MSI GAMING GeForce GTX 980 4GB OC DirectX 12 VR READY (GTX 980 GAMING 4G)

First some system specs so you know there are no bottlenecks:Motherboard: MSI Z97 G-45 GamingPower Supply: Corsair CX750MOperating System: Windows 10-64BitRAM: 4x8GB DDR3 HyperX Fury Red and Black, 32 GB totalStorage: 1 Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB SSD, 1x1TB WD Blue Hard DrveCPU: i5-4690k Overclocked to 4.5 GHZGPU: MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G Overclocked to 1500 MHzCooling: Corsair H110 GT AIO Cooler2 Noctua NF-F12 iPPC 3000 RPM fans2 Fractal 140 MM case Fans2 Noctua NF-F12 iPPC 2000 RPM case FansOverclocking Review:Now that's out of the way and you know I have no bottlenecks here's a review, this card takes overclocking with MSI Afterburner like a champ, with fans set to 100% its amazingly quiet, also each fan spins independently of each other. So in the overclock utility it is set to 100% but the second fan over the VRM won't kick on till its actually needed past a temperature of 60C even if you set fan speeds to 100% in MSI afterburner it only controls the fan over the GPU heat sink. Right now I have it overclocked @ 1500 MHz and the memory overclocked to an effective speed of 8000 MHZ although this is not necessary for other users its nice to know it can hit that reliably and stay stable in games. It's "military class" components and awesome cooling design definitely help there. This card takes voltage like no one else it is incredibly easy to overclock to 1500 MHZ(200-300 MHZ over stock boost) using simple YouTube guides and get a 1000 MHz increase memory overclock. It seriously increases the longevity of this card for future gaming, it hits well above 85 FPS in most games, that aren't capped of course, on very high and ultra settings. Also with good case ventilation I haven't seen this card go past 60 C once while overclocked! At idle depending on ambient temps its stayed between 26C-30CStock:Stock this card still shines bright. I have found no AA or AAA title this card doesn't excel with, in no game I have played has it gone lower than 70-75 FPS except for where certain games are capped at 60 maximum, it is an amazing card that will last quite some time. Also important to note the card is dead silent and cool. It idles at near ambient temps at 25C and stayed between 45-55C in testing.So in conclusion:Pros:Beast of a card- can easily handle all games and future games for the next 2-3 years no problem on high, very high or ultraStays cool regardless of overclocking or notTakes overclocking like a champHardcore components that allow overclocking longevity: HI C capacitors, solid capacitors and super ferrite chokes, mean it can take higher voltages and temps easilySuper Quiet!Cons:Lacks a back plate- would like to see a ventilated back plate to help with rigidity, this card is quite long and heavy and the pcb has the slightest bend to it-not detrimental but would like to see one for at least aesthetic appealSize-You must have a decent size case for this card, luckily the Fractal Define S handles it no problem, it's quite large due to that awesome twin frozr cooler and the lengthy thick PCB to help with overclocking and heat dissipationReccomendations:MAKE SURE YOUR PSU HAS TWO 8 PIN PCI POWER CONNECTORS!!!!!-this card is factory overclocked and has some serious power requirements, I recommend at least a 80 PLUS Bronze or higher power supply with a 750 Watt rating, 500 watts as they recommend isn't enough headroom if you run a i5 like me or an i7.Case ventilation and size- this card is almost 11 inches long and 4.5-5 inches wide so make sure your case can accommodate it Also I recommend at least one intake fan with a filter pulling fresh cool air into the case towards the front of the GPU so it doesn't have to deal with higher case temps in the future.ALL IN ALL: This card is worth the money if you are looking for a long term gaming GPU and is worth the $500 price tag, however if you have the extra +$180 at the time of this review and want something that will last even longer a 980 Ti from MSI would be a good choice, for me when I bought this card the 980ti came out like a week after purchase but this was so worth the money

