GTX 970/980 owners thread

[spinejam]

Thats like telling someone 'hey, look at the shooting star'!

lmao - that's funny! :biggrin:

 

[CakeMonster]

Do you guys change anything in the NVidia Control Panel or do you run everything through in-game settings?

I used to always tweak things to my liking like forcing 4xMSAA, 16xAniso, enable Adaptive synch, Vsynch, Triple Buffering, and Aniso optimizations.... But in the last year or two I've never bothered and I can't say I've noticed a difference. I use to always set the similar settings in-game though.

 

[Annisman*]

Usually it's best to leave everything default in Nvidia CP and choose your settings in the game you're playing. If you run into issues, or if a particular feature is not supported in a game (like antialiasing) or AF (in legacy titles) then you can try going to the CP to force it. You can also choose to force settings by single games only, instead of forcing for all, if you feel you have to do it.

 

[Majcric]

Need your opinions gentlemen as I have two EVGA 970 SC cards coming in on Monday. "Reference" blower style.

However after some Googling, I'm reading now that the blower EVGA uses is of a poor quality and had issues with the 700-series cards. Unfortunately when it comes to blower cards, EVGA and PNY were my only two options.

Should I return these and get something else? Is the information I'm reading overhyped nonsense? My reasoning for buying blower style cards to begin with is due to the close-quartered SLI configuration in my case.

Another option is an aftermarket cooler, any suggestions? And if I go that route, I'm assuming I'd still be better off going with an ASUS or Gigabyte card?

I can't speak for the 700 series but my EVGA 680 reference has been problem free. For aftermarket I like the Msi gaming and Gigabytes G1 card. I stay away from Asus because of the horror stories I keep hearing about when RMA'ing. (if this ever needs to be done)

I keep debating on picking up a 970/980 but I think I'll wait until the stock replenishes and there's actually a game I really need it for. In the meantime, AMD might launch something to get Nvidia to lower prices slightly or do a game bundle.

 

[96Firebird]

Does anyone have the Gigabyte WF3 OC 970? Not the Gaming G1, but this one? Everything seems the same, except for lower clocks and no backplate, which I don't care about. Looks like the heatsink is slightly different, one less heat pipe but I can't imagine that makes too much of a difference.

I'm thinking about returning my EVGA SC AXC1.0 970, the coil whine is starting to get louder for some reason.

I've had good luck with my Gigabyte 460 with the 2-fan older WF cooler, seems like this could be a good card for a decent price.

 

[dinker99]

Don`t buy a GTX970/980 if you run a Hackintosh, hit the power button and all you`ll get is a white screen.

 

[exar333]

THIS is the card I wish they sold in the US...I miss Gainward.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/gainward-geforce-gtx-980-and-gtx-970-graphics-cards.html

 

[weevilone]

Don`t buy a GTX970/980 if you run a Hackintosh, hit the power button and all you`ll get is a white screen.

Which OS?

 

[XBoxLPU]

Well just ordered my G1 970 GTX from the 'Egg

Too bad it may be a couple of weeks before I get to actual use it - waiting on water cooling parts and the Swift ROG monitor

 

[wanderer27]

THIS is the card I wish they sold in the US...I miss Gainward.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/gainward-geforce-gtx-980-and-gtx-970-graphics-cards.html

Aren't they now Palit in the US?


.

 

[Spanners]

THIS is the card I wish they sold in the US...I miss Gainward.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/gainward-geforce-gtx-980-and-gtx-970-graphics-cards.html

The card with the blower? Or the Phantom? Seems like there is a market for a solid blower design as there is no 970 reference design with the Titan style (minus the vapor chamber) cooler.

I like the port layout also seems like a great card for SLI.

 

[yhlee]

hey all. Just picked up a rog swift from Frys last night. Have the opposite problem of some of you, I can't find the 970 anywhere! Should I be checking anywhere other than amazon, newegg, tigerdirect, ncixus? Frys had store shelf space allocated for the evga 970 but said they probably won't arrive for several weeks.

Ratuken has it but for 489!

 

[96Firebird]

You can also check evga.com. All sold out right now, but they are another option.

Newegg received stock last night, looks like all that is left is the Zotac model. Set up some auto-notify e-mails for the models you're interested in.

 

[Eymar]

Also this site is helpful: http://www.nowinstock.net/computers/videocards/nvidia/gtx970/

 

[yhlee]

Thank you!

Just chatted with an amazon rep. She said that the G1, MSI gaming, and the Strix should all be in stock within a week and that I should go ahead and order whichever one I want to ensure I get it.

So...is the consensus the MSI?

good mix of o/c and quiet idle?

 

[Face2Face]

Thank you!

Just chatted with an amazon rep. She said that the G1, MSI gaming, and the Strix should all be in stock within a week and that I should go ahead and order whichever one I want to ensure I get it.

So...is the consensus the MSI?

good mix of o/c and quiet idle?

