Review: GeForce GTX 970 SLI review

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Sep 26, 2014.

  1. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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    The last review for this week is again a review on the GeForce GTX 970 but this time in a 2-way SLI. As such we'll be going from fast to faaaaast. In this review we'll run the standard benchmarks, b...

    Review: GeForce GTX 970 SLI review
     
  2. (.)(.)

    (.)(.) Banned

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    Great review as always Hilbert!

    Though, 73 fps in Metro LL @ 1440p doesn't excite me, same goes for Crysis 3. I kinda expected more.
     
  3. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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    Weeeeeelll ... It's nearly double scaling, so that's not bad. Crysis slowly seems to get get more CPU dependent with its age though.

    Right, that was 8 articles in 7 days you guys. Beer and pizza time ! Beer-assistant, where is she ?!!
     
  4. Corbus

    Corbus Ancient Guru

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    Great review and scaling. At 4k we probably still need to wait 2 more years to play at decent fps and max details .
     

  5. Ven0m

    Ven0m Ancient Guru

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    Thanks for the review. I hope you'll be able to find out what's with these frame drops. It's also weird to observe better scaling in lower resolutions...

    So:
    * 4k, 3D Mark and Battlefield = 780 Ti scales better
    * The rest = 970 scales better

    I think that it might be partially explained by 256bit RAM bus in 970.
     
  6. (.)(.)

    (.)(.) Banned

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    I knew it... wea dat 512bit at.
     
  7. Sunnijim

    Sunnijim Guest

    yes to all

    Great review. This is definitely what I want!

    Question: if a motherboard has 3 PCI-E x16 slots and can run in a x16/x16/x4 configuration, does that imply I can also run it in a x16/x4/x16 configuration?

    In other words, I can choose which slots to run sli in, and I don't have to use the top two slots to get full x16 speed...?
     
  8. Cave Waverider

    Cave Waverider Ancient Guru

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    Nice article. I'm very much looking forward to the GTX980 SLi reviews, too.
     
  9. CrazY_Milojko

    CrazY_Milojko Ancient Guru

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    Great review Hilbert, thanks man! 970 in SLI are bargain for 1440+ gamers and when you look at TDP and themperatures... they're nothing more than final nail in the coffin for 780Ti SLI (for some gamers who had plans for buying 780 SLI).

    Whole week has passed after official 970/980 launch and still I haven't got a chance to lay my hands on some GTX 970 or GTX 980 for testing, not to mention two of them for SLI, to find just one 970/980 it's science fiction here where I'm atm :mad: Probably 970/980 situation will be better in few weeks from now, but doubt prices at "re-launch" here in Serbia will be match for prices in the rest of the world :( Future here I come, maybe I'll be late a bit... :cry:

    BTW, I'm curious about 780Ti prices (new and used) in rest of the civilized world, any drops yet? Here in Serbia prices for 780Ti are frozen in time, they are same like few months ago, juuuuust great :bang:
     
  10. (.)(.)

    (.)(.) Banned

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    Ahh.... phewww, see the thing is you need a special license to have that much power in such a small space and Netherlands is quite small.., so not to sure if Hilbert has govt clearance yet.

    Reason: 980sli power output can be confused with Energon readings, and we saw in that (piss-poor) documentary as to what happens when Decepticons want Energon.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2014

  11. Loophole35

    Loophole35 Guest

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    So the frame drops are a bit concerning to me. Do you think its just immature drivers or could it be deeper?
     
  12. Spets

    Spets Guest

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    Great review Hilbert:)
     
  13. Fox2232

    Fox2232 Guest

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    As expected, it was bound to choke a bit on 4k. And I would like some manufacturer to make 8GB version for certain someones here, so they can enjoy even more choking once utilized.
     
  14. Loophole35

    Loophole35 Guest

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    Yes me as well and they would come in here telling us they could use it all with one card with no AA on 1920x1080.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2014
  15. Mato87

    Mato87 Guest

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    Last edited: Sep 26, 2014

  16. morbias

    morbias Don TazeMeBro

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    I wouldn't be surprised if the prices actually go up, it's often the case for EOL cards; they become rare because there's no more production and anyone who already owns one that wants to go SLI will have to pay the extra!
     
  17. Rexob

    Rexob Guest

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    Is anyone actually selling the reference 970 with the titan cooler on it?
     
  18. nanogenesis

    nanogenesis Guest

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    So, sandwitching two cards and expecting it to perform well? I bet the cards are not even boosting at all because of temperature thresholds.

    Besides, isn't that GTX980 in the pictures? the GTX970 reference has a smaller pcb AFAIK
     
  19. SSD_PRO

    SSD_PRO Guest

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    Its not the titan cooler, its just the reference cooler on the reference pcb but no one sells it yet. It is OEM only. All the partners used custom PCB and coolers on the 970. I would like someone to adopt the reference cooler but it costs more because you have to buy it from nvidia vs producing your own cheaply.
     
  20. Netherwind

    Netherwind Ancient Guru

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    I couldn't find the reference boards clock speeds anywhere in the review. What are they?

    Anyhow, I'm so glad I didn't go for reference boards in my case. The MSI cards are just too good to be true. Some comparisons with OCed results (1380/7500) I did earlier. Ran them on a ROG Swift 1440p monitor with G-sync disabled.

    Temps idle:
    Reference 970SLI - 33
    MSI 970SLI - 54 (fans are turned off if card is idle, plus I have the 2D bug)

    Temps load:
    Reference 970SLI - 83
    MSI 970SLI - 73 (fans inaudible at 1400RPM)

    Metro Last Light Redux (Very High, 16xAF)
    Reference 970SLI - Avg.FPS: 73
    MSI 970SLI - Avg.FPS: 108 (I'm running the Redux version, maybe it's better optimized?)

    Thief (Very High Preset with SSAA Off)
    Reference 970SLI - Avg.FPS: 75
    MSI 970SLI - Avg.FPS: 101

    Pretty big differences...maybe too big?
     

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