Buying a new Nvidia Gtx 980ti - Which make?

STRONTIUM DOG · Mar 21, 2016

tommywright said:
I learned a horrible lesson many years ago. I bought a graphics card on sale made by a no name/off name company (I think it was Xstasy or something like that). It was a decent savings but it was also a very expensive, high-end card. After a few months, the card failed. It was well within the warranty but when I tried to get a new card, they told me that the warranty company had gone out of business and that I was SOL. I tried several other avenues to get my money back to no avail.

Lesson learned... ONLY buy name brands. Asus, EVGA, etc. are all good. Whatever you do, don't buy from a company that you don't recognize as having been around for many years.

as long as you have receipt of sale you could have taken the store where you bought it to small claims court and won (Europe)
not only the price of the card but also paid for taking the time of work to prosecute\start proceedings, know your rights
and any employer has to permit time off in order to do so as there losses are also accountable as of your right of absence
the vendor may also loose there right to do business so most claims are resolved and settled out of court once a summons is received
all you need to prove is that you have attempted to contact (a least 3 times) them in order to resolve your warranty right for electronic goods bill of sale and that no response or false unaccountable response has been received.

LordZoltan · Mar 21, 2016

MSI Gaming 6G here (factory OC) - two fans, temps always great, and that's *all* aircooled. I did get a second, but till Sli works properly the second sits dormant (unless I play a non-VR game).

DanTheMan · Mar 21, 2016

tommywright said:
I learned a horrible lesson many years ago. I bought a graphics card on sale made by a no name/off name company (I think it was Xstasy or something like that). It was a decent savings but it was also a very expensive, high-end card. After a few months, the card failed. It was well within the warranty but when I tried to get a new card, they told me that the warranty company had gone out of business and that I was SOL. I tried several other avenues to get my money back to no avail.

Lesson learned... ONLY buy name brands. Asus, EVGA, etc. are all good. Whatever you do, don't buy from a company that you don't recognize as having been around for many years.

Ouch! Here in the UK we have the ability to claim a full refund on our Credit-Card for such situations. The Card Issuer then has the job of getting his money back from the retailer.
This is why I buy all such items on a credit card. Sorry to hear of your experience.

djbordie · Mar 21, 2016

have had great luck with Zotac and their support, read this story.

Bought a zotac 980 on sale, happy no issues, beast overclock. got a second card for SLI (diff brand). This is not an issue these days as they all follow the same sli protocols.
Turns out Zotac screwed up the pin layout or something on this specific card model and it wasnt sli compatable!. this was 1 yr after purchase and they took back the card and upgraded me to a 980ti for free!!
can you believe that service?

im a loyal supporter now.

that being said I chose the basic reference model so I could do full water loop.
this is the basic zotac 980 ti. 1560mhz/8000 stable on water with voltage bios. Cant be happier.

evga, zotac, asus is who I would go with.

typically I google this every new gpu purchase: "best overclock gtx 980ti" and read the reviews and benchmarks. Overclockers and the like will compare the cards and evaluate why or why not they are good overclockers...

[VR] Mad Mike · Mar 21, 2016

if you want to look at a good quality factory overclocked model, which is a bit cheaper than the big names... then Zotac are always worth a look imo.

this is only a quick google and you can maybe do better. unfortunately it has recently gone up in price by 10 quid. last time i looked it was under £500

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/zota...ess-graphics-card-zt-90504-10p-gx-097-zt.html

whether now is a good time to buy however, so close to the pascal launch.... that is another question and one which no one can answer for you imo.

djbordie · Mar 21, 2016

agreed, pricing is going to move soon. how soon, no one knows...

where are you located?

I have helped a couple friends from the UK get gpu's from Canada. The dollar values are very much in UK/euro's favour.

You can get a 980ti here in Canada for 650-750 CAD used (as long as warranty is transferable, who cares if its new)
do the conversion and you have a crazy cheap upgrade...

Gray Lensman · Mar 21, 2016

Nvidia based cards are pretty much indentical regardless of the manufacturer (same chips) except for the cooler and the built in overclocking (if any). The latter tends to imply that the specific card has been checked for stability under heavy thermal load and the former is the manufacturer's preferred solution.
I run an ASUS Titan-X with the stock cooler and that works just fine. You can research 980 cooler options online.

djbordie · Mar 21, 2016

Gray Lensman said:
Nvidia based cards are pretty much indentical regardless of the manufacturer (same chips) except for the cooler and the built in overclocking (if any). The latter tends to imply that the specific card has been checked for stability under heavy thermal load and the former is the manufacturer's preferred solution.
I run an ASUS Titan-X with the stock cooler and that works just fine. You can research 980 cooler options online.

I was so annoyed about the titan waterblock/backplate. I know the 980ti and titan-x share the same pcb but at least EK could have re done the backplate with correct markings.

this was my fix

http://www.pcetch.com/ check the first portfolio item haha.
it was either that or fully print/cover the whole backplate.

shadragon · Mar 21, 2016

My video cards have always been MSI. The quality is phenomenal compared to some, it has an OC tool (Afterburner) and the Twin Frozr fans keep things nice and cool. I just replaced my MSI GTX970 with a MSI GTX980Ti (For VR) and it rocks. They come in NVIDIA and AMD flavours and I've never had an issue with either.

