Planning on picking up 2 x 980Ti's in Jan sales. HAve picked up on the fact that Ti's in SLi dump a lot of heat into the case. What are the recommendations for cards in SLI format?
2 x reference blowers or 1 x hybrid and any aftermarket 980ti
Do all 980Ti's clock well, even reference blower cards?
Thanks in advance
Hi
First of all aftermarket non ref pcbs like for example the evga classified will hold their overclock rock solid in single gpu mode at all times apart from any temp issues of course. Ref ones have clock speeds that change all over during gaming. In sli though as both gpus are not 100% maxed they will hold a rock steady clock without fluctuation even if they are both ref cards.
Ref cards in sli can be noisy. I myself have a evga classified on top and a evga hybrid water cooled one below. I have a rampage iv black MB so the spacing is good. For single gpu scenarios the classy rocks and in sli the ref hybrid matches the speed of the classy with obviously a higher overclock to bring it up to the same speed when both are overclocked. I am using an air 540 case and the classy on a custom fan profile can reach 60 or slightly over fan speed which is audible but not annoying to myself, the hybrid makes no extra audible noise. The temps on the classy are fine stops under 85 degrees with slightly over 60% fan speed on the heaviest of loads.
Regarding heat in my case, the hybrid radiator is at the back of the case expelling heat and my cpu cooler expells heat out the top. This setup works for me great.
Two aftermarket pcb all in one watercooled cards would be ideal if your case can support that setup. Not sure if one exists as i have not checked.
Overclocking cards is the silicon lottery as always but as i said earlier in single gpu mode a ref card will not run a game with a rock solid clock speed from my experience an aftermarket non ref pcb will.
Hope this helps you a bit, it's early and i may have rambled on too much.