Which 980TI is best TI :)

[Jasimov]

Hi, I'm sure you've had countless posts on this topic but since the Matrix 980 IT came out I wondered if anyone re-thought their idea on which card is the best.
I am not exactly on a budget and do not mind if the better card comes with water cooling like the hybrids I've been seeing.

However I am looking to purchase one soon so I was wondering if you guys had any ideas which would be the best, I'm not looking for the best price but performance. 

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks Jason.

 

Cards I am tempted by: (Amazon UK links) 

ASUS MATRIX-GTX980TI

EVGA NVIDIA GTX 980Ti HYBRID

Gigabyte Geforce GTX 980 TI

 

EDIT 1:

My specs:

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 
CPU: I7-4790K 4.6GHZ

Cooler: H100I 
Motherboard: Asus Z97-Deluxe WIFI AC 
GPU: GTX 970 Strix 
PSU: EVGA 1000W 80+ Platinum Supernova 2 
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengence 
SSD: HyperX 128GB 
HDD:1TB WD Green 5200RPM 

[Patrick Bateman]

 

@Lays has a matrix

i would take the hybrid personally

[moneymike]

 

G1, one day that water cooler isnt gonna work.

[Dabasepc]

980 Ti Kingpin

[byalexandr]

Out of that list I would recommend the G1 from Gigabyte. The Hybrid is great but it's overpriced and has many more points of failure. I don't like ASUS, their VRM cooling is horrid.

[z97]

Matrix>G1/Hybrid 

[Liltrekkie]

The hybrids have more overclocking headroom. Sure there is always a potential for failure but anything can die. If you can run water cooling for your CPU your GPU is fine with it too. At least it comes with a warranty.

 

If you OC it choose the hybrid. Otherwise that gigabyte card is mighty tasty looking. . 

[WynLore]

Whichever's the cheapest and/or the least complicated to fit in your case, tbh. Every 980 Ti has insane performance anyways.

[swimsphinx]

Hybrid will run the coolest but is only a reference board so in theory its OC ability is less than the others (also its very expensive for its relative performance).

The G1 Gaming is a nice mix of custom PCB with decent thermals and in theory better OC ability. Also it has a generally modest theme with 7 color LEDs to match most cases (costs the least of the 3 anyways best price to performance)

The matrix comes with all the goodies for extreme overclocking will run pretty cool (about the levels of a G1 maybe a bit better) has the best custom PCB. And comes with the most sensors. In theory it has the best OC potential.

This all disregards the silicon lottery as any of these cards could out perform the others given luck (ie my G1 gaming can get up to 1562mhz something any model of the 980ti would struggle to attain without luck. Choose the one that you like the most has the best warranty, is the cheapest, has the most features you like, or matches your case best as the silicon lottery will be the main deciding factor in the end performance of your GPU.

-pls forgive any typos or confusing sentences.. Im on my phone will edit for grammar and such later when im at my computer

[Lays]

@OP  

 

The Matrix will allow for the best performance, it literally runs almost as cool on air as the hybrid does.  The cooler is insanely good, it runs cooler than my 980 Classified did while using 2x the power lol. 

It's also the only card on your list that comes with Samsung memory, Samsung memory overclocks BETTER than Hynix and will give you more performance than the other cards.

 

There's a reason I have the fastest single GPU on the LTT Unigine Valley thread  

 

 

 I don't like ASUS, their VRM cooling is horrid.

 

 

Ok buddy, the Matrix is much different than the other cards Asus produces, it has active VRM cooling and I have yet to see the VRM hit above 60 @ ridiculously low fan speeds.  Even with my unlocked TDP BIOS & Ln2 mode enabled on my card with it using over 300w, the VRM run extremely cool.

 

 

 

 

Benching at 1520|2153 with 100% fan speed, the VRM only hits 49c:

 

[BuckGup]

Zotac Amp Extreme. 1553mhz on core

[just-cause999]

Matrix for da win!!

 

[Sank]

It depends on whether u will be overclocking or not, if not the evga SC+ AC 2.0 is pretty great, so is the MSI 6g, so is the ftw. But for overclocking the MSI lightning or evga kingpin.

[byalexandr]

@OP

The Matrix will allow for the best performance, it literally runs almost as cool on air as the hybrid does. The cooler is insanely good, it runs cooler than my 980 Classified did while using 2x the power lol.

It's also the only card on your list that comes with Samsung memory, Samsung memory overclocks BETTER than Hynix and will give you more performance than the other cards.

