Jump to content

Best GTX 970 brand?

Guest niciuffo

Watch the beginning of this live stream.  You will see that EVGA is shipping ACX 2.0 with a different cooler setup and it does not have the issues everyone keeps talking about. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlHyeeICYA#t=48

7900X, Asus X670-E ROG Strix , 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 6000, 2 x Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB NVME, Samsung 980 Pro 1TB NVME,  EVGA RTX3080TI FTW3

EVGA Supernova P2 1000 PSU w/ CableMod, Asus Xonar DSX, Lian Li Galahad 360, Hyte Y60, Corsair K70, EVGA Torq X10, (1) Alienware AW3418DW Ultrawide, (1) Acer Predator XB271HU 1440P, Logitech G535

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Those EVGA ACX 970 cards have loud coolers. At leased the cooler on the FTW edition is not defective like the other 970s from EVGA.

The other coolers are not defective. 

My Systems:

Main - Work + Gaming:

Spoiler

Woodland Raven: Ryzen 2700X // AMD Wraith RGB // Asus Prime X570-P // G.Skill 2x 8GB 3600MHz DDR4 // Radeon RX Vega 56 // Crucial P1 NVMe 1TB M.2 SSD // Deepcool DQ650-M // chassis build in progress // Windows 10 // Thrustmaster TMX + G27 pedals & shifter

F@H Rig:

Spoiler

FX-8350 // Deepcool Neptwin // MSI 970 Gaming // AData 2x 4GB 1600 DDR3 // 2x Gigabyte RX-570 4G's // Samsung 840 120GB SSD // Cooler Master V650 // Windows 10

 

HTPC:

Spoiler

SNES PC (HTPC): i3-4150 @3.5 // Gigabyte GA-H87N-Wifi // G.Skill 2x 4GB DDR3 1600 // Asus Dual GTX 1050Ti 4GB OC // AData SP600 128GB SSD // Pico 160XT PSU // Custom SNES Enclosure // 55" LG LED 1080p TV  // Logitech wireless touchpad-keyboard // Windows 10 // Build Log

Laptops:

Spoiler

MY DAILY: Lenovo ThinkPad T410 // 14" 1440x900 // i5-540M 2.5GHz Dual-Core HT // Intel HD iGPU + Quadro NVS 3100M 512MB dGPU // 2x4GB DDR3L 1066 // Mushkin Triactor 480GB SSD // Windows 10

 

WIFE'S: Dell Latitude E5450 // 14" 1366x768 // i5-5300U 2.3GHz Dual-Core HT // Intel HD5500 // 2x4GB RAM DDR3L 1600 // 500GB 7200 HDD // Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon

 

EXPERIMENTAL: Pinebook // 11.6" 1080p // Manjaro KDE (ARM)

NAS:

Spoiler

Home NAS: Pentium G4400 @3.3 // Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 // 2x 4GB DDR4 2400 // Intel HD Graphics // Kingston A400 120GB SSD // 3x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200 HDDs in RAID-Z // Cooler Master Silent Pro M 1000w PSU // Antec Performance Plus 1080AMG // FreeNAS OS

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was in the situation as you are in right now and after looking everywhere and checking all the benchmarks and all my recent history with VGA cards I decided to get the MSI gaming 4g
According to almost all benchmarks it is the quietest and most overclockable card out there along with the Gigabyte G1
But it's smaller neater for SLI configuration
Best cooling with Asus and gigabyte again but with passive cooling only with asus
So in the end I had to decide between 3 brands
EVGA MSI and Gigabyte since I didn't like the low overclock headroom in asus
EVGA because every card I got that was EVGA was great but according to all benchmarks it overclocks like both MSI and the G1 but it works hotter and with much more noise and I have to say it doesn't look that good not normal EVGA standards that I used to expect
Gigabyte I always had bad experiences with them and apparently it wasn't just me since a lot of people had many troubles with there fans dying in the 700 series and the R9 series I don't know if it's fixed yet but I won't take the chance
MSI like the 2 of them overclocks as good runs a little bit hotter (1 to 2 degrees) than the G1 but runs quitter and I trust there materials way more than Gigabyte not to mention it's much smaller and looks way better and with the same overclock results as gigabyte
So those are my thoughts on the matter and well it's up to you I just hope that I helped in some way

