Gigabyte GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4 GB

[W1zzard]

With 3x DP, 2x DVI and 1x HDMI, Gigabyte's GTX 980 G1 Gaming features the most complete output configuration. The card is also overclocked out of the box, and a powerful triple-fan thermal solution keeps it cool. In our testing, we also found Gigabyte to have massively increased the power limit, which overclockers and voltmodders will find beneficial.

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[Fluffmeister]

Certainly a monster performer, good to see GM204 stretch it's legs. The price is rather steep though, that sort of cash can nab you SLI'd 970s.

 

[jabbadap]

Great review as always. Quite loud actually 43dBA and looking on temperatures unnecessary loud(btw. doubling the sound pressure is 6dB not 3dB).

 

[maximoor]

Great review as always.
A small correction: In the 1st page on technical specifications board, the GPU clock has the reference speed, not the OC clock.

 

[qubit]

It's a real shame about that noisy cooler as that would write off the card for me. Also, since it didn't compensate by having lower temperatures, I think the 9.7 rating is too high, with a 9.0 perhaps being more appropriate.

Nowadays, having a silent or near silent PC at all times has become a prerequisite for me and can be achieved by careful component selection. My MSI GTX 780 Ti Gaming built on the Kepler GPU was built for quietness, so although it never stops its fans I can barely hear it in a quiet room. Max out the card and the noise level barely rises which is epic performance. The new Maxwell GPU kicks out much less heat (especially so since it's only midrange Maxwell) so there's no excuse at all for having a noisy cooler on a card based on it. Selling it at such an inflated price reduces its value further too and perhaps should lower the score a bit more too.

Sorry Gigabyte, you missed with this one.

Just read these snippets of a glowing TPU review conclusion for my card, which got a 9.9 rating:

MSI's GTX 780 Ti is almost too good to be true.

-------------

The real highlight of the MSI GTX 780 Ti Gaming, however, is fan noise. The card is whisper quiet in idle, which will be important if you don't game all the time. More importantly, once you start gaming, fan speed increases just a little bit, enough to keep the card cool without all hell breaking loose. At just 30 dBA, the MSI GTX 780 Ti Gaming is quieter than most graphics cards, no matter their performance segment - and this is the fastest card we ever tested! I recently reviewed several GTX 780 Ti cards, by all the big players, and none are even close in noise levels. It really is a night and day difference, even more so when you start comparing this card to AMD's R9 290X flagship.

--------------

And you don't get a better recomendation than this:

I, for my part, will be replacing my personal system's ASUS GTX 670 Direct CU with the MSI GTX 780 Ti Gaming as it's the best card I've reviewed in a long time.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_780_Ti_Gaming/29.html

 

[z1tu]

Hey @W1zzard , those noise level readings seem much higher than the guru3d tests and considering they measure the noise from 75cm, I would expect them to have the same if not higher results. Possible that you received a faulty model?

 

[Nabarun]

@W1zzard Please include Far Cry 4 in your GPU reviews.

 

[Tonduluboy]

lol i was comparing 3d review on noisy level while reading this review few minutes ago, n someone also did the same thing.
This is the conclusion from 3D : "It is silent, it cools great and comes factory overclocked at a boost frequency of 1329 MHz already!"

Anyway, since ASUS strix turn off it's fan during idle mode the temp is around 50Cels, while this one at 34Cels. Must have some merit for having lower temp.
If the PC running 24/7 like mine, i guess those gpu with 50cels on idle will die 1st?

BTW, in my country this GPU selling at the same price with Asus 980 strix at $615.

 

[W1zzard]

Hey @W1zzard , those noise level readings seem much higher than the guru3d tests and considering they measure the noise from 75cm, I would expect them to have the same if not higher results. Possible that you received a faulty model?

Temps on my card are low, and the fans run quiet in idle, so I don't see how something could be broken on my card. Only possibility is that Gigabyte sent early samples to reviewers with a quiet BIOS and later cards have noisier fan settings (I'm one of the latest persons to review the card)

@W1zzard Please include Far Cry 4 in your GPU reviews.

Soon

 

[z1tu]

Temps on my card are low, and the fans run quiet in idle, so I don't see how something could be broken on my card. Only possibility is that Gigabyte sent early samples to reviewers with a quiet BIOS and later cards have noisier fan settings (I'm one of the latest persons to review the card)


Soon

Really don't mean to nitpick here but your temps are higher than the guru3d review yet noise is worse. I was thinking maybe the cooler had an issue, like factory issue because other websites seem to agree with guru3d on cooling and noise for this card.

