Did I make the wrong choice in picking a GPU brand (model)?
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- EVGA
- help
- gtx 970
- fans
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Graphics
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GPUs
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
KW22
September 25, 2014 6:44:26 AM
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NI647NE/ref=ox_ya_o...
They were the only models available at the time of the purchase. After buying it I've heard some fishy things about these cards, like the fans being extremely loud even at idle. I fear that I might had made the wrong choice for my gpu.
They were the only models available at the time of the purchase. After buying it I've heard some fishy things about these cards, like the fans being extremely loud even at idle. I fear that I might had made the wrong choice for my gpu.
More about : make wrong choice picking gpu brand model
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wildfire707
September 25, 2014 7:20:26 AM
The card is good, but some of the competitors have models that completely stop the fans if the temperature is low enough, and EVGA does not. The default fan speed is pretty high (both at idle and under load), so it will usually be louder than other cards.
EVGA made a statement about the noise, saying that the fan profile can be set in their software. It is too bad, though, as it means you have to tinker with the fan settings while running benchmark programs (and hopefully you have AC, so it will be good year round).
The cards that have more advanced automatic fan settings, can turn off the fans, and have an updated heat pipe area (that is the other issue people point out) are ASUS and MSI.
There is an article about this at:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...
Personally, I like the EVGA brand, but dislike the open air coolers. I would go with exhaust coolers or water coolers myself
EVGA made a statement about the noise, saying that the fan profile can be set in their software. It is too bad, though, as it means you have to tinker with the fan settings while running benchmark programs (and hopefully you have AC, so it will be good year round).
The cards that have more advanced automatic fan settings, can turn off the fans, and have an updated heat pipe area (that is the other issue people point out) are ASUS and MSI.
There is an article about this at:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...
Personally, I like the EVGA brand, but dislike the open air coolers. I would go with exhaust coolers or water coolers myself
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KW22
September 25, 2014 7:45:26 AM
wildfire707 said:
The card is good, but some of the competitors have models that completely stop the fans if the temperature is low enough, and EVGA does not. The default fan speed is pretty high (both at idle and under load), so it will usually be louder than other cards.EVGA made a statement about the noise, saying that the fan profile can be set in their software. It is too bad, though, as it means you have to tinker with the fan settings while running benchmark programs (and hopefully you have AC, so it will be good year round).
The cards that have more advanced automatic fan settings, can turn off the fans, and have an updated heat pipe area (that is the other issue people point out) are ASUS and MSI.
There is an article about this at:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...
Personally, I like the EVGA brand, but dislike the open air coolers. I would go with exhaust coolers or water coolers myself
If I were to contact EVGA would they send me an updated model?
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KW22
September 25, 2014 7:58:47 AM
4745454b said:
No, it's good. The price is a bit over MSRP, but to be expected with new products. You should be fine.It's not fine. One of the heat pipes don't even contact the GPU, the fans remind on even at idle, and get hot and louder than all the other 970s out there. I wasted so much on this PC.
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Most cards fans stay on, even on idle. Wildfire didn't say other cards keep the fans off on idle, s/he said if the temps are low enough. And not all of the heatpipes make contact with the GPU as sometimes they are used to help bring heat over to the second fan. What did Wildfire say about the card?
It's not like the card is junk, going to explode on you, etc. Yes, there are better models out there. But it's not a bad choice.
Quote:
The card is goodIt's not like the card is junk, going to explode on you, etc. Yes, there are better models out there. But it's not a bad choice.
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wildfire707
September 25, 2014 8:21:24 AM
KW22 said:
wildfire707 said:
The card is good, but some of the competitors have models that completely stop the fans if the temperature is low enough, and EVGA does not. The default fan speed is pretty high (both at idle and under load), so it will usually be louder than other cards.EVGA made a statement about the noise, saying that the fan profile can be set in their software. It is too bad, though, as it means you have to tinker with the fan settings while running benchmark programs (and hopefully you have AC, so it will be good year round).
The cards that have more advanced automatic fan settings, can turn off the fans, and have an updated heat pipe area (that is the other issue people point out) are ASUS and MSI.
