When the GTX 970 launched, Gigabyte's first offering featuring the chip was its G1 Gaming-branded card. The Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming operated at very high stock frequencies and came with a large cooler and a custom PCB design. Now, the company is launching its slightly saner GTX 970 WindForce 3x OC card, which maintains the same custom PCB design but comes with slightly lower clock speeds and a slightly different cooler.
The new graphics card does its work while running at 1114 MHz base with a boost clock of around 1253 MHz. Mind you, it's still a notable factory overclock, as Nvidia's reference design specifies 1050 MHz as the base frequency with a boost frequency of around 1178 MHz. Memory remains at the standard 7.0 GHz effective speed. It is cooled by the same WindForce 3X cooler but without the help of the backplate.
Power is delivered to the card through 6-pin and 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors, and two DVI ports, one HDMI port, and a staggering three DisplayPort outputs handle display connectivity.
The Gigabyte GTX 970 WindForce 3x OC should be arriving at retailers any moment now. Expect pricing to sit between $350 and $360.
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