MSI Launches The GTX 980 Ti GAMING 6G

Xizer said:
So is this another non-reference card with a cooler design that is awful for SLI?

I don't understand why they put these bad coolers that spew heat out into the case on their best cards, the kind of people who buy these are the ones who want to SLI, and the reference blowers are better.
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The non-reference cards cool better even in SLI than reference, assuming your system is set up appropriately to handle the added heat.

I am currently running 2x MSI 980 Gaming 4G cards in SLI precisely because the GPU cooler is sufficient enough to run them both @ 1450+mhz core. The reference cooler cannot keep up without throttling (this is first-hand experience in the exact same case--sold the reference setup because of it). The reference cooler also sounds like a jet above 60% fan speed while the MSI 4G fans are nearly silent even at 100%. All of this while my 2600k happily runs at 4.7ghz with an H110i GT, so it is not negatively impacting the other components.

Such a setup likely won't work out too well on your average cluttered mid tower case with a couple of fans and an air CPU cooler, but it absolutely does work (and is superior in every way) if you've got a well-planned build.
 
Almost 1000 bucks after taxes and titan x is 1500 bucks. Seems us Canadians getting shafted price wise. Gonna wait till price somewhat comes down. I want 2 for sli. I have 2 regular titans but wondering to wait even longer for volta (layered ram).
 
Xizer said:
You're not an enthusiast if you don't run multiple GPUs.

Even if you have a Titan X overclocked, it still cannot run every game on its maximum settings at 4K resolution and hold 60 FPS. You still need two GPUs for 4K 60 FPS.

If you're not gaming at 4K 60 FPS by now then you are not an enthusiast.

Also, multi-card setups are only a PITA if you go with AMD, because AMD's drivers are terrible. Nvidia supports SLI very well. The only 'AAA' game I've played in years that couldn't support SLI was Dead Rising 3.
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LMAO is this guy serious?

144Hz 1440P displays are much more "enthusiast" than 4K 60Hz displays.

I've never heard of one person that went from a 144Hz display to a 4K display and not say the miss and prefer 144Hz over 4K.
 
damstr said:
LMAO is this guy serious?

144Hz 1440P displays are much more "enthusiast" than 4K 60Hz displays.

I've never heard of one person that went from a 144Hz display to a 4K display and not say the miss and prefer 144Hz over 4K.
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I went from 27" 1440p/110hz to 40" curved 4k/60hz and prefer the 4k myself?
 
I dont want a 144 hz screen because not all games support going over 60 fps. I used a 144 hz screen for a few weeks and gaming at 60 fps when I had to felt like molasses in comparison. In fact it took a couple weeks just to get used to 60 again after I returned the screen.
 
Taking advantage of the most generous pc parts online retailer isn't cool at all.
 
Syn247 said:
The non-reference cards cool better even in SLI than reference, assuming your system is set up appropriately to handle the added heat.
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In my experience, non-reference coolers cool the graphics card (and ONLY the graphics card) better. Everything else in the case ends up running warmer due to the extra heat being dumped into the case.

Counter-acting this effect by running case fans at higher RPM generally leads to generating as-much (or more) noise than the Nvidia reference blower. If you're ok with trading extra noise for additionally cooling, well... could have just run the blower faster, kept your case fans at low-RPM, and saved the rest of your components from the additional heat.
 
Unknown-One said:
In my experience, non-reference coolers cool the graphics card (and ONLY the graphics card) better. Everything else in the case ends up running warmer due to the extra heat being dumped into the case.

Counter-acting this effect by running case fans at higher RPM generally leads to generating as-much (or more) noise than the Nvidia reference blower. If you're ok with trading extra noise for additionally cooling, well... could have just run the blower faster, kept your case fans at low-RPM, and saved the rest of your components from the additional heat.
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True, the rest of your case will be warmer, but as I noted earlier as long as you have adequate cooling it will not be detrimental to performance of the other parts.

Regarding noise, there is just no comparing the stock blower coolers at over 60% fan speed to additional case fan noise. Those blowers get offensively loud once you set a custom fan profile that actually prevents thermal throttling. It would take at least 4, maybe 6 or 8 run-of-the-mill 120/140mm case fans to match the acoustic assault of an Nvidia reference blower spinning at 80-100%.

