NVIDIA GPU Generational Performance Part 2 @ [H]

[FrgMstr]

NVIDIA GPU Generational Performance Part 2

In Part 2 of our NVIDIA GPU Generational Performance evaluation today we are going to cover the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, GeForce GTX 980 Ti, and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. We will test all three video cards in fourteen games at 1440p and 4K to see how performance has evolved over the past five years from GPU to GPU.

If you like our content, please support HardOCP on Patreon.

 

[thenapalm]

Oh yeah? My 970 can play Half life 2 in 4k at 100+ fps

Thanks for these write-ups. This is great stuff.
I may have missed it, but why were the Battlefield 1 results presented in a bar graph while all others in a line?

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Oh yeah? My 970 can play Half life 2 in 4k at 100+ fps

Thanks for these write-ups. This is great stuff.
I may have missed it, but why were the Battlefield 1 results presented in a bar graph while all others in a line?

it's because they're testing in multiplayer so there's no way to create a consistent graph. they just use the average frame rate over multiple runs if i remember correctly. they started doing it back with BF4(can't remember if they did the same with BF3).

 

[DooLocsta]

Another great write up, thanks for taking the time to show me how much I will really gain by updating from the 980Ti to the 1080Ti. I can't believe it is THAT much faster.

 

[Brent_Justice]

it's because they're testing in multiplayer so there's no way to create a consistent graph. they just use the average frame rate over multiple runs if i remember correctly. they started doing it back with BF4(can't remember if they did the same with BF3).

Bing, we test real-world multiplayer runs, which are a mess on the graphs, so we report just the average.

 

[Gamer237]

Nice review! To be honest the 980ti is totally sufficient for 1440p if your playing single player non competitive games or mmo’s. I know it’s gonna be a struggle waiting for the next 1180ti for another year or so but right now I literally do not see the need to upgrade from my 980ti. Although if new games like cyberpunk and metro exodus can’t maintain an average of 30fps or above with ultra settings at 1440p I’ll probably upgrade ASAP to the latest and greatest regardless of cost. People always complain, and I’m guilty of this too, that upgrading your PC is a financial strain but honestly if you purchase top of the line components they could very wel last you 3-4 years depending on your tolerance for average FPS and maximum eye candy.

 

[thenapalm]

Bing, we test real-world multiplayer runs, which are a mess on the graphs, so we report just the average.

Understood, thanks. I don't play the Battlefields so I didn't realize it was an online-only title.

 

[DejaWiz]

Being a 980Ti owner, I swell for an upgrade to a 1080Ti. I may hold off until the next gen drops, but that is going to depend on the new price points, because I want to budget in a 1440p 144Hz IPS display.

 

[Armenius]

Understood, thanks. I don't play the Battlefields so I didn't realize it was an online-only title.

They're not, but [H] tests in multiplayer because that is where the most playtime is going to be generated by players, and thus more representative of the real world experience.

 

[FlawleZ]

They're not, but [H] tests in multiplayer because that is where the most playtime is going to be generated by players, and thus more representative of the real world experience.

I believe the MP is more strenuous on the CPU as well. The Frostbite engine does a good job of taking advantage of multiple threads.

This was yet another awesome installment in the GPU comparisons over time. Looking forward to the AMD review.

 

[GoodBoy]

Love you guys.

When the 1180 or 2080 whatever it will be called finally comes out, be nice to have these exact games tested to make that generation %increase in performance measurement again

 

[tsuehpsyde]

Did a HardForum member loan a 780 Ti for these tests? I didn't see a shoutout anywhere.

 

[FrgMstr]

Did a HardForum member loan a 780 Ti for these tests? I didn't see a shoutout anywhere.

Yes he did, and we bought him beer. You need more than beer in your life Croak?

 

[gan7114]

Great review again. I'm pleasantly surprised at the 4K performance of the 1080 Ti. It's higher than I thought it would be, and those percentage increases over the 1080 are impressive. Makes me want to upgrade from my 970 to a 1080 Ti.