There's a reason I have the fastest single GPU on the LTT Unigine Valley thread

Ok buddy, the Matrix is much different than the other cards Asus produces, it has active VRM cooling and I have yet to see the VRM hit above 60 @ ridiculously low fan speeds. Even with my unlocked TDP BIOS & Ln2 mode enabled on my card with it using over 300w, the VRM run extremely cool.

Benching at 1520|2153 with 100% fan speed, the VRM only hits 49c:

My mistake, but a lot cards ASUS makes do have terrible VRM cooling.

[Jasimov]

@OP  

 

The Matrix will allow for the best performance, it literally runs almost as cool on air as the hybrid does.  The cooler is insanely good, it runs cooler than my 980 Classified did while using 2x the power lol. 

It's also the only card on your list that comes with Samsung memory, Samsung memory overclocks BETTER than Hynix and will give you more performance than the other cards.

 

There's a reason I have the fastest single GPU on the LTT Unigine Valley thread  

 

 

 

 

Ok buddy, the Matrix is much different than the other cards Asus produces, it has active VRM cooling and I have yet to see the VRM hit above 60 @ ridiculously low fan speeds.  Even with my unlocked TDP BIOS & Ln2 mode enabled on my card with it using over 300w, the VRM run extremely cool.

 

 

 

 

Benching at 1520|2153 with 100% fan speed, the VRM only hits 49c:

 

That is very impressive, I am leaning towards the Matrix, and to have the fastest single GPU in the LTT forums is also very impressive.

If I was to get this card could you recommend an over clocking guide or maybe your own guide?

[Lays]

That is very impressive, I am leaning towards the Matrix, and to have the fastest single GPU in the LTT forums is also very impressive.

If I was to get this card could you recommend an over clocking guide or maybe your own guide?

After new years I will be making an in depth guide for overclocking the card on air, water and dry ice.

[Lays]

It depends on whether u will be overclocking or not, if not the evga SC+ AC 2.0 is pretty great, so is the MSI 6g, so is the ftw. But for overclocking the MSI lightning or evga kingpin.

Now that the matrix has been released, there's no reason to get the lightning anymore. The lightning doesn't come with Samsung memory.

It's about the same price (cheaper I think actually) and has Samsung memory, and the voltage is much easier to unlock.

Getting unlocked voltage for the Lightning is retardedly difficult. You either need the control module for it which is not retail, or you have to sign an NDA and void your warranty with MSI to get "afterburner extreme" which gives you full voltage control.

With the Matrix, all you do is get a pencil and draw a line between two points on the pcb, and flip the ln2 switch, and bam unlocked voltages.

[Sank]

Now that the matrix has been released, there's no reason to get the lightning anymore. The lightning doesn't come with Samsung memory.

It's about the same price (cheaper I think actually) and has Samsung memory, and the voltage is much easier to unlock.

Getting unlocked voltage for the Lightning is retardedly difficult. You either need the control module for it which is not retail, or you have to sign an NDA and void your warranty with MSI to get "afterburner extreme" which gives you full voltage control.

With the Matrix, all you do is get a pencil and draw a line between two points on the pcb, and flip the ln2 switch, and bam unlocked voltages.

yes i would agree, but the lightning is much cheaper, about 300$ cheaper then the matrix! But i would agree matrix is one hell of a card for the form factor! looks pretty futuristic too

[Lays]

yes i would agree, but the lightning is much cheaper, about 300$ cheaper then the matrix! But i would agree matrix is one hell of a card for the form factor! looks pretty futuristic too

 

 

Where are you looking that shows that? 

 

[Jasimov]

@Lays, Top quality graphics card. And top quality music

Looking forward to that guide!

[Sank]

Where are you looking that shows that?

I was definitely mistaken then, and I need to go change my order! Thanks a ton!

I have just joined this forum, and I love it here, everyone is agreeable, no internet wars!

[Sank]

Where are you looking that shows that?

How much have u overclocked it? And have u compared it to other cards of the same rate?

[Lays]

How much have u overclocked it? And have u compared it to other cards of the same rate?

If it's any consolation prize, it's currently the fastest single GPU on this thread right now out of tons of submissions.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/69448-unigine-valley-benchmark-scores-thread-over-500-submissions/page-1

Here is the link to the scores on the thread:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1knE1MXUbQ3tyR48CuD_6K_EfCF3cHHqL9ra5NPt6o8U/htmlview#

[rockandbrush]

hey @Lays is it possible for you to post some photos of your gpu , 

[Jasimov]

@Lays

So I went for the 980TI Matrix, then tried to overclock it and my results in furmark went down as the clock speed and memory clock went up, I know nothing of GPU overclocking so this struck me as wrong. so I undid it and got a higher score. Here is my 3DMark score:

 

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/7020033

 

Can you tell me whether this is respectable and what I can do to improve my performance?