Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 4GB “Maxwell” (28nm) Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing (accurate at the time of writing)

The Nvidia GTX 980 has an MSRP of $549.99. Warranty services will vary depending on which graphics card brand you buy from. UK pricing is from £429.99.

Summary 

There’s no question that Nvidia’s GTX 980 is a worthy successor to the GTX 780. Maxwell’s second 28nm appearance in the high-end reveals incredible performance and overclockability is to be had with some seriously impressive power consumption numbers. While the reference design runs quiet and has only minor thermal throttling, the low TDP means Nvidia partners will have the scope to produce some seriously impressive overclocked models with custom coolers. The GTX 980 is an exciting all-round enthusiast card not just because it delivers on performance and overclockability but because the level of efficiency it offers seems almost impossible given current generation products. The fact we haven’t even seen a die-shrink speaks volumes about what a great job Nvidia’s engineers have done to eek the very most out of Maxwell.

At $549.99 is the GTX 980 going to appeal to the masses? Probably not. However, given Nvidia’s pricing patterns of late I think that the price is certainly fair, especially considering nothing Nvidia offer at the moment can beat the GTX 980 for less money and the same applies for AMD’s offerings. So not only does it win on performance and pricing, it also has a huge win in the power efficiency department meaning you can buy a cheaper power supply, get cheaper electricity bills and have greater longevity to your overall system because components will run cooler.

It’s hard to place my finger on what makes the GTX 980 so special, but let’s just say it feels like a well crafted and refined product. Nvidia’s brand loyalty is impressive in the PC desktop space, you only have to check Steam’s Hardware Survey or IDG & Gartners discrete graphics shipment reports to see what I mean, and on this product’s performance it is clear to see why that is the case. The GTX 980 lays an interesting foundation for the future. How will AMD respond? Will we see a Maxwell GM210 part? Will we see Maxwell shrunk to a smaller process node? 20nm? 16nm?

If the GTX 980 has taught me anything about Nvidia products, it is that you should Never Settle (sorry AMD) for anything less than the best on the market. The best is what the GTX 980 is right now and that’s what the GTX 780 Ti and GTX 690 were when they were both released. Of course, there’s no ruling AMD out until we see what they have to offer with their next-gen products. but what we can say is Nvidia have set the bar very high.

Pros

• Unrivaled power efficiency
• Efficient performance
• High quality construction: now includes a backplate
• Cheaper than its predecessor’s launch price
• Improved display output options
• Huge overclocking potential
• Video memory upgrade – now 4GB
• Improved compute performance

Cons

• Stock cooler thermal throttles a little
• Loses a bit of ground at higher resolutions

“Nvidia’s GTX 980 reveals the true nature of the Maxwell architecture; that of unbelievably efficient performance. There’s more of everything you want (performance, memory, compute and display outputs) for less of everything you don’t want (heat, power consumption and noise). Now where did I put my wallet….”

Thank you to Nvidia for providing this review sample.