Advice - My Saga Nears Conclusion. MSI 970 GE

I won't get convoluted and go into details.
In a nutshell I had the fan 2 full pelt issue with my msi 970 ge.
After a most frustrating episode of back and forth communications with the vendor I purchased from I have been offered a cheque for a full refund value.

So...

Where to next ?

I love the 970 series, they offer amazing cost to power value.
I'm defo buying another 970 but which one ?

It's between either a GB WFx3 G1 or an Asus Strix DU OC.

Both seem to give above standard performance and both give the bonus of a backplate.

I can fit the GB card in my case so that's not an issue but the quiet idle fan of the Strix does appeal more than the 30% minimum of the G1.

OC I care not much for as I'm happy with a factory OC.

So which one would you advise ?

 

well asus strix has same fan off crap if im not mistaken.


I would pick Zotac, dunno i think that card will deliver properly, also has high OC out of the box (highest so far, also ram)
http://skinflint.co.uk/zotac-geforce-gtx-970-amp-extreme-edition-zt-90103-10p-a1168046.html


2nd
http://skinflint.co.uk/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-970-gaming-g1-gv-n970g1-gaming-4gd-a1167952.html


3rd
http://skinflint.co.uk/evga-geforce-gtx-970-acx-2-0-04g-p4-2972-a1168428.html

 

I appreciate your reply dude.

It's not really what I was hoping to enquire towards though.

I certainly wouldn't describe the MSI and ASUS minus 60c temp fan idle as 'off crap'. I see that more of a positive in all honesty.
I was hoping for a more direct with reason reply in relation to the two cards I mentioned.


BAH!!!!

Guess I'm looking for someone to make my mind up for me !!!!

I'm veering towards the ASUS ATM as the G1 sits at 30% minimum.

 

ASUS Strix switches off fans, but I think it doesn't bug like the MSI ones, so if you're not into OC and want quiet operation, go for the ASUS Strix.

Plus all the memory chips are in one side, so if you ever go Liquid, you may get a better overclock out of it.

 

I too need to decide which 970 to buy (again). I need another one (as my current one is destined for another rig).

I may just buy a 2nd EVGA card so that in the future, should I ever decide to SLI them in a single rig, they'll look good together. Honestly though, I've never bothered with SLI in the past, I just buy another card; This perhaps makes the SLI aesthetics angle moot.

Who has the best warranty these days? It used to be EVGA but those days seem over since we lost BFG.

 

Get the Gigabyte mate.

Better cooling, better power delivery, higher OC.

Just mod the fan profile with Maxwell II bios tweaker if you want it silent idling.

I'm keeping my MSI 4G, but I've bit the bullet and bought an Accelero Xtreme 4 (2nd hand off ebay)
The last straw for me was when I updated the bios to v182, the fan which now gets stuck trying to spin up is fan 2 !!!! The problem has switched fans !!!!

 

Sorry for OT but

It's very disappointing, especially for owners of these cards, that MSI don't seem to be able to fix this problem.

EDIT: just seen this:

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=183618.0

Here is the official word from an MSI admin:

We discussed this internally and the fan issue (fan2 @100%) is most likely caused by the sticker. Many fans can withstand the removal of the sticker without any damage but a small amount of fans seem to get damaged. Our production has already stopped using these stickers.

So we recommend all users that suffer from this issue to return the card to the point of purchase for warranty service

 

Yeah saw all that mate. I was one of the first to report the fan issue in that very thread! !!

I don't buy that sticker damage nonsense as like I said above, the latest bios has reversed which fan gets stuck !!

 

Yup, it's defo not the sticker.

The new batch have weaker glue and a hole where the previous sticker had contact with the blades and STILL the problem persists.

I'm thinking the G1 in my heart of hearts Slickric. Never considered tweaking the fans to idle mind you, top idea fella ! Cheers.

 

Yeah, the sticker story is highly dubious. I don't think there's any conspiracy going on here, just MSI don't seem to have a clue what's causing the problem!

 

I just recently got my MSI 970, sticker was a pain to remove, I think it was a really stupid idea to put it there in the first place but everything works fine.

