Max Overclocked GTX 780ti vs GTX 970 @ 2560x1600

[sxr7171]

Great comparison. Thanks for that. If you get your hands on a 980 I'd love to see that.

 

[lenuagedorion]

votre test entre gtx 780ti et gtx 970 n est pas correct
le I7-5960x est bcp plus fort que votre I5-4670k
http://www.cowcotland.com/articles/1711-7/test-processeur-intel-core-i7-5960x.html
votre I7- 5960x avec gtx 970 passe devant votre gtx 780 ti
il est evident que suivant les jeux l écart entre 780ti et 970 est en faveur de l un ou de l autre
dans la pratique la serie Maxwell est économe watts ,silence et chaleur meilleur suite a un meiller équilibre et gestion du calcul
la 780ti est force brut
la 970 est équilibre
test sur ma msi gaming gtx 970 me confirme
salutations

 

[CitanUzuki]

Great stuff groove!

 

[Teizo]

Makes me want to pick up a 780ti on the cheapo.

 

[exar333]

:thumbsup:

Great write-up.

 

[EJSLP]

I still love my EVGA 780ti superclocked that i push a little further but i will admit the 970 is a awesome card for the $$$.
Had i not bought the 780ti for $500 before the 900's came out i would have just went with a 970 and clocked it to its max.
I do have one complaint about my 780 and that is the vram available.
3g's for now has not been a issue so far even with new releases like metal gear solid ground zero's,advanced warfare,wolfenstein,etc but i get the feeling my luck is going to run out in the very near future.:\

 

[RussianSensation]

I would like to see 970 max OC vs. 780Ti max OC in the latest games with newer drivers. Seems that Kepler drivers are less optimized and/or Maxwell drivers are more optimized.

 

[Grooveriding]

I would like to see 970 max OC vs. 780Ti max OC in the latest games with newer drivers. Seems that Kepler drivers are less optimized and/or Maxwell drivers are more optimized.

I actually tested this in a few games like Far Cry 4 and Mordor. The 970 is much closer to the 780ti in those games than it is in the games I tested here. The difference in Metro, Crysis 3 and BF4 remains pretty much the same though. The closer performance is not consistent across other games, just recently released ones. I don't have Unity to test it, but reviews show the same thing.

Either Kepler optimizations have been halted or for some reason Maxwell does better in Gameworks games. :sneaky:

 

[Magic Carpet]

Either Kepler optimizations have been halted or for some reason Maxwell does better in Gameworks games. :sneaky:

Probably the former. No resources / business sense to optimize for both, imo. It's disgusting to see 7870 touching 680 is some games, though. Let alone the more expensive Kepler parts.

 

[Mondozei]

So a max OC'd 970 manages about 23.7 fps on average @ 1600p on Crysis 3, which is a very well-optimised game. Also 2 years old by now. Even less demanding titles like Tomb Raider are not close to 60 fps. We won't see a mainstream GPU doing 4K60fps for quite some time. Probably not even Pascal. Remember, games in 2017(I'm guessing Nvidia will release mini-Pascal in 2016 and Big Pascal the year after, as they usually do) will be more demanding than today, too.

 

[alcoholbob]

So a max OC'd 970 manages about 23.7 fps on average @ 1600p on Crysis 3, which is a very well-optimised game. Also 2 years old by now. Even less demanding titles like Tomb Raider are not close to 60 fps. We won't see a mainstream GPU doing 4K60fps for quite some time. Probably not even Pascal. Remember, games in 2017(I'm guessing Nvidia will release mini-Pascal in 2016 and Big Pascal the year after, as they usually do) will be more demanding than today, too.

IMO PC gaming performance comes in cycles because console life cycles. Because the console hardware remains stagnant for 5-7 years you get increasing relative PC performance in games as the cycle nears its end.

So IMO 4K60 will be relatively achievable in 3-4 years in a single GPU (as games are increasingly multiplatform and PC only games are moving toward F2P which are even easier to drive than console games), but when the next console comes out we'll be back to 30 fps gaming at 4K with single GPUs for 1-2 years before PCs start moving ahead of the next gen of consoles.

 

[therealnickdanger]

So IMO 4K60 will be relatively achievable in 3-4 years in a single GPU

I assume you mean 4K60 at Ultra+AA settings? 4K60 is very doable now by quite a few cards if you forego AA and Ultra settings. A lot of people are willing to give up fidelity for smoother gameplay. We all know that consoles give up a LOT of fidelity...

 

[Sohaltang]

My 780 TI classified is on air and puts about +300 on that Valley bench. I run a 4770K @ 4.4 gHZ with 16 GB RAM. I dont think swapping the cards into other rigs will have much of a difference.

 

[Carfax83]

Thanks for the review, but the configuration data was sparse. No driver info for instance, and drivers are crucial.

The 347.xx drivers boosted Maxwell's performance significantly, and as a result, the GTX 970 ended up being much closer to the 780 Ti in performance, and even faster in the newest titles.

 

[Carfax83]

Probably the former. No resources / business sense to optimize for both, imo. It's disgusting to see 7870 touching 680 is some games, though. Let alone the more expensive Kepler parts.

Might possibly be because the latest titles make use of more DirectCompute functions?

 

[Pneumothorax]

Might possibly be because the latest titles make use of more DirectCompute functions?

