Conclusion
Conclusion
Looking back at the reference release of the GTX 980 Ti, we already were impressed by its good performance. Thing is, there's just so much left to work with, and the board-partners have put their designs in a higher gear, the end result being products like shown today. The Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme edition can get your performance upwards in an extra 20% region on top of the reference cards due to the tremendously high base and boost clock frequencies. It does so running at colder temperatures. A card like this AMP! Extreme edition simply beats the Titan X with a good notch, at a far better price. So yeah armed with 6GB of graphics memory and combined with the sheer rendering muscle this card has, you'll be future proof for a while. The one question that remains, and I will address this in each and every 980 Ti review, is simple; do you really need a card as beefy as the GTX 980 Ti really is? Well no Sir, not at all if you are playing games in the 1080P or 2560x1440 monitor resolution domain as the GTX 970 or 980 is sufficient. But beastly perf like the AMP! Extreme offers does help as you enable any quality settings you desire, and next to that DSR (super-sampling) is slowly becoming popular. With DSR you render at a higher resolution than sample it back to say 2560x1440, and that adds a level of extra image quality as pixels are calculated and rendered more accurately. We have an example of that in our benchmarks session, Shadow of Mordor which we rendered at a whopping Ultra HD and 5K and then output at 2560x1440. And yeah I know, it's all relative but these are options the true enthusiast crowd likes. Then there is Ultra HD, that brute resolution of 3840x2160 requires sheer raw horsepower to output its 4x Full HD resolution, and the GTX 980 Ti is one of two cards that can handle this resolution well with very decent image quality settings. So again, value for money wise you are way better off with a card like the GeForce GTX 970 or 980, make no mistake about that as there is no doubt. But this is enthusiast grade graphics hardware, and yeah it kinda rules. + you are a little more future proof with the nice 6GB frame-buffer of course.
Aesthetics
So the Zotac AMP! Extreme is not bad looking product, but it is a bit bulky isn't it?, so its something you probably will either hate or like. Overall it is a good looking product with a dark matte PCB and grey cooler. Nice addition are the LED lit corners and Zotac logo. So overall it is an aesthetically pleasing product. Looks however are personal, that I have to mention.
Cooling & Noise Levels
The reference design of the GTX 980 Ti are set at an offset threshold of 80 degrees C. Once the GPU gets warmer the card will clock down and lower its voltage. Zotac however throws in a cooler that manages roughly 600W of cooling performance. It is so good that up-to a degree or 60 on the GPU, this card remains passive and thus inaudible. Once the fans kick in, you can expect to hover around the 70 to maybe 75 Degrees C marker, with hefty games. Please do note that you will need proper ventilation inside your chassis to achieve that number. They shaved off a good 10 Degrees C over reference. Noise wise, we can’t complain about cooling whatsoever especially when you consider how far this product is overclocked for you already. Expect sound pressure values in the 43 dBA range at max under load. That's measured 75 CM away from the PC. This means you can will definitely hear the card while using it. Not annoying, but for the true audiophiles that require silence, this might not be the best product for you. Once overclocked with added voltage we do recommend a little more fan RPM, this does increase noise a tiny bit more. Overall I'd rate the solution as normal to slightly noisy. We have not heard any coil noise or whine.
Power Consumption
Much like the GM200 Maxwell GPU harbored in Titan X, this GTX 980 Ti is rated as having a 250~260 Watt TDP, our measurements pass that number by a great degree as we measured roughly 320 Watt. It likely is due to the overclock, which requires additional voltage. We remain comfortable advising a 650 Watts power supply if you do not go crazy overclocking wise. If you go with 2-way SLI, an 950 Watts power supply is recommended. Remember when purchasing a PSU, aim to double up in Wattage as your PSU is most efficient when it is under 50% load. Here again keep in mind we measure peak power consumption, the average power consumption is a good notch lower depending on GPU utilization. Also, if you plan to overclock the CPU/memory and / or GPU with added voltage, please do purchase a power supply with enough reserve. People often underestimate it, but if you tweak all three aforementioned variables, you can easily add 200 Watts to your peak power consumption budget.
Game Performance
We can't be any clearer about it, all ranges from 1080P to Ultra HD are very playable for the GeForce GTX 980Ti. Up-to WQHD (2560x1440) this card seems to be a true sweet-spot, however it is really capable of rendering games in that whopper of a resolution Ultra HD as well. You'll be in the 40 FPS on average domain with decent settings and the latest titles mostly, and that's ok. This much game rending horse-power versus the nice 6GB graphics memory helps you in Ultra HD, hefty complex anti-aliasing modes, DSR and of course the latest gaming titles. And that makes this the second viable single GPU solution that allows you to game properly in Ultra HD with some very nice eye candy enabled with a single GPU. Drivers wise we can't complain at all, we did not stumble into any issues. And with a single GPU there's no micro-stuttering to fight off. Performance wise, really there's not one game that won't run seriously good at the very best image quality settings. You must do gaming with a nice 30" monitor of course, at 2560x1440/1600 or Ultra HD.
Overclocking
The boost modes can be configured with temperature targets relative to maximum power draw and your GPU Core frequency offsets. Saying that; I realize it sounds complicated but you'll have your things balanced out quite fast as these products are easy to tweak. Our GPU sample could take a 1300+ MHz base clock, add to that the dynamic boost clock and you'll see your games rendering in the 1400 to 1500 MHz domain. The memory you'll be able to get close to roughly 8 GHz effective. This card uses Hynix memory btw. Don't push memory too far though, and we certainly do not recommend adding voltage to that memory. The overclock potential is good, albeit it already has a fantastic factory clock frequency of course.
Concluding
Rise and shine as the Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme has risen. It truly is a magnificent product if you look at it from a pure performance perspective, it was the fastest factory overclocked product we have tested to date and gives excellent out of the box performance. The negatives ? Well, noise levels are a notch higher then I would have liked, but it remains OK. The bulky three-slot design is a no-go for some of you, whereas other folks simply won't be bothered. Other then that there's nothing to complain or nitpick. Well of course pricing remains a bit of a topic with the GXT 980 Ti in general. The PCB is 100% custom, the GPU is kept at very acceptable temperatures, the components on-board remain at decent temperatures, the looks are good albeit bulky, the board design is sturdy with metal plates, and even the backside is covered by a back-plate. The performance is seriously faster than a GTX Titan X, yet pricing is much better at MSRP is $700 USD marker plus tax. In the end this product will offer you a AAA gaming experience in any monitor resolution, as even Ultra HD now becomes a viable resolution for single GPU setups. The card does so while keeping itself at nice temperatures. Compared to the GeForce GTX 980 Ti at 2560x1440 you can expect an increase of up-to say 25% performance (over the reference GeForce GTX 980 Ti) and overclocked you can add another 10%. We really do like the Zotac GeForce GTX 980 AMP! Extreme edition, it is a tremendously fast clocked product that keeps temps under control. It's not the most silent product out there, but we qualify the noise levels as acceptable. Highly recommended to those who do not like overclocking themselves, but want the fastest out of the box performance as performance wise, the Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme will be very hard to beat. It's a beast!
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