Nvidia GTX 980 Owners Thread

Spacedeck · 16 Apr 2015 at 11:26

True, Stulid suggested the 450D due to its air flow. This is something which was mentioned in my spec thread.

Quartz said:
If you have yet to buy your GTX 980, be sure to buy one with a reference (blower) fan. This is because you intend buying another later. The other fans just blow the hot air around inside the case but the reference / blower fans vent the hot air outside the case.

stulid said:
But thats where a good case with front to rear airflow and the natural cool running Maxwell gfx card comes into play.

My CPU is running on a Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO Cooling Solution if it makes the situation any better.

Ayahuasca · 16 Apr 2015 at 11:32

How are SLI 980's doing at 1440p in GTA V?

I've been offered 2 for my Titan X.

Currently at max settings the game is reporting 5GB VRAM usage but I'm not sure if it's just using that because it can as I've seen people with 3GB cards in SLI reporting they can max it at 1440p.

Dirk Diggler · 16 Apr 2015 at 11:32

I had SLI on air in my Air540 and the top card sat around 10c above the other, and hit mid 70s on full load. That wasn't reference cards so Stulid may have a point there.

Are you going to have a decent gap between slots?

Dirk Diggler · 16 Apr 2015 at 11:33

Ayahuasca said:
How are SLI 980's doing at 1440p in GTA V?

I've been offered 2 for my Titan X.

I'm having driver issues that's affecting SLI performance.

Ayahuasca · 16 Apr 2015 at 11:34

Yeah I noticed your thread which is off putting.

Captain · 16 Apr 2015 at 11:35

Is it safe to set the voltage up to 87? I had it set to that on my 970, just want to make sure it's ok, going in my friends system in a few days!

passey89 · 16 Apr 2015 at 11:47

I have my voltages at +100mVa and 150% power.

The card will never go over the max safe voltage anyway so +87 is oerfectly fine.

Spacedeck · 16 Apr 2015 at 11:59

String said:
I had SLI on air in my Air540 and the top card sat around 10c above the other, and hit mid 70s on full load. That wasn't reference cards so Stulid may have a point there.

Are you going to have a decent gap between slots?

Can't check inside the actual case as I'm at work

I can tell you my MB though. I have Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-503-GI) if that's any help.

zola25 · 16 Apr 2015 at 12:47

Spacedeck said:
Has anybody got an SLI set up running in a Corsair 450D case? I have the 980 Gigabyte G1 Gaming and would be tempted to make the jump to SLI. Anyone else find that the end of the 980 seems to overlap a little bit where the HDD case is in the bottom right of the case?

I haven't yet upgraded but I'm worried the fit could stop me from upgrading.

I've got two reference cooled 980's in a 450D, the HDD cage doesn't interfere with the cards in my case. The top card tends to run around 3C hotter than the lower one. As others have mentioned, reference coolers are the better choice in SLI, but if you were to add a reference cooled card as the bottom one I'd imagine it would be fine.

Edit: I also have the same mobo as you do, and assuming dual slot cards in SLI, there is single slot free between the cards.

Spacedeck · 16 Apr 2015 at 12:54

zola25 said:
I've got two reference cooled 980's in a 450D, the HDD cage doesn't interfere with the cards in my case. The top card tends to run around 3C hotter than the lower one. As others have mentioned, reference coolers are the better choice in SLI, but if you were to add a reference cooled card as the bottom one I'd imagine it would be fine.

Edit: I also have the same mobo as you do, and assuming dual slot cards in SLI, there is single slot free between the cards.

Did you find you needed to add 2 extra fans to the bottom of the case? I'm guessing this would only be a good thing?

Also a reference card as in? Does SLI work even if it isn't the same make/model?

Ayahuasca · 16 Apr 2015 at 12:58

Fit as many fans as you can as long as they're quiet or you don't mind some extra noise.

zola25 · 16 Apr 2015 at 13:01

Spacedeck said:
Did you find you needed to add 2 extra fans to the bottom of the case? I'm guessing this would only be a good thing?

Also a reference card as in? Does SLI work even if it isn't the same make/model?

I've got one extra 120mm fan in the bottom as that's all I can fit between the PSU and HDD cage.

By referenced cooled I mean a card with a blower that exhausts hot air from the case. You can mix and match as long as the cards are the same base model (i.e. both must be 980s with the same amount of RAM), but both cards will run at the speed of whichever is the slowest if they are different.

varkanoid · 16 Apr 2015 at 16:35

Ayahuasca said:
How are SLI 980's doing at 1440p in GTA V?

I've been offered 2 for my Titan X.

Currently at max settings the game is reporting 5GB VRAM usage but I'm not sure if it's just using that because it can as I've seen people with 3GB cards in SLI reporting they can max it at 1440p.

its running amazing in 4k with 980 SLI.

varkanoid · 16 Apr 2015 at 16:38

passey89 said:
That sounds loads better and like it's working properly now.

Do u have an overclock on ur cards?

Yes they are I've got a better fan from my Prolimtech cooler so I might try that on it.
Just wondering whether to do a mad thing and have two radiators in line just to see what I get.
eg fan > AIO radiator > fan converter>fan>AIO radiator so I can get the other one using the G10.
dont think its been done before would be interesting to see what temps they get.

passey89 · 16 Apr 2015 at 17:52

varkanoid said:
Yes they are I've got a better fan from my Prolimtech cooler so I might try that on it.
Just wondering whether to do a mad thing and have two radiators in line just to see what I get.
eg fan > AIO radiator > fan converter>fan>AIO radiator so I can get the other one using the G10.
dont think its been done before would be interesting to see what temps they get.

could do put something like scythe ultra kaze 3000 or noctua f12 industrials 3000's at the very back

varkanoid · 16 Apr 2015 at 21:26

passey89 said:
could do put something like scythe ultra kaze 3000 or noctua f12 industrials 3000's at the very back

Yeah I was looking at the Noctua. Bit of a mad idea and would need some support underneath but thats where the space is.

He He.

CraigN · 16 Apr 2015 at 23:06

Im getting great performance on my SLI 980s @ 3440x1440 21:9 superwide.

My ref cards are hot, I run mATX and the top card is having to run 90% Fan to keep her under 80 degrees. It is loud! bottom card running about 68-70.

I need those EVGA water cooler AIO things. Full water cooling is just too expensive for my low use these days.

passey89 · 17 Apr 2015 at 07:00

varkanoid said:
Yeah I was looking at the Noctua. Bit of a mad idea and would need some support underneath but thats where the space is.

He He.

This is mine now. Just installed a new mobo.

** Any image wider than 1280 pixels should be placed in spoiler tags or linked **
http://i.imgur.com/rNHxCsB.jpg

Spacedeck · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:44

String, I've managed to move the HDD cage to the top, just underneath the CD Drive. You can see how much room I would have to spare. I would add an extra fan to the bottom (not in view of pic). Would this fan need to be drawing air in or pushing air out?

I'm also wondering if I would be able to place my HDD in the section above the CD Drive, that way I could get rid of the HDD cage so it isn't blocking any fans and circulation can have maximum effect.

Do you reckon this would work well to manage the temps?

Dirk Diggler · 17 Apr 2015 at 10:22

I take it your next slot is the one below the battery? If so, that's quite close mate. This is my set-up and you can see the gap between the cards is quite a lot. This really helped with temperatures when I was on air, but you look to be around half that distance so I wouldn't want to predict anything.