[LinusTechTips] Fury X vs. Reference 980Ti tested in a small form factor case

[Wreckem]

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.

I am keeping my eye on the Dan A4 SFX, and I am extremely confident that if I end up getting one there will be absolutely zero air flow or temperature issues running any kind of video card inside that case, and it'll be the smallest case in the world that can house a full-sized graphics card.

EDIT: Waiting for someone to tell me that my post is heavy on claims and light on proof.

He was using a Silverstone Sugo 13, which is pretty similar to the Sugo 05. In any event, all of the Sugo line have poor airflow unless you properly set them up, even then they tend to run hotter than other mitx alternatives.

As soon as Silverstone releases the 700watt SFX-L you will be able to fit an AIO cooled overclocked i7 quad core and a fury X2 in an Ncase M1, which is just a little bit bigger than the Sugo 13.

 

[badb0y]

Not only are EVGA's generally less effective at cooling per db than MSI or Gigabyte, but you also have a bad case. Downward facing graphics card in the bottom of a cramped case? The genius behind that design needs a Darwinian award. I know that case came out within the last few years so there are no excuses for it's poor design decisions. Graphics cards are most often the most power hungry part of a complete setup these days. Case designers need to put the card on the side, a la SG05 or Fractal Node 304, or flip a vertical slotted motherboard around so the graphics card is on top and hot air can more easily exhaust out that way.

Have you tried updating the TIM by chance? I always do that with each card I get and generally get 2-3 C lower temps at the same fan speed.

The card has 3 x 92mm Noctua fans blowing air right over it... I don't think it's the lack of fresh intake that's the problem.

 

[railven]

First thing I noticed - "he looks hot" then he comments "ambient temperatures are significantly over 30c" WTH? That is a seriously bad scenario, why not at least try to use something more realistic? Do people really play/watch movies/anything in >90F temperatures? MY god as cheap as I am I crank the A/C moment the thermostat breaks 85F. Especially for gaming on the PC (console I guess I can tolerate sticking to my chair a bit).

As I watch more, dude is sweating? So after saying this is not a good scenario for all hardware, why is anyone surprised that a water cooled GPU would perform better than a stock blower GPU in such a scenario?

Video was amusing, poor guy looks so uncomfortable as it gets closer to the end.

 

[tviceman]

First thing I noticed - "he looks hot" then he comments "ambient temperatures are significantly over 30c" WTH? That is a seriously bad scenario, why not at least try to use something more realistic? Do people really play/watch movies/anything in >90F temperatures? MY god as cheap as I am I crank the A/C moment the thermostat breaks 85F. Especially for gaming on the PC (console I guess I can tolerate sticking to my chair a bit).

As I watch more, dude is sweating? So after saying this is not a good scenario for all hardware, why is anyone surprised that a water cooled GPU would perform better than a stock blower GPU in such a scenario?

Video was amusing, poor guy looks so uncomfortable as it gets closer to the end.

Over 30 C ambient? LOL. I missed that. Might as well do the testing inside an oven. That is approaching 90 F. Suddenly video is now clickbait.

 

[teambigred]

Over 30 C ambient? LOL. I missed that. Might as well do the testing inside an oven. That is approaching 90 F. Suddenly video is now clickbait.

I realise it's a niche but it applies to me! Consistently over 30 ambient inside our house for month or two in the middle of summer (Australia) even with the aircon (admittedly pretty old) running.

 

[Eymar]

Well if you watch the video as Pariah already noted, he does say they're testing worst case scenario. I don't know why though as I'd assume most people would have htpc in a more open space than a media cabinet.

 

[casiofx]

Over 30 C ambient? LOL. I missed that. Might as well do the testing inside an oven. That is approaching 90 F. Suddenly video is now clickbait.

The world doesn't revolves only on you.
Just because 90F for you is hot doesn't mean it's the same as others.

 

[Silverforce11]

Well if you watch the video as Pariah already noted, he does say they're testing worst case scenario. I don't know why though as I'd assume most people would have htpc in a more open space than a media cabinet.

It's more most stupid scenario, water cooling and using the radiator as intake.. let's RADIATE all that heat back in our case for lolz!

