GTX 970/980 owners thread

[Fastx]

Just a heads up for anyone having the fan issue on MSI cards.

Fan problem on some cards.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18629445
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=1uv8em4kch3b8ttoruq3uvnk12&topic=183618.0

Bios update possible fix.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18629365

 

[Tweak155]

Huh I almost waited for the MSI to be in stock. I wonder if there is anything like this for the Asus card I got. So far it runs really well... fan almost never even has to turn on for the games I play.

 

[tviceman]

I have not had any fan issues with my MSI card, but I immediately set a custom fan profile before any gaming and I am not sure if that affects the glitch at all.

 

[Freddy1765]

I have not had any fan issues with my MSI card, but I immediately set a custom fan profile before any gaming and I am not sure if that affects the glitch at all.

I believe it does, as I experience that exact issue with the default profile. Setting a custom one where the cards spin at 15% until 40 degrees fixed it; basically the whole spin-down feature is what messes is up, but I gotta say it's far from necessary. I'm freakishly attentive to fan noise and the card is completely inaudible at ~500 rpm, so for anyone not wanting to update their BIOS, try setting a low-rpm profile yourself.

 

[Fastx]

I have not had any fan issues with my MSI card, but I immediately set a custom fan profile before any gaming and I am not sure if that affects the glitch at all.

Check this whole page per fan curve.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=183618.300

 

[Anubis]

I haven't noticed any issued with my MSI card, however my case fans prob mask it, if they don't the fans on the iNuke definitely do + I nearly always have music playing. ill have to pay attention to temps to see if its doing anything

 

[Freddy1765]

I'd like to point out that a reboot is not necessary. I just remove the side-panel on my case and gently push the fan that's stationary so it starts spinning, and that fixes it (temporarily of course).

 

[SnuggleTheBear]

Well, first time SLI user here. Question...
Does the SLI connector usually come with the GPU, Motherboard, or a PSU? Or do I just need to purchase one separately?

Edit:
(I only bought a new GPU and PSU, but I looked through my motherboard connectors I had from two years ago and I can't find it. That is assuming I didn't accidently get rid of it two years ago.)

 

[uclaLabrat]

Well, first time SLI user here. Question...
Does the SLI connector usually come with the GPU, Motherboard, or a PSU? Or do I just need to purchase one separately?

Edit:
(I only bought a new GPU and PSU, but I looked through my motherboard connectors I had from two years ago and I can't find it. That is assuming I didn't accidently get rid of it two years ago.)

Every mobo I've had has had the crossfire/SLI connectors, they don't usually come with the cards.

 

[aigomorla]

Its because the DVI one is "first" port. If you unplug the DVI the DP should work normally.

I tried this.

I can not get ANY of my cards to post BIOS.
Removed DVI-D nothing..

I ended up just using the DVI-D port and Display port on my other monitors.


Also.. im having some issues.

Issue 1:
GPU Shark 0.9.1.4 seems to FLIP my card numbers arround.
GPU1 is actually GPU2 when compared to EVGA Precision X 16.
I am assuming EVGA Precision X is more accurate as it is displaying the proper temps for the card.

Issue 2: These cards in SLI on a single card spacing is CHOKING the top card causing my temps to SKYROCKET to 80C+ which then GPU sharks shows Thermal Throttle, and Voltage Throttle.
Which to me makes me worried....
(my waterblocks come in on wednesday, so this problem will fix itself, but sort of scared about the load temps until waterblock arrives)

Issue 3: I used to have a dedicated PHYS-X card... 550Ti.
344.16 will not detect the 550GTX at all... The card ends up being disabled on top.
(edit... it appears 344.16 ONLY supports 980/970... sigh... i need a 344.11 for 550Ti support.)

Issue 4:
Power Saving mode on Card 1 will not go lower then 25.6% TDP (910CLk/3505Ram), vs Card 2 which goes down to 7.8% (135CLk/324Ram)

Is this because i have 3 monitors connected to Card 1?


Adam, do you notice any of these problems as well?

 

[chadashcroft22]

Anybody play the game archeage? Just curious if you get massive frame drops when panning the camera fast? I can drop down as low as 10fps in some cases which is really taking me out of the game.

