anyone here order the MSI GTX 970 4GD5T?

[realjetavenger]

Well, add me to the list. Ordered a 970 gaming last night. Still do not have an eta as it has not yet shipped but I am impatiently waiting.

Originally, my list of contestants included the Evga with ACX cooler, Asus strix and the MSI gaming. The Evga dropped off as soon as reports of the misaligned cooler contact showed up, not to mention reports of coil whine in the reviews that were recently posted.

Asus strix was dropped off the list after two reviews showed it did not oc as well as the MSI gaming and it is the only one to use a single 8 pin power connector. I've been rocking an Asus 670 DCII which has oc'ed well and been really quiet while doing so.

Really, the only reason to upgrade right now is that the 670 started acting strangely recently. For some reason, games are not accessing all of it's memory, only using about 1GB as confirmed with both MSI AB and GPUz. I do not believe it is hardware related. GPUz shows it has 2GB of memory. Games just are not accessing it for some reason. nVidia has not helped diagnose the problem. They replied one time asking for more info and have not responded after I gave them that info. To be fair, I have not contacted Asus about the issue. But I am getting tired of troubleshooting.
That left MSI which seems to be the best of what is currently available out there. It has the upgraded power supply and the great cooler and reviews shows it overclocks like a champ.

My upgrade path has been reference 460 sli ---> 670 DCII ---> MSI gaming 970

tl;dr
Ordered the MSI gaming and am impatiently waiting for it

 

[Subyman]

Well, add me to the list. Ordered a 970 gaming last night. Still do not have an eta as it has not yet shipped but I am impatiently waiting.

Originally, my list of contestants included the Evga with ACX cooler, Asus strix and the MSI gaming. The Evga dropped off as soon as reports of the misaligned cooler contact showed up, not to mention reports of coil whine in the reviews that were recently posted.

Asus strix was dropped off the list after two reviews showed it did not oc as well as the MSI gaming and it is the only one to use a single 8 pin power connector. I've been rocking an Asus 670 DCII which has oc'ed well and been really quiet while doing so.

Really, the only reason to upgrade right now is that the 670 started acting strangely recently. For some reason, games are not accessing all of it's memory, only using about 1GB as confirmed with both MSI AB and GPUz. I do not believe it is hardware related. GPUz shows it has 2GB of memory. Games just are not accessing it for some reason. nVidia has not helped diagnose the problem. They replied one time asking for more info and have not responded after I gave them that info. To be fair, I have not contacted Asus about the issue. But I am getting tired of troubleshooting.
That left MSI which seems to be the best of what is currently available out there. It has the upgraded power supply and the great cooler and reviews shows it overclocks like a champ.

My upgrade path has been reference 460 sli ---> 670 DCII ---> MSI gaming 970

tl;dr
Ordered the MSI gaming and am impatiently waiting for it

GPUz reads the card's bios information, so it wouldn't be able to tell you if the ram is no longer working. That's unfortunate. You should still pursue an RMA so you can sell your card and recoup some of the costs. I've got two MSI Gaming cards on the way as well. Should be here monday, can't wait!

 

[tviceman]

I generally think yours and tviceman's upgade paths have been excellent over the years. I think GTX460/560/560Ti --> GTX570/660Ti/670 --> GTX780. Those were huge increases in performance/watt and performance. I am really scratching my head at your guys decision to lose so much money on a 780 to go 970/980. Even the 980 is only 30% faster on average at 2560x1600 against a stock 780 and I know neither of you ran a 780 at stock.

Yeah its mostly just fun. The 780 I got was during the masterpass 10% deal on newegg, and I also got a $30 MIR AND Nvidia's 3 game bundle at the time (which I sold). When it was all said and done, the 780 cost me $375. Selling it for $275 9 months later considering the video card landscape right now is pretty good I guess.

Actually my upgrade paths have been pretty silly (dumb). I know the logic of value, and I certainly appreciate it, but there are just some things that I can accept a premium on (to an extent). I'm still trying to decide if I want to pay the premium for the 980's or not.... looking at the 980 OC benchmarks across the web is awfully tempting..... I'm going to take my time on deciding though, so if it's not a wise decision, at least I still thought it out. Haha.

 

[toyota]

Yeah its mostly just fun. The 780 I got was during the masterpass 10% deal on newegg, and I also got a $30 MIR AND Nvidia's 3 game bundle at the time (which I sold). When it was all said and done, the 780 cost me $375. Selling it for $275 9 months later considering the video card landscape right now is pretty good I guess.

Actually my upgrade paths have been pretty silly (dumb). I know the logic of value, and I certainly appreciate it, but there are just some things that I can accept a premium on (to an extent). I'm still trying to decide if I want to pay the premium for the 980's or not.... looking at the 980 OC benchmarks across the web is awfully tempting..... I'm going to take my time on deciding though, so if it's not a wise decision, at least I still thought it out. Haha.

yeah so me and you got the exact same deal on a 780 back then.

 

[tviceman]

Twas a good card. I coming from past twin frozr cards, I'm impressed how much MSI has been able to cut down the fan noise. My old gtx560 TI could get fairly loud.

 

[toyota]

Twas a good card. I coming from past twin frozr cards, I'm impressed how much MSI has been able to cut down the fan noise. My old gtx560 TI could get fairly loud.

