GTX 970/980 owners thread

[lehtv]

EDIT: here is STOCK i7 930 getting 111 fps for an average.


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Benchmarks never truly portray the in-game experience. There were lots of situations where the game would simply not go over 40 fps on 1080p because of CPU bottlenecking, upgrading to 3770K fixed all that and allowed the game to run 60 fps at all times. Of course, there were situations where the i7-920 would be 60, but CPU performance in games must be judged by the minimum framerates. The whole point of having a fast CPU is to make the game as GPU dependent as possible because that results in a consistent experience and framerates you can control with graphics settings.

 

[toyota]

Benchmarks never truly portray the in-game experience. There were lots of situations where the game would simply not go over 40 fps on 1080p because of CPU bottlenecking, upgrading to 3770K fixed all that and allowed the game to run 60 fps at all times. Of course, there were situations where the i7-920 would be 60, but CPU performance in games must be judged by the minimum framerates. The whole point of having a fast CPU is to make the game as GPU dependent as possible because that results in a consistent experience and framerates you can control with graphics settings.

I dont care what you claim there is NO way your i7 kept you from getting over 40 fps in Alan Wake. even my oced E8500 kept me above 60 fps.

lol I just ran the game with a single core and ht and was in the 50 -70 fps range. are you saying your i7 at over 3 ghz is slower than just one of my cores with HT? come on now get real.

 

[lehtv]

I dont care what you claim there is NO way your i7 kept you from getting over 40 fps in Alan Wake. even my oced E8500 kept me above 60 fps.

lol I just ran the game with a single core and ht and was in the 50 -70 fps range. are you saying your i7 at over 3 ghz is slower than just one of my cores with HT? come on now get real.

I don't care if you believe me or not, I know it was stuck to 40 fps in certain scenes. That is fact.

 

[toyota]

I don't care if you believe me or not, I know it was stuck to 40 fps in certain scenes. That is fact.

it was not because of your cpu. there is not a single thing that will back that up.

 

[toyota]

I just went and used only 2 physical cores with no HT and was getting over 180 fps on max settings at 1280. and again this game uses 4 cores if it needs to. bottom line is you had to be gpu limited as its nonsense to claim your oced i7 could not get over 40 fps.

 

[lehtv]

it was not because of your cpu. there is not a single thing that will back that up.

I just went and used only 2 physical cores with no HT and was getting over 180 fps on max settings at 1280. and again this game uses 4 cores if it needs to. bottom line is you had to be gpu limited as its nonsense to claim your oced i7 could not get over 40 fps.

Firstly, I've never said my i7 could not get over 40 fps. I said it could not get over 40 fps in specific scenarios.

Second - this is not a claim, this is an observation. There are no observations that are "nonsense", observation are just observations. 40 fps before CPU upgrade, 60 fps after, simple as that. The CPU was the only thing that changed besides going from 6GB to 8GB RAM and swapping the motherboard. GPU limitation explains nothing because the GPU was the same all the time. 3770K fixed the minimum framerates just like it did in many other games (as expected)

FWIW I also remember verifying that it was a CPU limitation, lowering resolution from 1080p to 1280x720 had no effect on framerate in those spots where I noticed fps was sagging.

 

[toyota]

Firstly, I've never said my i7 could not get over 40 fps. I said it could not get over 40 fps in specific scenarios.

Second - this is not a claim, this is an observation. There are no observations that are "nonsense", observation are just observations. It definitely was the CPU because the CPU was the only thing that changed besides going from 6GB to 8GB RAM and swapping the motherboard. GPU limitation explains nothing because the GPU was the same all the time. 3770K fixed the minimum framerates just like it did in many other games (as expected)

well again the cpu was not limiting you to 40 fps. you were limited by something else or are just flat out exaggerating and refuse to back down. there is ZERO chance that 4 cores of your cpu limited you to only 40 fps.

 

[lehtv]

well again the cpu was not limiting you to 40 fps. you were limited by something else or are just flat out exaggerating and refuse to back down. there is ZERO chance that 4 cores of your cpu limited you to only 40 fps.

Believe what you want man

 

[stahlhart]

Take it to PM and quit derailing this thread. The next off-topic post here from either of you will earn you a vacation.
-- stahlhart

 

[Jurge92]

My Gigabyte G1 GTX 970 has some coil whine and ASIC quality of 67,5%. The core does boost to 1571,7 MHz with my stable overclock at +50mV. The memory goes to 7600 MHz effective, which isn't particularly high for this card.

I still have over 30 days to return it for a full refund.

Do you guys think I should return it, buy a new one and hope for better card?

 

[amenx]

My Gigabyte G1 GTX 970 has some coil whine and ASIC quality of 67,5%. The core does boost to 1571,7 MHz with my stable overclock at +50mV. The memory goes to 7600 MHz effective, which isn't particularly high for this card.

