Nvidia recently unveiled its latest gaming graphics powerhouse – the GeForce GTX 980 Ti.
The emergence of the GTX 980 Ti follows the recent release of the GTX 960, 970, 980, and Titan X cards, with the Ti punted as delivering “an unbeatable 4K and virtual reality experience”.
4K gaming – 3840 x 2160 – and virtual reality are the latest benchmarks in PC gaming, and Nvidia’s GTX 980 Ti is set to target those who want both.
At R11,999 for an MSI or Gigabyte version of the card, gamers will ask themselves whether the price is worth the performance gains, though.
The GTX 980 Ti’s specifications are detailed in the table below.
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti | |
|---|---|
| CUDA Cores | 2816 |
| Base Clock | 1000MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1075MHz |
| VRAM | 6GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface Width | 384-bit |
| Maximum Digital Resolution | 5120 x 3200 |
| Maximum VGA Resolution | 2048 x 1536 |
| Multi-Monitor | 4 displays |
| Power Requirement | 250W |
| Minimum System Power | 600W |
| Dimensions | 115 x 266 x dual-width |
| Max GPU Temperature | 92C |
Performance
Nvidia’s promise of “new levels of performance and capabilities” was tested by hardware specialists Digital Foundry and Anandtech, which put the card through its paces at high resolutions.
The Digital Foundry tests were run in 4K, and used a gaming rig sporting an Intel Core i7-4790K (overclocked to 4.6GHz) and 16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM.
The card’s frame rate performance is detailed in the table below.
|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti – 4K (3840 x 2160)
|
GTX 980 Ti – FPS
|
GTX 980 Ti Overclocked – FPS
|
|---|---|---|
| The Witcher 3, High, HairWorks Off, Custom AA | 36.9 | 40.7 |
| Battlefield 4, High, Post-AA | 61.0 | 69.6 |
| Crysis 3, High, SMAA | 52.5 | 59.7 |
| Assassin’s Creed Unity, Very High, FXAA | 26.5 | 29.0 |
| Far Cry 4, Very High, SMAA | 47.1 | 50.9 |
| COD Advanced Warfare, Console Settings, FXAA | 86.9 | 96.9 |
| Ryse: Son of Rome, Normal, SMAA | 41.7 | 45.6 |
| Shadow of Mordor, High, High Textures, FXAA | 54.8 | 59.7 |
| Tomb Raider, Ultra, FXAA | 61.3 | 66.0 |
Anandtech also ran gaming tests in 4K, which are detailed in the table below.
The test rig used consisted of an Intel Core i7-4960X 4.2GHz, ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional motherboard, Samsung SSD 840 EVO, and 32GB G.Skill RipjawZ DDR3-1866 RAM.
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti – 4K (3840 x 2160) | FPS |
|---|---|
| Battlefield 4 – Ultra Quality | 56.5 |
| Crysis 3 – High Quality + FXAA | 40.9 |
| Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – Ultra Quality | 47.9 |
| Civilization: Beyond Earth – Ultra Quality | 70.5 |
| Dragon Age: Inquisition – Ultra Quality | 40.7 |
| Far Cry 4 – Ultra Quality | 40.6 |
South African pricing
At the time of writing, Rebel Tech and Evetech only had two version of the 980 Ti for sale – both R11,999. Wootware was offering the same cards at a slightly cheaper price, as shown below.
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti – R11,217 / R11,999
MSI GTX 980 Ti
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti – R11,704 / R11,999
Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti
The MSI Gaming 6G version
One version of the GTX 980 Ti which is yet to receive local pricing is the MSI Gaming 6G version of the card.
Besides the aesthetic improvements to the standard design of the Ti and clock frequency boosts, MSI has incorporated its Twin Frozr cooling to give gamers better heat management with less noise.
MSI GTX 980 Ti
MSI GTX 980 Ti
MSI GTX 980 Ti
This article originally appeared on MyBroadband and is republished with permission.
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