ASUS ROG Poseidon 780 VS any GTX 970

[Trik'Stari]

So, in the near future (between now and christmas) I'm likely to get a new graphics card, and I was wondering which is better for the money. The ASUS ROG Poseidon 780, or a GTX 970?

 

I know that the 970 is newer, but right now the price is about the same, and this card comes with a built in water cooler which I really like since I'd like the option to watercool my gpu if and when I do a full water cooling loop (probably with the new DEEPCOOL Captain 360m ).

 

So, which is best? GO!

 

Edit: The biggest advantage I see is the built in waterblock, it does aircool when not hooked up to a loop (and I would assume, does aircool when hooked up which is kind of awesome. For the price, that's really a good deal when you consider that you don't have to put on your own waterblock, let alone buy an expensive ass waterblock

[the ginger gamer]

Well they are very close in terms of performance so if the water cooler is what you are looking for then i would say go for that one. Good luck with your upgrade! Either one is a great choice by the way.

[Trik'Stari]

Well they are very close in terms of performance so if the water cooler is what you are looking for then i would say go for that one. Good luck with your upgrade! Either one is a great choice by the way.

Oh I don't doubt both are great, my question is which is absolutely more powerful in terms of graphical performance and capability? I don't care about power consumption fyi.

[xToFxREAPER]

Oh I don't doubt both are great, my question is which is absolutely more powerful in terms of graphical performance and capability? I don't care about power consumption fyi.

They trade blows back and forth depending on the game. this is something you very easily could have googled and looked at benchmarks.

[the ginger gamer]

Oh I don't doubt both are great, my question is which is absolutely more powerful in terms of graphical performance and capability? I don't care about power consumption fyi.

Mostly depending on the game they alter between frame rates that are very close to each other, what i was trying to suggest is that since they are both so close in performance and you want a liquid cooler just get the 780 especially since with the liquid you should be able to reach higher overclocks. 

[Trik'Stari]

They trade blows back and forth depending on the game. this is something you very easily could have googled and looked at benchmarks.

Indeed, but I prefer to come to the experts here on LTT

[xToFxREAPER]

Indeed, but I prefer to come to the experts here on LTT

Fair enough. Personally I find this one a really tough call, the 780 is a beast of a card and having a built in water block is a total win however in my use case (triple monitors) and with the extremely high vram requirements were starting to see in games the 970 may be the better option.

[Trik'Stari]

Fair enough. Personally I find this one a really tough call, the 780 is a beast of a card and having a built in water block is a total win however in my use case (triple monitors) and with the extremely high vram requirements were starting to see in games the 970 may be the better option.

Well, the poseidon has 3gb of vram, does a similarly priced 970 have 4gb of vram?

 

Edit: ahh, the asus one does

[kei7t9]

970 will have more headroom in terms of Overclocks (it overclocks like a dream, I bet even more specially the Memory if Watercooling is put into play). I would be for the 970 (thats also because I have two ).

 

I have posted my clocks in the Unigine thread found in Graphics card section page 80/81. Will update later with 1701core and more mem clocks. Other people also posted their's found inside the chart.

 

As for watercooling you have to wait a bit more from other cards . Although right now EK is manufacturing a Waterblock for MSi's GTX 970 4G Gaming (this can also be the reason why alot of MSi cards sold around the world too or it sold alot of pieces so EK decided to make on or MSi had an agreement with them). I think they start selling this coming November 7. Full cover water block beats those hybrid's of air and water . This type of play from MSi and EK controls sales for them. Since its alot harder to water cool other 970s if there are no other manufacturer manufacturing water blocks for each unique pcb layout for different non reference cards (usually they only manufacture water blocks for Reference design GPU's + right now MSi's 970 PCB design)

 

This is one of the reason why there are Superclocked versions of a reference card, because reference designs tend to get their own water blocks sooner than a non reference one (only this time MSi gets their own non reference water block this 7th november). So mostly people I see who wants to Water cool a new card immediately goes for reference superclocked gpu's like the one sold by EVGA from all the GTX series cards.

 

 

Poseidon  looks bad. The only GPU I liked from RoG was the MARS 760 that sexy back! . 

The idea of having watercooling and air cooling at the same time is nice. But bottom line is that for maximum water cooling performance, an aftermarket waterblock sold by the likes of EK, XSPC etc. are much better than the one used for Poseidon. And again that shroud from Poseidon looks bad.... 

 

But it comes down to preference I guess. 780s are still good cards after all.

[xToFxREAPER]

Well, the poseidon has 3gb of vram, does a similarly priced 970 have 4gb of vram?

