Well done MSI

Please note before you read on: here is mainly about the volume of graphics cards. I'm also on power consumption, support, speed, product quality, etc., but the main focus is in the soundscape.
If that is of no interest to you, you are warned before you fret at the end about the reading and then write to me any postings why I am concentrating on the volume, or that such cards must naturally be noisy. I know that this graphics card from a particular performance must be loud, it's all about, which is louder. For people who attach great importance to the noise and still do not know which card to take, this review may help a little. In addition, about 600 EUR for a graphics card is not Peanuts, therefore it should be carefully considered.

Since I in this review on both graphics cards equal eingehe (comparison), I will publish it on both product pages. Therefore, please do not be surprised if someone finds it twice.

I upgraded from an ATI Radeon HD6850 (SCS3). This is a complete passive card without any fan. Since the maximum resolution is already at 2560x1600, the one can imagine how much this was in a game with a resolution of 2560x1440 to its knees. When z. B. COH2 itself makes it particularly noticeable.

As the "Travel" began ... Some time ago I read about the new GTX 980 (quite by accident) and I thought to myself, this is it.

- Low power consumption in idle mode and under full load
- Quiet Office mode (my use = 90% Office / 10% Games, but if Games then with good graphics resolution)
- Enough power to have every now and then times to play a few games and even joy in the graphics resolution
- Not too expensive was a premise, but unfortunately I could not wish to meet me :-(
- No more ATI (just wanted to try something else)
- And by the way a little good for the future prepared to be (eg next generation DirectX and enough power for even as many years.)

I do not buy new products continuously, but just wait until I find a suitable to my needs part, which is also a long-time companion. So then I try to get by as long as possible.

Well, in my opinion, almost all united in these graphics cards. Now still the best "for my needs" pick out!

So several weeks me informed. In particular, the contribution of CB (H) was very interesting. Since 10 GTX graphics cards are compared. I was interested in particular the above graphics cards, EVGA arrived 1st place due to the heavenly support, power consumption and more speed.

And so I ordered first the EVGA and was lucky that I was able to extend the warranty to 5 years for free. Class thing, which in turn speaks for the great support and good quality. And while we're at the support, even on the box is in English, that in the event of a product defect, you "should not" turn to the distributors, but directly to the company. EVGA (have branch in DE). Know it so that producers first try this shift to the dealer.

The card was extremely well and securely packaged. Here were advertising material from EVGA, the graphics card, 2 power adapter for the video card, a DVI adapter, manual and CD. Even the packaging and the type of packaging suggested that one has since bought something good.

The map is impeccable from a processing perspective. Everything properly. So built directly into my computer and started. No Problem. Already installed the driver from nvidia and off we went.

The card is idle no noises or other, but behaves extremely quiet. So just a few games (Men of War, Warhammer Retribution, Rome II) run :-) under the motto: "Let's see what the so-can".

The map is pleasantly fast, and all of the games could be playing properly in highest image quality Range. Then I Company of Heroes 2 (challenging game) played a little longer, so as a test. Without background music, just with normal game sounds and dialogues (as always). The card runs for about 30 seconds at some point, and I hear the fan turn softly. The symphony rose on ... And suddenly I think: Wow, what's that? That does not stop yes.
Because the fans have even reported so right. However, what most bothered me was the sound frequency of the fans, I compare it somehow with slightly high-frequency wind turbine. It's a little high-pitched sound and bugged me mightily.
Until about 1400-1500 rpm, the sound is more disposed to suffer, both the volume ago as well as the sound frequency. But after 1500 revolutions (and that are using the card in current games quickly reach) is the tone in a kind of tweeter with upside potential (say exaggerated). I was moderately disturbed it. Playing (and I have tried it several times on different days) I've heard it right out there and it bothered me as background noise. That was not what I expected from a video card GTX 980 and the statements on the Internet!

My PC is not insulated, but the ventilation is well positioned. All fans (4x 92mm, 2x 120mm, 1x 140mm) including heatsinks are from Noctua and still throttled (all run at about 500 rpm when in terms of temperature necessary to rotate the even higher, which has so far never happened, as no overclocking). My CPU is in idle 32 degrees. So I have a very quiet PC in office use. And that you have to hear the fan of a graphics card at maximum performance, it is also clear. But not so. Sorry, could not.

So I ordered the MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G.
The packaging is neat from the outside and certainly, only the valence comes as the EVGA not really the customer over. In additions, the same is almost there as the EVGA (power adapter less and no promotional material such as stickers, stickers, etc.). With EVGA I had the feeling that I would get more for the money. But well, is the packaging, so on.

Graphics card makes use of a processing perspective, a very good impression. Nothing to complain about.

So installed and tried quickly. Speed-wise, it is slightly slower than the EVGA what was to be expected. The is not as high clocked, has, however, if necessary, more overclocking potential than the EVGA because two 4-pin power adapter connections are available, with the EVGA there are two 3-pin connectors. Who is more interested in the speed, below are more results in direct comparison.