On the down side, it's a bummer to think that we potentially won't be seeing the 1180 Ti until the end of the 2019...

Maybe after the AMD write up, [H] could do an MMO specific review with some of the big ones out there- FFXIV, WoW, and GW2 to name a few. I think it'd be an interesting read since MMOs usually increase their hardware requirements every couple years by way of new expansions, even though some tend to be more CPU bound in their performance. An added benefit too is that BfA also releases next week. Just food for thought.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

Makes me want to upgrade from my 970 to a 1080 Ti.

I upgraded from 970 SLI to the 1080 Ti (under water with 2,000MHz core), night and day. And it's still only 'just enough' for modern games at 1440p165.

 

[LancerVI]

Excellent article. Enjoyed reading it. Thanks.

 

[R_Type]

I love these left field articles. Real break from the norm you only really get. Great job guys thanks for the [H]ard work

 

[martinmsj]

Thanks for the 980 TI comparison. I have a Titan X and can more or less see what ballpark I'm in.

Maybe I should of loaned you the Titan X

 

[ljppkgfgsc]

I really enjoyed this article, but I think the one major thing lacking in these generational comparisons is overclocking potential of the chips with aftermarket coolers (which represents the majority of cards and of actual conditions of enthusiast’s setups). As an owner of the Gaming G1 980 ti and a reference 1080 ti I think the increase in generational improvement is great but slightly overestimated in this article. Looking at other reviews and from my experience here is a rough summary of increased performance from overclocking on aftermarket ti’s from reference design.

780 ti +20%

980 ti +30%

1080 ti +17%

1180 ti +10%???Potentially trending downward with precision boost 4.0???

If these additional overclock potentials were included in the comparison of the generational gains, the 980 ti is just as an amazing jump over the 780 ti as the 1080 ti is to the 980 ti especially in modern games. At least that is my opinion. The 980 ti is unrivaled as an overclocker, 1080 ti… not so much.

PS. I loved this article so much that I joined the forum just to comment…. Nice work HardOCP, keep up the good work!!!

 

[FrgMstr]

I think the increase in generational improvement is great but slightly overestimated in this article.

We did not make estimations. All our data is based on real-world gameplay.

That all said, we did not address any overclocking in this review, but I do see what you are asking for. Maybe when we have another couple weeks free to look at that particular case.

 

[Brackle]

Man damn good review. Can't wait to get my step-up 1080ti now! Looks like I picked a perfect card for my Gsync monitor.

Thanks Brent for putting in all the work!

 

[Nebulous]

Wow thanks for all that info! Good to know at least my 1070 will still hang with the big dawgs. [H]ardOCP is the shiznit when it comes to time consuming info for us!

 

[SnowBeast]

Yep, I just threw the 980Ti in the garbage...NEXT. (I kid) After seeing how long it is for the Ti version, I can't wait this time next year. 1080Ti or the new card.

It's nice a site takes the time to give us older card holders an idea where we are in performance today. Thanks for the strenuous testing. That has to be painful going through this many games on such slow cards like the 780Ti and sometimes the 980Ti. Patience, most would have given up on after the first 3 tests. Thank you and great job!

 

[sleepybp]

Great article and presentation of the data Brent and Kyle!
I am hoping to get a 1080ti for less than the currrent MSRP which has held stable far too long for my liking.

1080ti is a beast, perhaps too much of a beast because many gamers will not see the need to upgrade to the more expensive 1180 series (unless gaming in 4k).

 

[MrC4]

How I used to view my 980ti......

How I view my 980ti now......

 

[Stoly]

I assume a follow up article with AMD cards is coming, right? I'm lookig forward to it

 

[Chimpee]

Here is an interesting video I found that compares the 980 ti vs 1080 ti with aftermarket coolers and overclocked. Not all exactly the same games but quite a few are the same. Shows a difference of 40-50% at 1440p which is quite a bit lower than 70% when comparing the reference designs.

