Which is better: EVGA GTX 970 or Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming?

[Constipated Crow]

As of now, yeah. At least as far as modern games go. Sometimes I play skyrim, mass effect, or cs:go a bit. Those aren't taxing. 

So, Skyrim and Mass Effect get 60fps with highest settings, or no?

[Constipated Crow]

There's going to be very little difference between the G1 and the EVGA... if anything the G1 will perform better with GPU Boost 2.0, because the 970 is better temperature-wise.

 

I have the G1 myself and get solid 60 FPS in all the games I play at high-ultra settings, even with a CPU bottleneck.

And is your CPU bottleneck as extreme as mine, or not? And what's the rest of your build like (if you don't mind me asking)?

[Constipated Crow]

Whwre did you hear the EVGA 970 was better? I heard the it was EVGA<MSI<Gigabyte for 970s. I own a 970 G1 gaming along with 4790k and 16 GB of ram. I max out Mafia 2, ARMA 3, Just Cause 2 and even Arkham Knight and get almost always 60 fps. I can get even higher on some of those but I use Vsync.

I researched graphics cards like crazy and the G1 gaming is the one you will want for the best overclocks because it can draw more power than EVGA's, gauntlet sorting and the Windforce cooler. Temps stay low and over clocking is fantastic! Up to stock 980 speeds!

Okay, and are those the only games you play? Because GTA 5, which I play, is obviously more taxing, so I don't know if I'm going to get 60fps even with medium settings. Also, is my CPU bottleneck a little too much, or will it be okay for now, until I upgrade it?

 

Cheers!

[Dabombinable]

So, Skyrim and Mass Effect get 60fps with highest settings, or no?

Skyrim with the loads of texture mods stayed at the 60fps limit for me with my GTX 970- and I was pushing 3GB of vRAM usage at 1080p (before people say anything, I can use over 1.5GB on my GTX 650ti OC 2GB at 1024x768, with the FPS staying above 70 on my 85Hz IPS LCD monitor-its a true CRT successor)

.

[Constipated Crow]

Yeah I get you I read the article and while what there saying about the PSU may be true it has no real world difference to be honest your not going to turn on your pc and think damn such and such is bothering me because you're never going to see or hear the effects because there only things that are going to annoy overly picky people and only because they know it's there not because they wouldn't even notice it if you put there system with a new label. But I'm not going to try and force you just buy what you're comfortable with.

 

And for your ram go with the identical 4 GB stick as you should match the size of RAM ideally the labels not so important as long as they operate at the same speed but should really go with same label for safe practice. You linked the 8GB version in both btw but I'll imagine it says 4GB instead of 8

Ah, then it appears that the 4gb stick doesn't have a URL. You can go onto the link I sent and click on: '4gb (1 x 4gb)', and that's what mine is at the moment. The reason as to why I was considering buying an 8gb stick was because if I wanted to upgrade to 16gb in the future, I wouldn't have to throw away two sticks ad buy two brand new ones, when I could only buy one. But I don't know if it would cause any problems like you say. Would it cause any problems, and what would you buy?

 

Cheers!

[Constipated Crow]

Get the Gigabyte G1. 

 

If someone told you to get more fps with a lower clockspeed he lied to you. The EVGA GTX970 comes with a little lower clockspeed then the Gigabyte Card.

Also the Gigabyte Card has a better cooler, potential higher powerlimit when it comes to OC. The Gigabyte Card is the better choice performance wise.

 

You can also use a Bios mod for Nospin fans when under a certain temperature.

There is no reason to favor the EVGA CARD. There are only reasons to favor EVGA as company because of there support. 

Okay, so I'm probably going to go for the G1 Gaming then, thanks for all your help! 

 

Cheers!

