MSI GTX970 Gaming OC 4GB First Thoughts

[karambiatos]

isnt the 970 like 50 dollars cheaper?

[KaspeR32]

isnt the 970 like 50 dollars cheaper?

 

Yes but it's faster than the 970.

 

"While the GeForce GTX Titan Black or GeForce GTX 980 may be faster in certain situations, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 780 Ti remains closely competitive with both when it comes to gaming performance.

 

Now that it's been replaced by the GeForce GTX 980, however, we've seen the remaining stock heavily discounted below the $450 mark. This makes the GeForce GTX 780 Ti an incredible value for the money if you're looking for no-compromise ultra-high resolution gaming performance at a surprisingly low price."

 

-Tom's Hardware

[159th_Viper]

Short-term nominal performance gains, if any, depending on the 970, yes. But what happens in future when drivers are specifically tailored to enhance performance of the 970's......They might then just overtake the 780ti by a healthy margin.

[KaspeR32]

Short-term nominal performance gains, if any, depending on the 970, yes. But what happens in future when drivers are specifically tailored to enhance performance of the 970's......They might then just overtake the 780ti by a healthy margin.

 

Very true, that does make a lot of sense. I guess it's just hard to look past the 780ti being at such a reduced price, it's always been a card I told myself I could never afford!

[karambiatos]

Benchmarks seem to show 1-4 more FPS on the 780ti, when compared against the gigabyte gtx970G1, which seems kind of meh, for 40-50 bucks more.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/nvidia_geforce_gtx_970_and_980_reference_review,1.html

[159th_Viper]

....it's always been a card I told myself I could never afford!

 

Aye, with the past price-difference between ATI vs NVidia over here in the UK I said I would NEVER buy NVidia on principle due the cost/fact that we have to pay almost twice as much over here than for what it costs in the States.....

 

......and then the 970 arrived.

 

I now have two on pre-order :megalol:

[xaoslaad]

Two eVGA GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0's in SLI are able to give ~40-50 frames on a 4k display with most settings turned up to high. I'm not dipping below mid-30's flying around and sometimes getting up to 60's and maybe higher.

 

Looks good.

[Demon_]

I don't think, the gtx780ti and the gtx970 use the same drivers. The gtx780ti is a high end series at only one generation behind.

Even at 1178mhz the gtx970 can't reach the gtx780ti at 1020mhz.

When drivers are specifically tailored to enhance performance of one generation? Never saw that before.

[KaspeR32]

I don't think, the gtx780ti and the gtx970 use the same drivers. The gtx780ti is a high end series at only one generation behind.

Even at 1178mhz the gtx970 can't reach the gtx780ti at 1020mhz.

When drivers are specifically tailored to enhance performance of one generation? Never saw that before.

 

I think he was saying that the drivers might not be fully optimized *yet* for the 970. So when they eventually do enable more of the features of the new architecture, maybe then it'll will beat the 780ti in performance. They won't "tailor" the new drivers for the 970, but they'll only get better for it.

[Demon_]

I don't want to tell this is wrong. Sorry.

For me, this is the usual marketing speculation to upgrade your video card for only one generation of improvement. I mean $$$.

[theGozr]

Always jump 2..

[KaspeR32]

I don't want to tell this is wrong. Sorry.

For me, this is the usual marketing speculation to upgrade your video card for only one generation of improvement. I mean $$$.

 

You are misunderstanding what the conversation is about. I'm not upgrading from a 780ti to a 970. I'm upgrading from an R9 280X to EITHER a 780ti or a 970. I was asking which I should do, and the 970 according to some people might be the more "future proof" card considering it's new architecture and subsequent driver updates.

[Demon_]

I was talking in general. :)

If you have the choice? Always purchase the newest serie.

But i found my second Gtx680 SOC at only $300.(2013) I'm ok for few years.

 

PS: No personal attack please.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Demon_

[lidou]

i have a gtx 970 with one monitor fps are very good , with 2 monitors hd ( total of 3840 x 1080) fps drops to 40 fps

[javelina1]

Check this out, one more test comparing 970 to 980 and vs AMD GPUs.

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2837828/graphics-card-slugfest-amd-and-nvidias-most-powerful-gaming-hardware-compared.html

 

Gives answers to most questions that can arise with newest pricing too.

 

 

 

 

I think, it will be the MSI GTX-970 MSI for me. It runs a lot cooler than the Asus GTX STryx versions that seem to cook off according to Toms Hardware testing. The 980 is faster, yes, but only if you can pay almost twice for ⅓ more power... can't afford that much.

 

Bit

 

I went the same route too... bought the MSI, and have installed now...

[Highfox]

I just went yesterday from a 560ti to the MSI 970.

Noticeable quieter and much smoother FPS going from 1GB to 4GB GPU memory.

