With the recent launch of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 960, there has been a lot of comment about whether the card is good value for money, whether you should spend a bit more and get a GTX 970, or go all out and sell a kidney for a GTX 980.
Today we look at the three new GTX 900-series cards and see how they stack up against one another in terms of stats, performance, and price.
Pricing and Specifications
The table below summarises the basic specifications and price range of the cards. Bear in mind that although the GTX 970 is advertised as a 4GB card, there have been many reports about it suffering from VRAM issues. To be safe, read that stat as 3.5GB.
|
Card
|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980
|
| Stream processors | 1,024 | 1,664 | 2,048 |
| Core Clock | 1,127MHz | 1,050MHz | 1,126MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1,178MHz | 1,178MHz | 1,216MHz |
| Memory Clock | 7GHz GDDR5 | 7GHz DDR5 | 7GHz DDR5 |
| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 256 bit | 256 bit |
| VRAM | 2GB | 4GB (advertised) | 4GB |
| Max Digital Resolution | 5120 x 3200 | 4096 x 2160 | 4096 x 2160 |
| Max VGA Resolution | 2048 x 1536 | 2048 x 1536 | 2048 x 1536 |
| Power Consumption | 120W | 145W | 165W |
| Price | R2,999 – R4,000 | R4,899 – R6,500 | R7,599 – R11,000 |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980
Performance
The hardware experts at Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry gave the GTX 980, 970, and 960 a good testing after they were released. Here are the results.
GTX 980
|
Game
|
Settings
|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 – FPS
|
| BioShock | Ultra DDOF 1920×1080 | 121.6 |
| Tomb Raider | Ultimate FXAA 1920×1080 | 91.1 |
| Battlefield 4 | Ultra 1920×1080 | 87.2 |
| Crysis 3 | Very High 1920×1080 | 77 |
| Crysis 3 | FXAA High Quality 3840×2160 | 36.4 |
| Metro: Last Light | High Quality 3840×2160 | 37.3 |
| Metro: Last Light | High Quality 2560×1440 | 32.6 |
Asus ROG Matrix GTX 980
GTX 970
|
Game
|
Settings
|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 – FPS
|
| BioShock | Ultra DDOF 1920×1080 | 111.1 |
| Tomb Raider | Ultimate FXAA 1920×1080 | 81.6 |
| Battlefield 4 | Ultra 1920×1080 | 77.3 |
| Crysis 3 | Very High 1920×1080 | 70.5 |
| Crysis 3 | FXAA High Quality 3840×2160 | 32 |
| Metro: Last Light | High Quality AAA 3840×2160 | 32.8 |
| Metro: Last Light | High Quality SSAA 2560×1440 | 29.9 |
MSI GTX 970
GTX 960
| Game | Settings | Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 – FPS |
| Battlefield 4 | Ultra, 4 x MSAA 1920 x 1080 | 48.6 |
| Crysis 3 | Very High, SMAA 1920 x 1080 | 47 |
| Assassin’s Creed Unity | Ultra, FXAA 1920 x 1080 | 43 |
| Far Cry 4 | Ultra, SMAA 1920 x 1080 | 50.8 |
| COD: Advanced Warfare | Max, SMAA 1920 x 1080 | 86.4 |
| Ryse: Son of Rome | High, SMAA 1920 x 1080 | 42.2 |
| Shadow of Mordor | Ultra, Medium Textures, no SSAA 1920 x 1080 | 53.2 |
| Tomb Raider | Ultimate, FXAA 1920 x 1080 | 65.7 |
| Metro Last Light Redux | Max, no SSAA 1920 x 1080 | 51.5 |
Asus Strix GTX 960
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