is the refernce GTX 980 ok?

[asim1999]

Got a sweet deal for a GTX 980: only £336 ( $550-ish) due to an on-line discount. just processed my order. Bearing in mind that i will not heavily overclock my card ( 1150-1250 mhz max) and that this card is £130 cheaper than the non-reference cards ( these cost 40%), will i be ok with a refernce card?

i am playing at 1080p btw

[Jobbe03]

Easily.   

[madscientist56]

yes also a 780 will max out any game at 1080p

[Keyboard Warrior]

So you will underclock the card ? 

[asim1999]

just ordered it. will arrive between october  6-10th. Wish me luck!

[asim1999]

no lol, just not take it much above stock settings

[Cwazywazy]

You could probably get over 1500MHz with the stock cooler without any problems.

[D00M_GaMeR]

Yes and GTX 980 is overkill if you have one 1080p monitor. GTX 780 or GTX 970 best buy

[Smooth Bunz]

Yes and GTX 980 is overkill if you have one 1080p monitor. GTX 780 or GTX 970 best buy

Not overkill, What about all these "next gen" games coming out that are heavily graphic intensive. This is why I got a 980 to be somewhat "future" proof

But a 980 isn't overkill there are many game out right now that a 980 can't max out at 1080p  

[Rorgash]

Yes and GTX 980 is overkill if you have one 1080p monitor. GTX 780 or GTX 970 best buy

nothing is overkill, until i can play a game on 1080 at 144 fps stable on ultra graphics in new eye candy games its no where near enough, which means really unless i get 2 980ti i will probably not be happy sadly no such money

[SirRoderick]

Not overkill, What about all these "next gen" games coming out that are heavily graphic intensive. This is why I got a 980 to be somewhat "future" proof

But a 980 isn't overkill there are many game out right now that a 980 can't max out at 1080p  

I use a 144Hz 1080p display, another great reason to choose the 980 over the 970. Especially in more demanding games, I'm making all kinds of concessions to graphics quality to get things over 100 FPS with my 680 and my main concern is cutting down on those as much as possible with a single GPU upgrade. 970 is great and all, but it's not THAT much better in pure performance

[D00M_GaMeR]

Not overkill, What about all these "next gen" games coming out that are heavily graphic intensive. This is why I got a 980 to be somewhat "future" proof

But a 980 isn't overkill there are many game out right now that a 980 can't max out at 1080p  

i see what "next-gen" games is out right now, and i play them all with my old GTX 680 vrey good on high or ultra settings with 2xAA or 4xAA or off some time because no need on 1080p. This "next-gen" stuff is nothing but marketing bullshit to fool people to buy better hardware, but the real fact is that all this is just a big lie  To see noticeable performance in games you need to upgrade GPU do at least 2-3 years difference and for CPU at less 4-5 years )

And all games work fine with avarage FPS to 40-50, you don`t need more for smoothly gameplay. 100 or 150 FPS is just insane and you will need SLi or Crossfire to get this avaraga FPS in all games on higher settings and res. then 1080p. And BTW the naked eye can not see anyway differance between 60 or 120 FPS just a program like FRAPS makes the difference )

 

 

[Najuno]

 

i see what "next-gen" games is out right now, and i play them all with my old GTX 680 vrey good on high or ultra settings with 2xAA or 4xAA or off some time because no need on 1080p. This "next-gen" stuff is nothing but marketing bullshit to fool people to buy better hardware, but the real fact is that all this is just a big lie  To see noticeable performance in games you need to upgrade GPU do at least 2-3 years difference and for CPU at less 4-5 years )

And all games work fine with avarage FPS to 40-50, you don`t need more for smoothly gameplay. 100 or 150 FPS is just insane and you will need SLi or Crossfire to get this avaraga FPS in all games on higher settings and res. then 1080p. And BTW the naked eye can not see anyway differance between 60 or 120 FPS just a program like FRAPS makes the difference )

 

 

 

In  the moment you go higher than 1080p all you said is invalid... 1440p eats your GTX680 alive in comparision to a GTX980.

 

And the new cards are certainly no marketing gag...