I once held a competitors GTX970 in my hand and the card could be twisted easily. The MSI version is solid in both construction and performance.

Recommended.

Splendour · Mar 21, 2016

I've just fitted a pair of EVGA 980 ti Hybids. The water cooling is hugely effective and very quiet, even under heavy load. I'm yet to play with the overclocking software - nothing I've tried yet has needed it, but all the reviews have said it is very easy to use.

djbordie · Mar 21, 2016

they work well, i went through one of them first before I went to fullblock.

my issue was the overclock would only go so far, as only the gpu is covered in water on those. They didnt bother including the VRM's and mosfets in the water loop which is just lazy.

but no doubt, they are silent and overclock well

gapper4 · Mar 22, 2016

Just upgraded from an MSI GTX 970 OC-Edition to an Asus Matrix Platinum GTX 980ti. I can now run the game with 4K DSR (from the NVidia control panel) AND 1.5 SS in the game graphic options menu smooth as butter. It looks very, very good. Good card. It's very OC right out of the BOX and I OCed it a little more with Afterburner.

djbordie · Mar 22, 2016

you did DSR and 1.5ss in game?
i wonder if it is actually working or if the two modes of super sampling are acting together or against...

was this in the dk2 or just on monitor?

gapper4 · Mar 22, 2016

djbordie said:
you did DSR and 1.5ss in game?
i wonder if it is actually working or if the two modes of super sampling are acting together or against...

was this in the dk2 or just on monitor?

On the DK2. It's very smooth with only the extremely rare stutter when engaging in heavy combat with multiple beam-firing vessels in a HazRes. Smooth as silk in and around stations.

Can't tell if one disables the other, but I picked 4K resolution in the Graphic Options menu, as well as 1.5 SS. Disabled AO and motion blur, left MMSA AA on, max shadows. Looks very very nice.

Ed: Actually, now that I think about it, I doubt one cancels the other because I played around with various configurations and do notice an upgrade/downgrade if I change resolution or SS factor.

2nd Ed: The rest of my system is an i7-5820K OCed to 4600Mhz using Asus' 5-Way optimization Software, 16G Corsair memory, Samsung 840 SSD, Asus X99 mobo, and a Corsair 1000W PSU.

wstephenson · Mar 23, 2016

shadragon said:
My video cards have always been MSI. The quality is phenomenal compared to some, it has an OC tool (Afterburner) and the Twin Frozr fans keep things nice and cool. I just replaced my MSI GTX970 with a MSI GTX980Ti (For VR) and it rocks. They come in NVIDIA and AMD flavours and I've never had an issue with either.

I once held a competitors GTX970 in my hand and the card could be twisted easily. The MSI version is solid in both construction and performance.

Recommended.

Unfortunately MSI products are also affected by this, I just fitted a MSI GTX970 Gaming 4G and noticed immediately that the card twists down at the power connector end under its own weight. Still works though!

For example: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/376300-sli-gtx-970-how-much-bend-is-to-much/

g.eoff · Mar 23, 2016

OK CMDRs. Thanks for all your replies. I posted this question whilst I was on holiday in Egypt, and had the time to do quite a bit of research linked to all the replies I received.
I returned to the UK in the early hours of today, and placed an order this morning, with Overclockers UK, for an EVGA GTX 980Ti Classified. Should be delivered tomorrow.
Their salesman was very helpful. It was useful to learn that they have a VR demo room, using the Vive. They also have ED and plan to demo the game in the VR studio. I will book an appointment.

Fly Safe CMDRs. Per Ardua ad Astra.

CMDR Dolittle. (Geoff)

Derek Speare [VR] · Mar 23, 2016

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487146

I have the EVGA 980ti Classified. My specific card is linked above. It's a great choice. Good flying!

Nicky the Hutt · Mar 24, 2016

I was torn between EVGA's SC+ ACX 2.0+ and the Hybrid, went for the former. Price didn't differ so much, they're clocked slightly differently, reference PCB, not too tall, not too long.

I read about pump noise with the Hybrid that disappeared for some but not others who had to RMA or deal with it. I don't like that idea at that price range.
Then I read and listened to tests that the SC+ ACX 2.0+ had very decent noise levels with its two fans, it scored high on performance but personally I don't care about factory overclock.

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti SC+ ACX 2.0+ 6GB (06G-P4-4995-KR)
EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Hybrid 6GB (06G-P4-1996-KR)

To me it's really about noise, temperatures, space clearance and maybe price and availability at your favourite store. I don't intend to spend as much time in benchmarks as in games so SC+ ACX2.0+ seems fine even compared to Asus Strix DCIII or anything more aggressively clocked. Hybrid cooling does tempt, but I need to hear only good feedback.

shadragon · Mar 24, 2016

This may help. I found it when I was doing research into various vendors and the different models. I ended up with an MSI GTX980Ti Gaming 6G.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/gtx-980-ti-spec-roundup,29369.html

Erroll · Mar 24, 2016

EVGA has an excellent reputation in the NVidia world. I bought my GTX 980 from their B-Stock at a significant discount and have been very pleased.