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Nvidia's Board Partners: GTX 980 And 970 Card Roundup

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US | B 28 comments

Yesterday Nvidia launched its Maxwell-based GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards, and today we bring you a roundup of various cards from the company's authorized board partners.

Yesterday, Nvidia launched its Maxwell-powered GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards, and after giving most of the big vendors a few hours to reveal their cards, we’re bringing you a roundup of a boatload of them.

The reference Nvidia GTX 980 has a GPU that carries 2048 CUDA cores which run at 1126 MHz and can boost up to 1216 MHz. The GTX 970’s GPU has 1664 CUDA cores and runs at 1050 MHz and boosts up to 1178 MHz. Both of the cards feature 4 GB of GDDR5 memory that operates at an effective speed of 7.0 GHz over a 256-bit memory interface. For more details about the reference board or the new Nvidia features you can have a peek at the launch article or our full review.

So, without further ado, let’s get into the board partner’s cards.

Asus

Asus announced a single variant of each card. Both the cards are Strix-branded cards and thus come with the accompanying feature set, which includes a DirectCU II cooler, Digi+ VRM circuitry, a factory overclock and more.

Arguably the best feature of the Strix cards is the 0 dB fan. This doesn’t mean that the fans make no noise at all, but it does mean that they switch off when the GPU temperature is below 65 C. This means that for desktop workloads -- or older, less demanding titles -- chances are that you won’t have any fan noise at all from the GPU. What’s the best part of all? Asus has priced the GTX 980 Strix and the GTX 970 Strix just $10 over the reference solutions.

EVGA

EVGA has done what it normally does with graphics card releases and announced a whole heap of different SKUs. These range from reference solutions, to solutions using the new ACX 2.0 cooler, to overclocked ‘FTW’-branded cards. Take for example the GTX 980 SuperClocked ACX 2.0 card: It is clocked at a staggering 1266 MHz, and it will boost all the way up to 1367 MHz if there’s enough thermal headroom. That makes for a very fast GTX 980 card.

The new ACX 2.0 cooler comes with a number of changes over the older model, which include a new fan blade design, more total fan blades, a dual-ball bearing and a higher RPM limit. According to EVGA, this is the world’s most efficient air cooler.

EVGA also just announced that overclockers K|NGP|N and TiN managed to already break a world record with the GTX 980, overclocking it to 2067 MHz and scoring 19040 points in 3DMark Fire Strike and 9191 points in the Fire Strike extreme test.

Model Base Clock Boost Clock Memory Speed Cooler Price (USD)
GTX 980 SC ACX 2.01266 MHz1367 MHz7010 MHzACX 2.0TBA
GTX 980 SC1241 MHz1342 MHz7010 MHzNVTTMTBA
GTX 980 ACX 2.01126 MHz1216 MHz7010 MHzACX 2.0TBA
GTX 980 (Reference)1126 MHz1216 MHz7010 MHzNVTTMTBA
GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.01216 MHz1367 MHz7010 MHzACX 2.0TBA
GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.01190 MHz1342 MHz7010 MHzACX 2.0TBA
GTX 970 SC ACX 2.01165 MHz1317 MHz7010 MHzACX 2.0TBA
GTX 970  ACX 2.01050 MHz1178 MHz7010 MHzACX 2.0TBA
GTX 970 SC1140 MHz1279 MHz7010 MHzCustomTBA
GTX 9701050 MHz1178 MHz7010 MHzCustomTBA
GTX 970 SC ACX1165 MHz1317 MHz7010 MHzACXTBA
GTX 970 ACX1050 MHz1178 MHz7010 MHzACXTBA

Gigabyte

Two of the SKUs that Gigabyte is introducing are the GTX 980 G1 Gaming and the GTX 970 G1 Gaming. Both of these cards come with a custom PCB design, feature additional display outputs over the reference design and come with the new 600 W WindForce 3x cooler.