There is an article about this at:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...
Personally, I like the EVGA brand, but dislike the open air coolers. I would go with exhaust coolers or water coolers myself
If I were to contact EVGA would they send me an updated model?
No, I don't think so. The cooling system did pass NVIDIA's requirements (and is running with a fair overclock), so it is not technically bad. You might be able to get them to exchange it for a different model, but they only have two GTX 970s that use a different cooler (exhaust style) - and they might have the same heat pipe set up.
You probably have 2 good options available to you right now.
1. Return the card to Amazon without opening the box and get an ASUS or MSI open air one, if the cooling system bothers you that much.
2. Try out the card and see if it is okay. If you don't like it that much, you can still use the EVGA upgrade program to get a GTX 980 with the reference cooler (according to many sites, none of the 970s are using reference coolers). That will still cost about $200 more to do the upgrade.
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Alex Kelly
September 25, 2014 8:22:46 AM
KW22
September 25, 2014 8:26:40 AM
Alex Kelly
September 25, 2014 8:31:46 AM
KW22
September 25, 2014 8:37:32 AM
Alex Kelly said:
I say return it, and if you have a monochrome or orange or red build, go for the MSI 970.If not, the Asus is also a great card.
If they were available those would had been the first ones I bought. The reason why I got this was because everyone said EVGA is a great company and I figured its GPUs must be good also...I guess I was dead wrong about that.
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Alex Kelly
September 25, 2014 8:41:58 AM
KW22 said:
Alex Kelly said:
I say return it, and if you have a monochrome or orange or red build, go for the MSI 970.If not, the Asus is also a great card.
If they were available those would had been the first ones I bought. The reason why I got this was because everyone said EVGA is a great company and I figured its GPUs must be good also...I guess I was dead wrong about that.
They are a good brand, but they've really messed up their maxwell cards. The GPU doesn't even touch all of the heatpipes. I feel for ya, and it really sucks, but the only thing you can do is either live with the extra noise or return it and request a better one like the MSI or ASUS.
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sla70r
September 25, 2014 8:46:56 AM
KW22
September 25, 2014 8:48:59 AM
Alex Kelly
September 25, 2014 8:50:36 AM
I've had to edit your posts twice for swearing. Please don't make it a third time.
Nosier, not noisy. Different design, not bad. Not sure how else I can say it. Alex, myself, and Wildfire have all said it's a good card. It's not going to melt your case or anything. We are talking about a sub 200W card here. Just setup a fan profile in MSI Afterburner if you think you need it.
Nosier, not noisy. Different design, not bad. Not sure how else I can say it. Alex, myself, and Wildfire have all said it's a good card. It's not going to melt your case or anything. We are talking about a sub 200W card here. Just setup a fan profile in MSI Afterburner if you think you need it.
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Volkey
September 25, 2014 9:03:26 AM
Alex Kelly
September 25, 2014 9:04:17 AM
KW22
September 25, 2014 9:36:22 AM
4745454b said:
I've had to edit your posts twice for swearing. Please don't make it a third time.Nosier, not noisy. Different design, not bad. Not sure how else I can say it. Alex, myself, and Wildfire have all said it's a good card. It's not going to melt your case or anything. We are talking about a sub 200W card here. Just setup a fan profile in MSI Afterburner if you think you need it.
Do you actually own the card? How has the experience been for you? To be honest I don't know how loud GPU cards are suppose to be (or normally). Is it really just a noise problem? Are the 700 and 600 series louder?
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Alex Kelly
September 25, 2014 9:47:26 AM
Best solution
I don't own the card, I don't see a need for me to upgrade from my 7950/280. But I've seen a lot of cards in my time and unless there is some odd defect in your card I don't see how/why my answer would be wrong. Usually all the heatpipes hit the core, but if the core is to small then they have to do what they can. From the link already provided.
Due to the GPU small die size, we intended for the GPU to contact two major heat pipes with direct touch to make the best heat dissipation without any other material in between.
I swear that's the first time I read it. But it matches EXACTLY what I said above. They tossed in a third slightly smaller heat pipe to help cool the chip. Yes the smaller one doesn't make contact with the die, but they did what they could. Under load it's the hottest card, but it's only 5C warmer then the coolest one so it's not really that much worse.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...
