Reviews - EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW

[HEXUS]

A hefty overclock elevates Nvidia's second-rung GPU into GTX 980 territory.

Read more.

[Otherhand]

I hadn't expected the performance of the 970 to be so close to that of the 980! Is this just a matter of testing with games that have been out for a while, and will we see this performance gap widen with forthcoming games?

[VijaySathyan]

Excellent review! Wonderful card. Cant wait to grab one of these.

[jimbouk]

Wowsers, looks like a cracking card. Relatively low power consumption, thus heat and noise. Will be looking to pick one of these up second hand a few months down the line.

[Jasp]

Might be a worth while upgrade from my old GTX 670, eyening up the G1 edition looks quite nice...

[scaryjim]

I hadn't expected the performance of the 970 to be so close to that of the 980! Is this just a matter of testing with games that have been out for a while, and will we see this performance gap widen with forthcoming games?

It's actually exactly the same as we saw when partner overclocked R9 290s were first released - they were similarly close to stock R9 290Xs. AMD and NVidia are both being very conservative with the reference clocks of stock cards, so there's plenty of frequency headroom for partners to exploit when they release OC cards. Don't forget that when partner OCed GTX 980s come out they'll open up the performance gap again....

[gordon861]

My question is, with the reference 970 and 980 being priced at £250 and £420, is it better to go for a single 980 or two 970s in SLI?

Would the additional £70 be better spent on an OC'd 980?

I know the numbers aren't exact but they are ballpark enough to make the question worth asking.

[Noxvayl]

Depends what you want, and need, to be honest gordon861. SLI doesn't have perfect scaling so a single, faster, GPU will give you consistent results in any games, past, present or future. SLI does provide much better results in most games though, and the driver issues are not a big enough concern to warn against getting an SLI setup.

If you are interested in getting higher resolution monitors then I think SLI is the most cost effective option for driving the extra pixels, single GPU isn't doing so well above 1080p in some games and the envelope is going to be pushed further in the future. SLI is also a good option if you want more than 60FPS when gaming, that is if you have a monitor that refreshes faster than that already.

SLI GTX970s will last a bit longer, and push more pixels, for slightly more than the GTX980. It is an enticing prospect because of the value offered but I prefer the consistency of single GPU setups and the reduced heat produced from my machine.

I am biased towards single GPU setups, but if you want, or need, the extra power provided then SLI is a cost effective option to achieve that. Its performance isn't universal though, so sometimes you won't get better performance than an overclocked GTX980, but those instances will be fewer and farther between now that drivers have gotten significantly better and developers are using engines that are better optimised for dual GPUs now.

I would get the overclocked GTX980 myself, but I think the SLI GTX970 is a really good option that would be faster most of the time.

[adidan]

Time to ditch the 570 I think.

[gordon861]

Well currently I'm running 2x 560ti cards, and picked up 3x cheap 27 inch HD monitors earlier in the year, and the cards are showing their age on that res. Elite is just playable with everything turned down.

So I have no plans to move to 4k anytime soon and instead will be sticking with 5760*1080, 4k is about 8MP compared to 6MP for my setup (assuming it actually works that way). If the single 980 can do the job then it is probably the better buy, no more cursing when the SLI seems to switch off for no apparent reason.

Will just have to wait and see what the reviews come up with, with the pricing of the 970 being so close to half the 980 I'm sure someone will produce a proper comparison review soon.

[YazX]

not worth the upgrade from 700 series.

[gordon861]

Found a review that might answer the question http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N...e_GTX_970_SLI/

Just starting to read through it now.

[Noxvayl]

With a resolution of 5760x1080 I would go for 2x GTX970 in SLI, despite my bias for single GPU setups I think the benefit of SLI for pushing the extra pixels can't be ignored (and the price/performance ratio of course).

SLI seems to be king for higher resolutions; AMD cards scale better for high resolutions but a single card running your 3 monitors is not going to last quite as long as your proposed SLI GTX970s. I'm not normally a fan of waiting for new technology but if you are leaning towards a single GPU the new AMD cards supposed to be released soon* would be worth looking out for. nVidia seem to have gone for better efficiency with this generation, no big leap, AMD might not have the same idea.

[TH3REDSP1R1T]

Soo horny right now.

[RazorBlitzz]

Did not expect the GTX 970 to be so good. I'm wondering if i should sell my R9 290 Tri-X in order to get a GTX 970.

[adidan]

Actually looks like the MSI version may be the one for me.