 

Edit: ahh, the asus one does

all 970's have 4gb vram thats the basis for them. I love my 780's but i see that vram wall already unfortunately 

[Trik'Stari]

970 will have more headroom in terms of Overclocks (it overclocks like a dream, I bet even more specially the Memory if Watercooling is put into play). I would be for the 970 (thats also because I have two ).

 

I have posted my clocks in the Unigine thread found in Graphics card section page 80/81. Will update later with 1701core and more mem clocks. Other people also posted their's found inside the chart.

 

As for watercooling you have to wait a bit more from other cards . Although right now EK is manufacturing a Waterblock for MSi's GTX 970 4G Gaming (this can also be the reason why alot of MSi cards sold around the world too or it sold alot of pieces so EK decided to make on or MSi had an agreement with them). I think they start selling this coming November 7. Full cover water block beats those hybrid's of air and water . This type of play from MSi and EK controls sales for them. Since its alot harder to water cool other 970s if there are no other manufacturer manufacturing water blocks for each unique pcb layout for different non reference cards (usually they only manufacture water blocks for Reference design GPU's + right now MSi's 970 PCB design)

 

This is one of the reason why there are Superclocked versions of a reference card, because reference designs tend to get their own water blocks sooner than a non reference one (only this time MSi gets their own non reference water block this 7th november). So mostly people I see who wants to Water cool a new card immediately goes for reference superclocked gpu's like the one sold by EVGA from all the GTX series cards.

 

 

Poseidon  looks bad. The only GPU I liked from RoG was the MARS 760 that sexy back! . 

The idea of having watercooling and air cooling at the same time is nice. But bottom line is that for maximum water cooling performance, an aftermarket waterblock sold by the likes of EK, XSPC etc. are much better than the one used for Poseidon. And again that shroud from Poseidon looks bad.... 

 

But it comes down to preference I guess. 780s are still good cards after all.

When you say it looks bad, do you mean aesthetically or from quality and capability standpoint? I wouldn't mind waiting for 970 waterblocks, I just hope someone does one for the Gigabyte G1 card that's supposed to be "dumb awesome" for overclocking.

 

all 970's have 4gb vram thats the basis for them. I love my 780's but i see that vram wall already unfortunately 

I like that.... MOAR TEXTURES IN SKYRIM, MWHAHAHA

[kei7t9]

When you say it looks bad, do you mean aesthetically or from quality and capability standpoint? I wouldn't mind waiting for 970 waterblocks, I just hope someone does one for the Gigabyte G1 card that's supposed to be "dumb awesome" for overclocking.

 

I like that.... MOAR TEXTURES IN SKYRIM, MWHAHAHA

What do you mean by "dumb awesome" or you just mocking the G1 Gaming. Long story short most 970's will overclock well, people are not saying "it overclocks well" because its a new card but because it actually OCs pretty well (the same as the 980s). So far one's I have tested MSi' and G1 Gaming reached 1500mhz out of the box stable. Based on reviews I saw EVGA and STrix also went to 1500mhz easy. But because I only own the G1 Gaming and the MSi I have returned to a friend who bought it, I was only able to OC the G1 Gaming as hard as I could and fiddled with it since I paid for it. But so far base on what I've experience it OC's pretty well, even better if there's a bios hack available for it. As usual NVidia software's cripple the cards ability to OC. This is also the same with the 700 Cards.

 

As for the Poseidon, everything looks alright apart from the shroud design. it looks bad but thats my opinion. MARS 760 in the other hand looks much better.

[Faceman]

Get the 970.  If you ever want to water cool that GPU, you can do the G10 mod.  Lots of people on the OCN G10 Owner's Club are starting to switch to 970s and are reporting OCs of high 1600s while temps are in the 40s.

[xToFxREAPER]

When you say it looks bad, do you mean aesthetically or from quality and capability standpoint? I wouldn't mind waiting for 970 waterblocks, I just hope someone does one for the Gigabyte G1 card that's supposed to be "dumb awesome" for overclocking.

 

I like that.... MOAR TEXTURES IN SKYRIM, MWHAHAHA

precisely, Ive been playing skyrim at 4k with dsr of late and a ton of texture packs and doing very well on my 780's with 2xmsaa. Geforce experience says i can use 8xmsaa with 4k which i can but i see no sense in lost frame rate for such a marginal visual difference.

