After NVIDIA announced its new Pascal-based GPU, the GTX 1080, the top of the line Maxwell-based GPUs went into a price restructure. However, as prices of old GPUs are going down, the prices for the GTX 1080 are up.
Newegg, an online retailer of computer hardware and software, lists the GTX 970 with the lowest price of US$270. The video card was around US$320 prior to the announcement of the GTX 1080. The card offers 4GB GDDR5 memory, 1664 CUDA Cores, with a base clock speed of 1050 MHz, a boosted speed of 1178 MHz and 7.0 Gbps memory speed. It also offers 256-bit memory interface width and requires up to 145 W of power.
The GTX 980 Ti is available for the lowest price of US$447, also on Newegg. The GPU offers 6GB GDDR5 memory, 2816 CUDA Cores, 1000 MHz base clock speed, 1075 boosted clock speed and 7.0 Gbps memory speed. It comes with 384-bit memory interface width and requires a bigger amount of power, 250 W.
The GTX 1080, meanwhile, offers 8GB GDDRD5X memory, 1607 MHz base clock, 1733 MHz boost clock, 2560 CUDA Cores, and 10 Gbps memory speed. It has a 256-bit memory interface width and requires 180 W of power. The Founders Edition is priced at US$699, while the standard GPU will have a starting price of US$599.
On Newegg, the GPU is out of stock, while Amazon offers several listings but pricier, the lowest is at US$824 and goes up to US$900, the average, though one is at the extreme, at US$1,700. With regards to the performance, the GTX 1080, is no doubt the best of the three.
However, Extreme Tech pointed out that the lower version of the Pascal-based card, the GTX 1070, is priced lower than a brand new GTX 980Ti but offers a slightly better performance than the latter, around 10 pecent. Nevertheless, it is also getting hard to find.
For the meantime, it is suggested to let the price spike subside before purchasing a GPU. For those unwilling to wait but with limited cash to spare, the GTX 970 offers the best deal for now.
