Gigabyte geforce gtx 970 g1 gaming review: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming review

31 июля, 2020

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming review

Our Verdict

A seriously quick, well-priced, overclockable graphics card, that still manages to run incredibly cool and quiet.

You’d maybe think playing second fiddle to the mighty Nvidia GTX 980 would be a pretty depressing existence for the young GTX 970. Your big brother’s the one every monitor wants to be with and every other graphics card wants to be. The GTX 970 might be the second-tier Maxwell card, but it’s one of the most impressive graphics cards I’ve tested in recent times—especially in the guise of Gigabyte’s overclocked version.

Nvidia dropped its first high-powered Maxwell bomb last week, and you could colour us mighty impressed with the GeForce GTX 980 and it’s combination of low-power and high-performance.

But in some ways this GTX 970 G1 Gaming is even better.

Which seems a bit bizarre to say given that the GM 204 GPU inside the GTX 970 is a full 384 CUDA cores and 24 texture units short of the 980. But really that’s where the difference between the two Maxwell GPUs stops.

It’s not really about what Nvidia has decided to cut from the second-tier 900-series card, it’s about what they’ve left in.

The GPU is still running with the same 2MB of L2 cache onboard, is still rocking the same sixty-four render output units (ROPs) and still retains the same algorithmic advances that makes the 256-bit memory bus viable for a card that’s aiming at 4K gaming performance. And it’s the 4GB of GDDR5 video memory Nvidia have retained for their second-tier Maxwell card that makes it still so competitive despite being priced far lower than it’s big brother. The GTX 970 also has support for all the other extra features Nvidia has brought out alongside the GeForce GTX 980.

I genuinely expected Nvidia to slash and burn so much of the goodness out of the GM 204 GPU when they made the move down to the GTX 970, but I’m glad they didn’t. This is now an almighty gamer’s graphics card.

And what Gigabyte have done is also mighty impressive too.

For a start, they’ve overclocked the GTX 970 by 128MHz above what the reference card’s base clock. That’s already pretty high at 1,178MHz, but then goes and boosts all the way up to a stable 1,329MHz.

There are a couple of reasons why Gigabyte’s card starts out so much higher than the reference clock. First is because of what they call GPU Gauntlet Sorting, which essentially means some poor person is tasked with sorting through all the GPUs Gigabyte gets allocated to see which of them perform the best.

Gigabyte aren’t alone in this—EVGA do a similar thing with their SuperClocked cards—and I’m sure other manufacturers do exactly the same thing with their factory overclocked GPUs. Gigabyte have also added a bit of extra power to the mix too, with a 6 + 8pin configuration for their boards, compared with just a pair of 6pin PCIe power connectors on the reference-clocked cards. Finally Gigabyte’s mighty Windforce triple-fan cooling array makes sure that the GM 204 GPU isn’t getting too toasty when it’s throwing hundreds of textured polygons around your screen throttling its performance.

All of this gives it some incredible performance numbers for a $380 (£300) graphics card. And when I say incredible I’m talking about this Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming actually outperforming a GTX Titan Black.

That’s got to be pretty galling for anyone out there who spent a fortune on their Titan Black.

That also makes the GTX 970 pretty damned close to the new GTX 980 too. So close, in fact, you might begin to wonder what the point is in spending the extra cash on the pricier card. The GTX 980 is definitely the quicker card, but really not by much at all.

The GTX 970 G1 Gaming has another couple of tricks up its silicon sleeve too, in the form of super-chilled operating temperatures and serious overclocking potential. Unlike the GTX 980 I was actually able to break the 1.5GHz barrier on the core clockspeed with this card, and that closes the gap between them even more. And even running at that peak frequency the G1 Gaming was barely breaking a sweat. Out-of-the-box Gigabyte’s card tops out at 58ºC and when running at 100% GPU load, at a shade over 1,500MHz, it still only maxes out at 64ºC. It also remains pretty much silent.

This card will give you a supremely powerful gaming rig without making your game-cave feel like a sweat lodge after half an hour in Battlefield 4. And it won’t make you think someone’s strapped a jet turbine to your PC, either.

Tweaked and overclocked GTX 980s will show off more of a performance gap between the two cards, but right now, Gigabyte’s 970 is nipping at the heels of the reference GTX 980 for $370 (£300), a far, far lower price. Taking cost into the equation, it’s absolutely the better buy. The G1 Gaming has fast become my favourite Maxwell card.

Benchmarks

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Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming review

A seriously quick, well-priced, overclockable graphics card, that still manages to run incredibly cool and quiet.

Dave has been gaming since the days of Zaxxon and Lady Bug on the Colecovision, and code books for the Commodore Vic 20 (Death Race 2000!). He built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 16, and finally finished bug-fixing the Cyrix-based system around a year later. When he dropped it out of the window. He first started writing for Official PlayStation Magazine and Xbox World many decades ago, then moved onto PC Format full-time, then PC Gamer, TechRadar, and T3 among others. Now he’s back, writing about the nightmarish graphics card market, CPUs with more cores than sense, gaming laptops hotter than the sun, and SSDs more capacious than a Cybertruck.

Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 970 Review: For High-End Gamers

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 970 GPU was launched alongside the GTX 980 late last year. It was seen as the value-focused choice, and cards based on it were surprisingly inexpensive. GTX 980 cards cater to those who want only the best and are willing to pay any amount to play today’s games at greater-than-HD resolutions with all the settings bumped up to the limit. The GTX 970, on the other hand, is a more sensible option for most people. It should have enough power for gaming at 1080p or greater resolutions with reasonably high quality settings. It’s still a high-end GPU, but with an element of moderation.

The GTX 970 and 980 GPUs are based on the same silicone — a processor codenamed GM204. The M stands for Maxwell, Nvidia’s internal name for its current-generation graphics architecture. Maxwell improves upon its predecessors Kepler and Fermi in terms of not only performance, but also power efficiency.

As is common industry practice, GTX 970s are essentially identical to GTX 980s, but with certain subsystems disabled. Due to the highly parallel nature of graphics processing, this just means there are fewer resources, thus reducing overall power. Apart from making the manufacturing process a lot easier, this allows Nvidia to get some use out of chips with minor defects in specific areas, which would otherwise have needed to be tossed.

