Which GTX 980 to buy?

[Hybrid7x]

The Gigabyte one seems near perfect, but I'm going with a red build and it has blue LEDs so that goes out of the question. The MSI seems good but it lacks a backpanel, and MSI isn't a company I trust (because of the shitty ads). Asus' Strix version looks great, but I've heard its suffering from coil whine (not sure if true, please tell me). EVGA isn't available in my country and I've heard it sucks anyway. Theres some other companies like Palit and Gainward, but those don't seem to be big brands so I'm not sure if I can trust them.

All I want is a card thats black/red, has stable temperatures, is able to overclock (massively) and doesn't suffer from any issues (coil whine, etc).

Thanks!

 

[Dunlop0078]

Msi is a fantastic company and i love there graphics cards evga as well. Gainward is pretty good. I would go with the msi if i were you its just as good as the gigabyte if not better and it will match your color scheme.

 

[Dunlop0078]

Every card can suffer from coil whine it depends on how lucky you are. The asus is good however i dont like that it only has one 8pin connector so that makes me feel like it wont overclock as well as the others.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121905

 

[Eggz]

The ASUS is the only one that meets your criteria out of the box. But the Gigabyte G1 gaming is the best performer. You can swap out the lights for red ones if you don't mind tinkering, or else just shut them off. The rest of the card is black.

 

[nikoli707]

the classified is red/black and by far the best. but i personally do not think any 980 is worth it. gm210/bermuda will likely be close to the price of the 980 soon when they are released. get a 970 now and upgrade later. otherwise the twin frozr or strixx is your best bang for buck. i would go with msi if i had to choose.

 

[Hybrid7x]

nikoli707, I won't go for an AMD card, even if "Bermuda" turn out to be great. Most of my friends had AMD cards, and they all broke. They also have really bad temps (and I'll be using a NZXT H440 which isn't a case with great airflow), they have awful drivers, and games are usually optimized for nVidia. I'm on a big budget so I'm trying to get the best card on the market.

Eggz are you sure its safe to replace the LED? I saw a tutorial on the internet, but I'm not sure I'd wanna mess with that because its a 600$ piece of hardware..

 

[Dunlop0078]

nikoli707, I won't go for an AMD card, even if "Bermuda" turn out to be great. Most of my friends had AMD cards, and they all broke. They also have really bad temps (and I'll be using a NZXT H440 which isn't a case with great airflow), they have awful drivers, and games are usually optimized for nVidia. I'm on a big budget so I'm trying to get the best card on the market.

Eggz are you sure its safe to replace the LED? I saw a tutorial on the internet, but I'm not sure I'd wanna mess with that because its a 600$ piece of hardware..

Well you seem very opinionated. Most amd cards are just as reliable as nvidia if you keep them cool enough. AMD drivers are quite good and have been for the past few years , more and more games are optimized for amd now like battlefield, the new dragon age, tomb raider and possibly gta v and you have mantle and freesync. Just saying amd is not like it used to be its every bit as good as nvidia. You have a pretty dated view of amd. That said if you really want "the best card on the market" then you will want the incredibly overpriced evga gtx 980 classified.

 

[Hybrid7x]

The problem is, the EVGA Classified is not available where I live. I might be getting the R9 390X though if it will cost around 600$ because it's not like I'm going to buy the parts tomorrow, I can wait until the new AMD cards release.

 

[nikoli707]

i think the 970 strix or twin frozr are the best bang. a 970 can easily be overclocked to match and pass up 980 performance. a 970@1350mhz is roughly equal to a 980@1150mhz. obviously you can clock the 980 up too and it will be faster, but i dont feel that the extra 40-60% price increase is at all worth it. and really were only talking about a 7-8fps difference in the most demanding games.