Nvidia Launches GTX 980 And GTX 970 "Maxwell" Graphics Cards ($549 & $329)

Didn't know AMD had something planed a week after the Nvidia event:

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Yeah.. I wanted the Asus card (because I've been very happy with my current 660 Ti from Asus), but when I saw it was not in stock until next week I started looking into the MSI card (which I ordered yesterday)

The conclusion (that I read..) from the two reviews I read was that the noise level was really good on both, and just about the same (I think the Asus card was ~0.5dB less than the MSI).

The difference was that the MSI card was a tiny bit faster, was a little bit cooler, but drew about 6-7 watts more during max load.

Here's one of the comparisons (there are more, but don't remember where)

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/562...ncl-ultra-hd-test-asus-vs-msi-geforce-gtx-970

Oh. Thanks for the link. They even mentioned what power connectors it uses. I guess that put MSI on my most wishlist GTX 970 followed by ASUS.

How good MSI warranty in Canada? Anyone?
 
MSI GTX 970 4GD5T OC, in stock this Tuesday on US Amazon. Going to cost me $226 after using my credits. Now I just need to decide on a 1440p monitor.
 
Any handy tips for OC'ng?

There's a good guide here: http://www.overclock.net/t/538439/guide-to-overclocking-the-core-i7-920-or-930-to-4-0ghz

Start off small to make sure your cooler can handle the OC, I usually increase by 100-200 MHz increments.

It is wise to enter in voltages manually in my experience, leaving the Vcore or DRAM voltage settings on auto could lead to the motherboard selecting a much higher voltage than is required. Worse case if the voltage you input is too low, the OC will fail and you'll just have to reset the BIOS. Much safer than the board selecting a voltage that's too high.
 
Any idea how much better it is compared to my old gtx670 2gb?

I am thinking 40-50% improvement?
Yep, it pretty much hits that sweet spot 50% improvement that I was basically waiting for. Upgrading from a 2GB 670 as well.

Why is everyone acting like the 7xx series is absolute garbage now? As if there is anything out right now that would put that through it's paces, let alone the 980/970 now.

I get that it's better...but what PC games are there that actually tax these things? Playing LoL at 2560x1440? Why wouldn't most people jump on the super cheap 770/780 train right now and take advantage of the price drop.

Star Citizen is the only PC game I know coming out that will require a pretty hefty computer to play well, and that's still at least 2 years off at this point.
Some of us want a bit more. Believe it or not, there are games other than LoL out there that somebody might want to play at 1440p(especially for those with a 1440p monitor....). Hell, I only have a 1080p monitor, but I'm moderately picky about aliasing so love me some dowsampling/SGSSAA where I can get it. Star Citizen is actually playable for many right now, not just in two years. Many people have VR headsets that need a good amount of power to run. Upcoming games like Ryse, AC Unity, FC4 and The Witcher 3(and more) may struggle to hit 60fps without a nice card. I'm trying to play Minecraft with extreme shaders(looks ridiculously good), but probably need something a bit more powerful to hit 60fps more reliably. I also love Skyrim and would enjoy being able to throw a ton of extra graphics mods at it to get it looking more amazing. Plenty of other older games that I could really give the treatment now as well.

I'm sure pretty much everybody has their reason. By all means take advantage of somewhat cheaper prices(or used) of 770/780's if that is gonna be a nice upgrade or starting point for you. Just keep in mind when buying that a 970 is going to be 25-30% faster than a 770 and about 10-15% faster than a 780, which may be harder to find at less-than-970 pricing. In a lot of cases, a 970 might well be worth the extra bit of cash it costs.

Just did a comparison to the Grid Autosport benchmark. http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/74853-evga-geforce-gtx-970-ftw/?page=7

My score with overclocked 970.
With the MSI, right?

Very nice.
 
7xx series isnt garbage, it's just I'm still within the refund period for my 770, so I might as well take advantage of that and get a 970.
 
What average overclocks are people getting on the 970? My MSI seems so quiet at load that there seems to be headroom available hat would be a waste not to use..
 
Why is everyone acting like the 7xx series is absolute garbage now? As if there is anything out right now that would put that through it's paces, let alone the 980/970 now.

I get that it's better...but what PC games are there that actually tax these things? Playing LoL at 2560x1440? Why wouldn't most people jump on the super cheap 770/780 train right now and take advantage of the price drop.


Star Citizen is the only PC game I know coming out that will require a pretty hefty computer to play well, and that's still at least 2 years off at this point.

Considering I game at 5760x1200, almost every game is taxing if I want to ramp up the visuals.
 
Yep, it pretty much hits that sweet spot 50% improvement that I was basically waiting for. Upgrading from a 2GB 670 as well.

Wowowow.. wait.
So the 970 is about 50% faster/stronger than a 670?
I'm still rocking a HD5870 which is about 50% weaker than a 670.

...

Does this mean a jump from HD5870 -> GTX970 would be double the performance?
 
Wowowow.. wait.
So the 970 is about 50% faster/stronger than a 670?
I'm still rocking a HD5870 which is about 50% weaker than a 670.

I don't think there are any reviews that compare the 970 to the 670, however Gigabyte's slightly-overclocked 970 is, on average, ~35% faster than the 680, so not-quite-50% faster than the 670 sounds about right.
 