I am fairly certain this person who did the comparison doesn't know what he is doing especially if he expects me to believe 1080TI barely best 980TI in Hitman.

 

[SIS]

The difference between GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 780 performance pales in comparison to what the GeForce GTX 1080 brought to the table. Even though Pascal was a refresh of Maxwell, the gains in performance were much larger than the jump from Kepler to Maxwell.

As it should be, since the first two were both on 28nm and were using GDDR5.

 

[DrezKill]

I assume a follow up article with AMD cards is coming, right? I'm lookig forward to it

They mention that on the last page of the article.

As with part 1, I am still in shock at the major jump in performance from Maxwell v2 to Pascal, than from Kepler to Maxwell v2. I really do wonder if the same thing will happen next time, where introducing a new architecture doesn't give us as much of a bump in performance as refining and improving the existing architecture. Thanks a ton Brent and Kyle and the [H] for the hard work you guys do in bringing us awesome, useful articles like this, providing great fucking information. Looking forward to the next parts covering the Radeon cards. Also thanks to all those who donate parts and equipment and shit so Kyle and his crew can get articles like these done.

nVidia's next generation is coming soon. Scared to see the MSRPs on those suckaz... I used to complain about the Radeon 9700 Pro being $400. Now I wish we could go back to that.

Alas my poor GTX 970, the time approaches when I must move on. You have served me very well at 1920x1200 for the last 4 years, and you ended up being a fantastic bargain. Now though I really need more vRAM (hoping for 16GB configurations with the new cards), and I would like to move up in resolution as well (1440p if not higher). Actually I'd still like to head over to 2560x1600 rather than 1440p or 2160p. I just tend to prefer 16:10 resolutions. Plus 2560x1600 won't be anywhere near as demanding as 4K. Anyways, I won't be going anywhere with the 970. Time for my X99 machine to experience it's first GPU upgrade.

 

[kasakka]

Being a 980Ti owner, I swell for an upgrade to a 1080Ti. I may hold off until the next gen drops, but that is going to depend on the new price points, because I want to budget in a 1440p 144Hz IPS display.

As another 980 Ti owner with a 1440p 144Hz display, I want to upgrade but at the same time have no immediate need to do so. With a G-Sync display I don't care if my framerate is not 60+ at all times and an overclocked 980 Ti still manages that for most new games. The 1080 Ti has been an unnecessary upgrade unless you run a 4K display or want super high framerates, there is just nothing out there truly demanding that kind of performance. My plan of attack is to see what kind of performance and pricing the next gen cards get and how that will affect used 1080 Ti prices. Hell, I might still wait for the next gen Ti because high refresh rate 4K screens larger than 27" are not available until sometime next year.

PS. I wish this article series had tried a few games with overclocked cards too because the gap between 980 Ti and 1080 Ti would have narrowed considering the reference 980 Ti is severely underclocked.

 

[Gottfried Leibnizzle]

Thanks for the article, guys! The performance jump of the 10 series is eye-opening to say the least.

I do have a demand stemming from a disgusting sense of entitlement! I still sit with a 970GTX (as do many) and for my purposes it is fine (I only play SupCom FAF these days anyway), that being said, I'd like to see some sort of insight on the economics of getting a second card in SLI (and I sit with a crossfire board, duh) as opposed to biting the bullet for a very expensive current-gen architecture.

Similarly, I'm sure the 780 owners are wondering whether a 780 sell + 980 sourced from whatever internet yard sale is a better upgrade than getting another 780. And, of course, not all games work so great, if at all, in SLI/CF.

This question is purely based on economics; it might be an idea for another round of content. It will require some market trawling to see what can be had for how many dorrahs.

Ta!

