[W]arm- BEst Buy Nvidia GTX970 (stock) $329 (Incl. Arkham Knight)

Modred189

Modred189

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http://www.bestbuy.com/site/nvidia-...=9855169&productCategoryId=pcmcat182300050008
For those of us with rewards points lying around, this is a solid deal.
Also, remember that Best Buy covers the warranty on graphics cards. This usually ends VERY well for the buyer, since unlike the manufacturer, Best Buy does NOT hold on to old stock. A few years back I had a GTX460 die, and I ended up with a GTX660 as an exchange.
YMMV, of course.
 
Also, keep an eye out for 10% off coupons. I got one via email and it worked for another $33 off.
 
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Modred189 said:
Also, remember that Best Buy covers the warranty on graphics cards. This usually ends VERY well for the buyer, since unlike the manufacturer, Best Buy does NOT hold on to old stock. A few years back I had a GTX460 die, and I ended up with a GTX660 as an exchange.
YMMV, of course.
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Is that true? I thought I remember registering my card on Nvidia's website and all that. I wasn't aware we could just go in a BB store.
 
Hanakuso said:
Is that true? I thought I remember registering my card on Nvidia's website and all that. I wasn't aware we could just go in a BB store.
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Well, I used to work there, and last I checked it's buried on their website. There are things they do NOT cover (usually appliances and any unilaterally priced products (Apple, Bose, etc). And with some things, Best Buy will simply act as a middleman, sending the thing to the manufacturer.
But with disposable, non-fixable products like graphics cards, they usually just do a swap. (some manufacturers won't let them, but that list changes and was always smaller than the ones that didn't care)

That said, CYA and do the warranty card thing, just to be sure.
 
Modred189 said:
Also, keep an eye out for 10% off coupons. I got one via email and it worked for another $33 off.
Here's one for someone to use. Just post when you use it.
7472036ec
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I used your coupon for this card - thanks pal!
 
I picked one up, earlier in the week, and the card also includes a back plate. As others have pointed out, it does have the Titan X cooler. I was torn between this or the MSI, but glad this came up as I had BB credit and it turned out to be very quiet (even at load in FarCry 4).
 
lgestle said:
I picked one up, earlier in the week, and the card also includes a back plate. As others have pointed out, it does have the Titan X cooler. I was torn between this or the MSI, but glad this came up as I had BB credit and it turned out to be very quiet (even at load in FarCry 4).
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Any attempts to OC it?
 
Also, rumor has it that these use the 980 pcb and layout, so blocks for the 980 will work.
 
Modred189 said:
Any attempts to OC it?
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Not yet. I know noise, as I run an ITX box (node 304) that is on a shelf at ear level, was a big concern (outside of coil whine). I ran a XFX DD 7950 previously and this is noticeably quieter under load. At idle I can't even hear it. I have not heard any coil whine either with my Seasonic PSU.
 
lgestle said:
I picked one up, earlier in the week, and the card also includes a back plate. As others have pointed out, it does have the Titan X cooler. I was torn between this or the MSI, but glad this came up as I had BB credit and it turned out to be very quiet (even at load in FarCry 4).
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This is actually not the Titan X cooler. The Titan X has a vapor chamber while this does not.
 
Hanakuso said:
This is actually not the Titan X cooler. The Titan X has a vapor chamber while this does not.
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Yup. I was looking into this earlier. Had this been equipped with the Titan X cooler, I likely would have purchased this over the G1 I bought. After using an Amazon GC I had from Christmas, they came out to about the same price.
 
Hanakuso said:
This is actually not the Titan X cooler. The Titan X has a vapor chamber while this does not.
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Sorry about that. At least from my own experience, it does perform very good for a blower style cooler. I know noise was a common complaint with the other blower style coolers.
 
Nice deal. I've had one of these for 6 months, and it works great. Zero coil whine, and stays very cool. Have not done any overclocking with it, though. So nothing to report there.
 
Very tempting as these are supposedly in stock at four of our local stores.

Would need one of those coupons though to offset the 10% sales tax here...
 
waderunner said:
Nice deal. I've had one of these for 6 months, and it works great. Zero coil whine, and stays very cool. Have not done any overclocking with it, though. So nothing to report there.
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Same, I bought one of these on a whim for my wife back when they first came out for $379.99 in November or so, price matched to Newegg's ref $354 price also. Great card, its has the same reference 980 board and cooler with backplate, it is the best 970 imo since this reference cooler is plenty to keep the card cool while remaining virtually silent. I've overclocked it to 1505MHz but we run it at 1404MHz for daily use since most of the heavy pc gaming is done on my rig now.

It's probably the first card I will just keep using until it depreciates to nothing (rather than sell it on FS/FT) because it uses so little power, it would actually make sense to keep throwing it into other rigs, or keeping it on standby as a backup or PhysX card eventually.
 
Just installed mine and went with no issue. Funny thing, I actually had to switch from an 8x6 OCI-E power setup on the old 660Ti to a 6X6 on the 970.
 
Just wondering.

At this price, is it worth it? I thought i've seen these hover around this price?
 
A15G said:
Just wondering.

At this price, is it worth it? I thought i've seen these hover around this price?
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It depends. Because I had a 10% coupon and some points, i got it for $255. Hence the [W]arm prefix and disclaimers in the op.
The real benefit is that this is a true blower cooler, no heat dumped into the case like so many third party coolers.
 