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was in the situation as you are in right now and after looking everywhere and checking all the benchmarks and all my recent history with VGA cards I decided to get the MSI gaming 4g

According to almost all benchmarks it is the quietest and most overclockable card out there along with the Gigabyte G1

But it's smaller neater for SLI configuration

Best cooling with Asus and gigabyte again but with passive cooling only with asus

So in the end I had to decide between 3 brands

EVGA MSI and Gigabyte since I didn't like the low overclock headroom in asus

EVGA because every card I got that was EVGA was great but according to all benchmarks it overclocks like both MSI and the G1 but it works hotter and with much more noise and I have to say it doesn't look that good not normal EVGA standards that I used to expect

Gigabyte I always had bad experiences with them and apparently it wasn't just me since a lot of people had many troubles with there fans dying in the 700 series and the R9 series I don't know if it's fixed yet but I won't take the chance

MSI like the 2 of them overclocks as good runs a little bit hotter (1 to 2 degrees) than the G1 but runs quitter and I trust there materials way more than Gigabyte not to mention it's much smaller and looks way better and with the same overclock results as gigabyte

So those are my thoughts on the matter and well it's up to you I just hope that I helped in some way

I would be interested to see those benchmarks in which the Gigabyte is louder than the MSI. According to Guru3D (only site I found with most GTX 970s reviewed), the MSI one is 1dB quieter ad idle (and it has the fan-stop technology, so I guess it's theoretically 0dB), but the load noise is the exact same at 39dB. And it runs hotter at 68°C vs 60°C, which is a massive difference for no more noise according to their benchmarks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Woops I wrote these wrongly sorry I didn't mean to write quitter than then gigabyte as they are all the same in dB along with Asus
I do see that in all benchmarks it's always between gigabyte and MSI as the best overclockers but like I said all my past experiences with Gigabyte were bad not to mention other people who talked about fans dying in the previous series as for MSI , EVGA , Asus I always had good time with them mostly EVGA since most my cards were EVGA
But I did buy both Gigabyte MSI and ASUS cards in the past for myself and for friends
Gigabyte I got in the 700 series and the fan died not long after the purchase thankfully I was able to return it and get EVGA but like I said MSI convinced me with there last card the most even if it is a little hotter because of the less fan and smaller space it takes I will take there materials over Gigabytes any time of the day and if it weren't for ASUS small overclocking headroom I would have gone with ASUS
Normal choices for me
1.EVGA
2.ASUS
3.MSI
So yeah MSI is never my top choice but this time it is as they did one really good card

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Woops I wrote these wrongly sorry I didn't mean to write quitter than the gigabyte as they are all the same in dB along with Asus
I do see that in all benchmarks it's always between gigabyte and MSI as the best overclockers but like I said all my past experiences with Gigabyte were bad not to mention other people who talked about fans dying in the previous series as for MSI , EVGA , Asus I always had good time with them mostly EVGA since most my cards were EVGA
But I did buy both Gigabyte MSI and ASUS cards in the past for myself and for friends
Gigabyte I got in the 700 series and the fan died not long after the purchase thankfully I was able to return it and get EVGA but like I said MSI convinced me with there last card the most even if it is a little hotter because of the less fan and smaller space it takes I will take there materials over Gigabytes any time of the day and if it weren't for ASUS small overclocking headroom I would have gone with ASUS
Normal choices for me
1.EVGA
2.ASUS
3.MSI
So yeah MSI is never my top choice but this time it is as they did one really good card

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

And yeah Gigabyte were the best cooling in the latest series as well but ask people who got them and they will all tell you about the fans dying not long after getting them and that for me is a big thing not to mention it is the biggest card by far
How can I delete a post I posted twice by accident

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

And yeah Gigabyte were the best cooling in the latest series as well but ask people who got them and they will all tell you about the fans dying not long after getting them and that for me is a big thing not to mention it is the biggest card by far