In my particular setup I only added one more case fan--a 120mm as intake at the bottom of the case to help push the front intake air up through the case. That fan only runs at 1100rpm and as such I cannot discern it from the existing fans (2x 140 front, 1x 140 rear in a 760T).

I just want to arm everyone with real world facts and debunk the myth that reference cards are better for SLI setups. They are better for small form factors, or for people who don't care about running stock clocks and throttling on the temp target, but they are unacceptably loud and subpar performers for people striving to run max boost clocks. I run into voltage limit long before temp limit with my setup. Quite the opposite would be true if I were running blower cards, and it would occur at least 100mhz lower on the core clock to boot.

Now I'm just biding my time until the Gigabyte/MSI non-reference cards are in stock :)
 
Kinda sad how over hyped the Titan blower has become over the years. So much misinformation out there.
 
Syn247 said:
Regarding noise, there is just no comparing the stock blower coolers at over 60% fan speed to additional case fan noise.
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Only if you're willing to accept the trade-off of the rest of your components running warmer than they would if your graphics card had a blower cooler.

If you want to get your case/component temps back down to exactly where they were with a blower cooler, it takes a LOT of CFM and a LOT of noise. Even when it's not quite as loud as the blower cooler running at high-speed... it's still a lot of noise, and makes the cooler-swap mostly self-defeating.

Best solution I've found is using an NZXT G10 bracket to stick a Corsair H75 onto the GPU. Keeps the GPU cooler than stock AND blows all the hot air from the GPU out the back of the case. You'll need to under-volt the pump (7v) and use a better fan (Arctic F12 at low RPM) if you want it to be quieter than the Nvidia reference blower in all circumstances, though.
 
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Unknown-One said:
Only if you're willing to accept the trade-off of the rest of your components running warmer than they would if your graphics card had a blower cooler.

If you want to get your case/component temps back down to exactly where they were with a blower cooler, it takes a LOT of CFM and a LOT of noise. Even when it's not quite as loud as the blower cooler running at high-speed... it's still a lot of noise, and makes the cooler-swap mostly self-defeating.

Best solution I've found is using an NZXT G10 bracket to stick a Corsair H75 onto the GPU. Keeps the GPU cooler than stock AND blows all the hot air from the GPU out the back of the case. You'll need to under-volt the pump (7v) and use a better fan (Arctic F12 at low RPM) if you want it to be quieter than the Nvidia reference blower in all circumstances, though.
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I'm getting H75 for my 980 Ti - was going to use my GT AP14 on the rad - is the pump noise that substantial that you need to undervolt it? I have a Kraken X60 on my CPU and cannot hear it.
 
SilverSliver said:
I'm getting H75 for my 980 Ti - was going to use my GT AP14 on the rad - is the pump noise that substantial that you need to undervolt it? I have a Kraken X60 on my CPU and cannot hear it.
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Unfortunately, yes. The pump on the Corsair H75 @ 12v is louder than the Nvidia reference blower at idle. If you want a solution that's quieter than the reference blower under all circumstances, you'll have to under-volt the pump.

Lowering the voltage to 7v totally fixed it, thankfully... and the lower voltage didn't really seem to make any appreciable difference to GPU temps, even under load. Kinda makes me wonder why Corsair doesn't ship them like this.

It's also worth noting that I RMAed multiple H55 and H75 AIO coolers, and all of them had pump noise @ 12v. Most of them also arrived under-filled and would NOT stop gurgling in any orientation, no matter how long they were allowed to run. Corsair's quality control seems pretty terrible on these, in-general.
 
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Unknown-One said:
Only if you're willing to accept the trade-off of the rest of your components running warmer than they would if your graphics card had a blower cooler.

If you want to get your case/component temps back down to exactly where they were with a blower cooler, it takes a LOT of CFM and a LOT of noise. Even when it's not quite as loud as the blower cooler running at high-speed... it's still a lot of noise, and makes the cooler-swap mostly self-defeating.

