The Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti Amp Extreme ($700 as tested), based on Nvidia's Maxwell platform, uses both overclocking and intense air cooling to return impressive 3D animation frame rates at AAA games.

The GTX 980 Ti Amp Extreme is a big card. It measures 13 inches (longer than almost any other card on the market); and because of its massive heat sink and three two-stage fans, it requires the space for three free card slots (though it still only plugs into one PCI Express x16 slot on your motherboard). Its power needs are significant as well: a minimum 600-watt power supply, and two 8-pin power connectors. Build quality on the card excellent, though, so it never feels less than sturdy.

Zotac has boosted both the speed of both the GPU's base clock (from 1,000MHz to 1,253MHz) and the card's memory (from 7,000MHz to 7,220MHz), and as a result the card topped most single-GPU cards tested by our sister publication, Computer Shopper. The only cards of its generation that beat it were dual-GPU monsters like the AMD Radeon R9 295X2, and then only at the higher 4K settings.

The only real problem with the card is its included overclocking software, FireStorm. Its interface is unintuitive and sometimes downright confusing, which can make it difficult if you want to further tweak the card's performance.

Not that you'll need to worry much about this, as it's incredibly fast out of the box. True, the card has been surpassed recently by newer and more powerful releases, such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition. But if you want to add a high-end graphics card to your desktop and can't wait for better availability of the GTX 1080, you should put the Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti Amp Extreme on your short list.

For more details, check out the full Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti Amp Extreme review at ComputerShopper.com.