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EVGA GTX 980Ti (Reference Cooler)

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18 Sep 2007
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524
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London, England
Hi,

I've just upgraded to an EVGA GTX 980Ti from OcUK. This replaces 2xEVGA GTX 780 in SLI.

Using the default fan profile, i.e. no software other than latest Nvidia drivers installed, the rear metal mounting bracket gets to 70C, and I can smell a burning plastic smell. I fear for the DisplayPort cables and connectors. The cables are only rated to 80C.

Talking with EVGA and OcUK they say that whilst it will get warm under load (obviously), it should not be too hot to touch! Mine is too hot to touch.

Other than the card getting very hot, everything else if perfect. Performance is as expected.

In GTA V the GPU core gets to maybe 60C as it's not 100% load. In Witcher3 with maxed settings it will hit 83C and thermal throttle.

Using EVGA Precision x16 and an aggressive fan profile, the fan will ramp up to 747 noise-levels and keep the GPU cooler with no thermal throttling.

Just before I RMA this card (of which OcUK and EVGA have advised me to), can anyone else confirm/deny how hot the rear metal bracket gets where the DisplayPort/DVI/HDMI connectors are?

Looking at Tomshardware thermal images, yes it is 80C *inside* through the vents, but the actual bracket is cooler.
 
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16 Mar 2011
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I will check and report back. I have two Palit 980 Ti's (reference coolers) and I can definitely confirm the funny burning smell (from both cards) when they are running at high loads, which is something I never noticed on any other GPU's in the past (including standard 980's). The fact that it happens on both cards made me assume it is normal, although it isn't as bad now after a couple of weeks of use.

I'm mainly playing the Witcher 3 at the moment and that game pushes GPU's very hard. I thought 980 Ti SLI would be enough to run the game maxed out at 4k (DSR) but I still have to turn off hairworks for that resolution and both cards hit 83C.

I will test and see how hot the metal bracket section feels on my cards.
 
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Soldato
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18 Mar 2012
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Eastbourne
Gigabyte reference, no burning smell here. The cards never get to 83c and throttle (That I've noticed) and i don't have a custom fan profile, it just does it's thing. Although, the back plate does get hot, could tell you how hot but I never really thought of it.

You could set a custom fan profile so that it ramps up the fan? and won't get that hot.
 
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Yes the metal bracket becomes too hot to touch after 10 minutes of running the Witcher 3, and this is on both cards in a good case (Silverstone FT02) with a good motherboard, so I think we have to assume this is normal for the 980 Ti.

When you say you need an aggressive fan profile to keep the GPU cooler what kind of fan speed are you talking about? I'm just curious because in order to keep my cards at 80C (or just under) I have to use around 55-57% fan speed, and this is quite loud with the 980 Ti.

I don't think there is anything wrong with your card though - the 980 Ti just likes to get very hot, and it's certainly harder to keep cool than the standard 980.
 
Soldato
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Had the sort of burning in smell on the REF 980 Ti here as well. I think it's the 'New' GPU smell heating up if you know what I mean. Smell is gone now.

These 980 Ti's do get hot, as long as it's performing as it should and the core temp isn't overheating I wouldn't worry. You have a 3 year+ warranty period.

Unless you have to touch the rear metal bracket while your gaming your golden.
 
Soldato
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In the Land of Grey and Pink
Had the sort of burning in smell on the REF 980 Ti here as well. I think it's the 'New' GPU smell heating up if you know what I mean. Smell is gone now.

These 980 Ti's do get hot, as long as it's performing as it should and the core temp isn't overheating I wouldn't worry. You have a 3 year+ warranty period.

Unless you have to touch the rear metal bracket while your gaming your golden.

It'd be like sticking your finger into a moving fan...why would you do it!?!
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
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Location
London, England
Yes the metal bracket becomes too hot to touch after 10 minutes of running the Witcher 3, and this is on both cards in a good case (Silverstone FT02) with a good motherboard, so I think we have to assume this is normal for the 980 Ti.

