidia mentioned the last Kepler series and Maxwel 1.0 would have drivers to support DirectX 12 so this means 600/700 onward can run 10 fine in directx12.

    2. Re:!DX12 by tysonedwards · · Score: 2

      "Some DX12 features will still need updated GPUs, but all the basic features should work." ExtremeTech

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    3. Re:!DX12 by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      So "DirectX 12 will support Maxwell, Kepler, and even Fermi. Basically, a DX 11.1 card will be compatible with most of the new APIs. Note, Maxwell is actually the first GPU with full DX12 support, although DX12 graphics are currently only making appearances in demos."

      Alright it looks like we are good then as most of the api is transferable with older products. So a 700 series nvidia card like my gtx770 will have 100% native full features then and a 600 will have most and can still play games reliable as long as they do not use 100% of the features which maybe absent.

        To this day no card is directX 11.1 fully compliant (at least I am aware of) yet Windows 8.1 works fine. It uses the CPU when a feature is not available. The real question is what is not supported from the ATI GN chipsets used in the PS4 and XboxOne since mosts games are ports of the console in this day and age? If the Kepler 600 series supports most if not all of ATIs xboxone features then it will be fine.

      If directX12 supports more than this it wont matter as no game developer wants to leave an xbox port out of the equation.

    4. Re:!DX12 by Luckyo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      After 970 PR SNAFU where they marketed what is essentially a 3.5GB card with additional 0.5GB of crippled and largely useless VRAM as a full blooded 4GB card because it would otherwise look really bad next to AMD's 4GB cards, I would expect them to market these cards as DX12 compatible even if they really aren't.

      Marketing's job is to deliver sales, even at expense of lying to customers by obfuscating potential and existing problems.

    5. Re:!DX12 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      4GB VRAM is just silly and unnecessary on most GPUs, it if you can somehow populate 4GB of textures on a 970, the GPU is going to choke any way.

      It was all fun and games when RAM was dirt cheap, that shit's starting to get pricey again. Watch for the inevitable price fixing to be revealed.

    6. Re:!DX12 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      people that run 4k displays and SLI these cards get massively impacted. there are plenty of combinations that will use all 4GB of ram on the cards and given the price premium of these cards it is really a fucked up situation, especially if you were one of the poor bastards that bought a couple of them for an ALI based config only to find you have to turn down the graphics level so the machine doesn't choke on that last 512MB of ram in each card.

    7. Re:!DX12 by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      many games are running on the threshold of 2GB VRAM, others such as Far Cry/BF4,skyrim/shadows of mordor etc can easily use upwards of 3GB. people running in SLI configs or with 4k screens will also be able to push 4GB cards memory to the limits. 2GB in a card today is the absolute minimum and if you are a gamer and buying a card today then you will be aiming for a 3 or 4GB card unless you don't want to run at high or max graphics settings.

    8. Re:!DX12 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Direct X 12 is not about adding new features, Microsoft is basically rewriting the entire API allowing lower level access and greatly reducing the CPU overhead in managing the API. Also, Direct X11 is working very badly in multithreading (something that is really important with calculations on GPUs).
      As such, DX12 (Direct 3D 12, to be specific) is going to be a massive step foward but it does not need new features in the hardware.

      DX12 is going to be around 50% faster than Direct X11 due to this, probably depending a lot on your C(!)PU.

      The interesting thing is due to DirectX 12 only being a complete rewrite on the Software Level by Microsoft the new version will be compatible with all (Nvidias Lineup) chips from the Fermi, Kepler and Maxewell lines, which means all old GTX cards from the 400, 500 and 600 series are going to be DirectX 12 compatible (as well as the current ones from the 700 and 900 line).

      This is not empty marketing. The cards mentioned *are* already DirectX12 ready, as are all cards that have been released over the last years - in pratice you are not going to to much with your old 460 or whatever with current games but that is not the question here.

