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[Rhaknar]

I keep putting off playing some games because Ive been waiting for my second 970, when in reality I will probably barely notice a difference (or even be able to use SLI) :/

Mordor and Ryse are 2 of these games for example

 

[Dryk]

My first Shadowplay Youtube upload:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKihoGvNvU8

It such a cool feature. It so easy to use with such a small performance impact. It's one of things I was looking forward to with my move from AMD.

I'm glad to hear this, I've never recorded anything because the performance impact is too big

 

[Kevyt]

It's a pain to search 122 pages of this thread for people with similar systems to compare results, let me know if these are good numbers.

Everything is stock (well, stock overclocked on the 980s)

I'll start OCing stuff once I get my new power supply. Running on an older Corsair TX950 currently.

It's a decent PSU but isn't modular and a pain to work with.

I went back a few pages and found this post from Gaming Arena:

this is my score with 2x 980
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2954941

As far as FireStrike, I would say your 980 SLI score is pretty good, considering that you have not done any overclocking.

 

[Kvik]

Everything is stock (well, stock overclocked on the 980s)

I'll start OCing stuff once I get my new power supply. Running on an older Corsair TX950 currently.

It's a decent PSU but isn't modular and a pain to work with.

Looks like a great score to me. Reference 980s?

Let me know what the power draw looks like when you got your new PSU. I also have a 5930K and aiming to SLI 2x 980 Windforces (well, still waiting for it to be restocked again at Amazon to complete my set)

 

[Rhaknar]

is there a site that tells you what games you can or cant use SLI with?

 

[Sutton Dagger]

I finally caved and just grabbed the 4gb 970, I hope I've made the right decision instead of getting the 8GB version...

The only game that uses more than 4gb of Vram is shadow of Mordor right?

I plan to upgrade my GPU every 2 years (went from 670 to 970) to keep on top of new system requirements. Is that a decent timeframe?

 

[Kieli]

If I were a billionaire, I'd design a 32GB video card.

I'd double dog DARE a dev to use that much VRAM.

 

[intheinbetween]

well, I just received my Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming, can't wait to get home to try it

 

[Salaadin]

Ordered the MSI last Thursday and Amazon just told me that Itll be delivered on the 23rd. Faster than I thought.

 

[Ronabo]

Ordered the MSI last Thursday and Amazon just told me that Itll be delivered on the 23rd. Faster than I thought.

Ditto

Excited!

 

[kharma45]

Wtf. Inno3D

C
h
r
i
s
t

 

[Maniac]

Hey guys, anyone know if there's credibility to some of the rumours we've heard about late '14 / early '15 9XX cards with more VRAM? Because I can't really justify Maxwell without a bigger bump from my 780

 

[Salaadin]

Ditto

Excited!

I was so worried that I wouldn't get it before Dragon Age 3. Now I'll have it but won't have anything new to play on it. I'm going to have to buy a game now!

 

[Sanjay]

Ordered the MSI last Thursday and Amazon just told me that Itll be delivered on the 23rd. Faster than I thought.

 

[RadioactiveLobster]

As far as FireStrike, I would say your 980 SLI score is pretty good, considering that you have not done any overclocking.

The 980's are factory overclocked. Nothing else has been changed except enabling the XMP profile on the RAM (which is technically an overclock).

Looks like a great score to me. Reference 980s?

Let me know what the power draw looks like when you got your new PSU. I also have a 5930K and aiming to SLI 2x 980 Windforces (well, still waiting for it to be restocked again at Amazon to complete my set)

I have two Gigabyte GTX980 G1 Gaming cards. I did some basic checks with my current setup and when running Unigine Heaven on the Ultra preset it was pulling around 600w from the wall, though this included everything on my UPS backup, so that included 3 monitors, router/modem, etc...

I don't have a inline tester so I can't check just the PSU draw. I should probably get one

 

[kharma45]

I'd just give up and go somewhere else.

 

[Jimrpg]

Just be mindful that all the Zotac's are currently power/voltage limited to some degree right now. In fact, I don't think a voltage bump is even possible with the current BIOS. This is likely to change soon. That being said, I'm getting 1450MHz core out of my vanilla 970 even with the 106% PL and a fluctuating voltage that won't even stay at the board max. It's still an awesome card. My temps are great too.

