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970 sli Asus or MSI?

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  • Asus
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  • SLI
  • MSI
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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September 25, 2014 6:28:03 AM

I can't decide if I should go with asus or MSI for the 970, any thoughts?

More about : 970 sli asus msi

a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 6:32:50 AM

Personal opinion :

Asus > MSI.
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 7:00:05 AM

I was going to go with Asus, but the MSI is actually better. Can be OCed higher, and the thinner design of the cooler means better airflow and lower temps in SLI. I'd only get the Asus if black/red doesn't match your setup.
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 7:02:24 AM

Alex Kelly said:
I was going to go with Asus, but the MSI is actually better. Can be OCed higher, and the thinner design of the cooler means better airflow and lower temps in SLI. I'd only get the Asus if black/red doesn't match your setup.


Asus is black/red too these days. :D 
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 7:04:49 AM

Novuake said:
Alex Kelly said:
I was going to go with Asus, but the MSI is actually better. Can be OCed higher, and the thinner design of the cooler means better airflow and lower temps in SLI. I'd only get the Asus if black/red doesn't match your setup.


Asus is black/red too these days. :D 


True :)  but the Asus would look better in different coloured cases, as the only red on it is on the fan stickers.
I kinda regret not going for the Asus. But I just have to keep reminding myself that the MSI can be OCed higher, hopefully I get a good chip too.
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 7:06:58 AM

Alex Kelly said:

True :)  but the Asus would look better in different coloured cases, as the only red on it is on the fan stickers.
I kinda regret not going for the Asus. But I just have to keep reminding myself that the MSI can be OCed higher, hopefully I get a good chip too.


Meh not really concrete proof of that, its all about the lottery.
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September 25, 2014 7:09:05 AM

If youre not gonna OC get the one with higher clock speeds. They are both good cards.
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 7:09:13 AM

Novuake said:
Alex Kelly said:

True :)  but the Asus would look better in different coloured cases, as the only red on it is on the fan stickers.
I kinda regret not going for the Asus. But I just have to keep reminding myself that the MSI can be OCed higher, hopefully I get a good chip too.


Meh not really concrete proof of that, its all about the lottery.


Ya that's why I said hopefully I get a good chip. But in every review I've seen, the boost clock on MSI's goes to about 1500mhz, and the ASUS gets to around 1440mhz. But I'll see tomorrow, when mine arrives. The ASUS is out of stock at the moment in Australia anyway.

But yeah, for SLI I'd go with the MSI cards. More space between the cards means (hopefully) lower temps.
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September 25, 2014 7:20:30 AM

My case is orange/black, and I will probably be OCing.
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 7:25:09 AM

Oe orange, get Zotac cards, they are pretty nicely styled, have great binned chips and OC well.
Tehy are also ORANGE!

The cooling isn't as good as Asus or MSI though.
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 7:33:07 AM

^ Yeah, most of the new 970's are great. I'd go with the MSI or ASUS though. Both will fit in well with a black/orange build. :) 
Msi is marginally better in most aspects, although as I said the Strix looks nicer (imo). The thing that really stopped me going for the Strix is the fact that it's fan speed caps out at 42% (on auto) which negatively effects boost clocks. A new bios may fix this, but I wasn't going to buy it and hope that they do release a new BIOS.
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September 25, 2014 7:47:19 AM

I'm no so worried about looks as I am performance, it will probably look nice either way. So msi I can boost it father, but asus has better cooling?
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 7:51:54 AM

Nah, the MSI has very very slightly better cooling.
And yes, the MSI will boost further.
Considering you don't care about looks as much as performance, I'd go with MSI for sure.
I care a fair amount about looks, and had a really tough time deciding between the two.
I decided on the MSI. :) 
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September 25, 2014 9:38:06 AM

What will the difference be in my ability to OC the strix vs msi, because the asus looks so good, almost enough that I would buy a side window for my case if I got it?
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Best solution

a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 9:44:53 AM

Uhh, I've seen MSI go 1500MHZ + and the STRIX go about 1430MHZ. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...

I agree though, the Strix series do look really nice. I had the toughest time deciding between the two, but decided performance is more important than looks. The MSI is also slimmer so better for SLI and also has a heatsink on the memory chips and VRM. It's not a huge difference though. I'd get a windowed case for an MSI card for sure, the LED on the dragon and MSI logo looks pretty nice.

Edit, and to get boost clocks that high with the ASUS you need to set a fan speed of 50 or above, because on auto it stops at 42%, sacrificing boost clock speeds. And if you go SLI with ASUS, the bridge will cover the Strix logo. But that's not a huge deal :p 
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September 25, 2014 9:55:12 AM

Ah ok, I'll prolly go with msi, one more thing, the board I picked up was the p8z77v-LK, I picked it up because I found it for 70 bucks (normally retails around 140) and it was still in original packaging, it was a part of someone's failed attempt to build a pc. I couldn't pass up that deal, it was on my list, however it has a lot of blue on it, and I will be running a black and orange build, how will it look inside of my pc?
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September 25, 2014 9:57:13 AM

If it will look bad, I can sell it and find another mostly black or black and orange board that supports sli, but what board would that be?
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 10:00:54 AM

Ah yeah, the MSI will look really nice in a black/orange build.
You probably won't be able to make out the blue much on the board unless you buy lighting, so it should be fine.
I don't know much about Z77 boards so I'm not sure about any good orange/black ones sorry D:
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September 25, 2014 10:02:58 AM

Alright, thanks, the only thing I'll have for lighting will be orange led fans for my case, but I may end up using noctua instead.
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a b Ĉ ASUS
September 25, 2014 10:07:11 AM

Aight :)  well let me know how you like your card when it arrives! Mine will (hopefully) be at my doorstep tomorrow. ;D
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