Hardware Looking to buy a Geforce GTX 980 TI

[soulskeeper]

Hi guys, I'm planning to get the HTC Vive VR set and I need a new Graphic card, mine is GeForce GTX 660 TI, I bought about 3 years ago and I need a new one for the VR experience, but when I look at amazon I see all kinds of GTX 980 TI

1. how do I know which one to choose and what each of them good at?

2.how do I know if my system will accept the new graphic card?

 

[Originality]

To know if your system will accept a new graphics card, we need to know if your motherboard has a PCIe x16 slot (if you're using a 660, the answer is yes), what power supply you have, and how much space there is from the back of the case to any obstacles (like a hard drive cage).

If you tell us what case you have, we can try and find that out for you.

As for what's the difference between all the different 980 Ti's, they tend to have slightly different overclocks and cooling systems. I tend to prefer EVGA cards for their coolers and the higher the overclock, the higher the price.

 

[raystriker]

Just sayin': If you have a small case or space constraints, you can also go with the AMD Radeon R9 Fury Nano. (AMD recommends it for 4K and VR experiences). Though its around 15-20 fps slower than the GTX 980 Ti atmost, it should be more than enough for the Vive. Not to mention its super small and kinda power efficient

 

[soulskeeper]

To know if your system will accept a new graphics card, we need to know if your motherboard has a PCIe x16 slot (if you're using a 660, the answer is yes), what power supply you have, and how much space there is from the back of the case to any obstacles (like a hard drive cage).

If you tell us what case you have, we can try and find that out for you.

As for what's the difference between all the different 980 Ti's, they tend to have slightly different overclocks and cooling systems. I tend to prefer EVGA cards for their coolers and the higher the overclock, the higher the price.

my case is Zalman z11 plus and my power supply is Acbel Ipower 85h 750

also there are all kinds of EVGA 980 TI in this link, could you explain what each of them does and which will be the best one?:http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...1448441277&sr=1-2&keywords=geforce+gtx+980+ti



here are some pictures of my rig:

 

[Originality]

If I remember my shorthand, ACX is Active Cooling Extreme (better kind of cooler than the reference cooler), SC is SuperClocked, FTW is For The Win (the second highest overclock they provide, with the potential to go even further than other models), Classified has more power phases for more stability (but same clock as FTW), Kingpin is one up from that and their top end model, BP is backplate (I don't even know), Hybrid is part air cooled, part CLC (closed liquid circuit) cooled, and finally Hydro Copper is all liquid cooled (requires you to make your own liquid cooling circuit).

Personally, I would go for the 980 Ti SC+ ACX 2.0+ w/BP version. It's factory overclocked, has the better cooling, has the backplate preinstalled (whatever that does, protect the PCB maybe?), and is the cheapest on that page.

Now looking at your pictures, it looks like you have around 280-290mm of space for graphics before the cage, and the 980 Ti is about 267mm long, giving you plenty of space (more if you leave the cage empty but I like to plan for potential expansions in the existing case).
As for the PSU, the only review I found on it is in Vietnamese (http://acbel.com.vn/p/review-thu-nghiem-nguon-acbel-ipower-85h-750650.htm) but it sounds like it does the job (handling 690W max at 81% efficiency) on a single rail which isn't bad for such a small brand. In other words, it can handle one 980 Ti no problem (300W + 150W = 450W, so around 240W to spare), although if you wanted to get a second 980 Ti in there for SLI, you would probably need to upgrade to a better PSU (690W - 600W = 90W for the CPU, motherboard and any other parts, which isn't really enough).

Any more questions, feel free to ask.

 

[soulskeeper]

If I remember my shorthand, ACX is Active Cooling Extreme (better kind of cooler than the reference cooler), SC is SuperClocked, FTW is For The Win (the second highest overclock they provide, with the potential to go even further than other models), Classified has more power phases for more stability (but same clock as FTW), Kingpin is one up from that and their top end model, BP is backplate (I don't even know), Hybrid is part air cooled, part CLC (closed liquid circuit) cooled, and finally Hydro Copper is all liquid cooled (requires you to make your own liquid cooling circuit).

Personally, I would go for the 980 Ti SC+ ACX 2.0+ w/BP version. It's factory overclocked, has the better cooling, has the backplate preinstalled (whatever that does, protect the PCB maybe?), and is the cheapest on that page.

Now looking at your pictures, it looks like you have around 280-290mm of space for graphics before the cage, and the 980 Ti is about 267mm long, giving you plenty of space (more if you leave the cage empty but I like to plan for potential expansions in the existing case).
As for the PSU, the only review I found on it is in Vietnamese (http://acbel.com.vn/p/review-thu-nghiem-nguon-acbel-ipower-85h-750650.htm) but it sounds like it does the job (handling 690W max at 81% efficiency) on a single rail which isn't bad for such a small brand. In other words, it can handle one 980 Ti no problem (300W + 150W = 450W, so around 240W to spare), although if you wanted to get a second 980 Ti in there for SLI, you would probably need to upgrade to a better PSU (690W - 600W = 90W for the CPU, motherboard and any other parts, which isn't really enough).

Any more questions, feel free to ask.

Thank you so much, you have been very helpful ^^

and if you know a place that will give me a good discount on Black Friday it will be awesome (who also ships to Israel)

 

[Originality]

Sorry, I only know the British markets. You'd have to look up your local markets or international retailers to find the best deal.