GTX 980 Ti: reference vs. custom

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jyi786

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Ok, let's try this again. I believe my experiment with my MSI GTX 980Ti Gaming 6G has come to an end. See here.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1869709

Through this almost month long ordeal, I've learned a few things about this card.

1. It runs hot. Very hot.
2. It dumps all the heat inside the case, making everything else hotter.
3. It can get noisy.
4. It's unstable.

So, with all that being said, how about we restart this again? I was wondering if reference was really all that bad. I can control the noise with a custom fan curve, so that's not really going to be an issue...but the heat. I want it dumped OUTSIDE the case if I can help it this time around. So now I'm looking a GTX 980 Ti:

1. That is quiet.
2. That will dump as much heat as possible OUTSIDE the case.
3. Has NO COIL WHINE.

Thanks for any suggestions you guys can provide.
 
I've always been impressed with the Nvidia reference cooler since it was introduced on the Titan. I've had Titans, 780's, 780ti's, 970's, 980's, etc all come through my machine with that cooler and never once was I disappointed. It doesn't sag, it doesn't have a bunch of retarded lights blazing away everywhere. Never had any coil whine on any of them either, but thats luck of the draw and you'll never know until you get the card.

My last 970 with that cooler ran at nearly 1500mhz for 200+ hours of DA:I with the fan on auto and completely silent.

TL;DR - I'm a fan of the reference Nvidia cooler. Try it, I don't think you'll be sad.
 
i had a reference titan x because of your reasons. I wanted something to dump heat outside the case. Unfortunately it was too much heat for the reference blower (80+) and things started getting annoying loud when it started getting too hot. Your best option is probably aio cooling. It will dump all the heat outside the case and run extremely cool and be very quiet. Coil whine is just luck of draw.
 
Sounds like you got a bad card. I had a Gigabyte 980 Ti G1 that was also loud and would crash even with stock overclocks. Sent it back, got the MSI card and it ran fine.

Coil whine is always up to the individual card. I can hear it only my MSI in for example Far Cry 4 intro videos (which I have set to skip) but really nowhere else no matter how I tried. So I consider that acceptable.

Based on your criteria the only thing you'll be happy with is a card with an AIO cooler. What I'd do is either get a replacement for the MSI and buy a cheap AIO cooler like the Corsair H55 + the NZXT G10 bracket for it OR get the EVGA Hybrid. The benefit of the MSI might be a bit higher overclocks but also being able to move your cooling setup to the next card you buy and also no pump noise in my experience.
 
ajm786 said:
This looks promising to me.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1165089-REG/asus_gtx980ti_6gd5_geforce_gtx_980_ti.html

Can anyone confirm whether or not this has coil whine?
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Reference card is a reference card no matter what sticker is on it. Pretty much every review said there was coil whine on the reference card. I could only hear it on the reference card I used if I stuck my head right up the side of the case when getting excessive framerates.

And having used a reference card for few weeks, I would not ever touch one again. Out of the box was not too bad but it will throttle like crazy in very demanding loads. Raising the power limit just means the already loud fan gets louder as the card gets hotter. With just a mild oc of 1420, I was hitting 85 and occasionally 86 C during heavy gaming load. And I have EXCELLENT airflow to the gpu and in a room that was 72 F. And thats with a 200 mm blowing on the side of the card and a 120 mm fan right at the front of the card blowing air. After a couple of days of the fan racket I had enough and got the MSI Gaming card. The MSI card idles at 30-33 and never hits 80 even at 1542 and is super quiet.
 
misterbobby said:
After a couple of days of the fan racket I had enough and got the MSI Gaming card. The MSI card idles at 30-33 and never hits 80 even at 1542 and is super quiet.
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Wtf? What asic score did you get? Voltage or bios mods? It's very rare to get an MSI that high
 
BlueSaber80 said:
Wtf? What asic score did you get? Voltage or bios mods? It's very rare to get an MSI that high
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I dont run it those clocks by any means. I had just tested in some benchmarks and games. It will throttle of course in games that actually need the full gpu power. The only reason I mention it is that the Gaming card can cope with heat and fan noise with massive oc much better than a reference card can even at stock.

http://postimg.org/image/7hx2r7p71/full/
 
Coil whine will be hit or miss on any card unfortunately. Check user review at online stores, probably newegg will have lots of comments for every brand. A lot of the aftermarket cooled cards are still reference design.

If you plan on running a single card, probably get an aftermarket cooler.
If you want sli and have a motherboard with tight sli spacing, reference coolers and some hearing protection...
 
Other than certain multi-GPU situations, I fail to see the problem with heat being dumped inside or what it could affect noticeably. Most cases today have good enough airflow to deal with it with ease. I have a Fractal R3 that is geared towards low noise, not high airflow, and have no problems with a 280X and don't think that I would with even a power hungrier card.
 