LOL I keep staring over my 970 but I am too lazy to install it. I am only going to run the Metro LL bench for bench since we already have plenty of reviews. I am just going to run my 780 at out of box settings compared to same with 970. I will check power usage and framerate. after that I am just going to see what kind of oc this 4GD5T can do. I am hoping I can get 1400 mhz easily with maybe a bump in voltage since the Gaming card seems to hit about 1500 mhz oced.

 

[tviceman]

This sounds perfect. You can be my guinea pig and help me decide whether to splurge on the 980 or save some money with the 970. Really interested in the power consumption numbers at both stock and overclock.

 

[toyota]

ok here we go. this is the Metro LL bench.

780 at out of box clocks 1019 boost the whole time
44 fps
384 watts


970 at out of box clocks ranged from 1240 to 1291 boost
46 fps
288 watts

lol basically 100 watts difference.

overclocking will not go far as limit of 106%. well that sucks as even just 155 more core makes hit 106 a few times during bench.

970 ranging between 1392 to 1460
50 fps
294 watts

and my total system wattage has monitor included in case anyone is wondering why its a bit high.

 

[tviceman]

Wow 100 watts??? That is crazy! what would your 780 hit on fps with your everyday OC?

 

[toyota]

Wow 100 watts??? That is crazy! what would your 780 hit on fps with your everyday OC?

cant remember now without going back through my screenshots. it was only 1110 mhz and 6200 anyway.

this 970 runs 1471 just fine on stock voltage but I occasionally hit the power limit since it will only go to 106%. I have no doubts this card could go right past 1500 with a higher power limit. I have not even fooled with ocing the memory since there is no point because as I said I am already hitting the power limit. grr

using DSR is great too.

 

[tviceman]

OC the ram anyways. See if it helps with the Metro benchmark. You never know!

 

[toyota]

OC the ram anyways. See if it helps with the Metro benchmark. You never know!

hmm whats odd is that it shows I have gone to max of 110% even though I can only go up to 106% on the slider it itself.

I am going to see if I can get 1500 mhz on core...

EDIT: lol I hit 1505 no problem with stock voltage

I had to do print screen of the screenshot since it was too big for the pic host to upload. and man does DSR EAT up vram as this screen was at 2560x1440 on my 1920x1080 monitor.


image hosting 5mb

 

[HeXen]

I read there's an 8gig version coming out later.

 

[toyota]

I read there's an 8gig version coming out later.

and you will need it if running 4k through DSR. of course you will need 970 or 980 SLI too though.

 

[Rvenger]

So what's the consensus so far? Also what's your ASIC score on the card? Seems to boost pretty high. Is it staying cool ?

That may be the "go to" best bang for buck 970.

 

[Rvenger]

and you will need it if running 4k through DSR. of course you will need 970 or 980 SLI too though.

DSR doesn't work on SLI D:

 

[toyota]

So what's the consensus so far? Also what's your ASIC score on the card? Seems to boost pretty high. Is it staying cool ?

That may be the "go to" best bang for buck 970.

72 was highest it hit and its a little warm (79 F) in my room. with AC on I probably wont go over 70.

70.6 is the ASIC score.

the fact that it is going past its power target is freaking me out.

 

[HeXen]

and you will need it if running 4k through DSR. of course you will need 970 or 980 SLI too though.

I thought maybe in a few years, since consoles have 8 gig ddd 5 that maybe more games ported to PC might use it similarly and the consoles are barely 1080p.
But I'm just guessing, besides in a few years, 4k will be more common, at least for many PC gamers.

 

[tviceman]

72 was highest it hit and its a little warm (79 F) in my room. with AC on I probably wont go over 70.

70.6 is the ASIC score.

the fact that it is going past its power target is freaking me out.

I wouldn't worry about it. Is your power draw changing much with the max OC?

 

[toyota]

I wouldn't worry about it. Is your power draw changing much with the max OC?

thats what is odd too. performance and clocks are going up but power usage is only changing by less than 10 watts. I cant believe it was hitting 1290 out of the box though.

and clocks bounce around a lot in the LL bench where as the 780 was pegged at 1019 the whole time.

 

[realjetavenger]

GPUz reads the card's bios information, so it wouldn't be able to tell you if the ram is no longer working. That's unfortunate. You should still pursue an RMA so you can sell your card and recoup some of the costs. I've got two MSI Gaming cards on the way as well. Should be here monday, can't wait!

Yeah, you're right. Since it is still under warranty, I did go and open a ticket with Asus.

Wow. Two of the 970 Gamings? That's going to be nuts.

 

[toyota]

I thought it was DSR but even at 1920x1080 I am seeing way over 3gb of vram usage and even approaching 4gb. Thats in Metro LL, Crysis 3, and 3dMark.

 

[realjetavenger]

^^^^ When you first stated you couldn't hit 1500, I'm thinking it's funny we are disappointed it won't go over 1500. Just a couple years ago, no one was getting 1500 without exotic cooling and some hacks to over volt.
Then you stated you got 1505 and I thought, whew, now we're talking and that's more like it.

 

[toyota]

^^^^ When you first stated you couldn't hit 1500, I'm thinking it's funny we are disappointed it won't go over 1500. Just a couple years ago, no one was getting 1500 without exotic cooling and some hacks to over volt.
Then you stated you got 1505 and I thought, whew, now we're talking and that's more like it.

well the only reason 1500 was a goal was because the gaming card could hit that. I just wanted to see what I sacrificed by going with this card.

this seems higher than stock gtx980 to me


upload pics

 

[tviceman]

Looks like your card is solid! Every bit as good as any other 970. How are the noise levels?