Hello I'm thinking about my options in buying a 980. Should I care much about one card has a backplate or not ? My understanding is it helps cooling the card(and as a reinforcement to its PCB). Is it significant difference ? Thanks
not required. While it will help the card from sagging, a lot of moder cards without a backplate will have a sturdy support "bracket" thing... see here http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/msi-geforce-gtx-970-gaming-review,3.html cooling wise, backplates don't really benefit that much. They do look cool though and if I had the choice of the same card, one with a back plate and one without, I'd go with the one with a back plate. It's not a selling point to me though.
I bought the Asus 770 with backplate for the simple fact,it looks so much cleaner and better,than looking at a bunch of transistors.. My next car will probably be the Gigabyte G1 970/980. Its just stupid by these companies don't do more to make the side and back of their cards look cool. Wow,the fan shroud looks so cool. Dude,your never gonna see it again after you put it in your case. At the very least these companies should be putting cool looking backplates on their cards and Light up the side of the card with their logo. Not just one cards costing $1000. And I know there are a few out there. Have the option to turn the lights off also.
It does make a difference, with a backplate your card can be cooler theoretically, specially when u have allot of intake fans to cool down the plate, it also better for cooling the memory on the chip. http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_980_g1_gaming_review,9.html Gigabyte gtx 980 g1. Now we stress the card 100% with a game. We can measure pretty accurate temperatures at the GPU and VRM areas. So once we start to stress the GPU the thermals quickly change. We can measure thermals down to a 10th of a degree, our thermal camera is calibrated and does not lie. We reach ~60 degrees C on the GPU, on par with what is expected. At M2 (Measure Point 2) the VRM area can be spotted. It runs at roughly 60~65 Degrees C on that spot and the rest of the measurement points, this is a very good temperature. http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_review,9.html MSI gtx 970 gaming. Now we stress the card 100% with a game. We can measure pretty accurate temperatures at the GPU and VRM areas. So once we start to stress the GPU the thermals quickly change. We can measure thermals down to a 10th of a degree, our thermal camera is calibrated and does not lie. We reach ~65 degrees C on the GPU (M1), on par with what is expected. At M2/M3 (Measure Points) the GDDR4 can be spotted. It runs at roughly 75~82 Degrees C, a little high. At M4 we read out the VRM area which is at 87 Degrees C. That is a little high yet remains normal.
There are two main reasons for a backplate: 1) it prevents the larger cards from bending due to weight. 2) it's aesthetically more pleasing. Backplates can trap heat and heat up the PCB & components, this is why you want a backplate with at least a little space in-between the PCB and plate or a backplate with gaps on the most prominent locations like GPU and VRM area. Most designs these day have that. In that case it can work a little like a heatsink, add sturdiness and make a nice looking product. So, properly done then with some ventilation they can be helpful. As to the post above, you are comparing apples with oranges. Two different PCB's, different VRM design, different phase design, different Voltage design. You can not compare it that way and then claim the back-plate makes the difference.
^^ what he said . You will notice its open where hot parts are so it needs to vent the hot area . On the MSI 970 if you have good airflow you should be fine, my VRM are lower than in that review . Mine top out around 70c , measured with IR gun same points .
Thanks guys for the opinions. I would guess it better to have a gpu with backplate unless a very very good deal on one that doesn't have. Damn that Gigabyte G1 is hard to find in stock
I just caved and back-ordered it on Amazon, in hopes that they'll get more in stock sooner than later. That's THE 980 I want, and do not want to settle for less, but good god am I getting impatient.
Why didn't GPU manufacturers design cards so the PCB faces down? Giving us the good looking top of the card to look at instead
Because the air at the bottom of the case is typically much cooler than the air at the top of the case. Also, heat naturally moves upwards so having the fan pull air from the bottom and push it towards the top works best.
That really depend on your case! if its a traditionally case (CPU on top and GPU in bottom), then backplate is a good idea. but if you have one of the vertical cases where the CPU is on one side (right) and the GPU is on the other (left), then you can lose the backplate. See silverstone RAVEN3 CASE. (this case is built for the heat)
I used backplates in the past, but dust that builds up underneat cannot be removed. Not even with a stronger air compressor. I wont be using backplates anymore.
