If the cooling doesn’t move you, then perhaps the new programmable lighting solution will. This is completely subjective testing, but with two cards next to each other, the Xtreme Gaming seems quieter than the G1.Gaming. When all the fans are set to the maximum rotation, it is actually a little quieter than what GIGABYTE has offered in the past. The central fan has the ability to spin in the reverse direction as well, not only eliminating dust build up, but aiding in cooling proficiency as well. The fans have a new trick where the central fan spins first, then the two on either side follow as more load is placed on the GPU. As far as air coolers are concerned, this is probably the best on the market as it manages to keep the temperatures low even under the most intense conditions. GIGABYTE’s 600 watt-capable WindForce cooler was an already impressive assembly, but it has been further beefed up and it weighs even more, providing better cooling than before. Over and above that, the most impressive part of the card is the heatsink cooling complex and the RGB LED lighting.

This facilitates overclocking and in conjunction with locked (turbo-free clocking via a third-party tool) frequencies allows for more precise control over clock speeds. What you should note about this mode over and above the expansion of the power draw limit is that the clock speeds are returned to the NVIDIA reference. It also comprises an additional six-pin PCIe power connector that is only utilized when the graphics card is set to LN2 or “Xtreme” mode. This isn’t just in the form of an overclocker’s BIOS which you may switch to via a button. For what is essentially a refresh, GIGABYTE has redesigned most of the card, upgrading the VRM/PWM circuit and giving a nod to extreme overclocking via an LN2 mode. This model has a few notable differences, mainly the cooling solution employed and its performance. As always though, the best of any series comes towards the end of its lifespan. The GTX 980 Ti Xtreme Gaming card is one such refresh product that makes me wish it was made available all the way back when the GTX 980 Ti was initially released. Other vendors have caught up with the G1 card and it’s time for a refresh.

GIGABYTE’s G1.Gaming GTX 980 Ti was the first 980 Ti GPU we reviewed over a year ago, and it may seem strange to see the company release such a component when we are this close to the launch of Pascal GPUs (Q2 2016). There’s little to no need to go over the details of the GTX 980 Ti GPU once more, but suffice to say it remains the fastest GPU on the market, especially when it ships with a massive overclock like this card does.

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