Thermals and Noise

The new Phoenix cooler is superior to the reference design as it keeps the GPU temperatures below 75 degrees Celsius. The Phoenix cooler ensures the card maintains the maximum Boost clock possible for as long as possible. The new Boost 2.0 algorithm will reduce the GPU Boost clocks on the GTX 980 Ti if the GPU temperature goes over 84 degrees Celsius respectively, but the Phoenix cooler keeps the GPU temperature significantly lover.

The card is completely silent in idle and during media playback or light gaming. Namely the card turns its fans off when GPU temperature is below 60 degrees Celsius. The Phoenix cooler is quiet, almost inaudiable, even under load. The Gainward's own EXPERTool utility adds some features for GTX 980 Ti board such as changing fan curve and BIOS saving function.

The user can push fans to run at about 3400RPM. In this mode the GPU temperature reaches only 62 degrees Celsius. Even at this speed the fans are still not too loud. We could not hear coil whine.