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I need a new opinion on EVGA as a whole

Dunkan77

Hell guys,

 

I have bought an EVGA GTX970 SC ACX 2.0 back in December 2014 and this card has given me underwhelming results ever since I started using it and this made me cross out EVGA from my list of AIB to choose from for my next upgrade. 
My PROS for EVGA:

-Flexible warranty coverage (didn't need to RMA the card though, got no personal experience to back this up however other people have)

-Looks, I appreciate the somewhat stealth minimalist look of the ACX 2 cooler's shroud (very subjective)

 

My CONS for EVGA:

-Cooler is extremely loud (major con)

-Temperatures are very high even with fans sped up (major con, 80C almost with fans at 60% which sounds a bit like this from my sitting position)

Both aforementioned points are due to cooler being misaligned (2 of 3 heatpipes touching the core only) compared to say MSI's all 4 touching the core

-Recent events of FTW cards' VRM running extremely hot and some blowing up (not due to heat in all cases)

-Marketing stunt with alleged 10-phase design on their 1080 FTW models as they use doublers and therefore the "quality" of the power being fed is the same as a 5-phase VRM design (mind you this only is a con for overclockers as it otherwise serves the purpose of spreading the heat over more components and making them easier to cool down)

 

I chose this SC model not knowing any of the cons and just the pros. I didn't know the SC model was cheaper because of it simply being an aftermarket cooler on a reference board. Huge disappointment as I went with an AIB for that same exact matter: better OC, cooler operation due to custom board design.

 

I give them a 5.5/10 right now considering how they mislead me into buying their reference card (which means voltage locked down at 1.212V too and being an overclocker I hate this -_-) with simply a misaligned cooler on it that almost negated the whole benefit of an open shroud one. Remember the blower cooler runs at around 84 C albeit not OC'ed and I achieve 80-82C with this cooler when other people with Asus or MSI GPU's (keeping the comparison fair and not including Gigabyte with their 3 fan cooler) are staying under 80C at all times and not having to deal with noise like in the video linked above.

 

 

I want you guys to give me an objective review of the company as a whole. I want you to take into account experience with them, with their graphics cards, what you don't like whether it be subjective or objective and then an overall grade on 10 of EVGA as a GPU manufacturer.

 

Thanks for Your time guys, I hope I'll be able to change where I stand on this matter which right now is avoid EVGA GPU's whenever possible. Remember I'm not a hater or fanboy, I wouldn't have gone with them if I were a hater otherwise and wouldn't have criticized them had I been the other kind of guy.

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Hi,

 

I have very different experiences with my EVGA GTX 970, more specifically the 04G-P4-3975-KR:

  • The performance is on-par with other GTX970s considering the clock speed (stock overclock).
  • The card is very quiet. I play on 1080p, also AAA titles, and I can hardly ever hear the card during gaming
  • When folding (I do that) the card gets to ~75°C, with fan around 40% (readings as I'm writing this: 39% / 76°C) (this is waaaay louder and hotter than during gaming, btw.)

 

It will get slightly faster/louder in the summer when it gets hotter in my apartment, though. At idle (/-ish/desktop usage), the fan will stop, with the card ~30-40°C (I'm too lazy to check right now the readings).

 

I specifically bought this very GTX970 because size (my case is quite cramped) and because it was relatively quiet (in it's performance category) at the time according to reviews. This was very important, and I know a bit about quietness / noise, as is has always been a major factor for me. I also frequent at silentpcreview.

 

To me, it sounds like: 1) either your PC case airflow is really screwed up or 2) your GTX970 was faulty to begin with.

 

As for buying a reference card (with an aftermarket cooler) - well I doubt it was a secret to begin with. To me, it was quite clear (when I bought my card) what their (EVGAs) lineup consists of. AFAIK every manufacturer has a "basic" model with just the reference board and their own cooler (usually the cheapest one in their lineup). But considering I was not there, before you bought it and did your research, I can not be sure you were not "misled into" buying it.

