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Nvidia Launches GTX 980 And GTX 970 "Maxwell" Graphics Cards ($549 & $329)

No, whine and buzz are not the same. Buzz, you get always. The more the card is forced to work, the more buzz. Depends on the game and the clocks and your PWM. Whine you get with every card with very high framerates. Whine is actually the loud one. The buzz is just the normal noise it makes when it's working...like a fan makes noise when it's spinning etc.

Never had coilwhine on any of my gpus, stop defending this shit, it's gross
 
No, whine and buzz are not the same. Buzz, you get always. The more the card is forced to work, the more buzz. Depends on the game and the clocks and your PWM. Whine you get with every card with very high framerates. Whine is actually the loud one. The buzz is just the normal noise it makes when it's working...like a fan makes noise when it's spinning etc.

I know your stance on coil whine and that it has existed since the Voodoo days, etc etc. But this buzz on load crap is NOT normal operation for a card and should not be accepted. I consider the buzz to be the real flaw with some 970s more than the high pitched squeal at high fps. Though I currently own two earlier gen cards that do NOT have a lick of coil whine compared to TWO 970s I've gotten so far.

The buzz is something that is insanely distracting that you cannot solve with vsync or limiting frames in any way.
 
The only time I've really gotten coil whine was when I was running something at 250+ FPS. The CS: Source benchmark makes all the GPUs I've owned in the last 5 years whine. The only coil whine I got during normal usage is from a 7970.
 
Couple of questions:

1. I've been using a Displayport cable with my card (GTX 970) and monitor (ASUS 144hz 24"). I've heard that there's a risk that there could be problems with Displayport and this card - has anyone experienced any issues like this?

2. I can't for the life of me remember the second question.

3. I get random framedrops while playing games like CS:GO. I'll go from 144 FPS to 40 for a few seconds, then go back up. Does this indicate a problem with the card?
 
My MSi on idle sits at about 30c-35c.

In fact, that's what it's at right now. Fans don't go on unless the card starts getting used. I've monitored it pretty consistently, and it really does work perfectly as advertised for me.

My MSI sits around 30C while idle using the default fan map, but using the fan map that someone posted a couple of pages back, I end up idling at around 22-25C with the fans at about 20%.
 
What brand do you have? I read some review and the MSI Gaming one (mine) have its fans stopped completely during idle and only move when it gets over 60. The guy in the review has his card running at around 59 during idle too. I may buy some more 140mm fans and see if it's better.

What kind of case do you have? My MSI is also around 60 celsius idle. Pretty sure it's because of my old tiny case and how hot my room usually is (I don't have a thermometer but during daytime, it's easily 25c in)

I wouldn't be too concerned tbh. The card performs just like it's supposed to for me and even graphic heavy games run beautifully.
 
What kind of case do you have? My MSI is also around 60 celsius idle. Pretty sure it's because of my old tiny case and how hot my room usually is (I don't have a thermometer but during daytime, it's easily 25c in)

I wouldn't be too concerned tbh. The card performs just like it's supposed to for me and even graphic heavy games run beautifully.

I have a Fractal Design 3300. PSU is a XFX TS 650w, though I doubt it matters. And my room is usually cold (Finland, and I like to open my windows).

And no, I am not concerned. But if it can go cooler and for some reason I can't, I must find out why.
 
I have a Fractal Design 3300. PSU is a XFX TS 650w, though I doubt it matters. And my room is usually cold (Finland, and I like to open my windows).

And no, I am not concerned. But if it can go cooler and for some reason I can't, I must find out why.

Suomi represent

Single or multiple monitors? I checked nVidia inspector and when I'm on two monitors, the GPU's core clock is raised to 899MHz. On a single monitor it's 135MHz. I don't have the time to wait and see how low the temp drops with just a single monitor, but it could very well be the reason.

e: @50c now, fans at 0%
 
Well this is interesting.

Gigabyte Windforce 970.

czg9OSQ.png
 
New to PC gaming. Should I get a replacement if my graphics card has loud coil whine?
 
