INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Today NVIDIA unveiled the latest addition in their 9 line of cards, the entry-level GeForce GTX 950 (uses a cut-down version of the GM206 also used in the GTX 960) but since i never was into testing brand new models (i prefer to wait for more "mature" drivers before doing so) we went ahead and did our best to acquire what might just be the "hottest" GeForce GTX 980 model in the market currently. As many of you are aware you can find many GeForce GTX 980 models in the market some of which make use of the reference NVIDIA cooler and feature default clocks (or slightly upped ones) while others come ready with custom air and water cooling solutions and feature substantial overclocking right from the factory for the more demanding users. Well after comparing the specification sheets of no less than 15 different GeForce GTX 980 cards by pretty much every NVIDIA card manufacturer in the market the one that always came up ontop was the iChill GeForce GTX 980 4GB Ultra by Inno3D.

   InnoVISION Multimedia Limited is a pioneering developer and manufacturer of a diverse range of cutting-edge multimedia PC hardware products established in 1998 Hong Kong. Our manufacturing operations have been set up since 1990 in Shenzhen, China. In this short period of time we focus on manufacturing OEM/ODM products as well as contracting out extensive production and research facilities to specialist companies. We have accomplished international recognition by PC’s top reviewers as becoming an outstanding success and one of the most fast growing companies in Asia. Our company's objective is to deliver the ultimate multimedia experience to the masses of PC users and multimedia professionals at an affordable cost. InnoVISION was then created to build brand awareness for the continuously growing product range in order to meet the fast growing market. InnoVISION's product scope comprises the successful Inno3D brand - a comprehensive variety of 3D graphic board accelerators and multimedia components and devices.

   A couple of weeks ago we reviewed the GeForce GTX 970 a card which in many ways is very similar to the GTX 980 especially since both are based on the same 28nm GM204 Maxwell processor. Of course as we pointed out then the GeForce GTX 980 is a more powerful version since it sports 2048 shader processors, 16 streaming multiprocessors, 128 texture units, 64 ROPs and a 256bit memory interface (not to mention it makes use of all of its 4GB GDDR5 RAM). By default the GeForce GTX 980 has a core clock set at 1126MHz and a memory clock set at 1750MHz but the iChill Ultra model boosts those clocks to 1266MHz for the core and 1800MHz for the memory modules. To achieve these clocks and also to allow for higher ones with issue Inno3D has equipped the iChill Ultra with their latest HerculeZ X4 Air Boss cooler which features their very own A.P.C.S (active power cooling system) and although i have to admit that it's somewhat bulky compared to other models in the market (the entire cooling system consists by four fans, three 6mm heatpipes, two 8mm heatpipes and a 118 aluminum fins) it allows for efficient cooling not only for the core but also for the PCB/components and VRM.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inno3D ships the card inside a dark red and black box that has the model name at the front along with their logo and a couple of stickers with the contents of the bundle.

 

 

A few words about the product are placed at the rear of the box in 9 languages.

 

 

For some reason the upper part of the dark grey box inside the cover was torn but the card and the bundle beneath it were in perfect condition largely thanks to the black foam they are placed in.

 

 

Along with the card our sample also included a mouse mat, dual Molex to single 6pin PCIe power adapter, DVI-D to VGA adapter, installation instructions, 3D Mark 4k Advanced Edition download code, power supply guideline paper, Alen key and an Inno3D case badge.

 

 

THE ICHILL GEFORCE GTX 980 4GB ULTRA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inno3D used the reference design PCB for their model so although that means it's quite longer than other GTX 980 models (300mm) theirs has the most complete air cooler currently in the market (because of that however the card takes up 3 slots).

 

 

There are three 80mm high-speed fans at the front of the card (each has 15 blades with airflow "channels" on them) placed right under a metal shroud (you can remove the shroud with the bundled Alen key to clean the fans).

 

 

A metal perforated backplate protects the entire rear of the PCB and also offers stability and cooling (Inno3D refers to it as the HerculeZ backplate II).

 

 

To run the iChill GeForce GTX 980 Ultra 4GB requires two 6pin PCIe power connectors.

 

 

A fourth 50mm fan is placed at the top of the card and according to Inno3D it's there to improve cooling at the top end of the card.

 

 

Inno3D uses a black silicon cover for the PCIe connector.

 

 

Moving at the front of the card we find a dual link DVI-I connector, 3 full-sized DisplayPort v1.2 connectors and a single full-sized HDMI v2.0 connector.