    9. Re:!DX12 by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Ah yes. The "Mantle is AMAZING, DX12 is AMAZING, huge increases incoming because you can code to the metal with no driver overhead and otherwise more efficient CPU usage" argument.

      Reality rained on it already. Only cases where gains are present are where CPU is extremely weak while GPU is extremely powerful. Gains are minimal if you're running even a half decent i5 and nonexistent if you're running i7. You're late with the hype.

      That is why all the tech demos so far were done on ridiculously underpowered CPUs and top end GPUs. It does use CPU more efficiently, but almost all modern games massively undersubscribe the CPU, meaning no gains for using Mantle. This is what we already see in tests:
      http://www.pcper.com/reviews/G...

    10. Re:!DX12 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      100% correct, but also 100% besides the point. Which is: Current metal is compatible to Dx12.

    11. Re:!DX12 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Skyrim still won't work in more than 2GB of MAIN RAM.

      I mean WTF, dude?

    12. Re:!DX12 by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Except that we can't know it yet, because DX12 specs are not yet finalized. It's still under development.

      Please note that "features" and "specs" are two very distinctly different things. Former says what API can do while latter says what graphics card must actually do to produce working features.

    13. Re:!DX12 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its still compiled as 32-bit moron.

  2. AMD is coming out with the 390 by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

    Nvidia stepped up its game when the ATIs in the previous generation were quite a challenge. The 900's were there answer and the 290x is not far behind. I want to see ATI deliver a knockout with its next generation chipset this spring/summer.

    AMD is really hurting and I DO NOT WANT an nvida monopoly even if I have a 770gtx in my system right now. I was hoping AMD would keep delivering in the next round and get their drivers together.

    Good lord the drivers had been an issue last decade and I am surprised they only got serious about improving since 2012. They mostly work but when I had a 7850 I had memorizes which sets of .13 drivers which would BSOD and corrupt my Windows 7 install so bad not even a restore could fix it. Only a re-image.

    1. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      The radeon driver maintainers don't understand the concept of handling exceptions. I realize gpu drivers are crazy complex nowadays, but it seems like they don't even try.

    2. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      To be fair, Nvidia did a lot to undermine Maxwell's initial dominance with idiotic marketing SNAFU on 970 and massively cut down memory bus on 960 slowing that card so much that they had to end up comparing it to card from two generations ago in marketing materials rather than one generation ago. AMD has a chance to come back if they play their cards right.

    3. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      I hope so. The 900 series really is a knockout right now. I think these benchmarks might be biased as I saw a more narrow comparison. I wonder how much ram the 290x had?

      But AMD needs to up its game and I remember nvidia cut their prices nearly 50% when ATI did the r2xx series!

      I do not want to pay $600 for my next card which is what the 780 GTX and the Titan was $1000 before ATI came roaring back??! WTF

    4. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eh, Radeon drivers have always sucked. I used to have a laptop with a Radeon card. Hoo boy. It didn't even support the RAM on the fscking card so I had to use whatever they call it with the system RAM! Sideport or something?

      Anyway, AMD still makes kick-ass chips. My gaming rig right now is an AMD FX-6300 and NVidia 970 GTX (MSI). It kicks ass and runs Star Citizen, which makes me happy.

      But yes, monopolies suck.

      Now if only Star Citizen will get that female avatar out already!

      --Vel

      captach: modern O.o;;

    5. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      I run both ATI and Nvidia based machines, to be fair I seem to get more trouble with the Nvidia drivers than the ATI ones. Though both have there share of issues. I originally swore off Nvidia around 2007 when there drivers were so abysmal as to be nearly unusable in a system you wanted some stability in, but difference in power usage and hence noise levels has brough me back to Nvidia recently, just wish they would both get there driver acts together.

    6. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, also the FX-6300 makes Gentoo a workable OS. It compiles lightning fast with make -j7.

