GTX 970/980 owners thread

[wabbit7]

^ MSI Gaming or Gigabyte G1 >>> ACX 1.0 or 2.0 in noise levels and temperatures and component quality.

Ok, thanks for your reply

 

[JeffMD]

Ugh.... if there is anything bad about upgrading to the 970gtx... they have a higher chance of losing HDMI audio when waking up from sleep! [redacted] how can this bug still be around for 4 years?!

Inappropriate language for this forum.
-- stahlhart

 

[Fire&Blood]

Need some advice. I set my sights on the 970, looking at EVGA since I only have ~10.3" clearance in the case. I've looked at some other cards that are even shorter than EVGA's but their cooling solutions look suspect to me. Are there other options that I missed? If not, is there a particular EVGA card I should get?

Also, most known online retailers seem to be out of stock. I've seen sites that have it in stock but I've never heard of them. While I'm at it, any special deals I should know about? Thanks.

 

[96Firebird]

My EVGA 970 SC cools just fine, but I have a side fan that provides plenty of air to the card. The highest I've ever seen it was last night, it hit 69°C (with constant 1441MHz core clock, 7500MHz memory). I think that was when my heat turned on, and the heat vent is right behind the computer, so not the optimal setup. The 970 FTW has the better cooler IMO, but that is even harder to find in stock. Keep checking nowinstock.com, or set auto-notifies at EVGA.com or Newegg.

 

[Grooveriding]

On coil whine; my MSI Gaming 970 had it, initially I thought it was free of it, but since it's in our living room the ambient noise was masking it. The whine is gone now after a month or so of use I guess. This also happened with my Titans. Both had terrible coil whine, it was actually so bad it sounded like a rattle, that went away after a few months of use.

 

[Fire&Blood]

My EVGA 970 SC cools just fine, but I have a side fan that provides plenty of air to the card. The highest I've ever seen it was last night, it hit 69°C (with constant 1441MHz core clock, 7500MHz memory). I think that was when my heat turned on, and the heat vent is right behind the computer, so not the optimal setup. The 970 FTW has the better cooler IMO, but that is even harder to find in stock. Keep checking nowinstock.com, or set auto-notifies at EVGA.com or Newegg.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[gammaray]

so i will probably buy a gtx970 soon, any recommendations on the brand and why?

 

[wand3r3r]

EVGA/MSI for great warranties, Gigabyte for arguably one of the better cards (G1).

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Decided to dip into my savings and get an MSI GTX980 Gaming edition, arriving tomorrow.

It will replace a pair of MSI GTX 580's, ever since the 580 launch I've not found a reason to upgrade my PC, which is out of character for me because I've owned a flagship card from every generation since the Voodoo days. So it's been a while and I'm feeling pumped to see what this thing can do. Skipping 3 major generations and only stopping to add a 2nd 580 for SLI in order to keep FPS up with Nvidia Vision it should be a decent jump in performance.

Now I just need to think about what games I can test with, I'm already running Wolfenstein at max settings with a really smooth FPS maybe I'll have to plug my 2560x1600 panel back in

 

[tential]

Ugh.... if there is anything bad about upgrading to the 970gtx... they have a higher chance of losing HDMI audio when waking up from sleep! [redacted] how can this bug still be around for 4 years?!

Ugh, this is ridiculous. Losing HDMI audio from sleep, I have to NEVER sleep my PC to avoid this.

 

[netxzero64]

any MSI 970 gaming users like myself here having the fan issue?

 

[Cerb]

any MSI 970 gaming users like myself here having the fan issue?

Yes. I came to my PC just this afternoon, Afterburner read 1 RPM (fan off), and temps were all fine, but it was obviously on and much louder than I'd yet heard it. Putting the PC to sleep and resuming worked, as easier workaround than rebooting. This is the first time it has happened. I had thought I might have gotten one immune to it, but maybe it's really a BIOS problem, after all...

 

[netxzero64]

Yes. I came to my PC just this afternoon, Afterburner read 1 RPM (fan off), and temps were all fine, but it was obviously on and much louder than I'd yet heard it. Putting the PC to sleep and resuming worked, as easier workaround than rebooting. This is the first time it has happened. I had thought I might have gotten one immune to it, but maybe it's really a BIOS problem, after all...

Yup i have updated the bios and it fixed the issue.

 

[emdoudar]

I am torn between choosing one of these vga

Asus Strix GTX 970 (will be available in my country after a month)
MSI GTX 970 Gaming (already available)

i already have Asus GTX 770 and i would loved to stay with Asus but the thing is i cant wait for more than a month since the price of my GTX 770 is dropping and need to sell it ASAP

what would you suggest? wait for Asus or get MSI ?

what about the MSI issue with fans?

 

[cytoSiN]

Does nowinstock.net actually work? It keeps updating "Last Stock" to within a few hours, even though most vendors haven't had many of the 970s in at least a few days. I also have auto notify setup at Newegg, and never got an email but nowinstock shows that there was stock in the last several hours.

 

[Cerb]

what about the MSI issue with fans?

The one that doesn't offer a tach reading can go to 100% for no good reason, and doesn't like to come down, sometimes requiring a reboot (sleep->wake will do, if going to S3). I've had my current one for about 2 weeks, and it just happened once. I will be seeing about the BIOS update, but since it hasn't been a regular occurrence, I won't be able to say it's cured, without it going months without doing it again. A custom fan profile appears to be a preventative measure, but basically will require BIOS modding to be able implement effectively, by allowing a 0% fan setting (I am not against that, and did it with my prior card, but it is a warranty-voiding measure...).

