Yes. We finally got out hands on one! About time, yeah??
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 ‘Maxwell’ GPU
I already posted a proper introduction for Maxwell architecture two months ago. I also posted the packaging and the pictures of the reference version over here, along with more details in our work-in-progress BBQ database. Usually, all of this would be under a single review for easy reference, but we got the card rather late post the release. As an end result, it would look fragmented. I know the frustration. You’re not the only one. When I sent two separate links to Nvidia India’s PR, I sensed an ‘Is that it?’ tone (nah, it’s cool).
Unfortunately, we didn’t get the Nvidia GTX 980 GPU at a time where we could have published the review when the NDA was lifted just like how many websites do. But on the bright side, thanks to a wise man I also got my hands on Zotac GTX 780Ti Extreme AMP! Edition GPU. Therefore, I was able to compare the Nvidia GTX 980 GPU with the older GTX 780Ti so that it would be a proper full-fledged performance overview. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Nvidia concentrated more on power efficiency with this card. But as always, you would like to know the performance of it. Reference Nvidia GTX 980 in comparison to Zotac GTX 780Ti Extreme AMP! Edition.
There’s also one more advantage. I tested it and benchmarked both the cards with the much newer GeForce 344.75 WHQL drivers.
| GTX 980 Engine Specs: | |
| CUDA Cores | 2048 |
| Base Clock (MHz) | 1126 |
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 1216 |
| Texture Fill Rate (GigaTexels/sec) | 144 |
| GTX 980 Memory Specs: | |
| Memory Clock | 7.0 Gbps |
| Standard Memory Config | 4 GB |
| Memory Interface | GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface Width | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) | 224 |
| GTX 980 Technology Support: | |
| NVIDIA SLI® Ready | Yes (4-way) |
| NVIDIA G-Sync™-Ready | Yes |
| NVIDIA GameStream™-Ready | Yes |
| GeForce ShadowPlay™ | Yes |
| NVIDIA GPU Boost™ | 2.0 |
| Dynamic Super Resolution | Yes |
| MFAA | Yes |
| NVIDIA GameWorks™ | Yes |
| Microsoft DirectX | 12 API |
| OpenGL | 4.4 |
| CUDA | Yes |
| Bus Support | PCI Express 3.0 |
| OS Certification | Windows 8 & 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Linux, FreeBSD x86 |
| Display Support: | |
| Maximum Digital Resolution | 4096×2160 |
| Maximum VGA Resolution | 2048×1536 |
| Standard Display Connectors | Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2 |
| Multi Monitor | 4 displays |
| HDCP | Yes |
| Audio Input for HDMI | Internal |
| GTX 980 Graphics Card Dimensions: | |
| Height | 4.376 inches |
| Length | 10.5 inches |
| Width | Dual-slot |
| Thermal and Power Specs: | |
| Maximum GPU Tempurature (in C) | 98 C |
| Graphics Card Power (W) | 165 W |
| Minimum System Power Requirement (W) | 500 W |
| Supplementary Power Connectors | 2x 6-pin PCIE |
| GTX 980 | GTX 970 | GTX 780 Ti | |
| Core Clock | 1126MHz | 1050MHz | 875MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1216MHz | 1178MHz | 928Mhz |
| Memory Clock |
7GHz GDDR5 |
||
| Memory Bus Width |
256-bit |
384-bit | |
| CUDA Cores | 2048 | 1664 | 2880 |
| Texture Units | 128 | 104 | 240 |
| ROPs |
64 |
48 | |
| VRAM |
4GB |
3GB | |
| FP64 |
1/32 FP32 |
1/24 FP32 | |
| TDP | 165W | 145W | 250W |
| GPU |
GM204 |
GK110 | |
| Transistor Count |
5.2B |
7.1B | |
Before proceeding, understand GTX 780Ti- the reference version- has an interesting TDP rating of 250 watts. GTX 980 has 165W. Yowsa! That’s a big drop! Note that Zotac GTX 780Ti Extreme AMP! Edition has a base core clock of 1006 MHz and boost of 1072MHz.
Moving ahead…
Nvidia’s first gen Maxwell cards were GeForce GTX 750 and 750 Ti which used the GM107 core. The cards were based on 28nm fabrication process. NoW, these are GM204- the second-generation Maxwell architecture based cards. Comparing a reference to reference specs, GTX 980 is bit faster than GTX 780 Ti, but the main feature of this core is more about better power efficiency.
If we’re talking about API, this Maxwell cards has full support for DX11.2 and DX11.3. It should be noted that DX11.3 will be coming for Windows 8.1, but it goes without saying that Microsoft’s future implementation DX12 will bring a lot of noteworthy feature sets. Nvidia GTX 970 and 980 are the cards that will support DX11.3 and DX12. Of course, it all depends on which games take advantage of these feature sets, and how much detail the card can produce. By the time that happens, Pascal might come out and AMD Radeon would have something up its sleeve.
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