Gadgetory

excellent here I have a gtx 980ti and here I have another gtx 980ti this one is the reference version from Nvidia and this one from EVGA is custom in today's video I'll be showing you three things first off what is the difference between custom and reference second I list some pros and cons for each design and third depending on the type of computer that you're building what is the best choice between custom and reference see like I said three things I also want to point out that whereas I'm using these nine ADT eyes as an example for this video this video really applies to all GPUs that have a reference design as well as custom versions so whenever a GPU manufacturer like Nvidia or AMD makes a new GPU they almost always design a reference completed graphics card as well like this one originally this was to provide an easier means for AIB or a IC partners that's add-in board or add-in card for those who don't have all the acronyms in the world memorized to actually get the graphics cards onto store shelves with a minimal amount of R&D investment in recent years though these reference designs have scaled up in performance and looks to become more like statement pieces from AMD or Nvidia so for example nvidia has been so pleased with the design of this reference cooler that they originally launched with the OG titan in february 2013 that they've used essentially the same design for all of their high-end single GPU graphics cards ever since sometimes they may make parts of it more or less black depending on how badass the GPU inside is of course AMD for their part didn't hit with as much reference cooler design success when their Hawaii GPU based cards launched but they have made some extremely compelling reference designs with built in water cooling such as the very successful dual Hawaii r9 295x2 as well as the upcoming fury x card but I already mentioned add in board partners and if you haven't noticed this before you can buy graphics cards from an AI V partner like EVGA msi gigabyte ASIS or XFX but you'll have a hard time actually buying a graphics card just from AMD or just from Nvidia for that matter AMD and NVIDIA design and manufacture the GPUs at the heart of the card they create a reference design that they also might manufacture or allow ad n board partners to manufacture and the AIB partners handle things like packaging distribution customer support and returns so if the reference designs were perfect we'd never need any custom designs right well that may be true but as Morgan Freeman once said in the classic film at Robin Hood Prince of Thieves Allah loves wondrous variety a Ivey partners with the means have taken to designing their own versions of cards in order to improve cooling performance overclocking or simply to help their cards stand out in a marketplace flooded with look-alike reference cards adding your own special sticker to the reference design doesn't always do the trick so custom cards come in a few varieties the AIB partner can choose to use invidious design for the PCB the printed circuit board that the GPU soldered to think of it like the PCB is to the GPU as a motherboard is to a CPU in this case the layout of all the components on the PCB will be the same the GPU location the power delivery the traces but the cooler that sits on top can be radically different that's the case with this GPU from EVGA which uses EVGA specially made cooler on top and the Nvidia reference PCB design on the bottom they put a backplate so you can't really see it key BGA's recent custom cooler designs are called a CX or active cooling extreme and other manufacturers have also come up with fancy names for theirs as well gigabyte has the wind force Asus has direct Cu MSI has twin frozer for example but they're all custom coolers if you want to simplify things and their performance may vary a lot depending on lots of factors and deciding which custom cooler is the best is not really the point of this video so we'll leave it at that one thing to point out though is that almost all the popular designs for custom coolers right now are open with multiple fans like the ACX cooler here two and sometimes three whereas the reference designs for both nvidia and and are closed housings with a single blower style fan that's meant to push air out the back of the case so when I talk in a moment about choosing which one you might want for your system I'll be comparing the characteristics of open multi fan cooler designs versus closed blower fan cooler designs even though it's not out of the question for a reference cooler to be open or for a custom cooler to be closed now custom open multi fan coolers like EDG ace here will also have cooling elements positioned on top of the heat generating parts of the card like the GPU memory and voltage regulators and very often like the ACX cooler will use heat pipes or other efficient conducting parts to pull heat away from the GPU memory etc and out into these arrays of metal fins which are usually made of aluminum the fans on top of the fins push air over them to evacuate the heat from the area but since the design is open the air will not be pushed at the back of the case well some of it will but most of it won't and will instead go out in all directions to co-mingle with the rest of the air in your system the second part of a custom design can be the PCB itself this is usually reserved for the most specialist high-end cards aiv partners with engineering teams at their disposal can redesign the board itself retracing the traces moving components around to suit their needs and changing the power delivery elements to maximize overclocking potential or even to add video memory LED lights or other distinguishing features so our custom-designed PCBs better than reference designs I can't really say yes or no across the board but I think that a manufacturer like EVGA or asus wouldn't go to all the trouble and investment of designing their own custom TCB unless they saw some tangible