Introduction
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980 Ti was released this June. 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 Zotac's flagship GeForce GTX 980 Ti using the "Amp! Extreme" branding. The card comes with a nice triple-slot all-metal cooler, large GPU overclock out of the box, and overclocked memory.
With a retail price of $680, the ZOTAC GTX 980 Ti Amp! Extreme is also cheaper than competing models, like the MSI GTX 980 Ti Lightning for a whopping $100 more.
GTX 980 Ti Market Segment Analysis | GeForce GTX 970 | Radeon R9 290X | Radeon R9 390X | GeForce GTX 780 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 | Radeon R9 Fury | Radeon R9 Fury X | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | ZOTAC GTX 980 Ti Amp Extreme | GeForce GTX Titan X | Radeon R9 295X2 |
---|
Shader Units | 1664 | 2816 | 2816 | 2880 | 2048 | 3584 | 4096 | 2816 | 2816 | 3072 | 2x 2816 |
---|
ROPs | 56 | 64 | 64 | 48 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 96 | 96 | 96 | 2x 64 |
---|
Graphics Processor | GM204 | Hawaii | Hawaii | GK110 | GM204 | Fiji | Fiji | GM200 | GM200 | GM200 | 2x Hawaii |
---|
Transistors | 5200M | 6200M | 6200M | 7100M | 5200M | 8900M | 8900M | 8000M | 8000M | 8000M | 2x 6200M |
---|
Memory Size | 4096 MB | 4096 MB | 8192 MB | 3072 MB | 4096 MB | 4096 MB | 4096 MB | 6144 MB | 6144 MB | 12288 MB | 2x 4096 MB |
---|
Memory Bus Width | 256 bit | 512 bit | 512 bit | 384 bit | 256 bit | 4096 bit | 4096 bit | 384 bit | 384 bit | 384 bit | 2x 512 bit |
---|
Core Clock | 1051 MHz+ | 1000 MHz | 1050 MHz | 876 MHz+ | 1126 MHz+ | 1000 MHz | 1050 MHz | 1000 MHz+ | 1253 MHz+ | 1000 MHz+ | 1018 MHz |
---|
Memory Clock | 1750 MHz | 1250 MHz | 1500 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1750 MHz | 500 MHz | 500 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1805 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1250 MHz |
---|
Price | $290 | $300 | $400 | $390 | $470 | $520 | $630 | $620 | $680 | $1000 | $620 |
---|
Packaging
Contents
You will receive:
- Graphics card + driver CD
- Documentation
- 2x PCIe power cable
- DVI adapter
The Card
Zotac's Amp! Extreme is huge, just look at the size of the slot cover and PCIe connector! You will find a nicely styled metal backplate on the back. Dimensions of the card are 31 cm x 14 cm.
Installation requires three slots in your system.
Display connectivity options include a DVI and 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.
You may combine up to 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).