GTX 970/980 Release: When is the last time you were this excited about a video card?

[Tylanner]

6800gt

 

[ShintaiDK]

Its hard to judge the 970/980 yet since they lack the history. The 8800 absolutely wins hands down when looking back.

 

[Tweak155]

I think when I ordered the Voodoo 5 5500 and it finally arrived was my first hook. Then maybe the 9700pro.

Now I just consider them a big cost I have to pay to stay in the game. Speaking of which, what is this ACX 1.0 vs 2.0 thing all about? Just read it today.

 

[Hauk]

The 8800GTX for me. It was a big leap in performance and had long staying power

Same here, it carried a hefty price tag, but what a performance jump..

 

[exar333]

Its hard to judge the 970/980 yet since they lack the history. The 8800 absolutely wins hands down when looking back.

For me, it was the following (in order):

-Original Voodoo1
-Voodoo2
-Geforce 256
-9500/9700pro
-512 MB 8800GTS/GT (I was too poor at the time for a GTX/640mbGTS)
-5870/670/970 (great cards for the $$$ and lasted a good amount)

 

[fleshconsumed]

I think 970 is the current generation 8800GT. It's built on the old node, but it's a lot cheaper than older generation while still offering comparable performance. When 8800GT came out people were thrilled because they no longer had to pay the 8800GTS/GTX premium to get the same level of performance. Same story today, we've had 970 level of performance for a year now with overclocked r9 290's and overclocked 780's/780ti's. Strictly my opinion, but the only reason people are excited now is because it's the first time in years that nVidia offered reasonably priced midrange card. Yes, it's something to be excited about, competition is good for the consumers, however to me, it's just a reminder on how much nVidia has been fleecing consumers lately. IMO.

 

[Vesku]

No Winter 2012 Radeon 7950 hits $300 mark while GTX 670 was still ~$400 option? This 7950 is still running everything I throw at it and that's at 1440P. Currently the best GPU in terms of cost and lifespan I've ever owned.

 

[NTMBK]

Riva TNT2.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Riva TNT2.

This

 

[Keysplayr]

I was pretty excited over the Voodoo2 2000 which quickly got hammered by the RivaTNT2. I mean, I was coming from a cirrus logic "3D" onboard video at the time. But more recently? I'd have to say the 8800GTX.

 

[SPBHM]

it feels like the GTX 460, performance is not to different, but the pricing is better than expected,

(I'm talking about the 970, not the 980, 980 feels more like a 680)

 

[cytg111]

Why is this a release to get excited about? It is hardly revolutionizing from the performance side? perf /watt, sure, but when was the last time you were "excited" over a perf/watt release? Serious question, I dont get it. (I'll be getting a 970 for hdmi2.0, and the perf/dollar it represents)

 

[psolord]

5850, what else!

Pretty excited with 970 though. Too excited really.

 

[Grooveriding]

Not very exciting with what has actually released, but I care about absolute performance over everything else. It does make me excited to get my hands on a Maxwell using the next process node or a 550mm2+ Maxwell on 28nm.

 

[Midwayman]

8800 was the last card I bought that I was super excited about. Graphics have really slowed down.

 

[Pandora's Box]

9700 Pro followed closely by 8800 series. nothing since has really excited me.

 

[swilli89]

The most exciting generation in my opinion isn't even listed:

ATI's X800Xt and nVidia's 6800 Ultra

Each just about doubled their last gen's performance and nVidia especially finally came back to being relevant after the shameful 5800 ultra times.

 

[SPBHM]

I think the 7900s deserve to be mentioned, big architecture changes, and AMD a lot more competitive than before in terms of performance, also the 7950 was always a great deal,

 

[Chaotic42]

I'm not excited at all. I was going to jump on one, but given what was released, I'm going to wait for the next cycle.

 

[alcoholbob]

Ill be excited when gm200 comes out. These launch 980s cant even beat a air cooled 1300 mhz 780ti without resorting to water or ln2.

 

[frozentundra123456]

8800GT because I couldnt wait to upgrade from my X1800 GTO that didnt unlock to XT. That voltmodded 8800GT lasted me 5 years.

Oh and not excited for the 980, sittin pretty with my 780 Classy.

Yea, I dont buy a lot of high end cards, but I was really excited to get an 8800GT, even though it was a year or two after the card came out when I finally bought one on sale. I actually was playing on it until a couple of years ago when I got a new system. I still have it as a backup and think I could be satisfied with it in a pinch, along with a good cpu. (Edit:so I could turn down the settings and not be cpu limited.)

Maxwell is a great architecture, but *please, please*, we need 20nm. I hope they come out with something between the 750Ti and 970. Maybe a 960 in the 200 to 250 dollar price range?

 

[frozentundra123456]

Why is this a release to get excited about? It is hardly revolutionizing from the performance side? perf /watt, sure, but when was the last time you were "excited" over a perf/watt release? Serious question, I dont get it. (I'll be getting a 970 for hdmi2.0, and the perf/dollar it represents)

Well ultimately shouldn't better performance per watt allow better absolute performance within say the 300watt envelope normally taken as the limit for a gpu?

May not see it until a die shrink though, because the card would be so big/expensive.

 

[tidy]

.

 

[escrow4]

Its not exciting at all. Another lite mid range card presented as "high-end". Still no Big Maxwell. Yes the 980 can crack 20% over a Ti in some games, but that is nothing and doesn't take into account overclocking. I want the fat old Ti version - 3000+ CUDA cores, 512-bit 6GB+ vRAM, and way more than 120 TAUs.

 

[CakeMonster]

The power usage on 28nm is quite exciting and impressive.

Excited about the cards? Not at all. Titan and GK110 launched more than 1.5 years ago and its debatable whether the 980 is even faster. If you want to nitpick, the 780 vanilla launched almost 1.5 years ago and 980 is just _barely_ faster.

So I'm not getting carried away here. NVidia could put out something better today given the power budget, core clock headroom, and memory bus headroom (384 and 512bit is avialable). But they're choosing to launch crippled, and what is actually available to buy is what counts. And that's not impressive performance wise at this point in 2014.