GTX 970 - Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, EVGA?

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MapleSyrupMods

Bring on Titan X Volta
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Looking to purchase a GTX 970 for my new setup. There are so many options out there and having not owned a gaming right in many years, I have a lot to re-learn. From what I have gathered from other forum posts and reviews, the MSI and ASUS appear to be the most solid, with the Gigabyte offering the best value, but card being the biggest - the EVGA has alignment issues so not too interested. I MAY want to SLI these in the future. What is the concensus in the forums in regards to these models? Any one I should choose over the other and why?

*I am located in Canada, so please refer to newegg.ca - Also, I may overclock*

Thanks!
 
I am making the same decision and will probably go with MSI. Asus's RMA process is supposedly a bit shaky and I believe the MSI cards are very quiet which is something I want.
 
MSI has a service center in Richmond, BC and Markham, Ontario. Asus has a service center in Markham, Ontario. EVGA would need to be sent to California. I'm not sure where Gigabyte RMAs would be processed for Canada.

EVGA has a new heatsink out for certain models that is designed differently. It still doesn't perform as good but that is likely mainly due to the tradeoff in size and mass (smallest fans, smallest heatsink) but the benefit would be a smaller footprint if you do need that.

No need to stick with Newegg.ca (unless it's purely preference). Use pcpartpicker and pricematch if you need to.

In terms of those 4 overall strictly in terms of the video card itself it's mainly a wash in terms of tradeoffs now. The Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 will be potentially the fastest since has the highest power limit and the most massive heatsink with most combined fan area and coverage, but overclocking still has a large lottery factor. The fastest out of the box will be a EVGA model since they do the most product SKUs and have the one with the highest stock clocks but also more expensive (and not really worth it).
 
Cell said:
Good to hear. Have you tried overclocking it yet? I got the 4G due to higher clock speeds as well as a better HS than the other MSI 970 offerings.
Click to expand...

I'm running on a XPS 8700 with a 460W PSU..

So I've decided not to OC it until I upgrade the PSU.

But when reading around, I saw that our card has great OC potential...

But it all depends on your card.. :D
 
Currently have a MSI Gaming 4G and I would definitely recommend the card - it is a champ and tears through my games and it is silent when my PC is idle :)
 
I went with the MSI 970 100ME, I'm going to put an EK block on it anyway, so I just went with that one cause it was the same price as the Gaming 4G version and had a free mousepad!
 
I'll ask here instead of starting a new thread. Should I get the msi gaming 970 ($310) or evga ftw acx 2.0 ($320)? I'm upgrading from my gtx460 and want to future proof my computer for 1080p.
 
The EVGA is a reference card where as the MSI is a custom PCB; either would be solid choices. If you're not doing any special cooling and using what's already on the card. Originally the EVGA ACX 2.0 received some flack for having a very aggressive/loud fan curve.

Here's a discussion on the EVGA card and their reply to #fangate (just kidding):
http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/2h5kty/discussion_evga_has_responded_to_complaints_about/

I'd grab the MSI just for peace of mind without having to deal with potentially flashing the BIOS'
 
I would say the Gigabyte G1 gaming. It has a HUGE power limit for overclocking, where as the EVGA and ASUS are limited.

Cannot speak on the MSI, although I do love that zero noise fan thing they have on the cards.

Sure I am partial, but the Gigabyte really does overclock well and stays very cool, and isn't loud at 100% fan.
 
DASHlT said:
Sure I am partial, but the Gigabyte really does overclock well and stays very cool, and isn't loud at 100% fan.
Click to expand...

The Gigabyte is louder at idle though which is the only time someone will notice unless you game with no audio.
 
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