Graphics cards based on both GPUs launched to much critical acclaim, and the GTX 970 in particular has sold in huge numbers primarily due to the apparently minimal differences between it and the powerhouse GTX 980 (Review). However just recently, it has emerged that there is in fact one significant difference between the two, which Nvidia failed to inform anyone of till it was discovered by users and posted online. We’ll factor that in to our review as well.

The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970
Graphics cards come in a surprising variety of shapes and sizes; even ones based on the exact same GPU. The most common thing to do is to use a custom-designed cooler rather than the GPU vendor’s stock design, and companies put a lot of effort into making their coolers look good and perform well.

Gigabyte has been promoting its Windforce cooling systems for quite a few graphics card generations now. The current design uses specially shaped fan blades designed to reduce turbulence and noise without compromising on airflow. There are solid copper heatpipes which make direct contact with the GPU, which Gigabyte says improves heat dissipation. There’s no vent on the rear, so keep in mind that all hot air is expelled inside your PC cabinet.

In terms of appearances, this is one hefty card. At 312mm, it’s a lot longer than stock cards, so you should make sure you have enough clearance for it in your case. The GTX 970 probably doesn’t need such an elaborate cooling system, but it leaves headroom for overclocking, and Gigabyte knows that gamers like to have bragging rights. The black sheath has a very aggressive styling and is designed to show off the fans, aluminium fins and copper heatpipes.

The Windforce logo on top lights up in blue, and you can control lighting effects with a bundled Windows utility. There’s also a G1 Gaming logo printed on the black backplate. All in all, this is a card that was designed to be shown off.

You’ll need one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCIe power connector as opposed to the reference design’s requirement of two 6-pin connectors. Gigabyte includes Molex adapters for both, just in case you’re using an older power supply. There are two SLI fins for multi-card setups in the usual spot on the upper edge of the circuit board.

On the back of the card, you’ll find quite a large selection of video outputs. There are three modern DisplayPorts (v1.2), one HDMI port, one dual-link DVI-D port and one dual-link DVI-I port which allows for a VGA monitor using an adapter (not included).

Gigabyte says that up to four screens can be used at the same time usingvarious output combinations. Gigabyte ships the card with plastic dust stoppers for the HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, which we thought was a great touch.

Specifications and the VRAM issue
Nvidia’s stock GTX 970 specification calls for a base clock speed of 1.05GHz and maximum boost speed of 1.178GHz. Gigabyte has stepped up to 1.178GHz for the base speed and 1.329GHz for the boost speed, out of the box. There’s also the assurance that Gigabyte tests GPUs individually and reserves the best-performing ones for its G1 Gaming series cards. This should provide a nice bump compared to stock models. The card has 4GB of GDDR5 RAM running at 7GHz on a 256-bit bus.

As we saw in our review of the GeForce GTX 980, the 2,048 programmable CUDA cores in the GM204 chip are divided into four clusters of four SM units each. Whereas all 16 SMs are functional in chips that become GTX 980s, three are disabled for a total of 13 functioning SMs in GTX 970 chips. This is just as expected, and there should be a perfectly proportional difference in power between the two.

However, things get murky in another part of the GPU — Nvidia originally claimed that there was no corresponding reduction in the number of render operation pipelines (ROPs) and the associated amount of L2 cache memory. Previous generation cards would have had these numbers reduced proportionately as well, but Nvidia stated that Maxwell allows for finer control than its predecessors did.

As it turns out, that wasn’t true at all. The GTX 970 has only seven-eighths the ROP and cache strength of the GTX 980. There are actually 56 ROPs, not 64, and 1.79MB of L2 cache, not 2MB. Since the GPU’s pathway to its RAM goes through the cache, this means there only 3.5GB of the VRAM is addressed directly, which is one-eighth less than the claimed 4GB.

Nvidia’s cleverness lies in the way it masked this fact and continued selling GTX 970 cards with 4GB of VRAM. Cards do have 4GB, but partitioned into two different pools: seven-eighths running normally through seven L2 cache blocks, with the last one-eighth of it accessible through a connection spliced on to the second-last L2 cache block. The result of this is an inefficient pathway from the GPU to the VRAM, and a hierarchy wherein part of the memory is a lot slower to access. Things work just fine as long as only 3.5GB of VRAM is needed, but as soon as that threshold is crossed, the performance hit resulting from one L2 block serving two pools of RAM can be massive.

Nvidia might have hoped no one would notice, or that we’d all be fine with its «error» in communicating the ROP count at launch time, which is what it now claims happened. The company also points out that there is still technically 4GB of VRAM, and makes the assertion that stepping down to 3.5GB would have reduced performance further. Even with the benefit of doubt in that this was a mistake rather than deliberate misdirection, we’re disappointed that Nvidia didn’t bother issuing a correction till it was caught.

Performance
We tested the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 970 with an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU and 16GB of DDR3-1600 RAM from Adata, all plugged in to an Asus Z87-Pro motherboard. Our test system also used a 1,000W power supply and closed-loop Nepton 280 CPU cooler from Cooler Master, an Adata SX910 SSD, and a Dell U2711 1440p monitor. The driver version installed was 347.25.

Installation in our test system was a breeze, though people with even regular-sized ATX cases might find that they need to move their hard drives around in order for this card to fit. We started off with 3DMark’s Fire Strike test, and recorded a score of 10,104 overall. This is only very slightly lower than the 10,690 points scored by the GTX 980. Of course it should be kept in mind that our Gigabyte G1 Gaming test card is factory-overclocked.

Tomb Raider’s built-in benchmark had posed no challenge to the GTX 980, which ran comfortably at the 60fps cap even at 1440 with settings at Ultra and 16xAF. The GTX 970 ran exactly the same, with the minimum never dropping below 58fps. This is a pretty good sign that you could save a lot of money by going with the GTX 970 over its bigger sibling and not see any significant degradation in reasonably modern games on a single monitor.

