EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB GAMING, Silent Cooling Graphics Card 06G-P4-4990-KR

My EVGA GeForce GTX680 SC SIGNATURE 2048 MB GDDR5 DVI DVI-D HDMI DisplayPort 4-Way SLI Ready Graphics Card, 02G-P4-2683-KR held up for 3 years, but could no longer keep up with the next gen gaming. 2 GB of video memory is no longer enough, and I can see 6 GB being used by some game 3 years down the line. I needed a card that sits exactly how my GTX 680 sat, mainly due to the power pin cabling position. As my photo shows, this EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti ACX SC+ ACX 2.0+ Graphics Card with Backplate 06G-P4-4995-KR works perfectly (as my 680 had a backplate too, made sense to get another backplated as well). My 3DMark Fire Strike score doubled with the 980 Ti (from 7187 to 14933), right out of the box boosted to 1316 MHz @ 1193 mV, which may differ, as mine came with an ASIC of 74.4%, with the rest of my computer setup: Corsair Graphite Series 600T (Mid Tower) OCZ 850W ZX Series 80 Gold Plus Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe (BIOS Version 2104) Intel Core i7 3770k (4.5 GHz @ 1.20 Volts) Corsair H100 Liquid Cooling (Standard push from topside, radiator below inside case) 16 GB Corsair Vengeance (XMP 9-9-9-24 @ 1600 MHz ) 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) For this upgrade I also decided to upgrade from 1080p, going to a Acer G257HU smidpx 25-Inch WQHD (2560 x 1440) Widescreen Monitor , which could also overclock to 75 Hz @ 1440p right out of the box as well (though I decided not to after seeing additional page tearing than I would have liked). This card destroys everything at 1080p, so it made sense to make the jump to 1440p. While not quite 4k, still a great upgrade to give the card a run for its money. Witcher 3 maxes out the card at 1440p, so if I continued at 1080p I would have not seen its maximum potential. This card could not maintain steady 60 FPS in Star Citizen's hangar module (Very High settings @ 1440p), but your experience may vary depending on how many ships you had, and in which hangar (fully stocked Asteroid Hanger driving around in the Grey Cat). There was no way to turn off the in-game V-sync, therefore it continually bounced between 30 and 60 FPS. The Arena Commander module was more fluid however. In terms of temperature, my old 680 had no problems, being a Blower type cooler, I have a 200mm fan pulling air in through my side vent (hung with strings off the side mesh window). That card never even came close to 80 C, typically hit 70 C with an aggressive fan profile, and that was it. This 980 Ti however creates plenty more heat, more in line with what Big Kepler does (780 Ti). The open air fans sound softer than the blower type, though even with an aggressive fan profile I see it climb to 80 C, lowering the max boost I can get. I'm sure it's just my own internal fan setup, however not too concerned with what I've experienced so far. Front and Side 200mm pulling in, 240mm radiator with dual 120mm fans pushing topside, and just one single 120mm rear exhaust. I was looking to replace a single card with another single card, and this definitely does the trick. EVGA hasn't done me wrong yet, but please consider all options before you grab one, such as output ports (less HDMI and lots of Display Ports these days), power pin positioning, dimensions of the card (probably the biggest concern for upgraders), and of course, whether your power supply could handle any potential extra overclock. The MSI Lightning edition is coming out sometime soon, and I've always been curious how it compares when its release is usually last (and for good reason). -Edit- Hanger != Hangar Had some more time to test this card with Star Citizen (especially with that newly released Social Module!). In-game V-sync could only be turned off via ~ console commands (r_VSync 0), and I bumped the card's GPU offset to +100 MHz, ending with a max clock of 1415 MHz @ 1198 mV, using EVGA's PrecisionX with power limit at 110% (no voltage increase). All modules ran much smoother with no video artifacts/problems at 1415 MHz, though I chose a software based thermal performance cap of 80 C to keep my card in check, down clocking once it hit that threshold (since my chassis fan setup is less than optimal). The GTX 980 Ti struggles at times to push 60 FPS @ 1440p in Star Citizen, and I'm not too surprised about that fact.

