NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Review: Does Maxwell Bring Maximum Gameplay?

For about as long as GPU-accelerated games have existed, an ideal performance target has been 60 frames-per-second. Owing thanks to this is the standard 60Hz monitor, which delivers its best result when the framerate matches its refresh rate. To make sure the monitor’s refresh rate and game’s framerate keep aligned, to avoid visible tearing, VSync should be enabled.

While I believe our Best Playable results will appeal to any gamer, they could especially prove useful to those intrigued by livingroom gaming or console replacements. The goal here is simple: With each game, the graphics settings are tweaked to deliver the best possible detail while keeping us as close to 60 FPS on average as possible.

Because our Metro Last Light and Total War: SHOGUN 2 tests are timedemos, and because this kind of testing is time-consuming, I am sticking to six out of the eight games I test with for inclusion here.

	Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	51		60
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Environment:	Very High	Shadow:	Soft Shadow High
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	High
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	HBAO+ High	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti	52		61
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Environment:	Very High	Shadow:	High
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	High
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	SSAO	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On
AMD Radeon R9 290X	51		61
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Environment:	Very High	Shadow:	High
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	High
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	SSAO	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On

Both AMD’s Radeon R9 290X and NVIDIA’s last-gen top-end GTX 780 Ti were able to handle Black Flag at the settings we use in our apples-to-apples comparisons, but because the GTX 980 offered a bit more oomph, I decided to test out HBAO+ and soft shadow modes. When all said and done, I was able to go with the High mode for each, while hitting exactly 60 FPS on average.

	Battlefield 4
	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	47		63
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Texture Quality:	Ultra	Texture Filtering:	Ultra
	Lighting:	Ultra	Effects:	Ultra
	Post Processing:	Ultra	Mesh:	Ultra
	Terrain:	Ultra	Terrain Decoration:	Ultra
	Anti-aliasing Deferred:	4x MSAA	Anti-aliasing Post:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	HBAO
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti	43		62
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Texture Quality:	Ultra	Texture Filtering:	Ultra
	Lighting:	Ultra	Effects:	Ultra
	Post Processing:	Ultra	Mesh:	Ultra
	Terrain:	Ultra	Terrain Decoration:	Ultra
	Anti-aliasing Deferred:	2x MSAA	Anti-aliasing Post:	Medium
	Ambient Occlusion:	SSAO
AMD Radeon R9 290X	43		60
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Texture Quality:	Ultra	Texture Filtering:	Ultra
	Lighting:	Ultra	Effects:	Ultra
	Post Processing:	Ultra	Mesh:	Ultra
	Terrain:	Ultra	Terrain Decoration:	Ultra
	Anti-aliasing Deferred:	2x MSAA	Anti-aliasing Post:	Medium
	Ambient Occlusion:	SSAO

Both the 290X and 780 Ti had to see their anti-aliasing dropped slightly in order to attain 60 FPS on average, but with the GTX 980, not only could 4xAA be retained (an Ultra preset), but so too could the higher-end HBAO mode (versus SSAO).

	Crysis 3
	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	44		65
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	Texture:	Very High
	Effects:	High	Object:	Very High
	Particles:	High	Post Processing:	High
	Shading:	High	Shadows:	High
	Water:	High	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti	42		66
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	Texture:	High
	Effects:	High	Object:	High
	Particles:	High	Post Processing:	High
	Shading:	High	Shadows:	High
	Water:	High	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes
AMD Radeon R9 290X	41		61
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	Texture:	High
	Effects:	High	Object:	High
	Particles:	High	Post Processing:	High
	Shading:	High	Shadows:	High
	Water:	High	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes

The GTX 980 once again shows the other two cards just what it’s made of. Instead of sticking to the same settings I use for normal benchmarking, this card managed higher texture and object detail while delivering well over 60 FPS.

	GRID 2
	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	69		88
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	Ultra	Advanced Fog:	On
	Particles:	Ultra	Crowd:	Ultra
	Cloth:	High	Ambient Occlusion:	Ultra
	Soft Ambient Occlusion:	On	Ground Cover:	High
	Vehicle Details:	High	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	On	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti	73		83
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	Ultra	Advanced Fog:	On
	Particles:	Ultra	Crowd:	Ultra
	Cloth:	High	Ambient Occlusion:	Ultra
	Soft Ambient Occlusion:	On	Ground Cover:	High
	Vehicle Details:	High	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	On	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra
AMD Radeon R9 290X	67		76
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	Ultra	Advanced Fog:	On
	Particles:	Ultra	Crowd:	Ultra
	Cloth:	High	Ambient Occlusion:	Ultra
	Soft Ambient Occlusion:	On	Ground Cover:	High
	Vehicle Details:	High	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	On	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra

In truth, 8xMSAA could have been enabled for any one of these configurations, but I’d argue that it’d be a bit pointless. The performance on all three of the cards is outstanding, and when not even the minimum dips below 60 FPS, that’s a very good thing.

	Sleeping Dogs
	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	65		78
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	High	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti	54		71
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	High	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme
AMD Radeon R9 290X	59		70
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	High	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme

Like the lowbie cards, the GTX 980 stuck to our regular benchmark settings, which includes the mid-range anti-aliasing setting. The top-end AA setting was a no go, as it’s hardcore enough to bring us from a comfortable 78 FPS to about 55 FPS.

	Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
	Minimum		Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	50		60
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	Ultra
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Field AO & HBAO+
	Anti-aliasing:	TXAA 2x
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti	58		71
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	Ultra
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Field AO & HBAO+
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA
AMD Radeon R9 290X	54		65
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	Ultra
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Field AO & HBAO+
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA

For the first time in a Best Playable result, I’ve enabled NVIDIA’s TXAA with Blacklist. To use that and keep a truly playable framerate, 2x had to be used, and with that, we’ve managed to keep the 60 FPS we fight so hard to retain.