benefit from doing so speaking of tangible benefits it's time to talk pros and cons for reference versus custom graphics card designs and we'll start with the coolers remember I'm not just comparing reference cooler versus custom with the cooler here but also closed blower design versus open multi fan design since that has been the market trend for quite some time on the plus side a reference closed blower style cooler will keep the other components in your some cooler by pushing the hot air out the back of the case often to the tune of five to ten degrees Celsius for a component like the CPU for example but this will obviously vary a lot depending on your hardware on the minus side cards that use these designs usually run at significantly higher temperatures in my experience sometimes 10 to 20 degrees hotter than a comparable open cooler video will tell you that their GPUs are designed to run at 80 degrees Celsius or more but keeping things cooler can mean better performance longer lifespan and higher GPU boost frequencies the flipside for custom open design coolers is that the GPU can run much cooler but at the expense of warming up the rest of the parts in your system in either case as parts get warm fans will ramp up their speed to help dissipate the heat so it's hard to say that one solution or the other will provide a better experience if you're looking for a silent gaming system either the GPU fan might get loud or your case or your CPU fans might get left for the PCB itself the benefit of a reference design is usually compatibility reference PCBs will get the job done and they have a wider range of compatible aftermarket coolers so if you want to mod your card in the future with something like an NZXT krey-kin g10 or Corsair hydro HD 10 for water cooling or a full custom water cooling loop with a block for your GPU you'll have a lot more options with a reference PCB design custom PCB designs often have the benefit of added power delivery and can generally outperform reference design boards all else being equal of course these cards are usually designed for overclocking and since they are often high-end models it's very common for the GPUs and custom design boards to be binned or tested for performance with the best performing GPUs selected for custom-designed graphics cards if you don't want just a 980ti you want a 980ti that can overclock like mad and beat out your friends 980ti a full custom design is the way to go even though you'll find less compatibility with aftermarket cooling solutions these highest end models usually do get support from companies like EK with specially designed water blocks since they're usually the best performing cards on the market the other trade-off if it wasn't already obvious is cost as top-end custom cards can command a hefty premium even their reference design counterparts that use the same exact GPU so the last thing to talk about is what is the best choice for you and my question would be what kind of system are you building in my opinion there are situations where the reference blower style design works really well if you're installing multiple graphics cards with SLI or crossfire but you have limited airflow for example it's much better to have the hot air escape out of the case rather than warming up everything else inside especially if you have multiple cards and a smaller form factor system as well when space and air flow are very limited a blower style card will do a great job particularly if the case positions the card right next to a side intake so it can have its own little airflow system without affecting the rest of the components now there's no denying the efficacy or popularity of custom designs and I generally recommend them over reference designs if you have the proper airflow high airflow cases are all over the place these days so if your case has larger front intake fans unobstructed paths for air to get back to the GPU area good exhaust then you'll be able to mitigate the extra heat that the graphics card can add to the system the trade-off can be noise though so invest in some higher quality case fans and CPU cooling to help keep things quiet I don't know what you guys are using at home though how many of you have an Nvidia referenced design GPU from the past few years it looks exactly like this one except for the letters on the end and how many of you have a two or three fan GPU cooler running from any of the other corners of the market where those exist let me know in the comments and I will read them and smile speaking of smiling though you can smile yourself as you browse the over 3000 on-demand video courses available on lynda.com the website that is dedicated to making you smarter lynda.com is an online learning platform made to help you strengthen your business technology and creative skills and what could possibly be better than the 10 day free trial that you can get via this sponsorship promotion simply go to lynda.com slash Paul and the rest is really quite simple so simple that even Kyle can do it he's been brushing up on the basics by running through the K through 12 education courses which are made for teachers and students alike but I think he's really mostly fascinated with the pretty colors and sounds that the videos make whatever your learning level is at though Linda has video courses available to help amplify your knowledge in your chosen field so click the spots on link in this video's description for more information or go directly to lynda.com slash Paul that's all for this video though folks don't forget to hit that like button on your way out if you enjoyed it also in your spare time feel free to peruse my shop at store pals hardware net for shirts mugs and glasses share this video to promote GPU vigilance and of course you can use my amazon link before you buy stuff at Amazon even if the stuff you buy is not related to GPUs at all it really doesn't matter I'm glad you stopped by today though and as always thanks for watching