I bought this as a tax return gift to myself to replace the EVGA SSC GTX 960 I originally bought with my desktop build. The performance difference is there, it is noticeable in gaming, and it is quite substantial to say the least. I have already reviewed the GTX 960 card I originally had, but in light of it's popularity, I will follow a similar review format here. For anyone who is new to buying these parts or is interested in some facts to help make purchasing decisions, I will go over the reasoning behind my personal choices. First, I chose nVidia over AMD for my Graphics Card Unit (GPU) because, historically, AMD cards run hotter, and use more power compared to their nVidia counterparts. For a real-world example, the Fury X is the closest AMD card to the performance of the 980Ti (in benchmarks the 980Ti typically nets about 5-15 more FPS compared to the Fury X in both 4K and 1080p). This card under a heavy gaming load, drew 408W (according to AnandTech), whereas the 980Ti drew 388W (same source). The difference isn't much, but it's there. In regards to heat, AMD has been getting better, and typically the Fury X produces less heat under load. I chose EVGA for their customer service reputation, as well as stellar cooling and factory overclocks, and backplate. Not much else to brands really. I love this card. It obviously outperforms the 960 I previously used, but it kicks ass more than I imagined. This card is fairly capable of maxing out the settings (at 1080p) on about 90-95% of games and running at a solid 60 FPS. In my system, my CPU bottlenecks this card occasionally, depending on the demands of the game I'm (Fallout 4 for example). It runs pretty cool most of the time. Mine idles around 40 C, which is a tad hot, but not horrible. The fans can get really loud if you crank them to 100%, but they have never gotten there even based on my aggressive fan curve. Its the typical EVGA GPU finish. Matte black, some silver highlights, complete with a white LED brand/model label that faces towards the side of the case. It has plenty of ports (1 HDMI, 1 DVI, 3 DP). It comes with a DVI to VGA adapter as well. All port come with dust blockers. It fit perfectly fine in my (albeit overly-large) Corsair 750D Airflow Edition case on my ASUS Z97-A motherboard. Due to a lack of actual performance information present in most people's reviews, I decided to have a section for in-game benchmark information, as touch on comparisons between it and the 960. ========================================================================================================= Firstly, I'll list the parts in the rig I did these benchmarks in: Intel i5-4690K overclocked to 4.4 GHz @ 1.2 V EVGA GTX SC 980Ti ASUS Z97-A 24 GB of DDR3 @ 1600 MHz EVGA 750 G2 Power Supply Windows 10 Pro When I did the 960 benchmarks, my CPU was not overclocked, but I have compared the performance difference in-game from before and after the overclock with the 980Ti. In the best-case scenario, the overclocking only changed the FPS ~5 from stock CPU clock speed in nearly everything, so my results - 5 FPS, would be a fair comparison to the 980Ti with my CPU at a stock clock speed. In general, the 980Ti gets 15+ FPS more than the 960, in some games getting 30+ FPS more. I will note the performance difference for each benchmark that I have information on both. On to benchmarks!: BioShock Infinite: Ultra/Max settings AVERAGE: 139 MINIMUM: 37 MAXIMUM: 252 Average FPS was 67 FPS higher than the SSC 960 Hitman: Absolution: Ultra settings w/ MSAA off AVERAGE: 85 MINIMUM: 70 MAXIMUM: 102 Average FPS was 15 FPS higher than the SSC 960 Thief: High preset AVERAGE: 101 MINIMUM: 71 MAXIMUM: 143 Average FPS was 41 FPS higher than the SSC 960 Metro 2033 Redux: Max setting w/ Tesselation on High, SSAA off & Advanced PhysX off AVERAGE: 87 MINIMUM: 26 MAXIMUM: 268 Average FPS was 18 FPS higher than the SSC 960 Just Cause 2: Max settings The Dark Tower AVERAGE: 130 Desert Sunrise AVERAGE: 146 Concrete Jungle AVERAGE: 97 Average FPS' were 33 - 69 FPS higher than the SSC 960 Benchmarks with no comparison: Hitman: Absolution: Ultra preset AVERAGE: 53 MINIMUM: 44 MAXIMUM: 144 Thief: Very High preset w/ 16x AVERAGE: 97 MINIMUM: 71 MAXIMUM: 124 Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor: Ultra settings without HD texture pack installed AVERAGE: 116 MINIMUM: 79 MAXIMUM: 164 Metro 2033 Redux: Max settings AVERAGE: 51 MINIMUM: 16 MAXIMUM: 162 Metro: Last Light Redux: Max settings AVERAGE: 69 MINIMUM: 19 MAXIMUM: 147 Grand Theft Auto V: Max settings with all Advanced Graphics options off AVERAGE: 49 MINIMUM: 29 MAXIMUM: 119 The Talos Principle: Ultra preset AVERAGE: 143

