Best GTX 970 2017 – Buyer’s Guide and Reviews

Feeling confused while picking the Best GTX 970? No problem I will help you to choose the best GTX 970 brand.
I know that finding the Best GTX 970 isn’t an easy Job.

That is why I have created the list of best GTX 970  brands.After researching online and spending hours in testing these GTX 970 brands, I have shortlisted the top 4 GTX 970 which you can buy right now.After doing the gtx 970 brand comparison we have found best gtx 970 model for you.

1. EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Hybrid 

EVGA takes first place in Best GTX 970 list.EVGA makes a lot of different versions of the same GPU’s most with minor differences.They have the exact same specs and are all the exact same card as well when being compared to other manufacturers with one little difference – GPU/RAM speeds.

That one minor difference is higher-end cards with a factory overclock.NVIDIA sets a standard speed and voltage for both, but manufacturers can increase these for small performance gains.For overclockers, there isn’t much difference because they will tweak and overclock the cards themselves, however, there is no guarantee how high a card will go.For most people, a factory overclocked card is the way to go if you want something a little faster than a reference design.

The card is guaranteed to run at the overclocked speed the manufacturer has advertised and takes out any guess work.The GPU and RAM have been hand-picked to work at those speeds and will NOT void your warranty!

The cards from EVGA branded ACX2.0 come with a non-reference and far superior cooling system. They have 11 swept blade fans with higher airflow, static pressure and run almost silent. Higher quality fan motors with better magnets, higher RPM, 3-phase PWM for a longer life span and lower power consumption

The exception to this would be the extremely high-end cards that are designed for overclockers, such as the 970 SSC ACX 2.0 or Hydro or the 980 Classified. Those cards have extra power supply connectors for more voltage etc.This one is the best gtx 970 overclock.

Core

• 1664 CUDA Cores
• Base Clock: 1140 MHz
• Boost Clock: 1279 MHz
• Bus: PCI-E 3.0
• 2-way, 3-way SLI Ready

Memory

• Detail: 4096 MB GDDR5
• Bit Width: 256 Bit
• Clock: 7010 MHz
• Speed: 0.28 ns
• Bandwidth: 224.3 GB/s

Key Features

• NVIDIA Dynamic Super Resolution Technology
• NVIDIA MFAA Technology
• GameWorks Technology
• GameStream Technology
• NVIDIA G-SYNC Ready
• Microsoft DirectX 12 (feature level 12_1)
• NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0
• NVIDIA SLI Ready
• OpenGL 4.4 Support
• NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync
• OpenCL Support
• NVIDIA Surround Technology
• HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2 and Dual-link DVI
• PCI Express 3.0 x16
• NVIDIA CUDA Technology with OpenCL support

Pros

• Watercooled
• Flawless 1080p and 1440p gaming
• EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW+ 1367MHz boost clock
• Low power consumption
• Draws less power and generate less heat

Cons

• It gets louder under load

2. MSI GeForce  GTX 970

The card looks amazing and the cooling is stunning, the images don’t do it justice.Prior to purchasing this, I was never a fan of MSI.Their brand was very new to me as a gaming enthusiast. I’ve heard varying opinions about their cooling components.so far I was not let down, my GPU has never broken 70C, and will rarely ever get past 58C on full load.No real big cons outside the fact the card kind of bends downward.

At first, I thought there was a problem with the card and or the motherboard GPU slot, which freaked me out, but this was not the case.The card is built this way and I suppose may be a turn off to those who wish to show off their rig.

It is the one component which does not align perfectly straight on your motherboard.So, To illustrate my point, it sort of resembles a book held outwards with one
hand or a pillow. This is probably too much of an exaggeration but you will notice it. It does not affect performance, nor does it damage your parts
but if you have a closed chassis like I do with no intent to show off the insides of the rig, it should not worry you.

