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[pestul]

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?

Totally reversed opinion.. well I mean, what I did likely voided the warranty if something terrible happens, but it certainly fixed all the issues I had with the Zotac. Some of the unlucky ones were seeing PL throttling/wildly fluctuating voltage at stock settings, so it was needed for them (if they chose not to RMA). Mine was fine at stock, but it certainly didn't have much overclocking headroom at all.

The BIOS flash is completely reversible. I dumped my own cards BIOS, but the retail stock was also included with the tweaked ones.

 

[Smash88]

So with the leak of GM200's - basically Titan II - I'm curious what the more affordable GTX 980Ti's will be like.

 

[Zaph]

So with the leak of GM200's - basically Titan II - I'm curious what the more affordable GTX 980Ti's will be like.

If it supports DisplayPort 1.3, it's a day one purchase. I'm going to get the Dell 5K monitor anyway, and while I don't expect games to run flawlessly at native res, it'll be great if I can have a combined work and gaming PC without being limited to 30hz.

 

[SliChillax]

You guys are using the 3D Mark demo from Steam right?

 

[Damerman]

You guys are using the 3D Mark demo from Steam right?

thats what i used. the fire strike benchmark.

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

LOL. Tiger Direct chat support won't chat with me about not sending me a code with my card. Thought I'd give chat a try since calling and emailing got me nothing. Once I get to the front of the line it tells me the next rep is reserved for me, but after 5 minutes or so it just tells me to fuck off:

Tried it a couple hours ago too. Same thing happened. Gonna give them a call tomorrow and if they don't get me a code by the end of the day I'm just returning the card. Fuck Tiger Direct. I bought this AFTER the promotion started and can't get a code from them, meanwhile those that bought it before the promotion began have managed to get them.


EDIT: I was more vague with my message and got someone in chat. I just said I had a question about an order instead of saying I didn't receive a code. It didn't get me anywhere, though, really. I'm back to waiting 48 hours:

The "if" in both of his statements piss me off. I am a fucking paying customer who didn't get what I was supposed to. How is there any if? Any way. I'll give them another 48 hours then I'm just returning the card and buying from some place that isn't shitty.

 

[Smushroomed]

so how many rounds of unigine heaven do i have to run in order to be considered stable?

 

[10101]

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.

Ahh fair enough, I thought it was a long shot

 

[Smushroomed]

I got my 2nd 970 in place.

How do I go about OC'ing? One at a time or mirror settings for both?

What program do you use to test stable OC's?

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

I got my 2nd 970 in place.

How do I go about OC'ing? One at a time or mirror settings for both?

What program do you use to test stable OC's?

I've always mirrored. As for testing, I use unigine, valley, and 3dmark.

 

[jordn613]

I'm running 3DMark Fire Strike on my second MSI 970 (returned the first one to Microcenter and then re-ordered from Newegg with the free game deal) and my scores are not as good as the first card. Something is definitely not right.

My score with no OC on my new card, stock settings:
4629
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4697699

Here's the score from my first card OC'd using Afterburner:
9514
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4585546

Running at the same OC tonight with the new card produced a lot of artifacts and crashed the benchmark in the first scene. It was able to resume, and this is my score:
8913

Ironically, neither card had any coil whine to speak of and neither got very hot (above low 70s).

Should I RMA or try and exchange it with Newegg?

 

[Sanjay]

I'm really happy with this Zotac 970 now.

Good overclock, its what you would get with a 980 stock. $200 saved!

 

[Naked Snake]

I'm running 3DMark Fire Strike on my second MSI 970 (returned the first one to Microcenter and then re-ordered from Newegg with the free game deal) and my scores are not as good as the first card. Something is definitely not right.

My score with no OC on my new card, stock settings:
4629
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4697699

Here's the score from my first card OC'd using Afterburner:
9514
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4585546

Running at the same OC tonight with the new card produced a lot of artifacts and crashed the benchmark in the first scene. It was able to resume, and this is my score:
8913

Ironically, neither card had any coil whine to speak of and neither got very hot (above low 70s).

Should I RMA or try and exchange it with Newegg?

Make sure you don't have DSR or Vsync or some other non-default settings enabled in the Nvidia control panel.

You need to run the benchmark at the exact same settings to compare numbers.

 

[XBP]

Is there a possibility of MSI, ASUS etc releasing new versions of these cards to fix this coil whine issue or will things pretty much stay the same until Nvidia's next cards?