[Smooth Bunz]

 

i see what "next-gen" games is out right now, and i play them all with my old GTX 680 vrey good on high or ultra settings with 2xAA or 4xAA or off some time because no need on 1080p. This "next-gen" stuff is nothing but marketing bullshit to fool people to buy better hardware, but the real fact is that all this is just a big lie  To see noticeable performance in games you need to upgrade GPU do at least 2-3 years difference and for CPU at less 4-5 years )

And all games work fine with avarage FPS to 40-50, you don`t need more for smoothly gameplay. 100 or 150 FPS is just insane and you will need SLi or Crossfire to get this avaraga FPS in all games on higher settings and res. then 1080p. And BTW the naked eye can not see anyway differance between 60 or 120 FPS just a program like FRAPS makes the difference )

 

 

 

I can tell a difference between 60 and 120 fps no matter what report says other wise 120fps looks smoother than 60 fps 

[D00M_GaMeR]

In  the moment you go higher than 1080p all you said is invalid... 1440p eats your GTX680 alive in comparision to a GTX980.

 

And the new cards are certainly no marketing gag...

i talk about 1080p, i don`t need 1440p or higher, i`am happy with my 27" 1080p AOC LED monitor  So i dont need a upgrade for GTX 680 yet. Maybe i will make a GPU update after GTX 1000 series is out or HD 400 series To see a real step in performance, you know the wow factor ) 

 

So asim1999 you need to get GTX 970 for 1080p because nvidia will relese a better haswell GPU in the future much better then GTX 980 and you will be piss of to see that you paid to much fo a GTX 980 and some new card get out to a price similar to 980 but with better performance  Get my point ?

[Nomisus]

Does anyone know how hot and how loud the reference 980 gets when you overclock it?

[DarkRift5]

I have one (SC version, but still reference cooler-not too much faster but a little bit) for 1080p and holy crap this thing is amazing. The only game I've tried it doesn't stay above 60fps at max is Crysis 3-but that's only because the game has friggin 8x MSAA-completely unnecessary IMO (the frame drops aren't even that bad, it's still playable). 4X MSAA looks just as good and it stays above 50fps most of the time.

 

Couldn't be happier with performance

 

As far as other things, you won't hear it while gaming and even without sound it's not that loud at all. It does warm up the room a couple degrees, but this is my first super high performance GPU so I'm guessing that's probably normal.

[Schoolofmonkey]

There are downsides to a reference card.

I've just bought the Asus GTX980 reference, now I've never owned a reference card always customer coolers.

 

What I've come across on the GTX980 is this, my card would throttle to 10mhz above the base clock speed when it hit 81c, throttling is normal as long as it doesn't go under base clock speeds.

The other problem is the reference cooler is loud, to keep the card from throttling I had to set a custom fan curve, what I'm getting now is 75c@66% fan, but that's loud, more so if the case is on your desk like mine is.

 

Sometimes paying the little extra for the brand custom coolers is worth it, really depends on how you feel about the noise.

[D00M_GaMeR]

GTX 980 is made for 1440p not for 1080p, for 1080p is GTX 970 and below. Low resolution = low cost cards, bigger resolution = high end cards or SLi/crossfire. just saying. 

[Schoolofmonkey]

GTX 980 is made for 1440p not for 1080p, for 1080p is GTX 970 and below. Low resolution = low cost cards, bigger resolution = high end cards or SLi/crossfire. just saying. 

 

Yeah but are you forgetting DSR, flick that on and get higher resolutions rendered but displayed at 1080p

[PerfectTemplar]

I was going to OC my reference 980 but it runs so quietly at stock so I didn't, it's really cool and quiet, I just love the quiet after using a really loud DCU2. I am very happy with mine.. Still max out games like bf4 @ 100+ fps easily

[D00M_GaMeR]

Yes but...some pleople will not use this DSR, is not something standard. You will use this only if you need to. And let`s face it, today only R9 295X2 get better frame rate in all games on 4k res. So you will need 2xGTX 980 or 970 to play games like Metro, Craysis, Watch Dogs and more on high settings with avarage frame up to 30-40 One GTX 980 don`t got the power.