A quiet pump for Gigabytes GTX 980 Ti Xtreme Gaming Waterforce | Retro 5 years ago

A quiet pump for Gigabytes GTX 980 Ti Xtreme Gaming Waterforce |  Retro 5 years ago

A quiet pump for Gigabytes GTX 980 Ti Xtreme Gaming Waterforce | Retro 5 years ago

Actually, Gigabyte did almost everything right with the GTX 980 Ti Xtreme Gaming Waterforce, because the performance and the overclockability – like other colleagues from international media who were also able to get hold of a copy – …

Gigabyte actually did almost everything right with the GTX 980 Ti Xtreme Gaming Waterforce, because the performance and overclockability really convinced us – like other colleagues from international media who were also able to get hold of a copy. If it hadn’t been for the purring and whistling accompanying music that could spoil the Pixel Festival. Do you still know the FuryX from AMD and their whistles on the last pump hole?

We had actually planned the test of the card at the same time as the other media and will only be able to publish it shortly. The reason lies in the product – or rather a part of the whole – because Gigabyte – like AMD before it – was advised and supplied by Cooler Master. Sure, the product could have been rated negatively and, like the others, simply ticked off the matter as a given, but since we were confirmed on request that the actual mass production was still to start, we tried to tackle the quality problem together with Gigabyte.

We ask for your understanding that we cannot publish some very piquant details from the internal communication between us, Gigabyte and Cooler Master as the supplier of the cooling unit, but the attentive reader will certainly draw his conclusions from the context. So let’s first look at the part of the map that is causing the problem.

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After we had sent Gigabyte our measurement results, including internal “video evidence”, we initially encountered surprised faces from the Gigabyte development team (R&D). Similar to AMD’s early R9 Fury X models, not all cards tended to be extremely whistling, and the audible whistling cards also showed more pronounced differences among each other. In a first step, Gigabyte confronted Cooler Master with the results, with the remarkable opinion that everything could be solved simply by simply replacing the controller chip; Otherwise you don’t have to change the cooling unit. Really?

Since we had already become very suspicious due to the experience with the pump on the Fury X (and the revealed, real reasons for the whistling), we obtained the final model from the mass production, which has now been modified again at Gigabyte’s insistence, and dismantled it again . The differences are serious and do not only relate to the chip, so that after a long time we want to document this process publicly. This is also done to protect Gigabyte from possible image damage that could have been caused by the first reviews with the previous models.

The comparison of the labels printed on the pump alone gives an idea of ​​what was actually installed here. If you look at the serial numbers, you can see that there are over 1.1 million units produced between the first and the new pump! Since the pumps on the R9 Fury X and the Waterforce are absolutely identical (and thus one model), the large difference in the serial number allows the possible reverse conclusion that there may be leftovers that you would actually have after the disaster with the Fury X. better disposed of.

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Apart from the fact that both labels come from a different printer, the production line should now also be different. Once we got suspicious, we compared both cooling units more closely to find even more possible differences. Let’s start with the heatsink, which Cooler Master – got smart with the R9 Fury X – now provides four one-way screws that make dismantling (without special tools) impossible.

The change in the pump has now been confirmed by Gigabyte’s R&D, which really uses the other controller chip that Coolermaster has been using on the R9 Fury X for some time. Now let’s look at the exposed heatsink:

Old pump heatsink

Heatsink the
old pump

Heat sink of the new pump

Heatsink the
new pump

In the heatsink of the new pump there is now an engraved lettering that was missing earlier (also on the Fury X), which should indicate a significantly changed production. But the structure of the cooler unit has also changed, as we can easily see:

Old cooler unit
Old cooler unit

The one connecting bridge between the heatsink and the VRM cooler slides further down and the processing quality of the edges and surfaces has increased. The heat pipe may also consist of a slightly modified composite material.

New cooler unit
New cooler unit

Conclusion

Caught again – unfortunately there is no other way to describe it. In this case, the buck, like the AMDs R9 Fury X, clearly has to go to Cooler Master, who apparently simply tried again to recycle leftovers in an accounting way. The only accusation that can be directed at Gigabyte is that the quality management did not take effect because they relied on the verification of only one card and otherwise there are probably many older employees who are used to the high whistling tone in their Couldn’t even notice the noisy work environment.

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In the end, our earnings are limited to persistently harassing Gigabyte until they, for their part, have taken Cooler Master to the task and also created a new job that is now supposed to ensure (even) quieter products with young and motivated ears (and probably also will). We also received a statement from the distribution that no cards with the old cooling unit were put on the market in Germany and that everything that is currently being delivered already carries the new pump unit.

This is of course good for the customer, but also a bit annoying for us, because we had to write many parts of our review again so that it can finally be published in a few days. However, the anger is limited, because the whole thing was always exciting.


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