Review: GeForce GTX 970 SLI review

Hilbert Hagedoorn

Administrator

2014-09-26 13:56

Great review as always Hilbert! Though, 73 fps in Metro LL @ 1440p doesn't excite me, same goes for Crysis 3. I kinda expected more.

Weeeeeelll ... It's nearly double scaling, so that's not bad. Crysis slowly seems to get get more CPU dependent with its age though. Right, that was 8 articles in 7 days you guys. Beer and pizza time ! Beer-assistant, where is she ?!!

#4923032

Corbus

2014-09-26 14:01

Great review and scaling. At 4k we probably still need to wait 2 more years to play at decent fps and max details .

#4923047

Ven0m

2014-09-26 14:18

Thanks for the review. I hope you'll be able to find out what's with these frame drops. It's also weird to observe better scaling in lower resolutions... So: * 4k, 3D Mark and Battlefield = 780 Ti scales better * The rest = 970 scales better I think that it might be partially explained by 256bit RAM bus in 970.

#4923073

Cave Waverider

2014-09-26 14:46

Nice article. I'm very much looking forward to the GTX980 SLi reviews, too.

#4923076

CrazY_Milojko

2014-09-26 14:48

Great review Hilbert, thanks man! 970 in SLI are bargain for 1440+ gamers and when you look at TDP and themperatures... they're nothing more than final nail in the coffin for 780Ti SLI (for some gamers who had plans for buying 780 SLI). Whole week has passed after official 970/980 launch and still I haven't got a chance to lay my hands on some GTX 970 or GTX 980 for testing, not to mention two of them for SLI, to find just one 970/980 it's science fiction here where I'm atm 😡 Probably 970/980 situation will be better in few weeks from now, but doubt prices at "re-launch" here in Serbia will be match for prices in the rest of the world 🙁 Future here I come, maybe I'll be late a bit... 😥 BTW, I'm curious about 780Ti prices (new and used) in rest of the civilized world, any drops yet? Here in Serbia prices for 780Ti are frozen in time, they are same like few months ago, juuuuust great :bang:

#4923113

Spets

2014-09-26 15:37

Great review Hilbert:)

#4923181

Netherwind

2014-09-26 16:41

I couldn't find the reference boards clock speeds anywhere in the review. What are they? Anyhow, I'm so glad I didn't go for reference boards in my case. The MSI cards are just too good to be true. Some comparisons with OCed results (1380/7500) I did earlier. Ran them on a ROG Swift 1440p monitor with G-sync disabled. Temps idle: Reference 970SLI - 33 MSI 970SLI - 54 (fans are turned off if card is idle, plus I have the 2D bug) Temps load: Reference 970SLI - 83 MSI 970SLI - 73 (fans inaudible at 1400RPM) Metro Last Light Redux (Very High, 16xAF) Reference 970SLI - Avg.FPS: 73 MSI 970SLI - Avg.FPS: 108 (I'm running the Redux version, maybe it's better optimized?) Thief (Very High Preset with SSAA Off) Reference 970SLI - Avg.FPS: 75 MSI 970SLI - Avg.FPS: 101 Pretty big differences...maybe too big?

#4923188

Hilbert Hagedoorn

Administrator

2014-09-26 16:52

I couldn't find the reference boards clock speeds anywhere in the review. What are they?

Reference baseclock is 1050 MHz for the GTX 970. So yeah the MSI cards overall are pretty terrific alright. Your Metro results, no clue on Redux. We use the standard version with the Metro LL v2.0 benchmark. But my results are on par with other SLI combo's. For Thief I have SSAA enabled at high as well as FXAA and the other IQ settings.

#4923263

Netherwind

2014-09-26 17:57

Reference baseclock is 1050 MHz for the GTX 970. So yeah the MSI cards overall are pretty terrific alright. Your Metro results, no clue on Redux. We use the standard version with the Metro LL v2.0 benchmark. But my results are on par with other SLI combo's. For Thief I have SSAA enabled at high as well as FXAA and the other IQ settings.

Regarding Thief, I thought it was FXAA only. Did a run with SSAA - High and got 87.3fps, very interesting. Thanks for the review by the way!

