980 Reference Cooler

[Apple_II]

Hello guys, 

 

So I am looking at 980's at the moment and I just really love the way the reference cooler on the 980 looks but the temperatures on it seems very disappointing. I see varying results from the low 70's to the low 80's. 

 

Does anyone here have the reference cooler? If so do you recommend it? Or does it just straight up suck apart from its good looks?

 

I do plan on later sli's the cards along with water cooling. 

[Samsterstorm]

Hello guys, 

 

So I am looking at 980's at the moment and I just really love the way the reference cooler on the 980 looks but the temperatures on it seems very disappointing. I see varying results from the low 70's to the low 80's. 

 

Does anyone here have the reference cooler? If so do you recommend it? Or does it just straight up suck apart from its good looks?

 

I do plan on later sli's the cards along with water cooling. 

The stock cooler does look good, i would go for a non-refrance cooler if i where u! Galax black edition is good along with the MSI Twin Frozor 5 aswell. Temps are alot better aswell as overclocking potential

[ELSknutson]

the reference coolers are ok if you don't plan on overclocking unlike the R9 290x reference coolers .  980's will preform vary well but you would get better results getting a non reference destine especially if you overclocked them

What do you like about the cooler if its just the light bar most of the non reference cards come with them  

[Swndlr]

just leave it at stock speeds and you wont notice a difference. they wouldnt make a stock cooler on a gpu if it was unable to cool it adequately. 70-80 isnt that bad

[Apple_II]

 

What do you like about the cooler if its just the light bar most of the non reference cards come with them  

 

I definitely like how thick and heavy it is. It looks very industrial or heavy duty. It looks just great but not much overclocking headroom. 

[ELSknutson]

you might want to look at what galax has to offer most of there cards have that industrial look to them along with Zotec cards 

but i personally like the look of the stock cooler also as long as the green light bar is modded white 

http://www.galax.net/US/900series.html

[DildorTheDecent]

Maxwell has a maximum GPU temperature of 98C. 

 

Anything under 85C is good. 

[SouthernStallion]

70c-80c is good for a GPU. If you are going to water cool GPUs then get two reference ones since non-reference water cooling parts (such as blocks) might be harder to get.

[SpriteNo5]

I run two reference cards in SLI. Under load top card will easily pass 80 and bottom is usually about 10 to 15 degrees lower.

I started using a custom fan curve through afterburner to stop throttling and the top card never goes above 77 now. The fans do have to be up to about 80% to maintain that on a lengthy session.

The noise is noticeable. But I use headphones so it's not an issue. They'll easily push the temp in the room up to 26 degrees in winter so a hot summer will require good ventilation and more aggressive curve.

[maizenblue]

I had an Nvidia reference cooler on a 970, which I believe is the same as the 980. Despite the 970 being a lower TDP card, the lackluster cooling performance you described pretty much was my experience. At stock settings and fan curve, the card quickly got up to 80 degrees playing games like bf4. That's what the default is. You can customize the fan curve to lower temps, but it will be a lot louder. Certainly not anywhere near as loud as a 290x reference, but still very noticeable.

 

The upsides are that it looks really nice and vents heat out of your case. I know EVGA has a superclocked 980 using a reference cooler, so its capable of at least some mild overclocking, but I imagine silence is not one of its strong points.

 

Personally I would avoid a blower cooler, it was a bit of a disappointment to me.

[johngo90]

80 degrees is normal and considered *safe*

 

I have my 980 water cooled right now running at 40 degrees at load. Sooo... I guess there are better options. 

 

If those 80 degree temps worry you then go with an aftermarket, otherwise pick up a reference, throw her in, and don't worry too much about it. 

[hitsu1]

I have 3 980s in SLI and the reference design is great for me. My case is not the best for airflow (H440) but the way the reference coolers work means I do not need to worry about frying my cards. They are slightly overclocked (+250 MHz) and the bottom card (which gets the hottest) does not exceed 82 degrees when benchmarking them. I would imagine a custom cooling loop would be an even better option but if you plan on doing a lazy SLI the reference design is a good option.  

[Whorax]

You think the reference cooler looks nice? Oh my, god bless you.

 

But actually being somewhat useful to the conversation, I think you should just get a non reference if you're worried about it.

[Inkz]

It is like you can not have your cake and eat it to.... I know I really wanted a reference look for my 780 but did not want to deal with the noise/temps.  It is a trade off.

[maizenblue]

It is like you can not have your cake and eat it to.... I know I really wanted a reference look for my 780 but did not want to deal with the noise/temps.  It is a trade off.

I figured the 970 with its lower TDP would let me have my cake and eat it too, but it ran just as hot and loud as a 780 reference, maybe because the reference 970 cooler lacked a vapor chamber like the original.

[King Wild]

Just got my EVGA GTX 980 FTW (ordered a backplate to go with it) and the temps are crazy good, the thing idles around 39c without the fans even spinning (they don't spin till 60c) and the thing looks badass. Highly recommend.