Star Swarm is an extremely demanding benchmark that simulates thousands of objects moving around in 3D space at high speed, and got an average frame rate of 63.55fps. While the GTX 980 delivered 74.2fps, it’s interesting to note that Nvidia’s previous-generation flagship, the GTX 780, scored 63.77fps in the same test using the same hardware.

We then moved on to real-world game tests, measuring actual play sessions with the FRAPS reporting tool and analysing both frame rates and frame times. While the frame rate gives us a single, averaged number representing raw performance, frame time addresses the variance between frames to account for intermittent stutters and tears that degrade the gaming experience.

Battlefield 4 ran at an average of 59fps at 2560×1440 using the Ultra quality preset and 4xMSAA. The average frame time was 17.1ms and 99.9 percent of frames came in at under 22.1ms. With the resolution turned down to 1920×1080 and using the High quality preset, the average frame rate zoomed to 136, with much tighter timings of 7.37ms (average) and 11.1ms (99.9th percentile).

Crysis 3 can really push today’s hardware, and so we tried it out at 2560×1440, Very High quality and 8xMSAA. We saw only 23fps with an average time of 43.7ms and 99.9th percentile time of 57.5fps. This was below what anyone would consider smooth playability, and so some compromises were necessary. At 1920×1080, High quality and 4xMSAA, the game ran at a much smoother 62fps, with 16ms and 22. 3ms timings respectively.

While power consumption is low thanks to Nvidia’s engineering, we were concerned about noise that Gigabyte’s Windforce cooler would make with its three fans. We’re happy to report that even under heavy stress, it wasn’t too loud. While it definitely wasn’t whisper-silent, it was still much better than the GTX 780 we tested with its stock cooler pushing hot air out through the rear.

Verdict
Nvidia has modified the ROP and L2 figures in its official spec following widespread outcry online, and card manufacturers are expected to relabel their products going forward. Those who have already bought GeForce GTX 970 cards would be justified in feeling as though important information was withheld. There is no flaw or manufacturing defect, but it is a new design that has significant drawbacks, and as such Nvidia has been negligent at best.

The GTX 970 is still a very powerful GPU and cards such as the Gigabyte model we reviewed are still very attractive in terms of price, performance, power consumption, heat and noise compared to AMD’s current offerings. Users will run into the 3.5GB wall if they push their cards hard, such as in multi-monitor or 4K setups. Games releasing over the next few years will be demanding, and it isn’t unreasonable to expect a high-end graphics card purchased today to be able to handle them at high quality settings. It remains uncertain how well the GTX 970 will hold up.

On the product side, Gigabyte has done a pretty admirable job of souping up the GTX 970 GPU. The G1 Gaming model we reviewed is certainly powerful — consider that its scores are not too far off from those of the GTX 980. This model is definitely way more expensive than vanilla GTX 970 cards available from other manufacturers, so it’s only worth it if you value good looks, low power consumption and features such as the flexible multi-screen support.

Street prices are lower than MRPs and fluctuate often. If the Gigabyte G1 Gaming’s tag seems too steep, any other GTX 970 card is also still a good buy. On the AMD side of the fence, Radeon R9-290 cards are also in the same neighbourhood in terms of price and performance but will run hotter and be noisier.  

Price (MRP): Rs. 36,800

Pros

  • Good performance in current-day games
  • Low noise and power consumption
  • Overclocking headroom and good cooling

Cons

  • More expensive than most GeForce GTX 970 cards
  • Much larger than the reference design
  • VRAM allocation issue hampers heavy games

Ratings (Out of 5)

  • Performance: 4
  • Value for Money: 3
  • Overall: 3.5

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Further reading: GeForce, GeForce GTX 970, Gigabyte, Gigabyte G1 Gaming, Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 970, Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 970 review, GTX 970, GTX 970 performance, GTX 970 price in India, Nvidia, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Review

GIGABYTE GTX 970 G1 GAMING « 7Review






Cool, quiet, and deliciouslY quick, Gigabytếs overclocked GTX 970 nails it.

One of the new GeForce GTX 980 is a killer with a steep price. the I much cheaper GTX 970 looks one hell of a card. Unlike with the 980, the first iterations of which are mostly stock-clocked reíerence boards. there won t be any 970 reíerence boards. so our first taste comes courtesy of Gigabyte. And it’s really gone to town on the new 970 with the G1 Gaming, a íactory over-clocked card with custom cooling.

If you want to take it íurther than its íac-tory-overclocked settings, you can even get mighty đose to the períormance of a ref-erence-clocked GTX 980. And that means achieving superior gaming períormance to a GTX Titan Black. For not much more than C300. Yes, really. It’s great.

Inside the GTX 970 you ll find the same NVidia GM206 GPU that made the GTX 980 such an impressive graphics card, with just a few little nips and tucks to allovv the lower price point. The big change is on the traditional streaming microprocessor units íront. The SM count for the 970 is down from 16 to 13. That still gives you 1.666 CUDA cores for your money, but it’s a pretty severe slicing from the 2,068 cores in the GTX 980.

Hovvever, the GTX 970 still has the same 2MB of L2 cache, the same 66 ROPs, the same 256-bit memory bus, the same speed and algorithmic advances in the actual memory itselí, and crucially, the same 6GB trame buffer. It’s the common memory ca-pacity between the two latest Maxwell-pow-ered cards that allovvs them to be such key players at the highest resolutions.
Cool runnings
Right from the outset then, it’s clear that Gigabytes G1 Gaming GTX 970 is aiming squarely at the bigger 980 beast. The base clock is 128MHz higher than the Standard GTX 970, so this new card is running íaster than the GTX 980 out of the box in terms of pure clock GPU terms. But thats just the base clock. The G1 Gamings boost clock goes even íurther than the GTX 980’s, hitting 1,329MHz as a Standard turbo setting com-pared to the 1,216MHz of its bigger brother.

