Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 980 GPU Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”] Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980 is a non-reference factory overclocked variant of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 that was reviewed a long time ago. In comparison with the reference edition, the GPU cooler has multiple changes and would appeal to a good deal of end users. The metal backplate and the triple fan casing is one of the changes, but as the card gets opened, you will see a lot of cooling options that would keep this card away from few GPU maker’s non-reference counterparts.

Whether its worth the money or not is your choice, here is the review of the G1 Gaming GTX 980.

[nextpage title=”Packaging, Contents and Specification”] The front packaging has the Gigabyte’s G1 Gaming logo, along with some of the feature listings. Along with the out-of-box-overclocked setting, Gigabyte claims that its WindForce 3X cooling system can dissipate heat from a graphic card that consumes up to 600w. The card is protected with two layers of boxes and a foam blck to prevent any possible physical damage. Its always good to see a product being packed properly to ensure that the card doesn’t get damaged due to transit from the factory to your system. The card is properly packed in an anti-static bag.

Underneath the card, there’s an envelope with an instruction manual, an installation disk and 2 Molex to 8 pin PCIe power adapter. It will seem redundant to include a PCIe power adapter at a time when practically all well known and good enough power supplies have 1 or more 8 pin PCIe connector. Providing an output adapter wouldn’t make much sense either since this card comes with DVI-I, DVI-D, 3x DisplayPort and HDMI. Usually, GPU makers provide either one of the two or both. Maybe Gigabyte and other GPU makers could consider bundling a GPU support which can be used in many mid towers.

But there have been times when users want a good looking case badge. Motherboard makers provide a metal finish case badge. Noctua does the same with its CPU coolers and some case makers do the same. I am sure all VGA card makers should be able to do the same. Braggin’ power!!

The specifications are as follows:

[nextpage title=”Closer Look”] Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980 4G card is a longer, broader card [312mm (L) x 129 mm (H)] compared to the reference counterpart [266.7 mm (L) x 111.15 mm (H)] and a noticeably bit heavier card compared to the reference version. The GPU also uses a 3 fan cooling setup with a long 5x 8mm thick copper heat pipe and 1x 6mm thick copper heat pipe with a big fin stack design covered by a metal shroud like we’ve seen with Zotac GTX 780Ti Extreme AMP! Edition. Unlike the reference version, the card has a full metal backplate and shroud for the heatsink and the fans. The “WindForce” logo has a blue LED backlit which can have either solid or different effects  that can be changed via Nvidia GeForce experience’s ‘LED Visualizer’.

The GPU’s output connectors are as same as the reference GTX 980– 2x dual-link DVI, 3x DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0. The card requires additional power via 2x 8 pin PCIe power connector.

The card’s design looks pretty good to look at. Even the backplate has passive vents done in the way that it compliments the shroud’s design. Along with a total of 6x copper heat pipes, there’s a special fan design that enhances cooling according to Gigabyte VGA.

Once the heatsink is removed, the internal PCB shows that the Maxwell core is surrounded with 8x SK Hynix H5GQ4H24MFR memory ICs, 8 phase Magic R15 phase, along with all Japanese solid caps, low resistance MOSFETs and ferrite core metal chokes.

[nextpage title=”Test Setup and Methodology”] Hardware BBQ gets a very minimum support from hardware manufacturers since we have a no-strings-attached policy, and ended up blacklisting even tier 1 brands for improper misconduct. But thanks to a handful of companies who value the importance and benefits of providing components for the test bench, we do what we’re good at with the resources at hand. I would like to thank:

• Gigabyte India for providing Gigabyte 890GPA UD3H Rev 1.0 motherboard
• Kingston Taiwan for providing hardware support with memory kits and SSD drive.
• WD India for providing WD 300GB HLFS Velociraptor Hard Drive and 4x WD Red 3TB NAS drives
• Coolermaster India for providing Coolermaster GX450 RS-450-ACAA-D3 Power Supply

Test Setup for:	Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 980 4G
Processor + CPU Cooler+ MB	Intel i7 4790K + Noctua NH-U14S + Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming GT
GPU Drivers	Nvidia GeForce 350.05 WHQL Drivers
Memory	Kingston 16GB KHX24C11T3K2/16X 2400MHz DDR4 Memory
Primary OS drive	SanDisk Extreme 240GB SSD + WD Red 3TB WD30EFRX NAS Drive
Power Supply	Corsair TX750
Chassis	Lian Li A70F Full Tower PC Case

The Benchmarks are as follows:

Futuremark Benchmarks:

• 3DMark (2013): Sky Diver, Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme Presets
• 3DMark 11: Performance and Xtreme Preset
• 3Dmark Vantage: High and Performance Preset

OpenGL Benchmarks:

• Cinebench 11.5 and Cinebench R15
• Unigine Benchmark: Heavens 3.0 with 3 presets and Sanctuary v2.3 2 presets

Game Benchmarks:

• Batman: Arkham City with 3 presets
• Hitman Absolution with 3 presets
• Metro 2033 with 2 presets
• Shadows of Mordor with 4 presets
• Sleeping Dogs with 3 presets
• Sniper Elite V2 with 3 presets
• Dirt 3 with 4 Presets

Overclocked Performance Analysis:

• 3DMark: Sky Diver, Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme
• Shadows of Mordor with 4 presets

Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980 4G’s core has 1228 MHz base clock/ 1329 MHz boost clock and memory clock at 1753 MHz. I was able to overclock the card further and get it to stable in all benchmarks with 1350MHz (9.93% overclocked) base clock/ 1451 boost clock (9.17%) overclock and 1943 MHz memory clock (10.83%) boost.

