It wants NVIDIA to launch a better chip first

Sep 23, 2014 08:33 GMT  ·  By

While NVIDIA didn't go out of its way to advertise it, the graphics processing unit in the GeForce GTX 980 graphics card is not the best it could come up with based on the Maxwell architecture. Indeed, it is holding the GM200/GM210 in reserve until mid-2015 or so.

This hasn't really stopped the GeForce GTX 980 from reaching a performance level higher than every other NVIDIA consumer card though, even though GeForce GTX 780 Ti, with its GK110 chip, has some hardware advantages.

That's what reviews have revealed at any rate. Nevertheless, some OEMs have decided to take it easy with overclocking because of that.

The overclocked GTX 980 from Micro-Star International

While MSI has launched factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 video boards, it doesn't seem hell-bent on enabling hardcore overclocking records.

According to NordicHardware (page has apparently been taken down), this is because it doesn't think that the GM204-400 chip in the GTX 980 is worth the hassle.

Thus, you probably shouldn't expect a GeForce GTX 980 or 970 video card bearing the OC Series Lightning brand, at least not in the near future.

As some have pointed out, MSI actually has a reason for playing it safe in this case. Some of you may remember that, last year, NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 780 Ti quite soon after MSI released the GTX 780 Lightning.

This essentially invalidated all the work MSI put into tweaking and optimizing the non-TI graphics card, and MSI doesn't want that to happen again.

The implications

There is just one: NVIDIA may have already prepared a preliminary design for the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, if MSI is playing it safe while waiting for it.

Perhaps that means that an even better high-end Maxwell graphics card will debut by the end of the year, or maybe in January, rather than in the second quarter or second half of 2015.

Alternatively, the GTX 980 Ti may turn out to be based on a GM204 or other, while an even better GM210 will power the next Titan. GM210 may, in fact, be the first 20nm or 16nm-based chip ever.

We can only wait and see what happens, but any one of these possibilities is as feasible as the next. In the meantime, you should be able to find MSI Gaming Series GTX 980 cards with Twin Frozr V coolers and various factory-OC parameters. Same for every other OEM supplier out there, most of which have already made their move.