Suomi represent

Single or multiple monitors? I checked nVidia inspector and when I'm on two monitors, the GPU's core clock is raised to 899MHz. On a single monitor it's 135MHz. I don't have the time to wait and see how low the temp drops with just a single monitor, but it could very well be the reason.

e: @50c now, fans at 0%
I have only a single monitor but I see now, my core clock is at 1114MHz, no wonder it's hot.
Let me guess, you don't have the MSI gaming app running?

Well this is interesting.

Gigabyte Windforce 970.

czg9OSQ.png

That is interesting indeed.
 
The thing is going to overclock like crazy I guess.

Nah it doesn't overclock all that well actually. I might just contact Gigabyte and get it replaced for that reason. I've had since release, but just reformatted yesterday and while restarting a few times I noticed.

I just realized I forgot to save my Afterburner OCs when I reformatted.
 
I know your stance on coil whine and that it has existed since the Voodoo days, etc etc. But this buzz on load crap is NOT normal operation for a card and should not be accepted. I consider the buzz to be the real flaw with some 970s more than the high pitched squeal at high fpmls. Though I currently own two earlier gen cards that do NOT have a lick of coil whine compared to TWO 970s I've gotten so far.

The buzz is something that is insanely distracting that you cannot solve with vsync or limiting frames in any way.
About to RMA my second card for the same reason. Gonna keep doing it until I get into a new batch with quality components or get lucky.

This is my first build and this crap has really soured me on PC gaming. People defending this are probably why it's allowed to exist in the first place.
 
What brand do you have? I read some review and the MSI Gaming one (mine) have its fans stopped completely during idle and only move when it gets over 60. The guy in the review has his card running at around 59 during idle too. I may buy some more 140mm fans and see if it's better.
I have the EVGA SC ACX2.0. I think those fans are always running, I haven't made any changes to it.
 
Just a fast question, but is 8800 expected result for a MSI 970 and Intel i5-3750 ?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: It might help if I write that I was referring to results from the 3D Mark Fire-strike test :)

See my post here, as we have similar setups. CPU is near-identical, but I'm presuming that you haven't OCed your 970 yet?
 
I think the EVGA card is fine. There has been a lot of reports about coil whine, but it's affecting almost every card from every other manufacturer except for Zotac. But I bet there are some Zotac cards that suffer from coil whine too. I'm not exactly sure why the price would change. I think that's their regular price. The card is not Super clocked or anything special, and it seems to be about the same price as reference 970's. But it's out of stock almost everywhere. You should also know that EVGA 970's seem to run hotter than other cards such as the gigabyte gaming g1 edition. I would say, you go for the gigabyte g1, it's $40 bucks more, but worth it, in my opinion. Also keep in mind that you're in for the coil whine lottery. Some cards have it, others don't. Best of luck.

Looks like a great buy, best EVGA cooler for exactly MSRP. you can do your own OC.


Go for it!

Thank you.
 
My Haribos came with a free 970 :p

NsKzrwm.jpg


What software should I use for overclocking? What core clock should I push etc?

MSI afterburner , i got WF3 edition and so far i'm at +185 for core. Might not go as high on G1 as it's already more clocked out of the box. You should try +100 for start , then increase till games crash
 
According to Sweclockers, a small shipment (10 units) of GTX960 cards been sighted in an Indian shipping database (date: Sept 29th, so this was a while ago). The specifications listed on the item are incomplete but are as follows: 4GB VRAM, 993Mhz clock, 256-bit memory bus, 6000MHz memory clock. Value per unit is 15747 INR, or about $256.
(Source).
 
MSI afterburner , i got WF3 edition and so far i'm at +185 for core. Might not go as high on G1 as it's already more clocked out of the box. You should try +100 for start , then increase till games crash

So basically leave core voltage as it is, increase the power limit to max? What about memory clock?

Edit: So far no coil whine.
 
