Why Do People Say That The EVGA 970 Is Terrible?

[nikolaizombie1]

The question is in the tittle

[Archangel1994]

Because apparently (I don't know) the ACX 1.0 and 2.0 are both pretty loud for one and there was an issue with the first revisions of the card that shows that the heatpipes were misaligned showing that only 2 of the 3 heatpipes made contact. They have already fixed it I believe with a revision

[Flight1sim]

who said that?

 

oh yeah, what @Archangel1994 said

[Shally]

You'll find people like to be biased over cards. Just look at Linus's videos on cards and he should help.

[Ryan Leech]

People say that, but it isn't terrible.

[KayTees]

Mine makes almost zero to no noise when the fans spin. Very minimal sound under full load tho.

[DavidTheWin]

They had an "issue" revealed early on with their cards in that with their 3 heatpipe design, only 2 made contact with the GPU

 

 

However, you can clearly see that the pasted area (roughly approximates the shape of the GPU die under the cooler) has good contact with 2 pipes and that the only way to get the third heat pipe to contact the GPU directly is if it only half touched it and half the heatpipe on the other side touched it.

[Superspeed07]

Because apparently (I don't know) the ACX 1.0 and 2.0 are both pretty loud for one and there was an issue with the first revisions of the card that shows that the heatpipes were misaligned showing that only 2 of the 3 heatpipes made contact. They have already fixed it I believe with a revision

 

I can't speak for acx 2.0 but my 780 classifieds with the 1.0 are very quiet, only at 70+% fan speed do you really hear them, and that basically only happens under stress testing for me

[xtasemusic]

Not that big of a deal , really. The heat is going to transfer proprely anyways.

[NumeroSieben]

because of the heatpipe thing it led to people having bad impression and that impression just stuck for a lot of people. Reputations are something very important, if a product has problems even if it gets fixed, people will remember it. 

 

Personally i got two MSI cards just because red and black. No other reason. if you look at 500 benchmarks of all the cards and their overclocking they are all pretty equal

[mlbguy4life]

They say that because they are misinformed and have no earthly idea what they are talking about. The obvious mistake made by people that have seen pictures is the fact that only 2 of the 3 heat pipes make solid contact with the gpu, but this was done 100% on purpose by design and thats the way its supposed to be, by adding the 3rd pipe (which the end isnt closed off, it is open ) they were able to lower temps by about 3 degrees, some say the cards have some coil whine , while others say they dont....actually the coil wine is caused by overclocking the cards too high  and then the capacitors cant handle it.....this would be user error.....also they require a break in period, so if you have coil wine directly out of the box, all you have to do is run the fans at 60% for a while and the wine will stop..........even if you dont believe anything i have posted so far, you better believe this......EVGA HAS THE ABSOLUTE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE PC INDUSTRY!!!

[TW1ST3R]

Like the others said, there isn't anything inherently bad with it.  If anything, once people get over the fact that the 3rd doesn't necessarily need to make direct contact for the chip to be withing safe running temps, negative perceptions come down more it being a somewhat recycled design for hotter, larger chips and fans that are apparently comparatively noisier than the competition, whilst delivering roughly the same cooling performance (if you ignore the Gigabyte Windforce).  They all perform relatively the same and the all of the cards overclock very well for the most part, so to me the choice comes down to what you want from your card:

 

EVGA - Excellent customer Service & RMA handing

MSI/ASUS - Colour Scheme, 0dB technology (if you're that concerned about idle noise)

Gigabyte - Extra cooling performance.

 

I can't actually vouch for any of these things as I don't have the first-hand experience, but this is what I've gathered from my research since the cards were released.

 

Personally I'm going for the Gigabyte because I need all the cooling performance I can get where I live.

[Faceman]

Uhm.. EVGA is amazing.  I will forever buy EVGA GPUs, and their products in general because of how I have been treated by them on multiple occasions, for a multitude of different things.

 

MIRs:  The absolute fastest in the business.  Most companies take 6-8 weeks.  The three times I've done an MIR with EVGA, it took 4-5 weeks, AND they let you choose between check and gift card.  Check please!

 

RMA:  This is where they really blew my socks off.  The process was so fast, so painless, and everyone I spoke to was knowledgeable, friendly, and knew exactly what they were talking about, what my concerns were, and how to proceed.  It took 9 business days including the day I sent my card to them, to get a new card back.  This is travel from Florida to California and back.

 

Water Cooling:  EVGA allows you to water cool and take apart your GPU without voiding the warranty.  Can't say the same about every other company out there.

 

Asking a question:  Whether it was on the phone or through email, the people I spoke to were extremely adept at answering my questions and at no point did I feel like I was speaking to someone who didn't "understand" the nuances of gaming and technology.  These people are trained incredibly well, and it shows.

 

Step-Up Program:  This is not something I personally took part in, but it is available only through EVGA.  Its a fantastic offering that is really quite appealing and unique.

