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EVGA Superclocked GTX 980 Cooling?

Tags:
  • Overclocking
  • EVGA
  • Cooling
  • Video
  • Nvidia
  • Gtx
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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September 20, 2014 8:45:42 AM

First things first...thank you to Tom's Hardware site. You guys are the best. I've visited many times for research, but I only just today joined (and this is my first post).

So, I was lucky enough to catch one of the Maxwell cards before they went out of stock. I knew I wanted the 980, but wasn't sure about reference card, waiting for gamer cards, or this in-between option. I took the plunge on the superclocked model, which has a whooping boost of 1342MHz. This will be in the range of the gamer models I'm sure, but of course there is no enhanced cooling such as on Gigabyte Windforce or MSI Frozr.

So, the question is, what do you think? With the lower power consumption and temperature, are the gamer models going to be moot for the Maxwell cards? Or is that extra cooling really going to be necessary? I guess some will try to clock at even higher rates, but sheesh.

If you believe the gamer cards' extra cooling is needed, will my pseudo-reference EVGA card melt? It will be part of a new build, so it'll be awhile before I post my experience. BTW, I will be using the system for the trifecta... CAD, gaming, and video.

More about : evga superclocked gtx 980 cooling

September 20, 2014 10:42:26 AM

Welcome to Tom's!

EVGA is a very good manufacturer and I would expect that they would have addressed this if additional cooling was needed.

That said, the early temperature benchmarks like THIS ONE would have me watching for a specific review of that card with temperature testing to see if it remains adequate at overclock.
September 20, 2014 3:18:28 PM

Indeed I'll be watching for reviews. And for smoke from my machine ;) 
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September 22, 2014 1:59:21 PM

Answering my own question here...but I've found post of new users getting 1380MHz from this card out of the box, and near full load never going over 60C.
September 22, 2014 2:23:14 PM

I stress tested mine all day yesterday at the out of the box clock and didn't come near 60C so i'm pretty comfortable with the cooling of the reference style design.. And the Green l.e.d branding on the side of the card is awesome!
September 22, 2014 5:05:27 PM

Volkey said:
I stress tested mine all day yesterday at the out of the box clock and didn't come near 60C so i'm pretty comfortable with the cooling of the reference style design.. And the Green l.e.d branding on the side of the card is awesome!


Awesome! Can't wait to get mine. A couple of posters on EVGA's forum complained about coil whining noise. Anything like that on yours? Fan noise?
September 24, 2014 12:27:21 PM

Zero noise/coil whine since it was installed.. Im pleasantly happy with the reference design.
a b K Overclocking
September 25, 2014 7:13:25 AM

No coil whine with my new 980 SC either, it's very quiet actually. Loving the reference cooler.

Only problem is that it reaches 80 degrees quite easily in Unigine Heaven causing it to throttle slightly. Setting a more aggressive fan curve helps, and the noise impact is minimal. I should note that I haven't seen this throttling translate to reduced performance yet, somehow.
September 25, 2014 9:35:22 AM

That's good feedback. Some are keeping temps at 60, others get 80. It may be case cooling setup?? Anyway, I'll see. Mine arrived yesterday, but I'm waiting a couple weeks for a new system build- birthday coming up :) 
a b K Overclocking
a b Î Nvidia
October 6, 2014 7:17:18 AM

Mine gets to 74C when playing BF4. That's with a slightly aggressive fan curve set in Precision X.
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