 

I can not comment on the other stuff you say since I haven't been following the recent events at EVGA (or other 1080 family graphics card manufacturers). Also I do not overclock (unless you consider factory overclock overclocking).

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Nah. I find the phase thing a non issue. Doesn't matter how many phases the card has as long as its high quality. Most cards are advertised like this anyway.

 

I do wonder how you thought the SC was an overclocking card? 

i5 2400 | ASUS RTX 4090 TUF OC | Seasonic 1200W Prime Gold | WD Green 120gb | WD Blue 1tb | some ram | a random case

 

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21 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

 

-Marketing stunt with alleged 10-phase design on their 1080 FTW models as they use doublers and therefore the "quality" of the power being fed is the same as a 5-phase VRM design (mind you this only is a con for overclockers as it otherwise serves the purpose of spreading the heat over more components and making them easier to cool down)

 

did they really use doubblers? if so then you have no clue what you are talking about. sure 10 true phases is better but a 5 phase doubbleing settup is still good, there is nothing wrong with doubblers, you just run your voltage controller at doubble the speed and you are good. there are no real 10 phase voltage controllers so i dont blame them. i may be a fond hater of EVGAs coolers but what you are saying here is BS in some part atleast. they could have run two phases with doubble the mosfets in them but thats not using doubblers.

that video explains quite a bit about doubbleing schemes and stuff, if they did whats explained at 04:30 thats a dick move for sure but if they were using doubllers then there is nothing wrong here

 

 

i would give EVGA a solid 8/10, they make good stuff, have good waranty and a lot of people like there coolers(i sure dont).

I spent $2500 on building my PC and all i do with it is play no games atm & watch anime at 1080p(finally) watch YT and write essays...  nothing, it just sits there collecting dust...

Builds:

The Toaster Project! Northern Bee!

 

The original LAN PC build log! (Old, dead and replaced by The Toaster Project & 5.0)

Spoiler

"Here is some advice that might have gotten lost somewhere along the way in your life. 

 

#1. Treat others as you would like to be treated.

#2. It's best to keep your mouth shut; and appear to be stupid, rather than open it and remove all doubt.

#3. There is nothing "wrong" with being wrong. Learning from a mistake can be more valuable than not making one in the first place.

 

Follow these simple rules in life, and I promise you, things magically get easier. " - MageTank 31-10-2016

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

either your PC case airflow is really screwed up or 2) your GTX970 was faulty to begin with.

I tested this with the side panel off and then all my fans at full speed. The atter is made up of 3x 140mm fans as intakes at the front @1200rpm and the two radiator fans which are corsair SP120s at 2400 rpm each. The best results came from this setup as with the case panel off there was no directional airflow and therefore the gpu ran 1-2 C hotter. When I say the best results, I mean on average 0.6 C less with case fans going full speed.
Also, I have re-applied thermal paste many times so I don't think my card is faulty.

 

10 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

04G-P4-3975-KR

That's an SSC card with the ACX 2.0+ cooler. This cooler addressed the misalignment issues which shouldn't have been a thing to begin with, with a large plate contacting the 3 heatpipes and also covering the GPU core nicely so this comparison isn't even relevant since you do not have the same cooler as me. I have the 04G-P4-2974-KR card fyi

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10 minutes ago, Jorgen297 said:

EVGA generally is pretty good I think, but the VRM fiasco lowered their opinion, at least of the current series. I wouldn't really recommend for someone to get a EVGA FTW 1070 or 1080 because there's a chance it has bad VRMs, but apart from that I don't hold any grudges. So for me it's like 8/10 overall, but 2/10 for the 1070 and 1080 cards. 

I agree with that entirely. The VRM issue has been over dramatized quite a bit but a company having the exclusivity of Nvidia board should know better and have thought about it instead of a step up program costing 100 $

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Just for comparison, I'd like to give my experience with a different card manufacturer.

 

Namely ASUS. I have a Strix 970.

1400MHz on the core clock

7600MHz on the memory

 

I play at 1080p and always turn graphics up as high as they can go. I never hear this thing. The fans never really come on, and when they do they never get above 50% speed (if they even get near that).