 

-----------------------------------

Yes, the recent batch of 900 series EVGA cards have gotten a lot of bad publicity because their fans were too noisy when first launched, and their ACX Cooler isn't fully covering the GPU die.  What does this mean?  Not much now because they have fixed the fan problem with a firmware update, even including a no-fan-spin mode, and the cooler not fully covering the GPU die is not that big of an issue.  In the 970/980 roundups I've seen, the EVGA card is only trailing by 1-2C, that is not a massive amount, and pretty much within the margin of error.  Lets not forget that their cards are the least expensive coming in at $330 compared to $350+ for the competition's 970s. 

 

I will gladly, gladly take 1-2C higher temperatures and all of the benefits of having a card backed by EVGA than go with any other brand because I know what I'm getting with EVGA and that is exemplary service and a company that stands behind their products.

[AlRayes_BRN]

I used to have a EVGA GTX 780 ti SC and had no issues at all. Go with EVGA

[Chelsi_Gamer]

Other than coil whine my supetclocked 970's are great. The 980s all coil whine. They probably run 3-5*C warmer than a g1, but I never touch 80*C on a quiet profIle in sli so it's no biggie!

[Briggsy]

They had an "issue" revealed early on with their cards in that with their 3 heatpipe design, only 2 made contact with the GPU

 

 

However, you can clearly see that the pasted area (roughly approximates the shape of the GPU die under the cooler) has good contact with 2 pipes and that the only way to get the third heat pipe to contact the GPU directly is if it only half touched it and half the heatpipe on the other side touched it.

 

I would be less worried about the 3rd heatpipe, and more worried about the center of the die contacting the aluminium divider instead of copper.

[timemachine]

My roomate has a 970 ACx 2.0 and it is silent! The fan turns on when it hits (50 c ish ?) Put it a through a few test to make it spin up and even then it was silent!  

[Ren]

You'll find people like to be biased over cards. Just look at Linus's videos on cards and he should help.

But Linus is blatantly biased towards NVidia and Asus..?

Not sure where you're going with that.

[VulsaviiK]

They had an "issue" revealed early on with their cards in that with their 3 heatpipe design, only 2 made contact with the GPU

 

However, you can clearly see that the pasted area (roughly approximates the shape of the GPU die under the cooler) has good contact with 2 pipes and that the only way to get the third heat pipe to contact the GPU directly is if it only half touched it and half the heatpipe on the other side touched it.

 

Linus noted that because all 3 heatpipes touch, the heat is still being transferred to the third heatpipe, meaning it's cooling the card even if it isn't making direct contact

[Shally]

But Linus is blatantly biased towards NVidia and Asus..?

Not sure where you're going with that.

I wasn't saying to go for either...I was saying take his advice.

[Faa]

People say that, but it isn't terrible.

Yeah because they're clueless I guess? Taken from http://forums.evga.com/FindPost/2222180

"GTX 980 ACX2 is a completely different heatsink design, in fact 970 FTW ACX2 is a different design as well. The 3 heatpipe design is only used on 970 SC and 970 SSC ACX1/2. Here is a picture of the contact side of the GTX 970 FTW card:"

So lets bring the noise results up; http://be.hardware.info/productinfo/benchmarks/5/videokaarten?products[]=254223&specId=15681&tcId=371

So actually it's the quietest of all of them. Not sure why EVGA gets so much criticism while Gigabyte is praised to hell when it's a fucking loud card. Gigabyte is topping in the temp results but that's not hard if your coolers are 2.5x louder >.>

[hadesjoy72]

OP, IMHO....if I were to buy a Nvidia card, it would be EVGA....as they are a very well known/liked board partner with Nvidia.  Same reason I went with Sapphire for AMD....look for the latest revision of the card, or better yet, contact EVGA and ask.

[m_tieu]

I have 2 older 7xx series acx cards and they get hot and loud under load. If you were looking for lower temps or a quieter system, go with something else. EVGA makes very good components and have excellent customer support if you run into any issues. They're also very generous with their warranty for watercooling their gpus.

[OhNoesItsDobby]

The way I understand it, the issue with the new EVGA cards is not with the cooler, but with coil whine. Of course you could potentially have coil whine on any GPU if you're unlucky, but from a lot of initial reviews I read of EVGA's 970 for example, many complained of an audible buzzing/coil whine from only a moderate load.

I'm not sure if EVGA has since fixed this in newer batches of cards, but it was enough to put me off buying one for a planned Air 240 build.

[SteveGrabowski]

OP, IMHO....if I were to buy a Nvidia card, it would be EVGA....as they are a very well known/liked board partner with Nvidia.  Same reason I went with Sapphire for AMD....look for the latest revision of the card, or better yet, contact EVGA and ask.

 

Isn't Sapphire known for having horrible tech support? Or have they cleaned that up in the last couple of years? I have read horror stories about RMAs taking up to two months. I mean they sound like the anti-EVGA from what I have read when it comes to support, though their cards are supposed to be awesome when they work (never owned a Sapphire myself but my brother had a bad experience with one of their cards a few years ago).