MSI GTX 980

[Warlock5822]

Hi guys,

 

so after christmas I'm going to have  bit of spare cash and I was going to spend it on a MSI GTX 980 gaming card, partly because of the fact I have an MSI gaming 7 motherboard and it would fit in well with the theme of my system I was also considering trying an after market cooler on it some time in the future with a Kracken G10 bracket from NZXT.

 

First of all I haven't seen much in reference to the MSI 980 sao does anyone know much about the performance of this card

Secondly I don't know if there would be a lot of benefit to using a g10 bracket on the card since I dont know what kind of difference it might make to the temps

Finally if I did end up trying to fit the g10 on it, I have no idea if the msi card is a reference card or not?

 

[asim1999]

It has excellent performance, just remember it doesnt have a backplate. If u want one with a backplate, the Asus Strix is another good option that will match your build 

[othertomperson]

Wait you're buying this card because the cooler's theme fits in well with your motherboard, and then you're going to take the cooler off and put a Kraken on it? Why does it matter if the cooler that's not going to be on the card anyway matches your motherboard?

[asim1999]

Wait you're buying this card because the cooler's theme fits in well with your motherboard, and then you're going to take the cooler off and put a Kraken on it? Why does it matter if the cooler that's not going to be on the card anyway matches your motherboard?

IKR, just get a reference card and get a waterblock. I have a ROG bard and the reference 980 looks fine with it. Couldn't be happier. 

[othertomperson]

IKR, just get a reference card and get a waterblock. I have a ROG bard and the reference 980 looks fine with it. Couldn't be happier. 

 

Yeah.

 

Although I will add that the stock BIOS will stop you overclocking before you're going to be wanting to replace that Twin Frozr cooler.

[Warlock5822]

Yeah.

 

Although I will add that the stock BIOS will stop you overclocking before you're going to be wanting to replace that Twin Frozr cooler.

Sorry I didn't phrase it right,

What I was meant to say was if there is any benifit to watercooling the card, as in a tangible performance difference?

Plus I dont have the money to watercool it as soon as I get it so having a good cooler on to start with would help for the time being.

knowing if it has the ability to be upgraded to fit into a water cooling loop will help me to plan out which parts I need for when I do order the stuff.

 

I know it may seem stupid, but on amazon uk at the moment a gtx 980 overclocked edition from msi or EVGA still costs within £10 of the price of the MSI gaming edition card :L

[othertomperson]

What I was meant to say was if there is any benifit to watercooling the card, as in a tangible performance difference?

 

Potentially, but only under specific conditions. Firstly you have to make sure the GPU has been binned to make sure that it can even overclock that well. Otherwise you're entirely going on luck. Secondly you have to replace the BIOS on the GPU to take off Nvidia's power and voltage limits so that you cen even benefit from watercooling. if you do all of this you can potentially get a slight performance increase.

 

All in all it's a pretty niche thing, and given the number of opportunities you have of bricking your card it's only worth undertaking if you know what you're doing.