 

[railven]

I realise it's a niche but it applies to me! Consistently over 30 ambient inside our house for month or two in the middle of summer (Australia) even with the aircon (admittedly pretty old) running.

The world doesn't revolves only on you.
Just because 90F for you is hot doesn't mean it's the same as others.

If >30C is norm for you guys, woof. Seriously, that is just down right uncomfortable and then factor in a >400W system dumping heat into your already "hot" room.

If that's how you guys PC game, I tip my hat to you. You're stronger people than I am.

 

[casiofx]

If >30C is norm for you guys, woof. Seriously, that is just down right uncomfortable and then factor in a >400W system dumping heat into your already "hot" room.

If that's how you guys PC game, I tip my hat to you. You're stronger people than I am.

It's crazy, I know a lot of my associates and relatives who would shiver on 70F lol

 

[railven]

It's crazy, I know a lot of my associates and relatives who would shiver on 70F lol

70F is probably a little too "cool" for me (I am Latino), but at >85F and I'm turning on the A/C. more so if I'm PC gaming. Sitting here reading news articles at 83F is fine, not gaming, because just a few minutes in the room raises 2-3F (admittedly this house also doesn't have the best circulating air), and from there it just escalates haha.

 

[Keysplayr]

The world doesn't revolves only on you.
Just because 90F for you is hot doesn't mean it's the same as others.

No. 90F is hot for anyone, if you're human. 70 I can see being chilly for some folks. I have friends that moved to Florida about 20 years ago, and when they last visited up here, it was about 65F. They had to wear kind of heavy coats. I'm standing next to them in my shorts. So funny.

 

[tviceman]

The world doesn't revolves only on you.
Just because 90F for you is hot doesn't mean it's the same as others.

THE WORLD DOESN'T EVOLVE AROUND ME? WTF!!!>>)(*JW#RIWEFFKNSF!!!GS@@# Boo hoo.



If 90 F isn't hot indoors for any one particular person, that is absolutely, positively amazing. In fact, it's so amazing that I doubt hardly ANYONE would say it's not hot. No, it won't melt your face off, but 90 F is hot for indoor ambient temperatures, even for someone as tough as you. But, even as tough as you are, if you go out and buys a SFF PC and a blower style video card to play in 90 F temperatures then you're just a big dumb "not hot" dude.

Click bate video is click bate.

 

[tviceman]

I realise it's a niche but it applies to me! Consistently over 30 ambient inside our house for month or two in the middle of summer (Australia) even with the aircon (admittedly pretty old) running.

So two months out of the year the Fury X would be faster for you. The other 10 months, the GTX 980 TI would be faster.

 

[Silverforce11]

First world problems. hehe

 

[AnandThenMan]

Over 30 C ambient? LOL. I missed that. Might as well do the testing inside an oven. That is approaching 90 F. Suddenly video is now clickbait.

It's been close to that in my house off and on the last couple of weeks. I'd hardly consider 30° C or more unusual in many places although it is not that common here.

 

[ocre]

Contrary to what I believe ay? Coming from someone who only buys AMD cards that's pretty rich. I've owned plenty of these cards and I can tell you from first hand experience that decibel numbers aren't the be all end all of noise testing. I think the fury x pump noise proved that. Yes the fury x is quieter than a blower of course but you guys act like the reference nvidia blower is some ear splitting demon. It's sound profile is very unobtrusive even up to 50% and is miles better than junk Hawaii blower. Of course it's not as good as aftermarket cards but it's also pretty impressive for what it is and the amount of heat it can deal with. I have a 980ti reference that will be going under water soon so Ultimately I don't care about the ref cooler ie this isn't me defending my purchase so I've had time to play with the blower in the meantime and with a temp target of 86 it's never dropped below 1400mhz or gone over 55% fan speed.

B.....bu......but you must be completely deaf now.......

Cause that one review that shows the 980ti at over 59 dBa!!!!
Nevermind the 75 other reviews that show drastically different results. Come to think of it, almost ever other review has much quieter results.

But that one review, which I see brought up every other day, says the nvidia reference blower is over 50dBa and it is the highest by far so it must be right.

