With the new 3000 series been the talk of the town and the new AMD and Intel processors popping up, old school peripherals are been pushed further away. However still most gamers question and argue on the topic 980 Ti vs 1070. Is it worth for a budget build in 2021? Lets see in this review of both the GPUs and a few more of close proximity in performance.
Lets have a quick recap before proceeding to the actual benchmark tests and gaming performances. The 980 Ti was initially released on 2015 while the 1070 an year later.
980 Ti vs 1070 Specs
| 980 Ti | 1070 | |
| Architecture | Maxwell GM200-310-A1 | Pascal P104-200-A1 |
| Die Size | 28nm | 16nm |
| Memory | 6144 MB DDR5 | 8192 MB DDR5 |
| Memory speed | 1775 MHz | 2002 MHz |
| Cores | 2816 | 1,920 |
| Boost clock | 1683 MHz | 1279 MHz |
| TDP | 250 W | 150 W |
| Maximum resolution | 7680×4320 | 5120×3200 |
At the initial glance the hardware specifications lists as above. We can see that both the graphics units are capable of much more than gaming. To be a bit more specific, the memory bus for the 980 Ti is 256 bits while the 1070 is 384. Bandwidth of the 908 Ti is 256.3GB/sec while the 1070 is 340.8GB/sec. We can see although the cores in the 1070 was reduced the increase in clock speed makes up for it.
The texture rate of the 980 Ti is is an impressive 207.3 GTexel/s and as for the 1070, it remains at a 180.7 GTexel/s. Connectivity is the same for both the cards, 3 Display Ports, 1 HDMI port, 1 DVI port and both support SLI to top it off.
980 Ti vs 1070 Benchmark scores
If you plan on testing these graphics units to their absolute best potential pairing it with the best possible CPU and RAM is vital. The best recommendation here of course is the intel i9-9900K with 16GB of DDR4 at a frequency of possibly 3200MHz plus. However in theory for the sole purpose of quality gaming an intel 6 core/ 6 thread would suffice. Such as the intel i5-9400F, even less the i7-6700K. The RAM is best to be kept at 16, all these precautions so that no bottlenecks are seen.
The average score as it is without any overclocking for 980 Ti vs 1070 is as follows. In terms of lighting, reflection, render target and geometry shading performance and gravity the 980 Ti is slightly ahead of the 1070. The frame rates per second for each feature are almost parallel. 99.1 fps vs 99.5 fps, 116 vs 114 fps are some such readings. However when overclocked the 1070 has better reflection handling while the 980 Ti has faster peak multi rendering.
Gaming Performance
1080p
Both the GPUs don’t exceed the 60 fps mark for the benchmark games. However these games were tested on ultra settings. With Red dead redemption 2, Watch Dogs Legion, Metro: Exodus and Assassins creed Valhalla the GTX 1070 outputs frame rates between 35-50. The 980 Ti however lagged a bit and closed in a range of 30-40 fps for these games at the same settings.
With Rainbow six siege and DOOM eternal the two GPUs were almost in parallel at ultra quality. The 980 Ti output an average of 104 fps vs the 1070 102 fps. In some games such as Overwatch, Fortnite, Forza Horizon, Battlefield V both the graphics cards are in parallel with the fps count in ultra quality settings. Apart from these the 1070 is a bit ahead of fps in most games such as Valorant, Cyberpunk 2077, Apex legends, Call of duty Modern warfare.
In short the 980 Ti was only 5% slower compared to the 1070 in many games which means virtually both the graphics cards performed almost parallel. Therefore even with the games that demand high reflection and texture handling with great dynamics, both these GPUs perform well in 1080p.
1440p
With 1440p needless to say both the GPUs doesn’t exceed the 60 fps count with ultra settings enabled. Even the 1070 comes close to the 60 fps count but halts at a few points away. Nonetheless with some games such as Valorant, Resident Evil 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Fallout 76, Battlefield V the 1070 exceeds the 60 fps count. So does the 980 Ti although it doesn’t catchup with the 1070.
In some games such as Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Gears 5, World War Z, Shadow of the tomb raider the 980 Ti is a few frames ahead of the 1070. And it was in highest and ultra quality. In summary the the 980 Ti is 4% slower than the 1070 in most games. Therefore in 980 Ti vs 1070 is a parallel competition.