Last friday I bought a MSI 970 OC, I ran some games (Watch Dogs, Skyrim, Battlefield 4, Borderlands PS) on the highest settings at 4K (of course it was a horrible framerate for WD and BF4, Skyrim ran surprisingly well) and kept them on as an endurance test for most of Saturday just to see if the card would show any problems as I've read in this thread, but so far so good, no problems at all.

I did get to play WD decently with maxed settings at 1440p at around 45-48 fps, turning v-sync off would jump that to 50-53 fps.

I've seen all the problems that ACU has at the moment, but I'm looking forward to trying the game tonight and seeing how the 970 holds up.

(My rig also has an i7 2600k OC to 4.5GHz, 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz, and no SSD)
 
Returned my MSI 970 with the faulty fans to the store today. He hooked it up to a rig and ran FurMark to test it, and lo and behold the fans worked fine. He kept trying again by letting it cool down so the fans stop, then stress it again, and he failed to reproduce the problem. But he took my word for it and gave me a full refund because they didn't have another matching card in stock. I was pretty surprised about that since refunds are almost unheard of where I live. I thought they were going to give me store credit or something. They've earned my trust to become repeat customer.

Now I have these options:

1. Get the Zotac ZT-90101-10P
Pros:
+Cheapest card
+Smallest card
Cons:
-Reports of overclocking limits and throttling even on stock settings.

2. Get the Gigabyte GV-N970WF3OC-4GD
Pros:
+Three DisplayPorts (I don't currently have any monitors with DP but seems more future proof)
+Highest(?) power draw limits => better overclockability (I think)
Cons:
-Very long card. This is a major con in my book. It fits in my current case but it would limit how many drives I can fit and where I can put them. Also limits future case choices.

3. Get the EVGA 04G-P4-2972-KR or the 04G-P4-2974-KR "Superclocked" one.
I don't know much about these card, other than they both come with the ACX2 coolers and they're louder than other cards I think?

4. Wait until sometime in December when they receive more stock and hope there's a good MSI one in them. I particularly liked the MSI cards because they stop the fans during idle so that makes them one of the quietest cards. It doesn't look like this store wants to stock ASUS cards (the guy was telling me how they had terrible experience with their warranty before), and I can't find another store in town that's going to stock the 970 anytime soon.

Any suggestions/insights that might help me decide would be appreciated. My main concerns are performance/overclockability, size, and noise.
 
The fact that the store couldn't reproduce the problem with the MSI card, and I've read on the MSI forums that the company itself is unable to reproduce the problem in their labs, while it's occurring very consistently for some people out there, made me think that it might be a compatibility issue with some hardware, maybe certain motherboards?
 
Haha yep. Power limit +112%, Core clock +150, Memory clock +500, this thing is a beast.

Oh man, I really wanted that Gigabyte one, but for some reason it hasn't come to the country (Colombia) yet, so it was down to the shitty stock Zotac, the EVGA SC or the MSI OC and I went with the MSI since I have great experiences with that brand (2 460s and 2 660s from them).

Also, just until July I was living in the UK, and always bought my PC components from OCs, loved their free Haribos lol
 
Check the NV control panel 'Power Mangement Mode' setting is on 'Adaptive'.

I think that setting controls the throttling, although I could be wrong. Worth a try though ;)

Yeah I thought of that, tried that, no dice. I sit around waiting but still won't come down.
I also uninstalled every applications that messes with overclocking GPU and still the same.
Which is very weird because I remember now that I used to see it idle at around 30 degrees when I first built it and didn't install lots of software. Too busy to dig in more at the moment though.
 
i1oCZuUxTrBes.jpg


I'm really happy with this Zotac 970 now.

Using this guide:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1517316/...-970-and-980-firmware-nolimits-and-gamestable

I flashed the NOLIMITS BIOS for the vanilla Zotac. My voltage is steady now and the highest power % I see is 95%. I'm dialed the core back to 1500 boost for stability (default is 1531 boost with this one). Very smooth performance and good temperatures.

