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GTX970 so many

Petrolhead

Petrolhead

Petrolhead

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Joined
7 Jul 2008
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Newcastle upon Tyne
There seems to be a great choice of GTX970 cards however.

So should I just buy the cheapest or has someone got a recommendation. The OcUk ones seem to get good reviews


Should I look at used 980 cards?
 
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Maybe look on the R9 390 For their price are faster cards and hold better on today's games
 
I love the look of the OCuk 'value' card but question, if its meant to be value which is expensive

The other card is the EVGA GTX970 FTW+
 
Msi gaming has a great cooler, nice and quiet. Also reccomend gigabyte windforce cooled models too.
 
Ref black 970 cooler and the vrms are garbage, mine blew up running@stock.

The OcUK Titan cooler is the same as the 980 ref cooler I believe-it's a cheaper imitation Titan cooler(doesn't have the same chunky heatsink under the shroud).

Got a Evga SSC rev2.00 ACX 2.0, great card and very impressed with Evga, first one Iv'e ever had and would be inclined to go Evga again because if you have a problem with Evga and voice it in here, the forum reps usually sort it out one way or another.

FTW version has a slightly higher clock and backplate but I don't think it's running the improved rev2.00 cooler although they look the same in store pics.

Don't think you can go wrong with MSI Gaming or GB Wind Force either, very popular choice in here too if you want to save some money as the Evga one is more pricier than the rest at the moment.
 
cms239 said:
Which card is that your referring to.

Whats the REV 2 cooler?

I have a shortlist:

MSI
Asus Strix
EVGA FTW

Found this site https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/

Are they any other good sites for card reviews?
Click to expand...



This isn't exactly the card he's on about, but it's very close and the same old reference generic cooler like the pic below
PNY-geforce-graphics-gtx-970-ra_w_600.png
 
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I got the MSI Gaming edition and it's been really good so far.(very quiet and maxes out at around 65c on very gfx intense games like the new tomb raider)
 
cms239 said:
Which card is that your referring to.
Click to expand...
Nvidia ref cheap built one-like this:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gain...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-198-gw.html

cms239 said:
Whats the REV 2 cooler?
Click to expand...

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga...s-graphics-card-04g-p4-3975-kr-gx-269-ea.html

FTW doesn't have rev 2.0 in the description, it might still be running 1st revision cooler which wasn't the best, there has been a heatsink revision under the plastic shroud and a re-designed vram/vrm heatplate that you can't see from pics.
 
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I have the Asus Strix 970 and it is fabulous. Overclocks to around 1480Mhz clock just via MSI Afterburner. I think I read that the MSI and Gigabyte will overclock a little more than that, but for me the Strix is brilliant.

It runs 100% silent on lots of games as the fans don't kick in on games such as CS and watching Netflix etc is a treat with zero sound.
 
EVGA have always got my money due to fantastic build quality and a level of customer service to match. our MSI 390 had a reasonable build quality but their application of thermal paste is shocking so repasting the card might have to happen unsure if the Nvidia ones are as bad as the AMD ones.
That said my Gigabyte cards in the past have been flawless too. However EVGA wins it every time but you do tend to pay a bit of a premium.
 
I think I am going to go for the EVGA FTW+. I fancy the idea of a backplate to hide the circuit board and was going to go for the MSI but would have to pay extra for a backplate. So the extra £20 for the EVGA makes sense

Does the fact the I am running a Super Wide 3440x1440 monitor make a difference to card choice
 
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That res would probably be better served by something with a bit more VRAM, TBH I think your choice depends on longevity of use - short term then chose the 970 and upgrade to Pascal 1070(?) when it comes, or if you plan on keeping it longer then the 8GB 390 would probably be a better choice.
 
cms239 said:
I think I am going to go for the EVGA FTW+. I fancy the idea of a backplate to hide the circuit board and was going to go for the MSI but would have to pay extra for a backplate. So the extra £20 for the EVGA makes sense

Does the fact the I am running a Super Wide 3440x1440 monitor make a difference to card choice
Click to expand...

You will struggle with grunt for max settings but then again, you would suffer with grunt if you was running a 1500Mhz Titan X. No need for all the AA at that res though, so a 970 will be fine :)
 
OK, just add a bit of confusion I have found someone local to me selling a used MSI GTX980 for £300, it was bought from a competitor and he had the receipt.

So I either buy new EVGA FTW+ GTX970 for £290 or used MSI GTX980 for £300

What do I dooooooooooooooooooooo
 
used GTX 980. You would got the receipt, it would be enough for you in the case worst thing happened, you could deal directly with MSI.
 
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