The GeForce GTX 980 comes with 2048 CUDA cores and 4GB of GDDR5 memory, and it is based on new Maxwell GM204 GPU. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti comes with 2880 CUDA cores and 3GB of GDDR5 memory, and it is based on the Kepler GK110B GPU.

Although their performance is similar and they are in the same market segment, the cards are very different. The GTX 980 is much more efficient, with a TDP of 165W, while the GTX 780 series had a TDP of 250W. This is good news on more than one level.

As far as performance goes, the GTX 980 does not pull ahead of the GTX 780 Ti by any significant margin. While it wins in some tests, in others it loses to the old GTX 780 Ti.

Nvidia’s drivers are not ready yet and it is currently impossible to try out the new multi-frame antia-aliasing (MFAA) feature. Once the drivers are optimized, it is very likely that Kepler cards will lose to new Maxwell products.

Gaming at resolutions up to 2560x1600 is not a problem for the GTX 980 and it can deal with practically any title out there. As far as 4K and UHD gaming go, you will need two of these babies to crank up the eye candy in such high resolutions.

The GTX 980 employs a cooler that is capable of handling the much hotter GTX 780 Ti and GTX Titan cards, hence it has no problem dealing with the vastly more efficient GTX 980. The cooler is silent in idle mode and it is very quiet under load.

Nvidia launched three new technologies along with the GTX 980. Voxel Global Illumination (VXGI) offers an efficient way of computing dynamic global illumination in real time, while MFAA can in theory deliver effects similar to 4xMSAA at a much lower computational cost. Unfortunately we could not try it out this time around.

Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) provides an easy way for gamers to improve the image quality in less demanding or older games. We saw DSR in a demo and it is up to developers to harness this power in games. DSR is universal and can be applie to any game by activating it in the driver.

With all the figures in mind, it is evident that the GM204 is the most efficient high end GPU we had a chance to test so far.

In terms of pricing, it should be noted that the GTX 780 debuted at $649, while the GTX 780 Ti launched at $699. The GTX 980 launches with a suggested retail price of $549, while the GTX 970 is priced at $329.

Since the GTX 980 and GTX 970 don’t deliver much of a performance gain, users of 780-series cards have no reason to upgrade. However, those coming from an older card do. What’s more, thanks to their efficiency, Nvidia’s new 900-series cards could even be used to upgrade gaming rigs originally based on mid-range components, with relatively weak PSUs. Our tests prove that you don’t need a massive PSU to build a high-end gaming rig with Maxwell graphics and this saves money both during the build and in the long run.