Which 970 Are You Buying?

cantoncobaltsssc said:
Asus Strix has been fantastic for me. It's overclocked +150core and +250 memory it performs flawlessly. I had bought the Gigabyte G1 but then realized it's far to big to fit in my case. I'm glad I got the Strix instead.
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"+150" is basically meaningless and I cant believe you put that in sig. The actual boost speed is what matters. Thats probably around 1440 or so based on what the Strix 970 really boosts to out of the box.
 
Well I feel like a big fat dope - I ordered 2 ASUS 970s 100% on the advertised 0dba (fan shutoff) feature. I always like my PC to be as silent as possible on idle/low load. Little did I know many of the other manufacturers have the same feature, and sounds like have better cooling etc. to boot. I usually do way too much research, but this time I just went with the ASUS. Overall though, it does sound like people are very happy with them, and Maxwell is engineered so ridiculously well that it really almost doesn't matter which brand you go with.

On the plus side, I did sell my 780 for $400 right after the 980/970 reviews were posted :D
 
flopticalcube said:
MSI OCV1 ... Blower on what looks like a reference 980 PCB...

http://www.techpowerup.com/205439/msi-announces-geforce-gtx-980-and-gtx-970-ocv1-series.html

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Guess they do then, nice although I'll admit the EVGA version looks more slick.

I prefer Gigabyte but so far they do not have a blower, just their triple fan damn long windforce card.
 
I just seen the ITX version on Gigabytes site.

Zero grills on back though for flow due to the crazy 6 connectors on back.
Size is nice but just a single fan for cooling?

How are your idle/load temps compared to ACX or blower?

The posted article states 62C is the max, that is pretty reasonable for a card that size.
Replace TIM with AC5 and it might drop down to around 57C.

Perfect size would be the 750ti twin windforce like the one I have right now.
Not tiny but not long either, just about right with great cooling.
 
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officially jumped in today...ordered the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming from Amazon with the free Nvidia 'choose your path' bundle...don't know when I'll actually receive the card but I'm fine with waiting a bit...the $369 price is also excellent considering that most people rank the Gigabyte card the best 970

my GTX 580 served me well for 4 years
 
polonyc2 said:
officially jumped in today...ordered the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming from Amazon with the free Nvidia 'choose your path' bundle...don't know when I'll actually receive the card but I'm fine with waiting a bit...the $369 price is also excellent considering that most people rank the Gigabyte card the best 970

my GTX 580 served me well for 4 years
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I was about to order that one also but with no ETA listed I'm not sure I want to wait. Let me know when you get notice of it being shipped.
 
I jumped on the MSI 4G Gaming GTX 970 just now. I like the look of it and cooling is silent from what I've read. Also planning on SLI so the smaller card should be better than the big Gigabyte G1 for me.
 
I grabbed an EVGA 970 FTW, tonight. I wasn't planning to jump on the 900 series, but Nvidia's new free game promo helped push me to pull the trigger. Free digital copy of Far Cry 4 coming my way. :)
 
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I got the Asus STRIX 970 as it was the ONLY one in stock on Amazon that was also shipped and sold by them. I wasn't desperate enough for a new GPU to spend the $100 premium from other sellers.
 
polonyc2 said:
officially jumped in today...ordered the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming from Amazon with the free Nvidia 'choose your path' bundle...don't know when I'll actually receive the card but I'm fine with waiting a bit...the $369 price is also excellent considering that most people rank the Gigabyte card the best 970

my GTX 580 served me well for 4 years
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AjFreimuth said:
I was about to order that one also but with no ETA listed I'm not sure I want to wait. Let me know when you get notice of it being shipped.
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got a notice today that I should expect delivery between 'Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - Saturday, November 15'...not bad turnaround time at all...I had a feeling Amazon was getting them in stock on a regular basis but were just forcing people to 'pre-order' while not in stock

hopefully I'll get it on Nov 11th, so I can use the gaming code to play AC Unity which is released on that same day
 
How are the EVGA GTX 970s cooling wise? I recall at launch there were reports that the third heatpipe (?) didn't make direct contact and in general the cooler was nosier than the MSI and ASUS cards. Did EVGA remedy this issue yet?

If I get a 970 I will be keeping it at least 3 years, and ASUS' reputation for bad RMA experience is pushing me away from the STRIX in the event I have some issue. I have been waiting for the MSI cards to come in stock but I guess everyone is back ordered on them.

If it came down to the ASUS STRIX or the EVGA SC, which would you all go for?
 
Given those choices, I would personally go for the STRIX as most of the bad ASUS stories are greatly exaggerated. I also like the MSI Gaming 4G, but I ended up with the Gigabyte G1 Gaming.
 
seems like most of [H] has upgraded to a 970 or 980...never seen a mass upgrade like this in all my years here
 
Well, I liked my first 970 so much I'm buying a second ;) Coming from a 750 Ti so I had an early taste of what Maxwell was like.
 
polonyc2 said:
seems like most of [H] has upgraded to a 970 or 980...never seen a mass upgrade like this in all my years here
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It seems like a good price/performance point (for the 970, anyway). I'm waiting until the Strix comes back in stock and I'll probably grab one. Considering waiting to see what happens with 8 GB cards, but my guess is the price premium will be more than I want to pay.

Speaking of 970s, though, it seems the EVGA Superclocked is in stock, but I've heard very little talk about it around here. Any particular reason why?
 
