Is maxwell different enough for you? Please rate it if you own it: )

[Anarchist420]

I could get enough for my GTX 780 but nvidia seems anti-competitive (the patents may result in more me-too products perhaps mixed with higher prices and less satisfaction to the engineers). Anyway, I don't believe that maxwell is very different and their drivers haven't been very good with Kepler.

So isn't maxwell just like Kepler except the former is more efficient? the DSR stuff doesn't sound that interesting given it lacks properly rotated grid sampling. the double precision performance at stock clocks is about the same as my GTX 780 although better 32 bit integer performance and clever programming can boost maxwell's limited DP performance. they didn't defy microsoft a lot (pre-render zero frames ahead was taken away).

i know that nvidia has made the most efficient products but their marketing has helped get the me-too products sold (but 3dfx's marketing was still better at least in terms of ads). and i hate how intel accidentally pushed back software rasterization; doesn't matter how many cores (in fact we need radically parallel gen purpose processors) or how many extensions are added to x86 if they are incomplete (or if x86 simply can't be good for graphics). as for AMD, they're in bed with microsoft and Windows 10 looks TERRIBLE.

Maybe if nvidia moved their HQ out of california they could sell their products for less and run more happily. Futurity depends on new companies started out of homes to de-bloat the big corporations and to make the big corporations do better (exception is that Whole Foods Market is huge yet excellent).

 

[ShintaiDK]

Your thread sounds more like a rant than a question (again). Are you sure you really want an answer? And yes I own a GTX980.

 

[Annisman*]

Is it different enough for me ? My FPS went up when I bought one so YES

 

[SperglordActual]

I currently have a 780, I have been severely tempted to pick up a 980 but it really just is not enough of a performance boost for me. I am holding out for a 980ti or gm200.

 

[Anarchist420]

Your thread sounds more like a rant than a question (again). Are you sure you really want an answer? And yes I own a GTX980.

thanks how satisfied are you with it? any new features worthwhile in your opinion or was it mainly the performance boost?

Is it different enough for me ? My FPS went up when I bought one so YES

Glad to hear you're happy with it

I currently have a 780, I have been severely tempted to pick up a 980 but it really just is not enough of a performance boost for me. I am holding out for a 980ti or gm200.

thanks man I couldn't upgrade due to the lack of feature set upgrade and the price. nvidia seems a bit greedy and unoriginal to me and not just me. and i just worry that the patent system, trademarks, and NDAs have kept nvidia perpetuated. amd and intel are doing so well because of intellectual monopoly threats and enforcement here (in favor the of the latter) and then anti-trust in europe helps AMD.

I wouldn't want to see anyone lose their job. it's unfortunate that intel has so many lawyers, lobbyists, and middle management. and net savings are so low so if they got laid off then it could more unfortunate. i mean, i don't ever want a job partly due to the fact that i would be a middle man given that god gave me no gifts. maybe the 10 year market level unemployment rate is 1/2 and private charity from friends works with decentralized public expenditure, and no collection by the central govt (central govt made create whatever currency its members decide, and each member may also use its own currency). all i know is that recycling and reforming the old due to centralist threats and ultra-powerful bureaucracy hurts more than it could ever help.

 

[ShintaiDK]

thanks how satisfied are you with it? any new features worthwhile in your opinion or was it mainly the performance boost?

Up to 100% faster than my GTX680, 30W lower power consumption. DX11.1, DX11.2, DX11.3 and DX12 support. DSR, VGXI etc. Not to mention the Titan class cooler.

Yes, I am more than happy with it.

Also I cant agree with your driver part either or anything else in your post.

 

[NTMBK]

Maybe if nvidia moved their HQ out of california they could sell their products for less and run more happily.

Kind of doubtful. There's a reason why so many tech companies are in California- that's where their potential work force is. In an industry where "lots of smart people" is the key to success, a happy workforce is vital.

 

[SperglordActual]

For me, looking at the overclocked 980 benchmarks (if you have one and haven't overclocked it you should, No really take a look: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...0_overclocking_video_card_review#.VD5_TGddXTo stock voltage and they get some excellent performance boosts out of it.) its almost there for me but falls just short of enough of a performance improvement to make me commit. Plus the GM200 rumors have me thinking that it might just be the first single GPU 4k solution (I literally have no evidence of this, its probably wishful thinking, just FYI)

EDIT: also helping me resist is the fact that its very hard to find 980's right now

 

[Mand]

Higher performance with less heat to vent?

Yes, I'm satisfied. Quite satisfied. Of course, I made a massive upgrade from a five-year-old rig, so anything would have been enormous, but I do like the low power draw.

