MSI GTX 980 Ti GOLDEN Edition Video Card Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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MSI GTX 980 Ti GOLDEN Edition Video Card Review - Today we evaluate the MSI GTX 980 Ti GOLDEN Edition video card. This video card features a pure copper heatsink geared towards faster heat dissipation and better temps on air than other air cooled video cards. We will compare it to the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING, placing the two video cards head to head in an overclocking shootout.
 
N!ck said:
Thanks but it's an EVGA reference card.
The 980 Ti is a true graphics processing champ and comes in many beautiful forms. The "Golden" has to be the best looking one of them all and I commend MSI.
Great review!
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Hehe, yeah, I get that......it is a friggin GOLDEN GPU, no matter the mfg. If it clocks that on ref air, you should put it under water.
 
That exposed copper is going to look like hot oxidized garbage inside a year.
 
Kor said:
That exposed copper is going to look like hot oxidized garbage inside a year.
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Not really. Remember all those Zalman copper CPU coolers? They never changed color on me and I had like 3 over the years.

It is a sweet looking card. You don't see copper much anymore.
 
That is one sexy motherfucker! I wish we could get cards with cool art styles from the late 1990's / early 2000's. Just a few special edition cards from each manufacturer.
 
On page 3, Overclocking the voltages are slightly wrong.
The VDDC rating on the stock GOLDEN Edition was 1.930V which increased to 1.230V after overclocking, while the LIGHTNING's default VDDC rating was 1.870V before overclocking and 1.2120V afterwards. This does show us the GOLDEN Edition is drawing slightly more power, despite having a lower power limit. [
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The bolded numbers should probably be 1.193V and 1.187V respectively.
 
fixed, thanks - brent
 
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No denying that is one well built and good looking card. Nice review as always.
 
I got my Golden Ed, when Newegg was selling them at $639.99 with the $30.00 mail in rebate, $609.99 after rebate. They also have a promo where if you sign up for an AE card, and get approved, you get a further reduction on price.

The MSI GTX 980 Ti GOLDEN Edition ships with a factory overclock. This video cards base GPU frequency is 1140MHz with boost to 1228MHz. We find this increases in-game up to 1329MHz.
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Actually, according to my FireStrike score, my card hits 1354MHz, without any OCing on my part.
 
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PinchedNerve said:
I got my Golden Ed, when Newegg was selling them at $639.99 with the $30.00 mail in rebate, $609.99 after rebate. They also have a promo where if you sign up for an AE card, and get approved, you get a further reduction on price.



Actually, according to my FireStrike score, my card hits 1354MHz, without any OCing on my part.
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You have a video with full OSD stats?
Thanks
 
The performance doesn't surprise me. I have the basic and the golden edition of the GTX 970 and the Golden version had lower temperatures and overclocked better, but the card is significantly heavier.

For those wondering, my golden 970 has not significantly changed colours. The fins are still shiny copper, but the pipes have dulled. It could be dirt though because it's not green (so probably not oxidation) and it's also happening on the plain GTX 970 Gaming 4G as well.

Goes well with the orange lightning scheme of my Z97X-UD5H
 
I just grabbed on of these from B & H on sale with a rebate and game code. I swapped out my eVGA 980ti sc+ and in with the golden. The fan on this MSI is like dead silent! I can run my profile very steep where 65c = 100%. Working on the clocks now but it's performing better than the sc+ in my initial tests. It doesn't throttle back nearly as much and when it does it's only for a little while then boosts back up...Seems to handle extra voltage well also. Still messing with it... ASIC 77.5%.. It's a keeper.
 
Damn I wanted to buy the gtx 989ti lightning at the beginning it's a very cool GPU but I ended up with a gtx 980ti hall of fame since I have a pure white build :p
 
Well, I really couldn't be happier with my move back to NVidia with an MSI Golden Edition 980 ti. I think that the standard red of the normal Gaming model looks a little better, but like systemvipers mentioned, the copper really brings me back in time, to the old Thermalright copper heatsinks that I used to have! And I really do like the orange, and the backplate looks awesome (I was considering getting one of the Zotac AMP! editions until I saw that fugly backplate...the card looks great from the front, but all I see from my case window is the damned backplate!).

I was pretty happy with my Tri-X 290X with my old monitor (HP ZR24w..which was what brought me to Hardforum in the first place!) until I upgraded to 1440p around Christmas and it just couldn't quite cut it. It got loud and hot when really stressed, whereas this card isn't even remotely as loud even with the fans running at 100% (which never happens on it's own!) and is buttery smooth. ASIC seems to keep nice and cool too!
 
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