I decided to upgrade from a reference Sapphire R9 290 after buying a 1440p monitor and watching my games all fall below max settings. I was not pleased. Initially, I'd thought about getting a second 290 to crossfire but my research told me that a single-card setup was always a better option, and the 4GB of RAM with the 290 is a little lower than I'd be comfortable with running games at higher resolutions. I was lucky enough to find this card at its lowest recorded price on Amazon (639.99) so I decided to list my 290 on ebay and go for this beast. My girlfriend is not pleased with me. So far, this has knocked all my games out of the park. Since resolving some driver issues (the drivers the Nvidia website told me to download were way behind, updating through Windows Update helped resolve that), I've been absolutely loving the card. Maxes most everything comfortably at 1440p with nothing more than the factory overclock; the card is a beast. Only game it's struggled marginally with that I play regularly is Witcher 3, but it mostly only has issues while HairWorks is on; after doing some last minute panic research (as if I'd bought the wrong card for my needs) there's basically no single graphics setup in existence that deals with HairWorks well. Aside from that: very rarely during ingame storms and/or in crowded areas the FPS will drop to low/mid 50s but usually only for a few seconds until the fan catches up. For the most part, I can play the game perfectly at all times. Maxing Shadow of Mordor was a struggle on my old R9 290, and this card handles it beautifully with room to spare. Pretty much devours BF4 and other shooters I've thrown at it. Side note: I play Guild Wars 2 off and on. A word of advice for other players there: if you're looking for a setup that can max that game at 1440p/60fps in crowded areas, you're wasting your time. I have my 3570k overclocked to 4.3GHz (on water) and with this card, the GPU/CPU usage never reaches 100% despite my FPS being around 45 so I don't know if there's a solution in existence that will run that game perfectly. Most importantly, this card is QUIET. I may have some bias because I'm coming off an R9 290, which is a notoriously loud card, but it's really great that I can play beautiful games without having to hear the whirring of my GPU fan in the background. I don't like playing with headphones so this card's quiet cooling system is a treat for my bleeding ears. And even though it's quiet, it's still effective. I haven't gone above the stock temp target (82c) and the fan pretty much never goes above 50% speeds even with consistent 100% GPU load. Concisely, PROS: * Exceptionally quiet * Knocks 1440p games out of the park * Stays within reasonable temp ranges even at only 50ish% fan usage at full load. CONS: * Size. The card is quite large and the power connector cords had to be maneuvered in such a way that they wouldn't interfere with my side exhaust fan. And this is in a full-tower case (CoolerMaster HAF 932). * I'm pretty finicky about my FPS, so it's mildly disappointing that this is pretty much the best single card you can buy (who wants to pay twice as much for marginal FPS game to get the Titan X) * Doesn't make me better at Rocket League The price is really not all that bad considering the performance you get, and AMD has been slacking for a few releases now so I'd highly recommend this card if you're looking at handling 2k+ gaming. I'm looking forward to seeing what other games I'll be able to max in the future using this card.

