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** GALAX BLACK EDITION 970 EX OC!! **

Gibbo

Gibbo

Gibbo

OcUK Staff
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
38,620
Location
OcUK HQ
Hi there


The current 970 EX OC is a huge success and a firm favourite because of its overclocking strengths and being the card so far to not suffer from any coil whine issues.

The only issue previous was blue PCB and very silver backplate.

So the PCB is now black as is the rear backplate which goes better with the gunmetal cooler.



GALAX GeForce GTX 970 EX OC "Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (97NQH6DNB4TX) @ £289.99 inc VAT

GX-006-GX_400.jpg


The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980/970 is powered by the next generation NVIDIA Maxwell Architecture, giving you incredible performance, unmatched power efficiency, and cutting-edge features.

Maxwell is the most advanced GPU architecture ever made, designed to be the engine of next generation gaming. Inspired by light, it was designed to solve some of the most complex lighting and graphics challenges in visual computing. For the first time, gaming GPU's can dynamically render indirect light using the new VXGI (Voxel Global Illumination technology). Scenes are significantly more lifelike as light interacts more realistically in the game environment.

The GTX 980 is the worlds fastest GPU and the GTX 970 offers the most advanced performance in its class. Each delivers 2x the performance of previous-generation card, bringing new gaming experiences to virtual reality, and ultra resolution 4k displays.

Enable the detail of 4k monitors, on a 1080P display. DSR produces smoother images by rendering a game at a high resolution, then downscaling it to the native resolution of the display using advanced filtering.

GeForce GTX 980 and 970 cards support tear-free, super-fast NVIDIA G-Sync monitor display technology including 4k. Together, these technologies provide the most immersive and competitive gaming experiences possible.


Features:-
- Extreme factory overclock
- Anodized aluminum backplate protects components and reinforces the PCB
- All new Silence Extreme cooler reduces temps by up to 10C
- Silence Extreme technology switches to single fan cooling at idle for almost noiseless operation
Quad mixed-gauge heat pipes ensure maximum heat dissipation
- Copper base with solid aluminum cover
- 5 + 2 Phase enhanced power system with 8 + 6-pin inputs delivers up to 50% more power for overclocking
- Voxel Global Illumination Technology (VXGI)
- NVIDIA® Super Resolution technology
- NVIDIA® GameWorks technology
- NVIDIA® GameStream technology
- NVIDIA® TXAA Technology
- NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0
- NVIDIA PhysX® Technology
- NVIDIA FXAA Technology
- NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync
- NVIDIA Surround
- Support for four concurrent displays including: Two dual-link DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2
- Microsoft DirectX 12
- NVIDIA® 3D Vision® Ready
- NVIDIA SLI® Ready Technology
- NVIDIA CUDA® technology
- PCI Express 3.0 support
- OpenGL 4.4 support
- OpenCL support
- NVIDIA SHIELD Ready
- NVIDIA G-Sync Ready


Specification:-
- GeForce GTX 970
- GPU: GeForce GTX 970 (GM204)
- Core Base Clock: 1164MHz
- Core Boost Clock: 1317MHz
- Memory Clock: 7010MHz
- Memory Size: 4096MB GDDR5
- Bus Type: PCI Express 3.0
- Memory Bus: 256-bit
- CUDA Cores: 1664
- DirectX 12: Yes
- DVI Port: 2x Dual-Link DVI, 1x DisplayPort & 1x HDMI
- DisplayPort: Yes
- HDCP: Yes
- HDMI: Yes
- Power: 1x 8-Pin & 1x 6-Pin
- 450W PSU Required
- 150W TDP
- Warranty: 2yr


Only £289.99 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW















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Looks real nice and quite impressed by the higher clock frequencies too! :D
 
kefan77 said:
Does it whine like all other 970s?
Click to expand...

Not all the other cards whine, some don't do it at all, some do it a little, some a little more and some sound like a scratched record.

Anything that can be easily heard we consider a fault, but mild coil whine is quite normal on high-end VGA cards, but is normally only present during benchmarking when FPS are very high.

Also most coil whine calms down at a few days of usage, a tip is simply set Heaven running for 48hrs solid a stock card with fan at 100%, that cures most of them if they are noticeably loud.
 
Having to spend 2 full days running Heaven to cure it is a bit bad, most people want to actually use their new cards on arrival.

Luckily my MSI doesn't have coil whine or if it does it's not audible over fans and case fans.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Having to spend 2 full days running Heaven to cure it is a bit bad, most people want to actually use their new cards on arrival.

Luckily my MSI doesn't have coil whine or if it does it's not audible over fans and case fans.
Click to expand...


