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

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Last time this excited at video card release

  • AMD R9 290 and 290x

  • AMD HD4870

  • AMD 9500Pro/9700Pro

  • nVidia Titan

  • nVidia GTX 670/680

  • nVidia 8800GTS 640/8800GTX

  • nVidia Gefore4 ti4200

  • nVidia Geforce 3 ti200

  • nVidia GTX 970/980 Most exciting of these options


Results are only viewable after voting.

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
Poll is missing the option "not all that excited"

I have a GTX 680 now. It's nice that the 980 is 60-80% faster and uses no more power despite still being 28nm. That's very nice work by nvidia.

But my GTX 680 is still fine for me at 19x12, I'm not playing anything where the speed bump is worth the new purchase.

The 670/680, 4870, ti 4200, gf 3 launches were all more exciting to me since there were games like Morrowind and Oblivion that "needed" the new performance and value they offered, or because I needed a general system rebuild at the time.
 
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nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
9,031
36
91
I'm honestly not tremendously excited about the launch in terms of performance (although the efficiency is impressive), but rather what it might do to pricing and competition.

I'm really interested to see how AMD or retailers respond in terms of pricing of the 290/290X. If we don't see $250-300 non-reference 290's soon, there will certainly be a ~$330 GTX 970 in my future.
 

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,547
651
126
Could have waited but decided to get a 290 a few months ago. With mantle, it still outperforms the 970 in the games that I play. So, not excited at all.
 

greenhawk

Platinum Member
Feb 23, 2011
2,031
0
71
6600GT was the last big expectation.

This time though, after my gtx570 died, I had to do a forced upgrade a few months ago, so finding the current release is too late for real excitement / improvement over what I have now.
 

Cookie Monster

Diamond Member
May 7, 2005
5,161
32
86
G80 was very very impressive. I mean not only did they fix all their IQ problems but performed as fast or faster than 7900GTX SLI or the 7950GX2.. It also demolished its rivals cards by quite the margin.
 

bunnyfubbles

Lifer
Sep 3, 2001
12,248
3
0
how is 5870/5850 not on this list?

that was an epic release, granted, people were a bit greedy at the time, expecting 4800 level pricing, and the potential of Fermi stole a lot of thunder even though it was a good year before we got the 500 series to fully realize that potential.

but for those in the know grabbing a reference Radeon 5850 (awesome VRMs) for $259 and being able to overclock to 1+GHz and have one beastly card that actually saw its MSRP shoot up well over $300

I guess its true that there was definitely a lot less excitement around the launch of the 5800s, it was something that gathered steam as it went along, but looking back people should have been more excited about those cards on their launch
 

bunnyfubbles

Lifer
Sep 3, 2001
12,248
3
0
G80 was very very impressive. I mean not only did they fix all their IQ problems but performed as fast or faster than 7900GTX SLI or the 7950GX2.. It also demolished its rivals cards by quite the margin.

I think the G80 cards were too expensive for a broad range of people to get really excited about; it wasn't until G92 and the affordable 8800GT that there was some wide-reaching excitement (hence the AT review article being titled NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters)

The GTX/Ultra was certainly impressive, but so was its pricetag. The 8800 GTS was cut down too much and still a bit too expensive to really get excited about. 8800GT definitely hit the sweet-spot.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
7,016
136
The die shrink launches are always the most anticipated IMO, because that's where we typically see the largest performance gains. 79xx/680, 58xx/480 had me on the edge of my seat. My hat is truly off to Nvidia here, the 980/970 are incredible cards from a geeking out/engeneering perspective, but they haven't really done anything for the one metric I really care about: performance.

My two cents, anyway.
 

nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
9,031
36
91
I guess its true that there was definitely a lot less excitement around the launch of the 5800s, it was something that gathered steam as it went along, but looking back people should have been more excited about those cards on their launch

As I recall it, there was quite a bit of buzz around these cards, they were just hard to get hold of after the initial batch sold out.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Easy, 4870. Bought at release, kept until the realease of The Witcher 2. Damn fine card.
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
7,382
2,419
146
Those 6950s that unlocked were pretty fun.