Another problem I noticed is when loading into a new area there is this 1 second hitch that is really annoying and probably shouldn't be there.

I don't have problems in any other games that I play. Temps are good with gpu at 70c and cpu around 50c. And it's a fresh driver install when I got the card with ddu being used in safe mode to remove old drivers.

 

[tviceman]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_980_Gaming/

Kinda crazy when considering this is the same node, factory OC'd GTX 980s such as this one are so much faster than Tahiti and GK104. GM204 is only 13% larger than Tahiti but outperforming it (280x & 7970ghz) by 70% on 4k resolutions (64% faster at 1600p) while consuming ~25% less power. Compared to GK104, it's 34% larger, but is neary 80% faster at 4k.

Out of the box, this card is equaling or outperforming the dual-GPU cards (GTX690 and HD7990) with much better acoustics and power consumption, too. It really is a shame TSMC can't get their facilities in order when advancing to new nodes. Maxwell would have been in a totally different league with die shrink. GM204 could have been ~20-25% faster than it is now with the same power draw (not to mention noticeably smaller in die size). This particular card still has plenty of headroom left, too (also verified by [H]). http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_980_Gaming/28.html I know the GTX 970 and R9 290's are the much better value proposition, but when taking overclocking into account, it's hard to deny how impressive GM204 / GTX 980 is given the circumstances. I'm happy with my purchase!

 

[phreakwarz]

Hi folks, Sorry if this has been asked. I was reading about the gigabyte g1 970 dvi issues where the card isn't detecting the monitor. Is there a fix for this?

 

[cbuchach]

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

It's been a while since I purchased some up to date hardware (so I'm again excited), but I can't imagine I'll have any buyers remorse upgrading from my 560 Ti to the 970.

 

[CP5670]

Just got my reference Gigabyte 980 up and running. I'm going to go back and replay the Crysis series with this, which was never really playable on my old card but runs very nicely now at a consistent 80+ fps. I'll probably leave the card on stock clocks for now, but it should have quite a bit of headroom there as well. The card's fan is totally inaudible, even during games, but there is sometimes a buzzing noise at high framerates. I don't know if that's the infamous coil whine but I had it with my old card too, so it might not be coming from the card.

Also, in case this is helpful for someone else, the card works fine with XP. I primarily use 8.1 but keep XP around for running a few old things that don't work in 8.1. The 344.11 XP drivers seem to support the 970/980 just fine, contrary to what the nvidia website and some reviews indicate.

 

[lavaheadache]

I thought it was just my rig but now that I have read about others having displayport issues and their 980's I see it is not just me.

oh well. I got a Titan Z on the way anyway so I'm moving on.

What is wrong with displayport? It seems nearly every displayport device is riddled with some kind of wake issue, out of sync, split screen, non compliant cable and whatever else ?

 

[AdamK47]

I tried this.

I can not get ANY of my cards to post BIOS.
Removed DVI-D nothing..

I ended up just using the DVI-D port and Display port on my other monitors.


Also.. im having some issues.

Issue 1:
GPU Shark 0.9.1.4 seems to FLIP my card numbers arround.
GPU1 is actually GPU2 when compared to EVGA Precision X 16.
I am assuming EVGA Precision X is more accurate as it is displaying the proper temps for the card.

Issue 2: These cards in SLI on a single card spacing is CHOKING the top card causing my temps to SKYROCKET to 80C+ which then GPU sharks shows Thermal Throttle, and Voltage Throttle.
Which to me makes me worried....
(my waterblocks come in on wednesday, so this problem will fix itself, but sort of scared about the load temps until waterblock arrives)

Issue 3: I used to have a dedicated PHYS-X card... 550Ti.
344.16 will not detect the 550GTX at all... The card ends up being disabled on top.
(edit... it appears 344.16 ONLY supports 980/970... sigh... i need a 344.11 for 550Ti support.)

Issue 4:
Power Saving mode on Card 1 will not go lower then 25.6% TDP (910CLk/3505Ram), vs Card 2 which goes down to 7.8% (135CLk/324Ram)

Is this because i have 3 monitors connected to Card 1?


Adam, do you notice any of these problems as well?

