When I heard about the new GTX 970 and 980 about a week ago, I got pretty excited. When I saw the price on the 970, I became really excited. And when I saw the kind of performance it delivered at that price, I had to have one.
Coming from a EVGA 770, and a EVGA 660 ti before that, I was naturally considering the option from that vendor. Those two cards performed perfectly and I liked the looks of them compared to the competition. From an aesthetic standpoint, I thought their 970 looked pretty good. But after seeing the outputs on the stock cooler, I was disappointed to see they went with the standard setup on most previous generation Nvidia cards. Though, I don't use anything other than a Dual-Link DVI port and an HDMI port, so its not like it was that big of a deal. So, I figured that'd be the one I'd buy.
Then I watched JaysTwoCents' video on the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 970 Gaming video card. I was immediately impressed with the outputs that it had: 3 DP, 2 DVI, and 1 HDMI 2.0. But what really impressed me was the overclock he was able to get on that thing, and the temps it was able to achieve. That pushed me to decide on Gigabyte's offer.
Now, I've never really been a fan of the Windforce cooler. Its longer than many of the custom coolers out there (which isn't really an issue since my case can accommodate any graphics card out there) and I think the design is ugly. However, this time around they updated the look a little bit. I still wouldn't call it pretty, but I don't think it looks bad anymore. I like that they have the LED light on the side, though blue is an odd color choice.
After receiving this bad boy yesterday and popping it in my machine, I was both impressed and thrilled. Every game I throw at it plays beautifully at 1440p 60 Hz and it stays quite doing it. I actually can't hear it unless I'm looking for it.
Then I started overclocking.
I got to 1587 Mhz. I didn't expect to get that high. It just kept going and going. And it remains at around 70 degrees Celsius to boot. And its still difficult to hear.
I am super happy with my purchase and I'm glad I jumped in early because it seems like they are in short supply now. Maxwell is very impressive and I'm curious to see how AMD will combat this.
wow thats a great overclock!
So I also ordered a 970 gtx. I got the ASUS Strix model sitting on a box at my feet right now. I jumped the gun and ordered after realizing that it only has one 8-pin connector. I am planning on returning, so I don't want to open the retail box (out of courtesy I guess, but gee it is so tempting. .
. The Gigabyte model was my first choice, but it was out of stock, and went with the MSI (red version) because it has 8-pin + 6-pin. Haven't got that card yet tho. The ASUS version is a solid card, but I want to push OC as much as I can.
AMD and Nvidia are going in TOTAL opposite Directions from each other which is pretty funny, AMD Focusing on Brute Power for the Money and Nvidia focusing on Low Powered-Powerhouses (finally for the money) I think AMD has really been put into a corner with the Maxwell Drop cause Nvidia put everything we want in our cards,
Nvidia's cards
- Low-Heat Output
- Insane Overclockers
- Excellent Price for the Money.
AMD's Cards
- INSANE heat output
- Mediocre Overclockers
- Excellent Price for The Money.
Really though I still have a bad taste of Nvidia after all the bullshit they've pulled this year but their maxwell cards are really amazing.
I Hope AMD does something groundbreaking for the Successor to the R9-200 Series. Cause this Launch was a HUGE Hit to the Jugular for AMD. I've said it before in a post but I think this launch was Every AMD Fan's Worst Nightmare, Nvidias Cards are finally Cheap and have incredible Price to Performance. and i think this is probably the best GPU War We've ever seen.
The gigabyte and Msi gaming are the best.
+1
Zotac also has some beefy impressive designs for Maxwell. Nothing official, but I *heard* they release this weekend.
Zotac 970 GTX AMP!
Zotac 970 GTX Extreme Edition
Nope. Zotax seems to have three models for the 970 gtx.
Here is a link for the 970 GTX Extreme (which isn't available yet I believe, I have looked..)
http://www.zotac.com/products/graphics-cards/geforce-900-series/product/geforce-900-series/detail/geforce-gtx-970-amp-extreme-edition.html
This is a link showing their three GTX970 offerings.. http://www.zotac.com/products/graphics-cards/geforce-900-series/gtx-970/product/gtx-970/category/geforce-900-series/main-category/graphics-cards.html
Need to grab pictures of teardown to see heatsink assembly, some were shocking, evgas only had two of three heat pipes making contact. And some people had coil whine. What a joke.
Think MSI gaming and ggigabyte Gaming were only ones with vram cooling lol.
Gigabyte has really nailed it with these maxwell cards. Amazing I/O, and very sexy black metal shroud.
Nice! I like Asus and have strongly considered their stuff in the past, but their current offering just didn't compete with the Gigabyte one IMO. Never really considered anything from MSI... I know their performance isn't any less than the competition, and I think the cards look nice, but its just something about the company itself... I dunno.
Anywho I'm sure you'll be happy with that 970! Hope you can get as high of an overclock, or even better! I've heard of some exceeding 1600 MHz... mine just wasn't having it haha.
Yeah im agree i personaly looking at one my self i have to admit lol ☺
Could someone explain the purpose of all those outputs on the Gigabyte models, if the 970 can only output to 4 displays? Or did I make a mistake in my research? thanks
Flexibility, from what I understand. You could do a 3 way G-sync setup with the 3 DP ports, or you can do whatever setup you could do on previous cards as well. Its nice to have options.
alright, makes sense, thanks.
yeah, this one. (the LED is RGB)
but, what i don;t get is that 99% of GPU orientation in window cases are horizontal. you never see the fans, only the top edge and the back of the PCB, so i don't get why all these manufacturers put so much aesthetic in the side most people never see.....
the Gigabyte looks like a beast. wish the LED was RGB, but maybe a simple diode switch could change it to red? :)
getting a 970, not sure if i am getting the gigabyte, or MSI...... wish EVGA had a better option.
Here are the pictures, will make a thread about the different options later. As you can see the Asus one has NO VRAM cooling whatsoever. The EVGA one is not much better (if better), it has VRAM cooling, but it only has two heat pipes that work because the third one doesnt make contact, and isnt even sealed... Apparently it didn't peform too well in the reviews, and has issues of coil whine (like those horrible saphire cards did). Honestly they probably have hands down the worst design this time around.
Gigabyte Gaming G1
MSI Gaming (NO backplate)
EVGA (Notice the bad unsealed heatpipe, and onle 2/3 heatsinks are functional and make contact)
Asus (NO VRAM cooling)
Here is a pic so you can see WTF is you are looking at (the components).
Me either, IDK, I just don't. Gigabyte did this with the wind-force thing sticking out the back. And why you would want to impede the airflow over your fans with that shroud is beyond me. Also that thing would suck to clean......
Wish you couldn't see the 3pin power plug for it, even if they ordered a black recepticle and shrink-wrapped or braided the wire it would be a completely different story. We are probably literally talking about cents here in cost to do this... But nope.... Could probably do that myself, somehow. Wouldnt want to risk taking off the 3 pin recepticle and dieing it though >.< You can see on the picures below they shrinkwrapped the power cord to that light on the non-visable side. Silly people >.<
They did a good job though on this one, they even got rid of that silly bit that poked out on the older versions, and that cheap shiny plastic look. The fans look better too. The fans on the other one always looked like they were thin and fragile.