How can I delete a post I posted twice by accident

I think you are grossly unquantified in you saying that Gigabyte coolers are defective. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125462&cm_re=Gigabyte_770-_-14-125-462-_-Product

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I said that my experience with there fans were bad when more than one fan in the last series and with the amd r9 went dead and that's not just me
Gigabyte might give the best results in theory and they might work great for a while but they always had trouble in long time use and that's not opinion and you can search what other people said about the 700 series fans
I do hope they fixed there fan troubles whatever that was causing it before
But so far no one tried it long enough to give you results that are long term based and as such
I am talking about myself I won't risk it but when it comes to benchmarks there is denying that G1 is the best followed closely by MSI and then the others

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Btw in the reviews you will see that the first review about the card talked about it dying after 2 months
Another after a week
Another after 4 months
like I said not just me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Gigabyte ~> best out of the box - in every aspect IMO.

EVGA      ~> best customer service - throw your board on the ground and they'll give you a brand new.

 

I would only choose between these two, can't find enough reason to even think about ASUS, MSI or any other 970 non-reference card as of right now.

 

Just as a side note, if you are planning on doing 2-way SLI, if the cards are going to be really close to each other, almost touching, the reference cooler would be a better option. If you can move air quickly enough on the GPU area of your mobo/case, non-reference is fine.

 

EDIT: 

@Dracula872100

 

Me and a couple of friends bought 700 series Gigabyte Windforce (July 2013) boards and none of us have had any problems yet. Problems seemed to be common in the 700 series but I believe they fixed it. I also must say that their customer service isn't the best, based on what people that had issues stated.

 

Anyway, I think it's worth the risk of getting Gigabyte and having to deal with problems and bad (?) customer service for the best overall performance amongst 970s so far. I took my chances and have had no problems in over a year of moderate (45h per week) usage inside an old, dusty, bad airflow case at a dusty apartment on a hot part of the globe - it never reaches 75ºC.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790k | CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 | Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z97 MARK 1 | Memory: Kingston HyperX FURY 16GB 1866MHz | GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Windforce


Storage: Samsung 840 EVO | PSU: CM Silent Pro 720W | Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe | Headset: Corsair Vengeance 2100 | Keyboard: Logitech G710+ | Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Chroma


"You see, one can only be angry with those he respects." - R. Nixon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Gigabyte ~> best out of the box - in every aspect IMO.

EVGA      ~> best customer service - throw your board on the ground and they'll give you a brand new.

 

I would only choose between these two, can't find enough reason to even think about ASUS, MSI or any other 970 non-reference card as of right now.

 

Just as a side note, if you are planning on doing 2-way SLI, if the cards are going to be really close to each other, almost touching, the reference cooler would be a better option. If you can move air quickly enough on the GPU area of your mobo/case, non-reference is fine.

 

EDIT: 

@Dracula872100

 

Me and a couple of friends bought 700 series Gigabyte Windforce (July 2013) boards and none of us have had any problems yet. Problems seemed to be common in the 700 series but I believe they fixed it. I also must say that their customer service isn't the best, based on what people that had issues stated.

 

Anyway, I think it's worth the risk of getting Gigabyte and having to deal with problems and bad (?) customer service for the best overall performance amongst 970s so far. I took my chances and have had no problems in over a year of moderate (45h per week) usage inside an old, dusty, bad airflow case at a dusty apartment on a hot part of the globe - it never reaches 75ºC.

I have a Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced with a Noctua 120mm as back exhaust fan, I don't think I'll run into cooling issues in this massive case. Are the cards really going to be that close to each other? I made the mistake to buy a second GTX 680 in the past (ASUS triple slot design), and those where basically touching each other, there was less than 2mm of clearance between them, I doubt it's going to be that bad with the Gigabyte's since they are not 3-slot coolers, and they produce much less heat than 2x680.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