The same scenario as with EVGA played through and here you can hear the fan start up (not a big difference in the low-speed range) as the EVGA. And eventually reach the fan the critical state of EVGA, but where are the turbines? No turbines. The map is definitely quieter than the EVGA. I have raced to 1700 revolutions and of course the fans are loud, but never so strong as under the EVGA. It's just a different tone, more of a deeper tone. At 1700 rpm, I found the volume of msi about as loud as the EVGA at 1400-1500 revolutions. This noise I can live with, especially since it is only in games.

At the end I was disappointed as the had spoken to me at the beginning EVGA more. Super friendly and dedicated support, product value is given, trust my part in the enterprise, 5 years guarantee ... But the turbines, which was not at all.

Here I am again a brief comparison of the two graphics cards:

SUPPORT
- EVGA: Super, super support. 5 year guarantee speak even 10 years for himself, on request and payment. Have 2 x called there, very friendly and good advice on both occasions. Again and again.
- MSI: 2 year warranty. From MSI Support I do not expect much, it would, however, not bad talk. If card is defective pick, from the home and when it repaired send it back. Nice, but is compared to EVGA rather therefore as a gap sensor.

PROCESSING
- EVGA: Very well made, card was impeccable. 5 Stars. Edges cleanly processed, etc.
- MSI: Even 5 star, class processing. Nothing to add or objectionable.

CARD SIZE
- EVGA: Smaller than the MSI. Go rather to the length. Good form, should make less difficulty than the MSI in housing because of space problems. Requires 2 Slot places.
- MSI: Bigger than the EVGA. Higher and longer. Be sure to refer to the manufacturer's website and check dimensions. Can be tight. Requires also 2 slots.

ÜBERTAKTUNGSPOTENZIALL
- EVGA: Can also be overclocked somewhat. Is however limited by the only presence of only 2x 3-pin power connectors. With Tool PrecisionX easy and safe to overclock. Disadvantage: settings are not stored on the card, you have to leave the tool running in the background.
- MSI: Can higher than the EVGA overclocking, limitation is only the cooling. By 2x 4-pin power connectors for more open party. By Tool MSI Afterburner (one of the trendiest Overclockingtools the net) easy to overclock. Also, the tool must be running in the background, otherwise settings will not be applied.
I myself do not over clocke, it knows only the testing and have experienced it in the course of information gathering.

FANS & soundscape
- EVGA: Both fans have a diameter of 92 mm. From about 1500 revolutions give the fans an unpleasant for me loud high frequency sound. When playing the annoying run in office mode that does not (until 60 degrees). Both fans run at together and walk together again. Once the temperature drops below 60 degrees, the fan go quickly. Very convenient. Fans can also be self-regulate (create your own temperature / rotation curve). However, the program PrecisonX must always run in the background (can be minimized in the system tray as an icon). I had a curve where recordings fans activated at 80 degrees about 30% of revolutions ride. Thus, it was not so loud, but it was a temporary solution, because the 80 degrees are within easy reach (higher temperatures are not healthy for the map) and the tool must be active in the background. Were it not for the MSI card, I might have taken this compromise in buying.
- MSI: The fans each have a diameter of 100 mm, which speaks for the pleasant background noise. Super work MSI. Since you have conjured up something nice. From 60 degrees, the fans run at, but independently. Depends on what is being claimed more (GPU or memory) goes to the appropriate fan. It may be that only one fan running. If the temperature drops below 60 degrees, the cooling fans continue to here, ie that do not go directly from like the EVGA, but only when the temperature of 50 degrees is reached. And is only the fan of the GPU from the other is still running 20-30 seconds after until a certain temperature is reached (about Tools when this temperature is measured and displayed, at least not that I know of). However, up to 50 degrees to run at lower revolutions and I hear the barely. Some users become annoyed, I read on the Internet that do not originate directly (as in the EVGA). I think it's quite OK, this additional 30-60 seconds to invest to bring the hardware back to temperature. Perhaps MSI will change with a Bios when I can not live with that. It was not until about 1700 revolutions, the fans are clearly audible, but which do not fall unpleasant. Sounds like the EVGA at 1500 revolutions. Again, as with EVGA may be removed with tools the fan control. With MSI Afterburner can create temperature curves and bring the fans under control, however, so that only the GPU fan are driven (not memory-fan). With the tool MSI Fan Controll both fans can be controlled manually, but here are missing the temperature curves. Since MSI must rework.

SPEED
- EVGA: Clearly this card has the edge because that is simply clocked higher. Below my results are shown.
- MSI: Slightly less frames, for more rest in the box. Everyone has to decide for themselves what is important. I can do without the few frames, and if necessary I could if necessary. the card slightly overclock and already the MSI would have the advantage. What the fans spin then, one would have to look.

