Which GTX 970 version to buy?!?!

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Lag

Lag

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I'm having trouble deciding which version to buy. the cheapest, (here in Norway), is about 65 dollars cheaper than the rest (EVGA ACX), and the MSI and Acus DCUII at same pricing.
EVGA GTX 970 ACX at 378 dollars, the MSI and Asus at 450 dollars. also the Gigabyte Windforce costs about 460 dollars. help is greatly appreciated. :)
 
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Lag

Lag

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ye, but it also looks like the EVGA is the noisiest model of the GTX 970. Hmm, although I don't think it will matter much in my case. I use the HAf 922 with almost all the fans slots filled except for the bottom, plus a cm 212 evo with two fans.
 
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beni_rohit

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yes so you answered your own question
scenario would have been different if you were water cooling your cpu
65$ is a good amount of money
save it
 
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Lag

Lag

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Sorry :p I'm going with your solution and save the money for something else :p sometimes I have to argue with myself to get to the already obvious answer :p thanks for helping me make up my mind :D (also have OCD, which doesn't help when deciding on a purchase xD).
Edit: in the end, I landed on the MSI because neither the Asus or EVGA was in stock when I purchases the card. But I must say I'm super happy that I went for the MSI!! super cool design :D
They should however fix the "down-clocking" issue with multi-monitor setups. I thought my card was defect because I had high Idle temperatues. the solution to this was to install Nvidia Inspector.
 
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Lutz85

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there are excellent results with the MSI 970 GTX Gaming 4G (350€) OCed from 1050Mhz (base) to 1114 mhz (base).

BUT: i currently have the gainward 570 GTX phantom (OCed & silent). I've been extremely satisfied with this one. So I tend to continue with the phantom series and I saw there is the new Gainward 970 GTX Phantom OCed to 1150 mhz (base), even more than MSI gaming 4g and 15€ cheaper (335€). So for me it's clear what to buy. Any objections.... I mean any reasons why MSI gaming 4G should be preferred instead of gainward? I don't see one. Speak now or forever hold your peace.
 
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Marky Benney

Marky Benney

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I went for the Palit Jetstream 970 as has one the fastest clock speeds and lower price than most. I had there 770 4gb and was a great card. which I sold for £20 less than I bought it 6months later added £40 to get the 970.
I am now awaiting delivery and will let you know. But going by many benchmarks I have looked at seems one of the best. And have read that will over clock some more. 150mhz extra core speed taking it upto 1454mhz super fast if stable as been told. and memory will over clock happily by 250mhz to 7500mhz or maybe 7250 depending how was done. Still brillian card which ever model you go for. I will stick with Palit as my 770 was rock solid and would happily over clock for getting top bench marks
 
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Lag

Lag

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I can't really hear the card over all the fans in my CM 922 HAF. Also my Beyerdynamic DT 770 blocks out most of the noise. Haven't really tested it without headphones yet, will report back if I discover any noise.
 
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Midevilforever02

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I'm running Gigabyte G1 GTX 970s in SLI and they're absolutely monstrous. My 4k monitor is having a hard time making them work for it. Ultra settings and 60fps have been pretty common across the big graphic games. Much excite for the cheapness of two 970s. Money to performance it's much better than the 980. I have to say that the Gigabyte G1 is amazing and I think you'll find it'll easily compete for the number 1 spot among the 970s on the market.
 
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Lag

Lag

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the reason I went for the MSI is because it was the only one in stock at the time of purchase :p everything else was sold out xD
 
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piklar

piklar

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Have SLI Gigabyte 970 G1 Gaming's in a Silverstone FT02 running a Sony 70" 4K and they run 1550mhz @stock voltage and rarely break 60C . Vsync @ 60FPS on ultra settings is a walk in the park for these cards..what impresses me is how cool and quiet these beasts run in a well ventilated case.. highly recommend!
 
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O2MEND

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I went with dual EVGA 04G-2978-KR GeForce GTX 970 FTW 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 ACX 2.0 these cards are more then enough for any game I'am currently playing atm. I recommend these cards.
 
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terry4536

terry4536

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The three best choices for GTX 970 are Asus Strix, MSI Gaming, and Gigabyte G1.

The Gigabyte G1 has great Spec's. It runs cool. It's GPU is binned for overclocking. It has a dual BIOS option. It has a back-plate. The "bad" is that the card is too long. At roughly 312mm or 12.3 inches long, it is incompatible with many computer cases (and some motherboard connectors).

The MSI spec's were selected as the best in several GTX 970 comparisons. It has an excellent cooler and is very quiet. It has no back-plate. Without a bracing or a back-plate, the board is prone to bending (possible problem down the line). Otherwise a good choice.

The Asus has great spec's. It has a great cooler. It has a back-plate. Like the MSI, the cooler remains off until around 60 C making it very quiet. Of the three, it has the best build reputation. It is roughly 10 inches long (about the same size as the MSI).

All three have had issues with coil whine & defective cards in the customer reviews. Normally I would have included EVGA, but they have significant problems with their cooler design.

Of the three GTX 970's, I chose the Asus. I should note that I had a defective card. But when it came down to picking a replacement, I decided to go with the Asus Strix GTX 970. I am currently waiting on the delivery.

My reasoning was like this. Yes, I had a defective card, but that is a typical chance with any of the manufacturers. The performance spec's are essentially the same for all of the factory overclocked GTX 970 models (great). Having seen the GTX 970, I know it is a large, heavy, graphics card. It does need the back-plate to help support the card (the Asus has one). The Gigabyte G1 would barely fit in my case, but it absolutely would severely block air flow in the case.

So that left me with the Asus GTX 970. It had great quiet cooling. It had great spec's. It had a back-plate. It fits my case well. And in my opinion of the three contenders, it has the best reputation and build quality. So I ordered it (again).
 
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goon303

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I'm not sure which card is best really... but for performance, I was checking the top 3dmark scores, and most of the top scores with 970's in SLI mode were with Gigabyte cards...
 
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Marky Benney

Marky Benney

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Check 3dmark out look for allwaysquality2011
You will find my single Palit Jetstream there beating all Gigabyte cards
Or well did when I put it up, 2 months back. The Gigabyte card you may think could over clock better due to 8 +6 pin power connectors where palit has 6+6 pin. But really you never be overclocking past 200watts which is 33% overclock. This is massive overclock. Still ok on two 6pins.
My Palit jetstream was £260 delivered and clocks to a Boost 1559mhz core, and ram at 8240mhz.
I have heard people saying build quality is not so strong on Palit. This is true. It is made lighter and cools very quick.
Due to this. So far on overclocking it has not been beaten.
One card 2160p in Ultra 44fps+
Second will be delivered in two days. Then I will doo a 3dmark to prove what a good option Palit really is


 
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terry4536

terry4536

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Honestly, you are not going to notice any performance difference between the Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI GTX 970's. I have been playing Far Cry 4 on my Asus GTX 970. The game is supposed to be a real ball-buster when it comes to system requirements. I can say it looks great on the Asus card. I haven't had any problems playing the game.
 
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aschoneveld

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what would the best card be disregarding noise, and cooling.
 
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terry4536

terry4536

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what would the best card be disregarding noise, and cooling.
Click to expand...


The basis of the graphics card are pretty much defined by the Nvidia spec's. There is no GTX 970 reference card in the states. That leaves the custom PCB components, manufacturer reputation, and finally the factory overclock. Also the possibility of coil whine has entered into the decision too, from review comments. I chose the Asus. But to answer your specific question, I guess that would fall to the most popular model. The Gigabyte G1 is the most popular GTX 970 model on Amazon and Newegg.
 
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