Is this Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 reference card any good?

[Raven A]

I'm not really familiar with reference cards (I'm not even sure that's what they're called tbh, but I'm talking about the non-standard GPUs that were made by Nvidia or AMD and were then altered by a different company).

But I ordered a PC with the standard Nvidia GTX 970 4GB, and instead it came with a Galax KFA2 Geforce GTX 970 (not the Black Edition, here's the link: http://galax.net/KFA2/970v.html).

So I'm wondering whether they did this because the KFA2 card is cheaper/less good than the standard GTX 970, and they expected me not to find out, or because their regular one was out of stock so they decided to give me a better GTX 970GPU (the order did have some delays).

So in short, is this Galax KFA2 Geforce GTX 970 better or worse than the standard Nvidia Geforce GTX 970?

 

[Gagan sarpanch]

Its good.. but not best. Evga or asus Graphics card is better than galaxy... because its give you a better cooling solution

 

[madmatt30]

t is pretty much a 'reference' single fan model.
Nvidia don't actually do any reference cards in the 960/970 range - if they did though its exactly what it would look like.
Don't be worried by the fact its made by galax - they're a very solid & underrated brand IMO.

 

[King_Potato]

First of all, that cooler looks stupidly low quality, and I've read thing about this particular one being awful in build quality. It's also not 'reference' as they say, as there is no standard GTX 970.

 

[lantrich]

The base clock speed is a little lower than what is offered by most. It has a base clock speed of 1050 while most cards are at 1114. It also only has one fan while others have at least 2. It may be a lot louder. Galax is the new name for galaxy and they make good cards.

 

[EmileBV]

t is pretty much a 'reference' single fan model.
Nvidia don't actually do any reference cards in the 960/970 range - if they did though its exactly what it would look like.
Don't be worried by the fact its made by galax - they're a very solid & underrated brand IMO.

First of all, that cooler looks stupidly low quality, and I've read thing about this particular one being awful in build quality. It's also not 'reference' as they say, as there is no standard GTX 970.

Sorry guys but what is this then:
Newegg
and this:
BestBuy

The reference GTX 970 does exist. Please search before yelling about a fact that you didn't verify

 

[17seconds]

That's pretty much the budget GTX 970. The Nvidia reference models have the so-called "Titan" cooler, made of higher quality materials. The reference KFA2 (same as Galax) is the basic plastic model, and I bet the PCB is the shorter kind.

So its the base model, but its still a GTX 970 and will pump out some serious performance. The GTX 970 is known for being a quiet, cool card with excellent power consumption, so a high-end cooler, while nice, is far from mandatory. You'll hear a little more noise and you'll see lower Turbo Boost clocks than you would with a custom cooler.

 

[King_Potato]

t is pretty much a 'reference' single fan model.
Nvidia don't actually do any reference cards in the 960/970 range - if they did though its exactly what it would look like.
Don't be worried by the fact its made by galax - they're a very solid & underrated brand IMO.

First of all, that cooler looks stupidly low quality, and I've read thing about this particular one being awful in build quality. It's also not 'reference' as they say, as there is no standard GTX 970.

Sorry guys but what is this then:
Newegg
and this:
BestBuy

The reference GTX 970 does exist. Please search before yelling about a fact that you didn't verify

I myself searched far and wide for the reference cooler of the GTX 970. Judging by the reviews, this one hasn't been out since the end of november. I eventually stopped looking for them. And yes, I do actually do research before 'yelling about a fact I didn't verify'. No need to be such a twat about it...

 

[coozie7]

Think we're seeing a geographical issue, looks like King_Potato is in the UK (I don't think too many in the USA would use the word 'twat' ) and EmileBV IS in the USA, at least from the cards he's linked to.
Over on this side of the Pond (I'm in the UK) we haven't got that official 'Titan' cooler except for one special built card only available through Overclockers, at least AFAIK.

If you paid for the Titan type cooler or the advertising material clearly showed that cooler, they've given you a downgraded part and you should complain loudly, those reference coolers aren't as good.
If the product description was a vague 'reference cooler' or the photos didn't show that classy Titan cooler they've supplied what they advertised.

It's a 'value' card, Galax/KFA2 are OK but not usually too overclock friendly and tend to cut out extras rather than quality to keep the price down.

 

[Raven A]

Thanks guys, this is the image with which they advertised my pc: http://www.dragoncomputers.eu/image/data/products/vga/gainward/gtx970/gtx970.jpg

It is definitely a different cooler than the Galax that it came with, but in terms of robustness it seems to be closer to the Galax it came with than those Titan coolers.