Thats thanks to Gigabytes powerful Windforce cooling array. The large triple-fan/triple-heatsink Setup means it’s a lon-ger card than the Standard GTX 980 design, despite having a shorter PCB, but also makes it a seriously effective cooling so-lution. With the tactory-overclocked GPU working its Silicon socks off, it was still only just about hitting a maximum temperature of 58 c. That s incredibly cool running for a proper high-end GPU, especially one that s capable of hitting 30fps at top 4K settings in Battleíield 4.

Even when we worked our own over-clocking magic on the G1 Gaming, it was still only very occasionally hitting a maximum 64 c. With the GM 204 running at an incred-ible 1.5GHz, that s a staggering technical achievement. In fact, it’s enough to have this G1 Gaming match a reíerence clocked and cooled GTX 980.

With coupon code: 7RW20, Audio Affair will give you £20 off all orders over £250. Sales items and some brands including Audio Pro, Pro-Ject, Kanto Audio and Audioengine are excluded from the discount code .

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Game on

lf that was the end of the story, you might still put your money on the reíerence GTX 980. Aíter all, its GPU Isn t being pushed as hard in order to achieve those speeds. But the VVindíorce cooling array really does make a tremendous difference; even operating at 1.5GHz, the G1 Gaming was running over 15 c cooler than the reíerence card.

Then there’s the price.The stock GTX 970, and this factory-overclocked version. But it’s still way cheaper than a basic GTX 980. As for AMD s Radeon R9 290X, ỉt’s in trouble. Even the overclocked Tri-X version from Sapphire can t cool to the same extent. or provide períormance to beat this cheaper card.

Even if AMD reacts by slashing prices, the Nvidia ecosystem arguably íeels a little more vibrant right now, with some íunky new technology (such as MFAA, VXGI, and DSR) making the Green Team seem more of a value proposition. In real terms, hovvever, it*s the additional straight-line gaming per-íormance that gives this new Gigabyte card theoverallvvin íorus.

IT’S A WRAP: OVER TO YOU, AMD
Cheaper, íaster, better. Thats what new Computer chips used to be about. More recently the rate of development in PC graphics has seemed to slow. With these new GPUs, Nvidia has taken us back to the golden age of graphics.

OK, the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 aren’t massively íaster than everything we‘ve seen beíore. Indeed, thefact Nvidias rela-tivelyancientGKHOchip—incardssuchas the GeForce GTX 780 Ti and Titan Black— is still pretty competitive just goes to show what an avvesome bit of kit it really is.

But in the GTX 970, Nvidia has come up with something seriously special.

That NVidia has pulled this off despite being stuck at 28nm through no fault of its own just makes these new Maxvvell GPUs even more impressive. We can hardly imagine how insane Maxwell vvill be when it gets an inevitable shrink down to 20nm next year.

If there is a negative, its the pric-ing on the GTX 980 model. It’s simply too big a premium to justify and that’s a pity. As for AMD, it doesn’t look pretty. All Nvidias main rival can do is cut pricing to position its GPUs more competitively. And while that may be enough to deliver a great price-performance package—the Radeon R9 290 and 290X remain awesome GPUs—it will still leave AMD lagging on metrics like heat and overclockability. And it will also leave AMD selling big, expensive graphics chips for not a lot of money.

As far as we know, it won’t be until 2015 and AMD’s 20nm Pirate Islands chips that there’s even a chance it will have some-thing that can truly take on Nvidia s Max-well. Until then, it looks like times will be tough or AMD. -MPC.


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Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming review

47points

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

Why is Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming better than the average?

  • Thermal Design Power (TDP)?
    148Wvs189. 19W
  • GPU memory speed?
    1753MHzvs1559.24MHz
  • DisplayPort outputs?
    3vs1.99
  • DVI outputs?
    2vs0.8
  • Height?
    114mmvs122.01mm

Which are the most popular comparisons?

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

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Asus Strix GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU II OC

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Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

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MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 100ME

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

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MSI Radeon RX 470 Gaming 8GB

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

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MSI Radeon RX 480 Gaming 8GB

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Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

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MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X

Price comparison

User reviews

Performance

1. GPU clock speed

1128MHz

The graphics processing unit (GPU) has a higher clock speed.

2.GPU turbo

1329MHz

When the GPU is running below its limitations, it can boost to a higher clock speed in order to give increased performance.

3.pixel rate

66 GPixel/s

The number of pixels that can be rendered to the screen every second.

4.floating-point performance

3.92 TFLOPS

Floating-point performance is a measurement of the raw processing power of the GPU.

5.texture rate

122.5 GTexels/s

The number of textured pixels that can be rendered to the screen every second.

6.GPU memory speed

1753MHz

The memory clock speed is one aspect that determines the memory bandwidth.

7.shading units

Shading units (or stream processors) are small processors within the graphics card that are responsible for processing different aspects of the image.

8.texture mapping units (TMUs)

TMUs take textures and map them to the geometry of a 3D scene. More TMUs will typically mean that texture information is processed faster.

9.render output units (ROPs)

The ROPs are responsible for some of the final steps of the rendering process, writing the final pixel data to memory and carrying out other tasks such as anti-aliasing to improve the look of graphics.

Memory

1.effective memory speed

7012MHz

The effective memory clock speed is calculated from the size and data rate of the memory. Higher clock speeds can give increased performance in games and other apps.

2.maximum memory bandwidth

224.4GB/s

This is the maximum rate that data can be read from or stored into memory.

3.VRAM

VRAM (video RAM) is the dedicated memory of a graphics card. More VRAM generally allows you to run games at higher settings, especially for things like texture resolution.

4.memory bus width

256bit

A wider bus width means that it can carry more data per cycle. It is an important factor of memory performance, and therefore the general performance of the graphics card.

5.version of GDDR memory

Newer versions of GDDR memory offer improvements such as higher transfer rates that give increased performance.

6.Supports ECC memory

✖Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

Error-correcting code memory can detect and correct data corruption. It is used when is it essential to avoid corruption, such as scientific computing or when running a server.

Features

1.DirectX version

DirectX is used in games, with newer versions supporting better graphics.

2. OpenGL version

OpenGL is used in games, with newer versions supporting better graphics.

3.OpenCL version

Some apps use OpenCL to apply the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) for non-graphical computing. Newer versions introduce more functionality and better performance.

