HI all,

 

First up, I'm having trouble with the Avsim search and I have tried Google, with limited success, the results not being specific enough or too varied to help much.

 

After a very, very long time I've decided to buy a graphics card, and as it is to be used for X-Plane and non-flight sim games as well as FSX, I'm going for the top of my budget and looking for an air cooled GTX 980 Ti.  There seem to be several contenders but due to a 290 mm case restriction, I've narrowed it down to three options:

• EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti SC GAMING ACX 2.0+,
• Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti G1 Gaming,
• MSI GeForce GTX 980Ti Gaming.

I know there are other similar cards like the Asus Strix but that is too long for my case.

 

From what I can gather from reviews (in particular this one http://techreport.com/review/28685/geforce-gtx-980-ti-cards-compared/7), the EVGA has reliability and warranty but performs worse and is midrange for sound, the Gigabyte is the most powerful, but is loud and could need a few returns to get a fully working one (reports of coil whine, which sounds like a bad thing!), and the MSI is quietest and in the middle for power and reliability.

 

I bought my current graphics card for £30 many years ago so I have absolutely no idea which way to turn, and could do with some advice.  For example, is the extra power of the Gigabyte noticeable in games enough to put it over the MSI, which is looking like my favourite at the minute; or is the EVGAs reliability and warranty worth its shortfalls.  These are the kind of questions I'd appreciate help with as a complete newbie to graphics cards.  (How I wish it was a simple as the CPU days when it was just i5 or i7!)

 

Many, many thanks,

 

Finlay

EVGA's customer support, including an industry-leading warranty and actual knowledgable humans answering their support lines, keeps me coming back.  My P3D box has a pair of water-cooled 980Tis, but my gaming machine uses a 970 with that ACX 2.0 cooler, and it's nice and quiet.  I don't think any of them are sufficiently faster or slower than the other to force a decision based on that.

 

Were it me, I'd go eVGA.

 

Regards

I recently had my EVGA PSU fail and I have to say, the customer support and RMA process was extremely smooth. Best support I've had in a long time. So much so that I decided to go ahead and order their 980ti Hybrid to replace my 2 MSI 970's. So I would go with EVGA. Hope this helps in your decision making.

Thanks for pointing that out about EVGA Bob. I am willing to pay extra for good technical support. I'm fed up with waiting on hold to talk with "support technicians" only to have some person answer that I can barely understand, knows less than I do, and sounds like they are doing a Google search every time I ask them a question.

 

Ted

I had the MSI card and it was constantly pushing 85C and throttling. I have reasonably good airflow in my case and the MSI card supposedly has a good air cooler, but I think the GTX 980 TI cards just run hot. I returned it and got the EVGA Hybrid liquid cooled. Measurably better performance (I left it at stock settings but it's overclocked out of the box with plenty of room for more if you should want to tinker) and the temp never goes above the mid 50s regardless of what I'm doing. Just remove the rear 120mm exhaust fan from your case and replace it with the 120mm radiator. It drives a 3440x1440 ultra-wide monitor beautifully with pretty much anything I can throw at it. It's really not that much more money than an air cooled (only $20 more than the MSI card on Amazon currently) but definitely worth it IMO.

I have the MSI GTX980TI and I love it I will recommend you download MSI Afterburner and set a custom fan curve,even though it supposed to be safe,I think 60c is a little hot for an idle speed with my custom fan curve it idles at 30c and never gets hotter than 60c the stock fan settings from MSI don't allow the fan to go to 100% unless the card is at 90c or greater ouch! Just remember to run MSI afterburner each time you boot your system so the custom fan curve takes effect

I had the MSI card and it was constantly pushing 85C and throttling. I have reasonably good airflow in my case and the MSI card supposedly has a good air cooler, but I think the GTX 980 TI cards just run hot. I returned it and got the EVGA Hybrid liquid cooled. Measurably better performance (I left it at stock settings but it's overclocked out of the box with plenty of room for more if you should want to tinker) and the temp never goes above the mid 50s regardless of what I'm doing. Just remove the rear 120mm exhaust fan from your case and replace it with the 120mm radiator. It drives a 3440x1440 ultra-wide monitor beautifully with pretty much anything I can throw at it. It's really not that much more money than an air cooled (only $20 more than the MSI card on Amazon currently) but definitely worth it IMO.

I just installed my EVGA 980ti Hybrid last night and am nothing but happy. 6 hours in DCS World with a +150mhz OC and the card never got above 50C. This is at 4K, every option maxed out. I'm happy with my choice. P3D testing will happen tonight.

Ive got the evga one and its brilliant.

I use an EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti ACX 2.0+, it comes with 6GB, and have to praise it!.

its cool and quiet.

With my settings (not maxed) I get up to 75-85 FPS, at the apron on most ORBX NA Airports (Not Friday Harbour!).
FPS will vary depending on the aircraft I choose to fly.
Even using the FPS hungry F1 Mustang I can now get up to 40-45 FPS flying around KSEA.

I usually lock it at 24 FPS!
 

I have the ASUS 980ti STRIX and I love it it, come with a backplate, 3 fans and it is ultra quiet and looks sick inside my case. 

Thank you all so much.  I went for the EVGA in the end and I'm loving it!  I'm being frankly bowelled over by what X-Plane can look like with all the HDR effects turned on, and despite being perpetually CPU limited, it somehow improved my FSX Heathrow framerates.

 

Finlay