Report: GeForce GTX 980 Will Cost $599

The rumor mill is working hard on the upcoming Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards. Just yesterday we saw images of the new GTX 980, along with specifications, and today we finally have word on pricing information.

The rumored prices stem from a report on 3DCenter.org which states that the GeForce GTX 980 will carry an MSRP of $599, while the GTX 970 will cost $200 less at an MSRP of $399. Placing it on the product stack, if you consider that the GTX 780 Ti sells for upwards of $600 while a GTX 780 can be found for around $450, we would expect the GTX 980 to sit right between the two, while the GTX 970 will perform slightly slower than the GTX 780. This product stack placement is supported by the calculated benchmark scores.

Ultimately, the GTX 980 and GTX 970 will probably bring you performance levels very similar to their predecessors, for a similar price tag, with a lower TDP and larger frame buffer. The increased amount of graphics memory will help the cards drive higher-resolution monitors.

Do note that these are merely rumored prices. Hopefully, we'll know more when they launch later this week; we expect the announcement to come on September 19 during the Game24 event.

UPDATE: It has come to our attention that we misread the graphs, resulting in erroneous conclusions. Taking another crack at it, we can see that based on these numbers the GTX 980 appears to perform about 11 percent better than a stock GTX 780 Ti, with the GTX 970 sitting somewhere between the GTX 780 and the GTX 780 Ti. Note that the stock GTX 780 (clocked at up to 900 MHz) isn't even listed on the table. Ultimately, this means that the GTX 980 and GTX 970 appear to perform a lot better than a quick glance at the table would suggest. Commenters, we appreciate your sharp eye.

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Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

  • Spanky Deluxe
    Seeing as the 780 ti can be had for just over $600, I can't see the 980 being priced at $599 with performance a little lower than the 780 ti as leaked benchmarks are suggesting. What would be the point?
    Reply
  • Bartor495
    Seeing as the 780 ti can be had for just over $600, I can't see the 980 being priced at $599 with performance a little lower than the 780 ti as leaked benchmarks are suggesting. What would be the point?

    They'll probably lower the price of the 780 ti, just like what happened with the 780 when the 780 ti was released.
    Reply
  • CaptainTom
    I'm sorry but this generation is kind of a fail on desktop if the 980 truly is no stronger than the 780 Ti. Now Laptops will get a VERY nice boost, but still this leaves Nvidia open for a massive reaming from AMD if they are not careful. If AMD really does release a 3072 SP monster with 7GHz memory and Tonga improvements they could stomp the 980 by at least 20-30%. That would be worth the power consumption too for ANY enthusiast.
    Reply
  • Spanky Deluxe
    Having read the German article, they're basing those numbers on pre-listings which are usually over-inflated so hopefully the originally rumoured price of $499 is what the 980 will actually be sold at.
    Reply
  • rmpumper
    Seeing as the 780 ti can be had for just over $600, I can't see the 980 being priced at $599 with performance a little lower than the 780 ti as leaked benchmarks are suggesting. What would be the point?

    The point would be to milk every penny from consumers until R9 3xx comes along.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Nvidia Geforce must not be focusing too much on performance (just compare the 980 to 780 ti and there isn't much of a performance increase), but mainly targeting high resolution monitors and lower tdp. Which is good since 4k is gona get really popular really fast so I'd say it's good they are sticking to focusing on memory and bandwidth.
    Reply
  • MSgtGunny
    Its almost like Nvidia is doing a tick tock cycle like Intel, they innovate on a tick and then shrink and reduce power consumption on a tock.
    Reply
  • nikoli707
    we all knew this wasn't going to be the flagship maxwell gtx1000 or gtx1000ti based on the gm210 which will likely carry a 275w tdp and at least a 30% performance improvement over gk110. we will have to wait another year for that.

    that said… a 180w tdp is a huge improvement of worthy praise.
    Reply
  • JackNaylorPE
    The highest rated 780 Ti (aside from highly specialized versions aka KingPin) has been $600 every other week or so on newegg for 4-5 months. Asus 780 Ti is $580, Gigabyte's is $600.

    The 980 is what it is intended to be, a card faster than anything offered by the competition. The Ti or whatever card nVidia holds in it's back pocket won't be released till after AMD shows it's hand. To quote Yogi .... "It's déjà vu all over again"

    The question I am seeking to have answered is how much overclocking headroom they have will they leave .... stick with the typical 25% or drive the clocks up closer to the edge like the R9 series.

    Gotta read more closely before you draw conclusions on performance differences. The article is misleading in that it isn't comparing apples and apples. The 780 Ti in the graph that it is being compared with is overclocked. The base clock of the 780 Ti is 876 Mhz. The ones shown in the graph are at 928 (5.9% OC) and 1150 (31.3% OC). The stock 980 is 3% slower than the 31 % overclocked 780 Ti not the stock 876 Mhz 780 Ti. The 980's base clock is 1126/1127 depending on source.

    The 5.6% (1190 / 1126) OC on the 980 scores 13005
    The 5.9 % (928 / 876) OC on the 780 Ti score is 11096

    That's a 17% performance difference at the same ~ 6% OC
    Reply
  • ohim
    Instead of tic tock they should only do the Tock ... but likes some one above said .. they need to milk people for money. This way it would be worth buying new stuff...
    Or consumers need to get smart (yeah right) and buy only on the tock.

    And i always hate fan boys living in a fairy tale where they see their brand with over 30% more performance over the competition... you have nothing to base your assumptions on and you still make them ....
    Reply