 

[iNvid02]

this Msi 980 is so quiet even under full load, I love it

had to flash the bios to solve the 1% fan issue, psa in case anyone has similar issue

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Is there a possibility of MSI, ASUS etc releasing new versions of these cards to fix this coil whine issue or will things pretty much stay the same until Nvidia's next cards?

Coil whine is not exclusive for these new cards, it's been around since the early days.
So, little chance it will get fixed, maybe reduced, but not completely fixed I think.

 

[XBP]

Coil whine is not exclusive for these new cards, it's been around since the early days.
So, little chance it will get fixed, maybe reduced, but not completely fixed I think.

Its just that going through this topic it seems that the issue is more common with this card? I could be wrong but thats the common message I'm reading in quite a few forums.

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Its just that going through this topic it seems that the issue is more common with this card? I could be wrong but thats the common message I'm reading in quite a few forums.

No, you are not wrong. It is indeed more common. But as said, little chance it will get fixed completely.

 

[M.D]

I'm looking to get the Gigabyte G1, anyone has any experience with it? General performance and reliability / coil whine

Also, why is G1 just a bit more exepnsive but seems better in every way than the 3X OC? Am I missing something?

 

[jfoul]

I'm looking to get the Gigabyte G1, anyone has any experience with it? General performance and reliability / coil whine

Also, why is G1 just a bit more exepnsive but seems better in every way than the 3X OC? Am I missing something?

I ordered the GB GTX 970 G1 and I'll have it by Friday. I will run it through the gauntlet and post my impressions.

Differences between the GB GTX 970 G1 and the GB GTX 970 WF.

• G1 has a higher factory OC
• G1 has a backplate
• G1 fan shroud is metal instead of plastic
• G1 has more heatpipes
• G1 is a higher bin

 

[XBP]

No, you are not wrong. It is indeed more common. But as said, little chance it will get fixed completely.

Which is why I'm a little torn on what to do. I'm building a gaming PC so I need to decide whether I should wait and see wheather manufacturers fix this issue in their cards or take the plunge and hope I get a good unit.

 

[jfoul]

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.

Great news.

I get my GB GTX 970 G1 on Friday. If it has loud coil whine I'll try this, and run it on two other builds with different PSUs.

 

[bumclot]

Well, I got a $70 gift card for qualifying for the Amazon rewards card, so I think I'm going to take the plunge and buy this once I'm sure it will fit in my case:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NT9UT3M/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Is there any reason it is listed for less than the majority of other 980s I could find, though? The non-SC version is significantly more expensive on Amazon. Reference cards on Amazon and Newegg are also more expensive. The card I linked to appears to have a higher core clock than most of the more expensive options, too.

What gives?

 

[j0hnny_385]

I'm looking to get the Gigabyte G1, anyone has any experience with it? General performance and reliability / coil whine

Also, why is G1 just a bit more exepnsive but seems better in every way than the 3X OC? Am I missing something?

I have G1 GTX 970.
Amazing card.
Excellent performance (gaming @ 1920x1200).
Cool, quiet, no coil whine (tested in Furmark).

Good review: http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-970-g1-gaming-review,1.html

Get it if you can, IMHO, the best GTX 970 (in terms of out of the box performance, OC capability, build quality and cooling).

 

[Naked Snake]

Since I can't make up my mind from the choices available to me now I think I'm going to wait until December before getting a card. There should be more choices by then, more information, and maybe even lower prices/better deals.

In the mean time my friend will lend me a 470, to get my feet wet and get reacquainted with PC games until I get a new card. Sure a 470 is a far cry from 970, but it's still a lot better than Intel HD2000 I reckon?

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Which is why I'm a little torn on what to do. I'm building a gaming PC so I need to decide whether I should wait and see wheather manufacturers fix this issue in their cards or take the plunge and hope I get a good unit.

I would say take a chance and build it now. You might get lucky, like me. I just built my rig 2 weeks ago and my MSI is rather quiet, coil whine is there but not as severe as some of the videos posted here. Plus your case and other fans from CPU, PSU or extra case fans will help drown out the sound a bit, you can also put the unit somewhere far away from you, under the table for example. And if you use headphone, well it won't bother you as much I hope.

 

[Uzny]

13700 after my first ever overclock, I think I can go beyond 14k with this card Extremly happy with my purchase (Gigabyte).

 

[CyanideFuse]

13700 after my first ever overclock, I think I can go beyond 14k with this card Extremly happy with my purchase (Gigabyte).

What is the standard clock speeds / boost speeds of your card and what have you been able to add on the clock speed / memory?

