So I got my hands on the Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition, a non-reference factory overclocked variant of the Nvidia GTX 980 Ti that uses the same GPU core (with some trimmings) as on the Nvidia GTX Titan X.
The Nvidia GTX Titan X is right up there, in performance and price, making it amazingly difficult for most people to get their hands on it even at the time of writing this review. Furthermore, Titan X didn’t have a non-reference variant and didn’t allow its AIB partners to go crazy with it just like other GTX Titan series graphic cards. Nvidia GTX 980 looked very attractive for high-end PC enthusiasts and gamers because it was at least a bit more than half the price of the Titan X.
As one would expect, Nvidia would eventually have a GM200 core implemented on another 9xx series cards. What interests me is that even if Nvidia GTX 980 Ti would obviously be cheaper compared to its big brother, how does that reflect in performance, especially for performance in gaming.
| 780 | 780 Ti | 960 | 970 | 980 | 980 Ti | Titan X | |
| Architecture | Kepler | Kepler | Maxwell | Maxwell | Maxwell | Maxwell | Maxwell |
| CUDA Processors | 2304 | 2880 | 1024 | 1664 | 2048 | 2816 | 3072 |
| Base Clock | 863 | 875 | 1127 | 1050 | 1126 | 1002 | 1002 |
| Boost Clock | 900 | 928 | 1178 | 1178 | 1216 | 1076 | 1076 |
| Memory Clock (effective) | 6000 | 7000 | 7000 | 7000 | 7000 | 7000 | 7000 |
| Memory Buffer (GB) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 12 |
| Memory Interface | 384-bit | 384-bit | 128-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
It is noteworthy that Nvidia GTX 780 Ti is a fully enabled GK110 core based card. GTX 980 Ti has a reduced number of CUDA cores and Texture units compared to Titan X probably to help the cards to maintain some difference on paper and on the price. Furthermore, the GDDR5 count is now 6GB. Other than that, there’s practically no difference. Both have the same base clock when comparing reference specification. Both have the same 384-bit memory interface, both have same memory clock of 7GHz, same TDP of 250W, etc. Oh yeah, it’s the same Maxwell 2.0 architecture as well.
Oh, the things done to earn more money! Good for the consumers, unless one is sulking about purchasing a GTX Titan X and not waiting for a GTX 980 Ti. Nvidia is pulling all the stop by trying to bundle with a latest Nvidia powered AAA title, but unfortunately Batman’s latest PC title took a trip down, practically pissing off most of the PC Master Race just like fewer PC titles above.
But hey, at the time of writing- they’re giving the Phantom Pain. If you look closely and refer to past Nvidia powered PC games whoopsies, there’s an irony there!!!
That’s why I find Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme testing to be more exciting. It is a factory overclocked and it’s cheaper than the Titan X. One would roughly estimate that Nvidia reference GTX 980 Ti would be a little bit slower than Titan X, but what about when you weigh it against GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme edition?
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