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

[Gibbo]

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

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

Looks real nice and quite impressed by the higher clock frequencies too!

 

[Gibbo]

Does it whine like all other 970s?

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.

 

[Gibbo]

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.

No different than running in a brand new car really.

 

[Gibbo]

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...

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.

 

[Gibbo]

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....

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.

 

[Gibbo]

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.

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.

 

[Gibbo]

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.

I clearly state it's a fault if it's loud, most cards do it under benchmarking but it's faint.

What we consider a clear fault is cards which have coil whine that can clearly be heard above system fans in an enclosed case etc. of course people returning cards need to understand we will test on premium quality power supplies and as such we may not experience coil whine that is audible above fans.

Decent Gold and above PSU's with single rail designs help limit coil whine.

 

[Gibbo]

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.

You used the worse analogy possible, the S54 engine in the M3, some sound rattly and some do not. Some use oil and some so not. BMW would tell you to get lost, nothing is wrong and it's performing within specification.

I only ever stated coil whine that is clearly audible on a quality power supply we will accept as a fault.

Coil whine that is barely audible on a quality PSU is no fault of the product.

 

[Gibbo]

It is a fault, Gibbo states this, I don't care what you're telling me otherwise, unless you work for OCUK or one of their brand partners, that make these boards. As for quoting others, I'm quoting you and Gibbo.

I know what coil whine is. A lot of people have cards that are fine, others not so fine. The issue can easily be fixed, as shown by Powercolor with their 290s (if I remember rightly), by adding glue to the coils.

I started by saying its a fault if it's audible easily, if so we will class it as a fault and RMA it for you.

As an official statement to stop people quoting bits here and there this is our official policy on coil whine below:-

OcUK will accept an RMA for a card which has coil whine in extreme circumstances which we consider to be audible on a quality single rail PSU of gold rating or higher. Audible as in coil whine in normal usage and gaming which is audible above case fans in a closed case. Coil whine in benchmarks is not considered as a fault. It's not actually a fault in the hardware as such if a card whines, it is inherent in graphics card design, but we will class it as a fault for cards which are clearly audible in normal usage (gaming). For example two identical cars, one will consume upto 1l of oil every 1000 miles and the other one consume nothing, this is not considered a fault by the manufacturer and it is operating within specification.

 

[Gibbo]

People running custom PCB's from other vendors are getting coil whine.

This any card can do it, no particular card is exempt as it's inherent in the design of graphics cards and is not a fault of the hardware to be clear. A premium PSU helps reduce it vastly.

 

[Gibbo]

Just be thankful the 970s don't have vanos

Hi BMW

I want my M3 engine replaced as it rattles and uses oil, my mates M3 with identical car is silent and uses no oil, so mine is faulty,

Their response would be politely to do one, your car is fine and running within specification.


A little or mild coil whine on a graphics card is the same, if they do it it is not because they are faulty. As per my statement above on coil whine if it's noticable or loud and not just benchmarking we will accept it as a fault under our policy but advice people use the card for a day or two first as it can calm down.

 

[Gibbo]

Not everyone benches, these cards are made to game on. So you need to test them in games.

Your enclosed case will be different to mine as is mine to others, so unless you have one of every case, you're taking the high ground when it comes to how audible the coil whine is with your own case. On top of that many people build rigs with quietness in mind, so when they go buy a high end GPU that's advertised as quiet when in fact that, for some isn't then you see my point. In essence what i'm trying to say is that it's your test case, regardless to what a customer uses is what will determine.

I'm with you using a quality PSU when it comes to a rig, I never understood people dishin' thousands out, to then only go and skimp on the main component. I myself use a Superflower 1000w Plat, I still get coil whine.

We test on open benches so are more likely to hear it on an RMA card than customer.

If it's whining and we can hear it to a point where it is clearly noticable and it is doing it in normal usage, game benchmark, 2D benchmarks and video editing we will simply swap it out, if it's barely audible and we're struggling to hear or none exist we will contact customer for info on their rig setup.

 

[Gibbo]

That's really good to hear, makes for less of a headache like I was trying to explain. Although, you did mention above that you use an enclosed case

As an example to explain to customer.

Trust me we get some customers RMA for coil whine because when they run a benchmark and put their head next to the card they can hear it cool whine.

When it's in your case can you hear it? No!

It's not a fault!

We also get the issue where customer has 750W un branded PSU and complains off coil whine, we test it on a Superflower 1000W Platinum and no whine or so minimal only audible with your head next to card.


We try to educate customers best we can, but if a card can be heard whining as per my post above we will swap it.

 

[Gibbo]

That's really good to hear, makes for less of a headache like I was trying to explain

Edit.. You was stating that the customer can hear above case fans, not yourselves, as you test open benched.

We know what to listen for and know if it would be audible above a case fan, by simply if you can hear it above the cards fans at say 30-50% fan speed! essentially a gentle quiet woosh from the fans.

So in our testing we are more likely to hear it than customer, what vastly reduces it for us is use of quality PSU.

A tip: power your card using separate rails.

 

[Gibbo]

I agree, benchmarks shouldn't be used to determine coil whine by the customer, it has to be what the cards where designed for, to game. I've got 4 games that I play and so far my card screams at me through my case, this with using ta Superflower 1000w Plat, still early days yet so it might pass hopefully.

If it's screaming, we'd accept that as faulty as to hear it through a case when gaming on a decent PSU is bad. If it fails to calm down, send it back.

 

[Gibbo]

Coil whine can greatly be reduced by applying hot glue to the coils, you can't do this to a power station . I really don't buy that last part of that quote either.

Powercolor do this on the PCS+ cards.

 

[Gibbo]

i was going to be ordering tomorrow as well, but now i have second thoughts

but just to clear this up one and for all, well for me anyway...

Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply is what i own...

and as you seem to be saying mine as in my psu is not a great one, it could cause problems and if it does cause whine, it's not the cards fault but my psu?

Decent Gold and above PSU's with single rail designs help limit coil whine etc etc

so mine being bronze isn't good enough might now be the problem or not, and if the card i was thinking of buying tomorrow is noises, i can't rma it as it maybe my psu that's the fault and not the card, as i haven't read anywhere about it needed gold or above?

disappointed tbh so why say something here thats not wrote of the OC main site, sounds a bit misleading tbh

Your PSU is fine, yes it's not a high-end like an Antec or Superflower Platinum but it's far better than un branded junkunit but at the same time it will be fine.

 

[Gibbo]

So going by the conditions of RMA I've applied now for the third time...

When you return your card, can you put FAO Gibbo on a bit of paper in the box so I can test it and listen to it please. I'm yet to actually experience cool whine on a 970 that is loud, I heard it extremely faintly on my gigabyte 980 G1 but only when I push the core to 1630MHz. So I'm curious to have a listen.

 

[Gibbo]

OCUK needs to seriously start talking to the rest of the staff, In my time on being on the site this has happened so many times

They have.
Almighty now has a coil whine free card.