 

[glaurung]

Replaced my trusty old GeForce 680 with a spanking brand new MSI GTX 970 last night.

Should I bother with the MSI's proprietary software bits? I don't really intend to do any overclocking or any such shit.

 

[CyanideFuse]

Replaced my trusty old GeForce 680 with a spanking brand new MSI GTX 970 last night.

Should I bother with the MSI's proprietary software bits? I don't really intend to do any overclocking or any such shit.

I have Afterburner installed as I wanted to force a fan profile to keep the fans spinning at all times.

The card also comes with a gaming app software tool but I haven't bothered with that. I believe it has a preset overclock option but I am not sure how much it adds.

You should have a little go at overclocking at some point. It isn't difficult and you can get some extra performance out of the card.

 

[iNvid02]

PSA for MSI GTX 970/980 owners

can confirm after updating bios issue no longer occurs. you have to register to download the .rar files. remember to uninstall any drivers before doing it.

kind of liberating to be free of SLI, support has been wonky as of late, and the temps/noise levels/OC on this MSI 980 is so good.

 

[hoserx]

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.

what? you run 4 X DSR? so like 5120 x whatever? with 4x AA and everything ultra in AC: U?


35-45 fps?

I am not believing.

 

[Kezen]

PSA for MSI GTX 970/980 owners

can confirm after updating bios issue no longer occurs. you have to register to download the .rar files. remember to uninstall any drivers before doing it.

kind of liberating to be free of SLI, support has been wonky as of late, and the temps/noise levels/OC on this MSI 980 is so good.

Does it fix the fan going 100% randomly and needing a restart ?

 

[iNvid02]

Does it fix the fan going 100% randomly and needing a restart ?

im not sure i didnt experience that problem, seems to be sticker related? wtf lol
http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/2ieznh/psa_there_is_a_huge_issue_with_one_of_the_msi_gtx/

i think its worth a try

 

[CyanideFuse]

PSA for MSI GTX 970/980 owners

can confirm after updating bios issue no longer occurs. you have to register to download the .rar files. remember to uninstall any drivers before doing it.

kind of liberating to be free of SLI, support has been wonky as of late, and the temps/noise levels/OC on this MSI 980 is so good.

Thanks for the information. I will get this done later on.

 

[Mengy]

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.

So wait, are you saying you essentially "burned" your card in and now the coil whine is much less? Has anyone else tried this and succeeded?

My superclocked EVGA 970 is getting delivered today, so I'll know tonight if I won the lottery or lost. If it has bad whine, I wonder if I could just stress test it for a few hours and lessen the whine in the process...

 

[Thoraxes]

PSA for MSI GTX 970/980 owners

can confirm after updating bios issue no longer occurs. you have to register to download the .rar files. remember to uninstall any drivers before doing it.

kind of liberating to be free of SLI, support has been wonky as of late, and the temps/noise levels/OC on this MSI 980 is so good.

Apparently wiesel201 (the person from the German forum) is reporting that they're working on a solution using Live Update 6 as well.

Edit: I just can't get it to work at all. The program crashes upon startup even after uninstallation of the Nvidia drivers.

 

[ecosse_011172]

I’ve been delighted with my ASUS DCII GTX670 for the last two years and for my planned 970 upgrade was planning on sticking with Asus.
Are there any non-performance reasons to go for MSI or Gigabyte rather than Asus?
I’m more concerned with low noise than extra performance.

 

[kevm3]

Has anyone else had problems with Nvidia drivers screwing things up? They cause my system to restart and the driver was having a conflict with some firefox plugin. Now, the card only works if I use that generic windows vga driver.

 

[Akronis]

Has anyone else had problems with Nvidia drivers screwing things up? They cause my system to restart and the driver was having a conflict with some firefox plugin. Now, the card only works if I use that generic windows vga driver.

Go download DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) and do a clean install of the drivers. See if that fixes it.

 

[kevm3]

Go download DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) and do a clean install of the drivers. See if that fixes it.

I tried that a few times and tried to reinstall the driver, but the same problem. I don't think it's the card going bad since it works with the generic windows driver.

 

[Naked Snake]

I’ve been delighted with my ASUS DCII GTX970 for the last two years...

Can I have a ride in your time machine please?

 

[garath]

I’ve been delighted with my ASUS DCII GTX970 for the last two years and for my planned 970 upgrade was planning on sticking with Asus.
Are there any non-performance reasons to go for MSI or Gigabyte rather than Asus?
I’m more concerned with low noise than extra performance.

YMMV.

I had an ASUS. I was very impressed with the build quality and the fans were dead silent even when spooled up.