If you compare the factory overclocked G1 Gaming with reference GTX 980, there is a 9.05% boost. But when comparing the manual overclocked G1 Gaming GTX 980 against reference counterpart with the base clock of 1126 MHz, that’s a total of 19.89% boost in base clock speed.

[nextpage title=”3DMark (2013) Benchmark”]

Judging by the graphics score in all the above tests between the reference GTX 980 and Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980, there is a very noticeable boost in performance.

[nextpage title=”3DMark 11 Benchmark”]

Same is the case with 3DMark 11.

[nextpage title=”3DMark Vantage Benchmark”]

In this older DirectX 10 based benchmark, G1 Gaming GTX 980 takes a very good advantage of the core boost compared to its reference counterpart.

[nextpage title=”OpenGL Benchmark Cinebench 11.5″]

There’s 23.87% boost in performance between these GTX 980 cards.

[nextpage title=”OpenGL Benchmark Cinebench R15″]

Cinebench R15 reflects 18.46% performance boost.

[nextpage title=”Heavens 3.0 Benchmark”] [nextpage title=”Sanctuary v2.3 Benchmark”] [nextpage title=”Heavens 4.0 Benchmark”] [nextpage title=”Game Benchmark: Batman- Arkham City”]

There is a very good boost in performance observed in Batman: Arkham Asylum (24.63% in Preset 1. 23.87% boost in preset 2 and 22.48% with preset 3).

[nextpage title=”Game Benchmark: Hitman- Absolution”]

The factory overclocked card didn’t make any difference against GTX 980 reference version for Hitman Absolution.  Strange!
[nextpage title=”Game Benchmark: Metro 2033″]

 

For Metro 2033, there’s barely a boost in performance between the reference and the non-reference GTX 980.

[nextpage title=”Game Benchmark: Shadows of Mordor”]

The low preset takes a good advantage of the factory overclocked graphic card, therefore giving a boost of up to 21.87%. In its ultra setting (preset 4), there’s only 7.49% boost.

[nextpage title=”Game Benchmark: Sleeping Dogs”]

For some reason, Sleeping Dogs didn’t perform the way I hoped it would. There’s a 7.57% gain with preset 3.

[nextpage title=”Game Benchmark: Sniper Elite V2″]

A 7.14% boost is observed when compared against the Reference GTX 980 but only in Sniper Elite V2’s low preset.

[nextpage title=”Game Benchmark: Dirt 3″]

[nextpage title=”OC Performance Analysis- 3DMark Benchmark”]

Between the factory overclocked and manually overclocked speed with G1 Gaming GTX 980, Fire Strike Extreme reflects 11.46% performance boost, and in 4K based Fire Strike Ultra, there’s a 10.51% boost.
[nextpage title=”OC Performance Analysis- Shadows of Mordor”]

With Shadow of Mordor, Preset 1 gains 5.70% boost in performance, while its ultra setting (preset 4) reflects 9.99% boost.

[nextpage title=”Conclusion”]

Gigabyte has made some significant changes in the GPU, one of them is the entire cooling system and even more overclocking headroom for those who want to get more performance manually. At 37 degrees closed case ambient temperatures with 52% fan speed, the temperatures barely cross 56 degrees celsius. But it’s strange to see Gigabyte did not bump the memory clock speed at the same time, considering the price for this card.

The passive sink design is a very good one, even better compared to the non-reference coolers some manufacturers have made. It may seem a bit of an overkill for a factory overclocked GTX 980, but pushing it manually and increasing power delivery will require cool combination of active and passive cooling for proper dissipation. Anything more than 65% fan speed just makes it easier to hear even in closed case setup.

The card is also a good looking card and nicely design backplate. The card can be seen in full glory horizontally mounted motherboard in PC cases.

Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980 is honoured with a 3-year warranty. The graphic card carries a premium, but considering the difference and the potential overclocking one can do along with excellent passive cooler design, you get what you pay for.

Another con is more of a local issue. At the time of writing, you will not find this GPU sold online. Gigabyte VGA is a new entry in India, so it has a lot of catching up to do in an already crowded GeForce GPU market.

India	US	UK	France
–	$569.99	£509.40	EUR 579.90

[nextpage title=”Online Purchase Links”]

India

NA

US

UK

France