Corsair Announces Hydro Series GFX Liquid Cooled GeForce GTX 980 Ti

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Corsair®, a world leader in high-performance PC hardware and number one supplier of PC cooling technology, today announced the Hydro GFX, a liquid cooled GeForce® GTX™ 980 Ti graphics card developed in partnership with MSI. Corsair’s exclusive liquid cooling technology enables the GPU and circuitry to run faster and cooler than standard cards, giving gamers faster, smoother frame rates with less noise. The Hydro GFX installs in minutes in almost any desktop PC, from full-size tower cases to compact gaming PCs like Corsair Bulldog.

Hydro GFX consists of a MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti card with an integrated aluminum bracket cooled by a Corsair Hydro Series H55 liquid cooler. Liquid cooling keeps the card’s hottest, most critical components—the GPU, memory, and power circuitry—30% cooler than standard cards while running at higher clock speeds with no throttling, boosting the GPU clock 20% and graphics performance up to 15%. The Hydro Series H55 micro-fin copper cooling block and 120mm radiator expels the heat from the PC reducing overall system temperature and noise. The result is faster, smoother frame rates at resolutions of 4K and beyond at whisper quiet levels.
The Hydro GFX installs in minutes in nearly any modern PC case. Users simply mount the radiator on one of their PC’s 120mm mounts, insert the card into a PCI Express 3.0 16x slot, and then plug power connectors into the card. No messy coolant filling or maintenance is required.

“PC enthusiasts have chosen Corsair liquid coolers to overclock their CPUs and silence their PCs for nearly a decade,” said Michael Hooper, Corsair’s product manager for cooling technology. “Now with our partners MSI, we are bringing Corsair liquid cooling technology to the GeForce GTX 980 Ti with the Hydro GFX—one of the fastest, quietest, and easy-to-install graphics cards available.”

Hydro GFX - GeForce GTX 980 Ti Card:
GPU:
  • NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 980 GPU with Maxwell 2.0 microarchitecture, designed for next generation gaming at resolutions of 4K and beyond
  • 1190/1291 MHz base/boost clock
  • Clocked 20% faster than standard GeForce GTX 980 Ti cards for up to a 15% performance boost.

Cooling:
  • Integrated liquid cooling technology keeps GPU, video RAM, and voltage regulator 30% cooler than standard cards
  • Corsair Hydro Series H55 liquid cooler with micro-fin copper block, 120mm radiator/fan

Memory:
  • 6GB GDDR5
  • 7096 MHz
  • 384-bit interface

ETC:
  • Outputs: 3x DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0, and Dual Link DVI-I
  • Power: 250 watts (600 watt PSU required)
  • Requirements: PCI Express 3.0 16x dual-width slot, 8+6-pin power connector, 600 watt PSU
  • Dimensions: 10.5 x 4.376 inch
  • Warranty: 3 year warranty
  • MSRP: $739.99

Pricing and Availability:
  • Hydro GFX will be available in October in the US with an MSRP of $739.99 USD.
 
Booo. With as long as this has taken to come out (heard about it back in June), I was really hoping for a non-reference pcb... I know we won't know for sure until more information/pics are released, but looking at this (and taking the lowish price into account), it looks to be just a reference board like the EVGA hybrid.

Still a solid offering and nice to have other hybrid options than just the EVGA (the MSI is ten bucks cheaper too, which is nice).
 
Show me the 20% clock boost with 10% or less increase in price, and you've got me, break that number and you're fleecing me, or the value simply isn't there.
 
Kalabalana said:
Show me the 20% clock boost with 10% or less increase in price, and you've got me, break that number and you're fleecing me, or the value simply isn't there.
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Rather than come up with arbitrary numbers, it would make more sense to compare it to other video cards out there with the same overclocking potential out of the box, like custom cooler 980 Ti's

Either way, with something like this, you are getting into Titan X performance at a lower price point. (Not that the titan X is a great deal or anything)

Also, comparing it to an air cooled model, plus $39.99 for the H10 bracket and $59.99 suggests that it should be ~$100 more than a regular fan cooled model, which it is.

The H55 seems like an odd choice though. I would have equipped it with an H80 or H90.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041859941 said:
Rather than come up with arbitrary numbers, it would make more sense to compare it to other video cards out there with the same overclocking potential out of the box, like custom cooler 980 Ti's

Either way, with something like this, you are getting into Titan X performance at a lower price point. (Not that the titan X is a great deal or anything)

Also, comparing it to an air cooled model, plus $39.99 for the H10 bracket and $59.99 suggests that it should be ~$100 more than a regular fan cooled model, which it is.