 

not had any problems with my gigabyte gtx970 G1 highly recommend it cant comment on the asus never owned one.

 

I'm sticking with my MSI for now. I have the same issue and will send mine in sometime this week for a replacement.

I contacted MSI directly and unforntunately, they refused a direct replacement ("We will never do that."), so I'm going through my reseller.

Has anyone tried to cut off the LED to the MSI logo to see whether that fixes the problem with affected models? I'm not even sure if they are in the same circuit, but if they are, that might be why it tends to be the red fan that fails...

 

I know this is somebody else's thread, but I did comment about it in here that I was solving my MSI fan problems by getting an Accelero Extreme iv.

Well i did, and they are solved. :banana:

I bought a used one of ebay for £30, i only mounted the cooler and fan section, didn't bother with that big backplate as it was to big to fin with my CPU heatsink and fan behemoth.

No need to remove any of the VRM, VRAM cooler that MSI provided with this card, it fitted just fine over them.
In fact there was more height headroom over the stock Twin Frozr 5 cooler so it was possible to mount a proper VRAM heatsink to that one module MSI decided didn't need any cooling (the one between the gpu / pci-e slot). This coupled with the VRAM heatsinks i've already mounted to the back.... and all the card is cooled finally.

Annnnnnnd on the cooler and the fans........

Well no surprises here. It destroys the Twin Frozr 5 for performance.

Load temps @ 1506/8000 with Twin Frozr 5 = 65-71'c (modded fan profile so its at 75-85% rpm at these temps)
Noise = very audilble.

Load temps @ 1506/8000 with Acelero Xtr 4 = 47-52'c (new modded fan profile so its at 75-85% rpm at these temps)
Noise = inaudible

 

Hi, really sorry for necroposting but I couldn't send you a PM since I just registered.

I stumbled on your post about replacing the Twin Frozr fans on your MSI 970 with the Xtreme IV and was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about the process and compatibility of the cooler with the MSI 970.

I'm thinking of doing the same because one of my fan blades actually broke off.

I haven't contacted MSI or the reseller (overclockers.co.uk) with the issue because I doubt they will fix the issue without a fee. I thought I might as well put that money to better use with a better cooler.

From what I've read MSI uses a reference PCB so in theory the cooler should fit, but it be great if you could confirm that the cooler will fit properly on the MSI (both for the core and the VRM/VRAM).

Thanks!

 

Looks like slickric21 has moved on to a 980Ti.
MSI has multiple models of GTX 970 and they are all on their custom PCB.
Reference PCB is a short PCB with the power connector located in the center portion of the card.

 

Ok thanks, I was mistaken about the reference pcb then. I have the msi 970 gaming edition.

this one overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-MS (sorry can't post proper link because of new user restrictions).

I'm ready to buy the arctic cooler to replace the broken fan, just a bit confused if its going to fit properly on the msi (including the VRM and backplate, he didnt install his due to clearance issues). I've read that a user had serious issues with the gigabyte 970 but slickric21 seems to have had good results with it on his MSI.

Maybe I should message the mods to let me send him a pm about it, I can't since I don't have enough posts.

 

If you have a broken fan, contact OCUK and ask for them to replace it. They'll probably handle everything for you, unless you've clearly broken it somehow yourself it should be under warranty. OCUK have been pretty good with returns for the past few years now.

 

I'll contact them, thanks. I've had bad experiences with other resellers when it comes to physical damage, hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised. Since I'm not in the UK I'm kind of dreading the interval between sending them the card and waiting for the replacement (if they honour the warranty). That was the main reason in looking for an aftermarket cooler.

I have no idea what happened to the fan, I was playing Arma 3 and noticed massive fps drops and my temps hit 90c. I thought it was just the usual MSI fan getting stuck bug that gets fixed with a reboot but when I took my headphones off I heard a grinding noise. When I opened the case up the broken fan blade was stuck in the fan. The card I have had the really sticky sticker on it if that matters (there was a whole debacle about that thing).

 

I did a system build for a friend of mine using OCUK as the retailer a little while back, his GPU was DOA so it had to be sent back. It took 3 days from sending the card in to getting a replacement.