What GPU brand

[MatthewLynch]

What brand should I get for an GTX 980 TI? 

[DarkBlade2117]

Asus, EVGA, or MSI. I like Asus and EVGA a lot

[rtpb5642]

Zotac 980ti AMP! has been great for me. Otherwise G1 or EVGA hybrid.

[JefferyD90]

grab the same one from your motherboard manufacture.

[rtpb5642]

grab the same one from your motherboard manufacture.

Why? I dont think asrock is making 980ti currently.... And the make of the motherboard and GPU are irrelevant from each other.

[JefferyD90]

that's why you shouldn't buy asrock

Why? I dont think asrock is making 980ti currently.... And the make of the motherboard and GPU are irrelevant from each other.

[Curufinwe_wins]

NOT ASUS. NEVER ASUS.

 

If going non-premium (which I would highly recommend), Palit has an insanely impressive design (one of the coolest and one of the quietest), MSI has a very strong all around gpu, the G1 from Gigabyte is one of the louder versions but also generally one of the best preforming, Zotac also has very very powerful 980 ti versions at very reasonable prices but this come at the cost of insanely large (3 slot and super sized) gpus.

 

 

Sum things up:

Not ASUS (massive QC issues and a really shitty cooler in the first place)

Not EVGA (ACX 2.0 is bad, and the ultra-premium models don't make sense unless you really want the hybrid for aio temps)

 

Maybe Gigabtye G1 (very powerful, but loud and lots of known coil whine issues)

Maybe Zotac Amp Extreme (very powerful, but insanely huge, this might be a plus for you)

Maybe MSI (good all around, not great at anything with a very non-neutral color scheme)

Maybe Palit (powerful, quiet, cool, affordable, but almost impossible to get in the US)

 

 

Here is an overview thread. http://www.overclock.net/t/1566669/nvidia-gtx-980-ti-comparison-thread

 

Basically as long as your card isn't boarked (which is most likely out of all the brands with ASUS due to their ongoing QC issues) you can expect max boost clocks of 1490-1530 literally no matter which card you choose (which is a huge reason ultra-premium designs don't make sense with gm200).

[Curufinwe_wins]

that's why you shouldn't buy asrock

That comment makes no sense and its an idiotic thing to define what gpu you get. There isn't even a reason to use anything other than Afterburner or Precision X 16 no matter what brand of card you are using.

 

And since all mobo makers have numerous color schemes its quite possible they couldn't match and it would look bad. (think of using a strix with a x99-deluxe... THE HORROR).

[Morgan MLGman]

What brand should I get for an GTX 980 TI? 

G1 Gaming should be the choice.

[cortexcortex]

I have the Superclocked+ ACX2.0+ version from EVGA (I run two in SLI) and they are amazing.

[Shoob]

What brand should I get for an GTX 980 TI? 

Depends on your regional prices, but all non-reference 980Ti's are good. If within your budget, Zotac AMP Extreme has the highest boost clock out of the box.

[RetroSmoo]

EVGA if u want superclocked version

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

that's why you shouldn't buy asrock

 

Heh? What? I don't think asrock ever made gpus  :huh:

[Praesi]

The 4 fastest cards atm are:

 

1. Zotac amp!extreme

2. MSI Lightning

3. Gigabyte G1

4. Asus Strix

 

They also have the best Aircooling Solutions and can hold their Boost Clocks. All four should be quality Builds, but the G1 has an unusual amount of negative Topics like Noice, Coilwhine and Fan Controll issues.

 

Palit is one of the most quiet cards, but i never owned that Brand, so i cant say anything about their Quality. But enough People on LTT said its good.

 

EVGA´s 980Ti´s are a bit of a dissapoinment for me. I owned several Cards and I´m used to EVGA as one of the Leaders in Case of Performance, but not this 980Ti Generation. Their Pricepolicy on the Kingpin is ridiculous. If you want pay 200$ more for egual Performance, which you only reach if you OC it further yourself, there you go. Otherwise this Card is for LN2 only.

 

Make no mistake, even the NVidia Reference Card is way faster than the 980, but i would choose one of the four above.

[ApexVasii]

Get the HOF, it's back in stock right now.

[JefferyD90]

That comment makes no sense and its an idiotic thing to define what gpu you get. There isn't even a reason to use anything other than Afterburner or Precision X 16 no matter what brand of card you are using.

 

And since all mobo makers have numerous color schemes its quite possible they couldn't match and it would look bad. (think of using a strix with a x99-deluxe... THE HORROR).