 

[Anarchist420]

Up to 100% faster than my GTX680, 30W lower power consumption. DX11.1, DX11.2, DX11.3 and DX12 support. DSR, VGXI etc. Not to mention the Titan class cooler. Yes, I am more than happy with it. Also I cant agree with your driver part either or anything else in your post.

Well, there is nothing wrong with disagreeing. I'm going to look up VGXI. The drivers have some terrible depth optimization and i have some openGL problems (particularly in Higan but also lower and inconsistent performance in Dolphin).

If nvidia retains control over their drivers like they do, then it would be nice to have option for W-buffer replication and some better dithering or at least the option to force many hardware formats. An option for depth calcs to look like they did in R275.xx would be nice; option should be checkbox and if checked then applied unconditionally. As for splinter cell's shadow buffers, i could be happy with a custom app solution (as long as it worked with proper 4x SGSSAA); but nvidia could still replicate it.

They also don't give much control over filtering and texture lod bias (the old AF method from the 100 series drivers looks way better to some than the really sharp modern one); that may be microsoft's fault as quite possibly is the option to prerender zero frames ahead being gone.

also, 1:1 pixel mapping done by the GPU is slower than my monitor's internal scaler; that could be a hardware issue, but I don't know for sure.

Guzz is a really good guy and he made good drivers and good patches, but I can't pay him anything so i feel kind of bad asking him for so much; he made some useful tools and bits but nvidia's control panel may not allow for going back and forth.

 

[BlockheadBrown]

I'm still sitting on my GeForce 660. I'd like to get one of the new cards, but they're really out of my price range for now. I'd love to see what AMD brings to the table, but I'm going to have to wait until next year for that.

There's been a temptation to pick up a new Radeon 280 for relatively cheap to get about a 33% performance bump and have the additional VRAM available (3GB vs. 2GB). However, the 660 is currently "good enough" for my games. While I'd like a "MOAR/BETAH" video card, it gets difficult to substantiate the cost. I think I'm running a 550W power supply, so that does play into it.

http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/htt...PU-Action-Ryse_Son_of_Rome-test-Ryse_1920.jpg

 

[alcoholbob]

My GTX 980 @1442MHz (highest its stable) is about 20-22% faster than on my old 780 that was stable to 1160MHz. Since Im running 4K on a single card I needed the fastest singlr card I could get. If you are just running 1080p no point getting a Maxwell until GM200 comes out.

 

[SperglordActual]

My GTX 980 @1442MHz (highest its stable) is about 20-22% faster than on my old 780 that was stable to 1160MHz. Since Im running 4K on a single card I needed the fastest singlr card I could get. If you are just running 1080p no point getting a Maxwell until GM200 comes out.

Out of curiosity, what games are you running at what settings at 4k? Also what FPS are you getting? I really want a single card 4k solution.

 

[alcoholbob]

4k is pretty much pixel-fill limited so most shooter PC games run around 40-45fps at this resolution with AA off. Crysis 1 Very High no AA averages 38-50fps, Witcher 2 no AA or Ubersampling averages about 45-55 fps, Battlefield 4 Ultra with AA and SSAO off averages 40-45 fps, most games are in this range.

4X, RTS games are usually 60+.

 

[SperglordActual]

4k is pretty much pixel-fill limited so most shooter PC games run around 40-45fps at this resolution with AA off. Crysis 1 Very High no AA averages 38-50fps, Witcher 2 no AA or Ubersampling averages about 45-55 fps, Battlefield 4 Ultra with AA and SSAO off averages 40-45 fps, most games are in this range.

4X, RTS games are usually 60+.

Good to hear, then the next round of cards should tackle 4k admirably at high settings! Bring on the 980ti/390x! It sounds like we are right on the cusp of amazing single card solutions.

 

[aigomorla]

344.XX nvidia drivers = FACEPALM...

344.11 is a can of unpolished worms.
344.16 is lets rush out new broken drivers specifically for 900 series owners so they can feel special, but NOT include the other video cards, so 900 series owners can feel again SPECIAL!

*double face palm*

Oh nvidia what happened to you guys.... are monkeys writting drivers at your place now?

<---- owner of 980 GTX's in SLI.... and well.. im half tempted to go back to my older videocards until decent drivers which can replace the 337.XX comes out.

 

[BrightCandle]

What bugs have you run into and have you raised them as bugs on Nvidias tracker? Because if you haven't please do so. They might not do anything about them but they wont even look if they aren't reported. At the very least post in in the driver specific feedback: https://forums.geforce.com/default/...whql-display-driver-feedback-thread-9-18-14-/

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I love the long battery life of my 860M, so yes.

