Best 980Ti After Market Card?

Hi all,

I'm currently running a 780 CU2 and am going to upgrade to 980Ti shortly. I've been seeing how well the card overclocks and so am definately going for a non-reference design. From what I can tell these are the top picks:

Asus GTX 980Ti Strix
MSI GTX 980Ti Gaming
MSI GTX 980Ti Lightning (TBA)
EVGA GTX 980Ti Superclocked

Call me mr fussy but I don't like the other brands, having had bad experiences with them. I'm thinking to go with the Asus Strix but can't find any reivews on it. Looks like 1200+ clock really affects the frames.

Any advice would be great, thanks.

 

Out of those I'd go with the MSI Gaming 6G. Waiting for the Lightning... dunno, could take a while.

 

The Lightning will more than likely be the best out of them, but who knows when it'll launch. I'd go with the 6G myself.

 

Hi thanks for the reply - any reason why you would make that choice? It definately looks like a solid card, its a bit cheaper too.

 

MSI have had a good track record for the past couple of GPU generations, the same can't really be said of the others.

 

I have the 970 MSI Gaming. It's a great card, the cooler does an amazing job. I run it overclocked to 1500/7800 and the highest temp I've ever seen was after playing Witcher 3 for 10 hours solid, when the card peaked at 66C. It remained quiet throughout as well.

The 980ti uses the same cooler, which is good. It also comes with a backplate which is a bonus. It also keeps the VRM temps in check better than the 970 MSI Gaming.

I just have nothing bad to say about these cards. The 980ti MSI Gaming comes with a completely redesigned PCB, 2x 8pin PCI-E connectors, great cooling, backplate and "military grade" components (caps).

Overall they're really solid cards, I honestly can't find a single reason not to recommend them.

Another card I'd look at would be the Gigabyte G1, they seem great, but I've had my share of issues with Gigabyte products, all to a point where I decided they'll never see a penny from me.

 

Ok I'm sold

I have had cards with the TwinFrozer 2&3 back in the past, so I'm sure the v5 is a further improvement and I've never had a problem with MSI either.

Just ordered one!

Thanks for the replies

 

Oh trust me, Twin Frozr V is a massive upgrade on those 2&3 versions. Those older revisions used to run pretty hot and loud, latest revision is incredible! It's night and day. I really hope you enjoy your new card, do keep us posted Congrats. Now change your spec

 

it an awesome GPU I am loving it
COOL QUIET AND FAST ..............................

I am running +150 core +200 mem and +74mv and gaming stays under 70c

 

I would go for a Gigabyte GTX 980ti G1, nice cooler and OC.

 

i say go for an inno3d card, very cool on load (arrived today YAAAAY HYYYYYYYPE) but i think the drivers are buggy for the ti atm, a lot of TDR errors in ARK for me with 353.xx (both of em)

But to say: i created my own Fan Curve, card is goint up to 67 C° ~ 45% fan
(i can't hear it while wearing my headset....even my room vent is louder ****ing 28 C° roomtemp)

on default fan curve it was like 76 C° @ 37% fan

edit: nvmd saw you already ordered an MSI

 

Great to know thanks. My card arrives tomorrow and I'll see what it can do

Did you just use afterburner to increase the clocks?

 

yes I use afterburner I have benched with +350 mem without a problem and will overclock higher but it is too hot in UK at the moment so i am using +200 until the weather cools down

 

Sorry one last question, when you say +150 core +200 mem - is that on top of the default OC, or on top of stock? Whats the actual speeds? Thanks

 

yes on top of stock overclock on the card it is now boosting to 1489mhz I have still not found max overclock yet

 

980ti lighting is kinda of useless on air, because GM200-400 is pretty much has very good design and it can OC very far without any voltage mod.
There is only soo much mV you can push before it cooks itself. On the another hand if its water cooled then it would unlock the beast within.

 

This what he said.

 

MSi apparently has best memory and VRM cooling as from what I've seen on reddit.

The lightning will probably be the best one until kingp1n or a classified version comes out.

 

I thought that the G1 had better VRM cooling by far? (from the Guru3d reviews)

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_980_ti_g1_gaming_soc_review,10.html

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_980_ti_gaming_oc_review,10.html

The VRMs on the MSI card seem to be 5-10° C higher than on the G1.

I have an unopened MSI 980Ti Gaming that I'm considering returning for a G1. I'm afraid that the VRM temps will reduce the lifespan of the card.

 

The back plate is covering the VRM area on the G1 the top view at the bottom of that page shows the VRM area hitting 87C 6C higher than the MSI.




You can also see in those picture the heat is spreading over a larger area on the MSI, a good sign of cooling. The G1 is focusing in a single spot, a bad sign of cooling.