NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980Ti 6GB SLi Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The GTX 980Ti has recently dropped its price to compete with the latest AMD R9 Fury X graphics card. Reference prices can be as low at £499.99. The two models we had in today for testing were the MSI Gaming GTX 980Ti and Inno3D iChill x3 ultra. The MSI Gaming GTX 980Ti OC is currently available from OverclockersUK for £575.99, in the US, you can get this from Newegg.com for $679.99. This isn’t to be confused with the slightly cheaper LE edition. The Inno3D x3 Ultra GTX 980Ti is currently available from OverclockersUK for £539.99. In the US, it is not available from our recommended retailers, but it is poised to be around $625.

Overview

Well wow… There’s not much to say about this apart from the fact that the performance is just mind-blowing when compared to a single card and it’s a great step to think how well technology has progressed in the last few years and where it is set to go in the new few.

Commenting on the looks of these cards is quite personal, the reference is design is pretty mundane, but it’s functional and looks great in Sli configuration. The MSI card stands out with the vibrant red colours and comparatively short PCB design and the Inno3d card is a huge 3 slot 300mm monster with an innovative modular cleaning design.

As you can imagine, the performance is great. It now dominates the two GPU world alongside the Titan X. If you want the very best in terms of performance from two GTX 980Ti cards, go for the non-reference models; which can be picked up for almost the same amount of money. These models have better-optimised components which offer longer life and higher performance and not to mention the custom cooling designs that will keep the cards cool under pressure.

The only issue I can really see with owning two GTX 980Ti graphics cards is the cost; which isn’t really an issue considering you can almost get two of these for the price of one GeForce Titan X. That’s it, really. There are some minor issues with each, such as the Inno3D model being slightly heavier than I’d like with most of the weight hanging past the PCIe slot and the MSI model being wider than usual, making Sli impossible with rigid bridges with non-matching cards.

When we source an additional Titan X, it will be interesting to see how the three current top performing single GPU cards stack up against each other in SLI/ CrossfireX

Pros

• Outstanding performance
• Extremely competitive price vs performance ratio
• Silent operation at low load levels
• 6GB is just the right amount, for now

Cons

• Drivers proved problematic in some tests

“The GTX 980Ti is a great graphics card on its own, but when you combine the power of two; you’re going to have a heap of fun and the world’s most powerful gaming setup up….ever!”

Thank you to MSI and Inno3D for providing us with the review samples.