[Trik'Stari]

What do you mean by "dumb awesome" or you just mocking the G1 Gaming. Long story short most 970's will overclock well, people are not saying "it overclocks well" because its a new card but because it actually OCs pretty well (the same as the 980s). So far one's I have tested MSi' and G1 Gaming reached 1500mhz out of the box stable. Based on reviews I saw EVGA and STrix also went to 1500mhz easy. But because I only own the G1 Gaming and the MSi I have returned to a friend who bought it, I was only able to OC the G1 Gaming as hard as I could and fiddled with it since I paid for it. But so far base on what I've experience it OC's pretty well, even better if there's a bios hack available for it. As usual NVidia software's cripple the cards ability to OC. This is also the same with the 700 Cards.

 

As for the Poseidon, everything looks alright apart from the shroud design. it looks bad but thats my opinion. MARS 760 in the other hand looks much better.

I was quoting last weeks WAN show "that's dumb awesome" lol. I was also talking about what Linus and Luke were saying in the gigabyte G1 review about the card being really good to overclock, which of course could just be their card, but they said something about it being a "super leaky" card or something, making it really good for overclocking. Honestly, I just want the best card for 1440p to run games on ultra, 60hz would be fine (although I would drop graphics for frame rates in things like bf4)

 

Get the 970.  If you ever want to water cool that GPU, you can do the G10 mod.  Lots of people on the OCN G10 Owner's Club are starting to switch to 970s and are reporting OCs of high 1600s while temps are in the 40s.

G10 mod?

 

precisely, Ive been playing skyrim at 4k with dsr of late and a ton of texture packs and doing very well on my 780's with 2xmsaa. Geforce experience says i can use 8xmsaa with 4k which i can but i see no sense in lost frame rate for such a marginal visual difference.

I'd probably be playing at 1440p if I ever get a 1440 monitor (which I plan on doing)

[Faceman]

I was quoting last weeks WAN show "that's dumb awesome" lol. I was also talking about what Linus and Luke were saying in the gigabyte G1 review about the card being really good to overclock, which of course could just be their card, but they said something about it being a "super leaky" card or something, making it really good for overclocking. Honestly, I just want the best card for 1440p to run games on ultra, 60hz would be fine (although I would drop graphics for frame rates in things like bf4)

 

G10 mod?

 

I'd probably be playing at 1440p if I ever get a 1440 monitor (which I plan on doing)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8927105

+

http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=77379&vpn=CW-9060010-WW&manufacture=Corsair

 

= Water cooled GPU for ~$60

[xToFxREAPER]

I was quoting last weeks WAN show "that's dumb awesome" lol. I was also talking about what Linus and Luke were saying in the gigabyte G1 review about the card being really good to overclock, which of course could just be their card, but they said something about it being a "super leaky" card or something, making it really good for overclocking. Honestly, I just want the best card for 1440p to run games on ultra, 60hz would be fine (although I would drop graphics for frame rates in things like bf4)

 

G10 mod?

 

I'd probably be playing at 1440p if I ever get a 1440 monitor (which I plan on doing)

Sounds to me like your going to want either a 970 or a 980 at this point. If you wanna be able to play ultra at 1440p around 60hz then a 970 is going to be cutting it pretty close i would think

[Crion]

As a current GTX 780 owner as well as recent GTX 970 purchaser, I can definitely say that performance wise you're about even between the two cards.  970 will edge out in some games and 780 will edge out in others.  With dynamic super resolution now backported to both Kepler and Fermi, the only difference feature wise that I know of is that the 970 has been promised DX12 support. 

[Robert Lamb]

Yes

[kei7t9]

I was quoting last weeks WAN show "that's dumb awesome" lol. I was also talking about what Linus and Luke were saying in the gigabyte G1 review about the card being really good to overclock, which of course could just be their card, but they said something about it being a "super leaky" card or something, making it really good for overclocking. Honestly, I just want the best card for 1440p to run games on ultra, 60hz would be fine (although I would drop graphics for frame rates in things like bf4)

 

G10 mod?

 

I'd probably be playing at 1440p if I ever get a 1440 monitor (which I plan on doing)

You be alright for 1440p for sure. As for G1 Gaming what lured me to it was the binning they advertise which they call "GPU Gauntlet sorting" but I am pretty skeptical about it myself since its the first for a company to make binning a feature as well as most 970's and 980's OC really well. But so far I am very happy. Everything pretty much is nice for G1 Gaming, Although it wouldve been better if they nickel plated the bronze heatpipes and maybe coated the fins with matte black to go with the brushed aluminum shroud and backplate.

 

I kinda wish Intel also sell binned CPU's... I am like so jealous to an i5 4690K I saw doing 4.8 Ghz at 1.180 volts lol Think there's another i5 and an i7 doing 4.8+ OC at really low voltages and running stable both in P95 and IBT.