I don't know much about the case he used, but my fractal design node 304 case has absolutely zero air flow problems (despite no exhaust vents along the top of the case which in turn traps heat) and is floor-noise quiet with medium fans. My old open-air GTX 780 never got above 75 C during the summer. My current OC'd 980 doesn't breach 70 C with any noticeable fan noise.
It also depends a lot on your ambient temperatures too. I've pointed out for years and years how almost no one should buy a reference blower card unless they are water-cooling or going Tri/Quad SLI and this review proves it. Blowers are inferior cooling tech and it's evident even without overclocking:
For someone going SFF, Fury X beats a reference 980Ti. We've also seen from other reviews how 980Ti SLI performance takes a serious hit in performance due to Boost not being as aggressive due to Boost 2.0 kicking in as a result of thermal throttling.
TechSpot already proved that we can run modern Intel CPUs at 99C without any adverse effects in performance:
"So what does this all mean? Beyond the fact that Intel CPUs are impressively stable even while technically overheating it means that you can expect full performance from an Intel CPU as long as you keep it below 100 °C. At the same time, even if the CPU occasionally hits 100 °C you shouldn't see more than a minimal drop in performance until it spends a significant amount of time (more than 20% of the time) above 99 °C."
However, any time the 82-83C is exceeded on NV cards, Boost is neutered which is a key aspect in the performance of NV cards. That's why for SFF PCs, reference blower NV cards that rely on Boost 2.0 for their performance characteristics are not the way to go imo and Linus' review proves this once again.
Careful, you might be round-about told you are lying. I've been running with a 450 watt PSU for two years now, and my old OC'd 780 + OC'd 4770k ran great. When I talked about how little power my current OC'd 980 rig drew at the wall, I was called out.
Not sure how that's relevant since at no point will a 980 air cooled overclocked i5/i7 Z97 system will draw anywhere near 500W of power. The point is you can run a system with 450W of load on a 500W PSU, which means it's not even a question of how much power your 980 rig uses. Whether your rig uses 300W, 350W, 375W, 400W, 450W isn't relevant per say since an excellent 500W PSU would handle any of those loads 24/7. Besides, Silverstone will soon release a
700W Platinum SFX-L PSU. The point is a 500W PSU is sufficient to power a Fury X or 980Ti as long as it's a high quality PSU and it's not paired with 5960X OC to 4.5Ghz.
This is one of those other myths that persists that one should run your PSU at 50% of its load. This might have been true 10 years ago but not when it comes to modern PSUs. The loss in efficiency running a great PSU at 70-100% load is hardly tangible. I am getting off-topic from the thread but I'll finish the idea:
SeaSonic 750W:
20% load = 91.10% efficiency
50% load = 93.51% efficiency
70% load = 92.97% efficiency (hardly a material reduction)
80% load = 92.61% efficiency (still amazing)
90% load = 92.38% efficiency (still Platinum!)
100% load = 91.86% efficiency (excellent)
The old rule that one should run their PSU at 50% of its load is outdated. Modern PSUs are rated at 100% of their power, and can even sustain 110% of their rated power. A
9.0+ PSU is designed to run at full power 24/7 for years at 45-50C. This ability to run at rated load 24/7 for 5-7 years is what separates an amazing PSU from an average PSU. Also, that's why the top PSU brands have premiums because they can give you > 90% efficiency across the entire spectrum of PSU load from 20% all the way to 110%. In fact, that SeaSonic 750W still maintains a 91.57% efficiency even at 110%. :biggrin:
It's getting tiring of people freaking out that their 500-600W PSU isn't good enough for flagship CPU/GPU parts. Sure, if they bought a bottom of the barrel Corsair CX series, then you get what you pay for.
The first thing I'm gonna do when I buy my 650$ gtx980ti is buy a smaller 70$ case to restrict airflow, ah no never mind, that would be stupid.
That's not the point of the review. I can guarantee it there are PC gamers who:
1) Keep buying into the GPU blower myth;
2) Are evaluating what's better to buy a Fury X or a reference 980Ti for their SFF.
This review tackles these aspects dead on.
Fact is, blowers have reached the end of the line a long time ago and finally more and more PC gamers are realizing it. Other than niche cases where one is building Tri/Quad-SLI gaming rig or wants a reference board to water-cool, blowers are inferior in terms of performance, temperatures and noise levels to an after-market cooler and especially an AIO CLC.
980Ti (GM200) is still an amazing/excellent chip but a reference 980Ti is not a great product.
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