MavericK96 said:
Speaking of 970s, though, it seems the EVGA Superclocked is in stock, but I've heard very little talk about it around here. Any particular reason why?
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Because EVGA dropped the ball and released cards that were more expensive, had worse thermals, and made more noise than other major brands.
 
MavericK96 said:
Speaking of 970s, though, it seems the EVGA Superclocked is in stock, but I've heard very little talk about it around here. Any particular reason why?
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EVGA got a bad rap on their 970's due to the 'misaligned heatpipe' issue which spread like wildfire online...they were never able to recover from the bad stigma

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/evga-geforce-gtx-970-acx-has-misaligned-gpu-vs-heatpipes.html

I just bought a Gigabyte G1 970 yesterday...my preference for 970 cards would be---> Gigabyte G1 Gaming--> MSI Gaming 4G--> ASUS Strix--> EVGA
 
polonyc2 said:
EVGA got a bad rap on their 970's due to the 'misaligned heatpipe' issue which spread like wildfire online...they were never able to recover from the bad stigma
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And the fact that the cards run hotter than others. And the fact that the coolers didn't have a 0db mode at launch (and still don't on many models). And many early reports of coil whine.

Other than EVGA support, they released some duds for GTX 970 cards. MSI and Gigabyte both launched with 970 cards that beat down EVGA cards in every category at similar or cheaper prices.
 
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get this MSI GTX 970 which runs on a gtx 980 pcb.Link

I think because of the shortage of the gtx 970 which forces msi to use the 980 PCB, and there should be a limit number of this card in circulation. Also its not even listed on MSI's website. MSI

I got one and it runs pretty fast even @ 1500mhz core and 9000mhz memory(max power slider only goes to 106%.) The only downside is that its as hot as a stock 980 gtx, hovers around 80celcius @ stock fan settings.

en7UkjJ.png
 
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Im on the market for a 970.. been a while since i bought a new gpu (last one i bought new was the bfg 8800gt oc).. otherwise a few years ago i bought a used gtx 650 ti off ebay that held me over as a cheap upgrade for a lil while over that 8800.

Got a white nzxt h440 case on order. picked up some red pny ddr3 ram which was on sale. Was thinking about the msi 4g (the red theme is kinda what i want to do inside)..

But the gigabyte g1 windforce cooler does look pretty cool. Is it one of the best stock coolers on the market right now?

My last 2 gpus, i threw a universal swiftech waterblock on them and overclocked them.. not sure if i will do gpu watercooling this time, so i wouldnt mind sticking with the stock cooler for now.
 
flopticalcube said:
All the cards seem to have coil whine. At least with EVGA, they are happy to RMA the card until you are happy. I suspect that they are also doing something to reduce the instances of it, at least that is what I gathered from their recent press release.
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Thanks for your feedback ;). So I guess due to the HTPC case size (limited in height), my only options are EVGA and Zotac non-amp. If the case could accept cards 12-13" I would go for gigabyte card :-(.... Does anyone know if all EVGA cards support 0rpm fan at idle? also does Zotac non-amp support 0rpm fan at idle?

Too be honest guys, I'm not too happy with the gpu designs, I like heat pipes and all, but most of them are too hight... even new gigabyte mini GTX 970 would not fit in m HTPC case (Silverstone GD05B-USB3.0 )... If I had a choice I would go for MSI, Asus or Gigabyte version :(
 
Any reviews for the MSI Armor 2x 970s? That is the one version I can not seem to find a benchmark for. Might consider getting that one.

Also, is "GPU sagging" a big issue? These larger and heavier coolers these days seem a bit big for PCI-E slots. A couple of the reviews online for various 970s seem to report bending/sagging of the PCB. Any chance such issues can cause damage long term or is it essentially a cosmetic issue only?
 
Hey all, I plan to get a second 970 when my monitor arrives (pg278q), my first 970 was MSI, would there be any issues if I went Gigabyte G1 Gaming version as the second 970 for SLI or would I be better off getting a second MSI?

I am asking because I plan to install a wireless adapter below the second card, and I don't want the second gpu to sag onto the adapter card (I haven't took any measurements of how much my MSI sags, I could very well be overthinking this).

The adapter is Asus PCE-AC68
 
you are definitely overthinking. there won't be any issues but there's not much of a point in doing that.
 
Ordered the last Asus Strix GTX 970 from Amazon (other resellers have it in stock for $100+ over MSRP.) should be here later today. Will install it tommorow when I get my H110 I also ordered.
 
aznever said:
get this MSI GTX 970 which runs on a gtx 980 pcb.Link

I think because of the shortage of the gtx 970 which forces msi to use the 980 PCB, and there should be a limit number of this card in circulation. Also its not even listed on MSI's website. MSI

I got one and it runs pretty fast even @ 1500mhz core and 9000mhz memory(max power slider only goes to 106%.) The only downside is that its as hot as a stock 980 gtx, hovers around 80celcius @ stock fan settings.

en7UkjJ.png
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Can you comment on the temperatures? fan speed? and noise level?

Also have you tried opening it up to see the pcb layout and/or heatsink layout? I assume by looking at the back side of the card you can verify it indeed is the 980 pcb layout?
 
aznever said:
get this MSI GTX 970 which runs on a gtx 980 pcb]
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Source? Are you 100% sure? I cant find any reviews of this model. I'm interested. Maybe its something like the EVGA 670 FTW? which used a 680 pcb/cooler/heatsink.
 
Are there any good blower style or vapor chamber models? I'm running an FT-02 case which is rotated 90 degrees and the dual and tri fans aren't always the best choice.
 
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