does the 30$ make a difference? Zotac GTX 970 vs MSI GTX 970

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DeadWithoutWifi

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Feb 28, 2015
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i have decided to buy 1 GTX 970 and letter on another for ski. out of the list of brands making this card i have narrowed it down to Zotac and MSI. the the only differences i have found is that the MSI is 30$ extra, Zotiac is smaller, and apparently the Zotiac has a better warranty? what is your input? also if there are any other 970 cards that you recommend i would love to know.
 
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Epsilon_0EVP
The difference between the same card from different brands is minimal to most buyers. Some may have slightly better warranties or whatnot, but there really isn't a brand that is so bad that you should avoid it, jut companies that are so good they make the others look bad. If you're just looking for a good price, get the cheapest one, and it is not likely to disappoint.

Also, if you plan to go SLI, I'd recommend looking at the PNY XLR8 970. It's a but more money, but it has a blower style cooler. It's a bit louder, but it pushes heat out of your case instead of leaving it inside; a good advantage when you have two. This is one of the scenarios where paying a bit more does have a bit of an advantage.
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Epsilon_0EVP

Epsilon_0EVP

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Jun 27, 2012
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The difference between the same card from different brands is minimal to most buyers. Some may have slightly better warranties or whatnot, but there really isn't a brand that is so bad that you should avoid it, jut companies that are so good they make the others look bad. If you're just looking for a good price, get the cheapest one, and it is not likely to disappoint.

Also, if you plan to go SLI, I'd recommend looking at the PNY XLR8 970. It's a but more money, but it has a blower style cooler. It's a bit louder, but it pushes heat out of your case instead of leaving it inside; a good advantage when you have two. This is one of the scenarios where paying a bit more does have a bit of an advantage.
 
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DeadWithoutWifi

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that sounds cool and i was thinking of buying it but then i saw a abnormal amount of reviews talking about coil whine and one about a fan problem. whats your 2 cents?
 
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Epsilon_0EVP

Epsilon_0EVP

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You'll see people complaining about coil whine about almost all high end cards if you look deep enough :p It seems to be a common problem we are facing today. I don't think it will be a big concern, anyway. Coil whine may be annoying, but it does not indicate any lower quality of manufacturing or defects in production; it's just annoying. And it's rather easy to solve with headphones :D

Some people also put little trust on PNY as a brand. What I find is that people see brands like EVGA and ASUS that are really good, and think that PNY, Zotac, and other smaller ones are bad in comparison. But they are still very good companies, and they offer very good prices often. PNY offers a lifetime warranty, for example, if you register your product.

In the end, I do understand PNY has a bit of a bad reputation, so if there was another blower style card, I'd recommend that. Unfortunately, every other brand seems to prefer to go with open air coolers, which work great with good airflow and a single card, but bad airflow with multiple cards can cause ridiculous throttling. So in the end, PNY is far from the worst you could get, and it should have an advantage in cooling due to its design, although acoustics may be sacrificed to some degree.
 
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iam2thecrowe

iam2thecrowe

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I have heard that coil whine on these cards only happens if they have less power phases, where some cards have more power phases and dont have as much coil whine. It is also game dependent and fps dependent on how much coil hwine you get. My 7970 can have serious coil whine on something silly like the crysis 2 game menu, yet is quiet in the game.....
 
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Epsilon_0EVP

Epsilon_0EVP

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Exactly. Coil whine is a very interesting phenomenon. More power phases definitely help reduce it. But it can still show up in menus because the GPU has so little load that it runs at massive FPS, causing coil whine :p
 
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