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

Like, seriously. Is Newegg going to ship my card to me on Friday whether I pay $1.99 for the cheapest delivery, or $25.16 for the one day delivery?
 
Not sure if you've played around with 4-way before, but it's a nightmare almost always. Great for benchmarking, not so much for playing games.

It's like sex. With a single partner, you can just go with things naturally. With two, it's pretty rad and a special thing, but starts to get a little complicated. With three, you're able to do things you couldn't imagine otherwise, but you have to put thought into it. With four, you just get overwhelmed.

I'm not going to keep them very long because im jumping to big maxwell as soon as it drops, had a good experience with 3x titans so im playing with 4 of these just to see if quad is as fucked up as i hear. Had only a little time with them before work but the top card is idling at 70c and throttling in games, waiting on water blocks before I do serious benching.
 
Like, seriously. Is Newegg going to ship my card to me on Friday whether I pay $1.99 for the cheapest delivery, or $25.16 for the one day delivery?

Depends on what warehouse it comes from. If there is one close then you can take a chance with the cheaper shipping.

If you REALLY, REALLY want it.... next day it.
 
Honestly for all the talk about EVGA "screwing up" their 970s, they still have the highest factory overclock and the temps are more than fine.

The ONLY reason I don't want one is the potential for coil whine. That type of stuff bothers me and I'd want to avoid it if possible. However, a lot of people who have EVGA in this thread are reporting no coil whine so take it as you will.
I can live with noise and high temperatures as I'm pretty sure my EVGA 560Ti was quite guilty of both (also, what does "coil whine" sound like? is it different than the regular noise that you get under load?).

I'm just concerned about any possible issues with the hardware itself causing it to depreciate more rapidly (quite shocking to be talking about EVGA like that).
 
Quick msi, or gygabyte g1 970?

I like it quiet

You won't be disappointed with either. MSI is dead silent even under load, gets a little hotter than Gigabyte with automatic fan curve at least. Easy to adjust yourself though, even 80% fan speed is still really quiet compared to most cards I've heard.
 
Wow. MSI Gaming 970 arrived in my country, and its ~340€. Very surprising pricing, usually sellers jack the price the fuck up, especially Nvidia. This is now even cheaper than R9 290!
 
Finally I've installed my 970 Twin FROZR.
Very first impressions: HOLY. SHIT.

With the 670 in this map of TItanfall [or the damned Lagoon] I always suffered of severe stuttering, with texture on High. Now, texture on Insane:
http://i.imgur.com/tRWrmg2.jpg

Before shutting down the PC with the old card, I briefly load up Metro Redux. My last save was in this very corridor, where I had about 55 FPS. Now....
http://i.imgur.com/mIXG6Me.jpg

And everything runs with a peach-smooth feeling.
HOLY.SHIT.

Time to go after some serious tests!
 
Got the card, panicked when it wasn't detected. Powered up fine though. Tried my old card and wasn't working too. Forgot my Z77 extreme 4 MOBO for some reason does not like me switching GPUs without a BIOS reset, which I had to do for the previous card too, and I think I spent the same amount of time panicking over it.

Probably time to write that down. Now to find the software that'll let me disable the distracting Windforce LED.
 
Just installed the EVGA GTX 970 ACX 1.0 in my rig. At the desktop it's not very noisy, about the same as my previous card (EVGA GTX 750ti), but once I start up a game it has audible coil whine and noise. Kinda regret not spending the extra $30 and picking up Gigabyte's release.
 
Just installed the EVGA GTX 970 ACX 1.0 in my rig. At the desktop it's not very noisy, about the same as my previous card (EVGA GTX 750ti), but once I start up a game it has audible coil whine and noise. Kinda regret not spending the extra $30 and picking up Gigabyte's release.
*sigh* that's what I was afraid of, and I'm pretty sure I've got that model too (at least with the ACX 2.0 you might have a chance to avoid this). Gonna suck if I return it then I probably have to eat the restocking fee in addition to shipping and then the additional costs of a new model...

...oh well, no more EVGA loyalty that's for sure.
 
Aw yiss:

imag1781qau99.jpg
 
After returning the 670 asus when it first came out due to defect and skipping out on 700 series, i finally ordered the msi 970 gtx. It was either that or gigabyte. So which card is actually cooler under heavy stress, gigabyte?
 
I have one. It's dead quiet and it runs very fast.

Also, the build quality of this card is amazing.

But wouldnt the MSI be even more dead quiet since its fans actually completely shut off? No fan has to be quieter than three fans.

After returning the 670 asus when it first came out due to defect and skipping out on 700 series, i finally ordered the msi 970 gtx. It was either that or gigabyte. So which card is actually cooler under heavy stress, gigabyte?