Here is a chart to help with noise. Other 970s aren't on it, but it can help you judge by looking at other cards. Again, this card uses little power so it shouldn't be very loud. Sub 40dba is very good. I really think you are making this worse then it is. And if you can't get another card it might be the best you can do. IT'S NOT A BAD CARD. I really think you'd be happy if you just used it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_970_SC_ACX_...
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The way the EVGA GTX 970 ACX heat sink was designed is based on the GTX 970 wattage plus an additional 40% cooling headroom on top of it. There are 3 heat pipes on the heatsink – 2 x 8mm major heat pipes to distribute the majority of the heat from the GPU to the heatsink, and a 3rd 6mm heatpipe is used as a supplement to the design to reduce another 2-3 degrees Celsius. Also we would like to mention that the cooler passed NVIDIA Greenlight specifications.Due to the GPU small die size, we intended for the GPU to contact two major heat pipes with direct touch to make the best heat dissipation without any other material in between.
I swear that's the first time I read it. But it matches EXACTLY what I said above. They tossed in a third slightly smaller heat pipe to help cool the chip. Yes the smaller one doesn't make contact with the die, but they did what they could. Under load it's the hottest card, but it's only 5C warmer then the coolest one so it's not really that much worse.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...
Here is a chart to help with noise. Other 970s aren't on it, but it can help you judge by looking at other cards. Again, this card uses little power so it shouldn't be very loud. Sub 40dba is very good. I really think you are making this worse then it is. And if you can't get another card it might be the best you can do. IT'S NOT A BAD CARD. I really think you'd be happy if you just used it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_970_SC_ACX_...
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KW22
September 25, 2014 10:30:18 AM
4745454b said:
I don't own the card, I don't see a need for me to upgrade from my 7950/280. But I've seen a lot of cards in my time and unless there is some odd defect in your card I don't see how/why my answer would be wrong. Usually all the heatpipes hit the core, but if the core is to small then they have to do what they can. From the link already provided.Quote:
The way the EVGA GTX 970 ACX heat sink was designed is based on the GTX 970 wattage plus an additional 40% cooling headroom on top of it. There are 3 heat pipes on the heatsink – 2 x 8mm major heat pipes to distribute the majority of the heat from the GPU to the heatsink, and a 3rd 6mm heatpipe is used as a supplement to the design to reduce another 2-3 degrees Celsius. Also we would like to mention that the cooler passed NVIDIA Greenlight specifications.Due to the GPU small die size, we intended for the GPU to contact two major heat pipes with direct touch to make the best heat dissipation without any other material in between.
I swear that's the first time I read it. But it matches EXACTLY what I said above. They tossed in a third slightly smaller heat pipe to help cool the chip. Yes the smaller one doesn't make contact with the die, but they did what they could. Under load it's the hottest card, but it's only 5C warmer then the coolest one so it's not really that much worse.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...
Here is a chart to help with noise. Other 970s aren't on it, but it can help you judge by looking at other cards. Again, this card uses little power so it shouldn't be very loud. Sub 40dba is very good. I really think you are making this worse then it is. And if you can't get another card it might be the best you can do. IT'S NOT A BAD CARD. I really think you'd be happy if you just used it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_970_SC_ACX_...
...Okay. I'll at least give it a chance. Being that this will be my first desktop GPU I can't judge if it's a bad thing. It's louder, but at least it's not as loud as the r290. I just hope EVGA will replace the card with an updated version if I do experience any problems.
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sla70r
September 25, 2014 10:33:06 AM
KW22 said:
sla70r said:
I would have grabbed a Zotac. What is a Zotac? Some chappy, untrusted company? I guess I should had trust them with this, at least the cards don't make a lot of noise.
No a rising company with great customer support and a great 5 year warranty. They are the same company that makes sapphire AMD cards.
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Alex Kelly
September 25, 2014 10:37:26 AM
KW22
September 25, 2014 10:50:58 AM
sla70r
September 25, 2014 11:01:56 AM
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