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are reference coolers good enough?

asim1999
By asim1999
in Graphics Cards
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Just ordered a Zotac GTX 980 which has just been dispatched ( will arrive between October 6-10th). i got a great deal for it: only £330 though an eBay discount. Now that the non-reference cards are out and cost £460+: did i get a good deal and is the reference cooler good enough, and if not can i change the cooler?

thanks for the responses 

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Current Rig:   CPU: AMD 1950X @4Ghz. Cooler: Enermax Liqtech TR4 360. Motherboard:Asus Zenith Extreme. RAM: 8GB Crucial DDR4 3666. GPU: Reference GTX 970  SSD: 250GB Samsung 970 EVO.  HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2TB. Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro. PSU: Corsair RM1000X. OS: Windows 10 Pro UEFI mode  (installed on SSD)

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The stock GTX 980 cooler is very good, no need to change it.

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Yeah the reference cooler is more than capable.

My rig: CPU: Intel core i5 4670K MoBo: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming RAM: Kingston HyperX Beast 2x4GB 1600mhz CL9 GPU: EVGA GTX780 SC ACX SSD: ADATA Premier Pro SP900 256GBHDD: Western Digital RED 2TB PSU: FSP Aurum CM 750W Case: Cooler Master HAF XM OS: Windows 8 Pro

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The reference cooler is good enough but becomes a lot better should you decide to SLI. Blower style coolers are more effective than open air design coolers in SLI config.

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£330 for a 980 is a pretty decent deal, I think(I'd need to check) non reference 970's go for that price. The cooler will be fine, you might not be able to do some of the crazy overclocks people have been getting but the reference cooler isn't a slouch by any means.

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Yeah, it's a great cooler.

CPU: R5 5800X3D Motherboard - MSI X570 Gaming Plus RAM - 32GB Corsair DDR4 GPU - XFX 7900 XTX 4GB Case - NZXT H5 Flow (White) Storage - 2X 4TB Samsung 990 Pro PSU - Corsair RM100E Cooling - Corsair H100i Elite Capellix Keyboard Corsair K70 (Brown Switches)  Mouse - Corsair Nightsword RGB

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Reference cooler is perfectly fine. Definitely not like an AMD reference cooler by a long shot ;)

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Speaking of blower style cards

My case has lot of pos a/pressure. G-Card is MSI lightning 780 (3 fan blowy mess)

X79 390K+H100

Any (more than) incremental temp/flow improvements going to a ref blower card?

I feel like the MSI would fair better in an open HAF "like" case, with the opposite being true for the "closed" type I have.

Keyword "feel", I have no empirical data on the subj

Ty

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