NVIDIA GTX 970 OWNERS THREAD

Scottland · 9 Nov 2014 at 17:01

No it was revised, I seem to recall Gibbo mentioning this.

stooeh · 9 Nov 2014 at 18:09

I think he said he sold a truck load and had very few returns.

That being said the small black plastic thing can be taken off easily without messing with the fans/block. Held in place with 2 screws which can be removed with the included allen key.

sprite1275 · 9 Nov 2014 at 21:31

Heeelloooo Green Team!!!!

Only fitted today and ain't had any time to have a play. Had a quick run of valley and firestrike , they run much smoother, especially firestike. Coming from a 7950.

Amatsubu · 9 Nov 2014 at 21:33

Heisenberg said:
You should have dropped OCUK customer services a message on the forum. They would maybe have hooked you up with a code

Knowing them, they probably would. The problem is I bought the card at a different retailer (I'm not from the UK, I just hang around because I really love OCUK);/ They were really eager to help me and even contacted Nvidia about it but the *******s refused to do anything;/ The retailer gathered some info from various forums around the net about the offer being significantly backdated and people receiving the codes without issue and sent Nvidia an another message. Their rep should respond tomorrow but I won't get my hopes up. Funnily enough, I read somewhere that Nvidia advised to backdate the promo to every purchase made after 27th October...

I really like the card, it's just that the unexpected promo and quite high temps left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Amatsubu · 9 Nov 2014 at 23:51

Broke a new record: 76c in Metro and slight throttling and a brief 77c in Crysis 3 (also throttling to 1498-1502). I can hear the card whining slightly when I put my ear close to the case but the fans at 50-60% are definitely more obtrusive. This has to be the hottest running 970 ever, it will probably fry next summer. Metro runs at 64-69c most of the time but some sections are just unreal. I wonder how reviewers got those sub-70c temps under full load;p My case cooling is not ideal but it's not that bad either...

Techen · 9 Nov 2014 at 23:57

Amatsubu said:
Broke a new record: 76c in Metro and slight throttling and a brief 77c in Crysis 3 (also throttling to 1498-1502). I can hear the card whining slightly when I put my ear close to the case but the fans at 50-60% are definitely more obtrusive. This has to be the hottest running 970 ever, it will probably fry next summer. Metro runs at 64-69c most of the time but some sections are just unreal. I wonder how reviewers got those sub-70c temps under full load;p My case cooling is not ideal but it's not that bad either...

Only 77c? Man, That's a pretty cold card

I peaked 90c on fan with my 980, Ripped the fan off and went watercooling :B

stooeh · 10 Nov 2014 at 00:02

Those temps under load are nothing to worry about, especially overclocked.

The cheaper 970s like my inno3Ds actually have target temps of 80C meaning the fan wont speed up unless temps are that high and they consistently sat at 79-81C under load.

MOOGLEYS · 10 Nov 2014 at 00:09

I set up a custom profile on my MSI and at 1556mhz it tops at 65.c whilst remaining no louder than a very slight whoosh. I also found setting the fan to idle at %30 drops nearly 10.c of the idle temp and it's still completely silent.

setter · 10 Nov 2014 at 01:45

Temp wise guys, do any of you consider 77c ono high. Serious question, as my top 780 gets upto 79c and yes i start to panick, think its getting too hot. Sure the cut of temp is 96c, which it never gets near. But i do have this 79c temp thing in my head. Funny thing is, my cpu is grand for 100c, but it never hits near that in noral use. Am i worrying too much.

stooeh · 10 Nov 2014 at 03:11

my 8800GT used to top out at about 108C

But I wouldn't be worrying about 77C in an air cooled SLI system

thefogo · 10 Nov 2014 at 07:13

A reference card runs at over 80C so 79C is fine.

Scramz · 10 Nov 2014 at 09:39

JamesM said:
Not sure as i'm not under water yet

Still running on air although when benching I have a fan blowing over the rear memory chips and the back or the VRMs.

Has it improved clocking? Not really. The whole thing is a bit strange really.

Card apparently pulls 1.325v according to the multi meter but anything above 1620 core and it comes up with a driver error. Also with the newer Maxwell Tweaker max volts is something like 1.6v according to the editor but don't know how accurate that is and whether it works. I won't be touching anything like that though.

To be fair the card is epic anyway so pushing it higher is just for e-fame.

Power limit wise however the card never throttles now, ever. Even when gaming in the high 1500s and memory at 8000 it stays perfectly stable. I've defaulted to using my own custom no-limits bios at the moment and it seems perfectly stable and still downclocks when idle.

This is as I expected. The cards are not being limited by heat with loads of head room to get hotter. The cards are peaking the overclocks on current coolers because the GPU will not push any further regardless of volts/temps.

Truly amazing GPU's with a good balance of power consumption and heat dispassion. Seems like the clock speeds are hitting its architecture limitation.

This was the reason I previously believed that putting this GPU underwater will not make too much of a difference when it come to overclocking.

fs123 · 10 Nov 2014 at 09:54

stooeh said:
I think he said he sold a truck load and had very few returns. That being said the small black plastic thing can be taken off easily without messing with the fans/block. Held in place with 2 screws which can be removed with the included allen key.

I got one of the inno3D 970's in the deal. the heatsink was slanted from one side and the plastic bit was touching slightly on the metal backing of a connector.
I returned mine not just because of the poor build quality. The card was reaching 80C+ (stock) when playing most games such Crysis 3 or Tombraider when my trusty 7950 Vapor-X (OC) only reaches 70C. There was even a burnt smell when the card was at full load for 10 minutes.

There was crazy frame 'hitching' which may or may not be a driver issue. First card I ever had with Coil Whine. To top it all the image quality didn't seem as sharp or vibrant as my 7950.

I am now waiting to see what they do about the frame hitching problem but in any case I will most likely wait to see what AMD bring in the 1st Quarter.
Very disappointing , especially after all the hype.

MOOGLEYS · 10 Nov 2014 at 09:55

I find image quality worse on the 970 compared to my 290. Thought it was just me tbh.

~>Dg<~ · 10 Nov 2014 at 10:15

image quality is worse on nvidia.

sprite1275 · 10 Nov 2014 at 10:20

^^why is this

chef-borjan · 10 Nov 2014 at 10:25

I have the GALAX 970 and I was wondering how I can keep my boost clock stable. I push it to around 1400 or so, memory up to 7000mhz so it's not a crazy huge overclock. +20mV on the voltage slider and 110% PL.

But during benching I can see the boost clock dropping a little from time to time. Do I need to apply more voltage? I didn't think these cards could go much over that power limit, although the afterburner slider does let me.. Just a bit cautious as I'm not very experienced with overclocking.

Scottland · 10 Nov 2014 at 10:28

Keep an eye on temps, I *think* the card will start to throttle boost clock down around 80°C.

Mal X · 10 Nov 2014 at 10:37

sprite1275 said:
^^why is this

i dont know, the colours are flatter and muted.... the 7970/7990 were both more vivid with brighter reds, but you get used to it, the 970 has a more stable image less screen tearing.

you cant compare the two cards though, because the 970 is far superior

old gamer · 10 Nov 2014 at 10:38

MOOGLEYS said:
I find image quality worse on the 970 compared to my 290. Thought it was just me tbh.

well thats dissapointing, ive just orderd 2 970's, in the past i always felt image quality was better on amd but thought things had improved, oh well i will give them a go but keep my 290 just incase im not happy with them