That's a bit technical for me, this is the first time I'm going to build a system! I'm assuming you have to bump the power/voltage to over clock though so what did you change to get to 1450Mhz?

I have the option to get the ASUS strix GTX970 so that's probably going to be my first choice when I go to the shops. Zotac and the Palit vanilla versions are my backup plan.

 

[garath]

So I definitely have a buzz from my ASUS Strix 970. And I've identified exactly when it occurs. It is 100% related to clock speed.

Anything under 1200 core, and there's either no buzz or I can't hear it even with my face pressed up against the case.

Around 1300 core and the buzz is there, though pretty faintly

Once I get up over 1400 core, the buzz is noticeable though still not super loud through my case.

I was able to hear the buzz kick in right when the boost did in games and was able to further confirm this by changing the clock of the card through afterburner. The default boost of 1330 or so is almost unnoticeable. I'd be hard pressed to hear that. My OC'd 1480 was quite a bit louder though.

It has nothing to do with power draw as the noise was the same regardless of 70% draw or 120%.

FPS and what game and what scene in the game depended on the pitch of the buzz. It picked up pace the higher the FPS got and it changed frequencies a bit as I would pan around a game. The lower 30-40 fps was the worst. It's this low speed buzz like a fan dying. Anything from 60-100 was not bad, the sound blends in with the case fans. Over 120 started to get a little more noticeable again.

All this said, it's not that bad. I have to wonder if I RMA'd the card if I wouldn't get something worse. I really really suspect all cards suffer from this. Given there's no reference 970, mfg's probably slapped it on whatever design they had for the 770 and called it a day.

I have less than 2 weeks to get the card in newegg's hands if I want to return it. I'd basically have to decide today or tomorrow and get it out.

What do you guys think? Is this just normal behavior for a 970? I can live with it. If I wasn't so close to my case I probably wouldn't even hear it at all. I gamed happily for 3 hours yesterday without even worrying about it. Sigh.

 

[opticalmace]

So I definitely have a buzz from my ASUS Strix 970. And I've identified exactly when it occurs. It is 100% related to clock speed.

Anything under 1200 core, and there's either no buzz or I can't hear it even with my face pressed up against the case.

Around 1300 core and the buzz is there, though pretty faintly

Once I get up over 1400 core, the buzz is noticeable though still not super loud through my case.

I was able to hear the buzz kick in right when the boost did in games and was able to further confirm this by changing the clock of the card through afterburner. The default boost of 1330 or so is almost unnoticeable. I'd be hard pressed to hear that. My OC'd 1480 was quite a bit louder though.

It has nothing to do with power draw as the noise was the same regardless of 70% draw or 120%.

FPS and what game and what scene in the game depended on the pitch of the buzz. It picked up pace the higher the FPS got and it changed frequencies a bit as I would pan around a game. The lower 30-40 fps was the worst. It's this low speed buzz like a fan dying. Anything from 60-100 was not bad, the sound blends in with the case fans. Over 120 started to get a little more noticeable again.

All this said, it's not that bad. I have to wonder if I RMA'd the card if I wouldn't get something worse. I really really suspect all cards suffer from this. Given there's no reference 970, mfg's probably slapped it on whatever design they had for the 770 and called it a day.

I have less than 2 weeks to get the card in newegg's hands if I want to return it. I'd basically have to decide today or tomorrow and get it out.

What do you guys think? Is this just normal behavior for a 970? I can live with it. If I wasn't so close to my case I probably wouldn't even hear it at all. I gamed happily for 3 hours yesterday without even worrying about it. Sigh.

Try manually adjusting the fan speed. Does that change the buzz? Or just the core clock?

If it bothers you I would return it.

 

[garath]

Try manually adjusting the fan speed. Does that change the buzz? Or just the core clock?

If it bothers you I would return it.

It's just the core clock. Fan is so quiet I can't even tell when it's on. Lol.

I think it bothers me that it's there, but it doesn't necessarily "bother" me if that makes any sense.

 

[opticalmace]

It's just the core clock. Fan is so quiet I can't even tell when it's on. Lol.

I think it bothers me that it's there, but it doesn't necessarily "bother" me if that makes any sense.

You mentioned a boost of 1330, isn't the strix at 1114 base/1253 Mhz boost?

