Performance Summary
How Does The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition Stack Up?
Let’s face it: you’re not going to be buying a $650+ video card to game at 1080p, but some gamers will. We will always include 1080p results, but the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition really comes into its own at 1440p and 4K.
We run our 4K benchmarks at Medium/High settings for a more real-world feel, and at these settings, every single one of our games apart from Thief run at 60FPS. Damn good results here from Palit, but let’s take a deeper look. We will be comparing the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition directly against the reference GTX 980 Ti from NVIDIA.
Performance at 1080p
Starting with Battlefield 4, we are hitting a ceiling of 175FPS average at 1080p. We won’t see much more performance out of BF4 until we get to 1440p, and then 4K. Next up, we have a 16% increase in performance over the reference GTX 980 Ti in Metro: Last Light.
Shadow of Mordor squeezes more out of the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition at 1080p, with an additional 18% performance. Thief enjoys an additional 12% more performance with the ZOTAC card, while Tomb Raider is 17% faster with the overclocked AMP! Extreme Edition card.
Performance at 1440p
Adjusting the resolution to 2560×1440, we see the ZOTAC card beating out the reference GTX 980 Ti by 8%, while Metro: Last Light enjoys an additional 11% performance. Moving to Shadow of Mordor, we see the overclocked ZOTAC card providing 13% more performance.
Next up we have Thief, which was 19% faster on the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition. Tomb Raider is another game which is much faster on the overclocked card, with another 20% performance over NVIDIA’s reference GTX 980 Ti.
Performance at 4K
I was expecting performance to start jumping up in Battlefield 4 on 4K, where we have an increase of 14% with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition. Metro: Last Light continues to have a spotlight on the overclocked card from ZOTAC, with an additional 18% performance.
Another game I was hoping to see more performance from was Shadow of Mordor, where the GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition didn’t disappoint, spitting out an extra 18% more frames per second. We have Thief being 21% faster on the ZOTAC card while Tomb Raider is 19% faster.
Introduction, Quick Specs and Availability & Price
I’ve been a fan of ZOTAC’s video cards for a while now, but when I saw their GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition card at Computex this year, I knew I had to have it. It was going to be a beast, but now that it’s here and I’ve reviewed it, you’re going to see this is the fastest single video card in the world.
VIEW GALLERY — 57 IMAGES
Not only does it beat the reference GTX 980 Ti by at least 10% in every test, but it does so using just a little more power, all while it looks great. ZOTAC’s AMP! Extreme range of cards are always, well, extreme. But the GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition takes it to a whole new level with its massive cooler and huge clock speeds.
I’ll leave you with this tease for our introduction in our review for our ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition: it is the fastest card we’ve tested yet. We’ve seen it smash the reference GTX 980 Ti, and the HBM-based AMD Radeon R9 Fury X.
Quick Specs
ZOTAC has the usual 2816 CUDA cores on its GM200 GPU, but has increased the reference Core and Boost clocks from the stock 1000MHz and 1075MHz (Core and Boost, respectively) to a huge 1253MHz and 1355MHz. This results in a massive increase in performance, thanks to the GM200 core that powers the GTX 980 Ti having so much headroom for overclocking.
The GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition sees the 6GB of GDDR5 overclocked, up from the 7000MHz on the reference card, to 7220MHz. This overclock on the VRAM increases the memory bandwidth from 336.5GB/sec to 346.6GB/sec on the ZOTAC card. We have a 384-bit memory bus, and our testing will show that the huge 4096-bit memory bus on the Fury X with its HBM doesn’t begin to compete with what ZOTAC has here with the GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition.
Availability & Price
The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition is available on Amazon for $699.95 with stock available now. With some of the competing cards from EVGA, ASUS and MSI being more expensive, ZOTAC has a huge win here with the price right now.
Overclocking, Power Consumption and Sound Testing
Overclocking — Let’s See How Far We Can Go
With an already factory overclocked GPU and RAM, we push the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition a little further, where we were able to reach 1324MHz on the Core, up from the already super-fast 1253MHz. This resulted in a Boost clock of 1425MHz, up from 1355MHz. Not too much more, but it does bump the performance up a little bit.
Power Consumption
Most of the aftermarket GeForce GTX 980 Ti cards are sitting at around 390-400W of power, with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition card sitting right on 400W of power. It jumps up a little bit when we overclock it, though.