 

 

At the other end of the card we see the HerculeZ logo placed on the last aluminum fin.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Starting from scratch is not easy so as expected our GPU database will not include models not in our procession any longer. Of course all tests were performed using the latest drivers this time over but due to time issues and also because some older models are no longer in our hands sometimes this will simply not be possible (the drivers used will always be placed next to each card). The cards tested today and currently in our database are the following ones:

Gainward GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB GS - ForceWare v353.30
Gainward GeForce GTX 670 Phantom 2GB - ForceWare v353.30
ASUS GeForce GTX 960 Strix 2GB - ForceWare v353.30
MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2GB - ForceWare v353.30
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0 4GB - ForceWare 353.30
ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II 3GB - Catalyst 15.6 Beta
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 WindForce 3X OC 4GB – ForceWare v353.30
Inno3D GeForce GTX 980 iChill Ultra 4GB – ForceWare v353.30

     Once again the screen used for all the benchmarks is our primary NEC 30" 3090WQXi LCD with a maximum resolution of 2560x1600. However we decided to change things to make it easier for us to perform tests so our testing methodology now includes a total of 5 games benchmarked in two different resolutions (2560X1600 and 1920X1200) and with all quality settings set to maximum (AA and AF are not applicable in our tests). The 5 game titles we're currently using consist from both old ones we've used in the past and new ones including Alien Isolation, Bioshock Infinite, Battlefield 4, Metro Last Light and RYSE Son Of Rome (all games are updated to their latest versions). All tests are repeated a total of 6 times and in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 installation. Room temperature is as usual controlled and steady at 23 degrees Celsius for all tests and to record the temperatures of the cards we used AIDA64 (former Everest Ultimate by Lavalys) and GPU-Z. Recording noise levels is done with an ExTech HD600 dBA meter from a distance of no more than 5-10cm away while power consumption is measured using both with a voltmeter and an amperometer (GPU-Z sometimes comes in handy in this as well).

 

 

TEST RESULTS – ALIEN ISOLATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – RYSE SON OF ROME

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – BATTLEFIELD 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – BIOSHOCK INFINITE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – METRO LAST LIGHT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – POWER CONSUMPTION / NOISE LEVELS / TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – OVERCLOCKING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Pushing the core clocks to whooping 1413MHz via MSI’s afterburner (we found it was far easier to use than the bundled software) was our third and last stop since we don’t want to overdo things, especially for powerful graphics cards right out of the box. The boost clock also got at 1514MHz and the memory clock at 1858MHz (we did try 1953MHz like in our GTX 970 review but for some weird reason some games didn't respond when launched).

   Of course we retested the card to see what kind of improvement you can expect if you OC it as much (and also what you can expect in terms of temperatures).

Our OC gave us roughly an 8% boost in Alien Isolation and almost a 6% boost in Battlefield 4 (temperatures increased 3 degrees under load).

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   When NVIDIA released the GTX 970 and 980 models roughly 9 months ago they “highlighted” the fact that the GTX 970 was not much “weaker” compared to the GTX 980 and with the drivers used back then that was pretty much the case. Well i can’t really comment on the reference NVIDIA cards since I never got my hands on them but today with one of the latest ForceWare driver sets the difference between the WindForce 3X OC model and the iChill Ultra model is quite large (although this is also due to the large overclocking of the 2^nd). In any case we all knew that the GTX 980 was a better card but what really impressed us was the craftsmanship by everyone at Inno3D since thanks to its many metal parts the iChill Ultra feels like a tank compared to the WindForce 3X OC. Even if build quality however is not your thing you can’t really ignore the much lower temperature levels of the iChill Ultra something which allows for much higher overclocks compared to other models. Noise levels are indeed somewhat higher because of the high-speed fans used (and let’s not forget that you can easily clean them by first removing the metal shroud) including the top 50mm one but I really doubt anyone will have a problem with just 42dBA at load, not when most power supply units and CPU coolers surpass that. The only slight problem people may have with the iChill Ultra is its size since it requires 3 full slots to mount not to mention that because it's based on the reference PCB it is 300mm long and 115mm tall. Of course you don’t get such a high-end card without doing your homework first but we do need to point that out.

   Developing what might be the most “complete” air-cooled GeForce GTX 980 graphics card in the market obviously costs and so does its cooling system so the current price of 615Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) Inno3D asks for their iChill Ultra 4GB is pretty much justified considering that MSI, EVGA and Gigabyte all ask slightly less for their own custom extra-overclocked GTX 980 models. Unfortunately we were unable to find it anywhere inside the USA and that’s something we really hope Inno3D can fix since it’s really a shame for such a card to have zero availability there. With that out of the way after spending nearly a week with it I really can’t say anything bad about the Inno3D GeForce GTX 980 iChill Ultra 4GB. I would if Inno3D had neglected making it possible for the end user to clean the fans since their positioning makes it hard to clean from the outside but they did and so I really can’t keep our Platinum Award away from such a complete graphics card.

PROS

- Superior Build Quality
- Excellent Performance
- Design (For Some)
- HerculeZ X4 Air Boss Cooling System (Extremely Low Temperatures)
- Power Consumption
- Excellent Factory Overclock
- Overclocking Headroom
- HDMI v2.0 / 3x DisplayPort / DVI-I
- 4GB VRAM

 

CONS

- Size (Reference PCB / 300mm Long)
- Current Availability (Especially In The USA)