The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 performance review

** Note - This review was conducted with an early set of drivers and doesn't represent the potential of the new card. We've since tested the card again on 2nd October with newer drivers that represent its capabilities better.

 

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 performance review

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics card marks the first attempt by the company to make full use of the Maxwell architecture. However, it is not the first to make use of this new GPU architecture as that honor goes to the GeForce GTX 750 Ti. In fact, the GTX 980 and GTX 970 are based on the second generation Maxwell design, which has numerous improvements and new features that you can read up on here.

To date, the GeForce GTX 980's new GM204 GPU is the fastest chip from the GeForce series. For the GTX 980, it has a base clock speed of 1127MHz, and a 1216MHz boost clock. Despite its sky-high clock speeds, the rated TDP of the card is a low 165W. One of the touted features is the new card's improved power efficiency. As we know that the Maxwell architecture is based on the same 28nm manufacturing process as the previous generation Kepler GPU; such improvements come entirely from the strengths of the new microarchitecture.

The Maxwell architecture features a reworked Streaming Multiprocessor (SM) known as the Maxwell Streaming Multiprocessor (SMM). The GM204 features 16 SMMs, that make up four Graphics Processing Clusters (GPC) that are also found on Kepler and Fermi GPUs. However, the GM204 GPU has only four 64-bit memory controllers, like the GTX 680 chip, and a collective memory bus that is 256-bit wide. For the first generation Kepler GPU, the reduced memory bus was attributed to its targeted (and reduced) die size of 294mm squared; however, with larger die size of the GM204 (384mm squared), the number of memory controllers remained the same. But the GTX 980 video memory capacity stands at 4GB, with a clock speed of 7010MHz to provide a rather low memory bandwidth of 224.4GB/s - roughly a third that of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti.

The increased capacity of its video memory buffer will be handy as the new card is touted to be able to drive a pair of Utra HD 4K displays at 60Hz refresh rate. In addition, the new HDMI 2.0 standard is supported - this new standard will be able to support 4K video at up to 60fps. In terms of video connectivity options, there are three DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, one HDMI 2.0 connector, and one dual-link DVI port. The maximum resolution supported by the card is a whopping 5120 x 3200 pixels!

Here's a look at how the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 card compares against the competing cards:

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Test Setup

These are the specifications of our graphics testbed:

• Intel Core i7-3960X (3.3GHz)
• ASUS P9X79 Pro (Intel X79 chipset) Motherboard
• 4 x 2GB DDR3-1600 G.Skill Ripjaws Memory
• Seagate 7200.10 200GB SATA hard drive (OS)
• Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 RPM 1TB SATA hard drive (Benchmarks + Games)
• Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit

Below is the list of cards we'll be testing. For the reference GTX 780 Ti card, we had the ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB GDDR5. We also threw in a typical end-user GTX 780 Ti card, which is the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti Windforce 3x OC. The top-end AMD R9 290X "Hawaii" card representative was the ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II OC, in order to have a gauge of the GTX 980 performance against rival AMD.

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 343.91)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 340.52)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti Windforce 3x OC 3GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 340.52)
• ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II OC 4GB GDDR5 (AMD Catalyst 14.4)

Benchmarks

Here's the full list of benchmarks that we'll be using for our assessment:-

• Futuremark 3DMark 2013
• Crysis 3
• Call of Duty: Ghosts
• Thief
• Hitman: Absolution

For our temperature, power consumption and overclocking testing, 3DMark 2013 was used.

3DMark 2013 Results

First off was the 3DMark (2013) Fire Strike benchmark, which is made up of two tests; Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme that put the grapihcs cards through their paces, with extreme levels of tessellation and volumetric illumination, as well as complex smoke simulation using compute shaders and dynamic particle illumination.

The Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Windforce 3x OC card took the top spot for both tests; however, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 was trailing right behind the winner. Although the new GM204 GPU of the GTX 980 boasts of higher clock speeds (1126MHz for its base clock; boost clock speed of 1216MHz) than the rest of the competing cards, we felt that its 256-bit memory bus width may possibly limit its gaming performance. With such a bus width, its memory bandwidth is 224.4GB/s, which is the lowest of the lot. This is despite having 4GB of GDDR5 video memory that has been rated to operate at 7010MHz.

From the first test, it appears the GeForce GTX 980 card is off to a shaky start; let us delve into more real-world gaming benchmarks to see where it stands!

Crysis 3 Results

For this benchmark test setup, we used the Fraps utility to measure the average frame rates churned out by each card at a stipulated rendered cutscene from Crysis 3. The game itself is driven by the CryEngine 3, with extreme amounts of tessellation, per-pixel per-object motion blur, Bokeh Depth of Field, displacement mapping on small terrain, particle and volumetric lighting and fog shadows, improved dynamic cloth and vegetation, dynamic caustics and diffuse shadows.

Even the stock GeForce GTX 780 Ti overtook the GTX 980; at the highest test settings, the latter was the only card to turn in a sub-20fps frame rate. Based on past experience, Crysis 3 has been the stronghold for NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics cards. For this round, the GTX 980 card had the unenviable honor of losing ground to the rival, top-end ASUS Radeon R9 290X.

Thief Results

According to Eidos Montreal, Thief was built on a modified version of Unreal Engine 3. Since the release of AMD Catalyst 14.2 Beta drivers, owners of supported AMD desktop GPUs from the current Radeon R9 and R7 series, to the previous generation Radeon HD 5000 range, will be able to enjoy special graphical effects for this particular title.

Again, the performance of the GTX 980 card was most lackluster at the highest game settings where its recorded frame rate, of 34fps, dipped dangerously close to the 30fps level. Any score lower than this level would have noticeable video stutter.

Call of Duty: Ghosts Results

Our latest gaming benchmark features the IW6 engine, which has been updated from the one that powered the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The newer game title supports NVIDIA's exclusive technologies like TXAA anti-aliasing, 3D Vision, SLI and PhysX. Despite its spanking new hardware improvements of its Maxwell architecture, the GTX 980 graphics card continued to languish.

Hitman: Absolution Results

The Hitman: Absolution game title features IO Interactive's proprietary Glacier2 engine; this hardware-intensive engine is able to render up to 1200 NPCs simultaneously. Besides the massive crowd of NPCs, it also features Reflective Shadow Mapping (RSM), Direct Compute accelerated Bokeh Depth of Field, extreme tessellation and Ambient Occlusion.

Besides having a comparatively narrower memory bus width of 256-bit, the GTX 980's GM204 GPU also has a CUDA core count of 2048, which is even lower than the GTX 780's count of 2304 CUDA cores. As a result, the gaming performance of GTX 980 has suffered throughout our testing. Perhaps the touted power efficiency of the new Maxwell GPUs have been pursued too far by NVIDIA, let us proceed to the next section to find out!

Temperature

The stock cooler of the GTX 980 appears to be identical to the one that was first used on the GTX Titan. According to NVIDIA, the cooler "consists of a copper vapor chamber and dual-slot aluminum heatsink along with a blower-style fan." Therefore, we expected its operating temperature to be the same, or even lower than the GTX 780 Ti card. Instead, the GTX 980 recorded a slightly higher temperature reading of 81 degrees Celsius.

Power Consumption

As we had mentioned earlier, the touted power efficiency of the new GTX 980 showed its mettle in this test, not to mentioned the new card has a low TDP of 165W. In comparison, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti has a TDP of 250W as like any GK110-based graphics card. The AMD Radeon R9 290X has a TDP of 290W. According to our tests, the latest NVIDIA card consumed the least power, at both idle and low levels.