[Constipated Crow]

 

Skyrim with the loads of texture mods stayed at the 60fps limit for me with my GTX 970- and I was pushing 3GB of vRAM usage at 1080p (before people say anything, I can use over 1.5GB on my GTX 650ti OC 2GB at 1024x768, with the FPS staying above 70 on my 85Hz IPS LCD monitor-its a true CRT successor)

.

 

Okay, thank you for all the help on this post! Just one more question. Will my CPU bottleneck my new (probably Gigabyte G1 Gaming) GPU too much? Because I really care about performance and appearance, and I don't want any limiting factors in my PC. I am going to upgrade my CPU in the future (probably to the i7 3770 - non 'k' version, because my MOBO doesn't allow CPU OC), but I want to know if it will be okay until then.

 

Cheers!

[Dabombinable]

Okay, thank you for all the help on this post! Just one more question. Will my CPU bottleneck my new (probably Gigabyte G1 Gaming) GPU too much? Because I really care about performance and appearance, and I don't want any limiting factors in my PC. I am going to upgrade my CPU in the future (probably to the i7 3770 - non 'k' version, because my MOBO doesn't allow CPU OC), but I want to know if it will be okay until then.

 

Cheers!

I take it that you've got an i5 3*** or 2*** (I'm not that good with CPU between s1150 and LGA775)? If do you wont see any bottle necking. Maybe if it was a first gen i5, and even then it would be less than 15% if what I've seen of the performance of first gen Core i CPU vs my Xeon X5450 (around a 19-20% bottleneck).

[moderategamer]

Ah, then it appears that the 4gb stick doesn't have a URL. You can go onto the link I sent and click on: '4gb (1 x 4gb)', and that's what mine is at the moment. The reason as to why I was considering buying an 8gb stick was because if I wanted to upgrade to 16gb in the future, I wouldn't have to throw away two sticks ad buy two brand new ones, when I could only buy one. But I don't know if it would cause any problems like you say. Would it cause any problems, and what would you buy?

 

Cheers!

 

The main problem with miss matched capacity RAM is timing, RAM should really have the same timing but if you plan on upgrading in the near future to 16GB then there's nothing physically stopping you getting the 8GB stick it will work. Keep in mind you wont get 12 GB RAM out of this it will technically still be 8 as the lowest ram will always govern the performance of any higher RAM. The only reason I would miss match ram is if I knew I was going to upgrade the lower RAM as soon as I could if you don't plan on upgrading for the likes of a year get the 4 for continuity and just fork out the extra when the time comes if you plan on upgrading soonish then go for the 8. 

 

Hope that helps some

[Constipated Crow]

I take it that you've got an i5 3*** or 2*** (I'm not that good with CPU between s1150 and LGA775)? If do you wont see any bottle necking. Maybe if it was a first gen i5, and even then it would be less than 15% if what I've seen of the performance of first gen Core i CPU vs my Xeon X5450 (around a 19-20% bottleneck).

I don't have an i5 right now. This is my current CPU:

 

- Intel Core i3-3220 3300GHz 3MB Cache Socket LGA1155

 

It's an Ivy Bridge CP, and the i7 3770 I'm thinking about buying is also an Ivy Bridge CPU. Ivy Bridge are 3rd generation CPUs, and the sockets are 1155, not 1150. So would it bottleneck my GPU a lot, since it's an i3?

[Constipated Crow]

The main problem with miss matched capacity RAM is timing, RAM should really have the same timing but if you plan on upgrading in the near future to 16GB then there's nothing physically stopping you getting the 8GB stick it will work. Keep in mind you wont get 12 GB RAM out of this it will technically still be 8 as the lowest ram will always govern the performance of any higher RAM. The only reason I would miss match ram is if I knew I was going to upgrade the lower RAM as soon as I could if you don't plan on upgrading for the likes of a year get the 4 for continuity and just fork out the extra when the time comes if you plan on upgrading soonish then go for the 8. 