I love hearing good things about the vanilla Zotac card... I want to want it.

I remember your posts from earlier in the thread, where you started by saying it was great, then you said you wouldn't recommend it.

Does this effectively fix the issue(s) with the card? Can you flash back to the official bios after this if you want? Do you have to use Firestorm or can you use other overclocking apps?
 
My coil whine is gone! well, virtually. its very silent. Basically i played assassin's creed maxed everything with 4x DSR(which looks really freaking good btw) for like 2 hours and the buzz is kind of gone.
 
Can anyone with AC Unity who is also using MSI Afterburner (with the MSI 970) talk about what OC and fan settings they're using and what graphic settings they have on or off in the game?
 
My coil whine is gone! well, virtually. its very silent. Basically i played assassin's creed maxed everything with 4x DSR(which looks really freaking good btw) for like 2 hours and the buzz is kind of gone.

Which Assasin's Creed?

Everything looks freaking good with 4x DSR from what I've seen. Stuff is nuts.
 
Unity. now when i play other games, the whine is pretty weak. i read somewhere that the DSR could fix the whine. let me see if i can find it.

What fps are you getting with that settings? But yeah, I read that extreme load on the card for a while can actually diminish the whine. Not sure how validated that is though.
 
Whoa, I thought that game was very demanding/unoptimized... I didn't think DSR would be practical with it. What resolution and quality settings did you play at and what framerates did you get?

What fps are you getting with that settings? But yeah, I read that extreme load on the card for a while can actually diminish the whine. Not sure how validated that is though.

i go from 35-45 in open areas, i stay at the higher end of that spectrum in interiors and i dip as low as 22 during cut-scenes but it's hardly noticeable with G-Sync. I have Vsync off, 4xMSAA, 4x DSR and ultra settings for everything.
 
I know your stance on coil whine and that it has existed since the Voodoo days, etc etc. But this buzz on load crap is NOT normal operation for a card and should not be accepted. I consider the buzz to be the real flaw with some 970s more than the high pitched squeal at high fps. Though I currently own two earlier gen cards that do NOT have a lick of coil whine compared to TWO 970s I've gotten so far.

The buzz is something that is insanely distracting that you cannot solve with vsync or limiting frames in any way.

Well, you don't need to believe me. The facts are out there, just YouTube it. Or buy card after card after card after card. There are certainly differences how loud the buzz can get depending on the construction of the card and probably other factors I don't know (PWM certainly is one), but it is always here. Well, at least I never heard one of the highend GPUs without it. My MSI has it too, but the card is in a locked case under my table far enough away so I don't hear it. Also, ym 560TI and my 660TI were definitly louder, especially the 560. So much for "it's a 970" problem.

It's not.
 
Any one have the MSI versions? my last two cards were MSI and I loved them, 660 ti GTX (current) and a 460GTX.

I had one but it had the fans not starting problem. I returned it today. Otherwise I loved the card and if I could get one that works flawlessly I'd choose it again. But they don't have any in stock in my country.
 
I had one but it had the fans not starting problem. I returned it today. Otherwise I loved the card and if I could get one that works flawlessly I'd choose it again. But they don't have any in stock in my country.

What's the easiest way to check for this problem? Should I just open my case and make sure both fans spin during gameplay?
 
What's the easiest way to check for this problem? Should I just open my case and make sure both fans spin during gameplay?

Yes, but you'll have to keep an eye on it for a couple of days I think, because it doesn't happen every time. Usually it's just one fan that doesn't spin while the other spins at 100% to compensate. But I personally encountered an instance when both fans were stuck and temps reached 91 C before I quit and physically pushed the fans to make them start.
 
It's now been 48 hours since Tiger Direct support told me I'd hear back from a manager about my card not coming with the Ubisoft code within 24-48 hours. I've heard nothing. It's been a while since I've ordered from them, looks like this will be the last. Pretty pissed off. Am I going to have to return an entire graphics card over them fucking up and not including a game code here?
 
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