Nvidia gtx 970 brand selection

[reconaddictor]

Hi, I plan to get the GTX970 and OC it to match the reference GTX 980. I initially wanted to get asus 970 strix but after some reading I found out gigabyte g1 or zotac extreme as well as msi gaming is the best brand for OC. Is that true? Note: i do not want loud fans

 

[smackers_12]

The MSI cards seem to have the best power delivery but its really too early to tell. Also an overclocked 970 will come close to a 980 but wont match it, the 980 is fundamentally a more powerful chip

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

I read that random cards with all vendors, including ASUS, have been having coil whine, fan noise issues, etc. My EVGA GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 runs great and stays quiet, but only after changing the fan speed curve to max at 50% in EVGA Precision X. The EVGA with ACX 2.0 is a good choice, but ASUS and Gigabyte are also quite good.

 

[smackers_12]

Does the ACX 2.0 Have the same issues as the ACX 1 coolers not sitting on the chip correctly

 

[jay2tall]

From what I understand your research is what I've gathered. I ended up with MSI Gaming 4G 970s. No coil whine ,but occasionally I get it from my PSU, which has happened over the years. It's not super bad and with headphones not a problem. The MSI card has a very good fan profile. Like other 970s the fans don't even spin up until around 60c. After that it does a very good job cooling. I was able to push the cards to 1300MHz on the gpu and 8012MHz (effective) on the vRAM without much effort. I just increased the TDC to 110% and kept the stock fan profile. I boosted to something like 1524 and no problems. I think the top card topped out at 75c and I don't have a super crazy case setup. It's pretty basic with decent airflow.

 

[GRUxTSAR]

Gigabyte Windforce 3X/Gaming G1. There's a real GPU air cooling solution

 

[reconaddictor]

Cool suggestions from everyone. Guess the strix feature of idle fan below 60°C isnt that neccesary if looking at oc.