 

Hope that helps some

Ah, I wouldn't be upgrading it to 16 any time in the near future, so it would probably be best to just get a 4gb stick. Also, will my CPU bottleneck my new (probably Gigabyte G1 Gaming) GPU too much? Because I really care about performance and appearance, and I don't want any limiting factors in my PC. I am going to upgrade my CPU in the future (probably to the i7 3770 - non 'k' version, because my MOBO doesn't allow CPU OC), but I want to know if it will be okay until then.

 

Cheers!

[Dabombinable]

I don't have an i5 right now. This is my current CPU:

 

- Intel Core i3-3220 3300GHz 3MB Cache Socket LGA1155

 

It's an Ivy Bridge CP, and the i7 3770 I'm thinking about buying is also an Ivy Bridge CPU. Ivy Bridge are 3rd generation CPUs, and the sockets are 1155, not 1150. So would it bottleneck my GPU a lot, since it's an i3?

Ah, right. It will bottleneck by around 20% as its performance is very close to that of my Xeon-hyperthreading only takes dual cores so far. 

[moderategamer]

Ah, I wouldn't be upgrading it to 16 any time in the near future, so it would probably be best to just get a 4gb stick. Also, will my CPU bottleneck my new (probably Gigabyte G1 Gaming) GPU too much? Because I really care about performance and appearance, and I don't want any limiting factors in my PC. I am going to upgrade my CPU in the future (probably to the i7 3770 - non 'k' version, because my MOBO doesn't allow CPU OC), but I want to know if it will be okay until then.

 

Cheers!

 

Yeah there's definitely going to be a bit off a bottleneck as to how much you will notice it really just comes down to the games you're going to be playing. The likes of skyrim pre mods you're looking at 60fps whereas with some of the newer titles that rely on quad core you're going to take a hit. I would concentrate on saving for an i5 instead of the i7 as when it comes to gaming performance there is little to no difference and you'll be saving yourself a substantial amount of money.The i7 really comes in to play if you're looking to get really fast renders or using the likes of Photoshop. If I were you I would probably look at getting yourself a cheap LGA 1150 MOBO for like £30-40 so you can get a current i5 which would still leave you spending less than the price of an old i7. 

[Constipated Crow]

Ah, right. It will bottleneck by around 20% as its performance is very close to that of my Xeon-hyperthreading only takes dual cores so far. 

Okay, and would the 3770 (which I might buy) be sufficient processing power for the GTX 970 G1 Gaming?

 

Cheers!

[Constipated Crow]

Yeah there's definitely going to be a bit off a bottleneck as to how much you will notice it really just comes down to the games you're going to be playing. The likes of skyrim pre mods you're looking at 60fps whereas with some of the newer titles that rely on quad core you're going to take a hit. I would concentrate on saving for an i5 instead of the i7 as when it comes to gaming performance there is little to no difference and you'll be saving yourself a substantial amount of money.The i7 really comes in to play if you're looking to get really fast renders or using the likes of Photoshop. If I were you I would probably look at getting yourself a cheap LGA 1150 MOBO for like £30-40 so you can get a current i5 which would still leave you spending less than the price of an old i7. 

The thing is that if I buy a new motherboard, I'm going to have to reinstall everything (including the operating system), which I don't really want the hassle of having to do. However, I might consider the 3570 instead of the 3770. The 3570 is an i5 (still 3rd generation Ivy Bridge though), but I would be saving over £70. Would there be a substantial difference between both those CPUs? Also, why would Haswell be better than Ivy Bridge? What would be the advantages of upgrading my MOBO and getting a current gen CPU?

 

Cheers! 

[moderategamer]

It's been a while since I've done any reading on the subject and I do have a very poor memory but I think Haswell is supposed to be more efficient so you'd be getting more out of the processor. Most likely there wont be much in it though. The gaming performance between the two chips are almost identical no more than a single FPS difference between the two which can be put down to random variables in benchmarking. Here's a random YT vid I found benchmarking the two side by side...well benchmarking the i5 vs i7 not your model but the same principles apply I guess.