Meeho said:
Other than certain multi-GPU situations, I fail to see the problem with heat being dumped inside or what it could affect noticeably. Most cases today have good enough airflow to deal with it with ease. I have a Fractal R3 that is geared towards low noise, not high airflow, and have no problems with a 280X and don't think that I would with even a power hungrier card.
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A lot of people here run multi-gpu. Many people here use air coolers for their cpu. Quite a few people OC their CPU to borderline safe zone, excess GPU heat can push the CPU over the edge. Some people have hard drives in their case and RAMs that they don't want all the heat on. Some people like silent cases using low airflow. Some people like pineapple with their bacon a good muffin for munching. There are any numbers of reasons why a person want's to do something whichever way they feel like doing it.
 
I found the nVidia blowers acceptable as long as you don't touch voltage. I do like the EVGA AIO hybrid.

My personal approach would be a Kingpin with full cover block and chilled water loop.
 
Meeho said:
Other than certain multi-GPU situations, I fail to see the problem with heat being dumped inside or what it could affect noticeably. Most cases today have good enough airflow to deal with it with ease. I have a Fractal R3 that is geared towards low noise, not high airflow, and have no problems with a 280X and don't think that I would with even a power hungrier card.
Click to expand...

I also have a Fractal R3 and can say that yes, with 980 Tis the airflow can be a problem. I had no trouble with 2x 970 in the same case, but the 980 Tis run seriously hot even for one card. Even with an average 1450 MHz overclock the MSI 980 Ti I have was around 75 degrees on load and 60 on idle (fans off). Too close to throttling for my tastes. While that can be easily rectified by just having the fans running loud, you instantly lose the reason why you bought a silent case to begin with.

So I mounted an AIO cooler on the MSI and the problem is gone plus I got more overclock out of the card. That said I was surprised how hot the 980 Tis can get.

The Fractal R3 is a seriously terrible case for airflow thanks to its unremovable full size drive cage. The front fans do pretty much nothing and installing a side fan requires cutting holes in the side panel unless you don't want it to stay silent. When it becomes time to get a new case I doubt I'll consider Fractal at all.
 
R3 is an old case. I recently upgraded to an R5 and the case is amazing. All drive cages are removable, and there are spaces for two bottom fans blowing air straight up into the video card. Heck, you can even remove the top panels to install fans there if you need. And of course, there are spaces for front and top radiators. Unfortunately, progress moves on and yes, cases do need a refresh after a while.
 
Meeho said:
Other than certain multi-GPU situations, I fail to see the problem with heat being dumped inside or what it could affect noticeably. Most cases today have good enough airflow to deal with it with ease. I have a Fractal R3 that is geared towards low noise, not high airflow, and have no problems with a 280X and don't think that I would with even a power hungrier card.
Click to expand...

Actually, a lot of people have been having issues keeping the Ti's cool because of the amount of heat they dump into the case with aftermarket coolers, me included. Going from 165 TDP STRIX 980 to 250 TDP is a huge jump I found
 
I have two ref's and both have no coil whine. They run hot when upping the voltage and are loud as hell but that comes with the territory.

Only cards btw, didn't return any to seek non-coil whine. Guess I was lucky.
 
Update: I found a MicroCenter close to my house that had the Asus GTX 980 Ti I just linked, so I picked it up this morning and installed it.

The blower is no where near as bad as everyone is making it out to be, and to be honest, it keeps the card cooler and is just as loud as the one on my MSI. And yes, it does have coil whine, but it's ever so slight that it's almost inaudible. I really do have to stick my ear up close next to it in order to hear it.

Now I have to choose which one to keep. What has me leaning toward the Asus is that it is over all much cooler running than my MSI. While idle at desktop or while gaming. The MSI is just too hot; I can literally burn my fingers on it while running a 3D application, whereas with the reference Asus blower, the card is actually cool to the touch.
 
I have a reference Ti. Same impressions as those above. It's great so long as the fan speed stay below 80%. No coil whine.
 
ajm786 said:
Update: I found a MicroCenter close to my house that had the Asus GTX 980 Ti I just linked, so I picked it up this morning and installed it.

The blower is no where near as bad as everyone is making it out to be, and to be honest, it keeps the card cooler and is just as loud as the one on my MSI. And yes, it does have coil whine, but it's ever so slight that it's almost inaudible. I really do have to stick my ear up close next to it in order to hear it.

Now I have to choose which one to keep. What has me leaning toward the Asus is that it is over all much cooler running than my MSI. While idle at desktop or while gaming. The MSI is just too hot; I can literally burn my fingers on it while running a 3D application, whereas with the reference Asus blower, the card is actually cool to the touch.
Click to expand...

