What's the best GTX 970 out? [UK]

[Vayra86]

I am flabbergasted by the EVGA statements and stance on this issue. Have always seen them as the premium Nvidia card supplier, with the best conditions and warranty plans, and with solid QA. But this is enough for me to never turn to them again for GPU. It all shows a glaring lack of dedication.

On the other hand, MSI keeps surprising in a positive way both in price, quality and communication and TwinFrozR V just strikes a perfect balance. Gigabyte seems to be at a standstill, or just lazy, but maybe thats just my personal impression of the WF cooler which seems long overdue for an update.

About Asus support and aftersales I can only agree that it is horrible. Also Strix seems like a rather overpriced and overrated cooler since you don't hear idling GPU's anyway, any other casefan will drown out the noise in the first place.

 

[RCoon]

I am flabbergasted by the EVGA statements and stance on this issue. Have always seen them as the premium Nvidia card supplier, with the best conditions and warranty plans, and with solid QA. But this is enough for me to never turn to them again for GPU. It all shows a glaring lack of dedication.

On the other hand, MSI keeps surprising in a positive way both in price, quality and communication and TwinFrozR V just strikes a perfect balance. Gigabyte seems to be at a standstill, or just lazy, but maybe thats just my personal impression of the WF cooler which seems long overdue for an update.

About Asus support and aftersales I can only agree that it is horrible. Also Strix seems like a rather overpriced and overrated cooler since you don't hear idling GPU's anyway, any other casefan will drown out the noise in the first place.

The windforce cooler works extremely well, and Gigabyte are very well priced. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We can see by reviews it most certainly does work. There is such a thing as a thermal impass, where unless you make coolers bigger or add more fans, there simply is no other way of making them better.

I agree on the Asus Strix, bad customer service, slightly overpriced. MSI have done well despite not offering a backplate, it's been the fastest selling card in the UK for some reason. I don't know why, it's relatively average.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Don't know what you're on about regarding the Giga WF Vayra.

Show me ANY other 970 cooler that benches at 60c load, any? And I'm not just going by review sites. I just spoke to a guy on Tom's forums whom verified via a pic that he has a Giga 970 mounted in a case, and even in a case vs the open bench mount Guru3 used to get the 60c result, he's reporting 65c load.

It also has a full length backplate and from what he's saying, a metal shroud. I was skeptical about the metal shroud bit, but review sites are verifying it. You combine a triple fan cooler, to a large well made HS, to a full length backplate, to a metal shroud, and what you have is excellent heat dissipation as verified by virtually everyone that's tested it.

Long overdue for an update my ass! No one else can even keep up with them at this point. You need to check Guru3D's reviews of the Giga and MSI 970. They show the MSI being 8c hotter at load. The Giga also OCs extremely well even at stock volts.

The only thing strange about those reviews is they show the MSI OCing at 1501 core, which looks like a typo because the boost shows the same 1501. I asked the one that posted the review on their forum, but have yet to receive a reply. It looks like a typo though because the Giga with a MUCH lower core OC results in higher FPS in the benches they ran.

 

[commander calamitous]

Actually I've picked up the Gigabyte. Amazing card

 

[Reefer86]

yep im in the uk too and grabbing one at the end of the month, should be a nice upgrade for the 5870 i have in there now.

first time i will have an nvidia card in my machine for over 10 years, sorry amd! price point and performance this card is a winner.

i too will be going msi but more likely the gigabyte.

 

[Shou Miko]

yep im in the uk too and grabbing one at the end of the month, should be a nice upgrade for the 5870 i have in there now.

first time i will have an nvidia card in my machine for over 10 years, sorry amd! price point and performance this card is a winner.

i too will be going msi but more likely the gigabyte.

so you are going with the GTX 970 like most of the ppl?

 

[RCoon]

so you are going with the GTX 970 like most of the ppl?

It's funny, every time i click on someone's system specs, I see a 970 in there on most users has to be one of the most successful GPUs since the 7970.

 

[Shou Miko]

It's funny, every time i click on someone's system specs, I see a 970 in there on most users has to be one of the most successful GPUs since the 7970.

i never had a HD 7970 never really had much luck with AMD that's why i always spend extra on Nvidia ^^

 

[Frag_Maniac]

yep im in the uk too and grabbing one at the end of the month...

The only thing I don't get on the Giga is they're in stock in the UK, but not the US. I know a LOT of major brand 970s are out of stock in the US, but the Giga is one I've never actually seen IN stock here.

 

[Reefer86]

so you are going with the GTX 970 like most of the ppl?

i am indeed at the end of the month, will be going nvidia for a first time in a long time.

always been a amd fan but tbh the 970 is a good price vs amd simlilar performance for much higher price.


update: didnt realise amd have now dropped prices on the 290x

in the uk i can pick up a 290x gigabyte for £259 or the 970 for £280 hmmmmmm

 

[GhostRyder]

great shout, always see Palit and Zotac and PNY cards really cheap, and a couple Gainwards but never tried any. But presumably they're just reference boards with a difference housing so can they be so bad? also has XFX folded or something, haven't noticed them release anything in a while lol

XFX became AMD exclusive if your asking why they have not released an Nvidia GPU variant.

I agree with everyone about the EVGA issue, honestly I feel they are making poor choices lately and would avoid them until they get their act together. My personal favorite cooler based on performance and looks for the money would be the MSI coolers as they are just the best right now from all points that I see. But if your wanting to save a bit the next one down made by Palit and with the Dual fan cooler is also very good from what I have seen. I would avoid zotac is well because in my personal experience they are sub-par quality and their coolers are really nothing special.

 

[Vayra86]

XFX became AMD exclusive if your asking why they have not released an Nvidia GPU variant.

I agree with everyone about the EVGA issue, honestly I feel they are making poor choices lately and would avoid them until they get their act together. My personal favorite cooler based on performance and looks for the money would be the MSI coolers as they are just the best right now from all points that I see. But if your wanting to save a bit the next one down made by Palit and with the Dual fan cooler is also very good from what I have seen. I would avoid zotac is well because in my personal experience they are sub-par quality and their coolers are really nothing special.

Slightly off topic, but... Did anyone try their hands on EVGA's new Precision X 16? I've found it to be simply the most horrible GUI they ever created. I've been looking for settings and clicking through worthless and f. ugly menu's on that thing for over 30 minutes until I had what I wanted - settings that took about 5 minutes to get through in previous versions. To think that they even had some bad media around stealing code only to have them come up with this abonimation... unbelievable

After those 30 mins I was sold on Afterburner for sure, even after happily using Precision X on multiple cards in the past.