Where's the GTX 980 8GB?

[frowertr]

Back in October/November there were rumors that NV was allowing the OEMs to build out a 8GB version of the 980s. Were these unfounded rumors? I haven't seen anything more recent to corroborate those statements.

 

[R0H1T]

You mean 8GB or really just the 8MB, anyway with color compression doubt there'll be any need for 8GB VRAM plus if the leaks are anything to go by they'll have to release TITAN II & big core Maxwell asap to fight the 390x sometime next year.

 

[RussianSensation]

Doesn't make sense at this point with 980 going for $550-600 as it is. It will make sense to bring out the 980 8GB when 390X/GM200 comes out so that way it's not priced in the ludicrous realm of $650 given its a mid-range card after all. I am honestly not sure how much benefit 8GB will be for a card of 980's speed. I would recommend spending that extra premium for 8GB towards a faster card in 2015 to begin with.

 

[tential]

Doesn't make sense at this point with 980 going for $550-600 as it is. It will make sense to bring out the 980 8GB when 390X/GM200 comes out so that way it's not priced in the ludicrous realm of $650 given its a mid-range card after all. I am honestly not sure how much benefit 8GB will be for a card of 980's speed. I would recommend spending that extra premium for 8GB towards a faster card in 2015 to begin with.

But gaming laptops are getting the 8GB version!

 

[RussianSensation]

But gaming laptops are getting the 8GB version!

Perhaps because NV already sold 870M as 6GB versions, they wanted to market GM204 with 8GB. Perhaps because gaming laptops with GM204 already cost $1500+ USD, charging $100 extra for the 8GB translates into a $1600+ laptop which is a lot less noticeable than going from a $550-600 to a $650-700 card. Right now the 980M is an indisputable leader but ont he desktop the 980 is barely better than the 290X. Maybe NV is purposely leaving this card to play on the desktop later as a possible response to 300 series (drop prices on 980 and double the VRAM). I really don't have a solid explanation as to why the 980 wasn't offered with 8GB to begin with.

 

[digitaldurandal]

But gaming laptops are getting the 8GB version!

If there is one thing they like to do, it is to put an overkill amount of VRAM on both low-mid level cards and laptop cards. People see 24 Gb of VRAM and man that 630 must be quick!

 

[frowertr]

I was looking at it from the 3D rendering perspective. Would be nice to have a card that has 6GB or greater of memory that doesn't cost $1000+ like the Titan Black does. I started playing around with Blender the last couple months so I am looking to build out a new rig specific for that purpose and I can only use a NV GPU for the rendering process. AMD's won't work.

 

[Pneumothorax]

Isn't 8gb going to much more future proof? Accepting that game devs are lazy and will be primarily developing for the ps4/xbone with their 8gb of vram, wouldn't a 8gb 980 be much quicker than 4gb one in 2 years? Isn't there's already a decent gap between the 2gb vs 3/4gb of previous gen in today's games?

 

[R0H1T]

Isn't 8gb going to much more future proof? Accepting that game devs are lazy and will be primarily developing for the ps4/xbone with their 8gb of vram, wouldn't a 8gb 980 be much quicker than 4gb one in 2 years? Isn't there's already a decent gap between the 2gb vs 3/4gb of previous gen in today's games?

No, only two 980's in SLI will actually be able to utilize 8GB of VRAM properly, not to mention SLI perf scales poorly as compared to XDMA. Also only Ultra settings or 4K require such high amounts of VRAM for most high end games atm, sure next year or 2016 will probably set a minimum of 4GB VRAM as minimum system requirement in certain AAA titles but that'll still not be the norm.

 

[Black Octagon]

If I gamed at 4k resolution (ha!) and if you could convince me to buy NV (HA!) I'd be worried that the most I can currently get from a non-Titan card is 4GB.

 

[Rvenger]

GTX 780 came in 6gb as well.

 

[RussianSensation]

GTX 780 came in 6gb as well.

Unfortunately that was a money grab and it was almost better if NV didn't introduce that card to begin with. Many gamers ended up paying $500-550 for those cards and now a $350 970 beats it easily. At first I was a bit disappointed that 980 didnt' ship with 8GB given its price but looking at its 4K performance, it doesn't really need more than 4GB since it's just not fast enough. I honestly think NV might do a similar strategy to 680-> 770 where they'll refresh a 980 and provide more VRAM at much lower price of say $399-449 once competition picks up in 2015.

 

[frowertr]

I honestly think NV might do a similar strategy to 680-> 770 where they'll refresh a 980 and provide more VRAM at much lower price of say $399-449 once competition picks up in 2015.

This would be great if it happens. I'm all for going with a SLI 980 setup if they would pack more VRAM onto it.