 

[Jordi]

I agree the rating is too high. Even though I like this website a lot I don't take the ratings very seriously anymore. For me it is out of perspective. Maybe you should start from scratch.

 

[W1zzard]

I agree the rating is too high. Even though I like this website a lot I don't take the ratings very seriously anymore. For me it is out of perspective. Maybe you should start from scratch.

Excellent, that means you've read the actual review and even the comments, and not only looked at the score. Mission accomplished.

 

[qubit]

Excellent, that means you've read the actual review and even the comments, and not only looked at the score. Mission accomplished.

I don't think it's mission accomplished to have ratings people don't trust. It undermines people's perception of the whole review, especially if they're new to the site. It would be better not to give any rating at all rather than one people stopped trusting.

 

[jabbadap]

Well the i/o of this card is fully blocked, so how are you measuring temps? Closed case, open case? There are so many points which effects measurements, that differencies between different review websites can easily be out come of different measure habits. And of course there's variance between chips. Good ventilation of case can make wonders of this card temperatures.

Still I have a bit problem with this sentence:

Please note that the dBA scale is not linear but logarithmic. 40 dBA is not twice as loud as 20 dBA, as a 3 dBA increase results in double the sound pressure.

Strictly speaking sound pressure level(SPL) doubles 6dB:s in decibels, if you calculate sound power level(SWL) then it doubles in every 3dB:s.

Edit:

I agree the rating is too high. Even though I like this website a lot I don't take the ratings very seriously anymore. For me it is out of perspective. Maybe you should start from scratch.

Don't stare numbers alone, you should compare them to other same chip cards, gtx980strix got 10 and msi gaming got 9.9. So it's good solid card, but there is other good solid cards to comparison.

 

[W1zzard]

double the sound pressure

Indeed, I confused pressure and intensity while writing this para.. congrats to be the first one to notice this, it must have been there for many years

Don't stare numbers alone, you should compare them

that's exactly how i do my ratings .. the gigabyte is definitely better than ref, worse than strix and msi gaming. still tons better than any 290x. the power limit, output connectivity and normal height are unique and should be considered, too, no?

 

[z1tu]

Indeed, I confused pressure and intensity while writing this para.. congrats to be the first one to notice this, it must have been there for many years


that's exactly how i do my ratings .. the gigabyte is definitely better than ref, worse than strix and msi gaming. still tons better than any 290x. the power limit, output connectivity and normal height are unique and should be considered, too, no?

I agree with taking into consideration other factors aside from the final rating, however, since other sites show temps and noise are better in their reviews than yours, I can't agree with the "worse than strix and msi gaming" statement.

 

[W1zzard]

I agree with taking into consideration other factors aside from the final rating, however, since other sites show temps and noise are better in their reviews than yours, I can't agree with the "worse than strix and msi gaming" statement.

I can only base my review on what they sent me.

Ok, so I just checked some other sites, and everybody who has a half-decent sound meter and knows how to use it agrees with me, that the card is too noisy. You are aware that some sites measure whole PC noise?

 

[RCoon]

1 extra fan and it cools no better (1 degree is negligible), no idle fan setting like the top dogs, and noisier than the two front runners.
9.7 makes sense. The MSI lost 1 point due to no backplate, arguably the backplate does almost nothing, so it was a mere cosmetic orientated deduction. Noise is far more important to everyone, and the lack of the 0dB silence feature makes total sense to deduct plenty of points. That would put it in the low to mid 9 range, but it has 2 x 8pin and better overclocking potential, so it gains in that area.

I'll also go ahead and mention that the Gigabyte card uses a whopping 342Watts at maximum load (granted, the OC potential is much larger), in comparison to the Asus sipping a mere 200Watts. At peak it's 204Watts vs 172Watts at stock, and the stock clocks aren't exactly worlds apart. 40mhz shouldn't require 30 extra watts.

I don't understand the complaints about score. It's all relative when you're comparing features, both useful and cosmetic, in accordance to their priority.

 

[Thuban]

NVIDIA: 344.65 WHQL

Really? 347.09 is the last year's release and the review is dated the 5th of January, 2015.

