stock cooling or acx cooler

[ThatLassieGotGlassed]

Hey guys. Just wondering what you guys thought about the acx cooling on EVGA cards. I'm looking to buy the gtx 980 superclocked and i can't decide weather to pay more for the acx cooling or save a little by going with the stock cooling fan. Let me know what you think!

 

[Gam3r01]

Non reference cooling is always a great investment (minus small cases/small SLI rigs)
However, the 970s and 980s had issues with the placement of the cooler on the cards, rendering only 2/3 heatpipe contact with the GPU die.

I would recommend aftermarket, but go with ASUS or MSI.

 

[cub_fanatic]

The new Asus "Strix" cooler is pretty neat since it actually is a passive cooler until the GPU core hits a certain temp, I think 60c, and then the fans slowly start spinning. This is really innovative. There have been a few cards which would spin only one fan but the Strix cooler is like a hybrid passive. They supposedly make a GTX 980 Strix but finding one is another thing. Finding any NR GTX 970 or 980 is going to be tough until they start ramping up production. http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/STRIXGTX980DC2OC4GD5/

 

[ThatLassieGotGlassed]

Non reference cooling is always a great investment (minus small cases/small SLI rigs)
However, the 970s and 980s had issues with the placement of the cooler on the cards, rendering only 2/3 heatpipe contact with the GPU die.

I would recommend aftermarket, but go with ASUS or MSI.

The new Asus "Strix" cooler is pretty neat since it actually is a passive cooler until the GPU core hits a certain temp, I think 60c, and then the fans slowly start spinning. This is really innovative. There have been a few cards which would spin only one fan but the Strix cooler is like a hybrid passive. They supposedly make a GTX 980 Strix but finding one is another thing. Finding any NR GTX 970 or 980 is going to be tough until they start ramping up production.

i don't know man... There is like a 40$ difference.. and the asus does not come ''superclocked''.. What do you thnik about the stock cooling fan in the 980 model ?

 

[Gam3r01]

"Superclocked" is just EVGAs term for factory OC, which almost all non ref cards are.
It does carry a slightly higher base clock compared to asus, but this comes at the cost of noise and cooling. Once you being to OC the ASUS will be able to support higher speeds more easily.

The MSI model carries one of the best factory OCs, that is the model I would suggest.

 

[cub_fanatic]

Yeah, superclocked or overclocked edition basically means that the vendor (be it Asus, MSI, GB, etc.) took a GPU core and turned up the clock speed by maybe 5% or 10% which in real world gaming amounts to almost nothing most of the time and slightly more power use or 1 or 2 FPS. Some of these cards, though, are 'binned' cores like the Asus "Top Core" label. Top Core basically means that they tested the cores under certain conditions and even though they are physically identical to all the other GTX 980s or GTX 970s out there, these cores for whatever reason use slightly less voltage when overclocked and produce slightly less heat. Otherwise, when set to the stock clocks, they perform almost identical to all the other cores like it. I don't know if they still use this term "top core' but that Strix card does say that it is factory OC'd which is basically what superclocked means.