4.Supports multi-display technology

✔Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

The graphics card supports multi-display technology. This allows you to configure multiple monitors in order to create a more immersive gaming experience, such as having a wider field of view.

5.load GPU temperature

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value.

A lower load temperature means that the card produces less heat and its cooling system performs better.

6.supports ray tracing

✖Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

Ray tracing is an advanced light rendering technique that provides more realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections in games.

7.Supports 3D

✔Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

Allows you to view in 3D (if you have a 3D display and glasses).

8.supports DLSS

✖Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is an upscaling technology powered by AI. It allows the graphics card to render games at a lower resolution and upscale them to a higher resolution with near-native visual quality and increased performance. DLSS is only available on select games.

9.PassMark (G3D) result

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This benchmark measures the graphics performance of a video card. Source: PassMark.

Ports

1.has an HDMI output

✔Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

Devices with a HDMI or mini HDMI port can transfer high definition video and audio to a display.

2. HDMI ports

More HDMI ports mean that you can simultaneously connect numerous devices, such as video game consoles and set-top boxes.

3.HDMI version

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Newer versions of HDMI support higher bandwidth, which allows for higher resolutions and frame rates.

4.DisplayPort outputs

Allows you to connect to a display using DisplayPort.

5.DVI outputs

Allows you to connect to a display using DVI.

6.mini DisplayPort outputs

Allows you to connect to a display using mini-DisplayPort.

Price comparison

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Which are the best graphics cards?

Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970

NVIDIA’s latest Maxwell GM204 based 900 series is known for its impressive improvement in power and took the enthusiast market by storm.  In collaboration with one of our nation’s best gaming rig builder at Ideal Tech, we manage to get our hands on another GTX 970 for today’s review – the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970. Retailed at approximately RM1499, the G1 Gaming GTX 970 isn’t the cheapest GTX 970 around but let’s see what kind of performance can we expect from this card. 

Specifications

Model Name

GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD

Graphics Engine

 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

Bus
Standard           

PCI Express 3.0

Video Memory

4GB GDDR5

Engine Clock

GPU Boost Clock: 1329 MHz

GPU Base Clock: 1178 MHz

CUDA Core

1664

Memory
Clock          

7010 MHz

Memory Interface

256-bit

Interface

DVI Output : Yes x 1 (DVI-I), Yes x 1 (DVI-D)

HDMI Output : Yes x 1 (HDMI 2. 0)

Display Port : Yes x 3 (Regular DP)

HDCP Support : Yes

Accessories

 –

Software                   

–

Dimensions

 312mm x 129mm
x 43mm

Overview

The retail packaging of the G1 Gaming GTX 970 is just as usual, its iconic eye and brief introduction on the features such as Super Overclock, Flex display and Windforce can be found at the front of the box. 

At the back of the box you’ll find a detailed description of the graphics card. 

Accessories

The included accessories is a driver CD, user’s manual, PCIe Y-Splitter, seems pretty standard except for the absent of the DVI-VGA adapter.  

It seems that almost every GTX 970 has gotten a new look, which goes the same for the G1 Gaming GTX 970 as well. 

The air flow is effectively enhanced by the unique blade fan design which Gigabyte boasts to not only increase the cooling capacity while reducing air turbulence but also results a lower noise level.

The shroud has extra holes that allows better ventilation and improved heat dissipation.

The Windforce logo that illuminates in a soft blue glow when powered up.

 A 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connector is required to power up the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970.

A total of 4 copper heatpipes is in direct contact with the GPU die for the best heat dissipation possible.

SLI fingers for multiple NVIDIA GPU configuration – up to 4 GPU.

At the back of the card you’ll find a metal backplate (the best looking backplate so far) that enhance the rigidity of the card to prevent PCB sagging issue that troubles a lot of users since then. 

The G1 Gaming GTX 970 comes with a total of 6 output display connector to satisfy your needs for multiple display monitor – 3 x Display Port, 1 x HDMI 1 x DVI-D and 1 x DVI-I.

Performance Test 

Test
Rig Configuration

CPU
Cooler

Prolimatech
Samuel 17

CPU

Intel
Core i7 4790K

Motherboard

ASUS
Maximus Gene VI 

Memory

Corsair
Vengeance Pro [email protected]

Primary
Hard Drive

Kimtigo
KTA-350 120GB

Power
Supply

BitFenix
Fury 550G

Chassis

BitFenix
Pandora

We’ve conducted our test by installing the G1 Gaming GTX 970 to our test bench as above and each and every benchmark is conducted in a room with 31C° ambient temperature.

Performance, Overclocking and Temperature

We ran a few graphically demanding games and synthetic benchmark in our possession at the resolution of 1920 x 1080, 4x Anti-aliasing. Due limited voltage adjustment, we’ve only managed to push the G1 Gaming GTX 970 to its highest stable clock that is able to complete each game benchmark with the following values:

  • Maximum boost clock of 1436 MHz
  • 8156 MHz on the memory clock
  • 1.21V on the voltage for GPU

Although the overclocking result in numbers looks pretty impressive, but the performance gain we’re seeing here is a little odd for certain benchmark. Here’s the difference that we’ve observed in each benchmark after overclocking the G1 Gaming GTX 970:

  • Unigine Valley: 5.4%
  • Unigine Heaven: 7.4%
  • Tomb Raider: 7.9%
  • Battlefield 3: 12.5%
  • Battlefield 4: 11.1%
  • Crysis 3: 17.7%
  • Far Cry 3: 14.9%

Cooling performance is impressive enough with idle temperature that hovers around 36°C  and the highest temperature of 72°C is recorded when we’re on FurMark stress test utility.  

Verdict
The G1 Gaming GTX 970 itself is already a factory overclocked and has higher clockspeed compared to most GTX 970. While a slightly better performance is guaranteed, the G1 Gaming GTX 970 is also a capable one when it comes to overclocking even though there’s limitation in voltage adjustment set by NVIDIA. While there’s minor coil noise from the card during full load with synthetic benchmarks such as FurMark stress test, Futuremark 3DMark, Unigine Heaven 4.0, etc – although it doesn’t really affect the overall performance.