If I am getting it right, MSI's Twin Frozr and Asus' Strix are both cool and silent 970s, while EVGA's FTW is a highly overclocked card that's almost on par with a reference 980, and not too loud to boot. Am I right? Would that FTW be a right choice for a future SLI?
I asked before about the "get a blower type of card if you are planning a SLI system", but as I've seen photos of SLI rigs with aftermarket coolers, I guess that it's not that much of a deal.
 
Wowowow.. wait.
So the 970 is about 50% faster/stronger than a 670?
I'm still rocking a HD5870 which is about 50% weaker than a 670.

...

Does this mean a jump from HD5870 -> GTX970 would be double the performance?
A 670 is actually double the power of a 5870. So a 5870 is 50% weaker, but you could also say that a 670 is 100% more powerful. Gotta be careful with how you word percentages.

A 970 is going to be like 300% faster than your 5870. At least.

I don't think there are any reviews that compare the 970 to the 670
There are a few out there.

You can also compare 3DMark scores and whatnot.
 
If I am getting it right, MSI's Twin Frozr and Asus' Strix are both cool and silent 970s, while EVGA's FTW is a highly overclocked card that's almost on par with a reference 980, and not too loud to boot. Am I right? Would that FTW be a right choice for a future SLI?
I asked before about the "get a blower type of card if you are planning a SLI system", but as I've seen photos of SLI rigs with aftermarket coolers, I guess that it's not that much of a deal.

If you have a high airflow case then 2 non-reference cards can be ok. If you haveva smaller case and/or your airflow isnt very good you can run into problems.
 
If you have a high airflow case then 2 non-reference cards can be ok. If you haveva smaller case and/or your airflow isnt very good you can run into problems.

I think that my neogaf approved Fractal Define R4 qualifies as a high airflow case XD. Thanks, you've helped me narrowing what to get!
 
My same dilemma.
Also, I still have a glorious i5 2500K@4.4 GHz and I'm concerned about bottlenecks.

This is also something which I'm wondering myself (also a 2500K owner). I wish there would've been some clearance on this subject, but it's all so "vague" to me. Anyone care to enlighten?
 
I think that my neogaf approved Fractal Define R4 qualifies as a high airflow case XD. Thanks, you've helped me narrowing what to get!

I've ran with the 570GTX twin frozer for 3 years, with a Define R3, and airflow was never a problem. Those cards ran so cool, even if their temperature went up because of a sli setting, it never became too high. I assume the 970 twin frozer performs just as well.
 
If I am getting it right, MSI's Twin Frozr and Asus' Strix are both cool and silent 970s, while EVGA's FTW is a highly overclocked card that's almost on par with a reference 980, and not too loud to boot. Am I right? Would that FTW be a right choice for a future SLI?
I asked before about the "get a blower type of card if you are planning a SLI system", but as I've seen photos of SLI rigs with aftermarket coolers, I guess that it's not that much of a deal.


The other two are overclocked too and have headroom to go further. They'll just be silent at idle as they switch the fans off below 50c
 
This is also something which I'm wondering myself (also a 2500K owner). I wish there would've been some clearance on this subject, but it's all so "vague" to me. Anyone care to enlighten?

Let's just say they put the answer to that question in the title of the Build a PC thread for a reason. :) It's been answered many times, so far there's no game that needs anything more, I finally overclocked my 2500K slightly to 4.2GHz and don't anticipate any problems. Also something always bottlenecks, if it's not the CPU it's the GPU.

Does this mean a jump from HD5870 -> GTX970 would be double the performance?

Going by this my 660 is 30 to 50% faster than your 5870 and the 970 is 100 to 150% faster than the 660 (some games a little less than that, very rough estimates).
 
Let's just say they put the answer to that question in the title of the Build a PC thread for a reason. :) It's been answered many times, so far there's no game that needs anything more, I finally overclocked my 2500K slightly to 4.2GHz and don't anticipate any problems. Also something always bottlenecks, if it's not the CPU it's the GPU.

Yeah but it's so hard to believe for me lol. How can a 5 year old CPU run a brand new high end GPU (like the 980) at full force and not comprimise anything? Computer magic and overclocking I guess. Still a fact that's hard for me to grasp. Happy with the reality though.
 
A 670 is actually double the power of a 5870. So a 5870 is 50% weaker, but you could also say that a 670 is 100% more powerful. Gotta be careful with how you word percentages.

A 970 is going to be like 300% faster than your 5870. At least.

I know I said it before, but this is the reason why I can't wait to order: I am still rocking a 5770 which is even slower than the 5870. :)
 
Yeah but it's so hard to believe for me lol. How can a 5 year old CPU run a brand new high end GPU (like the 980) at full force and not comprimise anything? Computer magic and overclocking I guess. Still a fact that's hard for me to grasp. Happy with the reality though.

Overclocking does a lot to help. Single GPU's haven't bottlnecked setups for a while. Sandy Bridge was such a massive upgrade in the CPU game that even 2500K's still can hold their own. The difference between SB and Haswell hasn't been a massive one in terms of raw performance, it was more about efficiency improvements.
 
Wowowow.. wait.
So the 970 is about 50% faster/stronger than a 670?
I'm still rocking a HD5870 which is about 50% weaker than a 670.

...

Does this mean a jump from HD5870 -> GTX970 would be double the performance?

Jump from 660Ti to 970 can double the performance. 5870 to 970 is probably tripple.
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