#4923275

Hilbert Hagedoorn

Administrator

2014-09-26 18:21

Regarding Thief, I thought it was FXAA only. Did a run with SSAA - High and got 87.3fps, very interesting.

Yes, that sounds about right with your overclock.

#4923294

Icanium

2014-09-26 18:54

The review of the ref GTX 970 only showed pictures of the GTX 980. I saw pictures of GTX 970 with short PCB so I thought the reference PCB would look like this EVGA GTX 970. Nothing like the GTX 970 cards with the TITAN coolers http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487070

#4923298

Netherwind

2014-09-26 18:56

Yes, that sounds about right with your overclock.

Good to hear. Enjoy your beer Hilbert 🙂

The review of the ref GTX 970 only showed pictures of the GTX 980. I saw pictures of GTX 970 with short PCB so I thought the reference PCB would look like this EVGA GTX 970. Nothing like the GTX 970 cards with the TITAN coolers http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487070

It was mentioned earlier that this is a OEM sample. The 970 refs you find in stores have some kind of plastic coolers like the one you linked.

#4923328

Carfax

2014-09-26 19:35

Weird how this review differs so much from TPU's in terms of the results, especially at 4K..

#4923362

Noisiv

2014-09-26 20:01

Good to hear. Enjoy your beer Hilbert 🙂 It was mentioned earlier that this is a OEM sample. The 970 refs you find in stores have some kind of plastic coolers like the one you linked.

OEM is ref, and that 970 is only a traditional ref lookalike.

#4923494

BigBlockTowncar

2014-09-26 23:22

I have seen several of the 700 series card on sale at newegg. They had the regular 780 for a little less than the 970 with a rebate. The only 970 cards that newegg had in stock earlier today were EVGA, looks like the bad press is part of that....all others were out of stock. The ACX card or whatever they call it had pretty bad reviews, only 3 egg average. Will my core i7 920 hold back the 970 card?

#4923567

BigBlockTowncar

2014-09-27 00:46

A single 970 maybe not. What is you 920 clocked at?

It is stock right now, but I can move it up.

#4923608

fantaskarsef

2014-09-27 02:04

Great review. This is definitely what I want! Question: if a motherboard has 3 PCI-E x16 slots and can run in a x16/x16/x4 configuration, does that imply I can also run it in a x16/x4/x16 configuration? In other words, I can choose which slots to run sli in, and I don't have to use the top two slots to get full x16 speed...?

No, you have to keep it to what your mainboard is able to give. Consult your MB manual to check it out if you're not sure how you can use them. On Topic, nice to see the 970 be such a nice pair for SLI. I'm only surprised there wasn't an overclock comparison, as in both cards OCed against stock.

#4924742

Ven0m

2014-09-28 21:07

It is stock right now, but I can move it up.

I could see 920 limiting a single GTX 680, and even 260 SLI, when working at stock speeds. Once you bump it to like 3.6GHz, I doubt that except for a few games, you'd see much improvement with 4790K over your current setup. Depending on your CPU, mobo, and cooling, I'd expect it to reach 3.5-4.2GHz, with 3.7GHz+ being very realistic. And this should handle 970 well, even in SLI.

#4928698

LNCPapa

2014-10-03 07:05

I thought I already posted a thanks for this review but I can't find it so thanks H! This review convinced me to just buy another 970 instead of a pair of 980s.

#4931609

StrikeQ

2014-10-07 05:34

Just wondering...... If you had the money to get either 1 Gigabyte GTX 980 G1 Gaming Or 2 Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming (for SLi) Which of the two will you choose? a Single 980 or 2 970 for SLi? (I know the choice can be easy to some folks, but is it worth it to SLi 970? or is it more worth it to get a single 980 (with no chance of Dual SLi cause that price is just high)?, 1 thing is certain with the price of the 980, its not easy to SLi atleast two of them since they are more expensive than the 970.)

I've always been a fan of single cards, which is why I'd get the 980 (Though I stuck with 1x 970 cause of $$ and only play 1080P). SLI is nice and all but always hit or miss whether it'll work for the games you play. And you always seem to have to fiddle with it or wait on compatibility patches. Just not worth the headache for me.