Of course, mounting a 600 W cooler on a card with a TDP well below 200 W seems a bit pointless, but it will ensure that the GPUs will always have the thermal headroom to boost up to higher frequencies, and it’ll mean that the cooler doesn’t need to run all that fast to do its work, giving you a more silent gaming experience.

MSI

Upon launch, MSI is first releasing a reference GTX 980 along with a GTX 970 Gaming 4G. The latter card comes equipped with the awaited TwinFrozr V cooler, which provides even more cooling power than its predecessor with an updated design. This card comes at a slight premium over the reference card, costing $20 more. The company will release its GTX 980 Gaming 4G with the TwinFrozr cooler sometime in the coming few weeks.

Model Base Clock Boost Clock Memory Speed Cooler Price (USD)
GTX 980 Gaming 4G1190 MHz1291 MHz7010 MHzTwinFrozr VTBA
GTX 980 (Reference)1126 MHz1216 MHz7010 MHzNVTTM$549.99
GTX 970 Gaming 4G1140 MHz1279 MHz7010 MHzTwinFrozr V$349.99

PNY

PNY is taking it easy with this launch; it’s initially only introducing reference-class cards. The GTX 980 that the company is launching is a complete reference card, while the GTX 970 is built with a custom blower-style cooler. Both of the cards run at reference frequencies and come with Nvidia’s MSRPs.

Zotac

For each card, Zotac has three different classes – the standard class, the middle Omega class and the higher Extreme class. Initially, the company is only launching a reference GTX 980 along with a fairly standard GTX 970. The latter comes with a dual-fan cooler, and has a slight factory overclock, but it does come in at a reference price tag. For the AMP! Omega and the AMP! Extreme the company has yet to determine pricing, although we don’t expect to have to wait too long before they hit shelves. The AMP! Extreme cards come with a large triple-fan cooler, along with a bunch of lighting effects.

Model Base Clock Boost Clock Memory Speed Cooler Price (USD)
GTX 980 (Reference)1126 MHz1216 MHz7010 MHzNVTTM$549.99
GTX 980 AMP! Omega1202 MHz1304 MHz7046 MHzDual-fan IceStormTBA
GTX 980 AMP! ExtremeTBATBATBATriple-fan IceStromTBA
GTX 9701076 MHz1216 MHz7010 MHzDual-fan$329.99
GTX 970 AMP! Omega1102 MHz1241 MHz7046 MHzDual-fan IceStormTBA
GTX 970 AMP! Extreme1203 MHz1355 MHz7200 MHzTriple-fan IceStromTBA

Conclusion

You probably noticed that the GTX 980 will come in both reference and custom flavors, while there is no sign of a reference GTX 970 being sold. The reason for that is likely that the NVTTM cooler from Nvidia is more expensive to implement than the partner’s custom coolers, and at a $329.99 price point it simply doesn’t make sense to use.

Also note that the above are Nvidia’s Authorized Board Partners. There are other vendors that carry GTX 980 and GTX 970 SKUs, but we’ve opted to cover the major players.

So, which GTX 980 or GTX 970 are you interested in buying? Or will you be waiting for more exclusive variants?

