Asus GTX 970 vs MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G

[Girish Iyer]

If the Asus GTX 970 was $10-15 cheaper than the MSI card, would you choose the Asus? If you would, then considering that the MSI has near unanimous positive reviews while the Asus has received some complaints like lack of easy overclocking ability and loudness of the fans when running at peak, would you prefer the Asus just because it is cheap or does it have some positive features over MSI?

Thanks.

 

[RobCrezz]

Yes I would choose the Asus if it was $10-15 cheaper. Both are good cards and you would struggle to notice any difference between them, so may aswell save a few $$.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

There are significant differences in components, cooling, power delivery which in my opinion more than warrant the cost difference. You will note that the MSI / Gigabyte cards routinely clock over 1500 in just about every review whereas the Asus / EVGA do not. That is because they have different PCBs, different componentry and MSI takes a few extra efforts in cooling and power delivery. You can read about them in the link below. Pay specific attention to the bottom third of each page (2 thru 4) if you want to understand why they perform differently.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/2

With both OC'd... the MSI runs 6C cooler and about 4.5 fps faster in techpowerups testing

 

[RobCrezz]

There are significant differences in components, cooling, power delivery which in my opinion more than warrant the cost difference. You will note that the MSI / Gigabyte cards routinely clock over 1500 in just about every review whereas the Asus / EVGA do not. That is because they have different PCBs, different componentry and MSI takes a few extra efforts in cooling and power delivery. You can read about them in the link below. Pay specific attention to the bottom third of each page (2 thru 4) if you want to understand why they perform differently.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/2

With both OC'd... the MSI runs 6C cooler and about 4.5 fps faster in techpowerups testing

meh, silicon lottery on the chip.

Ive got a MSI lightning, and yeah it overclocks pretty well, but I have had reference cards that overclock well too..