As you can see, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition uses another 30W of power when overclocked, for a total of 430W power consumption.
Sound Testing
With three big fans on the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition, we expected the card to make quite a bit of noise when it was manually pushed to 100%, and it did. But, during all of our testing, the card was silent — which is a big plus, considering its massive performance.
Synthetic Benchmarks
3DMark
Our synthetic benchmark of choice is 3DMark, which provides a repeatable and comparable test at a range of workloads and quality settings. The tests go from hardest to easiest. I’ve listed all of the results so you can download 3DMark and compare them to your system.
I’ve also included some points of reference that I have access to: namely results from the same test rig with its previous GPU, a pair of AMD Radeon 6950s in Crossfire. I also overclocked the rig using the ‘3D+’ preset to see how the results changed. Finally, I also included results from the P505 laptop I reviewed earlier, which uses the GTX 980M GPU.
| Fire Strike Ultra | Fire Strike Extreme | Fire Strike | Sky Diver | Cloud Gate | Ice Storm Extreme | Ice Storm | |
| 980 | 3329 | 6139 | 11334 | 25172 | 23071 | 128235 | 133594 |
| 980 (OC) | 3479 | 6455 | 12267 | 27999 | 27282 | 147181 | 157152 |
| 6950 x2 | |||||||
| 980M | 2144 | 3975 | 6755 | 15577 | 19869 | 86162 | 109181 |
We see very strong results here, proving that this card is capable of 4K gaming and at least the equal of other GTX 980 cards on the market at their stock speeds… although overclocking provides a much milder increase than I would have expected.
Game Benchmarks
Total War: Rome 2
Total War: Rome 2 is the most recent game on our list, offering a decent challenge for graphics cards with its lush and enormous battlefields. The game includes a nice benchmark built into the options menu, which we’ll make use of.
The graphics settings are on Ultra, with the only thing varying in each test being the resolution. We’ll test all three mainstream gaming resolutions nowadays – 1080p, 1440p and 2160p (aka 4K). As well as the card on its stock overclock, we’ll be testing its 3D+ quick boost overclock and the Crossfired AMD 6950s that the 980 replaced.
| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p (4K) | |
| 980 GTX Amp! Extreme Edition | 115.9 fps | 87.5 fps | 46.4 fps |
| 980 GTX Amp! Extreme Edition (OC) | 117.5 fps | 88.5 fps | 46.9 fps |
| AMD 6950 Crossfire |
It’s interesting to note how little a difference there is between the two overclock levels. There’s always a slight boost, but it’s only about 1%… barely a difference at all. Of course, the performance gap to the 6950s in Crossfire is more noticeable.
Metro: Last Light
Metro Last Light is a great, claustrophobic shooter by Ukrainian developers 4A Games. The game has both high system requirements and an excellent benchmark tool, so it’s a natural choice for our review. We’ll examine performance at a range of resolutions, from 1080p, to 1440p and 2160p (4K). Other settings are: Very High quality, AF 4x, Normal motion blur, Normal DX11 tessellation and Advanced PhysX turned On.
| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p (4K) | |
| 980 GTX Amp! Extreme Edition | 90 fps | 61 fps | 33 fps |
| 980 GTX Amp! Extreme Edition (OC) | 91 fps | 62 fps | 33 fps |
| Radeon 6950 Crossfire | 77 fps |
Even without being overclocked, the 980 was more than capable of besting Metro Last Light, even at nearly its highest settings. 1080p was a doddle, with the card scoring 91 fps here, but even 1440p was above 60 fps. 4K proved more of a challenge (as it pushes four times the pixels of 1080p), but even here reducing the detail settings slightly allows for a result higher than 60 fps.
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite is a beautiful game, based on the Unreal Engine 3. It also includes a benchmark; we’ll be using the 1080p, 1440p and 2160p benchmarks at the ‘UltraDX11’ preset. As before, we’ll be evaluating the 980 Amp! at stock, then overclocked (at the 3D+ preset) and against the pair of 6950s that previously resided in the rig.
| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p (4K) | |
| 980 GTX Amp! Extreme Edition | 156 fps | 118 fps | 64 fps |
| 980 GTX Amp! Extreme Edition (OC) | 158 fps | 118 fps | 65 fps |
| AMD 6950 Crossfire |
Once again, the 3D+ overclock appears to make little difference – only a frame or two. Regardless, the card is easily able to handle Bioshock Infinite, even with all the bells and whistles and a mighty 4K resolution.
