Which GTX 970?

Solution
I've used MSI for years, and without issues.

For the 970's however, I've heard nothing but complaints about the EVGAs and their poor coolers.

Personally, I went with the Gigabyte G1 970 because it had the fastest stock clock, excellent cooling, great reviews, etc. ASUS is also a great brand, and they have excellent reviews on their STRIX 970.

Either of them should be just fine, but you will want to stay away from EVGA this time around.
Never touched MSI due to bad QC. However some people have had no problems with it, but I still recommend to stay away. Go with Asus (as mentioned) or Gigabyte or EVGA for Nvidia cards.

The GTX 970 is a great card and should be able to max out at least 60+FPS for most games.
 
Both are good cards but the MSI one seems to be a good unit. Usually evga's acx cards are the ones to go for but the 970s have an issue with the cooler. There has to be at least 20 threads on this exact question, just search the forum before posting
 
There's nothing wrong with the MSI card, it looks cool too. So does the Asus strix. Which ever one you buy, you will pretty much get the same results. Buy one with your money in mind and whether or not the cooler designs are worth the extra bit.

I wouldn't recommend the EVGA card though, see here http://www.eteknix.com/evga-gtx-970-feature-manufacturing-defect/
 
I've used MSI for years, and without issues.

For the 970's however, I've heard nothing but complaints about the EVGAs and their poor coolers.

Personally, I went with the Gigabyte G1 970 because it had the fastest stock clock, excellent cooling, great reviews, etc. ASUS is also a great brand, and they have excellent reviews on their STRIX 970.

Either of them should be just fine, but you will want to stay away from EVGA this time around.
 
Solution


well they released cards with a new cooler. so if he goes for 2.0 he should be good!
 
I've been going nuts over the 970 release, read all the popular site 970 reviews, and the one clear consensus seems to be that getting the Gigabyte incarnation is a no-brainer. It is long, so that alone might disqualify it as an option, but the OC potential is massive, and the cooling is top-tiered. It also doesn't have the zero-fan gimmick (I'm sorry...I want my $500 card to have airflow...) which cannot be adequately disabled/circumvented on ASUS and MSI (in fact, the ASUS card gets weird with the cooling if you try assigning a new fan profile via 3rd party software). Anyways, my vote goes to Gigabyte. The only one to avoid is the EVGA as they couldn't even manage to put the heatsink on right...
 


Gigabyte's card is good, but so is MSI's.

The zero dB fan isn't a "gimmick". Many, many enthusiasts want silence. The card is perfectly fine with the fan off at idle. My MSI 970 stays in the 30's or around 40C, and even if I don't want the temp that high, I can easily set the fan speed to the minimum of 25% and it is still silent.

As for a custom fan profile causing issues, I haven't heard of that yet.