GTX980 vs GTX680

rsciw · October 2014

Ahoyahoy,

I've over the last couple days set up a new system with a GTX980, replacing previous system which has a GTX680. Both machines are still running, both with nvidia surround, so I had a quick look to see what the overall difference would be like with fps etc.

So, one character on one account is standing opposite another character on another account, in Auridon, Vulkhel Guard. Granted, just standing there should not yield much fps movement compared to say large battles in Cyrodiil, however what I did see for now was interesting.

Machine 1 = Box with gtx980
Machine 2 = Box with gtx680

As above, both run nvidia surround, both in highest settings possible (apart from water thingy which is medium, on both boxes).

Machine 1 consistently has around 5 fps less(!) than machine 2, which seeing as it has a gtx980 should have more?

Both have the 344.16 nvidia drivers installed, therefore I'm left a bit wondering why the more powerful machine has less fps than the weaker one.

The average fps was 45 for machine 2 in Vulkhel Guard, 40 for machine 1 (it's a lot more fps when switching down to one screen, which however I haven't tested today, just from experience before).

Therefore I'm looking into some optimization methods for the GTX (both even), e.g. adjusting settings in the nvidia control panel for eso.exe specifically. Does anyone have any suggestions what to change/adjust/add? Would be appreciated. Cheers

Ra1ne · October 2014

Wouldn't exactly call this advice/suggestion, but my personal settings for ESO on a GTx660 OC Windforce are everything set as default in manage 3D settings/Program Settings part of Nvidia Control Panel, aside from
Multi-Display/mixed-GPU acceleration - Single Display performance mode
Power management mode - Prefer maximum performance
Triple Buffering - On

All settings are maxed except water reflection which is on medium, and distortion is turned off, Fps is between 39-45 in Vulkhel Guard. Running in Full Screen Mode 1920x1080(native).

Elsonso · October 2014

It might be more important to know what other hardware differences there are between the systems. I doubt that either system is GPU-bound.

Elf_Boy · October 2014

The motherboard, cpe etc would be very interesting to find out for the OP.

Using Zotec Firestorm and windows' build in performance monitor I can say my gtx 680 system is GPU bound.

Firestorm consistently reports the rendering engine at 99% and no single core is ever even close to 100% on my cpu.

If that applies to any other system I can not say.

**EB**

rsciw · October 2014

Cheers for yer replies

@Ra1ne‌: My settings at the moment are pretty much the same.

@lordrichter‌ & @Elf_Boy‌ :
Machine 1: i7 5930k with 32 GB DDR4 G.Skills RAM on an Asus Rampage 5 Mainboard, with the GTX980
Machine 2: i7 3770 with 32 GB DDR3 Corsair RAM on an AsRock Extreme 4, wit h the GTX680

Let me know if you need any more info, cheers.

Elsonso · October 2014

Elf_Boy wrote: »

The motherboard, cpe etc would be very interesting to find out for the OP.

Using Zotec Firestorm and windows' build in performance monitor I can say my gtx 680 system is GPU bound.

Firestorm consistently reports the rendering engine at 99% and no single core is ever even close to 100% on my cpu.

If that applies to any other system I can not say.

**EB**

Huh. My GTX660 running on ultra-high is nowhere near GPU bound. However, I have FPS limited to a max of 60, so maybe that is the difference.

Edit: While I am on the subject of FPS, someone in my guild was asking about whether ESO was a 30 or 60 fps game. I assume they meant the game engine, not the GPU. I confess I have not heard. Anyone know?

Elf_Boy · October 2014

lordrichter wrote: »

Elf_Boy wrote: »

The motherboard, cpe etc would be very interesting to find out for the OP.

Using Zotec Firestorm and windows' build in performance monitor I can say my gtx 680 system is GPU bound.

Firestorm consistently reports the rendering engine at 99% and no single core is ever even close to 100% on my cpu.

If that applies to any other system I can not say.

**EB**

Huh. My GTX660 running on ultra-high is nowhere near GPU bound. However, I have FPS limited to a max of 60, so maybe that is the difference.

Edit: While I am on the subject of FPS, someone in my guild was asking about whether ESO was a 30 or 60 fps game. I assume they meant the game engine, not the GPU. I confess I have not heard. Anyone know?

Int he first person shooter world more fps is better. It truly affects your ability to be competitive.

In MMOs this is far less important -- in PVE in particular if the game is responding an FPS is the high teens or twenties is ok. If the game is responding fluidly.

In short the question 30 vs 60 is pointless. It doesnt matter.

Big fights in PVP will tank the responsiveness of the game and take the FPS down with it. Thus FPS is a quick and easy way to talk about the performance hit.

In terms of my system being GPU bound you may not have noticed I have an 8-core CPU and I have multi-threading enabled in the .ini file. In addition I play at 5760*1080 or 3x the 'normal' resolution with every setting in the game maxed.

When the GTX 980s are released that have more then 4GB of ram I will be upgrading. Providing I dont have to sell any body parts I plan to get a card with 8GB vram. I use over 3.5 playing ESO, some newer games state 6GB is preferred for the best textures already.

Elf_Boy · October 2014

rsciw wrote: »

Cheers for yer replies

@Ra1ne‌: My settings at the moment are pretty much the same.

@lordrichter‌ & @Elf_Boy‌ :
Machine 1: i7 5930k with 32 GB DDR4 G.Skills RAM on an Asus Rampage 5 Mainboard, with the GTX980
Machine 2: i7 3770 with 32 GB DDR3 Corsair RAM on an AsRock Extreme 4, wit h the GTX680

Let me know if you need any more info, cheers.

What are the monitors set to resolution wise?

If you know are the boards PciE 2.0 or 3.0?

Machine 1 does seem to have the better specs.

With respect, 'pretty much the same' is imprecise. Are they exactly the same?