Company of Heroes 2
Company of Heroes 2 is a brilliant strategy game with a punishing benchmark… indeed, the benchmark is a worst-case scenario that you’ll almost never see in the single-player or multiplayer game. Single-card systems work best here (as CoH 2 doesn’t support multiple cards), so let’s see what the 980 Amp! Extreme is capable of.
As before, we’ll look at the performance with 1080p, 1440p and 2160p (4K) resolutions. The other settings will remain constant: Unit Occlusion On, Image Quality Maximum, Anti Aliasing High, V-Sync Off, Texture Detail Higher, Snow Detail High, Physics High.
| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p (4K) | |
| 980 GTX Amp! Extreme Edition | 59 fps | 38 fps | 18 fps |
| 980 GTX Amp! Extreme Edition (OC) | 60 fps | 38 fps | 18 fps |
| AMD 6950 Crossfire |
Even CoH2 still manages to kick the crap out of the 980 at its highest settings. It is worth noting that the test rig does include a Intel Core i7 2600k, which was good three years ago but is a little behind the times now – and that the benchmark really is pretty demanding, and we’ve selected the very hardest settings. As with our other benchmarks, there’s almost no difference between the two OC settings of the 980.
Testing Method & Test System Configuration
Testing Method
I’ve played Battlefield 4 on a 64-player server to provide some real-world performance numbers. I’ve found this is one of the best ways to provide the most realistic performance numbers, as it involves actual gameplay in a large server that really strains most setups.
For now, I’m going to be using the same suite of benchmarks I’ve been using on my Tweakipedia articles, which uses a mix of synthetic benchmarks with Futuremark’s 3DMark and Unigine Heaven. After that, we have a bunch of titles with built-in benchmarks (which does not represent actual in-game performance) but they are repeatable for you at home to gauge the performance of your PC or GPU.
Over time, I will be adding in new benchmarks and a new section that will concentrate solely on real-time gaming benchmarks. This will take more time per review, as I’ll have to invest time into actually physically playing the games, but it’ll be worth it in the long run. For now, let’s get right into the synthetic benchmarks and see how this video card performs.
Test System Configuration
We only recently built our new X99-powered system, something you can read about here. As for the detailed specifications, this is what we’re running:
- CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K processor w/Corsair H110 cooler
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99 Gaming G1 Wi-Fi
- RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance 2666MHz DDR4
- Storage: 240GB SanDisk Extreme II and 480GB SanDisk Extreme II
- Chassis: Lian Li T60 Pit Stop
- PSU: Corsair AX1200i digital PSU
- Software: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
We’re running the system at stock CPU speeds, which will provide more of a ‘real-world’ feel to our benchmarks. Sure, this isn’t an i7-5960X at 5GHz, but what person is going to team up an incredibly expensive CPU with a mid-range GPU? Not many.
Our GPU tests are changing, shifting toward more of a real-world feel. But don’t worry, we will be doing some crazy balls-to-the-wall tests that will see serious overclocks, Extreme Edition processors, and much more in the coming months. For the most part, we will be doing more real-world testing by teaming up the right processor with the right GPU in its price category.
Packaging & Detailed Look
The Packaging
For the best video card we’ve ever tested, you wouldn’t know that from the box. ZOTAC hasn’t changed up its GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition packaging. Let’s take a look now.
From the front of the box, we see in the top right hand corner that this is the ‘AMP! Extreme Edition’ version of ZOTAC’s GeForce GTX 980 Ti. In the bottom right, we have 6GB of VRAM, Power Boost, and Ice Storm technologies.
On the back of the box, we have some more details on the card. We can see the seriously elaborate cooler that ZOTAC has deployed on the GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition. To the right, we can see that ZOTAC has used its dual-blade EKO fan, which increases airflow by 30%.
The card comes in some good packaging, keeping your video card nice and safe.
Detailed Look
The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition has a very unique look, but it’s ultimately a ZOTAC design. This is definitely not a bad thing, as I’m a fan of the work ZOTAC has on the AMP! Extreme Edition cards.
We can see the beautiful dual-blade fans that ZOTAC has used, with three of them keeping the card nice and cool.
On the back of the card, we can see that ZOTAC is teasing ‘Push the Limit’. Under that, ZOTAC’s Power Boost technology can be seen here.
ZOTAC has stuck with the reference Maxwell display output configuration, so we have 3 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI 2.0 and 1 x DVI.
