How big of a difference is there between GTX 980 brands?

[Tinkmaster Overspark]

At the moment i'm really looking forward to putting together a machine with a GTX 980 SLI. The MSI model is my choice because it matches the colour scheme of my build and performance benchmarks and overclocking put it neck and neck with Gigabyte G1 gaming model. However this is very very expensive ($1678 AUD for both cards for the SLI)

If my budget is hurting very badly, i can alleviate the pressure by going down to say, the Gigabyte non G1 gaming model, the Asus non strix model or the Gainward GTX 980 model, all 3 of which save money (Gainward being the cheapest at $700 AUD, meaning there's a $278 difference beteween Gainward SLI and MSI SLI)

How big of a difference does an "inferior" model (no one really talks about the gainward one lol..) such as the gainward one, the non strix and the non g1 gaming gigabyte one actually make. in overclocking as well as typical performance?

Thanks!

 

[smackers_12]

All of the gpus are made by nvidia, the only difference is the cooler and how overclocked they are

 

[Vitric9]

Well there is enough differences in Model numbers from different vendors with the Maxwell GPUs. Gigabyte uses 2 8pin power connectors and can hit well above the Nvidia Specified TDP of 165w, getting close to GTX 780 power consumption. The reference style will use closer to the 165w TDP. The Asus Strix has One 8 pin power connector and has very different power design than the reference design and other non reference designs. So It is a versatile architecture (GM204) and I would not call one that gets slightly lower clock speeds or one that uses quite a bit more power inferior. And lets not forget about aesthetics, which is by far the single most important thing to consider when buying a graphics card, p

EDIT. Maybe not the Stix though Asus has a non reference design that uses one 8 pin.

 

[Tinkmaster Overspark]

so i wouldnt be losing out too much if i went down to a cheaper model like the gainward one? Assuming i can't afford the MSI one. saving $278 is pretty significant when i'm already over budgetted. Overclocking also matters to me though a bit since i'm trying to throw as much raw power at the 144hz 1440p monitor i have as i physically can