The redesigned Windforce cooler does more than just giving the card a cool appearance, the new fan design operates way more quite than before without compromising the cooling performance. The price of RM 1499 isn’t going to be in favor for those with tight budget but it’s a worthy graphics card we would recommend to go for if one is willing to invest more for its overclocking capability and noise over performance ratio.

Pros

  • Aesthetic appearance
  • Almost silent operation but good cooling performance
  • Factory overclocking and has good overclocking potential
  • Comes with a metal back plate for extra protection against PCB sagging

Cons

  • Expensive 
  • Limited overclocking capability due to NVIDIA’s Green Light Program
  • Coil noise issue
  • Clearance issue with certain PC chassis due to its length

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review

Written by

Matthew Lambert

October 2, 2014 | 10:59

Tags: #best-gtx-980 #factory-overclock #gtx-980

Companies: #gigabyte

1 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review2 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Test Setup3 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Battlefield 4 Performance4 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — BioShock Infinite Performance5 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Crysis 3 Performance6 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Skyrim Performance7 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Unigine Valley 1. 0 Benchmark8 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Power and Thermals9 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Overclocking10 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Performance Analysis and Conclusion

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4GB Review

Manufacturer: Gigabyte
UK price (as reviewed):£499.99 (inc VAT)
UK price (as reviewed):$639.84 (ex Tax)

Nvidia’s two tiered GTX 900 series launch targeted two types of enthusiasts – the GTX 970 aimed at the value conscious performance hungry lot while the GTX 980 set its sights on those who demand only the best. As such, the GTX 980’s pricing was more inflated, a freedom it gets from having no real competition from AMD. That said, it’s worth remembering that its launch price of £430 was still much lower than that of the GTX 780 Ti at launch. Reference cards can still be found at this price, but custom made ones courtesy of Nvidia’s board partners demand a premium. The GTX 980 Gaming G1 from Gigabyte is one such card, and at £500 it’s one of the most expensive GTX 980s on the market, coming in with a 16 percent mark up, so hopefully it offers us many good things.

Click to enlarge

The latest edition of the Windforce 3X cooler is the stand-out feature, and it makes the card rather beastly. It measures 300mm long and weighs over 1kg. It’s also rated to deal with 600W of heat; we’re not entirely sure where Gigabyte pulled this from but judging from the size and weight alone we have little doubt that it will be able to cope with the 165W TDP GTX 980.

The build quality is exceptionally high. The cooler shroud is formed from rigid, brushed metal, and the same is true of the backplate as well, in stabilising the card against its own weight. The Windforce logo along the top edge of the card is backlit by blue LEDs. This will look good through a case window, as will the aggressive design of the backplate with its angled slits. The backplate has no removable section like the reference model, but these slits should serve a similar function in allowing air to circulate across the back of the PCB in SLI set-ups. SLI users will also be pleased to note that the cooler does not extend outwards over the SLI connectors, so fixed position bridges will fit without issue.

Click to enlarge

Accompanying the card is two cables. One converts two Molex connections into an 8-pin PCI-E one, while another converts another pair into a 6-pin PCI-E plug. The inclusion of this latter cable is somewhat daft (or perhaps an early packaging mistake) since a quick glance along the top of the card reveals two 8-pin sockets. Gigabyte has thus equipped the card with the ability to draw more power than the reference model, which only has two 6-pin sockets.

Click to enlarge

Gigabyte has kept all five of the reference display outputs, but has also added a dual-link DVI-D connection, calling the new configuration Flex Display. Using this new port will disable the two DisplayPort connections next to it, and whatever configuration you use you’ll still only be able to run four displays at once.

As you’d expect, the card ships with a factory overclock, a 9 percent one to be precise, which leaves it with a base clock of 1,228MHz and a boost clock of 1,329MHz. Gigabyte uses a binning process it calls GPU Gauntlet Sorting to select GPUs for the G1 Gaming range, choosing only those with the best power efficiency. This would help explain the inflated price tag; hopefully overclocking the card proves very fruitful as a result. Sadly, Gigabyte has left the memory clocked at 7GHz effective. This is hardly slow, but for £500 it would have been good if Gigabyte had been able to select premium memory chips and offer its card with overclocked memory to differentiate it that little bit more.

Click to enlarge

The open-air cooler design and closed off rear I/O panel means all hot air from the GTX 980 G1 Gaming will be dumped into your chassis, so a solid exhaust system is a must, especially if going SLI. Air is moved by a trio of 80mm fans with a unique blade design, whereby the small triangle splits the air between the ridges, supposedly to improve airflow while reducing turbulence. The fins on the heatsink are densely packed, and are fed by a whopping six heat pipes (five 8mm, one 6mm) that run through a huge copper baseplate. The memory chips and MOSFETs are all directly cooled as well using thermal pads.

Click to enlarge

The PCB is sparse in places but the power circuitry forms what appears to be a 6+2 phase power system, an upgrade from the reference 4+1. Gigabyte uses Japanese solid caps, ferrite core metal chokes and low resistance MOSFETs as part of its Ultra Durable VGA technology.

Click to enlarge

Specifications

  • Graphics processor Nvidia GeForce GTX 980, 1,228MHz (boost 1,329MHz)
  • Pipeline 2,048 stream processors, 128 texture units, 64 ROPs
  • Memory 4GB GDDR5, 7GHz effective
  • Bandwidth 224GB/sec, 256-bit interface
  • Compatibility DirectX 12, OpenGL 4. 5
  • Outputs/Inputs Dual Link DVI-D, Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3 x DisplayPort 1.2
  • Power connections 2 x 8-pin PCI-E, top-mounted
  • Size 300mm long, dual-slot
  • Warranty Three years

1 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review2 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Test Setup3 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Battlefield 4 Performance4 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — BioShock Infinite Performance5 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Crysis 3 Performance6 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Skyrim Performance7 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Unigine Valley 1.0 Benchmark8 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Power and Thermals9 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Overclocking10 — Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming Review — Performance Analysis and Conclusion

Another review of the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming video card / Video cards and monitors / iXBT Live

I was going to write for a long time not knowing what to write in my first review about a video card based on a chip that has been on the market for a year and a half, and which has never been written about two. About the model that is Steam’s leader among discrete graphics cards. About the card, which is currently the benchmark for the middle segment of graphics accelerators. Long going, and going. Welcome gentlemen! GTX970. And, perhaps, its best incarnation Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming!

