GTX 980 Ti overclocked overheating

I plan to have a computer with a 6-core i7 cpu OC, 16 GB RAM at 2800 mhZ, a 1000W PSU, and a GTX 980 Ti overclocked by DS.
I plan to play at 1440p at monitor refresh rates higher than 60 hz.

I want the 980 Ti overclocked because in reviews like this one, http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-ti-review
the fps dips down to the 40s on rare occasions in one of the games, and I don't like that, I know I'm spoiled lol.
My question is how much does DS overclock video cards (980 Ti) and can i expect the same amount of performance as it says in that article? How much hotter will the card get if its OC, i know its already pretty power hungry by itself :D

so if i was overclocking the GPU, would it be a good idea to get one of those expensive hydrolux water cooling systems, or is the stock GPU cooler enough?

there's only so much performance you're going to get out of one 980ti depending on the game, resolution and settings.  1440p on max settings for games like: Witcher 3, Far cry 4, GTA V, you're going to see dips into the high 20's at times.  it doesn't matter what kind of oc you've got going.  the 980ti reference card ships at near its max power to begin with.  you can expect to oc the gpu about 25% and the memory another 10-15% on stock cooling, perhaps a little more on dedicated custom wc loop.  you might be able (under these circumstances) to squeeze some (in the 30's) better minimum frame performance from today's most demanding games at max 1440p settings.  custom cards from vendors offer beefier boards, vrm's and capacitors, in some cases (see EVGA's latest claims) better binned chips that potentially offer better performance.  however, don't expect to maintain 60 FPS at max 1440p settings in EVERY game without any dips in performance on even a cherry-picked chip on a custom pcb with a custom water-cooling loop dedicated to the entire video card.    

if you want that kind of performance you're going to have to shell out for another card in sli.  and sli has it's own set of problems.  sure, you can get up to 90% scalability from the second card these days, but that performance isn't guaranteed for every game.  and even if the software developer supports sli and does a halfway decent job of optimizing the game for sli, there always seems to be some kind of performance hit (unexpected hitching/freezing/lockups/artifacts/crashing/etc.). 

to sum up, generally speaking you should theoretically be able to achieve higher oc's with custom cards under a high quality water cooling solution.  i personally wouldn't advocate over-volting air-cooled reference cards.  stick to just tweaking the clock speeds.   

not what i said.  of course you should oc even a stock reference 980ti.  it's made to do so.  what i said was not to mess with the voltage on a stock-cooled reference card.  just mess with the gpu and memory clocks.  if you don't understand the difference you should spend some time familiarizing yourself with overclocking from several easy-to-find guides on the internet. 

as far as cooling goes:  when you buy a custom card from a vendor (like Asus or Gigabyte) that uses their own cooling solution (typically using a heat pipe/multiple fan config) they typically dump heat INTO the case, as opposed to the reference Nvidia cards that use a blower style cooling system that forces hot air to the rear of the card and OUT of the case.  you might (depending on the case design) have to rethink how hot air is circulated and expelled from the case going with a custom video card.  this means you might have to reorient the existing case fans, add more fans, add higher performing fans, remove unused hard drive cages that block air flow, etc. in order to optimize (you don't what all that hot air from your video card being dumped onto your cpu) entire system cooling.

as for performance in games, it's always going to depend on the individual game and how well it's been optimized compared to how your system has been set up. you might get max (all) settings at 1440p from a single gtx 980ti, while on other games you might have to fiddle with some (or all) of the settings to play it stable.  there's nothing wrong with 40 fps to be honest.  most people can't even tell the difference between 40 and 60 fps.  more important in my mind is stuttering.  once you achieve a consistent good fps (i.el. 40'ish) the whole experience can be ruined by micro-stuttering (which is common with multi-card setups in some games/game settings)  i'm saying you're going to see dips in fps (and overall performance) at certain times and under certain conditions regardless of the rig's set up.    

you're paying DS to perform a service for you.  that's why you pay the premium on these systems they build.  i would tell them specifically what your needs and expectations are.  they should be able to configure a stable, properly cooled, system to perform to your specifications/expectations.  if they can't or won't then they don't deserve your money.  of course, you have to have realistic expectations and manage them accordingly.       

Originally posted by funeralpyre88 Hmm.. so if I understand overclocking correctly, the 980 Ti can be overclocked to a certain point without changing the voltage(with stock cooling), and if I wanted to go beyond that, I would have to increase the voltage(and would probably need better cooling/water cooling).

  that's correct.  there are two clocks (the gpu and the memory) that can be adjusted independent of the voltage.  increasing the voltage produces more heat and wear (hence the need for better cooling) on the gpu than just increasing clock speeds.  increase the clock speeds as much as you can while monitoring the heat/fan speeds you're comfortable with, and that still maintain stability.  you can use a free program like EVGA Precision X or MSI Afterburner to change the clock speeds from the desktop. 


Edited by db188 - 04 Aug 2015 at 2:38pm