 

[aigomorla]

What bugs have you run into and have you raised them as bugs on Nvidias tracker? Because if you haven't please do so. They might not do anything about them but they wont even look if they aren't reported. At the very least post in in the driver specific feedback: https://forums.geforce.com/default/...whql-display-driver-feedback-thread-9-18-14-/

there're known problems...

According to the feedback thread on 344.11 some of them haven't even been addressed for 6 months already since the 340.XX drivers.

But you have to admit.. 344.16 is a joke of a driver.
Its not even a unified driver, and only supports 2 videocards.

344.11 has a feedback page which goes on for many many pages with half of them being rants.

 

[toyota]

Up to 100% faster than my GTX680, 30W lower power consumption. DX11.1, DX11.2, DX11.3 and DX12 support. DSR, VGXI etc. Not to mention the Titan class cooler.

Yes, I am more than happy with it.

Also I cant agree with your driver part either or anything else in your post.

lol wow, so much exaggerated with this.

yes its "up to 100% faster" but on average less than 50% faster than the 680.

it does NOT use 30 watts less than the 680. even the super efficient reference 980 uses the same or more power than 680. the 165 watt rating was purely marketing. if its a 165 watt card then so is the 680 and even 770 as they are all within a few watts of each other with the 980 usually in middle. if you want to debate that I can post graphs from nearly every review including the one here on anandtech.

it does NOT really have a "Titan" cooler as it does not use the vapor chamber.

 

[Grooveriding]

344.XX nvidia drivers = FACEPALM...

344.11 is a can of unpolished worms.
344.16 is lets rush out new broken drivers specifically for 900 series owners so they can feel special, but NOT include the other video cards, so 900 series owners can feel again SPECIAL!

*double face palm*

Oh nvidia what happened to you guys.... are monkeys writting drivers at your place now?

<---- owner of 980 GTX's in SLI.... and well.. im half tempted to go back to my older videocards until decent drivers which can replace the 337.XX comes out.

Yeah it's getting old. I keep expecting a new driver release because the current state of nvidia's most recent driver is craptastic, and nothing is getting released. Not even a post on their forums that a driver is coming or acknowledging the mess their most recent driver is in.

 

[ShintaiDK]

lol wow, so much exaggerated with this.

yes its "up to 100% faster" but on average less than 50% faster than the 680.

You may want to look here:
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1348?vs=1351

 

[toyota]

You may want to look here:
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1348?vs=1351

I should have said just over 50% faster overall. here its 55% faster overall at 1920x1080. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_980/26.html

 

[Anarchist420]

the extra performance is cool, but even 33% faster than GTX780 isn't worthit considering 1080p is plenty pixels for me. the problem with performance lies more in the opengl drivers i've used than any lack of horse power.

and i can't believe 4k x 2k is so common

 

[RussianSensation]

1. 970M and 980M are really impressive. Basically 30-40% increase on average and 45-50% in most demanding games like Metro Last Light over 870M and 880M. Battery Boost and the option of 6GB 970M and 8GB 980M. Slam dunk.

2. 970 is the sweet spot at $330 and with overclocking I would pick it over $270 R9 290. Looking at 970 SLI OC, I'd get about 50% more performance over my cards. Not bad but really waiting for 75-100% or 980 performance at $350.

3. 980 leaves a sour taste in my mouth because of price. It's way too overpriced relative to the 970, without extra VRAM like 480/580 had over 470/570. The 2 after-market versions I would consider now are MSI Gaming and Windforce but in Canada after tax they are $750-800. I find it ridiculous to pay $700 CDN for a midrange Maxwell. Performance wise an overclocked 980 is about 80% faster than each of my cards but that's still barely faster than 7970 OC CF. That means I would be paying $1500 or so for dual 980s and still get just 4GB of VRAM and midrange Maxwell. At that point might as well get $2000 dual-GM200s with 6-8GB of vram and way more performance I bet.

4. I want to see the performance in Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age Inquisition to see how 970/980 stack up against R9 290/X.

Overall, I would have bit at 2X 980 if they were $350 a pop, but at $580 for MSI Gaming and $620 for Windforce, I feel like even if GM200 is $800, it would beat the 980 by at least 40%, thus making it better value.

For now I will probably wait to 2015 to see how 390X turns out and of course GM200. Maybe those 2 cards will force 980/980 refresh to drop to $399. After seeing 680--> 780/780Ti, I am not falling for this same trick of paying flagship price for a midrange next gen product since Bitcoin mining won't offset the high entry price.