Best Geforce GTX 970?

[APatientGuy]

What is the best nvidia geforce gtx 970 for single monitor 1440p gaming? I'm talking performance, overclocking, reliability, temperatures, sound, and customer service. (Customer service doesn't really matter to me but if its reliability isn't the best than this is important.) Mainly, I've been looking at the gigabyte and msi one. Which should I go for? Out of any gtx 970s, not just those 2. Please provide benchmarks as well if possible, thanks!

[Aniallation]

What is the best nvidia geforce gtx 970 for single monitor 1440p gaming? I'm talking performance, reliability, temperatures, sound, and customer service. (Customer service doesn't really matter to me but if its reliability isn't the best than this is important.) Mainly, I've been looking at the gigabyte and msi one. Which should I go for? Out of any gtx 970s, not just those 2. Please provide benchmarks as well if possible, thanks!

Performance? Gigabyte G1

Overclocking? Gigabyte G1

Temps? Gigabyte G1

Reliability? They're all pretty much the same

Sound? They're all pretty much the same

Customer service? EVGA, but again all of them will all last a long time. However EVGA covers you even if you replace the cooler, overclock, etc.

[Clarkey]

Performance? Gigabyte G1

Overclocking? Gigabyte G1

Temps? Gigabyte G1

Reliability? They're all pretty much the same

Sound? They're all pretty much the same

Customer service? EVGA, but again all of them will all last a long time. However EVGA covers you even if you replace the cooler, overclock, etc.

Pretty sure every make will cover you if you overclock. As long as you dont overvolt.

[Aniallation]

Pretty sure every make will cover you if you overclock. As long as you dont overvolt.

EVGA does cover overvolting as well. If you send back a card with fried VRMs to Asus they likely won't even touch it.

[Imakuni]

Best OCer: Gigabyte Non-g1 gaming. Because the g1 is just the standard one factory OC'ed, with a backplate and a blue Led on the windforce logo.

 

Cooler: Same as above

 

Quietest: I've seen reviews that get the Asus Strix as the quietest, and reviews that put the MSI gaming 4G as the quietest. So they should be pretty close. Although most of them point to the Asus Strix.

 

Looks: Totally subjective.

 

Prices: Depends on the place. Where I live, the cheapest is the Zotac.

 

Customer Service: EVGA. If you need it. I don't think you will, though.

 

Headaches: Zotac AMP!

 

 

Overall opinion: The best is the MSI Gaming 4G. It doesn't get 1st place in any particular category, but it get's 2nd in every one of them at the same time. The other option is the Gigabyte Non-g1 (as stated, the g1 gaming is just a waste of money), due to better cooling and higher OCing. But there is the problem of the size of the card, which might not fit your case, and if you have an SLI Mobo/ want to make SLI, you might run into heat problems with this particular model. All in all, either one is fine. Compare the prices, availability and looks, and pick the one you like most.

[Faceman]

They are all going to perform roughly the same, with just the more expensive Gigabyte G1 Guaranteed to achieve higher overclocks, but what are you really paying for?  An extra $50 for 50-75Mhz guaranteed extra?  It is possible to get the same OC on any GPU because it all comes down to silicon lottery.  This 50-75Mhz is not going to translate into much in-game performance either.

 

I recommend EVGA for GPUs whenever given the chance.  They stand behind their products better than any other brand.  They allow you to mod and watercool without voiding the warranty, as long as you put it back together with stock cooler.  Their customer service is THE BEST.  Hands down, the best I have ever dealt with, for anything.  Their RMA department was blazing fast, god forbid anything goes wrong, but knowing that the company will not screw you over on an expensive component is always worth while to me.  Lets not forget their 970s are the least expensive at only $330.

 

You can't differentiate much on these cards because they are all the same underneath.  So the best way to differentiate, is to have the best service and that is where EVGA runs away with it.  I don't fanboy over many things, but EVGA is one of them.

[hummerh1]

I took Aniallation's advice a while back and bought the G1 from Gigabyte. I'm so glad I did! It's an absolute beast and pretty quiet too. I haven't overclocked it yet though. I haven't run any benchmarks yet, but in case you were wondering I put minecraft on it's lowest settings and got a whopping 1700 fps, and around 250 fps on high. I'm currently running Skyrim with around 130 mods (most of which are graphical mods), and achieving around 50-65 fps.

[Demozwolf]

Best OCer: Gigabyte Non-g1 gaming. Because the g1 is just the standard one factory OC'ed, with a backplate and a blue Led on the windforce logo.

 

Cooler: Same as above

 

Quietest: I've seen reviews that get the Asus Strix as the quietest, and reviews that put the MSI gaming 4G as the quietest. So they should be pretty close. Although most of them point to the Asus Strix.

 

Looks: Totally subjective.

 

Prices: Depends on the place. Where I live, the cheapest is the Zotac.

 

Customer Service: EVGA. If you need it. I don't think you will, though.

 

Headaches: Zotac AMP!

 

 

Overall opinion: The best is the MSI Gaming 4G. It doesn't get 1st place in any particular category, but it get's 2nd in every one of them at the same time. The other option is the Gigabyte Non-g1 (as stated, the g1 gaming is just a waste of money), due to better cooling and higher OCing. But there is the problem of the size of the card, which might not fit your case, and if you have an SLI Mobo/ want to make SLI, you might run into heat problems with this particular model. All in all, either one is fine. Compare the prices, availability and looks, and pick the one you like most.

I agree as a user of the 970 4g it is silent and overclocks nice