The card itself performs excellent and at 100% it reaches about 78 degrees Celsius, but it does make more noise than I'd wish (at 100% that is, with normal HD games it's a lot quieter).

I think I'll buy an Arctic twin turbo cooler for it, which should bring the temp down about 15-20 degrees, so that I can overclock it a bit to make it similar to other reference gtx 970s.

In the end it doesn't seem that I should complain to the company where I bought it, right?

 

[EmileBV]

Think we're seeing a geographical issue, looks like King_Potato is in the UK (I don't think too many in the USA would use the word 'twat' ) and EmileBV IS in the USA, at least from the cards he's linked to.
Over on this side of the Pond (I'm in the UK) we haven't got that official 'Titan' cooler except for one special built card only available through Overclockers, at least AFAIK.

If you paid for the Titan type cooler or the advertising material clearly showed that cooler, they've given you a downgraded part and you should complain loudly, those reference coolers aren't as good.
If the product description was a vague 'reference cooler' or the photos didn't show that classy Titan cooler they've supplied what they advertised.

It's a 'value' card, Galax/KFA2 are OK but not usually too overclock friendly and tend to cut out extras rather than quality to keep the price down.

Actually I'm from Canada..... I can't buy those cards from the USA that is just under us but still... it exist and it is still being sold. The only issue now is how to get it because online stores are pretty weird sometimes when it comes to international shipping or simple ground shipping to country next to them.

Also, one thing I was wondering is why does the reference card produced by Nvidia isn't sold by them? When I go on their webpage, all their links to buy the GTX 970 are to buy from everyone but themselves. And even Nvidia showcase all the new 900 series with pictures of them in the reference "Titan" cooler. I just think that it's kinda weird that Nvidia advertise so much this particular model and when it comes to selling it, they tell us to go see somewhere else.

Just to end this.. (sorry it's a long post) thanks a lot to have talked about that "Galax" card. It was the first time I saw anything about this brand of graphic cards and it's nice to see other options for the blower type cooler.

 

[17seconds]

The photo of the advertised card and the KFA2/Galax card are exactly the same, with a different sticker.

 

[madmatt30]

I don't think you can complain mate - expected a single fan,got a single fan always going to be louder at the end of the day.78c isn't bad though at 100% load IMO.

How often does your card run at 100% load though while gaming? ,I vsync mine at 60htz & rarely get above 70% usage.

 

[coozie7]

@ Raven A: The shrouds look a little different but the differences are purely cosmetic so you've got what you paid for, besides it'll probably say something like 'or similar' in the supply contract so you'll just spend a lot of time and cause yourself a lot of aggro for no good effect if you complain.
Madmatt30 also mentions one of the oldest ways to keep a card a little cooler: turn v-sync on. It doesn't work for all games I know but it's a very handy way to stop the card from producing silly framerates-and unwanted heat, not to mention massive screen tearing-in less demanding games, and for a GTX970 that's pretty well all of 'em.
Check before you do the cooler swap, some will allow a little tinkering without voiding the warranty, others will not.
@ emileBV: I was close.
I know, but it's common practice to vary product details according to territory, like I said we CAN get that cooler over here in the UK, but just from one (albeit very large) e-tailer.

 

[Raven A]

Thanks I set V-sync to adaptive, which works great. The card is quite often around 95-105% (according to afterburner) while playing Skyrim, which is extremely heavily modded with UHD textures, DoF and high poly meshes, but with 'normal' games (most recent one being Dying Light) or 3D programs it rarely goes above 70%. Skyrim is the game I play mostly though. Is it bad that the percentage goes so high with it?



I have also just encountered another issue (or it might also be lack of knowledge making me think it is an issue while it actually isn't):

The connectors on the back of my PC, which are the GPU's, are as follows:

DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI and Display Port.

The strange thing is that on all sites that the GTX 970 is advertised, the connectivity options listed are completely different!

The site where I bought it says:

Connectivity: DVI-I (VGA over adapter) + miniDisplayPort *3

Nvidia's and Galax' sites say:

Standard Display Connectors: Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2



What's the deal with that?

EDIT: The picture in the Galax link (http://galax.net/KFA2/970v.html) actually show the connections that my GPU has, but the same link advertises with Dual Link DVI x1, HDMI x1, DisplayPort 1.2 x3... Now I'm just confused?

 

[njstat]

I have a reference gtx 970 with the titan cooler, performs really well and stays cool. I purchased mine at best buy (US)http://www.bestbuy.com/site/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-4gb-gddr5-pci-express-3-0-graphics-card-silver-black/9855169.p?id=1219441201895

 

[himustache2]

Nvidia does sell a reference card.
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/geforce-gtx-970/buy-gpu