GTX970/980 Guide

[Jacobite]

This is a repost of my GTX970/980 guide, I can add more information and correct wrong information if you add it here, I can also add more teardowns here as well. Will add some pictures of the benchmarks later, most people are hitting around 1. 5Ghz and to be honest I am not sure that people are really trying to push these harder.

[BP][POWR][VRAM]Gigabyte Gaming G1 6+8pin, 6Phase (970), 8 phase (980)

[NA][POWR][PART]MSI Gaming OC 6+8Pin  6phase (970)

[??][POWR][--NA--]EVGA ACX -  6+8Pin  4phase (970)

[BP][POWR][VRAM]Asus Strix - 8 Pin  6phase (970), 10 phase (980)

[BP]Backplate, [POWR] Power delivery cooling, [VRAM] Video Ram cooling.

 

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)

 

2014-09-302014-09-30 

Here is a pic so you can see WTF is you are looking at (the components).

 

The EVGA cards ARE DEFECTIVE, heatpipes operate in a fashion similar to refrigerators, their pipes contain liquids that absorb the heat, evaporate and move up the pipe transfering the heat more effectively than solid metal, which is why you sometimes see these pipes making direct contract with the processor and not solid copper baseplates. It is also why they are sealed. The ACX cooler here has allegedly (which makes sense) been recycled from a prior model, which to be honest makes much more sense than designing one that is the wrong size. Furthermore the ACX 970s from EVGA had very low review scores on Newegg with many problems (like coil whine) being reported, and people being unhappy. The Power delivery is bassically the same as reference on that one.

[Jacobite]

Reserved

[Jacobite]

Reserved

[Fetchez_La_Vache]

That pic you added of the EVGA 970 is a picture of a GTX 760, easily distiguished by the pcb design, 6 pin + 8 pin power and copper heat pipes. This is part of the reason why this "controversy" about EVGA's cards being "defective" has arisen. 

The recycled design used from the 760 with the "OMG one of the heat pipes isn't touching the Core!!!" is the ACX 1.0. EVGA have even branded these 970's as ACX 1.0 on the cards shipped with them. The cards are significantly cheaper than the new designs from Gigabyte and Asus, it shouldn't come as much of a suprise that they dont perform as well. Saying the cooler design is "defective" is incorrect, otherwise all the 760's produced over the past 15 months are also "defective." Those negative reviews from Newegg are for an ACX 1.0 card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487066

The controversy around the cooling is a result of people not researching the version of the card they are purchasing properly. They are probably buying the ACX 1.0 version thinking it is the ACX 2.0 version.

The ACX 2.0 features the recycled fin stack from the ACX 1.0 but with the swept fan blade design (it should really be called ACX 1.5) this version still doesn't match the performance of the Gigabyte or Asus but once again, is cheaper than both, as long as you aren't silly enough to pay for a factory OC'd version.

Here is the cooler desing for the ACX 2.0 FTW which is the equivelent price of the GB & Asus Cards (actually, knowing EVGA it will be slightly more expensive) and looks like it gets equal cooling performance:

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/74853-evga-geforce-gtx-970-ftw/?page=17

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8568/the-geforce-gtx-970-review-feat-evga/2

EVGA seems to have made a rod for its own back by releasing way way too many versions of the 970, so far I have counted 5 versions (Nvidia Reference, EVGA Blower, ACX 1.0, ACX 2.0 and ACX 2.0 FTW) as well as versions of each with differing clock speeds. Of the 16 970's listed on Scan.co.uk 7 of them are from EVGA and they havent even started selling the FTW variant - insane

http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/gpu-nvidia/geforce-gtx-970-(1664-cores)

The ACX 1.0 cooling is not defective, there is a gaping chasm of difference between "defective" and "doesn't perform as well as more expensive cards" My 760 ACX 1.0 is OC'd to a shade under 1200Mhz and has been rock solid, cool and quiet, much like pretty much everyone else that bought one.

 

EDIT: The pic below is what I thought (and some posts on forums have indicated) was used on the ACX 2.0 versions of the 970 but is in fact the fin stack and heat pipe arrangment from the 980 ACX 2.0. I re-watched the PCper video that has Jacob from EVGA explaining which cards have which coolers. Definately pays to double and triple check research. The SC version Paul "formerly from Newegg" bought and reviewed also has the re-cycled three pipe cooler.

[MEC_777]

THANK YOU for taking the time to explain and show people what is in fact going on with the EVGA coolers. It seems people love to take a claim and run with it without properly investigating the issue, themselves.

It feels like I'm taking to a brick wall trying to explain this to other people on other forums who don't seem to understand, the ACX 1.0 cooler is not defective, nor flawed. It's simply a less expensive and less effective cooler design that is still more than adequate for the stock clocked and even mildly overclocked 970 GPU.

If you don't care about overclocking your GPU and you just want to slap in a 970 and go, the ACX 1.0 cooler variant is not necessarily a bad choice. However, if you want to overclock and or want a more quiet-running 970, the ACX 2.0 is definitely the better choice from EVGA. 

Thanks again from making this post. Next time I run into someone claiming "don't buy the EVGA 970's, their coolers are defective junk." I'll be able to refer them to this thread. :)

[Fendi]

I love my EVGA FTW ACX 2.0, runs cool and I got a 1600mhz overclock out of it! Wouldn't trade it for any other 970!

[deejeta]

My 980 arrived today. Even though im bummed it has an ASIC rating of just 66% I cant complain about the performance and power consumption. Its just amazeballs!

(removed cpu oc for this testing - rig in profile)

Old setup - gtx 760 4gb sli - idle 124w, firestrike 498w - Firestrike score - 10559 

New - gtx 980 (stock) - idle 118w, firestrike 324w- Firestrike score - 10728

oc (+84 core and mem) idle - 118w, firestrike 330w Firestrike score - 11113

oc (+184 core and mem) idle - 118w, firestrike 354w Firestrike score - 11539

Temps never went above 72c and fan speed max was 40% and dead silent. My water pump is louder.

Once my backordered full-cover waterblock arrives I'll see how far I can push this card.

 

[CLASSICARL]

    I still feel like I'm missing something here. I bought a 970 with ACX 2.0 written on the box. Is this 'skimped' version that people are ranting about relevant to me?

[Some_Tech_Noob]

If it's the ACX 2.0, no.  It's not the "skimped" version.

"Skimped" isn't really the right term.  EVGA stated that the ACX 1.0 on the 970 is not "skimped" but more like "overbuilt" and underutilized.