Overclocked review - GTX 980 vs. 290x vs. 780Ti

Headfoot

Diamond Member
Feb 28, 2008
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Pretty solid review, lots of games, all the cards are at high-but-reasonable overclocks. Overclocked, the cards are really close. At this point, the best card probably boils down to price + features. The 290X and 780 TI are looking mighty good at their new prices compared to the 980.

Has anyone voltage unlocked a 980 yet to see what its true top end overclock looks like?
 

Sohaltang

Senior member
Apr 13, 2013
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So the 290X got a voltage bump for the OC but the 780 TI did not? 1180 is on the low side for a 780ti OC. You can buy card like the eVGA superclocked that will boost to 1100 out of the box w no additional OC. I run my classy at 1306mhz for routine gaming.
 

Sohaltang

Senior member
Apr 13, 2013
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Seems like the 290x is OC'd lowly too.


They did mention they hit the thermal wall on the 290x. Pretty common for reference models.

Another thing to consider is the 290x reference can be had for $200 with warranty on ebay. That makes is a very nice alternative for those who can sacrifice a tiny bit of performance. Sucks that we have new cards that are not much better than a OC'd 780 from 17 months ago.
 

ocre

Golden Member
Dec 26, 2008
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There are people with a lot higher overclocks for sure.

But clearly you can see that people with the 780ti/290x are still looking good and have no reason to upgrade. Unless they just love shiny new things.

I think thats the point of the OP
 

Greenlepricon

Senior member
Aug 1, 2012
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I wish they had an overall summary chart or two. Also kinda disappointing that the 290x seems to be throttling pretty badly in some games. I would rather have them lower the clocks just a bit so that we could see scaling. Oh well. I'll definitely watch out for their watercooled 290x that they mention! Otherwise it's a nice test between the 780ti and 980.

I almost picked up a 970 to replace my 7950 when everyone was going crazy over them, but seeing reviews like this makes me want to just wait until we see some real performance improvements. Maxwell is great but I really wish they hadn't pulled another Kepler.
 

Hauk

Platinum Member
Nov 22, 2001
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Maxwell's def a step in the right direction in terms of perf/watt. While I did get the itch, it mainly got me thinking about power consumption.
 

SantaAna12

Member
Jun 24, 2008
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Thanks Hauk.

The dust is settling. That 780ti on ebay is looking pretty good.
Nvidia is too. It will be interesting when they bring out the 980 "ti".
For now, I am not sure why anyone would buy the current 980.
 

Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
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Its a good review but the only issue I had is with the Physx settings being left on in certain games.

The radeon will be running it on the CPU and Geforces will have to render the game with physx on top.

It would have made more sense to just disable it for all cards.
 

netxzero64

Senior member
May 16, 2009
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^ it does not change the fact whether there is physx because the test was done under 28 games and not all of those games have physx.

To OP:

Great find on that one. good comparison when somebody asks if the 980 is a significant upgrade over the 780ti
 

Hauk

Platinum Member
Nov 22, 2001
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Thanks. I agree about physx on not being a huge factor due to number of games tested. Would have been better off, sure.
 
Sep 27, 2014
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This just proves how underwhelming the 980 is if you have a 680 or lower. I am very glad I managed to resist the urge to replace my 780.
 

jfp555

Member
Oct 17, 2014
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Very helpful and thorough benchmarks. Any idea about the power draw of the 3 cards overclocked during gaming?
 

Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
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^ it does not change the fact whether there is physx because the test was done under 28 games and not all of those games have physx.

To OP:

Great find on that one. good comparison when somebody asks if the 980 is a significant upgrade over the 780ti

That is why my comment is specifically about the games with it tested I have no issues with the rest of the games.
 

dn7309

Senior member
Dec 5, 2012
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so why is AMD adamant about not permanently dropping the price of 290x and insisting that it only a temporary manufacture promotion?

Are they counting on "team red" to carry their company?
 

Hauk

Platinum Member
Nov 22, 2001
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so why is AMD adamant about not permanently dropping the price of 290x and insisting that it only a temporary manufacture promotion?

Are they counting on "team red" to carry their company?

Reviewer speculated they could be waiting to see if nVidia has adequate initial supply of 980/970 gpus to meet demand. 780Ti supply at it's new price point would have to dry up in addition to Maxwell shortage. AMD could be taking advantage of the latter..
 

netxzero64

Senior member
May 16, 2009
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Thanks. I agree about physx on not being a huge factor due to number of games tested. Would have been better off, sure.
yeah it would have been nice though if phsyx were off but thats how they did it. the main point was the comparison of kepler's flagship and maxwell's.
This just proves how underwhelming the 980 is if you have a 680 or lower. I am very glad I managed to resist the urge to replace my 780.
you're still in good hands if you got the 780. the good news is that the owners for 780 cards who are looking to get a 970/980 will sell the 780 for a very nice price and probably lower or equal to 970 prices. SLI is favorable for 780 owners.