Nvidia 980/970 Availability Thread

Hanakuso said:
Ordered mine on the 25th as well. It first showed the tracking from the 3rd party to TD. Then I asked for the tracking from TD to me. Few days later I get it and it was being sent to me, but right when it arrived in my city they requested to have the package redelivered back to TD. Since then I chatted with them and they gave me another order that hasn't been updated with tracking. They've been saying they will contact me within 24 hours with an update but it's been about 96 hours.
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Why did they request a return delivery to TD? That sucks, especially if it was already in your city awaiting delivery - that return request seems suspicious though, as if they decided to fulfill another order or somehow sent you the wrong product.

I'd also try and cancel the order if they don't at least provide expedited shipping for you. I wouldn't wait for them to contact you, I had to prod them using their online chat service and make a direct demand there. I may have just been super lucky that nothing went heinously wrong with my order.
 
There were some ASUS STRIX and MSI GAMING 4G 970s in stock at Newegg at around 2:30am this morning. They did not last long. Sorry I did not post at the time but I got up out of bed to order and then went back to sleep. :)

There must've been only one STRIX in stock, as I tried to order two but it limited me to one. I did snag two MSI cards. Now I have to hope there's no whine.
 
I've contacted the admins at nowinstock requesting that TD be delisted from their alerts. They are borderline shady and do not deserve our business.

It's 2014. This is how we should expect our online shopping to go:

1. Buyer clicks on "add to cart"
2. Enters payment and shipping info
3. Seller makes sure product is in stock and charges card.
4. Seller packages card and ships out sending out tracking # ASAP.
5. Buyer receives package within the timeframe of what they paid for shipping.

This is how TD is doing it:

1. Buyer clicks on "Add to Cart"
2. TD charges your card regardless of stock availability or confirmation of stock.
3. Make buyer wait without communication for several days.
4. Buyer calls irate and they finally tell you "its in some warehouse and some guy at warehouse left it in his pickup truck since he wanted to play mine craft on these new cards and hand test it for you"

5. You finally get your card with peanut butter stuck in cooling fins and it has coil whine.
6. Sell it on Hard forum FS section just to not have to deal with TD RMA process.
 
Starrbuck said:
There were some ASUS STRIX and MSI GAMING 4G 970s in stock at Newegg at around 2:30am this morning. They did not last long. Sorry I did not post at the time but I got up out of bed to order and then went back to sleep. :)

There must've been only one STRIX in stock, as I tried to order two but it limited me to one. I did snag two MSI cards. Now I have to hope there's no whine.
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It's ridiculous. Emailed an ASUS rep and he said stock should be "replenished" by mid Oct.

I wish Kyle could contact them and get a firm ETA. :)
 
I'm curious why the specific preference for the Asus Strix?

Personally it's what I'm leaning towards at the moment but that's mainly due to value (+$10 here, versus +$40 or more for the MSI Gaming and +$50 or more for the Gigabyte G1 which also won't fit). Also I haven't tried an Asus yet, so variety is more of a bonus to me than sticking with one brand.
 
limitedaccess said:
I'm curious why the specific preference for the Asus Strix?

Personally it's what I'm leaning towards at the moment but that's mainly due to value (+$10 here, versus +$40 or more for the MSI Gaming and +$50 or more for the Gigabyte G1 which also won't fit). Also I haven't tried an Asus yet, so variety is more of a bonus to me than sticking with one brand.
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It's gotten the least amount of complaints so far :p.

I chose it because:
  1. I've never had an ASUS-brand GPU before, and I had set the idea in stone that my next upgrade was going to be from ASUS
  2. Uses quality parts for a decent price
  3. STRIX is a sexy looking cooler :cool:, but is also a great semi-passive and quiet design
  4. Only has 1x 8-pin power connector instead of 2x 6-pin
  5. Overclocking ability doesn't concern me too much
  6. I've never had to RMA a PC component before :)
 
Somewhat similar reasoning I guess. There's certain aspects of the design choices I like over the MSI and Gigabyte and vice verse, so I don't really find either of the 3 necessarily universally better than the other. Would've preferred it if the MSI had all memory chips on the front and retained the front plate used on the GTX 770.

