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Reference vs Aftermarket

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Pandamonia

Senior member
Is there any point in buying a 980Ti custom*

Zotac 5 year warranty anf £509 cost is hard to beat. Clocking to 1200+mhz OC

Temps are not relevant unless they stop you clocking up.. Does anyone have any data on how Reference holds up at 1200+mhz OC 24/7? Does it consistantly boost past 1400mhz?
 
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A custom OEM cooler isn't aftermarket. Aftermarket is ripping the cooler off your card and slapping on an Accelero Xtreme 😉
 
If water cooling probably not unless you want insane OCs with a specialized PCB and then you have to wait for a specialized waterblock.

For air cooling, the price between the reference blower type fan and the customs is so low I would opt for one of the higher end custom fan units to beable to clock a little higher AND run cooler and quieter.
 
guskline said:
If water cooling probably not unless you want insane OCs with a specialized PCB and then you have to wait for a specialized waterblock.

For air cooling, the price between the reference blower type fan and the customs is so low I would opt for one of the higher end custom fan units to beable to clock a little higher AND run cooler and quieter.
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Cost is £100 circa for a G1 or similar. About 20% more expensive in UK.

Where is the extra performance going to come from to justify it? does the reference buckle under full gaming loads when OC?
 
The aftermarket cards usually run cooler, clock higher and are less noise on load. Some models like the MSI are also good platforms for AIO coolers because they have separate heatsinks on VRAM and VRM.
 
While the custom coolers are better in every scenario except sli and looks, i can tell you that my reference 980ti can maintain 1400mhz clocks with about 50-55% fan speed at 86C temp target.
 
Pandamonia said:
doesnt 85c throttle kick in?
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you can adjust the throttle point "temp target" up to 91C and it wont throttle as long as it below the temp target.

you just need to use a program like msi afterburner or evga precision to do this. very simple.
 
n0x1ous said:
you can adjust the throttle point "temp target" up to 91C and it wont throttle as long as it below the temp target.

you just need to use a program like msi afterburner or evga precision to do this. very simple.
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Ah.

So the Zotac 5yr warranty reference model will hit 1400-1500mhz boost as standard with a decent OC? No need to spend more ?
 
Well I can't guarantee any OC but 1400 "seems" to be doable for most of the cards I have seen. my asic score is 68% fwiw and my card was purchased directly from nvidia, not a board partner model.

I just want to be clear that I am not recommending the reference model over a custom cooled card for someone running a single card and wanting the best combination of quiet and low temps, all I am trying to do is inform that the reference cooler is capable of maintaning OC speeds with increased fan speeds (and the noise that comes with it) and higher temperature targets.
 
n0x1ous said:
Well I can't guarantee any OC but 1400 "seems" to be doable for most of the cards I have seen. my asic score is 68% fwiw and my card was purchased directly from nvidia, not a board partner model.

I just want to be clear that I am not recommending the reference model over a custom cooled card for someone running a single card and wanting the best combination of quiet and low temps, all I am trying to do is inform that the reference cooler is capable of maintaning OC speeds with increased fan speeds (and the noise that comes with it) and higher temperature targets.
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Since im selling the 780's i might just go for the G1. I wanted a lightning but it seems they are AWOL!
 
I have a ref model Zotac 980 Ti.

Out of the box, installed fan doesn't go above 40-45% with it's custom fan profile BUT temps get in the 80C easily with this setup. I run mine at 65%, fan is audible, but temps stay in the 70-75C ball park.

Ambient temp ranges from 75-82F.

Stock hits boost easily, 1177mhz.

I did one OC run with sliders @ +300/+300 with stock fan profile, hit 91C thermal point rather quickly, but clocks hovered around 1400-1430.

Redid OC test with fan @ 100% and hit 1485-1497 (going from memory).

Another above +300 on core and system Firestrike would crash, didn't bother to find my max for VRAM. WIll revisit OCing when I get my Corsair bracket.

Hope that helps.

If you can swing it, I'd go for a custom cooler personally. Only reason I went ref is because I needed a 100% ref board for the Corsair bracket, otherwise I'd have gotten a custom cooler card.
 
Yeah the OC performance on my stock blowers throttled at around 1380mhz or so during firestrike with stock fan profile. That's still plenty fast but an aftermarket card like you got will be a lot nicer for quiet OC performance and stable clocks. Nice choice! :thumbsup:
 
Sabrewings said:
I typically buy reference based cards, but that's so I can throw a water block on them.
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If the aftermarket card has a higher base clock and better cooling, I spend the few extra bucks even if I'm water cooling so the card will be more attractive if I decide to use it on an air cooling rig later.

For the GTX980TI that seems to be the case for many of the custom cards vs reference cards.
 
guskline said:
If the aftermarket card has a higher base clock and better cooling, I spend the few extra bucks even if I'm water cooling so the card will be more attractive if I decide to use it on an air cooling rig later.

For the GTX980TI that seems to be the case for many of the custom cards vs reference cards.
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All of my rigs are water cooled and I don't sell hardware used (not worth my time), so not a concern here. If my 980 Ti goes hand-me-down, there's already a water cooling system I can put it in. 😀
 
guskline said:
If the aftermarket card has a higher base clock and better cooling, I spend the few extra bucks even if I'm water cooling so the card will be more attractive if I decide to use it on an air cooling rig later.

For the GTX980TI that seems to be the case for many of the custom cards vs reference cards.
Click to expand...


Harder to find blocks that way though isn't it?
 
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