780 vs 980...what's the difference?

[johnnyTheMac]

Hello,

 

I was just wondering a bit about the 780 (Gigabyte GTX 780 GHz Edition to be exact) and the 980 (EVGA GTX 980 SC). I know that most of the thoughts out there the same: it is definitely not worth the money for the upgrade. However, I would like to know why and what the difference is in performance.

 

Now, I am not too knowledgeable or technical in this area, so please forgive my ignorance. I have the 780 that was described above. I bought the 980 listed above, just to test it out. I figured that if there is a big enough of a difference to me, I would try to sell my 780. If not, I am within my return window for a full refund. I don't know, but I can tell a difference in performance, but maybe that is just me not knowing what exactly "performance" is...if that makes sense. All I know is that I was not able to totally max out games like Far Cry 4, AC: Unity, Total War, Battlefield 4 and Dying Light, to name a few. What I mean is there were always settings that I would have to tone down to get a smooth, stutter-free session of gameplay. I notice with the 980 that I can max out everything, with the exception of using higher AA settings and Nvidia DSR settings. And, for the most part it is smooth.

 

Without counting and monitoring FPS and all of that technical stuff, games with the 980 just "feel" better to me. I don't know if it is the placebo effect or what, but they do.

 

I guess I am wondering what the difference is between the two and way so many feel that it is not a viable upgrade.

 

Thank you in advance for all of your responses!

[Nup]

The 780 is based on a Kepler architecture, whereas the 980 s a maxwell one. 

 

What changed with maxwell, most significantly was efficiency. Therein why those cards are terrific overlockers. 

 

Other then that I don't think the boost in performance was that amazing. Significant no less though. 

 

EDIT Don't forget to follow your posts! @johnnyTheMac

[david cassar]

Well the 780 is a kepler gpu and the 980 is a maxwell gpu. Two completely different architectures which means different performance , power consumption etc. Its not a viable upgrade because the gtx 980 is only about 20% faster than the gtx 780. You would be paying 550$ for an increase of 20% which is definitely not worth it.

[DimasRMDO]

780 has bigger CUDA cores, texture fill rate and memory bandwith than 980. But the rest I think 980 is better, 780 and 980 have different architectures so both are different, 780 is kepler and 980 is maxwell.

[johnnyTheMac]

The 780 is based on a Kepler architecture, whereas the 980 s a maxwell one. 

 

What changed with maxwell, most significantly was efficiency. Therein why those cards are terrific overlockers. 

 

Other then that I don't think the boost in performance was that amazing. Significant no less though. 

 

EDIT Don't forget to follow your posts! @johnnyTheMac

Thank you!

Well the 780 is a kepler gpu and the 980 is a maxwell gpu. Two completely different architectures which means different performance , power consumption etc. Its not a viable upgrade because the gtx 980 is only about 20% faster than the gtx 780. You would be paying 550$ for an increase of 20% which is definitely not worth it.

If I sell my 780 for $300, would the difference be considered a deal?

[david cassar]

Thank you!

If I sell my 780 for $300, would the difference be considered a deal?

You would be gaining much better efficiency, overclock ability aswell as more vram. If I were you however I would wait for the amd r9 390x. 

[SeanBond]

Really the difference is about 20-25% for sheer compute power and an extra gb of vram which really does nothing. 780's are overpriced though. If you can find a 780ti however I would jump on it, they have been going around 400-480 and that is a steal when it's only 5% slower than a 980.

[Sauron]

The reason it's not worth it to buy a 980 in general is that it's too expensive for its performance. For LESS MONEY, you can get 2 R9 290Xs in crossfire, which blow it away. It's especially not worth it when you already own a 780 because the performance difference is less than 25% and it would cost you more than 100% more money to upgrade.

 

Thank you!

If I sell my 780 for $300, would the difference be considered a deal?

 

Absolutely not. For two reasons: as I said, there are better ways you could spend that money; and secondly the 780 is still a very good performer. AC unity is garbage, and doesn't run well even on 2 980s. Even far cry 4 has stutter issues on dual gtx 980 systems. Poor optimization is not something you can (or should) solve by spending more in gpus. I usually recommend following a 3 year upgrade cycle: buy a good card that is not overpriced and does exactly what you need it to right now, and save up for an upgrade in three years. Nothing is future proof, nothing is worth more money than its performance can justify.

[johnnyTheMac]

The reason it's not worth it to buy a 980 in general is that it's too expensive for its performance. For LESS MONEY, you can get 2 R9 290Xs in crossfire, which blow it away. It's especially not worth it when you already own a 780 because the performance difference is less than 25% and it would cost you more than 100% more money to upgrade.

 

 

Absolutely not. For two reasons: as I said, there are better ways you could spend that money; and secondly the 780 is still a very good performer. AC unity is garbage, and doesn't run well even on 2 980s. Even far cry 4 has stutter issues on dual gtx 980 systems. Poor optimization is not something you can (or should) solve by spending more in gpus. I usually recommend following a 3 year upgrade cycle: buy a good card that is not overpriced and does exactly what you need it to right now, and save up for an upgrade in three years. Nothing is future proof, nothing is worth more money than its performance can justify.

Thanks!

 

Thank you to everyone. I decided to return the 980 and keep my 780.

[Joshua Ondangan]

The reason it's not worth it to buy a 980 in general is that it's too expensive for its performance. For LESS MONEY, you can get 2 R9 290Xs in crossfire, which blow it away. It's especially not worth it when you already own a 780 because the performance difference is less than 25% and it would cost you more than 100% more money to upgrade.

 

 

Absolutely not. For two reasons: as I said, there are better ways you could spend that money; and secondly the 780 is still a very good performer. AC unity is garbage, and doesn't run well even on 2 980s. Even far cry 4 has stutter issues on dual gtx 980 systems. Poor optimization is not something you can (or should) solve by spending more in gpus. I usually recommend following a 3 year upgrade cycle: buy a good card that is not overpriced and does exactly what you need it to right now, and save up for an upgrade in three years. Nothing is future proof, nothing is worth more money than its performance can justify.

 

This ^^^

 

although for future proof we have one in the pc (at least the case)

 

pretty much I still think it's better to go balls to the walls with a case when money allows as it would be one of the stuff you'd be seeing for years.

[Sauron]

although for future proof we have one in the pc (at least the case)

 

pretty much I still think it's better to go balls to the walls with a case when money allows as it would be one of the stuff you'd be seeing for years.

 

Suppose motherboards change format tomorrow... we can't know for sure. But yeah, it's certainly more likely to last across multiple builds than a graphics card ^^

[Joshua Ondangan]

Suppose motherboards change format tomorrow... we can't know for sure. But yeah, it's certainly more likely to last across multiple builds than a graphics card ^^

I'm kinda glad they didn't do those weird form factor of server grade motherboards that has a weird shape ( I mean like I'm happy they didn't make those like the standard for everyone)

 

as much as I love looking at workstation base product but I'm never a fan of their shape >.< (motherboard at least) but the amount of yummy stuff you can put there is just yum (but no cash here QQ)