The only hard part is deciding which of the 3 free games to chose with the free game coupon you get with it.

[Viersbovsky]

I have heard that there are significant problems with "coil whine" across all versions of GTX970 (the coils in the card oscillate and thus work like a speaker, making high pitched, very loud noises). Some returned their cards multiple times and still got one maiking significant noises.

What is the experience of you guys with this?

I am itching to buy one for christmas, but this is making me hesitate.

[Highfox]

I have heard that there are significant problems with "coil whine" across all versions of GTX970 (the coils in the card oscillate and thus work like a speaker, making high pitched, very loud noises). Some returned their cards multiple times and still got one maiking significant noises.

What is the experience of you guys with this?

I am itching to buy one for christmas, but this is making me hesitate.

 

Maybe I got lucky but mine's very quiet, in-fact so quiet I wondered if it was actually working.

[txmtb]

I have heard that there are significant problems with "coil whine" across all versions of GTX970 (the coils in the card oscillate and thus work like a speaker, making high pitched, very loud noises). Some returned their cards multiple times and still got one maiking significant noises.

What is the experience of you guys with this?

I am itching to buy one for christmas, but this is making me hesitate.

 

 

Honestly I heard the same thing, and you can find the threads at the MSI, EVGA, Gigabyte etc with the complaints. I have 2 970 SSC's, and neither one of them exhibit it. I'm considering I may have just got lucky, but no problems here.

[Viersbovsky]

Maybe I got lucky but mine's very quiet, in-fact so quiet I wondered if it was actually working.

 

Honestly I heard the same thing, and you can find the threads at the MSI, EVGA, Gigabyte etc with the complaints. I have 2 970 SSC's, and neither one of them exhibit it. I'm considering I may have just got lucky, but no problems here.

 

Are you guys using vsync? Some cards seem to whine even at less than 65 fps which is frankly unacceptable. Maybe you got the cards with a high threshold? The norm for the GTX 970 for coil whine to appear seems to be the high two digit, low three digit level, according to some hardware-mag. I could live with that, my monitor can display only 60Hz anyway.

Hearing from you, at least it is not a really universal problem. There were theories that Maxwell itself was causing the problem and that is the reason there is no GTX970 reference design ("even Nvidia could not fix it"). I guess people RMAing were simply getting the cards other people RMA´d for coil whine.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Viersbovsky

[txmtb]

Are you guys using vsync? Some cards seem to whine even at less than 65 fps which is frankly unacceptable. The norm for the GTX 970 for coil whine to appear seems to be the high two digit, low three digit level, accodring to some hardware-mag. I could live with that, my monitor can display only 60Hz anyway.

Hearing from you, at least it is not a really universal problem. There were theories that Maxwell itself was causing the problem and that is the reason there is no GTX970 reference design ("even Nvidia could not fix it"). I guess people RMAing were simply getting the cards other people RMA´d for coil whine.

 

 

Interesting, I'll check out FPS in some other stuff, I usually keep anything that runs with headtracking on adaptive vsync to elimintate tearing, which may be why I don't notice it. But I do play Red Orchestra, Arkham City, Metro LL, L4D2 and several others without vsync on and didn't notice it there either.

[skouras]

my asus gtx 970 is quiet however what i have experience so far is some frame stutter in most games even at 60 or 70 fps

 

in fact there is a whole thread about those lockups

 

 

 

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/777475/geforce-900-series/gtx-970-frame-hitching-/1/

 

i also run DCSW on everything maxed out include vsync and i can see those stutters from time to time

 

heres a video example

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNB5ukFsWfc

[Dav IRL]

I have 2 strix 970's in sli. They are quite. They only require one 8 pin connector per card where my 780 classified required two 8 pin connectors. The swap over was simple for my first sli build. I am playing all my games at 1440p now and wont be returning to 1080p ever again. I am playing warthog and blackshark maxed and capped at 60. My frame rates are 60 with ground units and 40 with air units. The air units ZAP frames in DCS. I hope to God this is resolved in Edge.

[genbrien]

it will because multi GPU is 1 of the features of EDGE

[JayPee]

I have 2 strix 970's in sli. They are quite. They only require one 8 pin connector per card where my 780 classified required two 8 pin connectors. The swap over was simple for my first sli build. I am playing all my games at 1440p now and wont be returning to 1080p ever again. I am playing warthog and blackshark maxed and capped at 60. My frame rates are 60 with ground units and 40 with air units. The air units ZAP frames in DCS. I hope to God this is resolved in Edge.

What FPS are you getting with 8x AA ingame, no AA in Nvidia control panel and 4k using DSR?

 

It brought my single GTX 970 to its knees at 4k DSR, no smoothing, no AA ingame, no AA in Nvidia (15 FPS). All ingame settings maxed, no FPS tweaks applied.