POWER CONSUMPTION
- EVGA: Requires less power. The card has been basically built for this performance plus a bit of tuning Feeling so you feel even to have brought out a bit more (hunter instinct). In office and idle mode, the card requires 7 watts less than the MSI with me. This is due to the fact that the EVGA only has a total of 6 power-pin connectors. Under load the card consumes about 4 watts more than the MSI.
- MSI: In my eyes a real overclocking graphics card with enough potential. The power supply for this project is available. Depending on how far you go, you would have to think about a better cooling. Needs some more power in the office and idle mode, as a whole are 8 power-pin connectors available (makes me at 10 hours / day use, which is certainly exaggerated, EUR 7 a year and therefore can live because more calm in the box is). Under load the card consumes less power with me, which surprised me, because to the article by CB would have the MSI consumes a little more.

Cheeping
- EVGA: Very rarely, I once had slight Spulenfiepen. It was never the Office mode or while playing, but only at certain benchmarks and only absolutely minimal (had to close and go). I felt as not disturbing, especially since there were maybe 2 times
- MSI: not so long in use, however, so far absolutely no Spulenfiepen. Hope it stays that way.

IMAGE QUALITY AND STABILITY
- EVGA: Super, all the best. Nothing to complain about. Was also to be expected. In office use no driver crashes or otherwise. The Games run reliably, as it should. Even in office use the encoding of movies using the GPU goes fast. Madness! Even with Photoshop work is enjoyable.
- MSI: exactly the same as at EVGA. Card also runs extremely reliable and stable, and the image quality is perfect. Games I play only with Ultras, ie, with the highest settings. Everything runs smoothly and well.

Those who want to get deeper into the subject fan noise, you should look to CB (H). There is an article about how og 10 GTX980 cards and there are videos where you can listen to the cards at idle and under load. I can confirm that the sound difference between the evga- and the MSI graphics card in the video true. I did it first does not believe, therefore, I bought the first EVGA.

The Palit Jetstream Super was also interesting for me as well as very quiet. Though
- The power consumption under load was again not so attractive
- Only mini display ports available (not a normal display port)
- The size of me (requires 3 slots) a little put off
- And in competition with MSI the impossibility that the fan can be controlled separately from one another

Who is interested in comparing the CB 10 GTX980 graphics cards, here is the address: *** computerbase.de/2014-11/geforce-gtx-980-test-vergleich-round-up (please the asterisk by www. replace, because the link is otherwise deleted from Amazon).

Everything else such as connectivity, the Clocks, dimensions, etc. of the two cards can be taken from the manufacturer's side.

Here are my results in a direct comparison.

Speed

Geeks3D GPUTest 0.5.0 (results in FPS)
- Furmark (fullscreen 2560x1440, 4x MSAA) = EVGA: 65 / msi: 62
- Tessmark (fullscreen 2560x1440, 4x MSAA) x64 / x64 = EVGA: 259 / msi: 246
- Tessmark x8 / x8 (2560x1440 fullscreen) = EVGA: 1152/1099
- PixMark Piano (2560x1440 fullscreen) = EVGA: 16/15

Company of Heroes 2 (benchmark within the program itself)
- 1920x1080 (all settings on maximum) = EVGA: 55 / msi: 49
- 2560x1440 (all settings on maximum) = EVGA: 52 / msi: 46

POWER CONSUMPTION
- Idle (socket PC without monitor) = EVGA: 56 W / msi: 63
- GPU utilization (socket PC without monitor) = EVGA: 255 / msi: 251

VOLUME (measured by Samsung S4, something else I did not ;-)
- Idle (PC is idle, all cool and not stressed out) = EVGA: 30 db / msi: 30 db
- Stress Test Pixmark Piano (8x MSAA, 1024x640, 4 minutes) = EVGA: 38 db / msi: 38 db
- Stress Test Pixmark Piano (8x MSAA, 2560x1440, 6 minutes) = EVGA: 47 db / msi: 42 db

Who might still want to know what hardware constellation I, Here are the facts:

- Motherboard: Intel DZ77GA-70K
- CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v2 quad-core (3500 MHz)
- Samsung SSD 850 256GB per
- 16 GB DDR3-1600 Dual Channel (Corsair Vengeance)
- MSI GTX980 gaming 4G

As you can see, I have decided with a heavy heart for the MSI.
The 04G-P4-2983-KR EVGA is a great graphics card that could only tolerate a better fan concept. This reflects my opinion and my perception of loudness.
Also, the company has convinced me (class support, quality awareness, customer service). In the future, I will look at demand for products from EVGA and give them another chance. Keep it up guys.

The card from MSI is simply managed. They have an intelligent cooling concept developed and allows plenty of overclocking potential. The holey manual fan control is annoying for some users, but I'm assuming that MSI will REPLACE quickly. I am very pleased with the card and for people who appreciate a small graphics card soundscape value, I can highly recommend this.

In my opinion, the non-reference cards GTX 980 distinguished from one another that the manufacturers mainly on the of which newly developed ventilation concept conceptualize the performance of graphics cards based on the point. Ie. How much overclocking can withstand my ventilation concept?