So I have had the HG10 N980 on my Nvidia GTX 980 now for a couple months and was at one point seeing a max temp of 61C which grew to 70C over time. At this point I took my card out and made sure all the screws on the bracket were tight. Some were loose. After tightening I got my max temp down to 65C. I was ok with this temp but knew I could get better.
After reading some of the replys on this forum I decided to prop my card up with a ink pen at the power connectors to make it more level and to reduce some of the bowing (very slight). This immediately brought my temps down to a max of 59C. I however was not going to leave an ink pen in my case proping my card up.
This morning I took my card back out and took the bracket and H50 off. I immediately noticed from the TIM on my GPU die that the cooler seemed to only be getting a good contact on approx 75% of the die. I had read earlier that someone had used their backplate and that the screws were long enough that came with the HG10 N980, so I gave it a shot with my refernce Nvidia backplate.
The screws are just BARELY long enough to thread with the backplate and still be secure(not popping off). I installed my H50(the original H50) with my H100i V2's Intel Bracket and the short standoffs and....
Now my max temp is 49C in Valley after 20 minutes.
The backplate not only seems to prevent some of the bending and sagging of the card but it also applys pressure to the back of the PCB by the GPU die where normally you would screw the backplate in to the stock refernce cooler.
The card did still sag at the power connectors and I tried propping it up and it only brings my temp down to 48C, a 1C difference.
http://s14.postimg.org/jt750s4p9/20160925_085651.jpg
You can see the card still sags a little.
http://s14.postimg.org/nqueq6ril/20160925_085755.jpg
Those 2 holes in the middle are where my backplate applys pressure behind the GPU die on the PCB
http://s14.postimg.org/csnqlqsb1/20160925_085808.jpg
Another view
http://s14.postimg.org/s2nlsxnt9/20160925_085836.jpg
Old H50 using the H100i V2 Intel Bracket
http://s14.postimg.org/c5otw7vf1/20160925_090139.jpg
This piece of the Nvidia backplate would not work because the screws with the HG10 N980 are too short.
