EVGA 970 ACX step up. Good idea or bad?

kylerjobe · Sep 25, 2014

Hello,

2-3 months ago, I built my gaming/editing PC with an EVGA GTX 770 2gb. It'd been working great, but I soon realized that I had made a mistake. The 2gb of VRAM is going to make it hard for me to play games at 1440p, which I hope to do in the near future. If I had only gotten the 4gb version of the card...

But a few days ago, I had an epiphany... Well, more of a dumb realization. I remembered that I was still eligible for the EVGA step up program. I instantly put myself in a queue to step up to the GTX 970 4gb from EVGA for only $30.

It seemed like a no brainer, but now I have two concerns.

1. EVGA step up program says the model number will be 04G-P4-0972-KR. On newegg, that describes the 970 ACX version of the card. It has blue stripes on it

totally going to throw off my red/black theme...)

2. According to this article, http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/evga-geforce-gtx-970-acx-has-misaligned-gpu-vs-heatpipes.html, EVGA seriously screwed up on their 970 ACX coolers...

I'm looking for any and all advice on what I should do in this situation. Cross my fingers and hope they've fixed the ACX 2.0 design by the time I get mine? Forget the step up and deal with my 770 2gb?

Thanks very much.

Lamontiego · Sep 25, 2014

No brainier, get the 970 4gb and call it a day. You only have 90 days to take advantage of the step up program. If the card give you trouble, then ask EVGA for another card. Enjoy!

Because0789 · Sep 25, 2014

1.) I'm sure you could figure out how to remove the badges and paint them or leave them off.

2.)Yes they messed up on the placement, but the seriousness has been blown out of proportion. Most of the reviews only show a couple degree difference between EVGA and other manufactures even while overclock.

Alex Kelly · Sep 25, 2014

Yeah, its louder than other designs because of the misaligned heat pipes against the GPU, but it's still a great card. 100% worth it

You could paint a bit of red where the blue is, although it might void your warranty

Dazinek · Sep 25, 2014

As far as the cooler is concerned, EVGA replied to the issue..

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.

We all know the Maxwell GPU is an extremely power efficient GPU, our SC cooler was overbuilt for it and allowed us to provide cards with boost clocks at over 1300MHz. EVGA also has an “FTW” version for those users who want even higher clocks.

Basically they talk there way out of it... But in real terms, it won't effect the performance a lot at all, 5-10 degrees maybe. If you are going to OC with the card. Yeah It may matter. But basic gaming, it won't matter.

And as far as the step up program, your going to be gambling with luck. As stores are being sold out within a day or two. They are probably swamped with Step-Up requests...

At best, I would go ahead and use the program to get the 970, IF, you are fine with the possibility of not having another GPU for maybe 2 weeks at max...

Joseph DeGarmo · Sep 25, 2014

The ACX models are not quite as efficient as advertised due to some design flaws, but if you use something like a noise-cancelling headset, then the noise should not be a bad issue.

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EVGA 970 ACX step up. Good idea or bad?

kylerjobe

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Dazinek

Lamontiego

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Because0789

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Alex Kelly

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Dazinek

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Joseph DeGarmo

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