Core/Memory:

• Boost Clock / Base Clock
• 1279 MHz / 1140 MHz (OC Mode)
• 1253 MHz / 1114 MHz (Gaming Mode)
• 1178 MHz / 1051 MHz (Silent Mode)
• 4096 MB GDDR5 / 7010 MHz Memory

Video Output Function:

• Dual-link DVI-I x 1
• Dual-link DVI-D x 1
• HDMI x 1
• DisplayPort x 1

Key Features:

• Virtual Reality Ready
• DirectX 12 Ready
• Gamestream to NVIDIA Shield

Pros

• Includes MSI gaming app with disc for easy overclocking
• Excellent heat depletion
• Runs quiet
• Cool operating temperatures – 29°C idle and 68°C only while under maximum load
• Low power consumption
• Plays games amazingly on max settings at 1080p

Cons

• Lack of display connectors

3. Asus STRIX-GTX970 

Asus Strix GTX 970 comes third in the best GTX 970 list. Most of the computer users know Asus because of their top of the line gaming hardware. However, for those who don’t know, Asus is also at the helm for creating several high ends, top of the line graphic cards.Noise is non-existent. I seem to hear it above 70%, but that’s also with an H80 right next to the card and 4 case fans so it’s more hearing those than the card still. Even at 100% fan (not needed at all) it’s still nowhere as loud as my 480 at 100% but is audible as expected. Coming from one of the top 3 loudest cards on the market, it’s an awesome change.

Cooling:

In Furmark I can’t get it to work past 62 C. That is with my max overclock, and fan obviously stays low (I set my own). The fans will turn off when the temperate is lower than 40 C, but since I can’t hear it I just run them. In games, it is higher. Crysis 3 was hitting about 68 C, and Unigine Heaven hitting 72 C. AC4 Black Flag was the same with around 65-70 C. All with the fan at 60% or under.

Performance:

Well, coming from a GTX 480 it’s night and day. Sleeping Dogs (max) was ~110 FPS in the benchmark while ~95 in gameplay on average. Resident Evil 5 (max) is ~130 FPS (and ~100 FPS in 3D). Scored a 5682 in 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme with highest overclock. Unigine Heaven Extreme @ native, reference clocks (not the factory OC), is 50.8 FPS. With my overclock, it’s 58.3 FPS. Crysis 3 (Max/4xMSAA) is around 45 FPS average in the opening ship area.

Dead Rising 3 on average is between 55-60 FPS, while obviously dropping in cutscenes due to subsurface scattering to around 45-50 FPS. I would try more games in 3D, but it’s late as I write this and don’t have any good ones installed. Running AC4 Black Flag near max, with 4xTXAA, very high shadows, and low PhysX is usually within 55-62 FPS in towns, with around 45-55 FPS in the deep jungle. The game is horribly made anyways, as well as the engine, so that’s expected.

I personally think the PhysX smoke effects are way overdone and think sharper shadows look better than the soft shadows. If I do use PhysX-High, then it’s a lagfest with smoke, as is with the 780 Ti. Bioshock Infinite @ max is 90 or so frames on average. Metro Last Light Redux max with no “supersampling” (downsampling) and driver side injected HBAO+ is 60 frames average–really depends on where I am at the time.

Overclocking:

As reviews have stated, overclocking is good. I’ve also found it easier with this card than with my 480. The top I managed was +215/+495 (1531MHz/4001MHz). I can go +220/+500, but the chance of artifact there is likely. So figured for games I’d play it a bit safe and reduce it a bit. For very demanding games, like Crysis 3, +150/+450 is much safer since a crash will usually occur. +155/+455 is actually perfect (Was perfect with original posting). Over time, the most stable have been +125/+400.

Form/Aesthetics:

The 8-pin connector is reversed so you don’t have to fight with yanking it out. Fan/Sheathing is literally dual profile as well. I was expecting the shroud to extend a bit over in terms of height rather than be near the standard dual profile. The card isn’t heavier than I expected. Normally with aftermarket coolers, you have warping PCB on the back of your head. Backplate also looks nice, but I can’t say how much it helps since I don’t feel like removing it. Other than that, in general, it looks nice.

Software: GPU Tweak apparently has an option to update the card’s BIOS when released, which will surely be appreciated. I use Afterburner, so that’s all I have to say about GPU Tweak.

Power Consumption:

With the card on its max overclock, CPU on max overclock, 16 GB of RAM at CAS10 2400 MHz, I haven’t seen my total system power consumption surpass ~285 W. So I’d say it’s safe to assume 300 W is the most I will see drawn from this system. I haven’t tried games yet like BF4 on it, which was the one to get over 550 W on my old GTX 480. As long as you have 28 amps on your +12 V rail(s), you can probably run this card with a 400 W PSU no problems. Got the 2nd one, and haven’t seen consumption over 420-450W

Dynamic Super Resolution:

An easy and basically one click tool to get downsampling working without having to overclock/modify your monitor settings/timings and saves a lot of time. Once enabled, the new resolutions will show up in games that can support them, and when selected game, the GPU will automatically downsample the resolution. They can also be forced in GeForce Experience. I personally find GeDoSaTo still much better, but it, unfortunately, doesn’t work in DX11+ yet. Some games get hit very heavy when using DSR like Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, while others have equal performance to using GeDoSaTo. In the case of Borderlands, I found DSR to look very slightly better, barely, but was unplayable at 3840×2160, while with GeDoSaTo it was playable, 40+ frames compared to ~12 frames with DSR. Again, this is a weird case and not all games act like this with DSR.

