Which GTX 970 should I buy?

[don_svetlio]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_970_STRIX_OC/29.html

 

How awful.

Heatpipes not making contact awful

[Godlygamer23]

Heatpipes not making contact awful

And how many units are like that?

[don_svetlio]

I disagree. I've worked with almost all the cards, and the ASUS STRIX line had the best temps to noise output + the build-quality is great. EVGAs current-gen GPUs are about 10 degrees higher than the STRIX.

You've not seen Sapphire or MSI then

Hmm, perhaps I will look more deeply into it. Thanks for the heads up! Which GTX 970 would you recommend then? (considering that the G1 Gaming is too large for my case).

Avoid Asus or Gigabyte as a whole - terrible customer support with mediocre to bad products - G1 Turbine is the noisiest card of all - EVGA, Zotac or MSI

[Constipated Crow]

I disagree. I've worked with almost all the cards, and the ASUS STRIX line had the best temps to noise output + the build-quality is great. EVGAs current-gen GPUs are about 10 degrees higher than the STRIX.

So out of all of the GTX 970s, would you personally recommend the Strix, or another card?

 

Cheers!

[don_svetlio]

And how many units are like that?

A few

[Constipated Crow]

You've not seen Sapphire or MSI then

Avoid Asus or Gigabyte as a whole - terrible customer support with mediocre to bad products - G1 Turbine is the noisiest card of all - EVGA, Zotac or MSI

Well, the fact that the G1 has 3 fans would probably explain the extra noise. They do have splendid cooling, considering the extra fan, and I personally don't mind noise, but the G1 is just too big for my mATX case.

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So out of all of the GTX 970s, would you personally recommend the Strix, or another card?

 

Cheers!

 

I would completely recommend the GTX 970 STRIX. We've had one unit go bad, but that was due to someone touching it while the system was running...

[don_svetlio]

Well, the fact that the G1 has 3 fans would probably explain the extra noise. They do have splendid cooling, considering the extra fan, and I personally don't mind noise, but the G1 is just too big for my mATX case.

Not the extra fan at fault - poor fan motors and bearings - EVGA use DBBs whereas G1 use Sleeves or single BBs. MSI is by far the quietest

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You've not seen Sapphire or MSI then

Avoid Asus or Gigabyte as a whole - terrible customer support with mediocre to bad products - G1 Turbine is the noisiest card of all - EVGA, Zotac or MSI

 

MSI is a great card too, but I prefer the STRIX. Sapphire it out of the question since we're talking about GTX 970s.

[Godlygamer23]

A few

3 out of 10,000? 10 out of 10,000? Do you have a ratio? Because I can argue that the sample size is too small to avoid their current cards.

[Constipated Crow]

I would completely recommend the GTX 970 STRIX. We've had one unit go bad, but that was due to someone touching it while the system was running...

Lastly, would you completely recommend the Strix over every single card, or do you think any other GTX 970 would be better, in your opinion?

 

Cheers!

[don_svetlio]

MSI is a great card too, but I prefer the STRIX. Sapphire it out of the question since we're talking about GTX 970s.

I'm just saying that Asus are iffy at best and dreadful at worst - EVGA, MSI, Zotac, Sapphire, XFX, PowerColor - all vastly superior

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I'm just saying that Asus are iffy at best and dreadful at worst - EVGA, MSI, Zotac, Sapphire, XFX, PowerColor - all vastly superior

 

Maybe in your experience, but I'd say EVGA is the worst for air cooling. Out of all the cards I've used, ASUS was by far the best all-around.

[Godlygamer23]

I'm just saying that Asus are iffy at best and dreadful at worst - EVGA, MSI, Zotac, Sapphire, XFX, PowerColor - all vastly superior

I'm not saying every ASUS product I've owned has been perfect. I had another 660 Ti from them where a capacitor blew, and my LE Plus motherboard kept having issues with the BIOS.

[don_svetlio]

Maybe in your experience, but I'd say EVGA is the worst for air cooling. Out of all the cards I've used, ASUS was by far the best all-around.

Yet they are more expensive for a reason - the glory days of Asus are over

I'm not saying every ASUS product I've owned has been perfect. I had another 660 Ti from them where a capacitor blew, and my LE Plus motherboard kept having issues with the BIOS.

Thing is - Asus don't have good customers support - getting them to help you is a literal nightmare in many a user's experience

[Godlygamer23]

Thing is - Asus don't have good customers support - getting them to help you is a literal nightmare in many a user's experience

And I agree with you. Their customer support sucks.

[don_svetlio]

And I agree with you. Their customer support sucks.

Exactly - hence why I forwent the RoG laptops when getting my Y50

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Lastly, would you completely recommend the Strix over every single card, or do you think any other GTX 970 would be better, in your opinion?

 

Cheers!

 

Either the ASUS STRIX, or MSI. I would go with whichever looks best in your build, but can completely recommend both. The STRIX does have two white LEDs at the top of it when given power, and I don't think you can disable that.

[App4that]

And I agree with you. Their customer support sucks.

That seems to be an industry standard from what I can tell though. I'm starting to think it's more important to not NEED to contact customer service, verses the experience of contacting them.

[Constipated Crow]

Either the ASUS STRIX, or MSI. I would go with whichever looks best in your build, but can completely recommend both. The STRIX does have two white LEDs at the top of it when given power, and I don't think you can disable that.

Okay, once again, cheers for all the help! ;D

[don_svetlio]

That seems to be an industry standard from what I can tell though. I'm starting to think it's more important to not NEED to contact customer service, verses the experience of contacting them.

Funnily enough Apple have the best customer support getting a almost perfect score. Lenovo deal well with RMAs or defects so that's fine with me - I don't need help with software