I still have over 30 days to return it for a full refund.

Do you guys think I should return it, buy a new one and hope for better card?

Its already a decent OC. The ASICs with 900 series especially are almost meaningless. You may get a lesser OC capable card.

 

[96Firebird]

Did some memory overclocking today, not really sure if its worth the difference in performance...

Fire Strike comparisons:
With my system (CPU + GPU) at stock: 8958/11649 (score/graphics)
With my CPU @ 4.5GHz, GPU @ 1467/7512: 10125/12689 (score/graphics)
With my CPU @ 4.5GHz, GPU @ 1467/7806: 10275/12920 (score/grahpics)

Edit - Oh yeah, and it runs at 1.212V with Power Limit set to 110% and the voltage slider all the way to the right (+37mV). I don't think that does anything though...

 

[lavaheadache]

My Gigabyte G1 GTX 970 has some coil whine and ASIC quality of 67,5%. The core does boost to 1571,7 MHz with my stable overclock at +50mV. The memory goes to 7600 MHz effective, which isn't particularly high for this card.

I still have over 30 days to return it for a full refund.

Do you guys think I should return it, buy a new one and hope for better card?

Do think an extra couple MHz over clock is gonna mean anything in the long run? Why go through the hassle of returning a card for what is going to net you .5% improvement?

 

[ZGR]

Anyone overclock their memory so much that error correction starts to lower the score? For the 970 or 980

 

[mcbaes72]

Is anyone having buyer's remorse from getting rid of their GTX 7xx series GPU and buying a 970/980? Just wondering.

 

[Jurge92]

Its already a decent OC. The ASICs with 900 series especially are almost meaningless. You may get a lesser OC capable card.

Do think an extra couple MHz over clock is gonna mean anything in the long run? Why go through the hassle of returning a card for what is going to net you .5% improvement?

Yeah I guess it's not worth it.

The temps are really impressive. I played for 3 hours straight, and the the max temp was 41 degrees Celsius. And that's with the overclock stated in my previous post.

 

[Freddy1765]

The temps are really impressive. I played for 3 hours straight, and the the max temp was 41 degrees Celsius. And that's with the overclock stated in my previous post.

You're running on water then, right?

 

[Rvenger]

Is anyone having buyer's remorse from getting rid of their GTX 7xx series GPU and buying a 970/980? Just wondering.

I am having a little remorse selling my R9 290. The only game I notice a performance difference is BF4 and I paid a boat load more money. I guess it costs to have the best.

 

[Keysplayr]

I'm surprised you would make that move. It's like me going from an oc'd i2500k to a Haswell. There is performance to be gained but not enough to go through the hassle of selling one card for the other. I could see it maybe if you had a 7970 or less. Or maybe you just wanted to use less power? I dunno. To each his own and I'm not one to argue that point.

 

[Rvenger]

Well, I am always a sucker for new tech. After all, I did own a Titan last year.

I do like this card, though. The Titan style blower is one of my favorite reference coolers of all time.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Is anyone having buyer's remorse from getting rid of their GTX 7xx series GPU and buying a 970/980? Just wondering.

No. I had a 770 2GB, which wasn't cutting it for 2560x1600.

 

[tviceman]

Just finished doing some power tests with my MSI Gaming GTX 980, here ya go folks:

Full system peak power consumption (at the wall) with Metro Last Light benchmark

Out of the box: 304 watts (Boosts to ~1319mhz)
Max OC: 344 watts (Boosts to 1512, sustains 1506mhz, 7950mhz mem, volage +39mv)
Downclocked to equal stock GTX 980 settings: 286 watts (boosts to ~1229mhzt, 90% power target)
My everyday overclock: 323 watts (Boosts to 1476 sustained, 7950mhz mem, no added voltage)

System is 4770k @ 4.0ghz, 16 gig ram, SSD, HDD, 450 watt PSU.

 

[tviceman]

Is anyone having buyer's remorse from getting rid of their GTX 7xx series GPU and buying a 970/980? Just wondering.

Personally I'm not. I've been waiting to jump on a card that can beat an OC'd 780 while consuming less power. The performance jump isn't massive, but at 1440p ~25% over my old 780 is decent, especially while consuming ~70 less watts.

It's not a value proposition. The highest performing card on the market never is, though.

 

[96Firebird]

Is anyone having buyer's remorse from getting rid of their GTX 7xx series GPU and buying a 970/980? Just wondering.

I'm glad I sold my 770 before the used price tanked on them, and needed a card to replace it. The 970 was a good upgrade. :thumbsup:

 

[Jurge92]

You're running on water then, right?

No, the Windforce cooler from Gigabyte. Might be because it was Dark Souls 2, which isn't a very demanding game.