    7. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've had a 7870 for nearly 2 years, and a 4870 before that for years, and never have I had a BSOD from the video driver. In fact, with Win7, I've gotten exactly one BSOD, and it was from the netio layer when my NAS threw a drive.

    8. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      I had the opposite. Nvidia would go black with no BSOD. ATI fixed that.

      But ATI did bsod depending on driver on my AMD phenom II which I would assume would be more well tested?? I went back with NVidia and it is solid.

    9. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      yeah I get the black screen regularly on Nvidia which is the driver faulting. The ATI I get the occasional machine lockup every few days, usually the minutes before it happens I start getting artifacting on the screen. The Nvidia though is having driver faults several times a day, most recover, sometimes I have to restart the machine.

    10. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      This is actually the one argument that I keep pushing on more extreme nvidia fans I run into (I run nvidia card in my machine so I end up talking to quite a few when discussing things like specific optimizations, features and so on). We cannot have nvidia monopoly. Prices would skyrocket. No matter how much you are mentally invested in the green camp, right now you should not avoid criticizing nvidia for current problems. We need the competition, and we need to keep nvidia's marketing machine truthful.

      Otherwise everyone will lose.

    11. Re:AMD is coming out with the 390 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hi, I'm curious which board that was. I've been running an Asus 7850 for two or three years now on both win 7 and 8.1. I never encountered any problems whatsoever with this board, and I regularly updated the drivers (Amd catalyst).

    12. Re: AMD is coming out with the 390 by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Your problem is that you're using really old hardware. ATi brand stopped producing new products long ago, I can only imagine your nVidia cards running ancient hardware and drivers too.

      --
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  3. Why hothardware by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

    gotta ask. Why do Slashdot articles seem to link hothardware a lot, it seems at best an average site that produces reviews weeks after all the good sites have already done them. Why not link to some of the better hardware review sites?

    1. Re:Why hothardware by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      Probably something to do with Dice.

      --
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    2. Re:Why hothardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HotHardware posted up a valuable round-up of a number of cards here, that are not weeks after they've been released, they're hot off the press custom OEM cards. They were also the root source here for the launch article when the GeForce GTX 980 and 970s launched months ago. Not sure why you feel they're just an "average" site. They're on all the first round launches and produce thorough, balanced, detailed reviews.

    3. Re:Why hothardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HotHardware posted up a valuable round-up of a number of cards here, that are not weeks after they've been released, they're hot off the press custom OEM cards. They were also the root source here for the launch article when the GeForce GTX 980 and 970s launched months ago. Not sure why you feel they're just an "average" site. They're on all the first round launches and produce thorough, balanced, detailed reviews.

      LOL no. These are not HOT of the press custom cards. some of these cards have been around since November last year. They would only appear new if you use hothardware as your source.

    4. Re:Why hothardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Proof?

    5. Re:Why hothardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      proof is they are linked in articles a LOT when there are a lot of very good hardware review sites they never get mentioned. It obviously isn't the best site, so why is it linked so much?

    6. Re:Why hothardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      gotta ask. Why do Slashdot articles seem to link hothardware a lot

      Simple. The Slashdot user MojoKid submits all those articles and he seems to have some kind of connection to HotHardware.

      On the other hand, probably others do not submit enough interesting hardware articles, so his submissions fill that gap.

    7. Re:Why hothardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The submitter, MojoKid, does nothing but submit posts to the site. The reason seems pretty clear to me.

  4. Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    EVGA are pretty famous for dying in 12-18 months. Most people buying them don't care since they're gonna upgrade anyway. MSI's reputation isn't much better, but I know a few people who have had good luck. That said even my brother's Gigabyte GTX 260 only lasted 2 years before the RAM burned out. Too much heat. I bought a 660 w/o thinking about it and I'm hoping it doesn't suffer the same fate (since it's more than enough card for my next 5 years of gaming). I just wish I could buy even a mid range card w/o worrying about the thing dying long before the end of it's useful life.