Best solution I've found is using an NZXT G10 bracket to stick a Corsair H75 onto the GPU. Keeps the GPU cooler than stock AND blows all the hot air from the GPU out the back of the case. You'll need to under-volt the pump (7v) and use a better fan (Arctic F12 at low RPM) if you want it to be quieter than the Nvidia reference blower in all circumstances, though.
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The point I am trying to make is that while yes, your internal case temps will go up with open-air GPUs in SLI compared to reference blowers, it will not go up enough to detrimentally impact your other components (again assuming you have adequate airflow in a properly-sized case).

I don't care about having my internal case temps at a certain number, I only care about whether or not that number is high enough to impact performance of my other components. If I had to downclock my CPU or if my system started blue screening because the motherboard's VRMs were getting too hot, then yes I would agree that the reference coolers are a much more viable choice. That is simply not the case though.
 
What is this new reference design with the premium shroud and military class components? Is this something new Msi have done for an exhaust design?
 
Syn247 said:
The point I am trying to make is that while yes, your internal case temps will go up with open-air GPUs in SLI compared to reference blowers, it will not go up enough to detrimentally impact your other components (again assuming you have adequate airflow in a properly-sized case).
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I've have yet to find a case that can tolerate the extra thermal load of a dual-fan GPU cooler on a 250w card at noise levels that I would find acceptable.

I've been through the process way, WAY too many times:
Not happy with reference blower's noise at-load --> Swap to dual-fan cooler --> System gets overly-hot --> Turn up case fans --> Not happy with case-fan noise.

The ONLY thing thats been able to make things work cool AND quiet is AIO water (And that's modified AIO water, the stock configuration of something like an H75 generally isn't quiet enough either).
 
Unknown-One said:
I've have yet to find a case that can tolerate the extra thermal load of a dual-fan GPU cooler on a 250w card at noise levels that I would find acceptable.

I've been through the process way, WAY too many times:
Not happy with reference blower's noise at-load --> Swap to dual-fan cooler --> System gets overly-hot --> Turn up case fans --> Not happy with case-fan noise.

The ONLY thing thats been able to make things work cool AND quiet is AIO water (And that's modified AIO water, the stock configuration of something like an H75 generally isn't quiet enough either).
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I ran dual overclocked 560 Ti's with the Frozr II on them in an Define R3 for a while, worked fine. You're over reaching here on the impact here. I've also got a 770 4G Windforce card also OC'd in a Carbide 330R with an H100i at the moment, it's not that painful either. I'll be putting the Strix version into my Define R5 machine once it makes an appearance.
 
Kor said:
I ran dual overclocked 560 Ti's with the Frozr II on them in an Define R3 for a while, worked fine.
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Our definitions of "working fine" are, apparently, wildly different. That would be FAR too loud for me to consider usable.

That's 4 fans dumping 340w of heat into the case... I couldn't even run a single 250w card with a dual-fan cooler an an R3 without it being overly-noisy. I can't fathom how you'd silence two 170w cards in an R3 without water cooling.

Honestly, the R3 tends to become a hot-box when a GPU that exhausts heat INTO the case is used (especially if you leave all the noise-canceling foam + fan-hole covers installed). It's really meant for water-cooling, where huge amounts of heat aren't dumped into the case.
 
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Unknown-One said:
Our definitions of "working fine" are, apparently, wildly different. That would be FAR too loud for me to consider usable.

That's 4 fans dumping 340w of heat into the case... I couldn't even run a single 250w card with a dual-fan cooler an an R3 without it being overly-noisy. I can't fathom how you'd silence two 170w cards in an R3 without water cooling.

Honestly, the R3 tends to become a hot-box when a GPU that exhausts heat INTO the case is used (especially if you leave all the noise-canceling foam + fan-hole covers installed). It's really meant for water-cooling, where huge amounts of heat aren't dumped into the case.
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The R3 requires a side panel fan to bring in air and a back or top fan to push it out. The front panel fan slots are completely useless as the drive rack is blocking most air flow. I currently run a 140mm Noctua fan on the side panel and it made a big difference in GPU temps. I've used the same case with 2x ASUS 770 DCII and now 2x Gigabyte 970 Windforce coolers. No problems with temps or noise even though I have a 4.5 GHz 3570K and heavily overclocked GPUs.

