Introduction
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980 Ti was released just a few weeks ago. Built on the same GM200 GPU as the GeForce Titan X, it has fewer shaders (2816 vs 3072). While the GTX 980 Ti's GPU is still produced on a 28 nanometer process at TSMC in Taiwan, it comes with the fantastic power efficiency optimizations of the NVIDIA Maxwell architecture, which promises lower power draw, higher performance, and reduced fan noise all at the same time.
Our review of the reference design GTX 980 Ti revealed that it is barely slower than the Titan X, which means custom designs could surpass Titan X performance at a much lower price point.
Today, we are reviewing the Palit GTX 980 Ti SuperJetStream, one of the few available triple-slot GTX 980 Ti iterations. The card comes with a sizable overclock of 1152 MHz on the GPU, but memory remains at the stock 1750 MHz.
The Palit GTX 980 Ti SuperJetStream can be found in Europe for €700 including VAT, which is significantly cheaper than competing cards: EVGA's ACX 2.0 can be had for €715, Gigabyte's G1 Gaming clocks in at €718, MSI's Gaming costs €724, and ASUS' STRIX retails for €789. So we will be working with a USD price of $660 for the rest of this review.
GTX 980 Ti Market Segment Analysis | | Radeon R9 290 | GeForce GTX 970 | Radeon R9 290X | GeForce GTX 780 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | Palit GTX 980 Ti Super JetStream | GeForce GTX Titan X | Radeon R9 295X2 |
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| Shader Units | 2560 | 1664 | 2816 | 2880 | 2048 | 2816 | 2816 | 3072 | 2x 2816 |
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| ROPs | 64 | 56 | 64 | 48 | 64 | 96 | 96 | 96 | 2x 64 |
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| Graphics Processor | Hawaii | GM204 | Hawaii | GK110 | GM204 | GM200 | GM200 | GM200 | 2x Hawaii |
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| Transistors | 6200M | 5200M | 6200M | 7100M | 5200M | 8000M | 8000M | 8000M | 2x 6200M |
|---|
| Memory Size | 4096 MB | 4096 MB | 4096 MB | 3072 MB | 4096 MB | 6144 MB | 6144 MB | 12288 MB | 2x 4096 MB |
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| Memory Bus Width | 512 bit | 256 bit | 512 bit | 384 bit | 256 bit | 384 bit | 384 bit | 384 bit | 2x 512 bit |
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| Core Clock | 947 MHz | 1051 MHz+ | 1000 MHz | 876 MHz+ | 1126 MHz+ | 1000 MHz+ | 1152 MHz+ | 1000 MHz+ | 1018 MHz |
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| Memory Clock | 1250 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1250 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1250 MHz |
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| Price | $250 | $310 | $300 | $390 | $480 | $650 | $660 | $1050 | $620 |
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Packaging
Contents
You will receive:
- Graphics card
- Driver CD + documentation
- PCI-Express power cable
- DVI adapter
The Card
Palit is using the same cooler design as on their GTX 970/980 cards with their GTX 980 Ti SuperJetstream. The shiny top-plate is made from metal, and the rest of the cooler is out of plastic. You'll find a baseplate on the back. Dimensions of the card are 28.0 cm x 13.5 cm.
Installation requires three slots in your system.
Display connectivity options include one DVI port, one HDMI port, and three DisplayPorts.
The GPU also includes an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 2.0 compatible, which includes HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies support.
NVIDIA has confirmed Quad-SLI support, so you may combine four GTX 980 Ti cards in a multi-GPU SLI configuration.
Pictured above are the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (
front,
back).