Let me start by saying, I build my own systems and have built my own systems since 1992, so I am not a novice at this. I work in the computer industry, so I am not an amateur by any stretch. I purchased this card because I wanted to build a portable gaming system, one that I could easily transport between rooms (not necessarily other locations). I put everything together, I overclocked everything EXCEPT for the card only because this was my first time working with this sort of card so I wanted to test it out at spec before I dove in and played with the settings. It worked great for the first 37 days. No complaints, except for the fact that about 3 days ago I started to hear a faint amount of burbling coming from it when I was running some fairly memory-intensive games. But nothing that would be considered loud by any stretch, so it didn't concern me at the time. My entire system, running maxxed-out on various games, is usually running around 30°C (maybe as high as 35). Last night, my computer started up and the card was running at 47°C. I loaded up World of Warcraft for my daughter to play and 20 minutes into the game it was up at 90°C and shut down the computer. No overclocking. No other problems from my system. And World of Warcraft? Not exactly a high-end hit on the graphics side of things...but the card was HOT! I unplugged it from the motherboard and checked for any obvious holes or whatnot and found nothing (and my board is dry obviously), so I let it cool down and thought maybe air bubbles were causing some issues. I plugged it back in and tried again. This time, it made it almost 25 minutes before doing the same thing. Yeah, I will be contacting EVGA to find out what they intend to do about this because - SURPRISE! SURPRISE! - I am just past the 30-day return policy for Amazon. Go figure. I've had a GTX 970 card running in a Minecraft server that never shuts down for over 3 years now without fail, so I know they make good products. But this one was a dud. Let's hope the next one lets me revise this review and say how great the company was about this and how great the product turned out to be. I don't do many reviews, but when I feel they are necessary (like this) I let people know my experiences just in case. I'm not saying don't buy this card. I'm saying I hope you get one that is not like mine; because the 37 days it was running it was an amazing card. Surpassed anything I've had (although a co-worker talked me down from dual 1080 cards - that would have been something I think). Revised - OK, the RMA process was very simple. People assured me that EVGA is a great company to work with, and they were not wrong. One simple phone call from me, one simple email from them, and the card is on it's way back to them for a replacement. I had the option of sending my card back first or having them ship me a card first (paying for it, then having them refund me when the old one was received). I chose to ship the card back first because I have a spare 970 to use in the interim, so I'm not down; otherwise, I would have gone with the second option. After I get the new card and let it run for at least 37 days, I'll revise again and let people know my thoughts. Re-Revised...OK, it's been re-installed back into the machine and running virtually nonstop since then. I have been powering down my computer at odd intervals due to other reasons that have nothing to do with performance or heat. The new card came back to me without a hitch and has been working just as I expected an EVGA card to do. My system runs cool, and so too does my graphics card again. I'm running at about 18°C when idling, and I have been maybe as high as 41°C when running certain games at ultra settings, but usually around about 36°C. I know that seems like only a little bit of a difference, but it's not to me. So, the new card seems to run slightly hotter than the last one at idle, but lower at gaming with ultra settings. I think this is something I can live with, especially since the new placement of the computer puts the fans within reach and I still feel cool-to-warmish (but not hot) air being expelled. Oh yeah, and still not overclocking the card at this point although I feel like I could do so without issues or live without it and be just fine. So, changing my title and my opinion to match the latest.

Awesome performing card, just not an awesome price lol. Pro: Runs silent when not under load. This is because by default the fans don't run unless the GPU temp hits 60C or higher (max safe temps are in upper 80C so this is perfectly fine and won't lower the lifespan of the card. Plus if you're spending this much do you really see yourself the type to not buy another one in 3+ yeas?) Also auto boost to 1400MHz+ on the core without me doing anything. Con: Stupid expensive, especially with Pascal around the corner. My first one came defective. When it would boost it would randomly crash the driver. Got a replacement, it seems to use less voltage, auto boost higher and doesn't crash. My card doesn't seem to have any overclocking headroom, but it auto boost over 1400MHz on the core and I'm sure that is one reason that it's already running so high. I hear many people can hit 1500MHz easy but I don't want to increase voltages. The memory I can only over clock a little and it starts to crash. So can't hit the 8000Mhz some others can which is a bummer since for me the memory bumping gave better FPS vs. core on games like BF4. I have this in an SG13 case. Fits perfect. So I have an iTX gaming rig now with a 6700k, 32GB DDR4 and an 980TI (Top of the line gaming rig basically) that is supper small and very quiet thanks to the cards fan design. For those that don't like the fan setting of off till 60C, just flip the bios switch to the second bios. That one is pre-programmed to run all the time and also has some higher power limits (not voltage). I wish these had lifetime warranty still like in the old days with EVGA but like all other good things, that came to an end. On the upside they have stepup which hopefully if Pascal comes out soon I can maybe use but doubt it. Seems to be very power efficient also FWIW. I have a 750w PSU and with the card and my whole rig at full load I just break 400w.. So gone are the days of needing stupid powerful PSU.