No different than running in a brand new car really.
 
looking at upgrading my vga, so thanks for the info, i normally go amd but tdp and psu is less for this and also a lot smaller than the amd equivalent, so price is good atm (£254.99 inc VAT)
, so it's a no brainer

win win it seems

thanks 4 the review
 
Last edited:
Gibbo said:
No different than running in a brand new car really.
Click to expand...

It's completely different.... You have to run in EVERY new car in, you shouldn't and don't have to run in EVERY graphics card.

In fact I've never had to run in a graphics card.

And considering the ******** I've had over the last 2 days with your RMA team over my squealing 970 many other people are also starting to agree that it shouldn't happen at all.

Especially on such expensive GPU's.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Not quite.

You can still use your car for its purpose while running it in.

You can't play games or use your PC for 48 hours whilst trying the Heaven fix...
Click to expand...

Run Heaven whilst you sleep then. ;)

Or game on it solid, Heaven was just an example.


Cards have coil whined for years and for most it settles down and disappears within usage.
 
I think the issue needs clearing up as there's some pretty peeved off people in the coil whine thread.

When a card is advertised as silent or quiet you have to remember some models will run with the fans off under certain temperatures then coil whine is going to be very annoying. It also seems to differ per setup so on your test rigs at OCUK HQ it may sound different than on the customers setup.

I agree it does settle down mostly on cards I've had it on that were bad to start with (7970) in particular but it still shouldn't be a reason against return telling a customer it may get better with more usage.
 
If you're expecting people to run the cards in over night then you better start putting that in the product pages as no where does it state on the product page for my card that I might have to run it in due to coil whine.

Because if it did, I would t of bought it....
 
almighty15 said:
If you're expecting people to run the cards in over night then you better start putting that in the product pages as no where does it state on the product page for my card that I might have to run it in due to coil whine.

Because if it did, I would t of bought it....
Click to expand...


We'd never put such statements on the shop, that would only happen if manufacturers did as such, what OcUK is not going to do is make a statement on our shop when no competitors do so or manufacturers do so. As customers browsing then just think our stocks are dodgy and they buy elsewhere who don't put up such warnings.
 
Ayahuasca said:
I think the issue needs clearing up as there's some pretty peeved off people in the coil whine thread.

When a card is advertised as silent or quiet you have to remember some models will run with the fans off under certain temperatures then coil whine is going to be very annoying. It also seems to differ per setup so on your test rigs at OCUK HQ it may sound different than on the customers setup.

I agree it does settle down mostly on cards I've had it on that were bad to start with (7970) in particular but it still shouldn't be a reason against return telling a customer it may get better with more usage.
Click to expand...


PSU is indeed a major contributing factor in our test rig here, we rarely experience it as the power supplies we are using are Platinum superflower and antec units, if people are trying to power high-end VGA cards on junk PSU's then come on. That is like running a Ferrari on Tesco unleaded, you simply don't do it.
 
Strangely enough my Seasonic PSU is Platinum and I've had no coil whine since. Pretty sure people are still getting it on Platinum rated PSU's though.
 
Gibbo said:
Not all the other cards whine, some don't do it at all, some do it a little, some a little more and some sound like a scratched record.

Anything that can be easily heard we consider a fault, but mild coil whine is quite normal on high-end VGA cards, but is normally only present during benchmarking when FPS are very high.

Also most coil whine calms down at a few days of usage, a tip is simply set Heaven running for 48hrs solid a stock card with fan at 100%, that cures most of them if they are noticeably loud.
Click to expand...

I think 90% of coilwhine RMAs aren't warranted. Reference 290x are potent for it but I think most people wouldn't hear it over the cooler. It's not a fault, it's like returning a 911 turbo because you can hear the spooling.


Edit: And I just saw your petrol analogy LOL. Hadn't seen that.

Everything can be made into a car analogy :D
 
It is a fault, Gibbo clearly states this. You can't compare a GPU to a car, as you can at least test drive a car before you hand over cash.
 
Gibbo said:
We'd never put such statements on the shop, that would only happen if manufacturers did as such, what OcUK is not going to do is make a statement on our shop when no competitors do so or manufacturers do so. As customers browsing then just think our stocks are dodgy and they buy elsewhere who don't put up such warnings.
Click to expand...

No your competitors don't put up such warnings, they don't have to as they have a much better and much clearer take on the whole coil wine situation.

We have you on the one hand saying the other day that's it's a fault and OCUK would accept cards back, now your saying some coil whine is normal and to run the cards in and then you have the RMA guys saying it's not a fault and OCUK will not accept anything back.

So much conflicting information and a problem your competitors do not have.

Coil whine is not acceptable, even more so as these cards are not designed by the vendors to produce such a noise.

If you bought a car and the engine tappets were louder then other cars of the same make and model I'm sure you would take it back and mention it.

A thread needs to made outlining what is acceptable in terms of coil whine noise output and what is deemed as being acceptable because everyone at OCUK seems to give different answers and dodge questions about it.
 
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