Currently I have this same card. I game at 1080p and have a 144hz gsync display. What would I net by adding a second card? Is sli pretty stable these days? Should I just get a 980ti?
 
TheToE! said:
Currently I have this same card. I game at 1080p and have a 144hz gsync display. What would I net by adding a second card? Is sli pretty stable these days? Should I just get a 980ti?
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A single 980 Ti generally matches 970s in SLI in most things (off by ~5-10% in either direction), and you don't have to dicker with SLI issues.

http://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-ti-review/ (scroll down to see the single Ti vs. twin 970s charts)
 
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A15G said:
Just wondering.

At this price, is it worth it? I thought i've seen these hover around this price?
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Other non-reference 970s have been $300 or even lower yes, and this $330 price point is what those models launched at. GTX 970 technically did not have a "reference" model but Nvidia made one based on the 980 PCB and cooler at first only for OEM system builders (Cyberpower etc) but a few months later, they started selling them directly under their Nvidia brand at BestBuy to fill the B&M niche that was vacated when BFG went under.

Many like myself preferred the reference blower design because of the build quality, low noise, and the fact it expelled the heat out of the case. The NVTTM is super high quality also, so it has generally carried a premium over the other cooling solutions on the market. If you have a mini-ITX case or small form factor case, or want to run in SLI, these may be your best bet.

Personally I think this is the best built 970 on the market by far, if you look at some of the custom 970s they have really mid-range coolers, or PCBs that are more or less blank (many were built on the 760 PCB) with far fewer components. Anecdotally, this may translate into less coil whine (I've had none on 4 ref boards) and more overclockability at least compared to the cheaper built 970s out there.

The NVTTM cooler on this card is overkill and will provide a ton of overclocking headroom as well while remaining virtually silent at both idle and load.

Destruya said:
A single 980 Ti generally matches 970s in SLI in most things (off by ~5-10% in either direction), and you don't have to dicker with SLI issues.

http://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-ti-review/ (scroll down to see the single Ti vs. twin 970s charts)
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Great link and graphs, I'd definitely agree with this assessment. I'm running SLI now and while the performance gain is incredible if you can't get more performance from a single GPU, you do run into more issues with scaling and utilization. Also, from an overclocking perspective, its much harder to get 2 cards stable vs. 1 due to increased temps, power draw, loads on both GPUs with the higher frame rates.

If money is the same or you have to take a small hit to sell the 970, then 980Ti is definitely the way to go here. While 970 SLI at 1080p is fine for the most part, the more horsepower you have, the more likely you're going to crank up settings like MSAA that will push closer to that 3.5GB cap you want to avoid on the 970. 980Ti of course has 6GB of VRAM which should be more than enough at 1080p Ultra 4xMSAA in pretty much any game for the next year or so.

The ONLY downside I can think of having owned a reference 970, 980, 980Ti and Titan X is that much of the quiet operation you see on the 970/980 goes away with the reference cooler on the 980Ti and Titan X. The Nvidia NVTTM cooler really hits its saturation point around 250W, so once you overclock the 980Ti and Titan X, you need to use a custom fan profile to help keep it cool and prevent throttling. Even then its not enough and you will feel the aluminum shroud get much hotter and the core will heat up to around 83-85C and start throttling the GPU.

So in summary, definitely get a 980Ti if you don't mind taking a bit of a hit selling the 970 and try and get a 980Ti with a custom cooler or AIO (best option) if overclocking is important to you.
 
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Anyone have any experience with the 970 and dsr at 1080p? Is it sufficient?
 
Modred189 said:
Anyone have any experience with the 970 and dsr at 1080p? Is it sufficient?
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Only for older games, its great for DX9 games or less demanding newer games (D3 for example is great). For newer games, just look at 4K results, it's not enough.
 
I think I will be picking this up tomorrow. (need to get rid of my 6950)

I am convinced and feel that this will hold more value vs other 970's down the road.

Thanks for the replies guys.
 
Modred189 said:
Anyone have any experience with the 970 and dsr at 1080p? Is it sufficient?
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Depends on the game for me. I'm running one of these now. I've got a 1080p Gsync monitor and am pondering a 2nd, hoping it would hold me over till the next refresh of cards are out.
 
misterbobby said:
DSR is not just 4k...
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2x2 is same as 4K, you can do 1.2 or 1.5x but it just isn't as good looking imo. Still better than no AA but you start getting non-native interpolation to the point I'd rather use MSAA instead.

A15G said:
I think I will be picking this up tomorrow. (need to get rid of my 6950)

I am convinced and feel that this will hold more value vs other 970's down the road.

Thanks for the replies guys.
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No doubt about it, I think its the best built 970 on the market, here's a pic in my wife's rig to whet your appetite!

https://ze6h3a.dm2301.livefilestore...psMww7ppTj90kEZC2w/20141122_105427.jpg?psid=1
 
chizow said:
Only for older games, its great for DX9 games or less demanding newer games (D3 for example is great). For newer games, just look at 4K results, it's not enough.
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Did some testing last night., and you're right, Fallout New Vegas looked fantastic, Metro 2033 was too much for it, and would not take anything between 1x and 2x.
 
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