I was thinking long and hard as to how to liquid cool my reference GTX 980 so I can run my fans on low RPM, without breaking the bank, and without running it hot over long gaming sessions. Luckily EVGA sells this separate from their Hybrid card, so I decided to get this as opposed to a +$200 custom kit. Possibly down the line I will start a custom loop, but for now, this kit is a fantastic solution!



GTX 980 Reference Cooler:

Now the GTX 980 isn't the loudest reference cooled card I've owned (much quieter than my old reference 560, 670, and 680). Over my case fans, the 980 doesn't become audible until over 50% fan speed. But even at 50%-60%, the cooler on this card can keep the core temperature at around 70°C, never exceeding 75°C with an ambient case temp. of 32°C in my NZXT Phantom 530 case while running games (BF4, GTA) or Heaven Benchmark:



Ambient case temp: ~32°C

GPU idle temp: 32°C

Fan speed: 30%

GPU load temp: 72°C

Fan Speed: 60%



The construction of the cooler is a work of art. I was very hesitant to remove the steel (or some metal) cooler because it's very modern, sleek, and very pleasing over Nvidia's previous reference coolers. Only thing I don't like is the green GeForce logo (green even with the LED off).



Installation:

Installing was a little difficult, only because the removal of the original cooler has some small screws the require great care when removing to prevent stripping. But with patience, it's very simple and straightforward. The original fan stays, and even the backplate can stay on since the spring loaded screws that hold the gpu heatsink are all easily accessible. If you've ever installed an AIO cooler on your cpu, it's very similar. The thermal paste is pre-applied, just clean the old thermal paste off of the gpu core and heatsink (for clean storage) and reuse the old spring loaded screws to mount the pump. The new faceplate is actually pretty nice and modern as well, but it's just plastic, so not as elegant as the stock cooler. With some modding you can make your own cut outs on the ref. cooler where the tunes come out. After mounting the pumps, route the cables, plug the 120mm fan plug to the 3 pin fan coming from the pump, then route the 4 pin pump fan controller to the on board fan controller (plug to fan on board, old plug plugs into the pass through), tape down the pump wire to the card, then mount the new faceplate.



Hybrid Benefits:

With the new cooler mounted, reservoir mounted on the front of the case, pulling fresh air in, the core temps changed dramatically:



Ambient case temp: ~29°C

GPU idle temp: 25°C

Fan speed: 20% (lowest)

GPU load temp: 35°C

Fan speed: 40%



Great! Ive never seen the gpu temp exceed 38°C. I still try to run the fan speeds just high enough to be inaudible to keep the vrm and pump cool. But overall I'm very pleased with the results, especially for the price. Now I haven't overclocked anything yet, so I'll update the numbers when that happens, but so far the card has been able to play all of my games on the highest settings (besides Ultra textures when applicable) at 1080p, and even downsample some games at 1440p at highest with some good frame rates.