Conclusion
Now that we have gone through the performance of 980 Ti vs 1070, choosing the right GPU for your rig matched with your budget is quite an easy task. However what must be mentioned is that the GTX 1070 has much better market value, more popular and high market share versus the 980 Ti for its more than $200 cheaper than the 980 Ti.
980 Ti vs 2060–The next popular comparison
| 980 Ti | RTX 2060 | |
| Architecture | Maxwell | Turing |
| Die size | 28nm | 12 nm |
| Memory | 6144 MB DDR5 | 6 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory speed | 1775 MHz | 14000 MHz |
| Cores | 2816 | 1920 |
| Boost clock | 1683 MHz | 1680 |
| TDP | 250 W | 160W |
| Maximum resolution | 7680×4320 | 7680×4320 |
As per the previous 980 Ti vs 1070 comparison, the above graph too shows the basic hardware specifications. Apart from these the transistor count is 8,000 million vs 10,800 million, 336.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is the same for both. However the RTX 2060 comes with a Type-C USB port and a display port less than the 980. Even if we disregard all these hardware specifications the 2060 itself stands out for the Ray-Tracing.
The 2000 series marked the dawn of a new era in graphics with the RT cores dedicated to real time ray tracing with global illuminations and shadow effects. The tensor cores bring the DLSS 2.0 to the table for artificial intelligence integrated gaming.
RTX 2060 vs 980 Ti Benchmark Scores
The outcome is obvious here, we are just interested to know by exactly how much. In terms of faster effective speed, better lighting effects, reflection handling and multi rendering the 2060 is ahead by an average of almost 28%. Check the exact figures here. In most benchmark tests such as 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU, 3DMark 11 Performance GPU, 3DMark Vantage Performance,the RTX 2060 out performed the 980.
On the flip side the 980 Ti showed better scores on benchmark tests such as the 3DMark Ice Storm GPU and SPECviewperf 12 – Maya RTX 2060 lagged behind the 980. Therefore although RTX 2060 is an advanced version than the 980 Ti, benchmark wise they were both almost equal.
RTX 2060 vs 980 Ti- Gaming performance
1080p
There is virtually no competition here with the new turing architecture and the ray-tracing with more bandwidth, better VRAM. However in most benchmark games such as DOOM Eternal, Resident Evil 3, Rainbow Six Siege, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Shadow of the Tomb Raider the RTX 2060 neatly outranked the 980 Ti. All these games were tested with no CPU, Memory bottlenecks and with Ultra quality enabled.
1440p
In some games the RTX 2060 is an impressive 36% better than the 980 Ti, whereas in a few others the 2060 leads by only 13% which isn’t a huge improvement. However in general the RTX 2060 combined with its DLSS 2.0, Ray-Tracing outputs higher fps than both the 1070 and 980 Ti. Average wise the 980 is 20% slower on 1080p than the RTX 2060. And when it comes to 1440p gaming it still lags by 19% compared to the 2060.
The point here is that while the RTX 2060 suits most of the new AAA titles with its added hardware and software enhancements the 980 Ti suits 1080p gaming at close to 60 fps for most games. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are more RTX oriented.
Conclusion
That concludes 980 Ti vs 1070. However we also thought that the addition of the RTX 2060 will provide a more defined picture of how the old GPU stand against the latest stuff. If we focus our complete unwavering attention solely on 980 Ti vs 1070 we can see that the old hardware still managed to outrank the new generation in some famous AAA titles.
However in the defense of older hardware, Nvidia most probably don’t upgrade or optimize these cards as they divert and focus all their attention on the new series. Better ray-tracing, enhanced real time super computing, more memory and bandwidth are Nvidia’s major concern.
Speaking about RTX 2060 vs 1070 the 2060 still outranks the 1070. When it was released initially the RTX 2060 was found out to be 13% faster even at 1440p. Also the reason behind this is the optimization of RTX cards for most Nvidia sponsored titles. With upgraded drivers the turing architecture is much faster than at the initial for many titles. Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, Red Dead Redemption 2 are some of them.
Now the biggest question you might be facing if you own a 980 Ti is “should I upgrade?”. Well for the time being NO. You can still enjoy a good full HD 60 fps gaming experience under medium graphic settings. However sooner than later you will feel the need for better resolution and enhanced features. Therefore even if you own a 1070 or 980 Ti, given the fact that most modern games utilize ray-tracing, DLSS you might want to consider an upgrade in the near future.