I think it's Nvidia being Nvidia, they've essentially ceased Kepler optimizations and seem to be only coding for Maxwell now. The latest drivers have boosted Maxwell performance significantly while Kepler hasn't improved much if none at all.

One of the reasons why I 'side-graded' going from 780ti single to 970 SLI. If only I had known about the 3.5gb memory....

 

[Insomniator]

Would be curious how a max overclocked 780 (non-ti) compares with the two.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

I have 2 780TI'S in SLI on a Sandy bridge extreme 6/12 core I'd be willing to run some score if anyone wants some. *Note mine are flashed with the voltage un locked bios.

 

[Ichigo]

I'm surprised the OP isn't as critical of the minimum framerates as I'd expect. Those frametimes make a huge difference in noticeable stutter for the 970.

 

[Grooveriding]

I think it's Nvidia being Nvidia, they've essentially ceased Kepler optimizations and seem to be only coding for Maxwell now. The latest drivers have boosted Maxwell performance significantly while Kepler hasn't improved much if none at all.

One of the reasons why I 'side-graded' going from 780ti single to 970 SLI. If only I had known about the 3.5gb memory....

Yeah this is what has happened. Like I said earlier I've retested with recent drivers and in the games I benched here the performance difference is the same with the 780ti about 25% faster than my 970. What has changed is the new gameworks game like Mordor, Far Cry 4 etc. show a much closer performance level between the two cards. You can see this in reviews as well. I've seen benches showing the 7970ghz performing nearly as well as a 780 in the recent nvidia TWIMTPB games. Either AMD has a driver team that is far better than nvidia or nvidia is abandoning good optimizations for Kepler customers.

It's pretty dissapointing driver support. Maybe if I find some time I'll update the OP with some benches showing the same performance with the latest drivers in the games I benched here and the huge difference you see in Far Cry 4, Mordor and Dying Light if it holds up in that game as well. I don't have AC Unity or The Crew.

 

[RussianSensation]

Either AMD has a driver team that is far better than nvidia or nvidia is abandoning good optimizations for Kepler customers.

It can be a combination of AMD putting more effort into GCN drivers since all they have is 200 series and NV focusing more on Maxwell by neglecting Kepler. Alternative explanation that recent games are benefiting more from the 64 ROP pixel fill-rate of R9 290 series is also viable as a small effect.

Sept 27, 2014 Review @ 2560x1440

Maxwell vs. GCN
980 is 17% faster than a 290X
970 is 2% faster than a 290X

Kepler vs. Maxwell
780Ti is 10% faster than a 970

Kepler vs. GCN
780Ti is 11% faster than a 290X
Titan is 27% faster than an HD7970Ghz
780 is 17% faster than an HD7970Ghz

January 23, 2015

Maxwell vs. GCN
980 is 10% faster than a 290X
290X is 4% faster than a 970

Kepler vs. Maxwell
780Ti is now only 3% faster than a 970

Kepler vs. GCN
290X is 1% faster than a 780Ti
Titan is now only 18% faster than a 7970Ghz
780 is now only 8% faster than a 7970Ghz

Observations @ 1440P (approximations)

- Titan lost 8% of performance in 4 months relative to the HD7970Ghz (127%-->117% of 7970Ghz)
- 780 lost 8% relative to the HD7970Ghz (117%-->108% of 7970Ghz)


- 780Ti lost 11% of performance relative to the 290X (111% --> 99% of 290X)
- 970 lost 6% of performance relative to the 290X (102% --> 96% of 290X)
- 980 lost 6% relative to the 290X (117%-->110% of a 290X)
- 780Ti lost 6% relative to the 970 (110%-->103% of a 970)

Looks like GCN gained over both Maxwell & Kepler and NV's Kepler suffered vs. Maxwell.

 

[lavaheadache]

Nice post RS. It really makes my original launch Titan purchase look silly when I upgraded to it from a 7970 lightning that did 1300mhz. at least it was a good amount faster at the time.

 

[Sunaiac]

I think it's Nvidia being Nvidia, they've essentially ceased Kepler optimizations and seem to be only coding for Maxwell now. The latest drivers have boosted Maxwell performance significantly while Kepler hasn't improved much if none at all.

One of the reasons why I 'side-graded' going from 780ti single to 970 SLI. If only I had known about the 3.5gb memory....

I can't help but finding this funny.

nVidia abandons old cards. ppl punish them by ... buying their new cards.

AMD pushes 7970 forward, it's probably the first time a card has such a long (usefull and high end) life. Ppl thank them by ... not buying their newer cards, since it's not really needed yet.

When my GTX580 got forsaken, I moved to 7970. Not because I thought AMD would support it longer, but because a 350€ 7970GHz felt much better than a 10% slower 33% less RAM 450€ GTX680.

No regret Since. Moving to 680 would mean I nearly would have had to move to 780Ti/980 given 680's current "performance".

 

[Lepton87]

I remember how people reacted when I said that the 7970 is a better card then the 680. But it is pretty sad to see how much they have neglected Kepler cards. Next time I will be very hesitant to buy NV's parts again.

 

[Headfoot]

I remember how people reacted when I said that the 7970 is a better card then the 680. But it is pretty sad to see how much they have neglected Kepler cards. Next time I will be very hesitant to buy NV's parts again.

The exact same thing is currently happening with the 290/x vs 970 right now, and people keep acting like you're insane for suggesting the card thats $70-100 less and almost identical in performance, and now we've discovered it effectively has .5GB more RAM too.