Which model 980Ti? Best Variant?

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MapleSyrupMods

Bring on Titan X Volta
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With so many variants of the 980 TI out, I'm unsure which one to get. Do I get the reference cooler or not? I do plan to SLI in the future and understand that the reference cooler was designed with SLI in mind for space. I originally wanted be Asus Strix model, but that is sold out everywhere. I am not convinced by the reviews of the Gigabyte, never used EVGA/PNY and have heard bad things about the blower versus standard fans - are they really that bad? If not, please help me recommend the best variant out there.

Also, I am located in Canada so if you could use NewEgg.Ca and NCIX.com Canada for your reccomendations, that would help.
Thanks!
 
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...00379&cm_re=gtx_980_ti-_-14-500-379-_-Product
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.
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Read more at http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/72...xtreme-edition-video-card-review/index11.html
 
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I'm in the same boat as you.and after a month of going back and forth and researching it has come down to either the gigabyte G1, the zotac amp extreme....or at this point we might be better off waiting for either the lightning or kingpin since its so late in the cycle now.
 
Do they all have equal reports of coil whine? Also, In many cases, isn't coil whine power supply dependent?
 
Just saw that TechReport article too; had been waiting around for one for awhile.

They recommend the Asus Strix; I'm leaning more towards the Gigabyte G1 when I pull the trigger.
 
iDShaDoW said:
Just saw that TechReport article too; had been waiting around for one for awhile.

They recommend the Asus Strix; I'm leaning more towards the Gigabyte G1 when I pull the trigger.
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Hopefully you have good luck with the coil whine and dead DVI ports they are experiencing.
 
MSI seems to offer the best all-around if sound is a concern. I would say the STRIX would probably be the go-to though for many.

You need to decide how good you want the customer support and RMA experience. If you want that you need to stick with EVGA, as from what I've seen ASUS and Zotac are pretty terrible when it comes to that. And as much as I like MSI, their rma service isn't nearly on par with EVGA or Gigabyte. Btw, the Gigabyte G1 would be the card to go for if there weren't so many complaints of coil whine.
 
To bad the STRIX has a serious heatpipe design problem with gaps that cause hotter GPU tempratures, hence why ASUS isn't selling any right now.

58bb0903_Asus_GTX_980_Ti_Strix_Gaming_cooler.jpeg
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Coil whine scares me. Also the ACX cooler isn't very good, overall.
EVGA is a good company that makes meh products.

However they are American! I like to support the home team.
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Support is good, but Im not a fan of business practices and the pricing structure for their products and the coolers are subpar all around, nothing great about them. I gave the Classified 980 Ti a chance after not using them for 3 years and it coil whined and ran loud, so to hell with that.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Coil whine scares me. Also the ACX cooler isn't very good, overall.
EVGA is a good company that makes meh products.

However they are American! I like to support the home team.
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Why does the cooler matter? You aren't seriously going to use an air-cooler on a 980 Ti?? The actual cards are the best you can buy. A Classi will never coil-whine.
 
I'm running an EVGA SC+ ACX2.0+ with a Corsair AX750 PSU.
No coil whine, not a whimper.
Its a very quiet card, fan is off at idle and I cant hear it at stock speeds under load.
GPU idle temp is about 8C above ambient in an Antec 900 case, fans on slowest.

Stock bios (maxes at 1.199V) overclock got me 1440- 1453MHz.
Higher Power Limit 121% BIOS (maxes at 1.223V) got me to 1474MHz while still fairly quiet.
PL 121% + 1.25V BIOS got me 1500MHz with 75% fan, quite loud.

Great card, very happy with it.
I run it at 1440MHz when needed (Witcher 3), otherwise its at stock.
Handlily trounces my old 980 clocked at 1600MHz.
 
BlueSaber80 said:
To bad the STRIX has a serious heatpipe design problem with gaps that cause hotter GPU tempratures, hence why ASUS isn't selling any right now.

58bb0903_Asus_GTX_980_Ti_Strix_Gaming_cooler.jpeg
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But they are selling them, the dcu 3 heatsink is the same as the dcu2, its the same on the strix 390x and the strix fury as it is on the strix 980 ti. Overclockers uk had a few 980 ti strix cards in a few weeks ago and again at the end of last week.
 
rabidz7 said:
Why does the cooler matter? You aren't seriously going to use an air-cooler on a 980 Ti?? The actual cards are the best you can buy. A Classi will never coil-whine.
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Mine had it, and so are other people on OCN, so thats completely untrue.
 
