Hey all, just thought I'd give my personal impressions on my new 970 GPU. To cut a long ramble short... really short. This thing is mental! here is why.
So first off my PC is a 2500K @ 4.6(5.2 when the weather is cooler), 16Gb corsair Vengeance Pro 2133Mhz ram and an Asus Maximus V GENE, Crucial M500 240 SSD, Corsair 600T, OCZ Fatal1ty 750w.
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Here is a quick Fire Strike comparison between my old system at it's max and what i was able to do day one of owning the new card. (344.11 drivers)
2500K @ 5.2 + SLI 760s at there peak OC under water. = 10.2k Firestrike http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2764562
2500K @ 4.6 + GTX 970 at it's peak (so far) on stock air. = 10.8K Firestrike http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2805877
The mental thing I mentioned before came about when I was reaching the cards soft peak overclock. I managed to a boost speed of 1486 without adding any extra voltage and the memory upto 8k. Afterburner says there is a extra .87.5v available I can add if I wish to. Which I was only at this stage wanting to risk a .20 increase. Which netted me the 1528 boost clock.
Having broken the 1.5Ghz mark I called it a day and figured that was fast enough and I must have gotten lucky with the silicone lottery. happy days!
But after taking a breather, going for a smoko coming back to run 3dmark11 I realised something I was honestly shocked I hadn't even thought about during my excitement of getting the new card.
I had forgot to run anything other than the stock fan profile..... what a noob I thought. Until I took note of the max temperature during my overclocked had logged.. 64 degrees C and here's the real kicker. If i had of even heard the fans on this thing rev up, it would have reminded me to set them to 100% like I would have normal done for overclocking. They only reached 45% fan speed and I hadn't heard a peep out of them.
So after all that, I rang my mate who's also in the market for a new GPU. And it only took about the same info and he was sold. But he's away on a holiday atm, so he kindly shipped his to my house and given my permission to try them in SLI for a few days until he gets back. lucky me
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Sorry if this is not the normal format for member reviews this is my first. But I hope I've shared enough info with you guys to appreciate what MSI have managed to do with their new twin frozr cooler for this thing.
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In conclusion. This is the 2nd most expensive single GPU I've ever bought 2nd only to my crazy $750 purchase of the old 6800 Ultra back in the day.
The card is an overclockers wet dream, it pretty much hit the 1.5Ghz mark before I had even really pulled it's panties off! haha
The cooler is amazingly quiet, performs very well stacked up against my SLI'd 760s. I know my system isn't a 5960X overclocked monster, but maybe this mini review represents some real world stats many of you could relate to more than the best the of best.
I will post SLI results in a follow up post on this review for anyone who is interested in checking them out later this week.
Thanks and I look forward to hearing what Tom has to say in his review of it.
So first off my PC is a 2500K @ 4.6(5.2 when the weather is cooler), 16Gb corsair Vengeance Pro 2133Mhz ram and an Asus Maximus V GENE, Crucial M500 240 SSD, Corsair 600T, OCZ Fatal1ty 750w.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a quick Fire Strike comparison between my old system at it's max and what i was able to do day one of owning the new card. (344.11 drivers)
2500K @ 5.2 + SLI 760s at there peak OC under water. = 10.2k Firestrike http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2764562
2500K @ 4.6 + GTX 970 at it's peak (so far) on stock air. = 10.8K Firestrike http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2805877
The mental thing I mentioned before came about when I was reaching the cards soft peak overclock. I managed to a boost speed of 1486 without adding any extra voltage and the memory upto 8k. Afterburner says there is a extra .87.5v available I can add if I wish to. Which I was only at this stage wanting to risk a .20 increase. Which netted me the 1528 boost clock.
Having broken the 1.5Ghz mark I called it a day and figured that was fast enough and I must have gotten lucky with the silicone lottery. happy days!
But after taking a breather, going for a smoko coming back to run 3dmark11 I realised something I was honestly shocked I hadn't even thought about during my excitement of getting the new card.
I had forgot to run anything other than the stock fan profile..... what a noob I thought. Until I took note of the max temperature during my overclocked had logged.. 64 degrees C and here's the real kicker. If i had of even heard the fans on this thing rev up, it would have reminded me to set them to 100% like I would have normal done for overclocking. They only reached 45% fan speed and I hadn't heard a peep out of them.
So after all that, I rang my mate who's also in the market for a new GPU. And it only took about the same info and he was sold. But he's away on a holiday atm, so he kindly shipped his to my house and given my permission to try them in SLI for a few days until he gets back. lucky me
------------------------------------------
Sorry if this is not the normal format for member reviews this is my first. But I hope I've shared enough info with you guys to appreciate what MSI have managed to do with their new twin frozr cooler for this thing.
------------------------------------------
In conclusion. This is the 2nd most expensive single GPU I've ever bought 2nd only to my crazy $750 purchase of the old 6800 Ultra back in the day.
The card is an overclockers wet dream, it pretty much hit the 1.5Ghz mark before I had even really pulled it's panties off! haha
The cooler is amazingly quiet, performs very well stacked up against my SLI'd 760s. I know my system isn't a 5960X overclocked monster, but maybe this mini review represents some real world stats many of you could relate to more than the best the of best.
I will post SLI results in a follow up post on this review for anyone who is interested in checking them out later this week.
Thanks and I look forward to hearing what Tom has to say in his review of it.
