Which GTX 970 is the best?

XthHaseoX

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Money is no object in this question for me. I can save up for whichever card relatively easily. I wanted to know which GTX 970 was the absolute best performance wise. Like the GTX 970 FTW+ by EVGA or the G1 or the amp Omega, etc. etc. or would it be better overall to just get a 980? it obviously is a better card, but the price to performance ratio starts degrading when comparing these 2 cards unless I'm wrong and the 980 is that much better. Also, is there a 970 without a disabled L2/ROPs module?
 
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MSI gaming 4G, Gigabyte G1, Asus Strix are all good cards! I personally prefer the MSI since it stays very cool and has the least coil whine. The gigabyte has a high clocking speed but is pretty big and has some coil whine, but I think the EVGA is the one which has quite some coil whine problems with it.
It's all just personal preferences I think, wanting to OC or not, caring about temps or not. Look up some reviews and see which one is your prefered one!

samprinsen

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MSI gaming 4G, Gigabyte G1, Asus Strix are all good cards! I personally prefer the MSI since it stays very cool and has the least coil whine. The gigabyte has a high clocking speed but is pretty big and has some coil whine, but I think the EVGA is the one which has quite some coil whine problems with it.
It's all just personal preferences I think, wanting to OC or not, caring about temps or not. Look up some reviews and see which one is your prefered one!
 
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PapaWood

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I have the Asus Strix, it replaced a really old card and I love it, I am just fond of asus and overclocking it has been a breeze. My opinion is you can't go wrong with any of them, this was just my preference.
 

fzacek

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I think the MSI, Gigabyte, and EVGA FTW+ are the best versions of the 970. There's isn't any GTX 970 without the memory "feature," but I would wait for an 8GB version of the card or the AMD R9 3XX series before buying anything right now...
 

XthHaseoX

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Thanks for the heads up, but does the warranty cover the card if it's been overclocked? If not then the warranty isn't really a big issue for me.. I would void it regardless.. but I can see how one would speculate that if it only has a 1 year warranty that it may not last as long as a card that has a 3 year. because usually electronics go bad just after there warranty expires lol. I'll look out for it though, thanks. I currently have a GTX 670 FTW and I've had it for 3.5 years and it's still running perfectly fine, I just want to upgrade to something I won't have to upgrade again in a very long time. Usually higher end cards would have a longer warranty though at least I would assume, mine had a 3 year warranty.
 

XthHaseoX

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Is there really an 8GB version coming out? Yeah I might wait.. I have a pretty decent card still... I'm just wanting to upgrade since I'm kind of a graphics snob. I'm running a 670 FTW and it's still running strong after 3.5 years. I still play about 70% to 80% of all games on ultra, but there are a few that I can't max out all the settings at and it bothers me. I need more VRAM for higher AA and sampling.
 

Deyadissa

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Honestly, I went with the Nvidia OEM edition that you get from Best Buy or ordering directly from Nvidia, I am highly satisfied with it. It looks very pretty and it's reliable, I bought other cards from EVGA and MSI and always ran into problems. With the Nvidia direct editions, it was literally plug and play for me and everything just worked.
 

PapaWood

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A lot of new cards coming out soon, that is going to surely change the prices as to where you might spend the same or a little more and get a better card, maybe its worth waiting a little bit?
 

XthHaseoX

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Well, to be honest I want a card with the ability to use a full 4GB of VRAM at full speed, not run the last 512mb at a fraction of the speed, because there are games that require more than 3.5GB VRAM and some that even require 6GB of VRAM at the highest settings already and there are games which will require that soon as well. Also I want a future proof card that I won't be disappointed with. At the same time I don't want to drop more than $500 on a card. I'd be good with $400 card give or take a little. I mean I spent $430 on my current card 3.5 years ago. Nvidia really disappointed me with this about the GTX 970.. I was really hyped to get it, but now I'm not so sure. The GTX 970 FTW+ by EVGA has a 5/5 star rating because they addressed all the issues with previous cards and it overclocks like a champ as well but that doesn't change the fact that it only has 3.5 GB of VRAM in which runs at full speed which limits it's potential for games that require more than that to run at max settings.