60% TDP GTX 970 vs GTX 960 - Which one would run Faster,Cooler,w/Less Power?

[Quad5Ny]

I'm looking for a GPU for my EVGA Hadron, I have a few conditions that need to be met:

1. Needs to be a blower design
2. Needs to run under load @ 50-60c
3. Needs to draw <110w (if possible)
4. Needs to run games @ 1080p on Med-High
5. Would prefer it to be a team Green GPU (NVIDIA)

So based on those specs I can either go with a 970 and lower the TDP or a 960.

Suggestions, Comments, Cookies... all welcome. :awe:


P.S. This is what a Reference GTX 970 Unigine Heaven Extreme run looks in 1080p w/TDP 65% - FPS:40.0 || Score:1007 || Min FPS:25.1 || Max FPS:94.3

 

[sm625]

You want a 960. There is no point in using a 970 if you're going to limit it to 110W. Even a 960 will have to be throttled a little bit in order to stay under 110W.

 

[bzb_Elder]

You want a 960

+1

I currently run a 670, which according to most benchmarks I've seen, performs similarly to the 960, so I can confirm that the 960 should "run games @ 1080p on Med-High".

 

[RussianSensation]

Niether the 960 nor the 970 can meet all of your requirements. The reference 960's peak power usage is 120W, and it only goes up from there for after-market versions to 124W-144W. 970 is automatically out.

No reference blower 960/970 runs at 50-60C at load.

If you need a blower, sounds like the PNY 960 is the ticket if you can tolerate the high noise.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-579-_-Product

Just keep in mind that the reference blower (PNY style) on 960/970 cards is crap. It's loud.

53 dBA at load

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...-nvidia-gtx-970-sli-performance-review-4.html

The ONLY good blower 960/970 made is the $380 970 at BestBuy. but this card is going to end up nearly double the price of that PNY 960 and not much faster if you drop its power usage to 110W.

Before you rule out the 970, tell us what PSU you have.

 

[SPBHM]

without any testing it's difficult to say, but I can see a downclocked 970 being more efficient, faster than the 960 at 110W, no to mention the extra vram.


I remember some old tom's hardware (I think) test comparing a downclocked 5800 to a 5700 (Radeons from 2009) and the downclocked bigger GPU card was clearly more power efficient, faster at the same power usage.

 

[96Firebird]

Looks like the Hadron comes with a 500W Gold PSU with 40A on the 12V rail. That is enough to run the 970 at full load, if that is your concern with keeping the card under 110W.

 

[RussianSensation]

Looks like the Hadron comes with a 500W Gold PSU with 40A on the 12V rail. That is enough to run the 970 at full load, if that is your concern with keeping the card under 110W.

:thumbsup: If true, I would skip the 960 automatically. Also, the requirement for a blower card is usually overblown. MSI Gaming 970 runs uber quiet and is cool. We have a user with dual MSI Gaming 970s on a cramped Asus Gene board and they still run cool and quiet. I'd go for one of those. Also, it will turn the fans off up to 60-65C at low gaming loads. If you end up with a hot and loud blower card, it basically entirely defeats the purpose of the blower.

 

[96Firebird]

Only problem is EVGA claims the Hadron can only handle cards up to 267mm, while the MSI website lists the 970 Gaming at 269mm long. Who knows what the tolerance on either dimension is, it might fit but I'm not sure I'd risk it.

Looking up blower design dimensions, should be the same as the 980 blower length.

Edit - Reference blower 980 is 280mm long, so I suspect the reference-style blower 970 is the same. EVGA's blower 970 is 242mm long, but will probably be noisier if the OP wants to stick with blowers.

 

[Quad5Ny]

I currently have a GTX 670 FTW but the dam thing is cooking my Intel 530 mSATA SSD that's directly behind the PCIe slot, the SSD easily hits 70c.

As for the 110W thing that's more of a noise concern, I'd like to keep the PSU fan from ramping up. It's louder than all 4 other fans I have in the build.

