A few thoughts about NVIDIA and the 970 G1 after about 4 months of ownership.
-When it comes to noise level, I think it depends of the type of enclosure you have and the type of games you play. I couldn't hear the G1 when I had it in my Define R4, under my desk no matter what game I played. I now have the GTX970 G1 in a relatively open mini ITX enclosure, sitting about 2 feet away from me on my desk. While it is not completely silent at load, it is relatively quiet overall depending of the game played.(set up below)
-GeForce Experience doesn't work well. If you installed the whole drivers package from version 344.48 or 344.75, GFE would be unable to optimize any games, even if you (individually) update it to the latest version later on. You would need to do a full DDU uninstall and download a more recent drivers package to have it working again. It's been fixed now, but this lack of quality control left a bitter taste in my mouth, especially when it comes to a feature that NVIDIA boasted as hassle free.
-G-Sync monitor selection is really disappointing and commands a $200+ premium over regular monitors. I don't really care about ultra fast monitors (144Hz) or 4K resolution as I only run a single card. All I want is 1440p or 1080p, IPS, and reasonable prices. I hope we see better choices with Free-Sync on the horizon.
-Coming from an HD6970, I was under the impression that NVIDIA drivers are rock solid. Skyrim or Diablo 3 wouldn't even run with the launch drivers unless you uninstalled GFE. StarCraft 2 suffers from totally random blackscreen crashes. I could be playing for hours without a hitch, and the next second it would crash randomly. It's an issue well documented on Blizzard's forums that have been affecting NVIDIA gpus for years. Still no fix. It's maddening.
-My card overclocks decently. I have had it around 1490MHz, but most tests to determine its stability are inconclusive as it would crash randomly in some games. In the end, I was tired trying to tweak it and let it run stock. I was really hard pressed to tell the difference in game between stock and OC speeds.
Buying the G1 970, I thought I would be getting an GSync monitor and keep this card for the next 2-3 years at least. But now that honeymoon is over, I am really contemplating jumping back to AMD if NVIDIA doesnt resolve their drivers issues.