Last week I scratched an itch I had (upgrade-itis) and bought the following: Asus Z170i i5-6600k 16 GB DDR4 @ 2400 All of them are sitting nicely in a Fractal Design Define Nano S. The next items on my list are a GPU and a new monitor (currently on 1080, will go 1440). Have decided to get a 1070, but the question is which. Bear in mind that I can get a FE cheaper than ASUS, MSI or EVGA and the price difference in partner cards is not significant (in my mind at least). Having said all of the above, there's some stuff I need opinions on: - I'm considering the FE because it looks pretty nice and it would blow hot air outside of the case. Would I notice any actual performance differences between this and a partner card while gaming at 1440? The case has enough cooling (CPU doesn't go above 50 currently, although it is running stock. It went as high as 60 while at 4.6 ghz. Have a Corsair H75 on it), would the blower style card make a big difference vs non-blower? - If I get a partner card, would I notice any actual performance differences between the OC and non OC versions of the Asus Strix card for example? - Which of the partner cards would be the best buy? I'm aware of the wall of text above but would appreciate any thoughts on it. Thank you !
Hi there M2r1o, Firstly if you are considering purchasing a founders edition, no matter what the branding they are all exactly the same so finding the cheapest FE will perform the same as purchasing the most expensive. This is because the FE card is bought directly from NVIDIA. The reason there may be a price difference is due to the exchange rate on dollar from when they were purchased. If you wanted the non-FE version, MSI or EVGA etc only purchase the chip from NVIDIA and make their own cards to suit it. The water-cooling for the card would help with the card's temperature but you would only notice the difference if the card is overclocked, but even then for normal gameplay almost no difference is noticeable. If however you ran a benchmark between the two you may notice a few extra fps. I hope this helps and answers your question. If you want to speak to someone on the phone about something else or need more info then check out our website www.yoyotech.co.uk
Partner cards can have fan stop tech which will save you some noise when you're not gaming, and some more expensive cards will have upgraded vrm stack for oc, if you care. Surprised there's not much diff in price where you are. Big diffs here!
The biggest price difference is between the cheapest FE and the EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Cheesecake GAMING ACX : ~ 43 pounds at current exchange rates. Strix OC is ~ 3 pounds cheaper than the EVGA. There's ~ 9 pounds between cheapest FE and Strix non - OC, add ~4 more pounds and you can get a MSI Gaming X. Had forgotten about the fan stop, thanks for the reminder.
I was gonna buy my usual Zotac because of 5 year warranty but I got EVGA 1070 instead. 2ghz+ overclock.
To be fair re: the EVGA card, I've been an ACX edition fanboy since I heard a GTX 770 ACX in a build I was working on. Stuck it on test and I couldn't even hear it over the case fans. At that moment I really wished it was my card and not the customer's, and vowed my next upgrade would be an EVGA ACX edition. Which still hasn't happened, because this 670 just refuses to die. Stupid graphics cards and their constantly improving MTBFs! I've never seen a Strix card so I can't compare for sound levels, but they're supposed to be awesome too. My 670 is of the preceding DCII variety and it's pretty damn quiet too. I really think these aftermarket fancypants coolers are worth the extra money, they're just so much quieter than stock.
gigabyte G1, the fans don't spin until the temp hits something like 45-50 C. whatever you buy i'd suggest EVGA or Gigabyte, both have RMA centres in Europe (i'm pretty sure Gigabyte has one in UK) and 3 year warranties.
I agree with that summary - there's something nice about having a really quiet cooler when you're gaming with speakers. My thoughts on the ACX cooler are mixed. My 780Ti is my first experience of the ACX cooler and it's definitely not as quiet as the Windforce cooler on my 770 was, but it's acceptable. I was more concerned with the performance of the card than the performance of the cooler, so I'm not upset about it. All that being said, OP is building a small rig and a traditional blower cooler would almost certainly be better suited to his rig.
Just bought the Palit Jetstream variant from Scan for £359. Beast of a card in size and performance. Also has a neat led logo on the top of the card which can be configured.
I have the EVGA 1070 Cheesecake,main reason I go EVGA is their warranty and customer support,the card is not tied to the owner but the card so you get that benefit when selling on.
Damn that's good money! I just paid 306 GBP (12900NT) for a Galax 1070 EX this afternoon though 50 quid cheaper than every other brand.
Not overclocked it yet so can't comment on its capabilities there yet. Only played Deus Ex so far. Set everything to Ultra and using 2x MSAA @1080p and getting between 33-60 FPS using FRAPS. A lot of money to lay out but a lot if card for the money. And it has a cool looking configurable LED Palit logo on the top.
Works great, except they put in red LEDs I can't turn off and there's no zero-fan mode. They're always on. Sad on that front, but acceptable for the price.
Mine is going straight into my black metal box on the floor. RGB will probably never be viewed. The black metal box is a Fractal Design R2, so probably won't be hearing anything above the tv.
I have to admit I recently bought a Fractal Define R4 for the TV 'box' and it's one of the best cases I've ever owned. I want a Fractal Define S now but don't want the window after all. I've almost reached an age where even the blue LEDs on my mech keyboard are pissing me off, yet 18 months ago my rig was fully lit for shits n giggles.
