What type of 980 TI should I go with?

H

hoppy

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I was wondering what version of 980 TI I should buy?

I was thinking EVGA but I heard the stock fans are garbage on them. I want a version with the best cooling.
 
Then you want one of the all-in-one watercooled ones (EVGA Hybrid or whatever the MSI version is called) or assemble your own (MSI 980 Ti Gaming + G10 bracket + Corsair H55 like I have). They're the least noisy and generally overclock the best.

The caveat is that you have to fit a 120mm radiator and its tubing into your case and then figure out how to control the radiator fan either using a fan controller panel or motherboard fan controller (most of which suck).

In the US, EVGA seems to have better warranty and customer service than some other brands if that counts for something.

Out of the purely air cooled cards MSI seems to be the most quiet but not the best cooling performance. Gigabyte might have better cooling but the one I had sounded like a jet engine. ASUS might be somewhere between the two.
 
get the evga classified, the hybrid is supposed to be very noisy
 
mls1995 said:
get the evga classified, the hybrid is supposed to be very noisy
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It's pretty much hit or miss from what I've heard. I wouldn't let it hold you back though. I recently got into CPU AIO cooling and you're constantly bombarded with horror stories: obnoxious fans (in my case they actually were lol), water leaks (make up <1%), and pump failures or loud pump/slurping noises after the break-in period etc.

You got RMA on your side so that helps make the choice a much better bet. Same thing with the EVGA cooling since the 900 Series. It wasn't great like the 700 Series, rather was just average compared to the aftermarket cooling of other competitors. The fan noise and reused 600 Series heatsinks not withstanding on initial launch.
 
mls1995 said:
get the evga classified, the hybrid is supposed to be very noisy
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The Hybrid is very popular, selling out all the time, and I've read one complaint of pump noise so far. I think the odds of getting a bad one are pretty damned low. Plus, EVGA's customer and warranty service is top-notch.
 
I am going to stick with Fans for my GPU. I don't like the idea of water flowing through my PC.

I guess ill check out the hybrid.
 
You might also want to look at the Zotac AMP cards. They're really quiet, but really long, so keep that in mind.
 
I would personally not bother with the Hybrid variants, look into the 980 Ti - Asus Strix, Msi Lightning, Gigabyte G1.

Any of those are, in my oppinion, better thank evga in terms of cooling.
 
I just pulled the trigger on the EVGA hybrid. Lowest price I have seen on this card ($689), still has the bullets or blades bundle, and I got an extra 25 bucks off from Amex. The classified is about the same price, so it was pretty hard to decide between the two. If I planned on upgrading within a year I would have got the Classified, resale value on those is very good but I like seeing very low temps and I like a quiet system, plus I will probably keep this a couple years so I went with the hybrid. The overclocking potential is higher on the Classified, but its not so much that it would be noticeable, we are talking 3-7 FPS at most resolutions. I also considered the MSI Lightning LE (doesn't have the LN bios and may have lower binned chips) and the EVGA FTW because it just went on sale at newegg for 629. The standard MSI Lightning and the Kingpin are just too high a price for what you get unless you are planning on some crazy cooling solutions.

I probably would have stuck an AIO water cooling kit on my card anyway, so the hybrid was the best answer for me this time around. If you don't care about that, the FTW variant is a great deal right now. It has more power phases than all the other EVGA cards except the Classified and Kingpin, so should overclock a bit better. It has the normal ACX 2.0+ cooler that many of the other EVGA cards have while pulling more power, so it may run a little warmer than the other EVGA cards.
 
alex.rizea said:
I would personally not bother with the Hybrid variants, look into the 980 Ti - Asus Strix, Msi Lightning, Gigabyte G1.

Any of those are, in my oppinion, better thank evga in terms of cooling.
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I see you have the FTW model, I take it your not happy with the cooling on it. How hot and how loud is your card?
 
Direfox said:
I see you have the FTW model, I take it your not happy with the cooling on it. How hot and how loud is your card?
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The card is not loud at all, but i had the 980 G1 to compare it to and aside from the fact that the G1 can push higher clock without voltage (G1-1590 mhz vs FTW - 1480 mhz - pretty much irrelevant as it's a lottery), it stays cooler and seems better built (G1 - 67 degrees vs FTW - 77 degrees max in furmark and 3dmark). Acoustics lever are about the same on auto, the G1 is longer and is made entirely from aluminium, both have LED, the G1 also has a backplate whereas the FTW doesn't.

