swimsphinx

...fanboys...fuckboys...butthurt...
Yes, that's not the kind of tone we prefer to have in our discussions here.
Locked.

Gigabyte doesn't have the customer support of EVGA or MSI but their build quality is just as good as the others and as for performance everything really comes down to the silicon lottery... ex say hello to my 1562mhz 980ti from Gigabyte, that doesnt sound like bad performance... because it really comes down to luck of rolling the dice to see if you get a good chip.
 
To OP: Performance wise any of these GPUs can out clock / outpeform each other purely due to the silicon lottery. All of their build qualities are good. MSI and EVGA typically do have better customer support but unless you get really unlucky or misuse your card you likely should never have to use the customer support. 
 
Also the G1 gaming is White with Silver stripes in the white border, it does have 7 LED color options (I use red) but the white seems to be slightly off color compared to pure white (just a consideration if you are really stuck on the all white theme and something I noticed with my card I can't speak for every G1 Gaming). Other than that I would add the  GALAX HoF (all white card, even the PCB) would work well with your build and offers just as good performance as any other aftermarket 980ti. 

Hybrid will run the coolest but is only a reference board so in theory its OC ability is less than the others (also its very expensive for its relative performance).
The G1 Gaming is a nice mix of custom PCB with decent thermals and in theory better OC ability. Also it has a generally modest theme with 7 color LEDs to match most cases (costs the least of the 3 anyways best price to performance)
The matrix comes with all the goodies for extreme overclocking will run pretty cool (about the levels of a G1 maybe a bit better) has the best custom PCB. And comes with the most sensors. In theory it has the best OC potential.
This all disregards the silicon lottery as any of these cards could out perform the others given luck (ie my G1 gaming can get up to 1562mhz something any model of the 980ti would struggle to attain without luck. Choose the one that you like the most has the best warranty, is the cheapest, has the most features you like, or matches your case best as the silicon lottery will be the main deciding factor in the end performance of your GPU.
-pls forgive any typos or confusing sentences.. Im on my phone will edit for grammar and such later when im at my computer

You didn't overclock it at all yet? because im pretty sure(99%) 1544mhz is outside of the boost table of 980tis without manual overclocking. If you did manual overclock then congrats you can probably push 1550+ easily. 

That's a valley benchmark reading (aka completely inaccurate valley says my card is running at like 1730mhz or something ridiculous) open up MSI afterburner and check there.

Unless you super care about nvidia features and such I would recommend the 390x that performs just below to equally to the 980 in most games.
http://www.playtech.co.nz/afa.asp?idWebPage=39235&CATID=1022&ID=25839&SID=125417295
Found this one for $100 nzd cheaper in my first google search

For that difference then the titan X was a good decision. However I would like your titan X to go up against my 1562mhz 980ti on air  . But yeah the 980ti makes the most sense in America (and some other countries) because its a nice $350+ difference for minimal non OC performance gains, and then if you hit the lottery you get a titan X or better. 
 
But if I was in your situation where it was that much of a difference I probably would have gone with the titan X too. 

I hope it's an overclocking monster or at least has potential for it. That'd really let it spread its wings.

You'll be getting pretty toasty running those cards in SLI, the cooler is a beast but your airflow is going to be pretty limited, and the 980ti(EDIT: we are talking about the zotac amp extreme 980ti right?)runs pretty hot already.

If you go with a Skylake i3 then you wouldn't be able to use the DDR3 memory that you have as skylake is only compatible with DDR4 memory

I think the main thing here everyone is disregarding is that he said $700-750 build where he would be hard pressed to fit a decent system with a 290x still in it. If he has the cash... obviously 290x but it doesnt look like he really has the cash. I would say look for something like the 280x / 280 in that price range 

And like that Kingpin is 1 point below the GALAX for TOTAL score 7403 vs 7402. If you actually look at the detailed result we see
 
Kingpin Graphics score: 7322
 
GALAX Graphics score: 7296
 
So Mad Tse has the best computer(as a whole) for firestrike in the world but kingpin actually got the best graphics card back.

This is because of GPU Boost, which causes cards to overclock themselves if they have the necessary power and thermal headroom. So if there card boosts too ~1350 then when they add +172 they would get 1522mhz overclock however yours is only boosting to 1265 on its own (this is likely due to it being extremely hot at idle and not having much thermal headroom). That is why your clocks are different from others that have +172 on the core

Clearly the 980ti is a rebranded 780ti with 5.5gb of Vram (*sarcasm*)

I think you're mistaken for something else. It would make no sense to release an 8GB version. Just none.
Besides, I don't think they can release an 8GB version. The architecture is in increments of 3 I believe. 3, 6, 9, 12. Could be wrong but don't think they can put 8GB without screwing something up.
You must be thinking of Pascal.

I really need to make a copy paste of this with the amount of times this asked.
 