So it doesn't really buzz much at default clocks?

 

[garath]

You mentioned a boost of 1330, isn't the strix at 1114 base/1253 Mhz boost?

So it doesn't really buzz much at default clocks?

Hmm. I guess the paper default clock is 1253? I was seeing 1330 boost after changing everything back to default through afterburner. But yeah, it's barely there at anything 1300 and under. I should take some recordings and see if it comes across.

 

[opticalmace]

Hmm. I guess the paper default clock is 1253? I was seeing 1330 boost after changing everything back to default through afterburner. But yeah, it's barely there at anything 1300 and under. I should take some recordings and see if it comes across.

Maybe check it with GPU Tweak, to make sure it actually is back to the defaults.

 

[Kvik]

I have two Gigabyte GTX980 G1 Gaming cards. I did some basic checks with my current setup and when running Unigine Heaven on the Ultra preset it was pulling around 600w from the wall, though this included everything on my UPS backup, so that included 3 monitors, router/modem, etc...

600w didn't sound so bad with those G1s on stock clock. However, once you OC'd your 5830K as well as the Windforces, I bet it'll be at least 600w for your PC alone.

 

[newbong95]

hello guys i followed this forum for a long time but only recently my account got accepted in neogaf.
I have a core i3 3220 3.3ghz , 8 gb of ram and no gpu . I am planning to buy a gtx 970 4gb . My resolution is 1080p. I am trying to get as much Vram as possible within my budget. I am from India so gtx 970 and amd r9 290 is around the same price here .

So my query is will gtx 970 be bottlenecked by i3 and if yes then should i go for a gtx 760 with 4gb or wait for gtx 860?

i want to buy the card that will atleast be powerful enough to handle dx12 games @60fps with high settings.

 

[Sanjay]

I'd just give up and go somewhere else.

Amazon misprice but they are honouring it, £320.

 

[riflen]

I have SLI 970s. Afterburner says that Borderlands The Pre-Sequel is using 40% of GPU1 and 50% of GPU2, but I still get frame drops.

Why isn't it using 100% of both? I could put PhysX up to Ultra if it did...

Because Borderlands. This behaviour is the same as I experience with SLI in Borderlands 2. I believe it's a combination of the game needing lots of CPU grunt and the AFR support being bad.
I find I actually get better performance in BL2 by disabling SLI and forcing CUDA operations to be performed on the second GPU. Then at least it's doing something.

 

[CyberPunked]

I have SLI 970s. Afterburner says that Borderlands The Pre-Sequel is using 40% of GPU1 and 50% of GPU2, but I still get frame drops.

Why isn't it using 100% of both? I could put PhysX up to Ultra if it did...

I get this when shooting certain enemies (the flying ones in the ice area) which emit a liquid powered by Physx when shot. I have SLI 980s and the other Physx effects like the gravel on the ground when shot, doesn't cause the issue, just the liquid goo Physx.

 

[garath]

So I definitely have a buzz from my ASUS Strix 970. And I've identified exactly when it occurs. It is 100% related to clock speed.

Anything under 1200 core, and there's either no buzz or I can't hear it even with my face pressed up against the case.

Around 1300 core and the buzz is there, though pretty faintly

Once I get up over 1400 core, the buzz is noticeable though still not super loud through my case.

I was able to hear the buzz kick in right when the boost did in games and was able to further confirm this by changing the clock of the card through afterburner. The default boost of 1330 or so is almost unnoticeable. I'd be hard pressed to hear that. My OC'd 1480 was quite a bit louder though.

It has nothing to do with power draw as the noise was the same regardless of 70% draw or 120%.

FPS and what game and what scene in the game depended on the pitch of the buzz. It picked up pace the higher the FPS got and it changed frequencies a bit as I would pan around a game. The lower 30-40 fps was the worst. It's this low speed buzz like a fan dying. Anything from 60-100 was not bad, the sound blends in with the case fans. Over 120 started to get a little more noticeable again.

All this said, it's not that bad. I have to wonder if I RMA'd the card if I wouldn't get something worse. I really really suspect all cards suffer from this. Given there's no reference 970, mfg's probably slapped it on whatever design they had for the 770 and called it a day.

I have less than 2 weeks to get the card in newegg's hands if I want to return it. I'd basically have to decide today or tomorrow and get it out.