 

[ZiggyDeath]

It's interesting to see how the 780Ti still fares in modern games. Given the bar was set at 1440p for this review, it seems like that card is still sufficiently relevant for 1080p performance.

That being said, those charts make me cringe that the 1080Ti can't crush 1440p - for the purposes of driving a 144hz monitor.

 

[lostin3d]

Man damn good review. Can't wait to get my step-up 1080ti now! Looks like I picked a perfect card for my Gsync monitor.

Paired mine with a 1440p/144hz g-sync and it's like a match made in heaven. Coupled with an ancient 2600k(4.2 Ghz) and still doesn't miss a beat.

 

[lostin3d]

Thanks for the hard work again and fun read.

The ultimate lesson that was really drilled in my head with my 1080TI/4k experience was quality vs. pixels. To me playing at 1440p with nearly every game truly maxed often gives better visuals than lowering settings at 4k for the same FPS. I even max KCD with the extra settings, but also thanks to Kyle's tips my TI is OC'd to it's max air potential, and average 50-60 fps in 1440p.

I also noticed with 4k testing that Vram can still be an issue even the 1080TI. ROTR fully maxed settings chew up 11GB quick. RE7, MEA can get close as does KCD. As you stated though, none of those games are truly playable at 4k with max settings. Seems like NV often has strange pairings of Vram vs. the rest of the card. Either too little, too slow, or the size exceeds what the card will ever likely be able to use realistically. I saw this also with the 8GB in my 980m's in my laptop.

 

[EasterEEL]

Excellent articles thank you. Very helpful for us users considering next video card upgrade path.

 

[Brent_Justice]

I assume a follow up article with AMD cards is coming, right? I'm lookig forward to it

Many AMD cards will be covered, the process takes time, in Part 1 of the AMD article I'll be testing 4 AMD cards instead of 3 I did with NVIDIA, so it will take a little more time to compile data. In the interim I am going to put together an article comparing the NV data from Part 1 and 2 with each other, i.e, 780 to 780 Ti performance, then 980 to 980 Ti, then 1080 to 1080 Ti, which will culminate all the NVIDIA testing.

While I'm doing that I'm working on compiling the AMD data, which as stated will take a while. In addition, I have access to more AMD cards to compare right now, so I think I will do not only high-end, but also after that, the midrange... because just as it is important to test Hawaii and Fiji and Vega, I think Tonga and Polaris is also very important to look at. So I'll actually be testing a lot more AMD cards than I did NV cards ultimately.

Just stay tuned, this will be a great month for articles, and beyond.

 

[ljppkgfgsc]

I am fairly certain this person who did the comparison doesn't know what he is doing especially if he expects me to believe 1080TI barely best 980TI in Hitman.

Yea I can't vouch for that reviewer but that was the only direct comparison I could find of aftermarket overclocked cards. As I recall, I don't think Nvidia allows the bigger review sites to review current gen products against overclocked previous gen products due to obvious reasons trying to convince people to buy current gen. Not claiming that with this article but have found that reoccurring theme over the years.

That being said, I am by no means an expert but have read a lot of reviews over the years and in my opinion 1080 ti is about 50% faster than 980 ti when comparing overclocked aftermarket(mainstream cards). The reference blower coolers on these hot Ti cards do not do them true justice but understand why they were compared here.

 

[Stoly]

I am going to put together an article comparing the NV data from Part 1 and 2 with each other, i.e, 780 to 780 Ti performance, then 980 to 980 Ti, then 1080 to 1080 Ti, which will culminate all the NVIDIA testing.

I was going to ask precisely for that as I'm too lazy to switch from one page to another LoL

 

[FrgMstr]

As I recall, I don't think Nvidia allows the bigger review sites to review current gen products against overclocked previous gen products due to obvious reasons trying to convince people to buy current gen.

 

[Jumpy-B-L]

I sold my two 1080s and replaced them with a 1080Ti. Can't recommend doing so enough. I do not miss SLI. The 1080Ti is the shit.