 

Used to have an EVGA GTX 660 ftw, and it had nothing but problems. Some sort of issue with power. half of the time when I would turn my PC on, any and all video playback, and even with Windows 7 startup animation would be stuttering and ALL sound would be HORRIBLY staticy. Only fix was to restart the PC, often more than once, and hope that it went away.

 

RMA'd that board, they sent me a brand spanking new one, and I had the same problem. I contacted them again, and they told me the only way they were able to reproduce the issue was to have unstable voltages coming from the PSU to the board via the 6-pin cable. I'm not entirely sure if this is what caused it, as I have no way to test. I have a Seasonic 750w 80+ gold PSU, so I like to think it's at least half way decent. I have not experienced any of these problems with my GTX 970.

 

I would say their(EVGA) customer service is pretty good. The fact that they tested and tried to reproduce the issue is fairly nice. I'm definitely considering getting an EVGA 1080 for my next upgrade for this rig. Preferably with that new ICX cooler because I LOVE the aesthetics of their 10XX series cards.

Ketchup is better than mustard.

GUI is better than Command Line Interface.

Dubs are better than subs

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10 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

did they really use doubblers? if so then you have no clue what you are talking about

I would suggest you watch this video

 

then. I would not make unfounded claims about anything.

13 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

what you are saying here is BS in some part atleast

What is? I sent you a link to a video by buildzoid himself and we know he can be trusted with electrical component's analysis. He says it at 9:03

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5 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

Some sort of issue with power

Oh yeah I forgot to mention my card has average coil whine noise levels too. It might have been this but from your description I'm not so sure you had that same issue. It made me remember though, I got used to it :/

6 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

I would say their(EVGA) customer service is pretty good

I definitely agree. They don't care what happens to the card between you getting it and coming back to them as long as there's no physical damage to it and it comes back the way it left. You can LN2 cool it, put a waterblock or BIOS hack (which I've done since my warranty expired anyway) and they'd RMA it from what I've heard.

8 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

I never hear this thing

Yes I know you don't. What temperatures do you observe by the way? And my clocks are most of the time 1470-1480 MHz core @1.212V (after BIOS mod mind you) and 7700-7900 MHz memory

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1 minute ago, Dunkan77 said:

Oh yeah I forgot to mention my card has average coil whine noise levels too. It might have been this but from your description I'm not so sure you had that same issue. It made me remember though, I got used to it :/

I definitely agree. They don't care what happens to the card between you getting it and coming back to them as long as there's no physical damage to it and it comes back the way it left. You can LN2 cool it, put a waterblock or BIOS hack (which I've done since my warranty expired anyway) and they'd RMA it from what I've heard.

Yes I know you don't. What temperatures do you observe by the way? And my clocks are most of the time 1470-1480 MHz core @1.212V (after BIOS mod mind you) and 7700-7900 MHz memory

I honestly can't remember what temps I get, but I want to say 60 degrees C at most.

 

And my core clock is 1400 before the GPU boost adds 75, so around 1475 when under load.

 

I never had any coil whine with any card. At least not that I could hear. I do have an air 540 with every fan slot filled, and the front fans run at 100% all the time because they're hooked directly to the PSU. I know I'm not hearing the GTX 970 because if I take control of the fans manually, I can't hear a difference unless I max them out and then it sounds like a vacuum cleaner.

Ketchup is better than mustard.

GUI is better than Command Line Interface.

Dubs are better than subs

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5 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

I honestly can't remember what temps I get, but I want to say 60 degrees C at most.

Maybe you live somewhere the ambient temperature lower than mine. Here I would expect high 60s to low 70s and be happy (28-30C ambient here -_-). My friend who has an MSI 970 Gaming card gets mid 60s btw. 

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37 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

I tested this with the side panel off and then all my fans at full speed. The atter is made up of 3x 140mm fans as intakes at the front @1200rpm and the two radiator fans which are corsair SP120s at 2400 rpm each. The best results came from this setup as with the case panel off there was no directional airflow and therefore the gpu ran 1-2 C hotter. When I say the best results, I mean on average 0.6 C less with case fans going full speed.
Also, I have re-applied thermal paste many times so I don't think my card is faulty.