Man, I really made a bad choice for a quiet HTPC case... but it's just so dam cute. :\

 

[Quad5Ny]

...No reference blower 960/970 runs at 50-60C at load.

If you need a blower, sounds like the PNY 960 is the ticket if you can tolerate the high noise.
...

without any testing it's difficult to say, but I can see a downclocked 970 being more efficient, faster than the 960 at 110W, no to mention the extra vram.
...

I actually have the Best Buy reference 970 and made a 960-ish performance BIOS to test and it runs runs extremely cool @54c/44%Fan but not only that, after subtracting CPU usage its only using 90W. -- MBT Settings, 970->960 ROM

Do you really think the PNY blower is going to be horrible? I mean I know EVGA's blowers suck but the PNY one looks like a re-branded reference 960.

 

[kasakka]

Looks like the Hadron comes with a 500W Gold PSU with 40A on the 12V rail. That is enough to run the 970 at full load, if that is your concern with keeping the card under 110W.

Definitely. I used to run two GTX 770s on a 525W PSU with an overclocked CPU and a single 970 uses way less power than that.

As for fitting a card in, it depends on how the manufacturer measures the card. For example Gigabyte is known for long cards, but their measurement is the whole card including plates and connectors. I could fit two Gigabyte GTX 970 cards into a case that is supposed to take only 290mm cards (Gigabyte states their cards are 310mm).

 

[Quad5Ny]

Hey guys why do you think about a 750?

I know it exhausts internally but it uses so little power that it might not matter? I'd be happy to do 720p or 900p considering how far away my TV is.

 

[Blintok]

I had a GTX560 in my non-gaming computer. The card recently died so was looking for a new one. Was going to get the GTX750 but saw that the GTX960 was out and cost was not that much more. So went with that and happy i did. Got the Asus STRIX 960. Really quiet card, in fact the fans wont even come on until the card goes past 45C

 

[Headfoot]

I'm looking for a GPU for my EVGA Hadron, I have a few conditions that need to be met:

[*]Needs to run under load @ 50-60c
[*]Needs to draw <110w (if possible)

These two requirements are entirely arbitrary and get in the way of making the best choice. There is no reason at all your card needs to run that cool, especially when you're already limiting your heat by putting it into a small case.

You might want to look into doing a all-in-one water cooler mod for a card so that you can exhaust all the heat out via a 120mm case fan slot but can still use a high power GPU. Plus if you're worried about noise, blowers are the loudest type of air coolers generally speaking. You're just trading one noisemaker for another that way.

Buying a 960 or a 750 Ti is going to be a really bad choice given the terrible price/perf of those cards.

 

[Quad5Ny]

I had a GTX560 in my non-gaming computer. The card recently died so was looking for a new one. Was going to get the GTX750 but saw that the GTX960 was out and cost was not that much more. So went with that and happy i did. Got the Asus STRIX 960. Really quiet card, in fact the fans wont even come on until the card goes past 45C

I went with a 960 as well becasue the prices for 750 Ti's are ridiculous, they should be <$90! If anyone is curious what the reference 960 cooler looks like (under the shroud) and sounds like, I'll be making a thread sometime in the next few days.

These two requirements are entirely arbitrary and get in the way of making the best choice. There is no reason at all your card needs to run that cool, especially when you're already limiting your heat by putting it into a small case.

You might want to look into doing a all-in-one water cooler mod for a card so that you can exhaust all the heat out via a 120mm case fan slot but can still use a high power GPU. Plus if you're worried about noise, blowers are the loudest type of air coolers generally speaking. You're just trading one noisemaker for another that way.

Buying a 960 or a 750 Ti is going to be a really bad choice given the terrible price/perf of those cards.

If you check above there is a SSD directly behind the PCIe slot and it was throttling from the heat from my GPU.

I thought of getting a H75 and zip tying it onto a 970 and then modding the lid of the PSU with a 80mm... but I loose my HDD cage if I do that.

I agree but this is a home theater rig and I had to make tradeoffs in size/noise.