Best GTX 970 on the market

trance4life · Oct 13, 2014

Hello , first of all i know it's becoming boring all the questions about the 970's but one thing you should help me with i'm living in a country where we don't have like ASUS Store or Gigabyte but there is brand representative obviosly so it will be hard for me to pick a bad card and return it after

only 970 G1 Gigabyte is available here and the Strix will arrive the next days and after that the MSI should come too

i saw many consumers complaining about their 970's with Coil whine some have it more louder than others and this aplly to all brands (for me it's annoying i don't want to spend like 440$ for a GPU that make weird noises)

so which is the best 970,i want the best OC out of the box i won't overclock this card right now ! and i also want the card that will last the most, all the brands offer only 1 year warranty so it's the same with ASUS GIGABYTE and MSI

Thanks

JackNaylorPE · Oct 13, 2014

If you want to see the real differences between the cards, this is the review you wanna read.... they do a complete tearbdown identifying all the PCB components and how they are cooled

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/14

trance4life · Oct 13, 2014

yeah Thanks i've read the reviews but i want to hear from a person who really bought a 970 and try it not a reviewer

sora · Oct 13, 2014

I think it is all personal preference... I mean, if there was a difference it would be very little.

smackers_12 · Oct 13, 2014

There is very little difference although the evga acx card has some cooler issues. There are no asus or gigabyte stores anywhere they do not sell their own products directly.

trance4life · Oct 13, 2014

smackers_12 Thanks for the info ,how about Coil whine

frag06 · Oct 13, 2014

trance4life :

Any card can have coil whine. No way to tell if one will or won't until you use it.

trance4life · Oct 13, 2014

Frag 06 you are right i understood that any card can have this problem depends on the PSU too i think , what do you advice me to pick the Gigabyte or the ASUS

JackNaylorPE · Oct 13, 2014

sora :

There are very real and significant differences which is why the cards are clocked differently in the box by over 100 Mhz and some overclock 100Mhz+ more than the others. If you are paying the same price, doesn't it matter if you are getting the same quality components ? these are not reference cards where everyone uses the same PCB and the only differences is the sticker. They all have custom PCBs and the PCBs are not "created equal".

-One power connector or two
-Run of the mill caps or superior capacitors
-Run of the mill chokes or super-ferrite
-How many power phases
-Are PCB Memory, Memory Moffsets, Power Circuitry, VRM Controllers equipped with thermal pads and direct cooling or left to fend for themselves.
-Fan sizes are different
-No. of Heat Pipes are different
-Does the heatsink cover the whole GPU or just 2/3 of it

These are by no means small differences but significant physical differences which affect the cards quality, longevity and performance

The EVGA card's heat sinks "miss" the GPU, the Asus doesn't provide direct cooling for most of the PCB components

frag06 · Oct 13, 2014

trance4life :

I would go with the G1. It is one of the best 970's. Most people are picking either it or the MSI up, with the STRIX being the 3rd most popular card from I can tell.

trance4life · Oct 13, 2014

i'll have a Hero Z97 Mobo so does the Windforce blue logo ruin the thing ? i like the White MSI logo better imo red/black theme

JackNaylorPE · Oct 13, 2014

I think there's no wrong choice between the MSI and the Giga.... If aesthetics is an issue, then obviously the bst match is a Gigabyte Board w/ the Gigabyte card and the MSI board with the MSI card.

If ya haven't bought the MoBo yet, the MSI GD65 is a feature for feature match with the Hero, has equal or better components and is $40 cheaper .... not saying the Hero isn't a good board, it's just a bit overpriced compared to the Gigabyte and MSI offerings.

You also might wanna check the newegg reviews on the Hero as well as the RoG Forums regarding the BIOS clock freeze bug.... I have a M6 Formula and user has a M6 Hero build affected by the bug

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?45079-BIOS-Time-Clock-not-Keeping-Correct-Time-or-Date
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?49989-VII-HERO-Clock-never-changes-hour
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?49904-VII-Hero-Real-Time-Clock-Issues
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?33895-Hero-Time-Clock-Problem
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?46242-Hero-boot-shutdown-time-clock-error

It affects the Z97 Hero as well ... see newegg reviews
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?36676-Frozen-Time-Clock-in-UEFI-The-Fix/page33

A BIOS fix was announced June 11 for no RoG boards buyt hasn't been released yet ... they said an announcement was coming for RoG boards but nothing yet.

sla70r · Oct 13, 2014

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trance4life · Oct 13, 2014

JackNaylorPE thanks mate i wanted to go for the GAMING 5 and then decided to go with the Ranger then i saw the lighted Heatsink and damn i fell in love with the hero it looks damn hot so this is why i asked if the blue LED will ruin the thing
imo adding a blue strip to the case the red will still look that good surounded by blue light so the Windforce logo what do you think

JackNaylorPE · Oct 13, 2014

I care less about the LEDs than the Clock Freeze thing .... it's led to 2 OS reinstalls so far as Windows Update borks your install if ya have file dates outta whack.... and my daily backups wrote old files over new files cause time wasn't right.....every time the machine was rebooted it would go back to the same date / time

If ya like the look of the Hero, you will love the look of the Maximus VII Formula (M7F)..... pair that with the Swiftech H220-X or 240-X CPU cooler and you can connect the M7F waterblock to the Swiftech. I uses Asus from $225 and up but below that .... well the LED ain't worth the $40

As for the aesthetics, thatz a very personal thing.... for example in water cooling builds, I love rigid acrylic with all horizontal, vertical tubes and 90 degree angles but ....flexible tubes going at all angles and different radii makes me shiver

Here's one thing .... who has the best PC Build Video ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LldCS7N7DHE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvNnv7nh2Es

trance4life · Oct 13, 2014

Do you think that the ASUS Hero Z97 is a bad mobo

JackNaylorPE · Oct 13, 2014

Look 4 posts up.....

If ya haven't bought the MoBo yet, the MSI GD65 is a feature for feature match with the Hero, has equal or better components and is $40 cheaper .... not saying the Hero isn't a good board, it's just a bit overpriced compared to the Gigabyte and MSI offerings.

That being said, I wouldn't buy another one for two reasons:

1. Why pay $40 more if you don't get anything for the extra expense ?
2. Until they announce a fix, there's nothing that I particularly see in the Hero that offsets the risk of the BIOS Clock Freeze thing. The GD65 had a similar issue when it 1st came out....there was a problem w/ the new on board Killer network .... but they fixed that with a firmware update. I give Asus credit for trying, they came up with a way to reset the clock and made several attempts, just none that stuck as of yet.

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