Although I'm thinking about the EVGA GTX 970 SC now since Amazon.ca has it for $350 (US price at 1:1 exchange basically) which makes it -$20 MSRP (GTX 970s MSRP seems to be $370 in Canada, which somewhat makes sense factoring in exchange rate). Although the place I'm waiting in back order for with the Asus (local retailer) seems to be giving out Borderlands codes with 970/980s, even though it's technically not part of the promo, which would make it a wash somewhat.

On another hand I'm also thinking about waiting (and rolling the dice) and going with something lower end and cheaper (waiting for GTX 860 or Tonga XT).

I have serious indecision and buyer's remorse issues :p
 
fdiaz78 said:
It's ridiculous. Emailed an ASUS rep and he said stock should be "replenished" by mid Oct.

I wish Kyle could contact them and get a firm ETA. :)
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Some of shops in Europe list their ETA as 21st October. There are some aviable now, but they are like 30 euro more than launch price. I can wait two - three weeks till price settles and more stock appear.
 
Mircocenter in Columbus Ohio had several GTX 980's in stock. All were MSI and Gigabyte. I snagged a MSI 980 4GB blower version, but they had a couple of the gaming versions as well.
 
 
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Armenius said:
It's gotten the least amount of complaints so far :p.

I chose it because:
  1. I've never had an ASUS-brand GPU before, and I had set the idea in stone that my next upgrade was going to be from ASUS
  2. Uses quality parts for a decent price
  3. STRIX is a sexy looking cooler :cool:, but is also a great semi-passive and quiet design
  4. Only has 1x 8-pin power connector instead of 2x 6-pin
  5. Overclocking ability doesn't concern me too much
  6. I've never had to RMA a PC component before :)
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This is going to sound strange, but when a card requires two pin connectors do you need to use two different lines or can you use one line if it has two plugs on the end of it?
 
That's what I've always wondered as well. Google seems to indicate one line is fine, with most of the reasoning being "if the PSU manufacturer didn't feel it safe, would they put 2 pins on the same cable?"

Problem is, while I feel comfortable doing 2x6 pins on one cable (150W max power draw), 2x8 pins (300W), or even 6+8 (225W) makes me feel uncomfortable, as I'm always paranoid the wire gauge would not be up to snuff for a sustained max power draw situation.

A quick google turns up this chart, and it appears a minimum of 15 gauge wire should be used if doing 2x8 pins, since 300W on the 12V rails means a peak current of 25A. If I'm not mistaken, most PSU cable use 16 gauge wiring, which translates to 22A capacity by that chart, and thus 264W on the 12V rail. So it might still be ok to do 6+8 pins on a single cable, but 2x8 pins might really be pushing it.

Because I'm paranoid I always use one cable for each pin, regardless of how untidy it looks. Better to look untidy than melt the wire or even start a fire.
 
Just a heads-up: Amazon seems to be getting the Asus Strix 980 out much more quickly than they're advertising (2-4 weeks). I pre-ordered it on Monday, and it shipped out today Saturday, will arrive this coming Monday. YEAH!
 
My local Microcenter had an open box GTX 980 Strix for $490....It is basically brand new.

Cha-ching baby. There is a very very tiny coil whine when running benchmarks with the case side open. But in actual gaming I don't hear it at all especially with the side on.

I am assuming the person who returned it was not aware of the Display Port setup. Sort of annoying but I do plan on getting a 4k G-Sync monitor in the near future (black friday please!)
 
tbonepat11 said:
My local Microcenter had an open box GTX 980 Strix for $490....It is basically brand new.

Cha-ching baby. There is a very very tiny coil whine when running benchmarks with the case side open. But in actual gaming I don't hear it at all especially with the side on.

I am assuming the person who returned it was not aware of the Display Port setup. Sort of annoying but I do plan on getting a 4k G-Sync monitor in the near future (black friday please!)
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Oh crap, the reason I ordered the Strix was to avoid coil whine, it's the only 980 I've yet to find anybody complaining about that issue with. I live in the Caribbean and it would be costly and time-consuming to RMA so I was playing it safe. At least you can barely hear it. I've read about coil whine diminishing over a day or two of use - would you mind posting again in a few days to update if it's gotten any better or stayed the same? Thanks if you can!
 