Those who have an nvidia card must be too deaf to know what they are talking about. My reference 980 overclocked to 1450mhz is actually so loud that I can't hear it over my closed loop CPU cooler, but I guess that's the beauty in being over 50dBa with an nvidia gpu. It's magically pretty quiet.

Surely these guys know you have had a furyX, and a 980ti reference.....,but what do you know.

There is no way anyone who never had such a card can know anymore about it than you.
But, I am sure there will be several post coming that tells us all how it is.....

 

[Grooveriding]

Contrary to what I believe ay? Coming from someone who only buys AMD cards that's pretty rich. I've owned plenty of these cards and I can tell you from first hand experience that decibel numbers aren't the be all end all of noise testing. I think the fury x pump noise proved that. Yes the fury x is quieter than a blower of course but you guys act like the reference nvidia blower is some ear splitting demon. It's sound profile is very unobtrusive even up to 50% and is miles better than junk Hawaii blower. Of course it's not as good as aftermarket cards but it's also pretty impressive for what it is and the amount of heat it can deal with. I have a 980ti reference that will be going under water soon so Ultimately I don't care about the ref cooler ie this isn't me defending my purchase so I've had time to play with the blower in the meantime and with a temp target of 86 it's never dropped below 1400mhz or gone over 55% fan speed.

It's got to be subjective then and I'd guess you've gotten used to using blowers and the noise they produce. The cooler on 980ti/TX was nice back when Titan came out, but it's starting to become inadequate with GM200. The cards are loud with the reference blower. There is no way around that, reference 980ti and Titan X are very loud cards under load.

That blower is not quiet at all and makes a huge racket when it ramps up. Even going on your mentioned 50% speed, the cooler is really loud at 50%.

In the context of this thread the last card I would want in any SFF PC would be a reference 980ti or TX. It would be just as bad as sticking a reference 290 in there.

 

[casiofx]

No. 90F is hot for anyone, if you're human. 70 I can see being chilly for some folks. I have friends that moved to Florida about 20 years ago, and when they last visited up here, it was about 65F. They had to wear kind of heavy coats. I'm standing next to them in my shorts. So funny.

Whatever floats your boat. 90F is totally normal for me, 86F already feels slightly cold.
As I'm typing the temperature of my room is 90F (had two wall thermometers in front and middle of the house). It's comfortable.
Ask anyone from the equator who grows up poor.

THE WORLD DOESN'T EVOLVE AROUND ME? WTF!!!>>)(*JW#RIWEFFKNSF!!!GS@@# Boo hoo.



If 90 F isn't hot indoors for any one particular person, that is absolutely, positively amazing. In fact, it's so amazing that I doubt hardly ANYONE would say it's not hot. No, it won't melt your face off, but 90 F is hot for indoor ambient temperatures, even for someone as tough as you. But, even as tough as you are, if you go out and buys a SFF PC and a blower style video card to play in 90 F temperatures then you're just a big dumb "not hot" dude.

Click bate video is click bate.

Seeing your reply reinforces me to believe what I said earlier. Just because you thought 90F isn't comfortable doesn't mean it is for other people, facepalm.

Excerpt from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_adaptation_in_humans:

"The Tibetans, who have been living in this region for 3,000 years, do not exhibit the elevated haemoglobin concentrations to cope up with oxygen deficiency as observed in other populations who have moved temporarily or permanently at high altitudes. Instead, the Tibetans inhale more air with each breath and breathe more rapidly than either sea-level populations or Andeans. Tibetans have better oxygenation at birth, enlarged lung volumes throughout life, and a higher capacity for exercise. They show a sustained increase in cerebral blood flow, lower haemoglobin concentration, and less susceptibility to chronic mountain sickness than other populations, obviously due their longer history of high-altitude habitation.[28][29] General people can develop short-term tolerance with careful physical preparation and systematic monitoring of movements, but the biological changes are quite temporary and reversible when they return to lowlands.[30] Moreover, unlike lowland people who only experience increased breathing for a few days after entering high altitudes, Tibetans retain this rapid breathing and elevated lung-capacity throughout their lifetime"

As analogy, just because you're having a hard time breathing on high altitude environments doesn't mean the Tibetans felt the same. Understand?

 

[Genx87]

The world doesn't revolves only on you.
Just because 90F for you is hot doesn't mean it's the same as others.

