Also Afterburner lets you set the temperature target (as far as I know there are zero differences between the two programs).

My G1 went up for sale, that happened. Life is Strange has quiet moments which made the coil whine too annoying.
I guess Lightning is next lol.

I thought your G1 was fine?

Are we doing a competition of who can go through the most 980Tis before being happy?

I thought too, I wasn't pushing it enough apparently.

It's all Intel's fault. I'm using all the CPU upgrade money in 980Tis since they don't do anything meaningful XD

Tbh, after capping my FPS using RivaTuner I've been much happier, however my card still whines when it hits the 100s so it can't really be used as an antiwhine measure if you're on a 144Hz panel.

You also get massive tearing in menus and such where V-Sync isn't taking care of the FPS, but ingame menus having tearing is a trade off I'm happy with to stop the noise.

IceWolf said:

Look at your own photos: you have a soundcard (I assume) below your gpu then the edge of the case. The second intake fan in the front attacked to the hard drice cages blows over the BACK of your card (stealing air from the intake fan in the very front of the case) so you have no room for air to flow easily into the intakes of the gpu fans. And adding many fans running at right angles to each other creates turbulent flow which is less effective. Ideally you want the fans blowing air in the same direction from the front of the case and maybe the side toward the gpu then exhaust fans in the back sucking air out.

Tl:dr - take out the soundcard and put it between the gpu and cpu if you can't move the gpu up, make sure your fans are blowing air towards the front of your gpu but don't put a side fan at right angles to the flow of your front intake fans

[edit] and tidy up those cables in the front of the case that look like they block what little air tries to go down to the front of your gpu

Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestions but trust me it aint the gaps or the case it has approx 25% of its surface area full of vents/grills.

Bottom gap below GPU is about 1" Bottom of card is always cool to touch.

Top gap is about 2" its always red hot even motherboard outside the case!!!

Forget that cable tie fan it was just a ghetto mod to see if it made any difference. Same with the flat PSU cables the picture angle is deceptive they do not block anything.

If a 120mm side case fan cannot blow or extract any air which makes any difference temps wise but gaming @ 1080 makes up to 20C difference tells me the cards are designed to run hot.

I removed it when I found it made no difference.

Entire motherboard out of case makes no difference to temps its the internal card temps @ 4K gaming maxxed out they get hot regardless of anything.

The backplate clearly creates a hotspot. 4K gaming puts a massive load on the entire PC. In the course of exploring this I have found out so much I took for granted.

On Win 7 x64 Nvidia drivers are unstable @4K if your pagefile is disabled or not set to system managed. Regardless of Ram (I only have 12GB) they seem to be designed around the pagefile when 4K gaming.

1080 gaming on this card is silent at all times it barely troubles the fans.
4K puts a massive load on the whole system & a single GTX 980 Ti is barely enough in some games to handle 4K.

Temps drop up to 20C with no other changes @ 1080. 4K adds up to 20C.

For now I am going to run the MSI gaming app which takes the card down to stock GTX 980 Ti levels & removes the boost modes which is not even noticeable @ 4K outside of benchs. That alone has taken the card down to sensible temps. Then I will try EVGA precision X & set a target temp & see how that goes.

I am starting to think these gaming cards boost modes are a gimmick unless your using a water cooled system GPU Boost 2.0 produces a lot of heat & these cards already have hotspots under the backplates.

For a quiet life I can live with stock speeds.

^^^ It really seems like you either cant help certain people on this forum because they either dont listen or just think they are right regardless of what you tell them.

AWPC said:

Thanks for your suggestions but trust me it aint the gaps or the case it has approx 25% of its surface area full of vents/grills.

Bottom gap below GPU is about 1" Bottom of card is always cool to touch.

Top gap is about 2" its always red hot even motherboard outside the case!!!

Forget that cable tie fan it was just a ghetto mod to see if it made any difference. Same with the flat PSU cables the picture angle is deceptive they do not block anything.

If a 120mm side case fan cannot blow or extract any air which makes any difference temps wise but gaming @ 1080 makes up to 20C difference tells me the cards are designed to run hot.

I removed it when I found it made no difference.

Entire motherboard out of case makes no difference to temps its the internal card temps @ 4K gaming maxxed out they get hot regardless of anything.

The backplate clearly creates a hotspot. 4K gaming puts a massive load on the entire PC. In the course of exploring this I have found out so much I took for granted.

On Win 7 x64 Nvidia drivers are unstable @4K if your pagefile is disabled or not set to system managed. Regardless of Ram (I only have 12GB) they seem to be designed around the pagefile when 4K gaming.

1080 gaming on this card is silent at all times it barely troubles the fans.
4K puts a massive load on the whole system & a single GTX 980 Ti is barely enough in some games to handle 4K.

Temps drop up to 20C with no other changes @ 1080. 4K adds up to 20C.

For now I am going to run the MSI gaming app which takes the card down to stock GTX 980 Ti levels & removes the boost modes which is not even noticeable @ 4K outside of benchs. That alone has taken the card down to sensible temps. Then I will try EVGA precision X & set a target temp & see how that goes.

