That waterblock is beautiful! That Cheesecake cooler doesn't have VRM module cooling. The rest of the ACX 2 cards use direct contact heatpipes shown on Guru3D. But my card does have heatsink properly sealed.
Sorry my bad, didn't realise that was just for the Cheesecake version. Although i find it odd that on their fastest card they choose not to cool the vrms. At least they're getting some sexy copper cooling love now. So glad i bought the block last month before they all sold out. Shame it says 760 on it, but adds a bit of surprise stealth like putting a 530d badge on an M5.
You have to register for those don't you? The registration closed in november and you must have purchased the card before it. http://www.evga.com/articles/00876/EVGAs-Got-Your-Back/
Yeh I missed the deadline. I've got a backplate for my block anyway, but would have been good to get one for reselling.
Well, I've just joined the party and installed a Palit GTX970 Jetstream. Seems a nice upgrade from a HD7950. Benchmark scores have nearly doubled in Heaven and Furmark, and are about 66% up in Valley. Going to turn up everything in BF4 later and see how it does.
Been having a play overclocking mine this afternoon while I wait for Far Cry to download (again). got it at +100 core +345 memory which equates to 1316 core/1467 boost (usually boosts to 1443-1455) and 7700 on the memory. Scored 2649 on valley HD Extreme, which ain't too shabby. Did have it at +125 on the core which was stable in Heaven, but not Valley.
i found with heaven i was getting high overclocks but bombed out as soon as i tried firestrike so i have had to drop the overclock down to be stable on alll benchmarks
I've had very mixed results with stability. Before overclocking the ram I went just for the highest core clock and +125 was completely stable in in heaven, ran for over half an hour no problem. But then in valley the driver would crash and revert my card back to stock. I've also found that my card doesn't like boosting up to it's rated boost clock, but normally resides a level or 2 below, despite the ridiculously low temps. Adding any voltage doesn't seem to have any affect and if anything, destabilises the overclock.
I have had stable overclock with +120 MHz and +38mV. That's on my EVGA SC speeds, which is -50 from Cheesecake edition. The card doesn't like +150 (to be in line with your +100) speeds. At +120 and no memory OC, I got around 2450 on valley extreme HD, seems about right? For normal gaming, I just run my one at +50 for EVGA Cheesecake performance. To be honest these clock increases are not noticeable apart from doing benchmarks.
Well I'm on a half day today so just about to head off and buy a 970. Should see quite a difference from my old 460. And with the wife on her Christmas Party, she'll never know I bought myself a Christmas present!
Very pleased so far, I went for the Asus Strix. Surprised how quiet it is compared to the 460. It was pushed pretty hard so the fan used to really pick up.
It's an uber upgrade. I noticed the difference moving from a 770 to a 980 at 1080p, so you must be basking in the glory of fps right now
Which is the best version to go for at the moment?, cheaper is better but I don't mind paying a little extra for a better cooler and warranty. I've been looking at these... EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Cheesecake - £293.99 (Scan Today Only) MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G - £275.99 (Scan Today Only) Edit: cheaper with Novatech after 4.2% Topcashback. £287.39 £268.22
With Evga you can get an additional 2 years warranty free of charge upon registration, but the cooler is a bit hit and miss.
That is good. After having a closer look the MSI sounds a bit better, better cooling and quieter, bit cheaper and overclocks well enough (not that it will make much difference).
The MSI should be quieter and cooler due to its bigger. I've not EVGA SC ACX2 during Black Friday deals for £251