The case itself is kinda horrible for water cooling IMO, just hard to fit all watercooling components in it. Might be ok for AIO setups.
 
kasakka said:
The R3 requires a side panel fan to bring in air and a back or top fan to push it out.
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Tried it, too loud in any configuration to be usable. I've opted to keep the factory blanking-plate installed (with noise canceling foam) on the side-panel.

kasakka said:
The front panel fan slots are completely useless as the drive rack is blocking most air flow.
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Not true. Even the front dust filter on my case, the one that has NO FAN mounted on it, collects plenty of dust. Air is very clearly coming through the front.

kasakka said:
I've used the same case with 2x ASUS 770 DCII and now 2x Gigabyte 970 Windforce coolers. No problems with temps or noise even though I have a 4.5 GHz 3570K and heavily overclocked GPUs.
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If you're somehow happy with the noise created by installing a side-panel fan on the R3, then our definition of "no problems with [...] noise" are, again, wildly different.
It didn't matter what, or how, I mounted a fan in that spot... it made the worst whirring noises I've ever heard.

kasakka said:
The case itself is kinda horrible for water cooling IMO, just hard to fit all watercooling components in it. Might be ok for AIO setups.
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Uh, the R3 is specifically plumbed for water cooling. Fits dual 140-mm radiators on top just fine...
 
Unknown-One said:
I've have yet to find a case that can tolerate the extra thermal load of a dual-fan GPU cooler on a 250w card at noise levels that I would find acceptable.

I've been through the process way, WAY too many times:
Not happy with reference blower's noise at-load --> Swap to dual-fan cooler --> System gets overly-hot --> Turn up case fans --> Not happy with case-fan noise.

The ONLY thing thats been able to make things work cool AND quiet is AIO water (And that's modified AIO water, the stock configuration of something like an H75 generally isn't quiet enough either).
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Meh, i have all the fans at full tilt in my setup and i just slap on headphones. Total non issue.
 
Unknown-One said:
Not true. Even the front dust filter on my case, the one that has NO FAN mounted on it, collects plenty of dust. Air is very clearly coming through the front.
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It's not that the front fans don't draw air in, they just don't push it any further than the drive cage that is blocking the air flow. The side fan does a lot more for the cooling of this case than two fans in front.

If you're somehow happy with the noise created by installing a side-panel fan on the R3, then our definition of "no problems with [...] noise" are, again, wildly different.
It didn't matter what, or how, I mounted a fan in that spot... it made the worst whirring noises I've ever heard.
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It's the honeycomb grille that's behind the side fan slot. That is what causes the noise. I had to cut that out completely. I run a 140mm Noctua at low RPM (basically inaudible) and got much better GPU temps in the case.

Uh, the R3 is specifically plumbed for water cooling. Fits dual 140-mm radiators on top just fine...
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There's not a particularly good place for the pump and reservoir IMO. The R4 and R5 with the removable drive cages should be better for this.

Overall it's not a good case in so many ways. I really should look into getting something superior.
 
DPI said:
Full disclosure: Not sure why I'm so impatient since my 970's are working perfectly fine. :)
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Simple, because every day you wait is a day less the "investment" was worth because you know you are upgrading to Pascal when it's released also ;)
 
Unknown-One said:
I've have yet to find a case that can tolerate the extra thermal load of a dual-fan GPU cooler on a 250w card at noise levels that I would find acceptable.

I've been through the process way, WAY too many times:
Not happy with reference blower's noise at-load --> Swap to dual-fan cooler --> System gets overly-hot --> Turn up case fans --> Not happy with case-fan noise.

The ONLY thing thats been able to make things work cool AND quiet is AIO water (And that's modified AIO water, the stock configuration of something like an H75 generally isn't quiet enough either).
Click to expand...

I bought the Silverstone FT02 when it first came out... 2009 I think. I had a Radeon 5870 reference blower in there for the first couple of years then switched to a Galaxy GTX 580 with triple fan blowing air in the case.

