Naxa4500

Repasted my GTX 980 Ti for the first time, and noticed that one of the thermal pads for the VRAM stuck to the PCB when I removed the cooler; GPU performs better thermally than before, although still loud when under full load; Based on the photo (pre-old paste removal) , am I fine leaving the GPU as is after assembly?

That sounds like a controller issue. Does your motherboard have any extra controllers on different ports you can use? If so, try having the WiFi dongle on a separate controller

The RM PSU is great, you should go with that one

An extension to what I just said, here's what it looks like in my PC:

I use this: https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-PCE-AC55BT-B1-Wireless-Bluetooth/dp/B0713RRZMB I have a GTX 980 Ti above it and it completely engulfs the PCI-E slot above it with barely any clearance like your situation will be, but it works great, no issues.

Yep. I have an ASUS wifi card in mine in a slot just like that and it works great.

Damn that's nice. I'm on a corsair CV550 and I'm absolutely NOT comfortable with going anywhere above 1278 mhz until I get a good unit (Why am I running a 980 Ti on a CV550? Got the card unexpectedly due to circumstance and I'm a college student so I don't have a lot of money to drop on other things, i'll upgrade soon) but 1490 mhz is great honestly

Nope, I'm waiting to OC anything like crazy because 1, my card is factory OCed (Gigabyte Windforce 3X), 2, I need a better PSU, and 3, I need more case fans which I've already ordered and will ship in soon. Forgot to mention I did bump the clock to 1278 MHz with no issue thermally or power-draw wise

USA.

As the title says, I have a 980 Ti at the moment, and want to upgrade to something that's at least a 30% performance uplift. Any suggestions?

Thermaltake Versa H18 TG. It's my daily driver and it's great. I got it for 50 bucks last year and it was definitely worth it. Alternatively, there's also the Fractal Design Define Mini C TG on newegg for about 90 bucks if that's more your style.

It's probably the motherboard, your slot is done for. Make sure you have a real beefy PSU though. If worst comes to worse, RMA the card

You probably have put unnecessary stress on the locking mechanism and slot as you got the GPU out. NEVER force a GPU out. Pull back on the lock, ensuring it doesn't touch or interfere with the GPU, and gently pull it out. It may take some force (make sure it has clearance) but don't completely force it out.

Still odd in the first place though. That PCIE slot must have taken some trauma beforehand

Looks like the weight from the card broke your PCI-E slot. That's really odd, most motherboard manufacturers build their PCI-E slots to a certain standards and it's very difficult to break those. Get a GPU Anti-Sag device off amazon