What do you guys think? Is this just normal behavior for a 970? I can live with it. If I wasn't so close to my case I probably wouldn't even hear it at all. I gamed happily for 3 hours yesterday without even worrying about it. Sigh.

Well, I spent 30 minutes with it over lunch. I played Witcher 2 downsampled from 4k and FFXIII downsampled from 4k, both which caused the loudest buzz. Played with no sound at all. I've decided I can live with it. I called my wife over and asked her if she heard a noise. She said no lol. I turned the game off then back on and she was like "oh yeah.. I can kind of hear it." I explained that I either return it now or live with it. She just looked at me and said "you can live with it. You can barely hear it". Lol

It really isn't very loud at all. Once I turned the sound back on for Witcher 2, I didn't even hear it.

Did this with a decent overclock to 1470 boost core also. If I come across something that truly sucks, I can always back it down to around 1300 and be ok.

 

[Saroyan]

Just wanted to say that I installed my EVGA 970 SSC ACX 2.0 card on Friday and it has been totally silent.

No coil whine that I can hear at all even when I ran the Heaven benchmark and it was running at 1531 boost clock. I have a Fractal Define R4 case so its pretty quiet anyway so if there is any coil whine I can't hear it.

Also mine shipped with the newest bios from EVGA so the fans don't even turn on below ~60C, I was playing Dark Souls for a few hours at 2560x1440 and the card was running at 55-57C with absolutely 0 fan speed, pretty impressive.

 

[CyberPunked]

It's a pain to search 122 pages of this thread for people with similar systems to compare results, let me know if these are good numbers.

Everything is stock (well, stock overclocked on the 980s)

I'll start OCing stuff once I get my new power supply. Running on an older Corsair TX950 currently.

It's a decent PSU but isn't modular and a pain to work with.

Your Valley benchmark is suspiciously low compared to the Fire Strike score. In Fire Strike I get about 24000 on the graphics score, and on Valley I average 120fps

 

[garath]

Just wanted to say that I installed my EVGA 970 SSC ACX 2.0 card on Friday and it has been totally silent.

No coil whine that I can hear at all even when I ran the Heaven benchmark and it was running at 1531 boost clock. I have a Fractal Define R4 case so its pretty quiet anyway so if there is any coil whine I can't hear it.

Also mine shipped with the newest bios from EVGA so the fans don't even turn on below ~60C, I was playing Dark Souls for a few hours at 2560x1440 and the card was running at 55-57C with absolutely 0 fan speed, pretty impressive.

That is awesome. Good to hear.

 

[Addnan]

Just wanted to say that I installed my EVGA 970 SSC ACX 2.0 card on Friday and it has been totally silent.

No coil whine that I can hear at all even when I ran the Heaven benchmark and it was running at 1531 boost clock. I have a Fractal Define R4 case so its pretty quiet anyway so if there is any coil whine I can't hear it.

Also mine shipped with the newest bios from EVGA so the fans don't even turn on below ~60C, I was playing Dark Souls for a few hours at 2560x1440 and the card was running at 55-57C with absolutely 0 fan speed, pretty impressive.

In game with no fan and stays below 60C? Are you blowing an external fan at it lol, because that I find a bit crazy.

 

[kharma45]

Amazon misprice but they are honouring it, £320.

OH YES THEN

 

[BloodMoney]

I will RMA 100 cards if I need to. Buzzing/coil whine is unacceptable! My GTX770 didn't have it and my new GTX970 isn't allowed to have it. Period.

Why not try a different brand? I've never had coil whine issues with MSI's Twin Frozr cooling. Non on my Frozr II cards, or my Frozr IV cards.

 

[KePoW]

When do you guys think 970s will be regularly in stock full-time?

Are we talking like... not until 2015?

 

[holygeesus]

If I'm upgrading from a 670 to a 970 is it worth a complete re-install (it's only a 20 minute job) or can you just swap cards without worrying?

In the past I have always re-installed windows, even when just adding extra RAM, but I think I'm getting lazy in my approaching middle-age.

 

[KePoW]

If I'm upgrading from a 670 to a 970 is it worth a complete re-install (it's only a 20 minute job) or can you just swap cards without worrying?

In the past I have always re-installed windows, even when just adding extra RAM, but I think I'm getting lazy in my approaching middle-age.