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    1. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by NormAtHome · · Score: 1

      I have a couple and they perform decent and none of them have died on me. I've avoided EVGA for two reasons, first for the reason you mentioned that many people in assorted forums have mentioned that they die with an frequency that is somewhat alarming and second that they appear to be average performers at best. I've got my eye on one of those Zotac GeForce GTX 980 AMP! Omega cards to replace the Asus GTX 770 I'm using now.

    2. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      I only buy Asus and XFX. Asus stepped up its game after it fucked up royally with crappy caps on their motherboards last decade. The Asus 770 in my box has chocks and several VRM voltage regulators and cost $25 more than a similiarly priced 770 but was well worth the cost as it wont bust and has a solid cooper heatsink and is very quiet :-)

      Go to a microcenter or tigerdirect and not bestbuy which only stocks the cheapest products at the most expensive prices.

    3. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

      I never had the caps go on anything Asus or Gigabyte. It was always the ram corrupting :(.

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    4. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by karnal · · Score: 1

      I've had late 90s motherboards (think AMD Athlon xxxxXP chip timeframes) from asus with bad caps; had a customer who loved to keep equipment well past serviceable date blow a few up. Since then, Gigabyte boards with solid caps - haven't had a bad board since, even though I've read reviews of others on newegg/amazon with some DOA concerns.

      Ditto with EVGA; bought 2 cards direct, no issues - however if I have a choice at the time of build, I'll usually go with something with a quieter than stock aftermarket cooler attached. EVGA has (had?) a trade up program, but I upgrade so rarely that I've never taken them up on it.

      --
      Karnal
    5. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by blackicye · · Score: 1

      The Step Up Program is only if a new model is released within 90 days of purchase.

      They do have a pretty good warranty program though. I've only ever owned 2 EVGA motherboards, both died after about 12 - 18 months and were replaced, one died about a year after the other is still going strong.

    6. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My EVGA GTX-580 is still powering along in my GF gaming rig.

    7. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      I almost bought a gigabyte. The sales guy convinced me to get an Asus based on returns.

      No their caps on their average boards now are military grade. I had a bad Asus experience from a core2 go and threw it out. It worked fine for a few years.

      Gigabyte does make GPUs too but they do not seem as good. Maybe next upgrade I will try a gigabyte if they sell military grade with VRM voltage regulators and chokes too like the Asus. Well worth the extra $50 for testing and certification

    8. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      ...their caps on their average boards now are military grade.

      I was surprised that this is part of the marketing for gaming graphics cards. I'm curious as to what specification or certification qualifies them for this classification. I'm also curious as to whether this means that they're better than "consumer" grade, and if so, if that means they're better for consumer uses.

      I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to go to a restaurant offering "military grade" cuisine...

      --
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    9. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

      It was printed on the graphics card box. Most boards with good caps and certifications loudly advertise it including MSI as well.

      Basically the military certs mean they test to see if it runs between -40F and up to a hot 200F and other tests. Maybe overblown and juding on the language think it is silly, but when most old Pentium IVs XP boxes fail these days it is caused by 2 things
      1. Power supply going out
      2. Caps on the board failing to provide adaquite voltage in spikes causing BSOD.

      Home routers too get weak after a few years due to caps aging. True a gaming system board will be obsolete by then but I do VMware Workstation for certs on mind too and mostly run MMOs so no biggie. I have a feeling by 2020 my i7 4770K will still be competitive as cpus have leveled off in major upgrades compared to the past where 10 years meant 10,000 times faster. A 1990 386 16 MHz vs a Pentium IV was quite impressive in differences. Not true today.

    10. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      i had the same heat issues, but i decided a couple years back to watercool and i have not looked back. if im gonna spend as much on my GP U as i do my laptop, I dont mind spending a few extra bucks for proper cooling.

      --
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    11. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by buckfeta2014 · · Score: 1

      I've read reviews of others on newegg/amazon with some DOA concerns

      That's because people are retarded and mash the socket pins and send it back and Newegg doesn't check and send it out to the next retard.

