EVGA GTX980 classified hydro copper or reference 970 sli

[steverebo]

I'm stuck with a decision to make for my new watercooling build, either the GTX980 classified hydro copper or a pair of reference gtx 970's in sli with ek waterblocks.

My budget is £700

 

[Kyiagi]

id go for 2x970 according to reviews you would get a bit more juice out of them.

 

[WillSK]

you'd get better performance out of 2x 970s but with a 980 you can always add another card in the future.

 

[steverebo]

With my budget I can only afford reference cards for the 970's which are normally built with poor quality parts

 

[Kushiro]

well you may be spared from the coil whine that has been plaguing the AIB gtx 970's, since you are going for the reference ones.

Personally I go for the 2 970's, seeing as how your budget is only £700, unless of course you do not really care for value. The 970s are supposedly built with an inferior power delivery to the 980's.

 

[Kaapstad]

I'm stuck with a decision to make for my new watercooling build, either the GTX980 classified hydro copper or a pair of reference gtx 970's in sli with ek waterblocks.

My budget is £700

Your realise that the EVGA 980 Classified and Hydro Copper are two different cards.

The former is air cooled and mostly aimed at people who want to go for extreme overclocking/benching.

The latter is watercooled and also used for overclocking/benching.

You can use both for gaming but this is a huge waste of money as these cards are only a little faster than a normal GTX 980 and in games you would be hard pressed to notice.

If your main interest is gaming then SLI 970s are the way to go.

You also mentioned reference GTX 970s, you can get them from Overclockers UK but you may find they are more expensive than non reference GTX 970s.

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

NOT ONLY THE REFERENCE 970s have coilwhines. In fact a friend of mine bought the windforce 970 and it had coilwhine so it returned it and got the STRIX version. The coilwhine was higher pitched than the windforce one

 

[nepas]

errrrr,there is NO hydro classified.


(What Kaap said)

 

[steverebo]

If you check evga's website the 980 hydrocopper card is the classy with a waterblock and they sell the exact waterblock seperately for the classified 980

 

[Kaapstad]

If you check evga's website the 980 hydrocopper card is the classy with a waterblock and they sell the exact waterblock seperately for the classified 980

I think you are very wrong on that one.

If you go to their website and check more closely they are totally different.

The Classified has a much bigger PCB and also two 8 pin power connectors compared to two 6 pin power connectors on the other card. There are probably other differences too but the two I listed stand out in the pics.

 

[steverebo]

didnt notice that, hmmmm perhaps I am wrong but all the specs on evga are exactly the same, boost clock memory clock ect.

 

[Kaapstad]

didnt notice that, hmmmm perhaps I am wrong but all the specs on evga are exactly the same, boost clock memory clock ect.

I noticed that too, I think EVGA are being a little bit naughty with this as they seem to be trying to make it look like people would be buying a watercooled Classified.

From what I have learned about watercooling, it is a bad move to buy a GPU with a waterblock pre installed. It is far better to test it properly on air before deciding to go down the water route.

Also fitting the blocks yourself means you know it is done properly.

I found fitting my first waterblock to a GPU was quite intimidating but fortunately Tom had done a very good video on how to fit a block to a Titan. Now I am well into double figures for fitting GPU waterblocks and it does not bother me at all doing them 4 at a time.

 

[Asus11]

you could of probably gone for 2 x 980s from scan for £350each and forgot about the watercooling