Under stress the GB is about 10c cooler than the MSI. 70c vs 60c.
However the MSI is semi-passive and will actually completely shut off the fans when operating under a certain safe temperature.
 
I never expected to say this, but with these super high frame rates (100+) I am starting to become a fan of V-Sync off in fps games. Just feels better and the tearing is much reduced compared to lower frame rates.

680 > 970 worth it?

Maybe, depends on your expectations. Go SLI if you want a real leap.
 
Why do you guys feel that way?
Because there's almost no difference between them, and I've had a lot of great interactions with GB's customer service. Plus it looks better. :P
Just installed the EVGA GTX 970 ACX 1.0 in my rig. At the desktop it's not very noisy, about the same as my previous card (EVGA GTX 750ti), but once I start up a game it has audible coil whine and noise. Kinda regret not spending the extra $30 and picking up Gigabyte's release.
Adjust the voltage slightly. Coil whine should go away.
 
But wouldnt the MSI be even more dead quiet since its fans actually completely shut off? No fan has to be quieter than three fans.



Under stress the GB is about 10c cooler than the MSI. 70c vs 60c.
However the MSI is semi-passive and will actually completely shut off the fans when operating under a certain safe temperature.

I'm coming from a card that had a blower style cooler on it and when the temps on that hit 60-60c it sounded like my PC was going to take off. :)

I have a very open case(HAF 932) and even with 3 fans spinning I cannot hear it. When the load and temps hit 60c and I haven't seen the card go over that yet it's still quiet. I can't hear it over my case fans(230mm). The tower is about 5ft from me.

I personally wouldn't want a card that shut off it's fans to save power/noise. I'd get all paranoid that the card is failing or something.
 
*sigh* that's what I was afraid of, and I'm pretty sure I've got that model too (at least with the ACX 2.0 you might have a chance to avoid this). Gonna suck if I return it then I probably have to eat the restocking fee in addition to shipping and then the additional costs of a new model...

...oh well, no more EVGA loyalty that's for sure.

I turned on the 'Quiet' fan profile and it's a little bit better. Still hear the coil whine though when running benchmarks at high load

Adjust the voltage slightly. Coil whine should go away.

Will do, thanks for the tip
 
I'm coming from a card that had a blower style cooler on it and when the temps on that hit 60-60c it sounded like my PC was going to take off. :)

I have a very open case(HAF 932) and even with 3 fans spinning I cannot hear it. When the load and temps hit 60c and I haven't seen the card go over that yet it's still quiet. I can't hear it over my case fans(230mm). The tower is about 5ft from me.

I personally wouldn't want a card that shut off it's fans to save power/noise. I'd get all paranoid that the card is failing or something.

I'm just sort of playing devil's advocate since I've got a GB 970 on order with Amazon (but no stock yet so I still have time to change my mind).

Do gigabyte's fans have a history of becoming noisier or not working after a couple of years? A lot of room to go wrong with three fans. Meanwhile MSI will actually use its fans a lot less frequently. And my PC is only a couple feet from my face so I will be more sensitive to noise.

Is there really any danger from turning off the fans completely on the MSI or is that pure paranoia?
 
Got the EVGA SC ACX 1.0, and I'm not hearing any of the coil whine or noise that people have been complaining about. Noise is similar to my 750 ti. That is, I can't really hear anything significant. Dead Rising 3 runs almost like a champ at 1080p. Drops on occasion, but never below 50. Temps seem normal, about 50c on near-load. Very impressed. Crysis 1 is still dropping as low as 45 in super high vegetation areas. That's an exception though. Witcher 2 with ubersampling averages about 75 fps. Thief benchmark never drops below 75 fps. Confident that the card will last me the generation. Best purchase I've made all year with the EVGA warranty. Note that these are all at 1440x900. My 1080p monitor won't be hooked up until next week!
 
I turned on the 'Quiet' fan profile and it's a little bit better. Still hear the coil whine though when running benchmarks at high load
Adjust the voltage.

What you're hearing might not be coil whine though. Every card makes noise when it's under full load. The reason why this seems more annoying now, is because cards as so quiet now that you can actually hear that stuff over the fan noise. That was not the case until the whole non-reference thing took off.

Coil whine is generally fixed by adjusting voltage or by swapping power cables from the wall->PSU or PSU->Card. Be sure it's actually the GPU making the whine and not the PSU, if it is a whine.

Since I started putting water blocks on my cards, every single one makes weird popping noises, almost like a wire is hitting a spinning fan, but electrified too.

EVGA Ref 690, 3x670 EVGA 4GB, 7970 Matrix, 7970 Lightning, Sapphire R9 290, Gigabyte 690, EVGA reference 780, 780 Ti Classified Kingpin.
I'm just sort of playing devil's advocate since I've got a GB 970 on order with Amazon (but no stock yet so I still have time to change my mind).

