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Looking into 980

2

290X

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 1, 2013
Messages
230
I've decided I want to get into the 980 club. I'm trying to decide between EVGA, MSI, or Gigabyte.

Any thoughts? :)

[Also, please ignore the irony of my username]
 
200 buckerboos is a fair bit of cash. I wonder if it'll actually be worth the expense.
 
OP even if you want to buy a GTX 980 waiting till the R9 390X, R9 390 launch in June is worth it as its likely to cause price cuts on GTX 980.
 
It probably will be if it can get anywhere close to Titan X performance when overclocked. Titan X overclocked is very close to 970 SLI performance. So if you could get close to that with the 980 Ti then you would be set for anything up to 1440p resolution.

As for manufacturer, the rundown seems to be:

  • EVGA: Good upgrade policy, depending on model may have coil whine etc
  • MSI: Solid all-rounder. Silent cards on the desktop (fan off mode)
  • ASUS: Decent. Silent on idle but lower voltage limits so not as good for overclocking
  • Gigabyte: Larger card/cooler, might not fit all cases. Best for overclocking thanks to large heatsink and more fans. Stock fan profile at idle is not all that quiet.

I run two of the Gigabyte 970 Windforce 3X OC cards and they barely fit my case (Fractal Define R3). I had to do a BIOS mod (quite easy to do and revert if needed) to get them to become silent at idle (fans still spinning but not audibly). At the time the cheaper Windforce cards gave a big enough price difference to the usually recommended G1 model that I went with them. They seem to perform identically to the G1 despite having no backplate and slightly worse cooler (less heatpipes, plastic instead of metal shroud).

My recommendation is to wait for 980 Ti and then decide on the price vs performance. If it's too expensive, look for a used 980 because there are sure to be people who will just swap for the latest and greatest and sell their previous cards at a reasonable price.
 
I'd have to agree with kasakka. I personally think the 980ti will be around 2500 cores but some rumors have it at 3,000. If it's 3,000 that's the same as the Titan X. The 980 is 2,000 so that's 50% more performance.

So you'd have
Titan X: 3k cores / 12GB VRAM / ~$999
980ti: 2.5 - 3k cores / 6GB VRAM / ~$700(?)
980: 2k cores / 4GB VRAM / ~$500

The 980ti COULD be a really good deal and absolutely perfect as a single card at 3k cores / 6GB VRAM. It'd be Titan X performance but hundreds cheaper.

I still think it'll be 2,500 personally. It's hard to imagine a massive performance gap between the 980 / 980ti and a 3k core 980ti would kill Titan X sales.

If I was buying I'd go for MSI.
 
What is MSI RMA policy?

I know ASUS has an Advanced RMA service now, but I've never heard anyone talk positively about their dealings with ASUS. Fortunately, their products seem to be pretty solid.
 
deees said:
What is MSI RMA policy?

I know ASUS has an Advanced RMA service now, but I've never heard anyone talk positively about their dealings with ASUS. Fortunately, their products seem to be pretty solid.
Click to expand...

Except their monitors. ;)
 
I've had good experience with ASUS RMA process. I've had to RMA about three motherboards and one GPU...but I'm not sure that's a ringing endorsement :D

The eVGA step-up option is useless to you...unless you plan on buying a 980 retail and upgrading it to the ti. It's a program that allows you to pay the retail difference between two cards within 90 days of purchasing your card. There isn't going to be anything after the ti until next cycle well after 90 days so you won't use it. That said, eVGA has excellent customer service in my experience if that's important to you.
 
mope54 said:
I've had good experience with ASUS RMA process. I've had to RMA about three motherboards and one GPU...but I'm not sure that's a ringing endorsement :D

The eVGA step-up option is useless to you...unless you plan on buying a 980 retail and upgrading it to the ti. It's a program that allows you to pay the retail difference between two cards within 90 days of purchasing your card. There isn't going to be anything after the ti until next cycle well after 90 days so you won't use it. That said, eVGA has excellent customer service in my experience if that's important to you.
Click to expand...

can I "step up" my GTX980 bought on november 2014? :D
 
290X said:
I've decided I want to get into the 980 club. I'm trying to decide between EVGA, MSI, or Gigabyte.

Any thoughts? :)

[Also, please ignore the irony of my username]
Click to expand...

I generally buy MSI GPUs.
I have never had to RMA one, but they have a three year warranty if registered.
Since I do a lot of watercooling, I tend to buy the reference release models since most cooler blocks are designed for that layout.

MSI and Gigabyte tend to release some very innovative air cooling and have stout factory overclocked models to choose from.

I don't see EVGA as being that fabulous anymore. They have added fees to their step-up and also to cross-shipping warranties. Plus they tend to make six models of the same card, all with minimal differences.

I did just buy two Zotac GTX 980s this time around.
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.
Their CS sent me personal emails thanking me for the purchases after I registered the cards, with personal contact names if I needed anything.:D

I'm with everyone else here.....if there is a GTX 980 Ti in the wind, I'd wait for that release. It sounds like a real beast of a card.
 
Brahmzy said:
Why not wait for the ti? It's weeks away...
Click to expand...

If they stick to that... as I recall the 900 series cards were originally set to release for the 2013 holiday time frame.. or perhaps spring 2014... either way, release was later than expected and I ended up with getting an R9 280X because I got tired of waiting.
 
I'd say go EVGA. I've never once had a bad experience with their CS or their cards.

As far as coil whine, i've never had it with any nvidia cards, only amd cards. But of course this is just my experience. In my experince, if you buy a card with an upgraded PCB then you usually dont have coil whine.

I hate playing the waiting game. If the 390x or 980ti comes out next week everyone will be saying wait for the other to see the performance.

Buy an EVGA ACX 980 and if the 980ti comes out within 90 days, then use the step up program if it is worth it.
 
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