What do you mean by "Atter"? Well, in any case it is a bit difficult to get the whole picture of your PC case airflowsetup, but I might not blame your airflow after all. You didn't mention at which use case you get the 80°C; if that is at full load, it might be OK. But you didn't, and you mentioned performance problems -> this lead me into thinking your card might be thermal throttling.

 

You talk about radiator fans but mention no exhaust fans. Are you water cooling? If so, is the GTX 970 also water cooled? If not, where are your exhaust fans?

 

What are your graphics cards idle temperatures?

 

38 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

That's an SSC card with the ACX 2.0+ cooler. This cooler addressed the misalignment issues which shouldn't have been a thing to begin with, with a large plate contacting the 3 heatpipes and also covering the GPU core nicely so this comparison isn't even relevant since you do not have the same cooler as me. I have the 04G-P4-2974-KR card fyi

It is certainly possible they made a faulty product. In that case I would have returned it to the store (where I live, the manufacturers are liable for defective products by law - warranty has nothing to do with it). This is the first time I hear about this kind of design fault, however.

 

Considering all, in a decently working case airflow setup, I'd consider the card defective if it can not run at stock speed without thermal throttling. Is this the case in your setup?

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25 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

I would suggest you watch this video

 

then. I would not make unfounded claims about anything.

What is? I sent you a link to a video by buildzoid himself and we know he can be trusted with electrical component's analysis. He says it at 9:03

 

Video itself says the vrm is good. I don't see anything wrong with that. 

 

Banana's claim was that using doubblers are good. Why would it not be? 

 

 

i5 2400 | ASUS RTX 4090 TUF OC | Seasonic 1200W Prime Gold | WD Green 120gb | WD Blue 1tb | some ram | a random case

 

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3 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

What do you mean by "Atter"?

1: typo for "latter"

2: I removed the bit talking about my case and forgot to put it back in x) it wouldn't have made sense even correctly spelled. But yeah 3 intakes 140s and 2 exhaust 120s for the AIO h100i v2 on my cpu only. The card is still aircooled.

5 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

You didn't mention at which use case you get the 80°C

All the high temps I'm mentioning are for full gaming load in several games with no sync technology on so the GPU is pushing out as many frames as it can. I wouldn't need Vsync anyway because those games are the Witcher 3 which averages 47 FPS (absolutely everything maxed out) and Project cars which averages just under 60 FPS.

Idle temps with the fan stop mode would be whatever temperature the fans kick in but I have them at 15% (660 RPM) and when leaving my pc on for a while I have idles from 34-38C (depends on ambient).
I did contact them about this but they offered no support for this at all. The only support they'd offer in my case would be the pathetic move of 30$ reimbursement for that Ramgate issue 

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3 minutes ago, Pohernori said:

 

Video itself says the vrm is good. I don't see anything wrong with that. 

 

Banana's claim was that using doubblers are good. Why would it not be? 

 

 

I think some people have this EVGA hater in mind. I'm not picking on anyone nor praising anyone beyond what they deserve. I never said it's not a viable solution but rather a way to attract customers while the power delivery system is essentially a 5 phase design.

 

I'd like to point out I made a bit of a mistake to talk about 1080 VRM design since I'm not concerned by that but rather talk about this:

1 hour ago, Pohernori said:

I do wonder how you thought the SC was an overclocking card? 

Apart from the bonkers MSI Lightning, EVGA Classified and Kingpin or HOF cards, I would like you to tell me which card is branded as overclocking oriented.

I wasn't looking for an overclocking oriented card but simply better VRM design than reference:

1 hour ago, Dunkan77 said:

I went with an AIB for that same exact matter: better OC, cooler operation due to custom board design.

I never mentioned overclocking geared, but I an get where you come from but it's not that. Take MSI, Asus or even EVGA themselves: They all did true 6-phase deigns of this board. The thing that tipped me is the SC name and at the time I didn't know that VRM design was a thing impacting OC performance. 