Do gigabyte's fans have a history of becoming noisier or not working after a couple of years? A lot of room to go wrong with three fans. Meanwhile MSI will actually use its fans a lot less frequently. And my PC is only a couple feet from my face so I will be more sensitive to noise.

Is there really any danger from turning off the fans completely on the MSI or is that pure paranoia?
The idea of spinning less to increase lifespan is negligible next to general failure rate. Both companies have history with fans failing after awhile, but so does everyone.

There is no danger from turning a fan completely off. Your system would shut down before it hit dangerous temps.
 
I'm just sort of playing devil's advocate since I've got a GB 970 on order with Amazon (but no stock yet so I still have time to change my mind).

Do gigabyte's fans have a history of becoming noisier or not working after a couple of years? A lot of room to go wrong with three fans. Meanwhile MSI will actually use its fans a lot less frequently. And my PC is only a couple feet from my face so I will be more sensitive to noise.

Is there really any danger from turning off the fans completely on the MSI or is that pure paranoia?

This is my first Gigabyte card so I guess I will find out about the fans. :)

I'm just paranoid about no fans spinning.
 
Depends how you define "worth it." I'd say yes though

Well, quite a few people in this thread are coming from 670's, 680's, and even some 770's. Lower power draw, 50% speed increase, and newer features made it more than worth it to me.

I usually don't upgrade until I can see a 100% speed increase for a single card to replace my old GPU's, but the 970's were just too goo to pass up. (Came from a 680)

Thanks for that. I'll definitely set aside some funds for it then. Performance is one thing, but the lower power draw for me is a huge plus.

Generally which manufacturer should I go for?

I usually hear Gigabyte or ASUS cards being the ones to get.
 
*sigh* that's what I was afraid of, and I'm pretty sure I've got that model too (at least with the ACX 2.0 you might have a chance to avoid this). Gonna suck if I return it then I probably have to eat the restocking fee in addition to shipping and then the additional costs of a new model...

...oh well, no more EVGA loyalty that's for sure.

Cant you just deny the shipment when it arrives to avoid restocking fee?
 
newegg all sold out when i was screwing around

I really want to get it from amazon, as it would be a little cheaper

Newegg said it would have been here tomorrow on any type shipping, is that usually true? I live about 45 minutes away from the warehouse
 
newegg all sold out when i was screwing around

I really want to get it from amazon, as it would be a little cheaper

Newegg said it would have been here tomorrow on any type shipping, is that usually true? I live about 45 minutes away from the warehouse

Yeah if you have a close warehouse you'll usually get it next day.
 
Great. MSI recognised my deceased 7870 as beeing faulty, and against all odds my online retailer isn't trying to f**k me, meaning I'll get a full refund of the original price I got it for a year and a half ago (220euros)...So I'll be able to upgrade to the 970 for something like 120 euros, yay!
Thank you for listening, I really needed to share my joy.
 
Which is better as far as price/performance?

970 SLI or a single 980?

I know certain games and emulators do not like SLI setups. Likewise, I've always been told the best performance you can get on a single card is better than SLI...
 
Which is better as far as price/performance?

970 SLI or a single 980?

I know certain games and emulators do not like SLI setups. Likewise, I've always been told the best performance you can get on a single card is better than SLI...

Single 970 OC'ed to almost 980 performance. :)
 
Cant you just deny the shipment when it arrives to avoid restocking fee?
I had someone already receive the card while I was at work before I started noticing and reading the reports at mid day.

However, these posts are alleviating some worry a bit:
I turned on the 'Quiet' fan profile and it's a little bit better. Still hear the coil whine though when running benchmarks at high load
Adjust the voltage.

What you're hearing might not be coil whine though. Every card makes noise when it's under full load. The reason why this seems more annoying now, is because cards as so quiet now that you can actually hear that stuff over the fan noise. That was not the case until the whole non-reference thing took off.

Coil whine is generally fixed by adjusting voltage or by swapping power cables from the wall->PSU or PSU->Card. Be sure it's actually the GPU making the whine and not the PSU, if it is a whine.
Are changing fan profiles and voltage settings relatively easy?
 
But if you overclock the 980 as well?

A OC'ed 980 will be about 15% faster than stock 980 performance. If you can get a 970 OC'ed to almost stock 980 performance is where the value is.

So the question is, is that 980 worth the extra $200 to you for 15% performance. :)

I got a Gigabyte 970 , and figure if it starts to show signs of age later next year / early 2016, I'll just add a 2nd one , and SLI.

FYI, this is at 1080p. Where I plan to game at for the next 2-3 years.
 
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