They can also be forced in GeForce Experience. I personally find GeDoSaTo still much better, but it, unfortunately, doesn’t work in DX11+ yet. Some games get hit very heavy when using DSR like Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, while others have equal performance to using GeDoSaTo. In the case of Borderlands, I found DSR to look very slightly better, barely, but was unplayable at 3840×2160, while with GeDoSaTo it was playable, 40+ frames compared to ~12 frames with DSR. Again, this is a weird case and not all games act like this with DSR.

MFAA:

Seems to work/do as advertised. Tried it in BF4, which in a lot of maps has bad aliasing, and I did notice a reduction as if at a higher setting. The performance hit is negligible. Doesn’t require an AA flag in Inspector to start working, as previously hinted. I’ve been too lazy to do screen shot comparisons out of MP though.

SLI:

Scaling is great where applicable.

These are the cons that we have found in this GPU:

Overclocking:

Not really a biggie, but you can only increase the core by 37 mV and it’s only one 8-pin design.

Form/Aesthetics:

The SLI connectors do protrude out a bit more than usual. The back end of the shroud with “STRIX” written on it is also abnormally large. Due to these two things, it may be hard to actually screw the card into the slot/bay area as these obstacles make it so you may have trouble fitting your fingers in the gap, and then coordinating them. Normally I can use my fingers, but I had to get a screwdriver and keep moving the card just slightly to match up the screw holes. This obviously differs based on your case due to the amount the case itself also protrudes outwards to hold the door on (HAF X here). Also, it’s possible the card may hit your northbridge heatsink; with my one, it literally touches it, so any movement results in a metal on metal grinding/screeching (not as bad as I make it sound).

Software:

I just don’t like the flow of GPU Tweak. It works as expected though. The tray icons for both monitoring and the software are the same, unlike RTSS/Afterburner for instance. GPU Tweak doesn’t allow updating of the GPU BIOS if more than 1 card is plugged in. Thus, you must remove cards if you use SLI to update the BIOS.

Packaging:

The portion of the package involving a very basic manual and GPU Tweak CD are in an overly large box within the box, so it’s tons of random space wasted. I hate it when they do this and don’t try to cut back on those costs in order to hopefully charge us less.

Dynamic Super Resolution:

Yes, it’s literally supersampling/downsampling as we know it. It’s mainly marketing, but to their benefit, it’s in an easy to-go form, based on GeDoSaTo. Some people have already asked will this benefit them for things other than games. You can actually apply the desktop resolution to a DSR resolution, but I honestly don’t see a point in it at all aside from a particularly special reason someone may have.

MFAA:

Only will work for games that developers cooperate with Nvidia for integration I assume. Some games it can have visual bugs; I.e. BF4 with it on may result in a hair-thick white line coming from the bottom corner and extending to the center of the screen out in the distance (barely noticeable in general).

Coil Whine:

Very minimal, happened over time with the original card. The 2nd card I just got has it at an equal volume, which is barely noticeable (and inaudible with open headset). As of around 5 months later, I noticed it didn’t happen anymore. Another friend coincidentally told me the same.

3.5 GB + 512 MB VRAM:

Technically, the card does have 4GB of memory. But the last 512MB, when accessed, is at 1/8th the speed of the rest. Why is it this much slower? Due to a lower L2 cache and fewer SMM clusters. In order to cut down the GTX 980 (which is the 970), SMM’s had to be disabled–which is what happens with all cut-down cards. Because of the Maxwell architecture, they were able to make the card this way rather than locking it in at 3GB even like previous cards. The only catch was it’s not a full extra GB running at full speed, but half running at full, and the other half running at well below.

Generally, the card doesn’t try to use the last 512MB as best it can; if so stuttering can occur as proven by FCAT tests from Guru3D, etc. which specifically picks up frame timing. Personally, the only game where I hit 3.5GB and above was Dying Light. I had the texture settings at the highest (which just catches all the textures into the VRAM to prevent pop-in). I did stutter in that game, but that also is a pretty poorly made game (or at least at launch it was when I played).