 

[vetali]

Gigabyte did cheap out themselves, just FYI. And they aren't exactly quiet.

EVGA had to go back and make a new FTW because they cheaped out. They were still trying to sell the back plate individually while other manufacturers were including them at the same price point lol. I haven't heard any reviewer saying that the G1 Gaming cut corners. Its a solid card. So is the EVGA, but if you get the FTW+. They are pretty quiet GPUs... not sure where you came up with that. 

 

So, Skyrim and Mass Effect get 60fps with highest settings, or no?

Unless you mod them, yeah... they aren't hard to run anymore.

 

 

The thing is that if I buy a new motherboard, I'm going to have to reinstall everything (including the operating system), which I don't really want the hassle of having to do. However, I might consider the 3570 instead of the 3770. The 3570 is an i5 (still 3rd generation Ivy Bridge though), but I would be saving over £70. Would there be a substantial difference between both those CPUs? Also, why would Haswell be better than Ivy Bridge? What would be the advantages of upgrading my MOBO and getting a current gen CPU?

 

Cheers! 

Unless you multitask or render the i7 isn't a justifiable expense over the i5 for gaming right now. A few years down the road might be different. By then an ivy bridge platform would start showing a bit of age anyway. 

[Aniallation]

And is your CPU bottleneck as extreme as mine, or not? And what's the rest of your build like (if you don't mind me asking)?

Around the same, worse in some games and not as bad in others.

 

Phenom II X6 1055T, 8GB RAM, 750GB hard drive, Antec Neo HE 550W

[Constipated Crow]

EVGA had to go back and make a new FTW because they cheaped out. They were still trying to sell the back plate individually while other manufacturers were including them at the same price point lol. I haven't heard any reviewer saying that the G1 Gaming cut corners. Its a solid card. So is the EVGA, but if you get the FTW+. They are pretty quiet GPUs... not sure where you came up with that. 

 

Unless you mod them, yeah... they aren't hard to run anymore.

 

 

Unless you multitask or render the i7 isn't a justifiable expense over the i5 for gaming right now. A few years down the road might be different. By then an ivy bridge platform would start showing a bit of age anyway. 

Okay, I'm actually thinking about upgrading my motherboard so that I can have a 4th generation Haswell CPU. I found out that the i5 4690 (4th generation) is actually better than the 3570 (3rd generation) that I was considering. AND, it's also cheaper where I am. I was quite surprised, because the 4690 runs faster, is a generation ahead, and is cheaper too, so that's a no brainer for me. Here are the links to both of the CPUs:

 

i5 4690: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-3-50GHz-Graphics-Technology-Socket/dp/B00K5J2252/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436027765&sr=8-1&keywords=4690

 

i5 3570: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-I5-3570-Processor-3-40GHZ-Socket/dp/B0083U94D8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436027798&sr=8-1&keywords=3570

 

I have also found out that the i7 version of the 4690 (the 4790) is exactly the same gaming performance-wise. The i7 4790 is £100 more expensive where I am, but would only be useful for video editing, streaming and rendering (which I don't do much of), so the 4690 is definitely one of the higher options for me. However, since the 4690 is a 4th generation Haswell CPU, I'm going to have to buy a new motherboard too. Could you give me some recommendations on which motherboards are good? (I don't really want to spend more than £40 ideally), and a micro ATX would fit into my case right? I'm pretty sure an ATX wouldn't fit, so I might have to go with a micro ATX.

 

NOTE: I just found this incredible deal on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-4690K-Processor-LGA1150-Socket/dp/B00KPRWB9G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1436028021&sr=8-2&keywords=4690

 

The 'K' version of the 4690 is only £10 more. It dropped from £300+ down to £178!!!! Yes, I might go for that instead of the non 'K' 4690. Should I? I'm going to buy the G1 Gaming GPU at Christmas, but I'm going to save up now for a new CPU to buy before Christmas.

