970 Asus Strix or MSI Gamer?

[Heisenberg]

Going to be upgrading from 7950 crossfire due to issues in recent games with crossfire. So, have pretty much decided on a 970 to give the green team a go though I'm torn between the 2 cards in the title. What's the experts opinion on which card to go for all things considered? Cheers

 

[Geeman1979]

Both are decent cards although, have you considered the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-GI

 

[Neil79]

Don't get the MSI until they change the fans

 

[Lithium]

Or just save your money and get the Inno3d: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-039-IN

From what I understand you can't overclock these 970's very much anyway as you run into power limit, so the extra money spent on the fancy cooler is not necessarily earned back in overclocking ability.

 

[Fruitbooter]

The EVGA 970's don't seem very popular...

 

[Heisenberg]

I've heard the inno3d can run quite hot, and that's without the fan shroud problem. I forgot about the gigabyte, that a decent option too? What's the deal with the MSI fans? Heard a few reports of 100% fan speed problems.

 

[Cooper]

The Asus is the better card, better cooler and backplate.

 

[~>Dg<~]

for me it came down to msi,asus strixx and the gigabyte 1.

msi seemed to have issues with fans so out that went. asus strixx seemed crappy for rma but decent card. gigabyte great for rma and great oc and cooler. so g1 for me.


the gigabyte is supposed to be massive though. so check space if you consider getting it.

 

[Heisenberg]

for me it came down to msi,asus strixx and the gigabyte 1.

msi seemed to have issues with fans so out that went. asus strixx seemed crappy for rma but decent card. gigabyte great for rma and great oc and cooler. so g1 for me.


the gigabyte is supposed to be massive though. so check space if you consider getting it.

Yeah, that seems a logical chain of thought. Before I made the thread, I was pretty much set on the Msi. Now I'm leaning towards the gigabyte. Just want a fully working, fast, quiet gpu with good RMA if required

So now, I'm between the Asus and the gigabyte. In all honesty, I prefer the looks of the Asus. I know they will pretty much perform identical but what about fan noise? Much the same?

 

[thefogo]

Inno3D air boss if you have the room.

 

[Geeman1979]

Yeah, that seems a logical chain of thought. Before I made the thread, I was pretty much set on the Msi. Now I'm leaning towards the gigabyte. Just want a fully working, fast, quiet gpu with good RMA if required

Then the Gigabyte should tick all the boxes.

Another good shout from fogo as an option.

 

[Neil79]

MSI also doesn't have any UK based returns so I've read... So you could be waiting weeks

 

[Sasahara]

Don't overlook the GALAX GeForce GTX 970 EX OC, it's a very quiet good overclocker.

 

[Heisenberg]

Not a fan of the Air boss looks tbh. Yeah, it looks like a clean sweep for the gigabyte, though the Strix cooler looks nicer.

 

[Heisenberg]

I wish the ocuk reference style card was in stock

 

[Ayahuasca]

Or just save your money and get the Inno3d: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-039-IN

From what I understand you can't overclock these 970's very much anyway as you run into power limit, so the extra money spent on the fancy cooler is not necessarily earned back in overclocking ability.

Some models only boost to under 1200mhz, my MSI can hold 1500mhz all day long overclocked, I'd say over 300mhz from the lowest 970 I can see is very much a good overclock on air.

At the moment there does seem to be a limit between 1500-1600 for maximum bench overclocks but all cards hit an average limit.

 

[Fanatic]

asus strixx seemed crappy for rma but decent card.

Aren't all ASUS RMA handled by OcUK for 2 years? I'm sure I remember reading that somewhere. There used to be a page on the OcUK site showing all the RMA contact details for various companies.

 

[Heisenberg]

Aren't all ASUS RMA handled by OcUK for 2 years? I'm sure I remember reading that somewhere. There used to be a page on the OcUK site showing all the RMA contact details for various companies.

That would put my mind at ease a bit.

 

[thefogo]

Some models only boost to under 1200mhz, my MSI can hold 1500mhz all day long overclocked, I'd say over 300mhz from the lowest 970 I can see is very much a good overclock on air.

At the moment there does seem to be a limit between 1500-1600 for maximum bench overclocks but all cards hit an average limit.

What max power limit do you have on yours?
Mine is 106% and they start to throttle over 1400mhz. Stock boost is 1291Mhz.

 

[Amatsubu]

Or just save your money and get the Inno3d: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-039-IN

From what I understand you can't overclock these 970's very much anyway as you run into power limit, so the extra money spent on the fancy cooler is not necessarily earned back in overclocking ability.

Don't know where you got this info from. In my book, hitting a stable 1500+mhz boost clock on stock volts (which many GTX970 will do, including my Strix) is hardly "not overclocking much". Yes, you will run into TDP limitations but only if you push the card past 1500mhz, which is rather unnecessary.

Both cards are good, I'd go with Asus for the build quality and backplate. Also, it's less likely to develop problems with fans.