So which parts of the cards are you comparing? I can't believe that the reference is somehow cooler than the MSI.
 
ajm786 said:
Update: I found a MicroCenter close to my house that had the Asus GTX 980 Ti I just linked, so I picked it up this morning and installed it.

The blower is no where near as bad as everyone is making it out to be, and to be honest, it keeps the card cooler and is just as loud as the one on my MSI. And yes, it does have coil whine, but it's ever so slight that it's almost inaudible. I really do have to stick my ear up close next to it in order to hear it.

Now I have to choose which one to keep. What has me leaning toward the Asus is that it is over all much cooler running than my MSI. While idle at desktop or while gaming. The MSI is just too hot; I can literally burn my fingers on it while running a 3D application, whereas with the reference Asus blower, the card is actually cool to the touch.
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Your MSI Gaming card was defective as hell then.
 
Just got my ref EVGA 980 Ti today and damn what a bad ass card. Smokes my previous GTX 980 Kingpin and I haven't touched clock speeds yet. Good job Nvidia!
 
Ti are definitely warmer. My room is a lot warmer than with the 980's I had. But, I'd rather have that heat dumped out my case than not. Eventually it is going to be expelled outside the case anyway.
 
Whach said:
Ti are definitely warmer. My room is a lot warmer than with the 980's I had. But, I'd rather have that heat dumped out my case than not. Eventually it is going to be expelled outside the case anyway.
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Everyone would rather have the hot air dumped out immediately but the trade off is a card that is too loud and hot and does not oc anywhere near as well as a non reference cooled card.
 
This is why I immediately installed an NZXT G10 + Corsair H75 on my MSI 980 Ti.

Cooler than reference, cooler than non-reference, dumps all heat outside the case, GPU load doesn't impact CPU / System temps in the slightest, MSI front-plate means VRM temps aren't a concern, etc...

The Oonly sticking-point for AIO is noise. Pretty much every AIO I've tried, the pump needs to be run at 7v (rather than 12v) to be quieter than an air cooler across the board. If you don't under-volt your pump, an air cooler will be quieter while spun-down for desktop/idle conditions.
 
Cyph said:
So which parts of the cards are you comparing? I can't believe that the reference is somehow cooler than the MSI.
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It could be because the inherently lower clock speeds. But it is cooler without a doubt. It reads cooler (hovers around 77C full load after 1 hour gaming on Far Cry, whereas it would tip 84C on the MSI). And importantly? I can actually touch the card and it doesn't scorch my finger. Also, as a result, my entire system runs cooler, so that's a major plus for me.

BlueSaber80 said:
Yeah, I call serious Bullshit there or the said person is deaf
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Neither. I happen to be an audiophile and a musician, so any subtle nuance in noise, I will pick up on. This reference card's blower is without a doubt quieter than my MSI.

misterbobby said:
Your MSI Gaming card was defective as hell then.
Click to expand...

I am planning to test this new card overnight to see what kind of behavior it portrays. If it treats me better, the MSI will go back.
 
ajm786 said:
It could be because the inherently lower clock speeds. But it is cooler without a doubt. It reads cooler (hovers around 77C full load after 1 hour gaming on Far Cry, whereas it would tip 84C on the MSI). And importantly? I can actually touch the card and it doesn't scorch my finger. Also, as a result, my entire system runs cooler, so that's a major plus for me.



Neither. I happen to be an audiophile and a musician, so any subtle nuance in noise, I will pick up on. This reference card's blower is without a doubt quieter than my MSI.



I am planning to test this new card overnight to see what kind of behavior it portrays. If it treats me better, the MSI will go back.
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You are making no sense. The reference card will go to 83 to 84 C under full load out of the box and EVERY SINGLE review will back that up. That is exactly what the card was made to do with auto fan and stock settings. If you are only hitting 77 then you have vsync on or playing with some type of cap as your gpu is not under full load by any means. If you claim any different then you are delusional.
 
misterbobby said:
You are making no sense. The reference card will go to 83 to 84 C under full load out of the box and EVERY SINGLE review will back that up. If you are only hitting 77 then you have vsync on or playing with some type of cap as your gpu is not under full load by any means. If you claim any different then you are delusional.
Click to expand...

I have a suggestion for you. Stop trying to read between the lines. You spout that over and over and over like no one has read it before.

I'm fully aware that it'll go that high. I did it on the reference using MSI Kombustor. I cannot make it go that high using Valley, or even Far Cry 4. The only game I've actually used that could make my MSI hit 83-84C full load was COD:AW, but I'm not sure I want to go through the pain of downloading or playing that mess again.
 
ajm786 said:
I have a suggestion for you. Stop trying to read between the lines. You spout that over and over and over like no one has read it before.