Don't get me wrong: i love both cards, but the G1 feels like a TANK whereas the FTW feels like an APC :)))
 
alex.rizea said:
The card is not loud at all, but i had the 980 G1 to compare it to and aside from the fact that the G1 can push higher clock without voltage (G1-1590 mhz vs FTW - 1480 mhz - pretty much irrelevant as it's a lottery), it stays cooler and seems better built (G1 - 67 degrees vs FTW - 77 degrees max in furmark and 3dmark). Acoustics lever are about the same on auto, the G1 is longer and is made entirely from aluminium, both have LED, the G1 also has a backplate whereas the FTW doesn't.

Don't get me wrong: i love both cards, but the G1 feels like a TANK whereas the FTW feels like an APC :)))
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NewEgg has the FTW at $629 w backplate. I am soooo close to pulling the trigger at that price. Anyone else see that much difference in temps?
 
If the cost of the Lightning LE is a concern currently you get Black Ops III AND the Nvidia Bullets/Blades deal if you buy the card along with a $30 MIR. That knocks around $30 (MIR) + ~$25 (Nvidia Promo) + ~$40 (CoD) = ~$95 off the price if you sell the codes.

I know others come in cheaper with the Bullets/Blades deal if you sell the code, but right now the Lightning/LE are the only two cards that come with Black Ops III for free.

Personally the Lightning LE would be nice just for the heatsink/cooler aspect of it. Doesn't look like the regular Lightning is a good deal though for most.
 
phillyboy said:
Personally the Lightning LE would be nice just for the heatsink/cooler aspect of it. Doesn't look like the regular Lightning is a good deal though for most.
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Thats kind of what I was thinking before I decided on the EVGA hybrid. I didn't know about the Black Ops III deal either, might have gone that route instead.
 
talostown said:
NewEgg has the FTW at $629 w backplate. I am soooo close to pulling the trigger at that price. Anyone else see that much difference in temps?
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Thats the best deal for the price IMO. I don't regret ordering the hybrid, but I would have been happy with the FTW for that price also.
 
I upgraded from SLI Evga GTX 780 TI Classifieds. They were installed in a HAF X case and the top card was always hotter and while gaming (BF4) with a custom fan curve the top card was in the low 70's. Now I have one 980 TI Hybrid and it is at 24 degrees as I type this and while gaming it is in the mid 40's. I am very happy with my EVGA 980 TI Hybrid.
 
I have to agree with Grunt, I am really liking my 980 Ti Hybrid. It only has an ASIC of 67 but it will overclock to 1461 at 110% (while still running cool) Only hits about 50 C while gaming, but got it up to 56 running Kombustor. Those are very good temps for stress testing and it wan't noisy at all. I could hear it while stress testing, but it wasn't at all loud, and much quieter than my gtx 670 SLI setup even though I had some good aftermarket cooling on them.
I have stuck enough after market cooling on my video cards over the years that I think this is a pretty big savings for me to have it come with good cooling like this. Not super happy with the RAM on the card though, it won't overclock much at all.
 
Direfox said:
I have to agree with Grunt, I am really liking my 980 Ti Hybrid. It only has an ASIC of 67 but it will overclock to 1461 at 110% (while still running cool) Only hits about 50 C while gaming, but got it up to 56 running Kombustor. Those are very good temps for stress testing and it wan't noisy at all. I could hear it while stress testing, but it wasn't at all loud, and much quieter than my gtx 670 SLI setup even though I had some good aftermarket cooling on them.
I have stuck enough after market cooling on my video cards over the years that I think this is a pretty big savings for me to have it come with good cooling like this. Not super happy with the RAM on the card though, it won't overclock much at all.
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That's the downside of the hybrid - its a plain reference card.
 
Wouldn't call it a downside as i've seen 980 kingpin cards that will not run stable with +15 added to the gpu clock. It's a lottery. Go for whatever appeals to you most and you'll se what's what after you get it.

Cheers
 
DPI said:
That's the downside of the hybrid - its a plain reference card.
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Thats true, but this is a decent overclock. Seems like most people are not hitting 1500, with very few hitting 1550 or more. I can't complain about 1461, and I doubt I would notice much difference hitting 1500+.
 
alex.rizea said:
Wouldn't call it a downside as i've seen 980 kingpin cards that will not run stable with +15 added to the gpu clock. It's a lottery. Go for whatever appeals to you most and you'll se what's what after you get it.

Cheers
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Obviously it's a lottery, but it's not just a lottery. Example, take 10 x Gigabyte G1's and 10 x EVGA hybrids or any other ref card, my money is on more or even all of the G1's being able to run 1500 stable. Do exceptions and golden reference cards exist, of course, but I'm talking about average.

Put another way, it's rare that you hear of a G1 that can't do 1500, which can't be said for reference.
 
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