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Which 980Ti?

Borealis

Borealis

Borealis

Associate
Joined
17 May 2013
Posts
1,637
I've finally decided that it's time to upgrade from my old HIS HD7950 to something bigger and better.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I'm currently torn between the Gigabyte 980Ti G1 Gaming and the MSI 980Ti Gaming. The both seem to be very similar, except that the MSI has a marginally higher factory clock than the Gigabyte. Colour wise, both would fit in with my case and other hardware so which one should I go for?

Support-wise, I know that Gigabyte are UK based, which would lean me towards the G1 Gaming.

To clarify, the difference in price between the two doesn't bother me.

I will also be upgrading my 550W Seasonic PSU to give me a bit more headroom for OCing. My dad will be getting the old one to replace a questionable OCZ unit in his PC.
 
I have had both, the G1 980 Ti is a very nice card, but noisy fans, had coil whine on one of mine even at 60fps (had 2x for SLI). And I am coming from 2x G1 980's which I loved, but this cooler needs improvement, going to 2x larger fans would probably help.

Took them back and had 2x MSI 980 Ti Gaming instead and what a difference, extremely quiet fans and no coil whine on either even if I make them render something in 3D at 3000+ fps.

MSI has made an amazing cooler, never had a GPU run as quiet as this one.

I have changed the paste on mine to IC Diamond, MSI used a bucket load of paste on both of mine (knocked a few degrees off), and I forced the fans via the GPU BIOS to permanently run at 660rpm as I don't like the newer cards turning the fans off at idle (still can't hear them at all). Both GPU's at idle are only 4c to 5c above ambient temps.

At load both cards on their own average around 67c to 70c at 100% load. And with a single slot spacing in SLI the bottom card hits around 73c on average while the top stays around 78 to 82c while maintaining there top boost clocks.

Will be sticking with MSI for my next GPU that Nvidia brings out.
 
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just ordered the msi 6g myself mate as i have the msi 290 which is similiar and never had a problem with it! from what ive read the msi 980ti 6g is very silent whereas the gigabyte g1 is louder but the gigabyte g1 overclocks better
 
Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I'll be coin-flipping then! On the one hand, the MSI is quieter, but the G1 OCs better.

In my 2nd PC I've got a G3258 OC'd at 4.2GHz with an MSI R9 280X. I'm very impressed with the MSI cooler, so maybe I'll go with the MSI. I don't tend to OC my graphics card, so it may be the better choice.
 
Borealis said:
Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I'll be coin-flipping then! On the one hand, the MSI is quieter, but the G1 OCs better.

In my 2nd PC I've got a G3258 OC'd at 4.2GHz with an MSI R9 280X. I'm very impressed with the MSI cooler, so maybe I'll go with the MSI. I don't tend to OC my graphics card, so it may be the better choice.
Click to expand...

If your main interest is gaming get the MSI card.

The Gigabyte G1 does stand a slightly better chance of being faster than the MSI Gaming but the difference for gaming is tiny and not even worth thinking about, you won't notice it in games.
 
I have a pair of G1's and have suffered no coil whine :)

I think it's all down to luck of the draw and a quality psu (which is essential nowadays with high performance hardware) :cool:
 
Borealis said:
Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I'll be coin-flipping then! On the one hand, the MSI is quieter, but the G1 OCs better.

In my 2nd PC I've got a G3258 OC'd at 4.2GHz with an MSI R9 280X. I'm very impressed with the MSI cooler, so maybe I'll go with the MSI. I don't tend to OC my graphics card, so it may be the better choice.
Click to expand...

Even if you ignore the silicon lottery, what difference in fps will you see if the msi is 1450 and g1 is 1550?
 
Borealis said:
I've finally decided that it's time to upgrade from my old HIS HD7950 to something bigger and better.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I'm currently torn between the Gigabyte 980Ti G1 Gaming and the MSI 980Ti Gaming. The both seem to be very similar, except that the MSI has a marginally higher factory clock than the Gigabyte. Colour wise, both would fit in with my case and other hardware so which one should I go for?

Support-wise, I know that Gigabyte are UK based, which would lean me towards the G1 Gaming.

To clarify, the difference in price between the two doesn't bother me.

I will also be upgrading my 550W Seasonic PSU to give me a bit more headroom for OCing. My dad will be getting the old one to replace a questionable OCZ unit in his PC.
Click to expand...

I would not recommend the G1.
 
I think I'll save a few £££s and get the MSI then. TBH I don't think the difference in clock speed matters. It's not like I'm trying to set OC records with this card!

As for power supplies, I'm thinking either the EVGA Supernova G2 650W or 750W.
 
majnu said:
Even if you ignore the silicon lottery, what difference in fps will you see if the msi is 1450 and g1 is 1550?
Click to expand...

My msi does 1535... I haven't seen any g1's getting much if anything more than that, not without being uncomfortably loud, whereas the msi even on 100% is not particularly loud

Though I I were buying again now I would give the HoF serious consideration at 575, or the amp extreme if out of the box performance is important
 
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andybird123 said:
My msi does 1535... I haven't seen any g1's getting much if anything more than that, not without being uncomfortably loud, whereas the msi even on 100% is not particularly loud

Though I I were buying again now I would give the HoF serious consideration at 575, or the amp extreme if out of the box performance is important
Click to expand...

Good clock :cool:
 
Argh, decisions!!! I'll be ordering no later than tomorrow evening, so feel free to torment me with some more suggestions!

The Zotac is definitely a 3-slot card, but out the box speed looks awesome. But the HOF looks good too and although it's slower, the EVGA Superclock is tempting as well.

I'm still leaning towards the MSI, as I've been very impressed with the cooler on the R9 280X Gaming. As Cat points out though, Gigabyte has the UK RMA centre in case something did go wrong. That's something I don't think MSI has.
 
I'm very tempted by the Amp Extreme as it seems like a no nonsense card with a substantial OC out of the box. Haven't heard much about what their warranty service is like, though 5 years is great.
 
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