Hardware Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Review Roundup: feat. ASUS, EVGA and MSI

Having recently bought a second 780Ti, I think I'll wait a while...

 

The 970 is an absolutely smashing card for the price. I'd say it's another GTX670.

As for me? I'll wait until GM110 comes out. Or GM100. Ahem, the big die.

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500362&cm_re=gtx_970-_-14-500-362-_-Product

you're welcome.

Uhh..... no. Even my 660 Ti plays GTA 5 just fine unless you're doing 4K....

 

How are you playing gta v several months before release?

 

impressive, but i rarely play anything these days so i don't think i'd be able to justify spending £280 on a card that would rarely get used.

i'll probably buy something once witcher 3 or star citizen come out

 

970 price / performance is insane AMD will need to massively counter this card to stay competitive. Nearly brought 2 of these myself just dont need the extra performance.

 

Not sure I agree with the mention of power noise unless you've tested many different examples of each card. From my personal experiences it comes down to individual cards on whether or not it has coil whine/buzz, marking the EVGA down on that seems a bit harsh. You could easily have two examples from the same batch, one might have coil whine under load, the other may not.

Also the lack of comment on warranty differences is a bit of an oversight in a group test imho. Sure they all have the same 3 year warranty length but both Asus and MSI have an awful reputation when it comes to turn around and general competence with RMAs. While that is of course subjective and based on personal experiences, EVGA still allow you to remove the cooler without voiding the warranty, which is worthy of note with those wanting to watercool the cards.

Beyond that though, a nice review. I suspect I'll pick up a couple in January before the Witcher 3 and GTA V come out. With any luck the price will drop a bit by then.

 

Seen some 970 SLI benches on another site, how am I supposed to resist the temptation?

 

I'm betting at least one of those games will be included in a 970/980 bundle from Nvidia come January.

 

Yeah that would be nice. If it is GTA V then it will be quite a win for nVidia.

 

I would guess GTA 5 would go to AMD, considering the Mantle rumour.

 

MSI model sold out everywhere, so glad I pulled the trigger early.

 

Ordered the Palit one last night for £260. I'll buy a 2nd one early next year.

I'm not expecting much difference on modern games against my 2 570's but VR stuff and games that don't support sli should see a considerable boost

 

Try Metro Last Light with EVERYTHING maxed out. You'll notice a difference I'd say.

 

I was going to say 'Buy them quick!' as bang for bucks cards like the 970 will sell quickly and if they are anything like the MSI 780 OC that I bought they will be unobtainable very soon, not sure why this happens but companies like MSI only seem to produce a limited amount, maybe due to other cards being left on the shelf unsold

 

So the most frugal 970 implementation uses more than 100W extra over 750 Ti under load (with other implementations performing even worse) ?

Either something is wrong with your data or those TDPs simply don't match reality - if 970 is a 145W TDP part then what does that make 750 Ti, a 40W part ? This is clearly not the case (compare 750 Ti figures idle and under load).

 

It's the TDP number that is wrong, have a read through here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-11.html

 

To Dogbert666

I know you put a lot of work into this, is there any chance of an upcoming review of Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 GAMING? I ask as the three cards reviewed all have 2 fan coolers and it would be nice to see if Gigabytes 3 fan cooler is any better and offers further overclocking potential.

 

Thanks for pointing this out! I see how bad 970 really is in those "under load" diagrams. It's a shame though, I was hoping for a card with approximately 110-125W TDP, something to fit halfway in between 750 (Ti) and the new 980.

 

Grabbed one of the Palit jetstream ones too - they seem to be the cheapest for £260 with 1150/1300 clocks, a nice upgrade from my GTX 570 (which I bought when it just came out for about the same money so lasted well).