Yes, I had 2 of those! Also, the 5870s, going for about $380 at launch MSRP, as well as the 8800 GT of course. I remember I used the money I got back from a bad 8800 ultra to buy an 8800 GT and upgrade a c2d E6320 to a Q6600 as well!

Finally, the one that was on their, the 290(x) launch was what I voted for, though I was not quite as excited as some of those other times :D
 

Cookie Monster

Diamond Member
May 7, 2005
5,161
32
86
I think the G80 cards were too expensive for a broad range of people to get really excited about; it wasn't until G92 and the affordable 8800GT that there was some wide-reaching excitement (hence the AT review article being titled NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters)

The GTX/Ultra was certainly impressive, but so was its pricetag. The 8800 GTS was cut down too much and still a bit too expensive to really get excited about. 8800GT definitely hit the sweet-spot.

Yeah for sure. But given what the 7950GX2/7900GTX (all the NV4x/G7x based cards) was like, the G80 was something never seen before. Its performance was good. Its power figures were good. Its IQ improvements were good. Everything about the card was good except the price I guess :p. The card performed better on games where traditionally ATi had the edge (lots of DX titles with heavy pixel shading).

Im more the architectural geek so prices aside, it was really exciting to see how the GPU landscape could change so drastically.
 

Carnage1986

Member
Apr 8, 2014
92
0
0
None of that. I didn't vote. 3dfx vs nvidia war was exciting and on this timeline very big changes happened. VXGI, DSR, MFAA. All of them sounds pretty cool, but the time will show the truths. Are they really massive changes or balloons that will blow up? Real life performance and quality will be the judge.
 
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mikemcc

Member
Oct 6, 2005
86
1
71
For me, in order, 8800GTX, 6950, and 9800.

The new Maxwells are impressive, but not so much that I need one to replace my 7970 right now. I'm going to wait to see what kinds of prices there will be on BF and CM.
 

Owls

Senior member
Feb 22, 2006
735
0
76
Considering nVidia is milking 28nm I'd wait for the Ti version before going forward and I change video cards like underwear.
 

weevilone

Member
Jun 24, 2012
135
0
76
Which one was that leaf blower Nv card that got all the hate? I got mine when they did preorders only, used it a bit, and made a hundred bucks after just a month. That was exciting.
 

rusina

Member
Mar 20, 2012
31
0
66
Orchid Righteous 3D 4MB with Voodoo chipset:
This was my first 3D card and it blew my mind how big difference it made on graphics. Also it had pretty decent game bundle: 3DFX version of Mechwarrior 2 and Descent 2, Fatal Racing and Microsoft Monster Truck. It also had Terminal Velocity, but I don't remember was that accelerated.


Geforce 7900 GTO:
It was really cheap and with little memory overclocking you had 7900 GTX with that silent cooler.

Geforce GTX 750 ti:
I have this one in my secondary machine and it's just amazing how strong this small card is while being simply silent. It also uses so little amount of power that I think I could operate this with power that I create with bicycle dynamo. This comes really handy when you have really small case and you don't want to invest too much on cooling performance.
 

Leyawiin

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2008
3,204
52
91
Geforce GTX 750 ti:
I have this one in my secondary machine and it's just amazing how strong this small card is while being simply silent. It also uses so little amount of power that I think I could operate this with power that I create with bicycle dynamo. This comes really handy when you have really small case and you don't want to invest too much on cooling performance.

Same here. I was using that secondary PC last night and was playing Skyrim (as usual) on Ultra settings @ 1680x1050. Plays it very smoothly - almost always pegged at 60 FPS. I was thinking afterward what a good experience it was with such a tiny, power efficient card (I have one without the six pin requirement).
 

notty22

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2010
3,375
0
0
Considering nVidia is milking 28nm I'd wait for the Ti version before going forward and I change video cards like underwear.


Because there's no alternative.

Thanks for reminding fellow members.

On TOPIC !
Back in 2010 I guesstimated the price and performance of the gtx 460, and was excited as a I was yesterday, when performance/price were announced.
The perks with this card along with Nvidia's other features is 4gb, G-sync and PhysX. I will use either my gtx660 or gtx 460 , testing both and selling the other 2.
Electronics, cars, woman can excite me, not in that order:)