It had a very annoying buzz that was produced at low frame rates that I couldn't deal with so I RMA'd it.

Performance wise, it was a pretty poor overclocker and it has one of the lowest base clocks out of the box.

You may or may not have any issues with the overclocking or buzzing though.

 

[jordn613]

I'm running 3DMark Fire Strike on my second MSI 970 (returned the first one to Microcenter and then re-ordered from Newegg with the free game deal) and my scores are not as good as the first card. Something is definitely not right.

My score with no OC on my new card, stock settings:
4629
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4697699

Here's the score from my first card OC'd using Afterburner:
9514
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4585546

Running at the same OC tonight with the new card produced a lot of artifacts and crashed the benchmark in the first scene. It was able to resume, and this is my score:
8913

Ironically, neither card had any coil whine to speak of and neither got very hot (above low 70s).

Should I RMA or try and exchange it with Newegg?

I got an RMA issued with Newegg, but they're out of stock on this now. Apparently I'll be issued a refund since it's not in stock.

In the meantime, I just ordered the LE edition which is in stock as the replacement.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127837&cm_re=msi_970-_-14-127-837-_-

 

[Starzonedge]

I have a
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti
Intel Core i7 @ 3.4 Ghz (8 CPUs)
8 gigs of RAM
Normal HDD

I'm not very computer savvy. I'm wondering if my CPU/motherboard will bottleneck the GTX 970 or if I would benefit from replacing my current video card?

 

[opticalmace]

I have a
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti
Intel Core i7 @ 3.4 Ghz (8 CPUs)
8 gigs of RAM
Normal HDD

I'm not very computer savvy. I'm wondering if my CPU/motherboard will bottleneck the GTX 970 or if I would benefit from replacing my current video card?

I'm guessing your CPU is a 2600K. Could you check?

Either way, you will see a huge upgrade by going to a 970, and you won't really bottleneck it. A small overclock would help but even without it your CPU will be fine.

 

[Naked Snake]

I have a
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti
Intel Core i7 @ 3.4 Ghz (8 CPUs)
8 gigs of RAM
Normal HDD

I'm not very computer savvy. I'm wondering if my CPU/motherboard will bottleneck the GTX 970 or if I would benefit from replacing my current video card?

Your rig will not bottleneck the 970. Whether it's worth it for you only you can answer that question. I guess it depends on what games you play, at what settings/resolution, and what are your standards/expectations for performance.

 

[garath]

I got an RMA issued with Newegg, but they're out of stock on this now. Apparently I'll be issued a refund since it's not in stock.

In the meantime, I just ordered the LE edition which is in stock as the replacement.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127837&cm_re=msi_970-_-14-127-837-_-

Didn't know they already had the golden edition available. Even pricier than the EVGA FTW!

 

[CyanideFuse]

I have a
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti
Intel Core i7 @ 3.4 Ghz (8 CPUs)
8 gigs of RAM
Normal HDD

I'm not very computer savvy. I'm wondering if my CPU/motherboard will bottleneck the GTX 970 or if I would benefit from replacing my current video card?

What games are you currently playing and at what resolution and frame rate?

If you are not struggling with the games and you are happy with the performance (and the in-game graphics settings) then it might not be worth your while at this time.

I read that anyone with a 600 series card or below would benefit from the 900 series but to be honest I wasn't struggling with games at 1080p 60fps (using a GTX 670 2GB). VRAM was a potential issue but several high profile games in the past two months seemed to have exaggerated problems.

It just really depends on what you are happy to put up with and whether it is financially worth buying a new card.

 

[Starzonedge]

I'm guessing your CPU is a 2600K. Could you check?

Either way, you will see a huge upgrade by going to a 970, and you won't really bottleneck it. A small overclock would help but even without it your CPU will be fine.

It is a 2600K.

Your rig will not bottleneck the 970. Whether it's worth it for you only you can answer that question. I guess it depends on what games you play, at what settings/resolution, and what are your standards/expectations for performance.

Lately I've been playin The Evil Within at 720p 60FPS. Game crashes too often at anything higher. Since I don't have a display that supports higher resolutions, I aim to play most games at 1080p 60 fps.

Glad to hear my rig would support the card. Thanks for the help!

EDIT:

What games are you currently playing and at what resolution and frame rate?

I'm mostly able to achieve 1080p 60fps, but I usually have to lower some settings. I honestly just want a badass rig that can max everything out. I'm definitely going to pick it up if it's on sale on Newegg for Black Friday.