      --
      Buck Feta. You know what to do.
    12. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      EVGA cards are fine. I've been using them for years without any problems. People that complain about them dying are generally trying to overclock them.

    13. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by WuphonsReach · · Score: 2

      Asus (and a lot of other manufs) had trouble with bad caps all the way up until ~2007 give or take. When they go, it is a very loud pop (along with the smell of electricity arcing) that will make you jump if you are in the same room.

      I've had quite a few fanless video cards with bad capacitors, along with a few motherboards from the mid-2000s.

      --
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    14. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by NoZart · · Score: 1

      Consider the average target consumer of such a card: Battlefield playing teens. "Military grade" is exactly the right buzzword for them.

    15. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had to RMA a few 970s from Zotac. HDMI audio didn't work on two. I also had issues with switching inputs and losing my HDMI feed.

      After changing to Asus, everything is fine.

  5. A little late, no? by buckfeta2014 · · Score: 1

    The 980 has been out for months. I have one in my PC right now.

    --
    Buck Feta. You know what to do.
    1. Re:A little late, no? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its like a Slashdot dupe, but on a hardware site a few months after release. But then if you are using a site like hothardware for reviews the 980/970 custom cards probably are news to you.

  6. 1.3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will not buy another card without Displayport 1.3.

  7. Forget factory overclocked cards by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    They may sound good in principle but I've never had a factory overclocked card last more than a few years regardless which manufacturer produced them. Heck at one point I had a Leadtek which lasted less than a year. On close inspection their massive aftermarket cooler they shipped on the card wasn't actually touching the voltage regulator chips and they were running at a cool 100+ degC.

    I'll stick with stock cards from now on.

    1. Re:Forget factory overclocked cards by Goat+of+Death · · Score: 1

      You should try EVGA. I've bought EVGA cards for several years now. I've always bought either a super-clocked of a FTW card from them. All the cards I've ever bought from them are still going strong, including two 8800GTs. By contrast the 8800GT that came with my MacBook Pro had to be replaced within the year. Luckily the replacement card has lasted since then.

    2. Re:Forget factory overclocked cards by Goat+of+Death · · Score: 1

      Meant Mac Pro.

    3. Re:Forget factory overclocked cards by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Good to hear they are working for you. Reading above there are a few people who believe EVGA to be rather unreliable.

  8. wait, what? by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    When did Zotac become any human's "favorite" and when did they suffer their traumatic brain injury? Zotac's business model is propped up by constantly paying for rigged reviews and features in magazines and their cards are failure-prone garbage. How about EVGA, ASUS, and MSI like everyone who knows what they're doing buys?

  9. Omega, not Omgea by zennling · · Score: 1

    Zotac GeForce GTX 980 AMP! Omega - http://www.zotac.com/products/...

  10. SHOCKING interview with Nvidia engineer by Roman+Mamedov · · Score: 3, Interesting

    SHOCKING interview with Nvidia engineer about the 970 fiasco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    1. Re:SHOCKING interview with Nvidia engineer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (it's not an actual interview, unsurprisingly, but just an English-dubbed foreign-voiced video intended to supposedly be humorous)

  11. SHOCKING interview with Nvidia engineer about 970 by citizenr · · Score: 1

    NVIDIA engineer spilling the beans:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
  12. Bored by Blaskowicz · · Score: 2

    I miss gaming under Windows 98, when everything just worked.
    I don't want anymore to change motherboard, change OS, reconstitute a game library all for the diminishing returns of games looking slightly better and playing the same or worse than 10 years ago.

  13. Minimum... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How did the reviewers miss that the 290X had the fastest minimum frame rates... across the board? Price wise, the 970 is generally more expensive, so it better be faster than a 290X, but mostly it's not.

    I think this last set of cards has been great competition, nvidia runs so much cooler, and the laptop cards are amazing. But, AMD is right there with them for performance at every segment under $400.