When you say you need an aggressive fan profile to keep the GPU cooler what kind of fan speed are you talking about? I'm just curious because in order to keep my cards at 80C (or just under) I have to use around 55-57% fan speed, and this is quite loud with the 980 Ti.

I don't think there is anything wrong with your card though - the 980 Ti just likes to get very hot, and it's certainly harder to keep cool than the standard 980.
Many thanks for coming back to me. :)

Witcher 3 my metal brackets get too hot to touch also, that combined with the burning smell concerned me. I've had Nvidia cards since Nvidia started as a company, and I don't remember this on any other card.

I installed EVGA PrecisionX and selected the "aggressive" fan curve profile, and then modified it slightly:

D4H9MQr.png

The card is hideously noisy at 100% Fan Speed though :)
However I also have my other case fans ramp up in game to keep everything cool as possible.

The GTX 980Ti will thermally throttle quite easily, you can test in GPU-Z, Sensors, PerfCap Reason
 
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OP
Joined
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524
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London, England
Gigabyte reference, no burning smell here. The cards never get to 83c and throttle (That I've noticed) and i don't have a custom fan profile, it just does it's thing. Although, the back plate does get hot, could tell you how hot but I never really thought of it.

You could set a custom fan profile so that it ramps up the fan? and won't get that hot.
I've never even thought about it either, until I could smell burning and went to investigate and discovered that the bracket was too hot to touch!! :)

Yes I've set a custom fan profile now, still tweaking how much noise I can tolerate versus game performance (overclock, GPU boost, and not thermal throttling).
 
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Many thanks for coming back to me. :)

Witcher 3 my metal brackets get too hot to touch also, that combined with the burning smell concerned me. I've had Nvidia cards since Nvidia started as a company, and I don't remember this on any other card.

I installed EVGA PrecisionX and selected the "aggressive" fan curve profile, and then modified it slightly:

D4H9MQr.png

The card is hideously noisy at 100% Fan Speed though :)
However I also have my other case fans ramp up in game to keep everything cool as possible.

The GTX 980Ti will thermally throttle quite easily, you can test in GPU-Z, Sensors, PerfCap Reason

That is a very aggressive profile - it looks like at 60C the fan is already running at 75%. The default Afterburner profile (which I've tried before) is similar but not quite as aggressive - I think the fan speed matches the temperature on the Afterburner profile so when the temperature is 65C the fan speed is at 65%, then 70C/70% etc... but I find this to be too loud for me. :( 60% fan speed is about as loud as I can put up with on the 980 Ti reference cards but luckily that seems to keep my cards under 80C. Obviously in some less demanding games with vsync turned on the cards don't get pushed too hard so they run a lot cooler and quiet.

Do you know if the EVGA backplate really did lower your temps a little? I've considered getting one myself but wasn't sure if it would fit on a Palit 980 Ti or if it needs to be EVGA - I was hoping all the reference cards were the same.
 
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OP
Joined
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Posts
524
Location
London, England
That is a very aggressive profile - it looks like at 60C the fan is already running at 75%. The default Afterburner profile (which I've tried before) is similar but not quite as aggressive - I think the fan speed matches the temperature on the Afterburner profile so when the temperature is 65C the fan speed is at 65%, then 70C/70% etc... but I find this to be too loud for me. :( 60% fan speed is about as loud as I can put up with on the 980 Ti reference cards but luckily that seems to keep my cards under 80C. Obviously in some less demanding games with vsync turned on the cards don't get pushed too hard so they run a lot cooler and quiet.

Do you know if the EVGA backplate really did lower your temps a little? I've considered getting one myself but wasn't sure if it would fit on a Palit 980 Ti or if it needs to be EVGA - I was hoping all the reference cards were the same.

I've not noticed any difference with the backplate. I tried running without any fan profile in Witcher3, and within minutes the GPU hits 83C and starts thermally throttling.

I am still playing about with fan profiles, I have this at 70% at the moment:

s5F4Tu7.png

I'd prefer to at 60%, but I don't like the burning smell :(
 
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