Pros: This cooler decreased my temps by 40%!!! I game on Division and GTA V. Temps reached 47c at there highest. This was a great improvement since the original temps with the reference cooler were 84c

Cons: This cooler will only work on reference cards.

Other Thoughts: I installed this on the SC version of the 980ti and consider this cooler as an investment were as it should increase the life of my card.

Pros: worth the 75 bucks
980gtx 4gb reference cooler previously thermal throttled all the time, max 83*c , this cooler installed max so far has been 49*c. 34*c makes it worth every penny.

1501 mhz core 4000mhz memory max temp 49*c after few hours of iracing/warthunder

finally reached temps to run 1500mhz 24/7
-1600mhz is going to be feasible

Cons: just a h55/h60 for the money expensive. sure the nice fitted gpu plate may offset it but.. for a 100 bucks i would think about it , maybe get another brand of cooler/adapter for AIO coolers.

installed for less than 24 hours , purchased this sunday feb 21st.

Other Thoughts: shipping was much faster than the ssd i ordered two weeks ago
impressed, still think its to expensive, that being said buy it, its on sale.
can not mention on longevity, installed for about 8 hours now.
BUY THE 1.5mm HEX

Instructions are that terrible. i have had this card apart previously when i had an EK block on so i had an idea. Instructions are still bad, so bad i don't even know why they are there. shield is cheap feeling compared to reference shroud.

Pros: Product arrived right on time, very well packaged and was provided with a decent amount of instruction to install the kit onto the EVGA GTX 980 Ti reference card. That being said, I own the MSI GTX 980 Ti Reference model, with a single blower style fan. In order to install this EVGA Hybrid Cooler onto the MSI GTX 980 Ti reference card, you will have to modify either the MSI shroud, or the EVGA shroud provided. This includes cutting certain area's and if choosing the EVGA shroud, drilling a couple of new screw holes, so I decided to go ahead and modify the EVGA shroud. After a couple hours of tinkering, I have gotten the EVGA shroud to fit onto the MSI GTX 980 Ti reference board. With enough common sense and of course the proper tools, I am happy to say my GPU under heavy load went from 80°C to 45°C on the newest games with everything on Ultra (Including Just Cause 3, ACS, BO3 and Witcher 3). The pump included is also relatively quiet, making no more noise than my Corsair Hydro H110.

Cons: NONE!

Other Thoughts: I would recommend that anyone who owns an MSI GTX 980 Ti reference card and is looking at this as an option, be ready to void your warranty on your Hybrid Cooler and/or your MSI GTX 980 Ti if you go this route. The spring screw located on the graphics card will have a void sticker around the size of an eraser head. It is VERY fragile and will most likely not come off in a solid piece even with a heat gun, not that you would want to take that to your 600$+ graphics card ;). Other than the void sticker, it IS possible to install the full kit without any other modifications to the card itself.

Pros: I installed these on my 2 EVGA 980ti SC cards and it reduced the temps to the upper 40's on one card and low 50's on the other (while playing Witcher 3 maxed out at 3440x1440). EVGA also had a promotion for a free upgraded shroud with built in LED, unlike the standard one included in this kit. I'm not sure if they still have the promotion going.

Cons: none

Pros: I'm extremely happy with this cooler! It fits my ASUS GTX980ti 6GB reference card perfectly (along with the evga gtx 980 ti backplate too). My goal was to reduce temps for my card and reduce the noise. It has given me both. My temps while playing gta v, the witcher 3 and metal gear solid v (at 1080p max settings) haven't even reached 50c. Before the cooler install, I was getting around 70c to 80c.

Cons: Nothing really except maybe that the included instructions were a bit lacking but nothing that you couldn't figure out with some common sense.

Other Thoughts: The pump and fan are very quiet... no clicking noises here either. I've installed mine as an exhaust in the rear of my corsair 760t case. With the radiator hoses on the bottom side.

Pros: This water cooler dropped my temperatures by a lot. My 980ti idles at 89 to 90F and when I play farcry 4 maxed out at 1440p, It runs at 115 to 117F. That is a big difference from the stock cooler.

Cons: Nothing at all.

Pros: N/A

Cons: This kid does not work on anything other then the refrence model of the card. I have a ACX cooler EVGA card and was unable to install the cooler to my card.