This Silverstone FT02 has been keeping everything cool and quiet for nearly 6 years and I think I have sprayed for dust in it once. Clean, cool, quiet. I imagine the FT05 would work well too.

I just ordered a Gigabyte G1 980 TI. I'm not worried about the heat it blows into the case. That will be quickly and quietly blown right the func out.

I was thinking about getting the EVGA Hybrid 980ti, but then I saw a video on how damn loud the pump is... louder than my CPU Fan, 3 180mm case fans, and the psu fan. From what I have read anyways. :cool:
 
Ack...I am seriously considering the EVGA AIO 980Ti. My gut says just do it, but the wallet say don't you dare spend $750 for a graphics card :)

What video shows how loud the Hybrid 980Ti water pump is? I looked on google and I found none. I saw a review that said it was near silent and only hit 50c OC and at load.
 
LurkerLito said:
Ack...I am seriously considering the EVGA AIO 980Ti. My gut says just do it, but the wallet say don't you dare spend $750 for a graphics card :)

What video shows how loud the Hybrid 980Ti water pump is? I looked on google and I found none. I saw a review that said it was near silent and only hit 50c OC and at load.
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Someone on the evga forum linked it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25515gnTmjM

That really isn't enough info to go off of. You may not even hear it in your case. I just couldn't justify spending that extra $60 either. May not hear it, or it may be a good bit louder than i'd like, dunno. Sounds like a fish tank in the video though heh.

Edit: His quote in the comment section, "On load the loudness of hybrid cooler is comparable to Nvidia reference cooler of GTX980 at about 50-60%. But you can plug EVGA 120mm fan to 7v or even 5v and than it is comparable to stock cooler at 30%-40% while GPU is still ~20C cooler. The pump is audible only at full idle with fan operating at 5-7v.
The case is stock: Fractal Design Desire R4 Arctic White :)"
 
Hmm, I see thanks for the link. Yeah I am in a hold pattern for the 980Ti, I just can't make up my mind if I want to get one or wait for pascal. I have a 970 after all but man when I hit a slow section in the witcher 3 that makes my card hits a temporary 25fps I get this burst of "I have to get a 980Ti" adrenaline boost :)
 
w00t69 said:
Meh, i have all the fans at full tilt in my setup and i just slap on headphones. Total non issue.
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First issue: my headphones are open, so the listening environment still needs to be quiet to avoid hearing outside-noise.
Second issue: I have long hair, and headphones mess it up :p

OrAnGe said:
I bought the Silverstone FT02 when it first came out... 2009 I think. I had a Radeon 5870 reference blower in there for the first couple of years then switched to a Galaxy GTX 580 with triple fan blowing air in the case.

This Silverstone FT02 has been keeping everything cool and quiet for nearly 6 years and I think I have sprayed for dust in it once. Clean, cool, quiet. I imagine the FT05 would work well too.
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Looked into the FT02. Interesting design, but SPCR gave it a fairly poor review. Cable management is a pain, and ALL of the included fans are total crap. Being able to "hear ticking over a meter away" from a closed, noise-insulated case is a bad sign...

Only sure-fire way to avoid ticking fans is to avoid PWM fans, and go with 3-pin voltage-controlled fans instead. Problem is, it's nearly impossible to find 180mm replacement fans for the FT02 that aren't PWM... and even if you did, the ratio of CFM and static pressure to noise on fans larger than 120mm tends to be poor in-general. The gint fan under the FT02's drive-cage is likely doing next-to-nothing.

TL,DR: I wouldn't buy a case who's entire intake solution needs a rip-out and re-do.

OrAnGe said:
I was thinking about getting the EVGA Hybrid 980ti, but then I saw a video on how damn loud the pump is... louder than my CPU Fan, 3 180mm case fans, and the psu fan. From what I have read anyways. :cool:
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Every single AIO I've tried sounds like an aquarium pump, honestly. The only way to fix it is to under-volt to 7v.

Doesn't impact cooling much at all, and it kills a lot of vibration and buzzing. AIO manufacturers really should consider shipping their pumps with a 7v adapter / switch...
 
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