Conclusion
Initially we went into this review with a bit of apprehension. When taken at face value, EVGA’s GTX 980 Hybrid is an awesome-looking card that should have the capability to reach some impressive performance heights. However, as we’ve seen in the past good intentions tend to be ignored as interesting variants of popular GPUs receive spectacularly higher price tags. Luckily that didn’t happen this time around.
While the GTX 980 Hybrid’s $649 price certainly puts it in the upper echelons of the current GPU market, it actually represents something of a good value. In many scenarios its framerates almost evenly split the difference between a reference GTX 980 and NVIDIA’s ultra expensive TITAN X. Raw numbers point to the Hybrid being a good 15 to 20 percent faster than a bone stock GTX 980; that’s a difference even the most jaded enthusiast will feel.
Performance is just one aspect of this card though. Due to its integrated water cooling, the GTX 980 Hybrid attains some of the lowest temperature numbers we have seen to date. That translated directly into true Boost speeds that hovered around the 1430MHz mark which is a good 200MHz higher than either of our reference cards are able to achieve on their best days.
The water cooled nature of this card has other tertiary benefits as well. While EVGA doesn’t unlock anything spectacular for overclockers (+87mV and +25% for the voltage and Power Limit respectively), our sample hit some impressive levels, running at 1620MHz for hours on end without the smallest hiccup. As you can imagine, the card is also very, very quiet due to the 120mm fan running alongside the low-RPM blower.
There are so many positive points about the EVGA GTX 980 Hybrid that its potential downfalls may be overlooked. From a compatibility standpoint, there shouldn’t be any problem getting this card to fit into nearly any case on the market. However, any system that’s already been equipped with an All in One cooler may find itself with some limitations when installing the Hybrid since there are only so many accessible 120mm ports on some cases.
With the GTX 980 Hybrid, EVGA has created an awesome graphics card that performs at an extremely high level, runs cool, grants acoustic-minded individuals a quiet environment and provides an impressive amount of overclocking headroom. It may not be able to perform up to the level of a TITAN X, EVGA’s iteration costs significantly less while still delivering some of the highest framerates around. What more is there to ask for?
Conclusion
Initially we went into this review with a bit of apprehension. When taken at face value, EVGA’s GTX 980 Hybrid is an awesome-looking card that should have the capability to reach some impressive performance heights. However, as we’ve seen in the past good intentions tend to be ignored as interesting variants of popular GPUs receive spectacularly higher price tags. Luckily that didn’t happen this time around.
While the GTX 980 Hybrid’s $649 price certainly puts it in the upper echelons of the current GPU market, it actually represents something of a good value. In many scenarios its framerates almost evenly split the difference between a reference GTX 980 and NVIDIA’s ultra expensive TITAN X. Raw numbers point to the Hybrid being a good 15 to 20 percent faster than a bone stock GTX 980; that’s a difference even the most jaded enthusiast will feel.
Performance is just one aspect of this card though. Due to its integrated water cooling, the GTX 980 Hybrid attains some of the lowest temperature numbers we have seen to date. That translated directly into true Boost speeds that hovered around the 1430MHz mark which is a good 200MHz higher than either of our reference cards are able to achieve on their best days.
The water cooled nature of this card has other tertiary benefits as well. While EVGA doesn’t unlock anything spectacular for overclockers (+87mV and +25% for the voltage and Power Limit respectively), our sample hit some impressive levels, running at 1620MHz for hours on end without the smallest hiccup. As you can imagine, the card is also very, very quiet due to the 120mm fan running alongside the low-RPM blower.
There are so many positive points about the EVGA GTX 980 Hybrid that its potential downfalls may be overlooked. From a compatibility standpoint, there shouldn’t be any problem getting this card to fit into nearly any case on the market. However, any system that’s already been equipped with an All in One cooler may find itself with some limitations when installing the Hybrid since there are only so many accessible 120mm ports on some cases.
With the GTX 980 Hybrid, EVGA has created an awesome graphics card that performs at an extremely high level, runs cool, grants acoustic-minded individuals a quiet environment and provides an impressive amount of overclocking headroom. It may not be able to perform up to the level of a TITAN X, EVGA’s iteration costs significantly less while still delivering some of the highest framerates around. What more is there to ask for?
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