Other Thoughts: I wish there was even a way for me to rig this to work with the ACX cooler but there is no way to mount everything together.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Johnathan T.,

I am sorry for any confusion in regards to the EVGA Hybrid Kit for GTX 980 Ti. All compatibility information is located on our products page via the EVGA.com website under Support. I can assure you that we are here to assist and support you as best we can to answer any questions or concerns you may have before purchasing an EVGA product. Should you or any potential EVGA customer ever have any questions about any of our products, then I would encourage you to contact our 24 hour Presales Support team by phone 1.888.881.3842 and pressing option 3 or by email: Newegg@EVGA.com so that we can further assist you.

Sincerely,
EVGA Customer Support

Pros: Reduced temps by 35C even with my bad radiator placement, and allowed about an extra 100 mhz on my un-throttled OC (to 1480).

Cons: Minor complaints, none worth taking off a star:

Reference card uses a PWM header, but the radiator fan cable only uses 2 wires with a 3 pin connector. It would have been nice if it used 3 wires and a 4 pin connector so you could use the PWM with a replacement radiator fan. Of course you can install your own PWM splitter and just not use their wire, so not a big deal.

Default reference card fan profile doesn't supply enough power to spin a Noctua nf-f12 below 50C. Easy solutions are to make a custom fan profile or just plug the Noctua into a MB header and run it a 100% all the time like I did.

It seems like the VRM heatsink may not be getting the same airflow as before the mod due to less air resistance in the other direction (that of the removed GPU heatsink), though I've had no problems from them overheating. I just upped the card's fan speed in a custom profile to compensate--better would be mounting a new heatsink over the VRAM, helping with 2 issues at once, though none is included. I'm just OCD about everything being as cool as possible.

Other Thoughts: At least on my reference card, the OC was throttled by the power limit before the temp limit, so this only helped my OC in combination with a custom BIOS to raise the power limit.

Pros: Purchased this cooler to install onto my reference style 980Ti Super Clocked card. The pros of this kit are: very cool temperature at load, very low noise at load. It is pretty easy to install onto a reference style card, although, be careful not to strip any of the screws on the GPU prior to installing the card. So far, I am not experiencing any abnormal pump buzzing noise. Yes some noise is audible if I place my head right at the side of my case w/ mesh window, but it isn't a loud buzzing noise. If you want zero pump noise, you should go custom water which would allow you to adjust the speed of pump and radiator fan to your liking. For me these are non-issues.

Cons: Some will argue that they hear too much fan noise from the radiator fan while idling. It honestly is not an issue for me, but I was never expecting total silence from this kit. The best way I can describe the fan noise is more of a "woosh" sound, as if I added 2 more case cans to my case running at medium rpm. If you are expecting total silence while idling, again, you should consider a custom water loop.

I don't like that the standard warranty from EVGA is only 1 year when the "proper" hybrid card has standard 3 years warranty.

Other Thoughts: This kit is amazing. Even more useful if you have a 120-144hz monitor, which will tax your GPU much more than 60hz. Prior to installing the kit my load temperature running a mild - modest OC of 1415mhz ranged from 74 to 80 degrees. This is while gaming at 120hz, the temps shoot up quickly as does the blower fan noise. With this hybrid cooler and same OC, my load temps have never exceeded 47 degrees. We are talking a drop of almost 30 degrees while under load. Further, the fan noise while the card is under load is insanely quiet. Much quieter than the stock reference card without the kit installed.

Also the stock thermal compound that comes on the kit has worked fine for me so far.

I have the radiator installed horizontally at the top of my case, above the pump / graphics card. I have a Corsair Vengeance C70 case and it is large enough to accommodate two of these radiators on top for SLI if you want.

We'll see how well the kit overall holds up over the course of time, so far so good. If you're expecting silence you'll be disappointed. For everyone else who wants insanely low load temperature and much lower noise while stressing the card / running under load, this should be an auto-buy.

Pros: Wow...I cannot go back to air cooling after dipping my toes into the closed-loop GPU cooling. Once the pump wears in a day or so it is very quiet and my temps (EVGA 980ti SC in SLI) are 26 degrees C at idle and the highest I've seen it while gaming is 44 degrees C. I have a large case though and use push/pull into the case so I'm bringing cool air through the radiator. I LOVE THESE THINGS.

Cons: Only con is, if you can call it one, that you need to make sure you have places to mount the radiator and fan(s). May need to measure your distance too to make sure the hoses are long enough to work with where you want to mount them but they are a pretty good length. The provided directions say this but you'll need a 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm alan key/hex key. If you do not, go get one and do not try and make something else work or you'll strip the screws on the reference cards shroud.