Every aftermarket 980ti (Lightning and 980ti Kingpin excluded) are in the US within ~$40 or so of each other. The largest determining factor of your cards success will be the silicon lottery and not which brand you decided to go with. each card before OC performs within ~2% of each other and everything else after that is complete luck. Choose a card that has the best design / features / looks best to you / warranty rather than because you heard one performs better than another because in most cases it will not be true for you, it is a case by case basis. If you do not live in the US and prices vary much more do not spend $50 + on another card because you heard it was faster, only buy it if you love that company or the cards design DO NOT BUY BASED ON OTHERS PERFORMANCE. When it comes to the 980ti Kingpin and Lightning if you are not going to watercool, dont do it. If you are then it is possible that it can run faster than others but again still not guaranteed. my g1 gaming is faster than the 980ti kingpin that Jayztwocents reviewed, its pure luck! And only buy those cards if you are extremely serious about overclocking and benchmarking, otherwise it is again a waste of money (but i mean if you want to waste your money and get one anyways ... i guess go ahead i cant stop you) 
 
TLDR buy a 980ti that makes you happy about its looks and extra features not about possible performance due to the wide range of possiblities when it comes to performance due to the silicon lottery. 

I really need to make a copy paste of this with the amount of times this asked.
 
Every aftermarket 980ti (Lightning and 980ti Kingpin excluded) are in the US within ~$40 or so of each other. The largest determining factor of your cards success will be the silicon lottery and not which brand you decided to go with. each card before OC performs within ~2% of each other and everything else after that is complete luck. Choose a card that has the best design / features / looks best to you / warranty rather than because you heard one performs better than another because in most cases it will not be true for you, it is a case by case basis. If you do not live in the US and prices vary much more do not spend $50 + on another card because you heard it was faster, only buy it if you love that company or the cards design DO NOT BUY BASED ON OTHERS PERFORMANCE. When it comes to the 980ti Kingpin and Lightning if you are not going to watercool, dont do it. If you are then it is possible that it can run faster than others but again still not guaranteed. my g1 gaming is faster than the 980ti kingpin that Jayztwocents reviewed, its pure luck! And only buy those cards if you are extremely serious about overclocking and benchmarking, otherwise it is again a waste of money (but i mean if you want to waste your money and get one anyways ... i guess go ahead i cant stop you) 
 
TLDR buy a 980ti that makes you happy about its looks and extra features not about possible performance due to the wide range of possiblities when it comes to performance due to the silicon lottery. 

If you mean that it looks like that (reference design from nvidia) then youll most likely be limited more by thermals than the chips true overclocking potential.
Although like myself and others have stated above each chip is unique in the clockspeeds it can achieve which we typically refer to the "silicon lottery" which will throughout your time buying and overclocking graphics cards (and CPUs but were in the GPU section) will be the largest factor in how well the card overclocks

In a non reference design it will mostly come down to the silicon lottery being each card has its own limit that can vary wildly, it seems the average card can run 1480 stable with a decent few pushing 1510-1530 and it tapers off from there. While its not a guarantee i would expect around a ~1500 core clock speed for any custom 980ti, although i have seen people with just bad cards that cant get over 1450

This.
 
Like i always try to say each card with exactly equal chips are within ~2% or less of each other in benchmarks and games (meaning a few fps) the silicon lottery will be more of a determining factor on how good of a card you get compared to what brand you buy.. if you live in the US just get which ever one comes with the best features/ warranty / support that fits your liking, if youre living somewhere where prices range alot then don't spend $50 more on one of these if you heard it is faster unless you really want that specific card model regardless of performance. 

Most aftermarket 980tis will smash the titan X, unless you get a terrible boost/overclock card ... most 980ti 's aftermarket are boosting to 1350mhz out of the box no overclocking.

Much like the Titan X. If you want to override it then I suggest flashing a custom BIOS on it. My Titan X's power target limit is now 121%

1502 is still a very good overclock, but yeah valley isnt the most reliable for clock speeds (i think it shows mine as 1744 or something ridiculous) 

It seems like you should be perfectly fine, those temps are well within spec too. Furmark has a bad reputation and for a good reason, but if you haven't noticed any degraded performance / random crashes you should be perfectly fine. Also by the math that you did you should be fine.

The 980ti is a cut down version of the Titan X yes, however because there arent really any aftermarket coolers / custom PCB titan X's some aftermarket 980ti's will overclock higher than titan x's and give better performance. Like my 980ti that im running which is a pretty good overclocker buy by far not the best which I have stable at 1557 (signature is outdated) and can score 22246 on firestrike normal for graphics (which competes very well with most titans or beats them). 
 
Titan X and 980ti are both viable options however I would recommend the 980ti because at worst if you get a bad overclocker at stock speed a 980ti is something like ~8% behind the Titan X which in real world FPS is extremely minimal. However if you really need the 12gb of vram (some crazy surround setup or something that requires it) then the titan X is easily better. 
 
Overall unless youre doing a crazy surround monitor setup , or money means nothing to you and really want the king of the hill (which then you should look into the 980ti Kingpin) then you could go with the titan X. Otherwise get an aftermarket 980 ti