I'm fully aware that it'll go that high. I did it on the reference using MSI Kombustor. I cannot make it go that high using Valley, or even Far Cry 4. The only game I've actually used that could make my MSI hit 83-84C full load was COD:AW, but I'm not sure I want to go through the pain of downloading or playing that mess again.
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And I have suggestions for you. Stop trying to mislead people. I am not talking about some stupid Kombuster or other nonsense. I am talking about ANY game where the gpu is even close to full load will run the temps right to 83 to 84 as AGAIN that is what the card was made to do. You are flat out wrong claiming you are not going above 77 C in Far Cry 4 on settings and res that actually tax the card.
 
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misterbobby said:
And I have suggestions for you. Stop trying to mislead people. I am not talking about some stupid Kombuster or other nonsense. I am talking about ANY game where the gpu is even close to full load will run the temps right to 83 to 84 as AGAIN that is what the card was made to do.
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Way to read someone's intent there, champ. :rolleyes: If that's the way you're interpreting it, more power to you. If you feel so hurt as to the feedback I'm posting here for other people who might be having the same issues as I am, simply unsubscribe.

Again, as I said before, I'll make further comparisons, and report back.
 
ajm786 said:
Way to read someone's intent there, champ. :rolleyes: If that's the way you're interpreting it, more power to you. If you feel so hurt as to the feedback I'm posting here for other people who might be having the same issues as I am, simply unsubscribe.

Again, as I said before, I'll make further comparisons, and report back.
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It is as if you live in a different universe than the rest of us but we are somehow wrong? You posting that the reference card is quieter and cooler than the MSI Gaming card is nonsense unless that MSI card was beyond defective. You saying the reference 980 Ti is quiet to your super sensitive audiophile ears is quite silly as every reviewer comments that the reference card is not quiet and MUCH louder than the MSI Gaming card. You claiming to not go over 77 C in Far Cry 4 is laughable if under real gaming load but of course you still have not bothered to actually say the settings and res you are using.
 
misterbobby said:
It is as if you live in a different universe than the rest of us but we are somehow wrong? You posting that the reference card is quieter and cooler than the MSI Gaming card is nonsense unless that MSI card was beyond defective. You saying the reference 980 Ti is quiet to your super sensitive audiophile ears is quite silly as every reviewer comments that the reference card is not quiet and MUCH louder than the MSI Gaming card. You claiming to not go over 77 C in Far Cry 4 is laughable if under real gaming load but of course you still have not bothered to actually say the settings and res you are using.
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No, the universe is the same. The disparity happens when someone can't really read.

1. I never said reference was quieter or cooler than 3rd party ones like my MSI. Here is exactly what I said:

The blower is no where near as bad as everyone is making it out to be, and to be honest, it keeps the card cooler and is just as loud as the one on my MSI.
Click to expand...

Thank you for qualifying for me that perhaps my MSI is defective as all hell. Because it just might be. Also, my skin doesn't lie when I can put my finger on the backplate of the MSI and get scalded in less than 1 second, whereas with the reference, the back of the card is actually cool. I can post pics if you like, but I'm not that sadistic.

2. Yes, it might be hard for you to accept it, but this reference is just as loud as my MSI. It's not quieter by any stretch of the imagination. If my MSI is so loud, again, let me thank you again for pointing out that my MSI just might be defective. Might.

3. On Far Cry 4, here are my settings.

2560x1440
All options set to Ultra
AA set to SMAA (TXAA gives weird shimmering issues)
All Gameworks stuff other than HBAO+ set to Ultra or turned off, because the game crashes quicker with them on
All Vsync set to OFF, in game as well as in the nVidia control panel
All settings in nVidia control panel set to High Quality (no performance or quality)

I'm not a johnny-come-lately when it comes to these things; I've been building, gaming and tweaking for a real long time. I've seen my share of defective hardware, and so far, the MSI seems to be one. I won't know for sure till I spend some more time with the reference. Which, by the way, is why I got a reference. Because it's a reference.

And you completely leave out what I prefixed this whole thing with, so let me quote it for you again.

It could be because the inherently lower clock speeds.
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AriciU said:
Maybe he's running it stock. I could see 77C then, i remember getting around the same at default clocks volts.

With upped voltage and higher clocks they are way too loud and hot :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHgh9I_wAfU
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Sigh, please go read up. AGAIN even at STOCK settings the the 980 Ti goes right to 83 to 84 under full load as thats what it was made to do. Same goes the reference Titan X.


"Under load, the card reaches its thermal limit of 84°C after a minute of gaming or so, which will cause it to lower Boost clocks, and, as such, performance."

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_980_Ti/35.html


And I can post links to every 980 Ti review showing the same thing.
 
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