Haha dude, no reason to re-install Windows... that is going way overboard. Just make sure you check the "Clean Installation" checkbox in the Nvidia drivers

 

[holygeesus]

Haha dude, no reason to re-install Windows... that is going way overboard. Just make sure you check the "Clean Installation" checkbox in the Nvidia drivers

Thanks

 

[mephixto]

Found two things testing if my G1 970's.

1. One of my G1 970 has coil whinnig, but barely audible with the case open and with my ear next to it. I have the Case always closed and on the floor so no problem.

2. While testing I put the mic near to the GPU to record the buzz and found out the same buzz even with the mic far away from the PC. So it seems this electric noise is also present on the sound card or something.

Tested it while playing Crysis 3 and moving around the mouse.

 

[garath]

If I'm upgrading from a 670 to a 970 is it worth a complete re-install (it's only a 20 minute job) or can you just swap cards without worrying?

In the past I have always re-installed windows, even when just adding extra RAM, but I think I'm getting lazy in my approaching middle-age.

Completely not necessary. At worst, download the newest nvidia driversr, uninstall the old nvidia drivers, plug in the new card and install the new drivers.

Nvidia to Nvidia is a very painless process.

 

[dgrdsv]

Completely not necessary. At worst, download the newest nvidia driversr, uninstall the old nvidia drivers, plug in the new card and install the new drivers.

Nvidia to Nvidia is a very painless process.

It's even easier than that.

Install the newest driver.
Turn off the PC.
Remove the old card, put the new card in.
Turn on the PC.

99,9% that it'll just boot up and will work properly. Unified drivers tend to do this.

 

[Saroyan]

In game with no fan and stays below 60C? Are you blowing an external fan at it lol, because that I find a bit crazy.

Well I wasn't logging my temps, just glancing occasionally at the screen on my keyboard and the highest temp I saw was 57C and it said fans were at 0%. Thats with 2 140mm intake fans at the front of the case and only the 140mm fan on my Corsair H90 and the power supply fan as exhaust. Its possible the temps were higher at some point but I never heard the fans running.

 

[GearDraxon]

Well I wasn't logging my temps, just glancing occasionally at the screen on my keyboard and the highest temp I saw was 57C and it said fans were at 0%. Thats with 2 140mm intake fans at the front of the case and only the 140mm fan on my Corsair H90 and the power supply fan as exhaust. Its possible the temps were higher at some point but I never heard the fans running.

Whoa - we have a super-similar setup (Define R4, SC 970 w/ACX 2.0, H55 here.)

Did you do any tests that led you to using the H90's fan as the sole exhaust? I've got mine set up as an intake (at the top of the case), with the two case fans as shipped (front one as intake, rear one as exhaust.) If your setup works, I bet it'd be even quieter than mine, as the top fan is the most audible.

 

[Saroyan]

Whoa - we have a super-similar setup (Define R4, SC 970 w/ACX 2.0, H55 here.)

Did you do any tests that led you to using the H90's fan as the sole exhaust? I've got mine set up as an intake (at the top of the case), with the two case fans as shipped (front one as intake, rear one as exhaust.) If your setup works, I bet it'd be even quieter than mine, as the top fan is the most audible.

no tests really, I was just aiming for quiet and set it up that way, temps with my 4670k have been fine so I left it that way.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Are these things ever going to be back in stock on Newegg? MSI, at least, anyways.

 

[Salaadin]

Are these things ever going to be back in stock on Newegg? MSI, at least, anyways.

It was today.

Nowinstock.net has an alert system that can email or text you as soon as it's flagged as in stock somewhere. I recommend that.

 

[lmbotiva]

come on nvidia, release the 6 or 8 gigs versions already so i can upgrade

 

[Kvik]

The waiting list for Gigabyte GTX 980 Windforce is back on Amazon for anyone looking to get one.

 

[Monado Blade]

Received my Zotac 970 Amp Omega last night.

I had seen photos and videos of the card beforehand but I was still surprised at the size and heft of the thing. It is HUGE. Was a little worried it wouldn't fit in my dinky little Dell case even though I had measured it in advance.

Well, it fit... but barely. Had to disconnect the DVD drive sata cable but I managed to stick it in there eventually. Phew!