OK
First off let me talk about your statement There is no doubt in my mind that EVGA is the best customer service and that's why I normally go with them
Gigabyte customer service sux and I am glad you agree about that
As for the rest MSI and Gigabyte are neck a neck in the overclocking department and that unlike in the 700 series gives you options
Yes MSI might be a couple of degrees hotter but it still at max overclock you can reach without over voltage well under 70 degrees
So yeah I agree that Giga is overclocked more at stock but they both have the same max at all review and benchmarks
MSI not the best in customer service but there customer service isn't bad (slower than EVGA ) (Way faster and better than GIGA)
So that's why I decided to go with MSI and not Gigabyte since I can overclock them both the same at the cost of a few degrees but I will have much better customer service and in my opinion much better materials and a smaller card

Edit:
As for the space you will have trouble with the SLI space with Gigabyte most of all
And if you are going for SLI I would go with a smaller card and since you won't overclock that much in SLI go reference Asus MSI or of course EVGA
And of course in the end it's up to you what you want to get I am just trying to help

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have a Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced with a Noctua 120mm as back exhaust fan, I don't think I'll run into cooling issues in this massive case. Are the cards really going to be that close to each other? I made the mistake to buy a second GTX 680 in the past (ASUS triple slot design), and those where basically touching each other, there was less than 2mm of clearance between them, I doubt it's going to be that bad with the Gigabyte's since they are not 3-slot coolers, and they produce much less heat than 2x680.

 

I believe the distance between cards depends on the motherboard, not on the case. I have never tried SLI/CF but I guess that's what makes more sense.

 

As I said, if you have enough fresh air being moved to that area, you won't have any problems even if they are close to each other. If you don't, then it might be a problem. And yeah, the Windforce cooler doesn't look that thick! If you post your motherboard, someone with more knowledge might give you some insight about it!

 

 

As for the rest MSI and Gigabyte are neck a neck in the overclocking department and that unlike in the 700 series gives you options

Yes MSI might be a couple of degrees hotter but it still at max overclock you can reach without over voltage well under 70 degrees

So yeah I agree that Giga is overclocked more at stock but they both have the same max at all review and benchmarks

MSI not the best in customer service but there customer service isn't bad (slower than EVGA ) (Way faster and better than GIGA)

So that's why I decided to go with MSI and not Gigabyte since I can overclock them both the same at the cost of a few degrees but I will have much better customer service and in my opinion much better materials and a smaller card

 

As I've never messed around with GPU overclocks, I have a good experience with Gigabyte video cards (I bought a Gigabyte laptop once, RMA'd 2 and finally gave up and got a Dell one. However, didn't have any problems with the RMA), they are quiet and I love how they look, I'm always telling people how much better Gigabyte is in the 970 race.

If EVGA had a good looking, quiet, cool and with a nice factory OC, I would be definitely telling people that it was the best option.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790k | CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 | Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z97 MARK 1 | Memory: Kingston HyperX FURY 16GB 1866MHz | GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Windforce


Storage: Samsung 840 EVO | PSU: CM Silent Pro 720W | Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe | Headset: Corsair Vengeance 2100 | Keyboard: Logitech G710+ | Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Chroma


"You see, one can only be angry with those he respects." - R. Nixon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I said MSI and gigabyte are the same when max overclocked with both reaching wonderful 1500~ MHz without any extra voltage 
And you can look at all benchmarks since I was looking everyday ever since release date and if you talk about factory OC then EVGA FTW is the highest but sadly a little to no headroom above the factory OC and it's less than both Giga and MSI max
So if you think Gigabyte is better for you I really do hope they fixed there issues they do have wonderful benchmarks
But I am sticking to my choice as it stands I am not waiting 6 months or a year to see if Giga fixed it and with no major advantages in buying it I still think MSI is the better option as it is much more reliable with same OC max and that is what's more important especially that both of them is well under 70 D at max and MSI have 0 fan (That I find cool for me since I never shut down my pc ) :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks to all of you for the replies! In the end I ordered 2x Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming, since a website had a 12% sale on all their items. I managed to get them for 707 CHF, which is roughly $737 ($369 per card, which is dirt cheap here in Switzerland atm).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I hope they fixed there old issues and I am sure they will give you great performance

Have fun with the new cards :D
And keep us updated if you can :D

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×