I wouldn't call it throttling. It's simply limiting the boost level. Boost is anything above base clock. You can raise the power level and the max temp level. This lessens the reduction in boost speeds. I see it happen pretty easy with loops of 3DMark with everything maxed. In gaming it doesn't do it as much unless I turn vsync off. Having 4-Way SLI actually helps lessen it since load is across all GPUs. In many cases my 980s don't even need to boost and even run below base. It's a benefit of overkill.

I haven't seen any problems with the cards downclocking when not in use. Mine go all the way down after running anything.

 

[lavaheadache]

Every mobo I've had has had the crossfire/SLI connectors, they don't usually come with the cards.

Crossfire connectors come with the cards

Sli connectors come with the boards because it's a certification thing.

 

[CP5670]

I thought it was just my rig but now that I have read about others having displayport issues and their 980's I see it is not just me.

oh well. I got a Titan Z on the way anyway so I'm moving on.

What is wrong with displayport? It seems nearly every displayport device is riddled with some kind of wake issue, out of sync, split screen, non compliant cable and whatever else ?

I was initially finding that the display wouldn't wake up from sleep when running off DP on a 980. I used to have it on DVI with a DVI-DP converter on my old card, but the converter introduced some of its own issues. However, it seemed to work after I switched the port it was on. Need to test it further to see if it still happens.

 

[yhlee]

finally got my Msi Gaming GTX 970 set up with my new Rog Swift.

Sad to say, I am getting coil whine whenever I play a game. I was playing league of legends in borderless mode (120hz lightboost mode, since gsync only works in full screen, and borderless doesn't count). Whenever I was in-game, I would hear an audible high pitch sound. If I alt-tabbed to anything else, like the desktop, it would immediately stop. Doing a quick alt-tab in and out (like you do at work when you think your boss is coming but he isn't), makes the sound go on and off.

Not sure what to do. Love the card, love the monitor, can probably deal with the noise but given that I run a pretty quiet setup, it's very annoying.

 

[*kjm]

Well finaly moving away from my XFX 5870 and moving up to the Gigabyte 970 gaming. New egg had it in stock for about 2 hours. With the visa discount I got it for about $355 to my door.
The power savings was the seller for me.... three to four times faster for the same power is nutz.

 

[buklau]

I just ordered the EVGA GTX970 blower cooler yesterday and can't wait till it gets here. I got it for $333.66 including shipping which was not a bad deal. I will put on my arctic cooling mono plus cooler once I get this bad boy in the mail.

 

[lehtv]

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.

It's here! It's finally here!

Cute little card =)

I'm happy to say it is not noisy. Overall noise level is pretty much on par with my Vapor-X 7950, it's just that the noise profile is not quite so smooth. On idle it's nearly silent inside the closed case under the table, and at load I can't even hear it through my closed cup headphones (even when there's no sound).

In Unigine Valley temperature was 80°C at 61% fan. GPU-Z reported a core clock of 1341.6 MHz.

FWIW, ASIC quality = 71.2%.

I tested the Dynamic Super Resolution feature, works great. Here's a quick comparison of native 1080p versus DSR @ 4K, taken from Star Citizen's pre-alpha hangar:

Native 1080p:

DSR 4K:

 

[yh125d]

Finally, after almost two weeks of watching that stock tracker, I caught the MSI Gaming 970 in stock at TD. Should be here Monday. My first time back on NV since I swapped my 8800GT for a 4890 (then 7850, then 280x). Should be here Monday

I just went from 1080 to 1600. I wanted to step up before replaying Crysis/BF4/Metro Redux. This should hold me over until Broadwell/20nm Maxwell. I figure then I'll either pick up a second 970 to try SLI or move to the GTX1070 or whatever it would be called.

I hope this switch might alleviate some screen tearing issues I've been having. I don't know if it's my card, my drivers, or something else in my system but it's been pretty noticeable for awhile now

 

[lehtv]

I hope this switch might alleviate some screen tearing issues I've been having. I don't know if it's my card, my drivers, or something else in my system but it's been pretty noticeable for awhile now

Screen tearing shouldn't really depend on your card. If you're not running Vsync, you're going to see tearing anyway regardless of card and framerate.