Overclocking

There isn't an explicit mention of GPU Boost 2.0 in the GTX 980 literature; however, it's safe to assume this feature is alive and kicking in the Maxwell architecture. In addition, given the low TDP of the GM204, there is substantial headroom for overclocking to boost the performance of the GTX 980. We were able to overclock the GTX 980 to a high of 1361MHz for its base clock; while its boost clock reached a high of 1450MHz. For its video frame buffer, we managed to overclock the memory modules to a high of 7500MHz, from their 7010MHz base clock speed.

In this overclocked state, the GTX 980 managed to beat the Gigabyte 780 Ti at the Fire Strike Extreme tests, and against the ASUS R9 290X, it managed to outclass its AMD rival on all fronts. According to our test results, the performance gain from overclocking averaged at about 11%. In comparison, the overclocked GTX 780 Ti  had an average gain of approximately 20%, the Gigabyte card gained about 8.5% when overclocked, and the overclocked ASUS Radeon R9 290X experienced an average gain of 5.5%.

Conclusion

When the GeForce GTX 780 Ti and GeForce GTX 780 were launched, they were priced at US$699 and US$649 respectively. Locally, these two cards were offered at around the S$1000 mark. Comparatively, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 has a launch price of US$549, which is substantially lower and also tells us that NVIDIA themselves are not blind to the fact that their new GeForce GTX 980 is not entirely competitive on the performance front. Locally, we would expect the GeForce GTX 980 be priced lower in the high three figure range. As for the competition from AMD, the current crop of R9 290X cards are retailing at slightly lower prices, hence they still remain very good value for money even if they are less power efficient.

We witnessed the power efficiency of the new GM204 GPU, but its support for advanced sampling control that will enable features like Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA) is evidently lost on current game titles. According to NVIDIA, this new AA technique leverages on both new AA algorithms and the hardware improvements made possible by Maxwell's new microarchitecture. The result is the ability to deliver the best image quality, and at the same time, offer better performance over the current MSAA technique. Therefore, in order to enjoy such quality images that may translate to better gaming experience to the expert eye, the game engines and their respective APIs need to be updated in order to take advantage of these new features. Therefore, it could be a while before we will see full support from the game developers.

In terms of video connectivity, its built-in support for HMDI 2.0 makes the GTX 980 card ready to drive 4K displays, at the refresh rate of 60Hz, and with higher 4:4:4 color sampling. The previous HDMI 1.4 standard can only support such displays at both lower color sampling and refresh rates. This makes the card ready for true 4K gaming experience. In additional, the GTX 980 card sports 4GB of GDDR5 video memory. This is a necessity as the card supports up to four Ultra HD 4K displays, when paired with a 4K MST (multi-stream transport) hub. By itself, the card supports a maximum resolution of 5120 x 3200 pixels @ 60Hz. In all, its support for next-generation ultra-high resolution displays is good.

According to NVIDIA, the GTX 980 is supposed to succeed the GTX 780 Ti and the GTX 780, whereas the GTX 970 will replace the GTX 770. When the GTX 780 Ti was launched, the idea of owning a pair of them, installed in a  2-way SLI configuration, was the ideal setup for Ultra HD or 4K gaming. Now with the GTX 980, the same gaming experience is possible with a single discrete card. But based on its performance, we are doubtful a single GeForce GTX 980 will be up to the task, especially if you want to play at high graphics settings - it looks like an SLI setup would still be required for the best experience.

Based on the improvements made on the new Maxwell architecture, the GTX 980 is a natural choice for those upgrading from the older Kepler-based GPU like the GTX 680. However, owners of the current GeForce GTX 780 Ti and GTX 780 cards may want to hold out for a while, as these cards still rule the roost when it comes to outright performance. That said, the new GeForce GTX 980 somewhat redeems itself with its high levels of overclocking and it will be interesting to see how add-in card partners would take advantage of that with their factory-overclocked cards.

 

** Note - This review was conducted with an early set of drivers and doesn't represent the potential of the new card. We've since tested the card again on 2nd October with newer drivers that represent its capabilities better.

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