VRAM:

Reducing the texture settings to medium, which look the same but caches less in the VRAM did help. Other games as of updating this that I recall hitting that soft-limit, I had little or no stuttering. Check page 3 of comments for more technical links I provided explaining this issue. The whole issue was blown out of proportion when it comes to a performance standpoint; as in it’s hard to say whether one person will experience stuttering and another won’t–such as in my case it’s very random.

There’s nothing that can be done about this as the card is still technically 4GB. It was just dirty of Nvidia to have not disclosed that until someone pointed out weird results. I, and other tech sites though still think the card is very good for the price aside from this. For now, it doesn’t affect too many people unless they downsample (like me from time to time) or game at 4K.VRAM plays an imporant role while picking the Best GTX 970 brand.

Asus STRIX-GTX970 Specifications:

• Graphics Engine: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
• Bus Standard: PCI Express 3.0
• OpenGL: OpenGL®4.4
• Video Memory: GDDR5 4GB
• GPU Boost Clock: 1253 MHzGPU
• Base Clock: 1114 MHz
• CUDA Core:1664
• Memory Clock:7010 MHz ( GDDR5 )
• Memory Interface:256-bit
• Resolution:Digital Max Resolution:4096×2160
• Interface: DVI Output: Yes x 1 (DVI-I), Yes x 1 (DVI-D)HDMI Output: Yes x 1 (HDMI 2.0)Display Port: Yes x 1 (Regular DP)HDCP Support: Yes
• Power Consumption: up to 225W1 additional 8 pin PCIe power required
• Software: ASUS GPU Tweak & Driver
• Dimensions:11 ” x 5.5 ” x 1.57 ” Inch28 x 14 x4 Centimeter

4. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 comes fourth in Best GTX 970 list. I purchased this card with the intention of handling 1080p flawlessly and eventually buying a second one to make the jump to 120/144hz 1440p. It delivered on stage one of that plan.

I tested it on a heavily modded Skyrim, one that is modded to the point of barely scraping by without exceeding the RAM limits of the software and crashing, and I was able to make my character run at 1000% speed through the world without ever dropping below 65 FPS. The mods are so heavy, some areas with incredibly dense grass would bring my 770 Classified to its knees and drop it to ~30 FPS. The 970 handled it with ease, barely heating up in the process.

In fact, nothing I’ve tried at 1080p yet has been slowed down by the GPU, no matter the settings.

This card is THE card for flawless 1080p gameplay on max settings. That is for those of us who are sticklers for max game settings and flawless performance, as most people would consider this card overkill for 1080p. There are few games that would challenge this card at 1080, those being games like Crysis 3, Metro Last Light, and Shadows of Mordor. Still, they would maintain playable frame rates at all times, and would probably rarely drop below 60.We have added some pros to help you decide Best GTX 970.

Pros:

With regards to performance-per-dollar and performance-per-watt, this card is an absolute monster. It is essentially a more efficient 780 ti for $400 less. It can be overclocked to beat its big brother, the 980. In my opinion, this is currently the overall best card on the market.

TDP

TDP (maximum heat dissipation required to run the chip with stability) of 145w, with a cooler rated at 600w, means the cooler has about four times what is required to cool the card at stock settings. This is the best cooler on the market for both raw cooling performance and cooling versus noise level.

As a result of the first point, the card runs VERY coolly. I never went over 49c while playing The Elder Scrolls Online at 1080p, 65 FPS, and max settings. Not exactly a demanding test for the card, but the same setup hit ~75 with my GTX 770.

As a result of the cooler and TDP, again, the card overclocks very well. This can result in much higher power draw, but I don’t think most overclockers are worried about that. There is speculation that Gigabyte used “leakier” chips than most manufacturers in order to achieve higher overclocks at the cost of higher power consumption. Regardless, the power consumption is so low, it is still relatively efficient with massive overclocks.

Very quiet

The huge cooler headway lets the fans run at low speeds. During a 2-hour gaming session, the card stayed between 35-50% fan speed, which was not audible over my speakers at a modest volume. The card is the least audible part of my system, which runs very quiet. I have six Cougar low-noise fans running on controllers at low speeds, as well as a Corsair H60 with two CM Excalibur fans on it, also set to low speeds.

I/O options

The I/O options (DVI, HDMI, DP) are the best I’ve ever seen on a card. It is perfect for today’s standards.