From the top of the card, we have the extensive 2.5-slot cooling system, as well as the 2 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors to the right. On the bottom of the card, we can see that elaborate cooling system on show.
A closer look at the 2 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and the heat sink keeping the VRMs cool.
The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition can be used in SLI for some serious frame rates.
Discussion
In this section, we’ll cover everything that isn’t a benchmark – installation, real in-game performance, and the Firestorm software provided with the card. Temperatures, noise and light are also covered.
Installation
Installation was very straightforward; the card fit easily into my (admittedly roomy) NZXT Phantom. The card is reasonably long at 30cm, but I had no issues navigating it inside. Once it was inside the PCI-express slot, the only thing to remember is to actually hook up the twin 8-pin power connectors (and the OC+ USB cable), and you’re golden.
Real-world performance
In games, the GTX 980 proved the equal of pretty much everything I threw at it.
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ran between 200 and 300 FPS at 4K with settings almost maxed out.
- Max Payne 3, another fairly demanding title from a few years ago, ran at 60 fps constantly at 4K resolution.
- Wasteland 2 came out recently (albeit on the lightish Unity engine) and ran at maximum settings and 4K resolution at a steady 40-60 fps.
More recent and demanding titles didn’t all reach that 60 FPS / 4K standard at their highest settings.
- Metro: Last Light required turning down the detail settings moderately.
- Sid Meier’s Civilisation: Beyond Earth was only able to hit around 30 fps at 4K resolutions and the settings all the way up.
- Battlefield 4 remains the best looking game I play regularly, and here the results were impressive. In the singleplayer campaign, the overclocked 980 provided a solid 40 fps at 4K and Ultra settings.
It’s not quite a single card solution for maxed out 4K gaming, but it’s pretty damn close.
Software
The 980 Amp! Extreme Edition uses Zotac’s Firestorm overclocking utility. The temperature readout is straightforward, but the overclocking options are confusing compared to other GPU utilities.
For example: Quick Overclock has three settings, labelled “2D”, “3D” and “3D+”. 2D is stock OC, 3D is a small increase to the OC, and 3D+ is a moderate increase… I think. I can’t think of any reason to label these settings this way; it’s just confusing.
‘Advance’ provided custom settings, although as has been reported elsewhere voltage is hamstrung beyond what even the reference 980 design provides. At least the options provided here are quite straightforward and easy to understand.
Gamer is the final option, which is also called S.S.P. once opened. This gives you additional control over the voltage (and fan speed).
It doesn’t launch (or indeed do anything) if the USB cable is not connected. Ideally, a message would pop up to inform you that the cable is unplugged.
Temperatures
Temperatures ranged from 24 to 50 degrees (during intense benchmarks and overclocking), but mainly remained at a tolerable 35 degrees. This is a really nice result, and should give you plenty of room to experiment.
Noise
The GTX 980 proved very quiet, running noticeably quieter than the pair of 6950s it replaced. Fans usually stayed at about 45% speed, which was audible but eclipsed by pretty much all ambient noise like mechanical keyboard click-clack.
Lights
The GTX 980 includes a light which goes green when it’s in 2D mode, and red when it’s in 3D mode. This is kind of cool to look at, but I wish that you could get it to change colour in response to temperature or frequency instead. That’d be far more practical.
Benchmarks — 1080p
Battlefield 4
This is one game that we did differently, as it does not feature a built-in benchmarking feature. When it comes to Battlefield 4, there are countless ways you can benchmark it. Some find a spot in the single player campaign which is easily repeatable, and use that. For our testing, we’ve chosen to use a 64-player online multiplayer server for real-time performance statistics.
We joined a 64-player map and played for five minutes using FRAPS, pulling our minimum/average and maximum FPS. We did this for each test, we run the game for 5 minutes at 1080p/1440p and 4K. We are using a custom Ultra preset (disabling AA). It’s time consuming, but it gives us a perfect look into true real-world performance.
Card Specifications & Cooling Setup
Card Specifications
ZOTAC has overclocked both the GPU and the RAM on the GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition, with most other AIB partners not touching the VRAM clock speeds, ZOTAC has gone above and beyond with this card.
Cooling Setup
ZOTAC has used quite an elaborate cooling setup on the GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition card, with a triple-fan cooler that uses 3 x 90mm ‘Ice Storm EKO’ fans on a huge heat sink that has some very thick heat pipes running through it.
As you can see, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition looks great, but the fans look even better.