The H55 seems like an odd choice though. I would have equipped it with an H80 or H90.
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Because the CPU coldplate contacts directly to the GPU die and not a heatspreader (like a CPU uses), we get a great amount of cooling efficiency. We've used the H55/H75 to cool tons of GPUs in our lineup (the only difference between the two units is the H75 includes two SP120L fans instead of one standard fan - otherwise they are identical internally) and the performance is quite good.
 
I hope [H] tests this--it looks pretty slick.I don't mind a reference PCB if they get custom-level overclocks.
 
Redbeard said:
Because the CPU coldplate contacts directly to the GPU die and not a heatspreader (like a CPU uses), we get a great amount of cooling efficiency. We've used the H55/H75 to cool tons of GPUs in our lineup (the only difference between the two units is the H75 includes two SP120L fans instead of one standard fan - otherwise they are identical internally) and the performance is quite good.
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I hadn't thought of the heatspreader bit. That's a good point and positive information!

I think when I put HG10 N980's on mine (if you guys ever get around to launching them :p ), I'll likely still go with H90's though. Should let me use quieter fans!

Would be cool if the hg10's came with an adapter breaking out the GPU PWM signal such that it can be fed to the AIO fan.

Right now its a bummer that you lose fan control, unless you are clever and use some wire taps to mod it yourself.
 
Or ...... just save your money and get a stock 980ti. 10%? What's that? Like 4 - 5 frames if that?

Not to knock MSI / Corsair, love 'em.

I love my 980ti stock edition that came straight from Nvidia.

I've been using SLI / Xfire for the last several years and ... FINALLY with just using one very fast card my system and the experience is just so much smoother. I couldn't be any happier.

I can't wait for Nvidia's new card in 2016 and I will gladly spend $700+ on it. Only one card for me from now on.

I could see myself spending $699 for this water cooled card however
 
The fan included in this kit isn't actually the standard H55 fan, it's much closer to the retail SP120 LED fans, which have a lot better performance than the stock H55. So really we probably should have called this cooler an H65 or something.
 
I'm curious, not sure how much you can divulge from the internal side though, how is support/RMA handled for this type of collaborated product?
 
SixFootDuo said:
Or ...... just save your money and get a stock 980ti. 10%? What's that? Like 4 - 5 frames if that?

Not to knock MSI / Corsair, love 'em.

I love my 980ti stock edition that came straight from Nvidia.

I've been using SLI / Xfire for the last several years and ... FINALLY with just using one very fast card my system and the experience is just so much smoother. I couldn't be any happier.

I can't wait for Nvidia's new card in 2016 and I will gladly spend $700+ on it. Only one card for me from now on.

I could see myself spending $699 for this water cooled card however
Click to expand...

Not everyone is ok with the noise from a blower style gpu though.

Here's what I've run into... My reference 780 Ti ran a bit warmer than I'd prefer (75 degrees or so under load) and was a tad loud while gaming. When I moved to a custom cooled 780 Ti my card's temps improved to about 70 degrees and the noise was much improved. The problem, however, was that the temps on my h110 cooled cpu increased by a good 8 - 10 degrees.

Hybrids have given me the best of both worlds without having to set up a custom loop. My gpu runs at around 55-60 when I'm really stressing it, my cpu's temps remained the same as when I had a blower style gpu, and my system is the quietest it's ever been.
 
Fixall said:
Not everyone is ok with the noise from a blower style gpu though.

Here's what I've run into... My reference 780 Ti ran a bit warmer than I'd prefer (75 degrees or so under load) and was a tad loud while gaming. When I moved to a custom cooled 780 Ti my card temps improved to about 70 degrees and the noise was much improved. The problem, however, was that the temps on my h110 cooled cpu increased by a good 8 - 10 degrees.

Hybrids have given me the best of both worlds without having to set up a custom loop. My gpu runs at around 55-60 when I'm really stressing it, my cpu temps remained the same as when I had a blower style gpu, and my system is the quietest it's ever been.
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I liked the reference 980 but the reference 980 Ti drove me crazy. I dont see how anyone can tolerate that card much less "love it" especially when overclocking. But yeah my cpu temps went up several degrees when going from a reference 980 Ti to this MSI Gaming model.

And a reference 780 ti should have been hitting 83 in any half way demanding games as that is what it was designed to do. If your reference 780 Ti was only going to 75 then you had custom fan curve or you were not playing games that were the least bit demanding.
 
misterbobby said:
I liked the reference 980 but the reference 980 Ti drove me crazy. I dont see how anyone can tolerate that card much less "love it" especially when overclocking. But yeah my cpu temps went up several degrees when going from a reference 980 Ti to this MSI Gaming model.

And a reference 780 ti should have been hitting 83 in any half way demanding games as that is what it was designed to do. If your reference 780 Ti was only going to 75 then you had custom fan curve or you were not playing games that were the least bit demanding.
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I agree... I didn't find the toned down hair dryer sound to be very enjoyable.

