Gigabyte GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4GB Video Card Review

Final Thoughts about the Gigabyte GTX 960 G1 Gaming Video Card

Make no mistake about it, the Gigabyte GTX 980 G1 Gaming card is a beast. The GTX 980 G1 Gaming uses the same Windforce 3X cooler that the Gigabyte Titan-Z does and that should provide even more room for higher overclocks. Even with my limited overclocking session, I was able to go above 1500 MHz and push the memory to 8000 MHz. With a little more time and perhaps some voltage tweaks the card could be squeezed for a little more performance.

During the testing, I did not see fan speeds exceed 50% nor did I really hear them. I guess there is a little but of noise, but not so much that you would notice even on an open air test bench. Manually turning up the speeds did yield quite a bit of noise. However, as gamers most of the time we have headsets on or have the speakers cranked so loud that the sounds from games and music tend to drown out everything else. Gigabyte has done a great job with the Windforce cooler in the fact that it is quiet at overclocked load speeds and in my opinion, once inside a case probably won’t be heard at all when using the automatic fan speed.

As of now, there are three versions of the GTX 900 series. The GTX 960 is aimed towards budget minded gamers, the GTX 970 is considered the mainstream GPU, and the GTX 980 is the enthusiast level GPU. The last one being the most expensive. Gigabyte tacks on a few more dollars for their cooler and the actual silicon that goes on the card. The GPUs must past stringent testing in order to make it on to the card, or as Gigabyte likes to call it: “Gauntlet GPU sorting”. Add in the fact the card is part of Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable line, has dual BIOS, and gives users the option of using different connection technologies via Flex display. Not to mention the good out of the box performance and the overclocking potential of this card. Taking all that into consideration I think that if you are going to purchase a GTX 980, then Gigabyte’s GTX 980 G1 Gaming is well worth the 629.99 asking price.