Best GTX 970 for my situation?

[Xtreme Gamer]

I am looking for a GTX 970 to get around christmas time this year and I needed a few suggestions. Please keep in mind that it needs to fit a cm storm trooper case and fit a master case pro 5 when system is moved to that case. It also needs to be decent with overclocking, and most importantly (with me at least), aside from being as cheap as possible, is that it needs t support 0db fan mode with NO bios tweaks. Thanks you ahead of time for the help!!!!

[Bazilias]

I shouldn't get the GTX 970 if i were you. Go for the R9 390 instead. It has more Vram and has better performance in games. You can see some benchmarsk vor yourself.

[Guest]

I am looking for a GTX 970 to get around christmas time this year and I needed a few suggestions. Please keep in mind that it needs to fit a cm storm trooper case and fit a master case pro 5 when system is moved to that case. It also needs to be decent with overclocking, and most importantly (with me at least), aside from being as cheap as possible, is that it needs t support 0db fan mode with NO bios tweaks. Thanks you ahead of time for the help!!!!

I would either get the MSI Gaming, the STRIX is also semi passive but it has poor VRM cooling from what i have heard.

[Xtreme Gamer]

I shouldn't get the GTX 970 if i were you. Go for the R9 390 instead. It has more Vram and has better performance in games. You can see some benchmarsk vor yourself.

 

Im not going AMD for the simple reasons that I cant stream (or easily stream) my pc games to my shield devices. and that I like Nvidia features better.

[Nacho Marco Segui]

If you want the 970,go for Msi if quietness is your main concern

[Xtreme Gamer]

I would either get the MSI Gaming, the STRIX is also semi passive but it has poor VRM cooling from what i have heard.

 

So you are between the MSI and Asus, but more for MSI?

[Xtreme Gamer]

If you want the 970,go for Msi if quietness is your main concern

 

Can you explain why msi is better for quiteness and overclocking and not the others?

[Guest]

So you are between the MSI and Asus, but more for MSI?

Yes MSI is slightly better

 

Can you explain why msi is better for quiteness and overclocking and not the others?

the Twin Frozr 5 cooler is quieter at full load than the STRIX cooler.

And its cooler

[Xtreme Gamer]

Yes MSI is slightly better

 

the Twin Frozr 5 cooler is quieter at full load than the STRIX cooler.

And its cooler

 

What about the gigabyte g1 gaming 970 reg and 970 extreme cards for silence and oc potential?

[Bazilias]

MSI edges out Asus by a tiny bit. It can draw more voltage than the Asus to give you a couple of extra frames. I'd say go for the MSI. Temperature and noise level are virtually identical between the two.

[Bazilias]

The G1 is a better performer but the MSI is quieter and cooler. MSI is mostly prefered because of this: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/14

[Xtreme Gamer]

The G1 is a better performer but the MSI is quieter and cooler. MSI is mostly prefered because of this: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/14

 

So gigabyte for performance but MSI for silence?

[Bazilias]

So gigabyte for performance but MSI for silence?

Yes.

[Nacho Marco Segui]

So gigabyte for performance but MSI for silence?

The msi one will perform like the g1 if they  are at the same clock speed.The boost of my g1 is 1405 mhz,while the msi one is on the 1300 range.Just overclock a bit and you will have the same performance,while being more silent

[Guest]

What about the gigabyte g1 gaming 970 reg and 970 extreme cards for silence and oc potential?

EVGA?

 

They make good cards that are also comparatively cheaper than other manufacturers.

Neither is semi passive but they are still great cards.

The Zotac Extreme Core is semi passive but its quite expensive

 

Also if you are getting either the Gigabyte G1 or the Zotac extreme core that you can actually fit it in your case as they are longer cards.

[Guest]

So gigabyte for performance but MSI for silence?

All the cards will perform more or less the same unless you manually overclock them and then stock clocks don't really matter anyways.

[Xtreme Gamer]

EVGA?

 

They make good cards that are also comparatively cheaper than other manufacturers.

 

I don't consider the EVGA 970 cards because of only 2 ut of the 3 heatpipes touching the gpu die.

[Xtreme Gamer]

All the cards will perform more or less the same unless you manually overclock them and then stock clocks don't really matter anyways.

 

But wouldn't cooler designs play a factor in how much the gpu can overclock?

[Guest]

I don't consider the EVGA 970 cards because of only 2 ut of the 3 heatpipes touching the gpu die.

That is now fixed, atleast on the SSC cards.

[Guest]

But wouldn't cooler designs play a factor in how much the gpu can overclock?

Yes but they are all pretty good.

 

What effect overclocking (very rough personal estimation other members will probably modify this to various extents).

~20% cooler design

~10% quality components

~70% luck

[SteveGrabowski0]

I don't consider the EVGA 970 cards because of only 2 ut of the 3 heatpipes touching the gpu die.

 

Those are the original round of EVGA 970s, and that's not a big deal anyways since the cooler is very overbuilt for the GPU. The problem is in the 4+2 phase power delivery which keeps a lot of ACX 2.0 cards from hitting 1500MHz, I have an SC ACX 2.0 and it'll only hit 1418 MHz. This is pretty standard for that card based on asking owners of it on the evga forums. They put out the ACX 2.0+ and SSC cards, and those have much better 6+2 phase power delivery, and the SSC owners can usually hit 1500 MHz or just below. They also make contact with all heatpipes, it's a completely different design. Nevertheless, the card you should look at is the Gigabyte G1 Gaming, that's generally considered the top overclocking 970 on the market. The 0db doesn't matter, if you're going to be overclocking then you're probably going to have MSI Afterburner starting up with your system, and you can just set your fan curve to turn the fans off below whatever temperature you want.