This is a GTX980ti reference design with an AIO liquid cooler added to the GPU. The clocks are slightly lower than other air versions of the 980ti, but higher than the 980ti reference GPU from Nvidia. This is not a card you buy based only on the clocks, it is bought for the hybrid cooling and the hybrid cooling only. Be fully aware, while it will overclock, we all place the lottery with GPU processors, and everyone will find a stable overclock at different levels. I based mine on JayzTwoCent's overclock and reviews of the Hybrid, and got a 100Mhz on the GPU and a 300Mhz on the Memory. Some will get their GPU clocks over the magical 1500 number, while others will not get that number. I get 1480 roughly and I am happy with it. As a single 980ti GPU on an Intel I7 3770K Overclocked to 4.2Ghz, I have found it to perform far better than I ever expected. It is quiet, and will only spin the reference memory fan on the card up if you seriously push the stress on the GPU but I have found this to be far harder than you would think and that is a great discovery. The radiator cooler is perfectly designed, and the EVGA branded fan is a static pressure fan that stays fairly quiet. The fan control on the card is only for the reference memory cooling fan and not the radiator fan as many people thought at first. I have found that disconnecting the radiator fan from the card itself, and plugging it into your MOBO or a fan controller works much better for control purposes. I run my 980ti hybrid at the lowest RPM setting using my fan controller from NZXT and I have found that temps never go above 58c under FireStrike looped tests for 30 minutes. If I ramp up the RPMs though I can see a dramatic temp drop from 58c to 48c and that is insane in my mind. It is clear the AIO cooler works very efficiently and that is what you should expect for this type of Hybrid card. The idea behind buying this version of the 980ti over the air cooled cards is not so much in overclocking ability as I see the other brands of 980ti cards on the market that are not water cooled overclocking much higher than the EVGA Hybrids do, but it comes down to noise, and life of the card over time. I wanted a quieter gaming rig that could handle the highest end and most demanding games without going SLI. I wanted control over the radiator fan, something you can not get with the other brand of Hybrid AIO 980ti cards on the market yet, looking at your Corsair Seahawk 980ti!!! I also live in Florida and summer temps play a big part in why the Hybrid AIO options was my choice. If you live in cooler environments the Hybrid may not support the added costs over the other brands of air cooled cards as those coolers do work amazingly well already. But if you are in a hotter place, the Hybrid can help keep GPU temps much lower over much longer play sessions. Overclocking can be done using MSI afterburner or the EVGA software, but I like MSI version better. Card does have a hard voltage cap though which is why you will not see the much higher overclock you may be thinking you can get with a water cooled card. In my testing the hard limit seems to be 1.28v roughly, and the card running at 110% of its TDP already comes close to that limit out the box, which is why you may see issues getting it stable at 1500 on the GPU. The card is very power efficient already, this is due to EVGA bios limits for voltage, and honestly not a game changer for me since the whole purpose of the Hybrid is to remain cooler, longer, and quieter longer. Play your luck though and see what OC you can reach we will all reach different OC levels.

