EVGA Chills NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 980 With New HYBRID AIO Cooler

The top-end temperature of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 980 is about 80°C, and while that seems a bit high, it’s well within dangerous levels. Still, I wouldn’t blame anyone for wanting to see even lower temperatures (that goes for any piece of hardware, really), either for the piece-of-mind, reduction of overall system heat, or to enhance the card’s overclocking headroom.

Regardless of the reason for your want of lower temperatures, EVGA’s latest HYBRID liquid-cooled solution might be just what you’re looking for. The company has long taken care of DIY water coolers with its Hydro series, but the pre-installed waterblocks on those cards make a rather substantial difference to a card’s price (in the GTX 980’s case, $250). With the AIO cooler on the Hybrid, a premium of just $100 is added.

Using AIO liquid coolers for the sake of GPU cooling isn’t a new concept, but it’s apparently a good enough one for EVGA to dip its toes into the water for. In fact, if you’re only going the single card route, and happen to have sufficient space in your chassis, it’d be a no-brainer to go the Hybrid route for liquid, given how EVGA clocks both cards (read: the exact same).

A reference GTX 980 is spec’d at 1126MHz on the core, while EVGA’s Hydro and Hybrid cards bump that to 1291MHz (1393MHz boost). Versus a GTX 980 that peaks at 70°C, EVGA says its Hybrid cooler will knock the temp down ~26°C. I don’t know about you guys, but the thought of a high-end card like the GTX 980 running not even at 50°C sounds quite nice.

As mentioned above, EVGA is selling the Hybrid version of the GTX 980 with a $100 premium, putting it at $649. If you already own a card – and it must adhere to reference design – you can buy the cooler itself for $100. If you go that route, EVGA will include the same shroud that’s included with its own card. The full card is available for pre-order, but the cooler itself can be purchased right now from EVGA’s site.