This is not my first experience with GTX970 series cards, but all hands did not reach one of the top representatives of the well-known Taiwanese brand. But now that I have the first representative of the G1 Gaming line in my hands, I suggest taking a closer look at it.

Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming meets us with a box in the classic Gigabyte style, black. On the front side, we see a description of the techniques used and supported technologies. On the back side, we are told about the advantages of the Windforce3X cooling system, the use of technology for displaying images on multiple Flex display monitors, dual BIOS (GIGABYTE DualBIOS), the use of an ultra-reliable elementary base (Ultra Durable VGA), and, attention (!!!), manual selection of chips in terms of quality for the G1 Gaming line. Those. with this, we are promised high-quality crystals inside and a decent overclocking potential at the output … Well, we’ll see!

Inside, again, a classic black box with a video card, under which there is a compartment with an additional kit. Which, it should be noted, is very modest for the top (at the time of release) card of the line. Two adapters for 6pin and 8pin, driver disk and manual. Why this kit did not include at least a DVI ↔ D-Sub adapter and a sticker is not clear to me personally. From the top game line of the top company, you expect something more interesting!

Opening!

Visually, the map looks very nice! Windforce3X has updated the casing since the GTX 7XX series and has become so brutal, and the back plate gives out a premium product. The set of outputs is also classic for modern video adapters 1 x DVI-I, 1 x DVI-D, 1 x HDMI, 3 x DisplayPort. Upon further consideration, the following feature, the length, attracts attention. The map is very long! Sooo! Occupying two slots in height, the length is declared within 312 mm! For comparison, dual-chip (!) HD7990 and GTX690 were a maximum of 315mm in their longest versions. On the one hand, such a length of the card makes you think about the possibility of placing it inside your case, but on the other hand, it seems to indicate that the cooling of our chip will be at the level!

Separately, I would like to say about the so-called backplate, or back plate. This structural element in its current version carries the same brutal style as the casing of the cooling system. At the same time, in addition to the visual pleasure of contemplating such beauty in your system unit, this device has only one practical value, it does not allow the card to bend in the pci-e slot under the weight of the cooling system. There is no question of any cooling of the elements of the power system and memory, since there is a decent gap between the backplate and the printed circuit board of the video card.

Fans have also been changed with the release of the 9th series. Now the design of the fans has been improved in the direction of reducing the turbulence of air flows, which should lead to better cooling of the video card. I am always very cautious about such statements by manufacturers, preferring to check all this in practice.

Before starting gaming testing (we will not have benchmarks, due to their complete uselessness for ordinary users, and they have already been tested more than a dozen times), I would like to draw attention to the place of this video card in the GTX9 family70 from Gygabyte.

As you can see from the table, before the release of the Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming line, our card was the top one in the gtx970 series from Gigabyte, now it is ahead of the Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming GTX 970 in terms of GPU frequency in nominal / boost. But everyone understands that +13 MHz in terms of the core, this is a purely digital superiority that will not affect the fact that these cards will be equal in games. And the actual difference between the Xtreme Gaming line is the increased number of heat pipes, reduced length and RGB lighting of the fans, which, of course, is not small, but, as they say, does not affect the speed!

Now let’s move on to gaming tests. And today we have a lot of them! The test is pretty simple. A half-hour run with measurements of the minimum, maximum and average fps and the maximum temperature of the video card. We will also check how one of the latest processors from Intel i5 6600 will work in tandem with the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming. Measurements will be made using the MSI Afterburner program.

Computer configuration:

  • I5 6600 + Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.C + 2X Noctua NF-P12
  • MSI B150 Night Elf
  • Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming
  • G.Skill 16 GB 2133MHz
  • Sea Sonic 460W Fanless Platinum
  • Crucial MX200 240GB
  • HGST 500Gb
  • Fractal Design Core 1500 + Lamptron FC2 

we see, despite its size, the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming fits perfectly into a compact system, and feels great in it!

GAMES:

Among the games we have today:

World Of Tanks

One of the most popular online games is famous for its demands on processors, but even with an HD client, the requirements for the video card are set to the highest. But, oddly enough, at maximum graphics settings, neither the processor nor the video card was fully loaded during the entire session, which means that the power of our system is more than enough for this game. Naturally, on different maps, due to the different number of objects for rendering, we got different fps. Minimum fps — 60, average — 90, maximum — 110.

Witcher 3

The Witcher is one of the best, if not the best game of 2015. At maximum graphics settings with high Nvidia Hairworks settings, we get a minimum of 45 fps in the most difficult places for the video card. The average fps is 60, the maximum fps can be seen in enclosed spaces and a cave, where it exceeds 90.

Fallout 4

Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming, one of the latest big novelties of the gaming industry, was also easily conquered. Also, at maximum settings, the card receives a full load only in large open spaces. And even in such conditions, we have at least 55 fps at our disposal. Average fps — 75, maximum — 95.

Assassins creed: Syndicate

But the last series of assassin’s adventures forced our card to capitulate at maximum settings with msaa x8 anti-aliasing. If indoors fps did not fall below 40, then when I went outside, I saw sad numbers in the fps column, the minimum of which was 9. I had to go back to the msaa x2 recommended by the system. In such conditions, fps did not fall below 45, on average it was 60, and did not grow above this mark.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

The last part of the famous franchise could be safely skipped, because at maximum settings the video card constantly produces the maximum 60 fps. If not for one fact: the video memory load does not fall below 4000MB. Knowing the old scandalous gtx970 problem with 0.5 GB of slow memory, we had the right to expect any performance drops, but there are none. A 4GB card paired with 16GB of RAM digests the game with a bang. What happens if the card has 2 GB of memory available is anyone’s guess.