The GM200 GPU is kept nice and cool thanks to the gigantic heat sink array used.
The VRMs are kept quite cool thanks to a huge heat sink and heat pipes running over them.
Design
Now we have our first look of the card itself – and it’s a beauty. The top is dominated by a trio of 90mm fans, with the frame clad in a carbon fibre pattern. You can see the transparent lighting area at the very top of the picture.
Closeup of the fan’s centre point, which looks to be made of brushed aluminium.
Carbon fibre detailing on all sides, top…
…and bottom.
Here are the ports you’re provided with: DVI-D, Display Port, HDMI, then two more Display Ports.
On the bottom of the GU, we see the POWER BOOST capacitors. The card uses a standard PCI Express connector, at the 3.0 standard as we’d expect for a card this new.
Here’s an OC+ module. No points for correctly guessing what that stands for. On the right side of the module, a mini USB cable should connect the card to your motherboard… but one wasn’t included in my box.
NOT FOR RESALE. Okay then!
So – a very sexy looking card that looks professional, not gamer-garish. There’s not much point letting this card sit outside to get rained on, so let’s get to testing!
What’s Hot, What’s Not & Final Thoughts
This is where you can fast forward to the final section of the review, and get a quick recap and points on the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition.
What’s Hot
Insane Performance: I was expecting some great performance from the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition, but it instead blew us away, becoming the fastest video card we’ve ever tested.
Insane Performance + Silence: Alongside the insane performance, the card is silent, totally silent. With ZOTAC using a hefty cooler, I thought the card would be loud, but I was very wrong. I was gaming through the night, during my hours of stress testing, with no noticeable sound coming from the card.
The Best GTX 980 Ti So Far: ZOTAC has the best GeForce GTX 980 Ti card on the market with its GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition, with it easily beating out every other GTX 980 Ti we have here in the labs.
NVIDIA’s Maxwell Architecture: NVIDIA created a champion when it designed the Maxwell architecture, so we have a power efficient card that runs cool, but it is also feature loaded. Things like HDMI 2.0, VR compatibility, triple DisplayPort outputs, GameStream, and so much more are included.
What’s Not
It’s Too Thick: I really would’ve loved to have seen what four of these cards could do in SLI, but that’s a near impossibility. The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition is too thick, so you will have 2-way SLI and possibly 3-way (depending on the board and chassis used) — where you should truly experience out-of-this-world performance. A 2-slot cooler would’ve been a nice touch, especially with this type of performance under the hood.
Final Thoughts
This is the fastest card we’ve tested, period. ZOTAC has done an amazing job with its GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition, with absolutely mind-blowing performance, great looks, and amazing sound performance.
ZOTAC has surprised me here, as I expected the likes of MSI or EVGA to kick ass and have the fastest GTX 980 Ti out on the market, but it was ZOTAC. ZOTAC has been trying to compete with the likes of MSI, ASUS and EVGA, and with the AMP! Extreme Edition it doesn’t just compete, it beats them. This is a huge deal for ZOTAC, as in enthusiasts’ eyes, ZOTAC has it in the bag.
The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition takes swings at the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X, beats it in virtually every single test, and does so without requiring water cooling. There is an issue that the GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition is thick, very thick. There is no chance of running four of these in a 4-way SLI system (and 3-way could be tough, too), but two of these cards would represent some of the best video cards you can install into your machine.
If you’re in the market for a new GTX 980 Ti, you need to seriously consider the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition, this thing is one of the most amazing pieces of video card technology we’ve ever seen. This is a card for enthusiasts and performance users, who want to squeeze absolutely everything out of the NVIDIA GM200 GPU. Wow. Just, wow.
Unboxing
The Zotac GTX 980 comes in a slick cardboard box, with some shiny metal on the front, the various stats and features, and Zotac’s customary orange branding.
On the back, we have more features and a diagram showing the ports available. There’s a lot to read here, should you find yourself in a store with this card.
Take off the sleeve, and we have a classy black box with a fine texture.
Open the box, and we have the graphics card nicely wrapped in a static-proof bag and well armoured with plenty of foam.
In addition to the card itself, you get a pair of 8-pin power adapters that let you still power the card even if your PSU doesn’t provide 8-pin plugs. You also get a driver CD.
Edit: In checking some other reviews to sanity check benchmark results, it seems a USB cable should have been included to connect to the OC+ module. This wasn’t in the box. Whoops.
