The card

Gigabyte decided to equip their new GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming with the latest version of their own cooler, which is called WindForce 3X 600W. It features five 8mm and one 6mm copper heatpipes. Soldered to the heatpipes, there is a large and dense fin stack which is being cooled by three 80mm fans. 

Overall the cooler is well built and compared to the predecessor the copper base plate looks quite a bit nicer. There is actually a large coper plate, which helps distributing heat evenly to the numerous heatpipes. Sticking to the copper plate we find thermal pads, which are touching the memory chips and VRM area.



The new Gigabyte GTX 980 G1 Gaming is equipped with a very nice and well designed aluminium backplate to prevent bending and it also protects crucial components from potential damage.



A closer look at the PCB shows that Gigabyte equipped its card with an 8+2+2 phase power design. The GPU gets its current from eight phases. Two more are there to handle the memory and the last two take care off the PLL current supply.



The memory chips on the GTX 980 G1 Gaming come from Samsung and carry the model number K4G41325FC-HC28. They are specified to run at 1'750 MHz (7'000 MHz effective).

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Page 1 - Presentation / Specifications	Page 11 - DIRT Showdown
Page 2 - The card	Page 12 - Far Cry 3
Page 3 - Photo Gallery / Delivery	Page 13 - Sleeping Dogs
Page 4 - Test Setup	Page 14 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Page 5 - 3DMark Fire Strike	Page 15 - Metro: Last Light
Page 6 - Unigine Heaven 4.0	Page 16 - GTA V
Page 7 - BattleField 3	Page 17 - Power Consumption
Page 8 - Bioshock Infinite	Page 18 - Temperatures / Noise levels
Page 9 - Crysis 3	Page 19 - Performance/Price & Performance/Watt
Page 10 - Call of Duty Black Ops 2	Page 20 - Conclusion