GTX 970 msi or gigabyte?

[brodier54]

Hi folks , the GTX 900 series is out and im struggling to decide which GTX 970 to buy the gigabyte G1 gaming or the MSI twin frozr v5 4G. from what I understand so far here are the pros and cons

gigabyte:
pros-
-slightly better performance than msi framerate wise
-superior cooling to msi
- comes with a backplate, I'm not entirely sure what the benefit of this is apart from stopping it 'warping'

cons
-louder than the msi card( the question would be whether it was louder than my stock heatsink and 3 case fans
-I have heard some people have had trouble with build quality on gigabyte cards before

MSI:
pros-
-quieter
-marginally cheaper(not overly important)
-doesn't consume as much space

cons-
-no backplate
-not as fast
-there were some reports of bad 'coil whine' on the msi gtx 970
- I haven't heard anything one way or the other about msi

any suggestions and helpful advice are much appreciated, cheers.

additionally would anyone be able to find out how i could tell what the warranty would be on either card i cant seem to find it anywhere ^.^

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I have the MSI 970 and I love it great performance and real quiet.

 

[someguynamedmatt]

I've had bad experiences with Gigabyte in the past, and not a single MSI product has failed me yet. Running one of their motherboards (H97I-AC) right now, and it's wonderful.

 

[Dracula872100]

Same here I had some bad experiences with Gigabyte in the past
MSI Is a great card and as for the coil whine it is there in some of the cards from each manufacturer and you can RMA if it happens for another one but that's only in small percentage of the cards
I personally Would tell you to go with MSI for great overall card this time or EVGA (Best customer support always) if not the best cards in the series right now and if you do go with ACX 2.0 since it doesn't have ACX troubles but again it's louder at least until the bios for the card is released and if you don't want to try and update then don't go EVGA

 

[junkeymonkey]

what hurts gigabyte for me is this Card Dimensions (L x H)15.9" x 9.3"

15.9'' I got 3 cases here and I don't thing I would chance it to fit

the MSI --- Card Dimensions (L x H)10.59" x 5.55"

that's more real life and I wonder how may sales giga may loose over the 15.9'' thing ??

 

[gamer1357]

I currently one the gigabyte 970 and it's been fantastic. This is my first gigabyte card. Overclocked to 1500mhz the hottest it got was 70 degrees under full load. My last card was an MSI 660ti and that card was great as well. I can tell you the gigabyte stays a little cooler than my MSI but it is also a tad louder but not by much.

My recommendation, if you have a red build go MSI it will look great. The gigabyte has a blue led so it looks great in blue colored builds, but can be turned off to match other schemes. Either way both cards are great and overclock great, just go with the one that better matches your color scheme.

 

[cowboydude99]

I've tried the MSI. so far it has been great. Either way you can't go wring.

I chose it for its quiet fans. Can't hear it while watching videos and while gaming it is very low too.

 

[iamlegend]

As what you have stated in your Pros and Cons about "Framerate wise" that is not true man. In real world you cannot see that much of a different in framerates with this card. Unless you are watching the FPS whole time when you play.

 

[Hussein Mahfouz]

Performance = Gigabyte (Highest factory core clock/boost)

Overclocking = Gigabyte (Highest stock TDP/Power Limit)

Features = Gigabyte (Most display connectivity 3xDP 1xHDMI 2xDVI)

GPU Cooling = Gigabyte (Best air cooled solution with Backplate)

VRAM Cooling = when it comes to VRM section of the board, MSI have a small secondary heatsink covering the VRM section, this is where Gigabyte scores a big win, they actually integrated their VRM cooling into the main HSF. This allows for much more surface area to distribute the heat from the VRMs to, and as this card is also a triple fan design there is also better airflow over the VRM

Source # Copied

 

[iamlegend]

That is only marketing strategy man.
You know, marketing stuffs. The real thing is when it comes with the real world scenario.

Maybe some people are playing like BF4 and looking at the FPS all the time. The reason why Gigabyte claims to have the highest boost clock due to its cooling system. As you can see it has 3 fans which will equate into more airflow and more headroom to OC. The drowback on the other hand is the amount of power it needed to run and maximize this fans.