WINDFORCE LED

WINDFORCE LED on the top is fully customizable through Geforce Experience. Most importantly, it can be turned off, unlike my old GTX 770 Classified’s light. The light can also do some other cool things like pulsing, breathing, and reacting to PC sounds. It would be nice if this was an RGB LED, but it is simply blue.

Subjectively, the best looking card out there. From the refined Windforce cooler to the brushed aluminum backplate, it is just very nice to look at. Also important is that it is color neutral. With a primarily green/black/gold interior, I was not at all interested in MSI’s red look. It would be nice if the aluminum heat sink had been anodized with a black coating.

Cons:

Audible coil whine when my speakers are off and the card is pushed to its limits. You can’t hear it with speakers on, and I’m sure a lot of people have PCs loud enough to drown it out. It is also less prevalent when only playing games because the GPU isn’t at 100% load. At the end of the day, this is a non-issue because it doesn’t happen at idle and it is drowned out while gaming.

It is very long. This isn’t something that detracts from the product, but it may be a concern to consider. If anything, it is a drawback for the cases that won’t fit it not the card itself.

Gigabyte GV-N970XTREME-4GD Specifications:

• Chipset:GeForce GTX 970
• Digital max resolution:4096 X 2160
• Analog max resolution:2048 x 1536
• Core Clock Base/Boost clock: 1190 / 1342 MHz (standard:1051/1178)
• Memory Clock:7100 MHz
• Process Technology:28 nm
• Memory Size:4 GB
• Memory Bus:256 bit
• Card Bus: PCI-E 3.0
• Memory Type: GDDR5
• DirectX 12
• OpenGL 4.4
• PCB Form: ATX
• Multi-view:4
• I/O Dual-link DVI-I*1/HDMI*1/Display Port*3
• Suggested Power requirement:600W (with two 8-pin external power connector)
• Card size:H=42 L=279 W=121 mm

Final Words – Wrapping it up

If you want to try to get close or dead on to the reference GTX 970 clocks, I’ve done the following: 108% Power, -64 Core, -3 Mem. Unfortunately, you can’t reduce core voltage manually or else it just resets back. Also, setting an overclock (or rather an underclock) will push the voltage up, even if not manually increased, so use Adaptive settings via NVCP/Inspector instead.

Make sure if you are using a program like Afterburner that you have a skin updated for when or after GPU Boost became used. Otherwise, new additions like Power Limit and Temperature will be missing.

To get DSR working, you need to check the corresponding box in the Nvidia Control Panel under Global Settings. When checked, they will show up in games, or can be applied by Geforce Experience. Make sure to modify any other Nvidia Inspector/Panel settings you had before because when you apply that, all your settings will be reset to what’s on that panel page. For me, since a lot of options don’t show there and are hidden, I have to go back to Inspector and redo some stuff.

Of course, you can use whatever software you like, I just like Afterburner. If you want to use GPU Tweak, there really is nothing wrong with it.

Cards apparently use Samsung and Hynix memory. The first original card I have uses Samsung, and the 2nd uses Hynix.

Whereas I was under the impression of every card utilized Samsung memory, they appear to use Hynix now too (maybe exclusively, dunno).Do read reviews carefully while buying the best GTX 970.

ASUS, MSI, EVGA, Gigabyte?

After creating the whole list and writing reviews about Best GTX 970 and all that I’ve gathered, I’ll try to make things simple. Get the ASUS, If you want the quietest card. If you want the coolest/best overclocker, get the Gigabyte G1. If you want the in-between, get the MSI 4G model. Honestly, overclocks of others like the MSI one are 50+ or so more for core and is, therefore, trivial–unless you want the best 3DMark score you can get. Basically, expect the same performance for games across the board with overclocks. That 0.05 frame addition doesn’t faze me at all. EVGA? After what was pulled, I wouldn’t bother.

The AMD competitors are not expected until around March of 2015 or so, so either wait until then to compare, or get a card now if your one has aged like my GTX 480. I expect Nvidia to release the revision of the Maxwell GM200 chips then as well to compete with AMD immediately. I do not expect the usual 6 months or so the gap between each card manufacturer this time around when AMD releases theirs.

Coil Whine is not a problem caused by Nvidia, but rather the AIB partners that manufacture the PCB and put it together (ASUS, EVGA, MSI, etc). Be mad at ASUS for this one, not Nvidia.It’s now up to you which GTX 970 brand you will choose as Best GTX 970.