I am starting to think these gaming cards boost modes are a gimmick unless your using a water cooled system GPU Boost 2.0 produces a lot of heat & these cards already have hotspots under the backplates.

For a quiet life I can live with stock speeds.

Click to expand...

Reference cards all the way for SLI and 4k.

I have used 4 way SLI overclocked on air @2160p ok.

I must admit watercooling is a better option though.

It is 100% your case. Or you live in the Sahara desert or something. I used to have 2 of your cards. The temps would get to about 85c fully maxed out. Hense me going to watercooling. That's with two cards. Twice the heat. And on 4k.

You need a new case, simple as that. Your case is full of cables and HDDs at the front. Your case doesn't have any top exhaust fans. Cpu heat is probably circulating the case. Thus hardly any air to the GPU. They also don't look the best quality case fans either.

I'd say a 500r would be good for you and not bad on price either. 200mm side intake. 140 exhaust, 2x 120 front intakes. I'd put 2x 140 exhausts on the top aswell. That will take your GPU temps down substantially . Better to do it now and save yourself a lot of pain in the future.

tyler_jrb said:

It is 100% your case. Or you live in the Sahara desert or something. I used to have 2 of your cards. The temps would get to about 85c fully maxed out. Hense me going to watercooling. That's with two cards. Twice the heat. And on 4k.

You need a new case, simple as that. Your case is full of cables and HDDs at the front. Your case doesn't have any top exhaust fans. Cpu heat is probably circulating the case. Thus hardly any air to the GPU. They also don't look the best quality case fans either.

I'd say a 500r would be good for you and not bad on price either. 200mm side intake. 140 exhaust, 2x 120 front intakes. I'd put 2x 140 exhausts on the top aswell. That will take your GPU temps down substantially . Better to do it now and save yourself a lot of pain in the future.

Click to expand...

I have a 500r and its pretty good. I removed my HDD bays for cleaner air(mounted at the left hand side of the case out of view) from the front and have the whole case setup like this:

Top fans - exhaust
Rear fan - exhaust
Front three fans(don't have DVD drive so mounted a fan at the top - intake

And I get good temps on CPU and gfx. And that is without the side fan as I did a window mod on it!

Lots of room as well for any possible watercooling!

I had a 500R too, it was really good, but not aesthetically pleasing.

I had front + side + bottom as intakes (5x 120mm) and rear/top as exhaust (3x 140mm) and it had great temperatures considering it was summer.

You can pick them up for quite cheap second hand, or they're around £90 new if I recall.

Joe! said:

I had a 500R too, it was really good, but not aesthetically pleasing.

I had front + side + bottom as intakes (5x 120mm) and rear/top as exhaust (3x 140mm) and it had great temperatures considering it was summer.

You can pick them up for quite cheap second hand, or they're around £90 new if I recall.

Click to expand...

They aren't that bad looking. lol I do like the 500r but have been eyeing up a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX. Nom Nom

Oh aye and fan sizes:

top - 140mm
Front 120mm bottom two, 140mm top
Rear - 140mm

ok quick question
got a 980ti KFA model what sware should i use to clock it
and what is the easiest and simplest way to overclock it and not change any voltages etc
to get a basic boos from the card?
im a noob in overclocking so keep it simple and tell me what buttons to press
thanks!!

Kaapstad said:

Reference cards all the way for SLI and 4k.

I have used 4 way SLI overclocked on air @2160p ok.

I must admit watercooling is a better option though.

Click to expand...

Thanks yeah I think water is best somehow air is just not quite enough for 4K unless you downclock which I will do for now for a quiet life.

tyler_jrb said:

It is 100% your case. Or you live in the Sahara desert or something. I used to have 2 of your cards. The temps would get to about 85c fully maxed out. Hense me going to watercooling. That's with two cards. Twice the heat. And on 4k.

You need a new case, simple as that. Your case is full of cables and HDDs at the front. Your case doesn't have any top exhaust fans. Cpu heat is probably circulating the case. Thus hardly any air to the GPU. They also don't look the best quality case fans either.

I'd say a 500r would be good for you and not bad on price either. 200mm side intake. 140 exhaust, 2x 120 front intakes. I'd put 2x 140 exhausts on the top aswell. That will take your GPU temps down substantially . Better to do it now and save yourself a lot of pain in the future.

Click to expand...

It cannot possibly be the case as:

Temps are the exact same if I remove the motherboard & have all the components on a bench so airflow becomes irrelevent then the temps are the same under load.

4K puts a massive strain on the entire PC but I have a Noctua NH12CP + 140mm fan its silent & never goes above 60C due to the massive heatsink size. So CPU is not dumping any hot air into the case as directly behind it is a 120mm case fan sucking warm air out from the CPU.

Rest of the PC has SSD which do not generate any real temps whatsoever.

GPU is the only thing making any heat the PSU is a Platinum 1050W silent model cost over £200 it has a 140mm fan but never makes any noise as it does not get hot at all.

loco said:

ok quick question
got a 980ti KFA model what sware should i use to clock it
and what is the easiest and simplest way to overclock it and not change any voltages etc
to get a basic boos from the card?
im a noob in overclocking so keep it simple and tell me what buttons to press
thanks!!