Running computer equipment in 90F is hot regardless of where or who is running it.

It is also detrimental to the equipment. Splurge and get a wall AC unit. Turn it on during the few hot days you have during the year.

 

[casiofx]

Running computer equipment in 90F is hot regardless of where or who is running it.

It is also detrimental to the equipment. Splurge and get a wall AC unit. Turn it on during the few hot days you have during the year.

I always laughed at how many people would be scared shitless to run the computer equipments hot.

As long as it runs within the TjMax it's all fine and dandy. Else there's crazy outbreaks of overheated computers running on 90F countries, duh.

None of my electronics died due to hot temps anyways, and that includes my old PS3 slim.

Capacitors will have shorter lifespan when running in higher temperatures yes, but you'll be surprised how long that "short lifespan" is actually. Probably outlives your upgrade cycle.

My original Athlon II computer still running fine to this date even though it's been 4 years running in this temp. So does many of my other PCs and laptops.

 

[Genx87]

I always laughed at how many people would be scared shitless to run the computer equipments hot.

As long as it runs within the TjMax it's all fine and dandy. Else there's crazy outbreaks of overheated computers running on 90F countries, duh.

None of my electronics died due to hot temps anyways, and that includes my old PS3 slim.

Capacitors will have shorter lifespan when running in higher temperatures yes, but you'll be surprised how long that "short lifespan" is actually. Probably outlives your upgrade cycle.

My original Athlon II computer still running fine to this date even though it's been 4 years running in this temp. So does many of my other PCs and laptops.

Well if your Athlon II has been running at those temps for 4 years then all is good.

Seriously though you understand computer equipment runs better in cooler environments right? If that wasn't the case Google and Anandtech wouldn't have their servers in temp controlled buildings that sit at ~67-70F. Just let them run away at 90F with fans spinning at 110% to save on AC costs. /facepalm

Instead of pushing your poor equipment to the max go buy a wall AC instead of a new video card.

 

[Keysplayr]

I always laughed at how many people would be scared shitless to run the computer equipments hot.

As long as it runs within the TjMax it's all fine and dandy. Else there's crazy outbreaks of overheated computers running on 90F countries, duh.

None of my electronics died due to hot temps anyways, and that includes my old PS3 slim.

Capacitors will have shorter lifespan when running in higher temperatures yes, but you'll be surprised how long that "short lifespan" is actually. Probably outlives your upgrade cycle.

My original Athlon II computer still running fine to this date even though it's been 4 years running in this temp. So does many of my other PCs and laptops.

It's pretty much a given though that your hardware's life is significantly shortened compared to say someone running a PC in 60F -70F Ambient temps. You can't disagree. I mean, of course you can, but you'd be wrong in doing so.

 

[casiofx]

It's pretty much a given though that your hardware's life is significantly shortened compared to say someone running a PC in 60F -70F Ambient temps. You can't disagree. I mean, of course you can, but you'd be wrong in doing so.

Stop the fear mongering about running computer parts at 30C ambient.

Computer parts will outlive the upgrade cycle anyways, even if it's running at 20F more. And that's a few years, not few months.

 

[tviceman]

Whatever floats your boat. 90F is totally normal for me, 86F already feels slightly cold.
As I'm typing the temperature of my room is 90F (had two wall thermometers in front and middle of the house). It's comfortable.
Ask anyone from the equator who grows up poor.


Seeing your reply reinforces me to believe what I said earlier. Just because you thought 90F isn't comfortable doesn't mean it is for other people, facepalm.

As analogy, just because you're having a hard time breathing on high altitude environments doesn't mean the Tibetans felt the same. Understand?

Let me help you with that face palm.
Just because you find it to be subjectively fine does not mean the vast majority of the world's population would not describe it as hot. None of us here are living in mud huts drinking from a contaminated water hole. We generally have access to things like electricity, shelter, running water, and conditioning. If you think 90 F is the norm for indoor temps, then why does any and every commercial building with up-to-date working HVAC not let their offices warm up to 90 F? Because..... because..... As I said in my previous post, the vast majority of people find 90 F highly uncomfortable indoors.

Just get over it and move on.