I think I hit 76 or 77 a couple times in Far Cry 3 with everything maxed (there is this spot in Dr. Earnhardt's house that seemed to push my gpu more than any other game that was out at the time) but I had my fan curve to kick up to 85% or 90% once the gpu hit 75 degrees. I hate high temps, but if I remember right I was mainly trying to avoid the 12mhz (or so) throttle points the 780 ti had (starting at 60 degrees) without swapping the bios.

Since Redbeard is in the thread... Any chance we could have some confirmation if this is a reference PCB and if it come with a backplate (seems like I see one in the picture on the product box) or not?
 
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Price seems good although if it ends up like the EVGA Hybrid in EU then it's going to be cheaper to get a MSI 980 Ti Gaming, a G10 bracket and the H55. Performance is most likely about the same, around 1500 core clocks but at silent or near silent noise levels (when the AIO fan is connected to a fan controller).
 
I haven't tried to OC my 980ti yet. maybe why I haven't experienced the blower sound profile yet.

I wanted a aftermarket 3 fan cooler but when someone listed a near mint / like new 980ti for $480 on Craigslist ... I jumped on it.
 
I think, I'd rather go with the EK solution - get a real block on GPU and add it to their new modable AIO.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041859941 said:
The H55 seems like an odd choice though. I would have equipped it with an H80 or H90.
Click to expand...

I agree. H55 is rather "anemic" compared to the other offerings in corsairs suite.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
I agree. H55 is rather "anemic" compared to the other offerings in corsairs suite.
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They've been recommending the "lower-end" liquid coolers for their GPU brackets for a while now, my guess is the dual-fan options are probably overkill, whereas the H55 provides the performance needed with a lower sound profile. Though I do think they missed an opportunity by not offering a way to have this card hook up to the Corsair Link monitoring software. Giving the user the ability to configure the fan speed curve based on GPU temp seems like it would go over well with enthusiasts. Of course, the Link software isn't the most popular thing these days, hopefully the overhaul they're working on for version 4 will be better.
 
$739.99 is not a bad MSRP at all. Was expecting in the $800+ range until I saw the price. A decent factory overclocked GTX 980 Ti goes for around $670-690 (G1 Gaming, ACX SC+, Strix, etc.).

I personally picked up a Zotac GTX 980Ti AMP! yesterday for $648 on Amazon. Maybe I should have waited.
 
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MorgothPl said:
I think, I'd rather go with the EK solution - get a real block on GPU and add it to their new modable AIO.
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I was looking at Alphacool myself, due to their modular block/fullcover system that allows you to reuse the block, just change the full over when you get a new video card.

In the end I decided against the full custom loop, because I just couldn't make it work for less than $800, for what I wanted, and that seemed a bit high, especially since I just spent $2,000 on a screen and $1350 on GPU's. So I went back to waiting for the HG10 NG980's.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
I agree. H55 is rather "anemic" compared to the other offerings in corsairs suite.
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It's perfectly fine for cooling the card. I've got one on my MSI Gaming 980 Ti and it stays quiet and cool. It is also the one that will fit most cases as not every case can fit a 140mm or larger cooler. Besides, it seems that larger coolers don't give much benefit anyway.
 
kasakka said:
It's perfectly fine for cooling the card. I've got one on my MSI Gaming 980 Ti and it stays quiet and cool. It is also the one that will fit most cases as not every case can fit a 140mm or larger cooler. Besides, it seems that larger coolers don't give much benefit anyway.
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Yeah, but the larger radiator you have, the slower you can spin your fans, and it wins up being quieter.
 
Doh! Why couldn't this have come out a few months sooner? I bought an EVGA 980 Ti SC+ ACX on July 10th. I would definitely have spent a little more for this.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
I agree. H55 is rather "anemic" compared to the other offerings in corsairs suite.
Click to expand...

Not from what we have seen internally in our comparative testing with 120mm spec rad coolers (H75 and H80i). Thicker rad or push/pull configuration didn't make much of a difference in performance so its not worth the added cost to the kit. H55 is the sweet spot and more than enough to keep card's thermals cool while keeping the noise level at bay.
 
Joseph_Ocbina said:
Not from what we have seen internally in our comparative testing with 120mm spec rad coolers (H75 and H80i). Thicker rad or push/pull configuration didn't make much of a difference in performance so its not worth the added cost to the kit. H55 is the sweet spot and more than enough to keep card's thermals cool while keeping the noise level at bay.
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Definitely this. Cooling a CPU is a whole different beast than cooling a GPU (especially so with Maxwell). A 120mm radiator with a single fan is very well suited for cooling a GPU (my temps stay in the 50's under heavy load) while keeping noise and price at a minimum.
 
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