Conclusion

At stock clocks and equipped with the EK-FC980 GTX TF5 watercooler, scores were on average 1.48 percent higher in FullHD, 2.52 percent in 1440p and 4.0 percent in UHD. At 1080p Assasin's Creed Unity shows the highest increase in performance with 5.46 percent difference. Other than that there is also Watch Dogs, showing 4.47 percent difference. A closer look at the two theoretical benchmarks 3DMark and Unigine Heaven 4.0 reveals almost no performance increase for the watercooled version.

Switching to 1440p resolution we see that Assasin's Creed Unity benefits by 7.68 percent from the watercooler, it's 5.51 percent with Watch Dogs, 5.39 percent in Crysis 3, and 4.46 in Far Cry 4. Once we set the resolution to UHD resolution differences can become even larger. Running Crysis 3 we found the card perform 14.3 percent faster when watercooled. In the case of Assasin's Creed Unity there is 10.26 percent difference and runnin Far Cry 4 the performance benefit is 6.51 percent.

We also had a closer look at temperatures. Under full load and running at stock clocks the watercooled card doens't reach more than 43°C, whereas the aircooled version hits 72°C. Overclocked, the watercooled card didn't go past 46°C, whereas the aircooled version ran at 82°C. On another note we have to mention that adding a waterblock to this card makes for as near as not difference also concerning overclocking results. Since our particular sample of the MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming 4G overclocks excellently even aircooled, there is nothing much more to squeeze out of this card when it's running alsmost 40°C cooler with a waterblock on top. 

Last but not least we want to add a few thoughts. Putting the results into persepective shows, that the MSI GTX 980 Gaming ships with an exellent aircooler. At 1440p and above we see a measurable difference, when we equip this card with a watercooler. Nevertheless this difference is quite small and if it's only about the performance benefit, we would not spend our money on a watercooler. At the end of the day there are three reasons, why you want to put a waterblock on a graphics card: temperatures, noise level of the entire system and looks. Watercooling a graphics card allows you to run your GPU at much lower temperatures and that makes it possible to run all fans in your system at lower rotation speeds and therefore reduce system noise. Apart from that watercooled systems can be built in ways which make them look truly beautiful and in the end it's these three reasons combined, which make watercooling a card so tempting. The fact that you get some additional performance from your card is the cherry on top of your already delicious cake. 

The EK-FC980 GTX TF5 we've used, is going to set you back 107.95 Euro (price 12.03.2015). This piece of hardware is definitely not cheap, but then on the other hand no enthusiast grade hardware is cheap.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 11 - Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Page 2 - Test Setup	Page 12 - Thief
Page 3 - 3DMark Fire Strike	Page 13 - GRID Autosport
Page 4 - Unigine Heaven 4.0	Page 14 - Sleeping Dogs
Page 5 - Borderlands - The Pre-Sequel	Page 15 - Metro Last Light
Page 6 - BattleField 4	Page 16 - Assassin’s Creed Unity
Page 7 - Watch Dogs	Page 17 - Far Cry 4
Page 8 - Tomb Raider	Page 18 - Temperatures
Page 9 - Sniper Elite 3	Page 19 - Index
Page 10 - Crysis 3	Page 20 - Conclusion