 

[Cerb]

Does nowinstock.net actually work? It keeps updating "Last Stock" to within a few hours, even though most vendors haven't had many of the 970s in at least a few days. I also have auto notify setup at Newegg, and never got an email but nowinstock shows that there was stock in the last several hours.

I got both my cards thanks to auto notify emails, and would not have been able to purchase either, if such updates were hours old.

 

[cytoSiN]

I got both my cards thanks to auto notify emails, and would not have been able to purchase either, if such updates were hours old.

Thanks, that's what I thought. So much for trusting nowinstock...fingers crossed for some Newegg emails this week

 

[Rhezuss]

I have the EVGA 970 SSC ACX 2.0 and it cools just fine too. My idel temps are 24-26 degrees and my load temps 62-68 degrees, dpeending on the game/software.

I have coil whine though, like any other brands.

Overall I love the card, I can Ultra my games like there no tomorrow (monitor is a 1080p).

Great buy, well made product and Nvidia gave me a free backplate!

 

[mojothehut]

Heya. I'm thinking about finally replacing my 7950 during black friday/cyber monday stuff. Looking at the Asus 980, from Amazon. I notice that on newegg it comes with a game code for like Farcry 4 and a few other titles. I don't see such an offer on Amazon.

Does the game code come with the video card, regardless of seller? Or is it just select vendors?

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Heya. I'm thinking about finally replacing my 7950 during black friday/cyber monday stuff. Looking at the Asus 980, from Amazon. I notice that on newegg it comes with a game code for like Farcry 4 and a few other titles. I don't see such an offer on Amazon.

Does the game code come with the video card, regardless of seller? Or is it just select vendors?

Probably select vendors like with the AMD games bundle. I think the Best Buy GTX 970 isn't supposed to come with a game either.

 

[cytoSiN]

Heya. I'm thinking about finally replacing my 7950 during black friday/cyber monday stuff. Looking at the Asus 980, from Amazon. I notice that on newegg it comes with a game code for like Farcry 4 and a few other titles. I don't see such an offer on Amazon.

Does the game code come with the video card, regardless of seller? Or is it just select vendors?

"TERMS AND CONDITIONS
This offer is available for GeForce GTX 980, 970, 780 Ti, or 780 graphics cards only, or 980M or 970M-powered notebooks only. The promotion starts on the 4th November and is available for a limited time or while supplies last. The offer is available from selected retailers only. Please check the product description of the graphics card you are purchasing to confirm that the games are included. Additional terms and conditions may apply."

Can't find a retailer list though.

 

[Cerb]

Great buy, well made product and Nvidia gave me a free backplate!

Honest question from someone who's never owned a card with a backplate bigger than the mounting screw dimensions needed: what's so special about a full-coverage plate?

Oh, now that I've been able to mess around with it and get things tweaked sufficiently (configuring games to make the most of the card's abilities, and configuring an optimal fan curve), the highest in-game temp I've come across seems, using an MSI Gaming GTX 970, to be 72C (Metro LL, trying to do a hardcore stealth run; and mod-heavy Skyrim), with low/mid 20s ambient, and a pretty constant 34C motherboard reading (it varies, but now that the A/C is on heat, not often, or by much, but will rise a bit if I turn off the intake fans). Doubling case fan speeds has no added effect, once it's under a high load (aside from pushing more air out the back), so it's clearly at the limits of the cooler itself, with the stock fan profile. It gets awfully loud for my tastes, without the closed headphones, but not intolerable (yet), and is probably at or under 40dBA@1m.

Previously, I could get it a little hotter in tests, but not games, but I had not sufficiently layered on AA or higher-res mods, at the time .

With less strenuous games, it's nice in that it either can play them with the fan off, or the fan coming on slow, and not staying on long. FI, Deus Ex: HR DC, for which I'm trying a pacifist play-through, with everything as high as I can force it (sadly, SGSSAA, while usable with NV Inspector, doesn't help much, so I'm just using FXAA), goes no higher than 55C, with the fans off most of the time, but coming on for a minute or two here and there, being above 0% maybe 30% of the time. Paying attention to the game, and using closed headphones, I don't even notice when the fan turns on and off, as they ramp up smoothly, and with those temps, remain under 25% peak (I see the fan having ramped up in Afterburner's graph, but don't notice it).

 

[emdoudar]

the problem with fan going on and off or one spinning at 100% and the other one is off.. both are bios problem or there is hardware fault involved ?

 

[Cerb]

the problem with fan going on and off or one spinning at 100% and the other one is off.. both are bios problem or there is hardware fault involved ?

Maybe. Yes. No.


MSI had a problem with the stickers, which mine had, that the glue was very strong. I was careful when removing it, but I could see someone being able to either unbalance the fan, or maybe even damage the bearings, if they ripped it off like it was a static cling type. I knew about that problem before my first sample. Having to speculate, I'd guess the glue doesn't stick so much shortly after applied, so they probably didn't realize how bad it was going to be, after resting for weeks.

Otherwise, it may be BIOS, and hopefully not only is, but can easily be rectified.

However, the fans not operating all the time, or in tandem, is an intended behavior. It's why I did not once even consider Gigabyte's cards, for example. If the card is running cool enough, the fans stay off. Then, under low loads, only one fan will run. The fan bug is that one fan will run at 100%, and not spin down, when it had no reason to run at 100% in the first place.