Zotac Extreme is the fastest out. I love my Zotac Omega, never had one before but it's awesome. Cooler looks great and it stays in the 60s OCed to 1510mhz; stock voltage with a 68% ASIC score.
 
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dyscreet said:
Zotac Extreme is the fastest out. I love my Zotac Omega, never had one before but it's awesome. Cooler looks great and it stays in the 60s OCed to 1510mhz; stock voltage with a 68% ASIC score.
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I've said it several times on at this point, but I've been nothing but impressed by my first Zotac card. If the Omega had been available at the time, I would have gotten it instead of the Extreme to save a few dollars. That said, it's a great card overall, and I get very similar numbers to yours. I was wary, but I think Zotac will be on my list from now on (lifetime warranty in NA helps).
 
dyscreet said:
Zotac Extreme is the fastest out. I love my Zotac Omega, never had one before but it's awesome. Cooler looks great and it stays in the 60s OCed to 1510mhz; stock voltage with a 68% ASIC score.
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Not saying that the Zotac Extreme isn't a great card, I'm sure it is, but its only the fastest STOCK clocked card available. Overclocking varies and every card is different.

I have a MSI 980 Ti Gaming 6G that's 100% stable in any game or application at 1520MHz core and 8200MHz memory and runs in the 60's in gaming too. ASIC is 72% but that doesn't really matter at all.

Point is when it comes to overclocking there's no brand or model that's the fastest when it comes to overclocking since its all luck of the draw.
 
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stock nvidia cooler is very good, and evga allegedly has the best customer service

historically the best-reviewed third-party boards and coolers are: asus and msi
 
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bpizzle1 said:
I've said it several times on at this point, but I've been nothing but impressed by my first Zotac card. If the Omega had been available at the time, I would have gotten it instead of the Extreme to save a few dollars. That said, it's a great card overall, and I get very similar numbers to yours. I was wary, but I think Zotac will be on my list from now on (lifetime warranty in NA helps).
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I just ordered the Omega. The G1 is not any cooler than my MSI that I RMA'ed but is loud as fack when it spins up. I can't tell if it has coil when all I hear is the fan. I'm not looking for 1500+ OC, just a card that's cool and quiet. The Zotac sounds like what the doctor ordered. It has the height of the MSI, the length of the G1, but then it's also twice as thick as either of them. No water cooling for me, but that heatsink on the Omega looks amazing.

Edit: Did you get the lifetime warranty? I've heard that it's only 2 + 1 year if you register within 30 days. I don't believe there's any lifetime warranty.
 
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Cyph said:
I just ordered the Omega. The G1 is not any cooler than my MSI that I RMA'ed but is loud as fack when it spins up. I can't tell if it has coil when all I hear is the fan. I'm not looking for 1500+ OC, just a card that's cool and quiet. The Zotac sounds like what the doctor ordered. It has the height of the MSI, the length of the G1, but then it's also twice as thick as either of them. No water cooling for me, but that heatsink on the Omega looks amazing.


Edit: Did you get the lifetime warranty? I've heard that it's only 2 + 1 year if you register within 30 days. I don't believe there's any lifetime warranty.
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Hmm, interesting. When I registered my card a month ago, the site said VGA cards $200 and up had a lifetime warranty when registered within 28 days. A quick Google search shows plenty of hits saying "Zotac extends warranty to 5 years and lifetime in NA" dated from early July 2015. I may have to look into this more since the Zotac site now shows the 2+1 thing.

Edit: This is what the Zotac site showed a month ago.
WD-table-gl.jpg
 
Just an update - My EVGA 980 Ti has been installed for a few days now and everything is running great. I am hoping that it will continue that for a long time!
 
KickAssCop said:
Evga Classified
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After the 780ti classified, i think I'm going to stay away from classified ed. Unless they can "prove" themselves. Seems like the kingpin is the only top teir route to really go for evga...even if it stays on air.
 
Whether you buy, MSI, Gigabyte, EVGA or any other brand there is no guarantee for over clocks.
I have tested MSI gaming card that ran hot as fuck, loud with poor ASIC scores. Many similar examples in the forums I visit.
I have used the SC+ and it was decent. However the smaller ACX cooler is not sufficient for heat dissipation and card hit 75 c commonly.
My experience with Gigabyte G1 gaming cards is that the cooler is noisy. The WF3 design is going to be noisy due to small fans. Same issue is now with Strix and 3 fans. If you lower the fans then the cooling is inadequate.
Zotac I wouldn't buy just because their cards are really poor last I checked and even recently the amp extreme is reported to have coil whine with some amp cards not even overclocking +30 on the core.