Yeah no problem. It is barely noticeable....I have to stick my head down on the ground next to the case to hear it. Maybe if it was on my desk next to me it would bother me more.
 
Not sure if this will actually happen, but I have several of the GTX 970 cards in my wishlist at Amazon, and this morning it said the Gigabyte GTX 970 OC will be in stock on the 16th. I almost bought it, but I think I will wait for the Gaming version.
 
Managed to order my evga superclocked 970 from newegg yesterday morning. Not sure how often they restock.
 
Grimlaking said:
Managed to order my evga superclocked 970 from newegg yesterday morning. Not sure how often they restock.
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Pretty much all hours of the day and night. Last Friday night/Saturday morning, some Gigabyte 970s arrived at 2:30am.
 
Got the text alert for a Strix 970 from Newegg, frantically ordered the card through Visa Checkout, and it was OOS seconds after my order went through. They removed the $5 gift card promo so you can get the full $20 off for Visa Checkout.

Sales Order Date: 10/15/2014 8:17:53 AM
Shipping Method: Newegg 2Day

1 x ($349.99) ASUS STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5 GeForce GTX 970 4GB 2 $349.99
1 x ($0.00) 6.1.2|01|OrderShipAdj$0.00
1 x (($20.00)) DISCOUNT FOR PROMOTION CODE($20.00)
Subtotal: $329.99
Tax: $0.00
Shipping and Handling: $7.78 (paid for 2 day shipping to get the card before the weekend)
Total Amount: $337.77

UPDATE: Back in stock now!
 
Placed my order in a frenzy as well. The product page was saying not available while having an Add to Cart button. I refreshed a few times until it looked right and ordered.

Fingers crossed on the order actually going through.
 
Of the eight GTX970 models that the two MicroCenters in my area WOULD normally carry, only the EVGA GTX970 SC ACX ($409.99) is outside the $40USD range spread the other seven occupy. MSI GTX970 OC is the "cheapskate" at $329.99, the Gigabyte GTX970 Gaming is $369.99, and the others are priced in the following order - ASUS GTX970 STRIX, PNY GTX970 XLR8, Gigabyte GTX970 OC, and EVGA GTX970 SC (non-ACX). (I prefaced it with "normally" due to that between the two stores, they have a grand total of ONE in stock - EVGA GX970 SC ACX at MC Fairfax.)

The ASUS GTX970 STRIX is the oddball in two ways - not only is it the only GTX970 that requires just a single 6+2 power feed, it's also second-cheapest (just $5 above the MSI). Rather amusingly, it's been getting either the best or second-best reviews among ALL the GTX970s reviewed by major review sites doing comparisons, despite the lower price tag AND the seemingly-wimpier power feed.

My only concern is not the length of the STRIX, but its width.

I currently have my Recon3D sound card in the topmost slot (PCI Express x1) - is the STRIX a straight dual-slot GPU (like the GTX2xx and later), despite there not being a reference standard, or is it wider, like some GTX970s have proven to be (enough to block that topmost slot)? If it doesn't block that slot, I'm golden - if it does, I may be in trouble.

(There are two reasons for the Recon3D's placement - lack of IRQ sharing in the case OF that slot, and airflow. The topmost PCI Express x1 slot is shared with a PCI slot, not another PCI Express slot - if you are not using any PCI slots, it is generally the BEST place to put cards that use IRQ lines (like sound cards and Ethernet adapters), in addition to keeping the airflow clean for GPUs (single or multiple).

Other PCI Express slots share IRQs (normally) with other PCI Express slots - problematical in and of itself. They also sit below (or between) one or more PCI Express x16 slots, resulting in compromised airflow; I am trying to (naturally) avoid both issues.)
 
My Gigabyte GTX 970 arrived today and its already installed on my system. No coil whine.

NewEgg did their damn best to ensure the card would be damaged during shipping. One layer of air packets on top of the card. Nothing on the side. Nothing on the bottom. The box had been smashed on one side, damaged the corner of the retail box, but fortunately Gigabyte surrounds the card with about 2" of foam on all sides.

Gigabyte: 1
NewEgg: 0

I haven't ordered from NewEgg in two years. This is part of the reason why.
 
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