 

[RCoon]

Really?

If he updated all drivers every time they released a new one, he'd have to rebenchmark dozens of cards, with dozens of games, on half a dozen resolutions. Rebenching takes time, and it happens the few times he sees fit to update. I have to follow the same operation, only on a much much smaller scale, and far easier. It's not as fun as you might think.

 

[Thuban]

If he updated all drivers every time they released a new one, he'd have to rebenchmark dozens of cards, with dozens of games, on half a dozen resolutions. Rebenching takes time, and it happens the few times he sees fit to update. I have to follow the same operation, only on a much much smaller scale, and far easier. It's not as fun as you might think.

Maybe, but that also camouflages all the performance refinements there may have been since that said driver, to the 980 family. Which is the most recent, which is the most likeliest to receive speed bumps. Just saying.

Anyway, it is sad that 3DMark support was dropped from the benches, that way at least anybody could produce their own results and have them compared to this. With whatever driver is used. Easy and practical.

 

[RCoon]

Maybe, but that also camouflages all the performance refinements there may have been since that said driver, to the 980 family. Which is the most recent, which is the most likeliest to receive speed bumps. Just saying.

Anyway, it is sad that 3DMark support was dropped from the benches, that way at least anybody could produce their own results and have them compared to this. With whatever driver is used. Easy and practical.

Guru3D are using 344.07 driver for their 980 reviews. I think you'll find everyone else who does GPU comparisons in their reviews are using outdated drivers. W1zzard is arguably one of the few with more recent drivers.

 

[Thuban]

Guru3D are using 344.07 driver for their 980 reviews. I think you'll find everyone else who does GPU comparisons in their reviews are using outdated drivers. W1zzard is arguably one of the few with more recent drivers.

This is my favorite review web site. Thank you. But the best can get better. Just saying. Would be nice to have 3DMark Vantage or something included in the future. Not keen on Googling all the time.

 

[qubit]

1 extra fan and it cools no better (1 degree is negligible), no idle fan setting like the top dogs, and noisier than the two front runners.
9.7 makes sense. The MSI lost 1 point due to no backplate, arguably the backplate does almost nothing, so it was a mere cosmetic orientated deduction. Noise is far more important to everyone, and the lack of the 0dB silence feature makes total sense to deduct plenty of points. That would put it in the low to mid 9 range, but it has 2 x 8pin and better overclocking potential, so it gains in that area.

I'll also go ahead and mention that the Gigabyte card uses a whopping 342Watts at maximum load (granted, the OC potential is much larger), in comparison to the Asus sipping a mere 200Watts. At peak it's 204Watts vs 172Watts at stock, and the stock clocks aren't exactly worlds apart. 40mhz shouldn't require 30 extra watts.

I don't understand the complaints about score. It's all relative when you're comparing features, both useful and cosmetic, in accordance to their priority.

Your analysis seems reasonable to me and also demonstrates quite well the subjective element of any review, including its final score, since how much weighting does someone give to any one critieria? That's not to criticize reviews, it's just the nature of the beast.

To illustrate this, let's just say a certain high decibel reading is worth 0.1 points knocked off. So, for one card, it's actually a bit loudish, but it makes for a fairly pleasant wooshing sound (my GTX 580) while another one is a large 6dB quieter, but has a whiny edge to it. The quieter card can end up sending you to distraction while the noisier one is actually easy to live with. How do you grade the cards now? Giving the quieter card a higher score in this scenario seems wrong to me. On top of that, different people will react differently to sounds, then there is the way it's fitted eg closed case on the floor, or open case on desktop like I have, other samples may not make this whine etc. Hence, there's always a subjective element to it so the scoring is going to reflect how these elements affect them. There's nothing wrong with this, but it must always be born in mind when reading any review.

+1 about reviewing cards with updated drivers. I did a small round of benchmarking for myself some time back and it was a real pain in the ass, especially if I'd forgotten to set a certain parameter and had to repeat the test. I can imagine that for a major review like on TPU it would be completely impractical.

 

[W1zzard]

3DMark Vantage or something included

We will not include synthetic benchmarks in VGA reviews. Only stuff you actually play.

more recent drivers

I'll be starting a full rebench soon, with latest drivers and AC Unity + Far Cry 4. Gonna take me like 2 weeks non-stop.