 

Cheers!

[Constipated Crow]

Around the same, worse in some games and not as bad in others.

 

Phenom II X6 1055T, 8GB RAM, 750GB hard drive, Antec Neo HE 550W

Okay, thank you!

[vetali]

Okay, I'm actually thinking about upgrading my motherboard so that I can have a 4th generation Haswell CPU. I found out that the i5 4690 (4th generation) is actually better than the 3570 (3rd generation) that I was considering. AND, it's also cheaper where I am. I was quite surprised, because the 4690 runs faster, is a generation ahead, and is cheaper too, so that's a no brainer for me. Here are the links to both of the CPUs:

 

i5 4690: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-3-50GHz-Graphics-Technology-Socket/dp/B00K5J2252/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436027765&sr=8-1&keywords=4690

 

i5 3570: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-I5-3570-Processor-3-40GHZ-Socket/dp/B0083U94D8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436027798&sr=8-1&keywords=3570

 

I have also found out that the i7 version of the 4690 (the 4790) is exactly the same gaming performance-wise. The i7 4790 is £100 more expensive where I am, but would only be useful for video editing, streaming and rendering (which I don't do much of), so the 4690 is definitely one of the higher options for me. However, since the 4690 is a 4th generation Haswell CPU, I'm going to have to buy a new motherboard too. Could you give me some recommendations on which motherboards are good? (I don't really want to spend more than £40 ideally), and a micro ATX would fit into my case right? I'm pretty sure an ATX wouldn't fit, so I might have to go with a micro ATX.

 

NOTE: I just found this incredible deal on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-4690K-Processor-LGA1150-Socket/dp/B00KPRWB9G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1436028021&sr=8-2&keywords=4690

 

The 'K' version of the 4690 is only £10 more. It dropped from £300+ down to £178!!!! Yes, I might go for that instead of the non 'K' 4690. Should I? I'm going to buy the G1 Gaming GPU at Christmas, but I'm going to save up now for a new CPU to buy before Christmas.

 

Cheers!

I don't think you will find a decent mobo that cheap that can make use of the overclocking of a K CPU unless you go second hand. 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-Z97P-D3-LGA1150-Motherboard-USB3-0/dp/B00K9R1OCW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1436028925&sr=1-1

 

Cheapest mobo I could find that would be worth anything. 

[Constipated Crow]

I don't think you will find a decent mobo that cheap that can make use of the overclocking of a K CPU unless you go second hand. 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-Z97P-D3-LGA1150-Motherboard-USB3-0/dp/B00K9R1OCW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1436028925&sr=1-1

 

Cheapest mobo I could find that would be worth anything. 

So do you think I should upgrade my motherboard to get the 4690 (or 4690k), or should I stay with my current MOBO, and just upgrade my CPU to a 3570?

 

Cheers!

[RyGuy99]

Okay, and are those the only games you play? Because GTA 5, which I play, is obviously more taxing, so I don't know if I'm going to get 60fps even with medium settings. Also, is my CPU bottleneck a little too much, or will it be okay for now, until I upgrade it?

Cheers!

All of the games I listed, I listed because they are pretty taxing. Especially ARMA 3 I would say can be more taxing than GTA V at times. Arkham Knight being a good example because it is so horribly optimized. I play more games but they aren't quite as taxing. I bought the Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light Redux editions but I haven't tried how those run yet.

[RyGuy99]

Gigabyte did cheap out themselves, just FYI. And they aren't exactly quiet.

The 970 G1 gaming I have in a Corsair 450D is near silent for me.

[vetali]

So do you think I should upgrade my motherboard to get the 4690 (or 4690k), or should I stay with my current MOBO, and just upgrade my CPU to a 3570?

 

Cheers!

Stay on your current mobo and upgrade your CPU to the ivy bridge until you can afford a better mobo. Ivy is still a good platform, and will be for a few years.