Easily the very best video card I've ever owned. I went from two Evga GeForce GTX 780 SCs in SLI to this and it out performed my previous setup without issue. It kind of freaks me out that the fans don't kick in until the temp reaches 60 degrees or so but I'm starting to get use to it. Yes, that's by design. Look it up. The fans are quiet and do an excellent job of keeping the card cool in conjunction with the backplate. Seriously, I am impressed with this. Fps is excellent all across the board from a heavily modded Skyrim to Metal Gear Solid V 4K. Can't wait to test it on Black Ops III and Fallout 4! I'm running this in a custom build consisting of: Asus Rampage IV Black Edition Intel i-7 4930K cpu @ 4.0Ghz 32Gb of G.Skill DDR3 1600mhz memory 2 120GB Kingston HyperX SSDs (one as boot drive) Numerous western digital internal and external hard drives for storage. Logitech G600, G13, and G110 peripheral devices. Edit 06/22/2016 I purchased another one of these cards to setup in SLI which I understand is overrated to a lot of people but I can honestly say it works for me and I have zero issues with my steam games playing in SLI. I purchased an Evga SLI bridge and it has become a sweet looking addition to my whole setup. I'm slightly turned off about the fact that the video card I purchased last week for $609 is now on sale for $514. Not cool man. I have the mind to return it and purchase it again for the sales price savings but meh. The cards run wonderfully after you set a custom fan curve. By default, as I mentioned in the first part of this review the fans don't kick in until the card reaches 60 degrees C which in my case translates to about 48-55c idle temps. I adjusted the fan curve some and kept it conservative and now both cards idle around 33-35c and hit about 65-70c under heavy load all while being almost silent. I have 8 case fans in my tower and they are louder than the ones on the cards. I don't overclock any of my hardware although I have plenty of headroom to do so with my setup. I like my temps where they are at. One may ask "Why didn't you goo for the new 1080s?". And the answer to that question is very simply I'm waiting for the 1080 Ti or equivalent to appear at which time I will box up my 980 Tis and sell them for the new card. The performance gain between the two is not super impressive to me although anyone would have to admit the 1080 is better in many ways, just not all. I am still very impressed with the 980 Ti FTW cards and can recommend them as one of the best choices for a graphics card SLI setup while looking at cost/performance ratio.

I live in a very hot tropical climate. I had some problems running a Pair of Gigabyte G1 Gaming 980 Ti in SLI. I would reach 80+ Celsius. Decided to switch to EVGA Hybrid in SLI. The install was tricky but since I've no drive cages (Using NVMe and SSD's), I was able to mount both rads. Note that if you have the Corsair 750D case, you can't reach the front of the case, tubes are too short. I've included a few pics of how I mounted my radiators, since I didn't have space left at the top (Occupied by a Corsair H110i GTX 280mm CPU cooler rad) . If you can mount your rad to the back or top, make sure you exhaust, it's much better than intake. In my case, I had no choice for one of the card than to do intake from the bottom on one card (push/pull), and the second card exhausting at the rear (push), but I've good airflow. Looks: I don't know if EVGA updated the shrouds yet (edit: apparently yes not they are now shipping with the new silver/led shroud), but the standard bronzish shrouds that came with the cards looked a bit boring, with no leds, and the color didn't fit in my system. EVGA released new shrouds that you can get from their website, so I purchased a pair. It makes the cards look much more modern. Install was easy. Thankfully, the water tubes are sleeved,which make it look like high quality stuff. Temps: My temps when gaming are 44-48, 25 on idle if A/C is Turned on. I've had a few times that temps reached 50-54, which is still pretty low compared to regular air cooled cards. Pump Noise: Didn't notice any noise coming out of the case, so I consider them pretty quiet. Some people have reported noisy pumps on forums but I've had no issues at all with that. The first time you power the card the sound of water with air moving around can be a bit scary, but it was not a leak that I had, just air bubbles setting out I guess. Sometimes if my side panel is removed, I can listen to an occasional water sound, sounds like water dripping, but nothing dramatic; last a second or 2, it's subtle and then it's gone, Fans: I can't comment on the noise, because I replaced the included fan prior to install with corsair quiet SP fans. The fans can be connected directly to the card, so there's no need to have a free fan header or fan controller. However, since I prefer to control the speed myself, I connected them directly to the motherboard FAN headers. They are not PWM fans, they are 3 pins, so speed is controlled by voltage, therefore I'm assuming that when connected to the unit, they will spin at 100%. The other fan on the card that cools the rest of components (vram I assume), is of reference blower style, meaning it pull hot air out through the back of the card, hence the name "hybrid". Default setting for this is very quiet, and you can control fan profile via EVGA precision or anything else you prefer. Overclocking: These cards are reference design, but surprisingly, they are overclocking friendly, or maybe I was just lucky. I managed 1502/4010 without any major increase in temperature. If you have the space in your case and considering a 980Ti, this is one of the best on the market.