That really only leaves EVGA classified as the viable option. If you do not listen to Blue who has been name calling everyone trying to help him, then there is really no one else I know that had coil whine or a bad card. With a single classified in my rig, I get temperatures of 65 C while gaming and 70 C when benching. Card hits 1524/7800 or 1510/8200 with LN2 bios and has ASIC of 70% only. People are typically getting ASIC of 70+ on their cards. Yes, they are not binned but they are good cards. To me any 980ti that hits the 1470+ on the core is a fantatic card and don't know a classy that hasn't hit that yet.
 
KickAssCop said:
...My experience with Gigabyte G1 gaming cards is that the cooler is noisy. The WF3 design is going to be noisy due to small fans...
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I must have gotten lucky then, as my 980 Ti G1 is at least 25% quieter than my 780 Ti classified when folding and gaming. Granted, the frequency of the sound plays a big role for me as I am about 6 feet away from my PC sitting in my recliner, and at the same height as my PC.

It's barely louder than my CPU fan, and I've set up a fan profile that ramps up after 65C and at 80C will be at 100%. The hottest it gets is 70C/66% fan speed looping Valley. Boost clocks of 1497, and stock voltage (1.199 showing).

The 980 Ti Classified and 780 Ti Classified have the same cooler design and fans right? (albeit with larger fans than the standard ACX 2.0)

As with all things, not everyone has the same experience.
 
arestavo said:
I must have gotten lucky then, as my 980 Ti G1 is at least 25% quieter than my 780 Ti classified when folding and gaming. Granted, the frequency of the sound plays a big role for me as I am about 6 feet away from my PC sitting in my recliner, and at the same height as my PC.

It's barely louder than my CPU fan, and I've set up a fan profile that ramps up after 65C and at 80C will be at 100%. The hottest it gets is 70C/66% fan speed looping Valley. Boost clocks of 1497, and stock voltage (1.199 showing).

The 980 Ti Classified and 780 Ti Classified have the same cooler design and fans right? (albeit with larger fans than the standard ACX 2.0)

As with all things, not everyone has the same experience.
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If I had a dollar for every G1 owner that got defensive about the nose their card makes.. Every G1 owner is "lucky" apparently lol
 
What the hell are you talking about?

It is cooler and much quieter than my 780 Ti classified - no bones about it. Maybe you had a bad experience, but I'm having a great one.

EDIT: I have a full tower case with two 200mm fans blowing right onto the card. Do you have a shitty airflow case? Cause that might be your issue (besides the character fault of putting down other's experience as bullshit).
 
TDSlam720 said:
If I had a dollar for every G1 owner that got defensive about the nose their card makes.. Every G1 owner is "lucky" apparently lol
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After all the horror reviews on the G1 on newegg, I wasn't gonna even bother with RMAing for a second one.
 
arestavo said:
I must have gotten lucky then, as my 980 Ti G1 is at least 25% quieter than my 780 Ti classified when folding and gaming. Granted, the frequency of the sound plays a big role for me as I am about 6 feet away from my PC sitting in my recliner, and at the same height as my PC.

It's barely louder than my CPU fan, and I've set up a fan profile that ramps up after 65C and at 80C will be at 100%. The hottest it gets is 70C/66% fan speed looping Valley. Boost clocks of 1497, and stock voltage (1.199 showing).

The 980 Ti Classified and 780 Ti Classified have the same cooler design and fans right? (albeit with larger fans than the standard ACX 2.0)

As with all things, not everyone has the same experience.
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6 feet is above normal distance. Many people are typically 3 feet away.
Also, it is not us saying it. It is professional review sites saying that the Gigabyte G1 makes more noise than any of the other brands. It is almost as noisy as reference.
 
Darn, that's got to suck for everyone else then. My 780 Ti classified was about 25% more quiet than my 780 Ti reference card, and the 980 Ti G1 is at least 25% more quiet than the 780 Ti classified.

Same case, same fans, same ambient temps, same seat location, and yet the difference for me is at least 50% coming from a reference cooler 780 Ti to 980 Ti G1.
 
sobe88 said:
With the other choices, why?

I ask why because as of late it seems Classies are no longer binned as they used to be, but that is more left for the new "kingpin edition" cards.
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Yup, don't buy the Classy. All the good 980 TI are going toward the binned Kingpins, so I assume that Classifieds are getting the leftover cards.
 
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