 

 

Heh? What? I don't think asrock ever made gpus  :huh:

The idea isn't the physical hardware, but rather the software that comes with each of the products.  It is WELL documented that certain overclocking utilities for video cards (or others, although overclocking utilities are the most common) wont mix well with other utilities from different motherboard manufactures.  Usually, if you get stuff from different manufactures, you will have to find other software to fill holes in functionability and maybe even compatibility.

[Curufinwe_wins]

The idea isn't the physical hardware, but rather the software that comes with each of the products. It is WELL documented that certain overclocking utilities for video cards (or others, although overclocking utilities are the most common) wont mix well with other utilities from different motherboard manufactures. Usually, if you get stuff from different manufactures, you will have to find other software to fill holes in functionability and maybe even compatibility.

I fundamentally disagree with that statement in every way.

I can't even tell you the last time I heard afterburner not supporting a product.

There isn't any reason to use 99% of the software utilities given with your mobo and really you shouldn't use them. Because THEY beyond nothing else cause issues while not even offering anything useful in the first place.

[JefferyD90]

I fundamentally disagree with that statement in every way.

I can't even tell you the last time I heard afterburner not supporting a product.

There isn't any reason to use 99% of the software utilities given with your mobo and really you shouldn't use them. Because THEY beyond nothing else cause issues while not even offering anything useful in the first place.

I have to disagree with both of those statements.  Software (traditionally) like this doesn't have conflicts with the hardware, it has conflicts with other software.

 

And utilities that come with your motherboard are super helpful.  They allow you to utilize better optimized power profiles, fan profiles, power control, overclocking, voltage and temperature sensors, along with other "features" like customized cloud solutions (ASUS Home Cloud was surprising good), video enhancements, audio enhancements, USB Charging features, Network monitoring (although I will admit that these software solutions have been fairly lackluster at best), diagnostic utilities, online help options, and a bunch more.  These are actually useful to a (fairly) high degree.  I personally use AI Suite everyday (because it warns me of temp changes) which (especially on platform changes where one program gets a update when the other doesn't) is known to cause conflicts with the cooling profiles that are set from other manufactures video card software.

 

The point I am getting at is that ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA, and anyone else who makes boards and cards wouldn't release software that conflicts with other software if they could help it.  But, they especially will make sure that no conflicts occur on their own platform.  All this doesn't include the idea of a consistent experience across all your software solutions.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Or you can use the bios and never have to worry about compatibility or you know more worthless programs on your computer. Your choice.

And I have an Asus saber tooth x99 board so I actually have tried literally all the options Asus has. Not one was worth keeping and 100% of the features (outside of the weird networking ones which are stupid) are available in bios.

[kaisei]

I have to disagree with both of those statements.  Software (traditionally) like this doesn't have conflicts with the hardware, it has conflicts with other software.

 

And utilities that come with your motherboard are super helpful.  They allow you to utilize better optimized power profiles, fan profiles, power control, overclocking, voltage and temperature sensors, along with other "features" like customized cloud solutions (ASUS Home Cloud was surprising good), video enhancements, audio enhancements, USB Charging features, Network monitoring (although I will admit that these software solutions have been fairly lackluster at best), diagnostic utilities, online help options, and a bunch more.  These are actually useful to a (fairly) high degree.  I personally use AI Suite everyday (because it warns me of temp changes) which (especially on platform changes where one program gets a update when the other doesn't) is known to cause conflicts with the cooling profiles that are set from other manufactures video card software.

 

The point I am getting at is that ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA, and anyone else who makes boards and cards wouldn't release software that conflicts with other software if they could help it.  But, they especially will make sure that no conflicts occur on their own platform.  All this doesn't include the idea of a consistent experience across all your software solutions.

 

1. Asrock makes quality boards that some of the highest competitive overclockers trust. If it's good enough for them, why would you expect otherwise?
2. I wouldn't be so keen on ASUS. I'm don't have much experience with the other brands, but I have a Maximus VI Hero ($200+ when it first came out), and it can't even install ASUS Suite III. Ridiculous because searching forums says that it has software compatibility issues during the installation process with it's own software. smh.
3. Basing your purchase of a high end, very expensive, GPU on your mobo brand is just ridiculous unless you really want to keep it within the manufacturer for aesthetic reasons. Your purchase should be based more on performance and quality reasons, rather than just keeping within the brand. For example, EVGA quality really has gone downhill in this series of cards. They run hotter, louder, and in many cases slower than other brands. The only thing they have going for them right now is that their customer service is still top of the line.