This card fits into a CM Storm Scout 1 enclosure, which was suited for 270mm cards. This card is 9mm longer.I upgraded my power supply from OCZ 600W to a Corsair 750W. There was only one 6 pin plus 2 pins on my old power supply and the new card required two. I don't know if corsair makes trustworthy power units, but it is what I could get a hold of. Even though the card comes with a 6 pin to 8 pin adapter, I felt the insurance provided by a larger PSU was worth the extra cost. I still don't understand what a 6 pin versus 6 plus 2 pin cord means. There was diagrams showing three 12V cords and the remaining three or five as grounding cords in a diagram. If you do upgrade PSU for your rig use all the new cords and don't try and use older power cords. They may not work properly.I would not get this card if you have a 700 series. I upgraded from a HD 5700 series after saving. I have yet to enable the DSR feature and see how it plays with older games like WoW, batman arkham and TF2. I am eager to see how the benchmark improvements translate to gameplay improvements in more demanding games like LOTR: SoM and DA: I.

I bought this card around a month ago as an upgrade over the EVGA GTX 670 FTW Edition that I had before. It was during the period where 980s were in very short supply and there was a lot of price gouging by 3rd-party sellers and I managed to snag one of these from Amazon at retail price. This past month, I have had literally no problems with this card and I am extremely satisfied with my purchase.Pros:Quiet: the fans on this card completely turn off when the temperature is under 50 C (see note at the bottom). This results in silent normal operation but when the card gets hot, the fans turn on quickly and stabilize the temperature. But they are still no louder than my case fans and I can barely hear the GPU fans while gaming. Additionally, I have not noticed any coil whine that has troubled numerous other 980 and 970 models.Cool: I have not seen the GPU temp exceed 67 C even while playing demanding games like BF4 and AC: Unity at maximum settings. The driver-operated fan manages to maintain this temperature at 50% speed, which is impressive, though the second fan is VBIOS-controlled and could be running at a different speed. Idle temp is around 32 C, which is pretty good for a card whose fans aren't even running at that temperature. The cooling solution is more effective than the blower fan on my old 670 by far.Fast: This is one of the best-performing cards on the market at this time. Boost clocks are 1327 MHz on my card and it can handle everything I throw at it. I'm running BF4 at max graphics except for no antialiasing at 120% resolution scale and I normally get over 100 FPS. I can smoothly play AC: Unity at maximum graphics settings including TXAA without any stuttering or frame drops. Basically this thing can handle everything you can throw at it at 1080p without any problems.Cons:Price??? Not really a con, but $580 isn't cheap. But you get what you pay for and you're getting a lot.MSI Live Update: it doesn't work on my system. I can't get my VBIOS version information or any useful info out of this application.Caveats: not really cons, but things to be careful of.VBIOS: The default video card BIOS that came with my card had a bug where it would say the fan is running at 1% of its max speed even though the fan wasn't actually spinning. A video BIOS update from MSI fixed it, but as far as I know, this BIOS update has to be found on the MSI forum, not via its update utility. The new BIOS also seemed to tweak the fan profile; the fan now starts spinning when the temp reaches 50 C. I vaguely remember that the fan would start at 55 C using the old BIOS. Neither issue is actually problematic as the fans are so effective and they start properly, but it's something to keep in mind: VBIOS update beneficial.HOWEVER, if you plan to use the newer Nvidia drivers, you MUST update your bios as the newer drivers (after 344.16) don't work well with the old bios. This is a BIOS problem, so newer drivers require newer VBIOS.Drivers: I have heard that there are problems with the past few NVidia graphics drivers. I'm running an old version, 344.16, which most people say is stable and has been perfectly stable in my experience. I am using an HDMI connection and those with DisplayPort and UHD screens might have issues with this driver (these appear to be fixed in the latest beta driver 344.80).Size: Make sure you know how long this card is! I bought this card basically on a whim as it was the only one available at a reasonable price. This card is an inch longer than a standard card and might not fit into smaller cases. I was lucky and it just barely fits in my Zalman mid-tower case. Check the specs!Trivia: You get an MSI gaming mousepad along with the video card. It's a nice, large, stable mousepad with plenty of friction for precise mouse movements, but it has a strong plastic smell that fortunately dissipates with time.Overall I could not be happier with my purchase. This video card and the GPU within are great in every respect.