For more details on the cards you can read our review of the GTX 980 and GTX 970.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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  • 1 Hide
    StintheBeast , September 19, 2014 12:05 PM
    The Asus strix 980 and 970 are supposedly going to be available today. Right now, only the strix 970 is listed but out of stock on newegg and amazon. Will be buying the strix 980 as soon as it's available.
  • 3 Hide
    SkyBill40 , September 19, 2014 2:46 PM
    I'm an MSI guy from way back and have yet to be disappointed. MSI offers what is arguably the very best aftermarket cooling solution available in their "TwinFrozr" design as well as some of the highest overclocks around. Style and design are also top notch.
  • -2 Hide
    Pavel Pokidaylo , September 19, 2014 3:18 PM
    Sigh... why in the hell did I buy an MSI 780 ti a few months back =/ Now I want a 980 or hell even 970s would give nearly twice the performance of my 780 ti and more efficiently
  • Add your comment Display all 28 comments.
  • 0 Hide
    Keenan Johnson , September 20, 2014 12:37 AM
    From the few reviews I've seen, the 970 looks like the real winner out of the 2, especially at it's price point. It is slightly slower than a 780TI while it appears almost identical in performance to the 780, while the 980 is slightly faster than the 780TI, but is also extremely expensive, double what the 970 costs. Also, it looks like the 980 has higher frame time variances at times than the 780 TI, but puts out higher frame rates. If I were buying a single card now, I'd get the 970. The 980 doesn't offer enough of a boost over it for the $300 extra it costs.
  • 0 Hide
    Drejeck , September 20, 2014 2:46 AM
    I have a 770 Phantom. I'll wait the release of the next Phantoms. But not going to buy until I get a G-sync monitor.
  • 0 Hide
    Drejeck , September 20, 2014 2:46 AM
    I have a 770 Phantom. I'll wait the release of the next Phantoms. But not going to buy until I get a G-sync monitor.
  • 0 Hide
    HKILLER , September 20, 2014 4:05 AM
    could you add Inno3D and Gainward?
  • 2 Hide
    Slipperss , September 20, 2014 5:43 AM
    Dear Tomshardware, any chance you will be doing a after-market cooling benchmark comparison on the GTX 970 and 980?
  • 0 Hide
    SkyBill40 , September 20, 2014 6:17 AM
    Quote:
    The 980 doesn't offer enough of a boost over it for the $300 extra it costs.


    Where do you see a $300 cost difference between the 980 and 970? At most, it's maybe $220. Is it worth it? Not really, but I'm certain that some clearly will seeing as it's still cheaper than a competing 780Ti.

  • 0 Hide
    educalifa , September 20, 2014 7:34 AM
    Wonder what the hardware difference is between the 970 SC and FTW, if any... Then again, I'm yet to see a FTW for sale anywhere which sucks a lot since that's the one I'm more interested in atm, followed close by the MSi
  • 0 Hide
    solkeher , September 20, 2014 8:14 AM
    I was thinking of selling my R9 290 and get the 970... But is it worth it? I like the lower TDP but as far as performance, is the 970 more powerful?
  • 0 Hide
    educalifa , September 20, 2014 9:25 AM
    Just check the reviews that are out there... the GTX 970 will not only outperform the R9 290 as it will also outperform the much more expensive 290X most of the time!

    If you're stuck between these two cards or your budget is around the $350 mark, this is a no brainer really. 970 all the way!
  • 1 Hide
    SessouXFX , September 20, 2014 10:59 PM
    ,,,,Evga's GTX 980.

    Cue the 70's Porn music.

    I'd be lying if I said I wasn't shocked at the performance, when you consider the fact, there was no die shrink involved, and these 900's are kick ass, And it's efficient too. Looks like my 6870's will have to retire now... I'll miss them.
  • 0 Hide
    photonboy , September 21, 2014 8:24 AM
    GTX980 vs GTX970:
    The Techpowerup reviews are awesome as they use an average of about 20 games. If you look at the theoretical maximum performance the GTX980 is perhaps 23% faster (2048/1664) but BENCHMARKS are the only way to really compare.

    The AVERAGE difference drops to about 15% difference at best depending on the games you choose. A few will approach 20% better on the GTX980 but that's about it. The GTX980 is however about 67% more expensive!

    Then there is SLI which has been improving. While it's not perfect you can consider the worst-case scenario as no support at all and the best about 80% over a single GTX970.

    That works out to getting roughly somewhere between 80% and 150% the performance of a GTX980 for only 20% more money if we use $660 (2x$330) versus $550.

