As a couple of others have suggested, much better bang for the buck if you buy the one with the cheapest, crappiest cooler since you'd be well-advised to pull any mfgr's cooler off and replace it with, at the very least, an all-in-one water loop.

 

All depends on how adventurous you are...

You might consider buying the Hybrid Cooling Solution on its own and do the conversion yourself? Might save you some money: http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=400-HY-0996-B1

 

BTW: at all others: you can buy EVGA cards usually directly with EVGA, at least here in Europe, this even does not make a big difference regarding price tags...

I would, but they're not available here, and by the time I buy it, pay for shipping I wouldn't be paying much extra and it's already installed.

Well i finally plucked up the courage and pulled the trigger.  Happy with myself, 797 Euro (907 Dollars) delivered to Ireland Standard delivery.   Ill finally be able to fly 32 fps smooth with no Sli quirks or quirks full stop (hopefully) 

 

Thank you for all input   :smile:

 

Nice choice, Elaine

Got it installed and up and running now for over a week,   apart from the very obvious extra ram and over all performance the one thing that really surprised me was how much lower the temps are in comparisment to my Gtx 690,  Leaving my system and GPU on Auto (no extra fan input) it hasn't gone over 83c yet even with everything up high, one notch under max. 

I thought initially as it was a super clocked version that the temps would fly up but not so. 

So yes a lot of money but i am happy (so far anyway) 

A bit late for the OP but getting a reference 980ti card today seems a bad choice unless the price is much lower.

The multi fan non-reference cards are not only cooler but significantly faster in many bench marks often beating the Titan X.

 

Eg. https://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/reviews/MSI/GTX_980_Ti_Gaming/30.html

 

gb.

 

Got it installed and up and running now for over a week,   apart from the very obvious extra ram and over all performance the one thing that really surprised me was how much lower the temps are in comparisment to my Gtx 690,  Leaving my system and GPU on Auto (no extra fan input) it hasn't gone over 83c yet even with everything up high, one notch under max. 

I thought initially as it was a super clocked version that the temps would fly up but not so. 

So yes a lot of money but i am happy (so far anyway) 

 

 

A 980 is on my shopping list, so this has been a very useful thread. Elaine, what sort of performance benefits are you seeing ( i.e. in terms of slider settings , stutters, pauses etc ) ? Was it worth the money ?

 

Hello Paul.  My venture looking for a new graphics card started with this thread  http://www.avsim.com/topic/472741-strange-flashing-in-the-sky/  I was getting terrible flashing in the sky from my miniature Sli set up,  it was so bad it completely took away from the experience of been 2 inches away from my monitor and drooling excessively.  

 

Its a big difference, no flashing and obviously 6 gig of Vram,  in saying that with all my Ad On's i haven't gone over 2.6 gig yet.   With my old card i was getting really bad stutters with ASN but all that has gone away now.  The card runs surprisingly cool and quiet.   With these settings and a ball of Ad Ons it runs very smooth,  but flying over built up areas my frames drop but still smooth and if you didnt look at the FPS counter you wont notice a frame drop.  Yes its a crazy amount of money for a card and you can buy a PS4 and an X-Box for the price of a 980 ti,  but we are the master race and never forget that Paul   :smile:

 

 

Excellent - thanks for the info, Elaine. I'm trying to decide whether to just upgrade my existing computer's GPU to a 980ti as you have done, or maybe go for a completely new system, with a 980ti fitted. I'm going to the flight sim show at Cosford in October, where a number of computer manufacturers will be exhibiting, so I might wait till then. On the other hand, I have two weeks off coming up before then, and it might be that I can not wait. Anyway, I've made a note of the 980ti you have bought, so thanks again.

 

And while we might be the Master Race, we are slaves to the frame-rate God ! :smile:

No probs Paul,  good luck with your purchase  :smile:   Let us know how you get on 

No probs Paul,  good luck with your purchase  :smile:   Let us know how you get on 

 

Hi Elaine - well, I chickened out of the 980ti

 

Unfortunately the price was a bit too heavy, so I went for a cheaper option as below:

 

Link

 

It saves me about £300, and still has 4Gb VRAM, which is 4x more than my current GTX 650ti. Using P3Dv2.5 as I do, the VRAM was a prime consideration. Its physical size is also better for my case and all the gubbins currently installed. I also ordered a backplate, and both should arrive before midday tomorrow.

 

I must say, with sensible slider settings, P3DV2.5 performs reasonably well with the 1Gb 650ti, but other games, such as Rome 2:Total War and Project Cars are having to run at reduced settings, so even if I only gain a little in P3D, I'll be able to enjoy the others in all their visual glory. :Big Grin:

 

EDIT: BTW, how are you getting on with your 980ti ? Still think it was worth the money ?

Very good Paul,  the 970 is a rock solid card with 4 complete VRam (no sli)  Very good price too,  To use the over used statement its currently The best bang for buck on the market now.  

 

 

EDIT: BTW, how are you getting on with your 980ti ? Still think it was worth the money ?

 

To be honest when Nivde released the Sli profile i was happy with my gtx690, a nice little increase of performance but then of course the flashing started so at that stage i would of sold my x mother in law (and her horrible daughters) for the flashing to go away. I get a solid performance now with P3D with all the eye candy on + Ad On's and don't worry about heat as it runs better then the 690.  Yes i could of got the 970/980 but i wanted to make one good purchase to future proof it a little.  

 

Getting crazy FPS with all other games,  85/90/100  fps,    But X-Plane runs like lead on it, not good at all 25/26 FPS 

Oh and make sure you Register your new card for extra support and warranty 

Oh and make sure you Register your new card for extra support and warranty 

 

Yes, will do. I think EVGA cards come with a three year warranty, which is reassuring as I'll probably have bought a complete new system by the time it expires.

 

 Very odd frame rates with X-Plane, I wonder what's going on there ? Tried the X-plane forum ? They might be able to...ahem...explain it.

Well, my 970 arrived; installed, driver scrubber run, shader cache and p3d.cfg both deleted and allowed to rebuild - and I am gobsmacked. In fact, my smack has never been so gobbed. I've got just about everything set to maximum, including water detail, clouds, cloud shadows, cloud coverage, draw distance etc etc, and P3Dv2.5 runs smooth as silk. The only sliders still not full to the right are the two autogen ones ( buildings and vegetation - I've kept those set to 'Dense' ) and I'm still being a little conservative with a.i.  traffic percentages. I don't need a mass of traffic, just enough to give the impression that I'm not on my own.

 

I've wound up the settings on Project Cars and again, I am astonished at the difference, but it is P3D that's most important to me. It's almost as if I've bought a completely new version of the simulator. Now, all that Orbx scenery I've spent a fortune on awaits stutter-free exploration.

 

:smile: