EVGA Releases GTX 970 With Hybrid Cooling Solution

[kcarbotte]

EVGA announced that it has released a version of the ever popular GeForce GTX 970 that includes the company’s well known Hybrid closed loop cooling solution.

EVGA Releases GTX 970 With Hybrid Cooling Solution : Read more

 

[Gam3r01]

I still dont really like hybrid cards.
Sure they may run cooler, but these days temps are not what restrict OCs on GPUs. I also dont like the extra room they take up.

 

[kcarbotte]

I still dont really like hybrid cards.
Sure they may run cooler, but these days temps are not what restrict OCs on GPUs. I also dont like the extra room they take up.

I'm with you there. I've never been a fan of closed loop coolers. They are clunky, and not particularly attractive.

to me if you're going to go water, don't go half way with it. Full custom loop all the way!

 

[turkey3_scratch]

It's comparing the card to the standard GTX 970 card, so obviously temps are half. But if you compare the hybrid to the SSC ACX 2.0 cooler by EVGA, the graphs will probably be similar. Let's face, a single 120mm radiator is really not much for cooling. All these premade GPU water coolers as well as the CPU ones seem like gimmicks to me. If someone is serious about really cooling a card or CPU well, they would built a $300 custom loop done properly. Air coolers compete too well with liquid in most common applications for 99% of users.

 

[JoeMomma]

Why?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

I just find it absurd when people spend an extra $100 or even $50 on a card with watercooling when they can spend $100 more on a better graphics card. As Gamer said, overclocking potential is not really limited solely by temperatures, the power supply plays a larger role IMO. Gotta love that artifacting.

If people could, there are people temp-wise who could get 2000Mhz probably, but just not feasible with other limitations.

 

[thundervore]

I really do not see the point of putting this on a 970, it is like they are trying to milk these cards for all its worth.

Personally I refuse to get another GPU until HBM comes to Nvidia. Shouldn't everyone who wanted a 970 with RAM controversy should have one by now anyway?

 

[Moneyd623]

Would the lower temperature help with the lifetime of the card? Say, if the person using said card is not interested in Overclocking? I've gotta believe that bringing a card to 50 degrees during gaming sessions over the lifetime of the card, is better than bringing it up to 80 degrees over the lifetime of the card, in terms of the lifespan of the card.

Also All in one cards don't require the regular maintenance that custom loops require correct?

 

[Gam3r01]

Would the lower temperature help with the lifetime of the card? Say, if the person using said card is not interested in Overclocking? I've gotta believe that bringing a card to 50 degrees during gaming sessions over the lifetime of the card, is better than bringing it up to 80 degrees over the lifetime of the card, in terms of the lifespan of the card.

Also All in one cards don't require the regular maintenance that custom loops require correct?

They dont require any advanced maintenance other than basic cleanings.
The temperatures will not degrade the card unless you run them extremely high. Under 80C will have little to no impact on the card, even if it did it wouldnt become apparent until long after the card stops performing well enough.

 

[razor512]

With a decent non reference cooler, there really is no need for liquid cooling on a GTX 970

I have my GTX 970 overclocked, and the bios modded to unlock the voltage limits. I can push enough voltage to kill the GPU if I wanted to, but realistically, I can't go much beyond 1.265 V because I start to hit the VRM and PCI-e spec limitations for an 8+6 pin card. and even at that limit, the card still does not hit a thermal throttling threshold.

The liquid cooling is only useful if the card does something like implement a 3x 8 pin design where you can then reliably pump 1.3+V into the GPU with out VRM throttling. Funny thing is that the card I have is using an air cooler designed by EVGA ACX 2.0+.

Overall, you are better off spending an extra $69 and getting an EVGA GTX 980 with their non reference cooler that handles overclocking with no problem (power delivery issues kick in before the GPU runs into thermal issues).

 

[gadgety]

EVGA could sell their motherboards with pre-mounted waterblocks as well. Hydrocopper motherboards.

 

[Vesalius1]

Holding out for the hybrid 950.

In all seriousness, This wouldn't bother me if it didn't carry such a premium over its peers.

 

[Avus]

I don't think my "Standard" GTX970 run that hot when gaming...

 

[Gam3r01]

I don't think my "Standard" GTX970 run that hot when gaming...

Marketing

 

[abbadon_34]

An extra hundred bucks for a second tier card that doesn't need it? For a 980 or Titan sure, for a $300 card ?

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

it is stil advertised as a "4GB card"

GG

 

[10tacle]

it is stil advertised as a "4GB card"GG

That's because it is. It physically has 4GB VRAM soldered on the silicon. Just because it only directly accesses 3.5GB in the buffer doesn't preclude that fact. Everyone has been fully aware of the "problem" for 10 months now, and it is not slowing up 970 sales. Further, the card is still a better price/performance than the 980 with full 4GB VRAM access. I've got my EVGA SLI 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ cards overclocked to within 5-8% of 980 SLI performance for 30% less money.

Anyway, back to this card, someone would have to be a real stool pigeon to buy it for $400. EVGA is trying too hard. They did an excellent job of updating the original 970 ACX with the SSC ACX 2.0+ (new fan design, new heat pipe design, dual BIOS, upgraded to 6+2 power phase). The card runs cooler and uses less power than its predecessor. That was a real worthy improvement to extend shelf life. This card is snake oil.

 

[firefoxx04]

AIO while functional, just look so terrible. I can understand running an AIO on a Cpu these days but on a single gpu.. I'm not sure I like that. At that point I think it's time for a custom loop.

I saw a picture of a build yesterday. 3 AIO coolers total in that machine. Functional.. Yes.

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

it is stil advertised as a "4GB card"GG

That's because it is. It physically has 4GB VRAM soldered on the silicon. Just because it only directly accesses 3.5GB in the buffer doesn't preclude that fact. Everyone has been fully aware of the "problem" for 10 months now, and it is not slowing up 970 sales. Further, the card is still a better price/performance than the 980 with full 4GB VRAM access. I've got my EVGA SLI 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ cards overclocked to within 5-8% of 980 SLI performance for 30% less money.

Anyway, back to this card, someone would have to be a real stool pigeon to buy it for $400. EVGA is trying too hard. They did an excellent job of updating the original 970 ACX with the SSC ACX 2.0+ (new fan design, new heat pipe design, dual BIOS, upgraded to 6+2 power phase). The card runs cooler and uses less power than its predecessor. That was a real worthy improvement to extend shelf life. This card is snake oil.

If, a customer, that does NOT visit technical sites like this one, or any other, and goes to the store, he will buy a 4GB card, he will have NO freakin clue about it. The box says "4GB GDDR 5". But, i will rest my case here, because i dont want to start a polemic.

 

[Gam3r01]

it is stil advertised as a "4GB card"GG

That's because it is. It physically has 4GB VRAM soldered on the silicon. Just because it only directly accesses 3.5GB in the buffer doesn't preclude that fact. Everyone has been fully aware of the "problem" for 10 months now, and it is not slowing up 970 sales. Further, the card is still a better price/performance than the 980 with full 4GB VRAM access. I've got my EVGA SLI 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ cards overclocked to within 5-8% of 980 SLI performance for 30% less money.

Anyway, back to this card, someone would have to be a real stool pigeon to buy it for $400. EVGA is trying too hard. They did an excellent job of updating the original 970 ACX with the SSC ACX 2.0+ (new fan design, new heat pipe design, dual BIOS, upgraded to 6+2 power phase). The card runs cooler and uses less power than its predecessor. That was a real worthy improvement to extend shelf life. This card is snake oil.

If, a customer, that does NOT visit technical sites like this one, or any other, and goes to the store, he will buy a 4GB card, he will have NO freakin clue about it. The box says "4GB GDDR 5". But, i will rest my case here, because i dont want to start a polemic.

Said customer purchases a 4GB 970, and hey guess what, they have access to all 4GB on the card.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. The Fury X needs this or it can't run to it's potential; the 970 does not. I have yet to see a 970 hit it's throttling point.

2. Nice try EVGA; wanna explain how the "GTX 970 Standard" manages to hit 90C when the card starts throttling at 90C ?

3. While voltage is the primary limiter on 9xx series overclocking, the 2nd most limiting factor is VRM and VRAM cooling which the hybrid does nothing to address.

4. CLCs simply have no raison d'être. Using available "expandable" AIOs (Swiftech H240-X or Predator 360) along with a proper GP water block which also cools the VRM and VRAM, will easily cool a CPU and GFX card without a maze of tubing or any of the other deficiencies of CLCs. Why spend $100 for a hybrid when ya can get a true water block for $120 or so.

As the the alleged 970 RAM controversy, two things

a) The controversy is "Trumpesque" ... lot of hot air being blown, no truly observable impact unless you utilize settings and techniques far outside the realm of normal gameplay. Dozens of reputable web sites have tried to duplicate the alleged failings without success "unless they do something freaky". You can *create* a problem at 1080 / 1440p, but you have to work hard at it to do so.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-geforce-gtx-970-vram-stress-test.html

b) HBM1 has a problem in that ya can't stack enough RAM to fit on the PCB and it's limited to 4 GB. HBM2 is anticipated to correct issues at the 4GB barrier. Pascal will include HBM2 and AMD is expected to do the same. As is defined in the article below, no utility exists which can measure the amount of VRAM a game is using ... what they are measuring is what the system has allocated. Your credit card company may allocate you a $10k credit line, that doesn't mean you use it. Using a utility like GPU_z with a 4GB GB video card at 1440p may show it has 3 GB "allocated" for it's use, but that's just cause "it's available", as the test below show, switching to 2 GB as shown in the test below has no impact on performance.

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/213069-is-4gb-of-vram-enough-amds-fury-x-faces-off-with-nvidias-gtx-980-ti-titan-x/5
http://alienbabeltech.com/main/gtx-770-4gb-vs-2gb-tested/3/
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_960_g1_gaming_4gb_review,12.html
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/

Now some of those tests are old but the same principle applies and this argument has been going on since the 7xx series and before. The extremetech article should put the matter to bed once and for all.

Pascal will include HBM2 and AMD's next gen is expected to do the same.

 

[monsta]

I'm with alot of the comments here , not everyone has room for this kind of set up , they are clunky and not always practical , it does have a gimmick feel to it, better off getting the ACX cooling model to save yourself the hassle.

 

[monsta]

1. The Fury X needs this or it can't run to it's potential; the 970 does not. I have yet to see a 970 hit it's throttling point.

2. Nice try EVGA; wanna explain how the "GTX 970 Standard" manages to hit 90C when the card starts throttling at 90C ?

3. While voltage is the primary limiter on 9xx series overclocking, the 2nd most limiting factor is VRM and VRAM cooling which the hybrid does nothing to address.

4. CLCs simply have no raison d'être. Using available "expandable" AIOs (Swiftech H240-X or Predator 360) along with a proper GP water block which also cools the VRM and VRAM, will easily cool a CPU and GFX card without a maze of tubing or any of the other deficiencies of CLCs. Why spend $100 for a hybrid when ya can get a true water block for $120 or so.

As the the alleged 970 RAM controversy, two things

a) The controversy is "Trumpesque" ... lot of hot air being blown, no truly observable impact unless you utilize settings and techniques far outside the realm of normal gameplay. Dozens of reputable web sites have tried to duplicate the alleged failings without success "unless they do something freaky". You can *create* a problem at 1080 / 1440p, but you have to work hard at it to do so.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-geforce-gtx-970-vram-stress-test.html

b) HBM1 has a problem in that ya can't stack enough RAM to fit on the PCB and it's limited to 4 GB. HBM2 is anticipated to correct issues at the 4GB barrier. Pascal will include HBM2 and AMD is expected to do the same. As is defined in the article below, no utility exists which can measure the amount of VRAM a game is using ... what they are measuring is what the system has allocated. Your credit card company may allocate you a $10k credit line, that doesn't mean you use it. Using a utility like GPU_z with a 4GB GB video card at 1440p may show it has 3 GB "allocated" for it's use, but that's just cause "it's available", as the test below show, switching to 2 GB as shown in the test below has no impact on performance.

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/213069-is-4gb-of-vram-enough-amds-fury-x-faces-off-with-nvidias-gtx-980-ti-titan-x/5
http://alienbabeltech.com/main/gtx-770-4gb-vs-2gb-tested/3/
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_960_g1_gaming_4gb_review,12.html
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/

Now some of those tests are old but the same principle applies and this argument has been going on since the 7xx series and before. The extremetech article should put the matter to bed once and for all.

Pascal will include HBM2 and AMD's next gen is expected to do the same.

You nailed it

 

[Mpablo87]

I'm not sure about hybrid.I have some doubts.

 

[Umairkhan_1]

But I think gtx 970 Hybrid is pretty best in the 970's its pretty cool and best to overclock it reaches almost to 1600 mhz and gpu temp keep around 45°c it reaches to gtx 980 oc's performance