    In some cases it might be better to assign the 2nd GTX970 to PhysX thus running the main game on the 1st GTX970 (like Batman Arkham Origins). You'd have to test both ways and compare the frame rates as well as smoothness.

    (I still love my Asus GTX680 TOP so as much as I love following technology and think NVidia's new GPU's are simply awesome I'm going to pass for another year. Several of the games I'm currently playing already run at 60FPS at Ultra settings. A G-Sync monitors is also a future purchase consideration. Perhaps a 4K IPS with low refresh once that's sorted...)
  • 0 Hide
    wtfxxxgp , September 21, 2014 11:49 PM
    Quote:
    Evga's GTX 980

    Looks like my 6870's will have to retire now... I WON'T miss them.


    Fixed that for ya! lol
    And these cards, especially the 970, are very impressive. I went and read the comments section of the first post about the specs of these 2 new cards and how people were complaining about the specs. Guess they are all doing a double-take now! hahaha
  • 0 Hide
    Keenan Johnson , September 22, 2014 8:28 PM
    Quote:
    Quote:
    The 980 doesn't offer enough of a boost over it for the $300 extra it costs.


    Where do you see a $300 cost difference between the 980 and 970? At most, it's maybe $220. Is it worth it? Not really, but I'm certain that some clearly will seeing as it's still cheaper than a competing 780Ti.



    Yea, I saw an estimated MSRP price (Probably for an Asus model or the like) before I wrote that, now I see it's around $550 for the 980. Still, I'd go for the 970 over it. The 780TI vs 980 is a closer one though. Price to performance is the most important thing to me personally, and the 970 kills in that department! Hell it'll run whatever you want at maxed or near maxed settings @ 1080P for below $350. It's about time Nvidia prices new cards aggressively like this. AMD has it's hands full going after this one.
  • 0 Hide
    SkyBill40 , September 22, 2014 11:35 PM
    Quote:
    It's about time Nvidia prices new cards aggressively like this. AMD has it's hands full going after this one.


    Agreed. While I doubt I'll ever bother with resolutions above 1080P (thought I DO like the sharpness of 4K), the pricing scheme for what you're getting is absolutely stupendous with both cards but certainly more so on the 970 end. For what could amount to a shade more than $100 for the cost of one 980, you could run a pair of 970s in SLI and it would smoke that single card. That's just outrageous. It's definitely got my interest piqued way up. Despite that, I'll be waiting for a while to see what else comes out (Ti cards, mind you) over the span of the next couple of months.

    And you're right in your statement that AMD now has a lot of catching up to do if they even hope to level the playing field at all. While I love their CPUs, I'm not keen nor have I ever been with their GPUs no matter what cost savings there may be. For me, it's AMD CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.
  • 0 Hide
    educalifa , September 22, 2014 11:41 PM
    I'd say that even at 1440 the 970 holds its own nicely... especially with some overclock. Lots of reports of ppl running them at 1600Hz with stock voltage and putting it almost on pair with a reference 980. And once you've played at 1440, 1080 is just not the same unfortunately.
  • 0 Hide
    -TR- Claw , September 23, 2014 4:07 AM
    Recently purchased a pair of GTX 980's to replace my old GTX 770. I have them paired in SLI(because it would be a crime not to)

    http://

    http://

    http://

    My cable management isn't great at moment,however it will be remedied within the next few days.

    Below is my basic clean setup:

    http://
  • 0 Hide
    cypeq , September 23, 2014 4:22 AM
    970 from gigabyte is getting windforce x3 well if I decide on upgrade with nvidia that will be most likely my choice.
    This coolers are very decent. Asus is rolling its Direct CU... which is good but imho this 0 db is a gimmick... who needs that if my gpu is iddling or doing low workliads I can't hear it over stock intel cpu fan... This is great option for someone wanting to have card with a punch yet run 0 db pc when doing everything else beside gaming. I see how some audio engineers would find this useful. For me idling fans are far from disturbing sound.
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