Click to expand...

I use EVGA Precision (MSI afterburner is similar), you can find a screenshot of my settings on the previous page in this thread. Basically, your 980Ti with good air flow should boost from stock speeds up to around 1200mhz core with power target at 110% and temp target at 85c (unlock the ratio by clicking on the left of the two values)
The memory will stay around 7Ghz = 1750Mhz. The card will throttle itself once it reaches the power or temp limit.

You can overclock manually by adding +###Mhz to core and +###Mhz to the memory. Start by adding +50Mhz increments to the memory then run a stress test like Unigine Valley / Heaven for 5-10 mins to see if you get artefacts / crashes. Personally I found the memory OC made my card hot and didn't give much performance boost, so mine is clocked at 7.5Ghz total but many others have got 8Ghz running stably.

Once you have a stable memory clock start adding 25Mhz increments to the core speed. Bear in mind this adds to the boost speed so my value of +110 to the 1102 core of my factory overclocked card should give 1212Mhz, but since the card boosts until temp and power targets are hit it will actually reach 1400mhz or so in games. You can use GPU-Z as a recording tool and run it in the background to make charts of what actual speed your card ran at, what temps, and for how long. You can also get EVGA precision to show OSD with values as you are running games and benchmarks although it doesn't work on everything (witcher 3 shows it over the launcher and not in game)

Don't play with the voltage settings as a beginner, even the experienced guys don't often get much benefit on air with overvolting the 980Tis.

Also, I noticed that choosing adaptive power in nvidia control panel affects how your card behaves: maximum performance goes straight to max boost in games whereas adaptive runs slower and cooler then ramps up if needed. I don't know which will work better overall (as max power might overheat faster then throttle) but for me adaptive made more sense. Max performance nets you higher benchmark scores as you get full speed from the start.

You should realistically aim for stock memory and 1400mhz boost clock on core measured by GPU-Z.

[Edit] Lastly, you can set a custom fan curve (mine is also in the image on the prior page) to either have a more aggressive boost (i.e. fans faster at lower temps so it boosts for longer before heating up) or a quieter pc (find what fans speed annoys you then set it to just below that until the card gets too hot then speed up enough to cool down). You will notice my temp target is proritised at 80c whilst most choose 85c and prioritise the 110% power. Since 70% fans speed annoys me I go up to 60% early then stay at that until just below 80c when my card throttles. This means my card stays quiet as long as possible but doesn't get dangerously hot, however my overclock boost slows down earlier. I decided that for my needs the extra performance wasn't worth it. You can probably leave the fan curve at stock for now.

thanks a lot ice wolf i will take note of your guide and get on it later on tonight
thanks for your help
much appreciated

AWPC said:

It cannot possibly be the case as:

Temps are the exact same if I remove the motherboard & have all the components on a bench so airflow becomes irrelevent then the temps are the same under load.

4K puts a massive strain on the entire PC but I have a Noctua NH12CP + 140mm fan its silent & never goes above 60C due to the massive heatsink size. So CPU is not dumping any hot air into the case as directly behind it is a 120mm case fan sucking warm air out from the CPU.

Rest of the PC has SSD which do not generate any real temps whatsoever.

GPU is the only thing making any heat the PSU is a Platinum 1050W silent model cost over £200 it has a 140mm fan but never makes any noise as it does not get hot at all.

Click to expand...

It is clearly something. I was getting better temps than you with 2x MSI 980Ti's in SLI. So the top card was receiving all that hot air from the bottom GPU. And yes that was with 4k on witcher 3 with high settings at 60fps.

What is your custom fan curve like? Set it to 80c=100% fan speed that will make a difference.

[/url][/IMG]
my new hybrid

tyler_jrb said:

It is clearly something. I was getting better temps than you with 2x MSI 980Ti's in SLI. So the top card was receiving all that hot air from the bottom GPU. And yes that was with 4k on witcher 3 with high settings at 60fps.

What is your custom fan curve like? Set it to 80c=100% fan speed that will make a difference.

Click to expand...

No custom fan curve as 100% fans speed all the time is a bad idea it will wear the fan out sooner.

The card is hot even in an open case on a bench 4K seems to be the culprit a single GTX 980 Ti is barely enough for that.

1080 is silent & cool so it must be 4K is just about in reach or out of reach with a single GTX 980 Ti. Dropping from 4K to 1080 produces such a large temp drop to me that proves it.

For now I am still monitoring temps & will use the EVGA precision X util to set a temp limit & let the card throttle back to support that lower temp at 80C.

So I will see what happens from there onwards. Right now I have opened a few more cans of worms with recent Nvidia drivers....355.98 is stable with Mad Max but not Arkham Knight..........355.82 is stable with Arkham Knight but not Mad Max......358.50 (latest WHQL) is not stable with either!

delpy8 said:

Spoiler

[/url][/IMG]
my new hybrid

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I just took the plunge and ordered one of these today... what are you upgrading from? Let me know how you get on with it...