I would go with the Gigabyte G1. It's only 1db louder at idle vs. the MSI Gaming, and it's just as loud at load (39db) The Gigabyte should the ability to OC the best, due to it's higher power limit.
vs. the others.

 

[yhlee]

Thanks

 

[Cerb]

I would go with the Gigabyte G1. It's only 1db louder at idle vs. the MSI Gaming, and it's just as loud at load (39db) The Gigabyte should the ability to OC the best, due to it's higher power limit.
vs. the others.

It has good low noise under load, yes (at least in dB terms), but it is 37dB louder at idle, not 1db.

The MSI Gaming seems to be better than Asus for OCing/throttling, while having 0dB idle. Palit's seems kind of loud under load, but does the 0dB idle thing. GB keeps the fans on all the time (at least with current firmware), but can go the hottest/fastest. In historical terms, none of them can be considered, "loud," however, even the blowers, which is a change for a high-end Geforce launch .

 

[Freddy1765]

My MSI Gaming has a bit of coil whine under load and achieves a core clock of ~1480 boost. It also sags quite a bit in the PCI-e slot; seems dumb of MSI not to include a backplate.
I'm also having trouble with the fans; if I use the 0db idle feature, one fan will stop spinning while the other ramps up to 100% after the card gets to 60 and subsequently cools off. The problem is pretty easy to fix with a fan profile that ensures the fans don't turn off completely. It's still inaudible, but defeats the "0db" selling point.

Overall I don't think the MSI is all that great. The Gigabyte G1 would be my top-pick if not for the much too high rpm at idle. My friend has one and said it idles at ~1600 rpm, which is completely unnecessary and about the same my MSI ramps up to under load.

Why oh why can't these people get a grip and make cards without these completely avoidable drawbacks..

 

[yhlee]

My MSI Gaming has a bit of coil whine under load and achieves a core clock of ~1480 boost. It also sags quite a bit in the PCI-e slot; seems dumb of MSI not to include a backplate.
I'm also having trouble with the fans; if I use the 0db idle feature, one fan will stop spinning while the other ramps up to 100% after the card gets to 60 and subsequently cools off. The problem is pretty easy to fix with a fan profile that ensures the fans don't turn off completely. It's still inaudible, but defeats the "0db" selling point.

Overall I don't think the MSI is all that great. The Gigabyte G1 would be my top-pick if not for the much too high rpm at idle. My friend has one and said it idles at ~1600 rpm, which is completely unnecessary and about the same my MSI ramps up to under load.

Why oh why can't these people get a grip and make cards without these completely avoidable drawbacks..

I haven't had an nvidia card since the 8800gts but on my ati card I can set different fan percentages by temperature. Couldn't you just do that for the G1? I changed my order to the MSI after the previous comment but now you're making me waver

 

[Freddy1765]

There's usually a lower-bound value for fanspeeds. I guess it's determined by the card's BIOS or something, and the G1's lower bound is apparently set to a much higher value than required.

 

[Rhezuss]

I finally decided to keep my card but start a step-up process for the 970 FTW. The whine is present in games I don't really play much so it's not that bad and since EVGA offered the FTW as a step up option for the 970 SSC and under owners I say why not do it.

 

[lehtv]

Hai guise!

Ordered an EVGA 970 SC blower, should take a week to ship Ger->Fin. I'll post some thoughts on the noise output of the cooler then. (Also got a 840 EVO 500GB for 200€ and 16GB DDR3-2400 )

I used to say, "I don't always buy video cards, but when I do, they come with multiple fans." But I'm curious to see how a blower cooler works on a card that has lower TDP than any I've owned in the past 6+ years and idles much lower as well. I only have bad memories from my time listening to the horror that was reference 4870X2, so I'm looking to be pleasantly surprised.

If things go sour I'll just slap on an Accelero Twin Turbo III, it's far better than any preinstalled custom cooler anyway.

 

[Rhezuss]

Hai guise!

Ordered an EVGA 970 SC blower, should take a week to ship Ger->Fin. I'll post some thoughts on the noise output of the cooler then. (Also got a 840 EVO 500GB for 200€ and 16GB DDR3-2400 )

I used to say, "I don't always buy video cards, but when I do, they come with multiple fans." But I'm curious to see how a blower cooler works on a card that has lower TDP than any I've owned in the past 6+ years and idles much lower as well. I only have bad memories from my time listening to the horror that was reference 4870X2, so I'm looking to be pleasantly surprised.

If things go sour I'll just slap on an Accelero Twin Turbo III, it's far better than any preinstalled custom cooler anyway.

Post some thoughts when you get it! I should have bought a reference 970 too when it was available.

 

[mscrivo]

Finally got my ASUS Strix 970 card and so far am loving it, but I've noticed a strange issue. I have 2 monitors (BenQ BL2411's), one plugged into DP, the other DVI. The DP one does not initialize until Windows is loaded. In fact, it didn't initialize at all until I intalled the nvidia drivers. Seems very odd behaviour to me, which I didn't experience with my 7970 when using the miniDP ports.