 

Important thing to note: EVGA is the only company who does reference board + custom cooler on a 970 and branding it as gaming. I couldn't have told that this one specific gaming card was a reference board in disguise. Hence me saying the mislead me.

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11 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

I think some people have this EVGA hater in mind. I'm not picking on anyone nor praising anyone beyond what they deserve. I never said it's not a viable solution but rather a way to attract customers while the power delivery system is essentially a 5 phase design.

 

I'd like to point out I made a bit of a mistake to talk about 1080 VRM design since I'm not concerned by that but rather talk about this:

 

We don't have to think that you're hating Evga to be talking bad about them. But some of your points that you've raised are quite misinformed. And very much your mistake. Most vrm designs are like that. And its even better that they use doublers. Asus just smacks 2 mosfets on onto a single driver on their new formula without one.  

 

11 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

Apart from the bonkers MSI Lightning, EVGA Classified and Kingpin or HOF cards, I would like you to tell me which card is branded as overclocking oriented.

I wasn't looking for an overclocking oriented card but simply better VRM design than reference:

 

If you were looking at something with a better vrm design, why'd you pick an SC card? They're pretty well known for being on the lower end of evga cards. They're essentially just the reference cards with a better cooler for the 970. 

 

So you mention the top tier overclocking cards. Lets look at their vrm. 

 

The 980 Ti lightning advertises a 16 Phase vrm but the voltage controller they use is an IR3595 which only controls 8 Phases. How'd they get 16? Doublers. Its the same as with all of them. 

 

12 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

I never mentioned overclocking geared, but I an get where you come from but it's not that. Take MSI, Asus or even EVGA themselves: They all did true 6-phase deigns of this board. The thing that tipped me is the SC name and at the time I didn't know that VRM design was a thing impacting OC performance. 

 

Important thing to note: EVGA is the only company who does reference board + custom cooler on a 970 and branding it as gaming. I couldn't have told that this one specific gaming card was a reference board in disguise. Hence me saying the mislead me.

 

Wanting a voltage unlocked card means you're already looking at a card that's overclocking geared. 

Obviously you've made the wrong move by buying that particular SC since it uses a Richtek analog voltage controller(worse than reference). But nvidia themselves advertise the reference 970 as a gaming gpu. 

 

Quote

The GeForce® GTX 970 is a high-performance graphics card designed for serious gaming. Powered by new NVIDIA® Maxwell™ architecture, it features advanced technologies and class-leading graphics for incredible gaming experiences.

 

Msi, Asus, Evga or any manufacturer using the NCP81174 doesn't have a true 6 Phase card. That controller only goes up to 4 phases. How'd Msi(for example) get a 6 phases vcore for the Msi 970? Doubblers.

i5 2400 | ASUS RTX 4090 TUF OC | Seasonic 1200W Prime Gold | WD Green 120gb | WD Blue 1tb | some ram | a random case

 

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1 hour ago, Dunkan77 said:

Maybe you live somewhere the ambient temperature lower than mine. Here I would expect high 60s to low 70s and be happy (28-30C ambient here -_-). My friend who has an MSI 970 Gaming card gets mid 60s btw. 

Well, right now it's freezing or near freezing cold. During the summer it gets up to the middle 90's (F), winter it can go from freezing or somewhat below (almost down to 0 in F, remember water freezes at 32 degrees F) up to the 70's almost.

 

We usually keep the house AC set on 70 (F) during the summer. Although in my room it gets much hotter because of the three monitors and the PC itself.

 

I think the Strix 970 just runs cool overall.

Ketchup is better than mustard.

GUI is better than Command Line Interface.

Dubs are better than subs

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Alright then since this isn't going anywhere I'll just remove that VRM design point from the cons for EVGA.

I bought the SC card since I did not know that VRM design was a thing I said it before, this turned into a VRM quality thread... I wanted you guys' thoughts on what EVGA does good and bad and your verdict on 10
With that out of the way, what are your thoughts on the company?

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