As a bonus, we can mention the now popular game Armored Warfare, which, at maximum settings, conquered our map with the same constants, artificially limited by the 60 FPS system.

Overclocking + cooling system:

Not the most necessary for the average user, but nevertheless, a very interesting feature — overclocking!

We all remember the promise of manual selection of chips for this line, and the high asic 72.% shows us that, most likely, some sort of selection is really being carried out. Previously having 2 pieces of GTX970 other asic vendors above 63% I have not seen. As you can see from the picture, the high asic promises us good overclocking with air cooling.

Having made several (about 10) unsuccessful runs in FurMark, the memory core clock rates froze at the following numbers:

I want to note right away that raising the core voltage did not help me in this case. Above 1489 on boost, the card did not want to pass the benchmark.

Of course, 1489 is a very good result, previous cards started at 1435 maximum, but I really wanted to overcome the mark of 1500.

At the same time, the card warmed up to a maximum of 68 degrees, the fans worked normally, and their speed did not rise above 60%, which, despite the small size of the case, did not affect the background noise in any way, and the computer continued to remain almost silent. In games, the temperature did not exceed 65 degrees and the sound background also remained comfortable.
In games, this 15% overclock resulted in an approximately equal increase in frame rate, in The Witcher it is about +10%, from 45 to 49under the same conditions. Very good in my opinion.

Conclusion:

And the conclusion is simple. With the GTX970 G1 Gaming, Gigabyte has launched one of the best and most balanced graphics cards on the market for gaming at FullHD resolution at maximum graphics settings. The highest level of factory overclocking, a productive and quiet cooling system, the possibility of high manual overclocking, excellent performance in games, everything is there.

From the fact that in this map the end user may not be satisfied — this is the length. Of course, 312 mm is a lot for modern video cards, especially in non-top series, but the cooling system justifies every centimeter of length with its quiet and productive work. In our example, you could also see that cards with such a length can be placed in compact gaming systems.

Also in our review, we could see that a fresh, but not top-end Intel Skylake i5 6600 processor was more than enough to fully load our card where it was needed.

In total, even despite the release of Gigabyte’s new XtremeGaming gaming line and the new GTX970 series card in it, the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming also remains in the top segment of this series, and the lack of fan illumination that is not necessary for everyone and the absence of additional heat pipes make its retail price is more attractive in relation to the novelty.

Review and testing of the video card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Review Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming
    • Packaging and delivery
    • Appearance and dimensions
    • Cooling system
    • PCB
  • Test Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming
    • Test stand and software
    • Test Instruments and Methods
    • Standard frequencies and overclocking
    • Cooling System Potential Study
  • Conclusion

Introduction

The laboratory continues the series of reviews dedicated to the line of GeForce GTX 970 graphics accelerators. We have already reviewed the reference design version and one of the first original models — MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G.

Thanks to our partner — the company Regard, the graphic accelerator of the Gigabyte brand of the updated WindForce series, which for unknown reasons became known as G1 Gaming, became a guest of the laboratory. Looking ahead, I will say that the company’s engineers were able to pleasantly surprise, but first things first.

As usual, let’s start the review of Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming with packaging and delivery.

recommendations

Review Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming

Full name: GeForce GTX 970 Gigabyte WindForce 3X PCI-E 4096Mb, manufacturer code: GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD (rev. 1.0/1.1).

Packaging and delivery

The Gigabyte graphics card comes in a large box. The design of the front part is made in the usual design for the company with a predominance of blue and black colors. This is a very brief introduction to the product.

All the fun lies on the back of the package. In addition to technical data, a schematic representation of the upgraded WindForce cooling system is provided.

In addition, there is an excellent overclocking potential of the model due to a special selection of GPUs under the GPU Gauntlet Sorting program; Flex Display technology, which allows you to organize up to four displays and makes it easy to configure settings; the use of high-quality element base and support for Gigabyte DualBIOS technology (using two BIOS chips).

At the very bottom, in yellow, are the system requirements. The manufacturer emphasizes that the computer must be equipped with a power supply unit with a capacity of at least 500 W and support two PCI-E cables according to the “8 + 6” scheme. True, on the page of the Gigabyte website dedicated to this model, 550 watts have already been announced.

Main technical data in different languages, including Russian, moved to the end of the package.

Inside the main box is a black hard cardboard box with the company logo. After opening it, you can see the video card itself in an antistatic package.

It is housed in a soft material to protect it from damage during shipping.

The entire scope of delivery is carefully hidden in a recess under the graphics accelerator, covered with a cardboard cover.

Personally, I like the extended sets with rugs, magnets and posters, but everything is more modest here.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming includes:

  • User Manual;
  • CD with drivers and software;
  • 2 x Molex -> 6-pin power adapters;
  • 2 x Molex -> 8-pin power adapters.

Appearance and dimensions

A Gigabyte video card with a new sample of WindForce 3X cooling system installed on it looks very impressive, making you think about the high efficiency of the applied CO.

The entire model range of the company suffers from claustrophobia and is afraid of cramped cabinet spaces. This patient is no exception: the length of our hero is as much as 309mm, which can alienate some buyers. Otherwise, everything is not so bad — the width is only 117 mm, together with the cooler, the accelerator covers two expansion slots.

The entire rear side is covered by a slotted metal base plate which, together with the cooling system, protrudes beyond the edge of the PCB. Blue and red wires are suspiciously peeking out from the side, so let’s hope that when you are detained by the authorities, they will not consider this device to be some kind of bad object.

The following set of interfaces is provided for displaying images on the video card:

  • One DVI-D;
  • One DVI-I
  • Three DisplayPort;
  • One HDMI.

The following resolutions are supported:

  • Digital — up to 4096 x 2160;
  • Analog — up to 2048 x 1536.

Six video outputs on a non-professional solution, I personally meet for the first time. This set of ports is universal because it allows you to connect most modern monitors or TVs without using adapters.

It is worth noting that there is no room for slots for the release of hot air, so all heat is dissipated inside the case.

One six-pin and one eight-pin connector for auxiliary power. If necessary, you can use adapters from the delivery set.

The manufacturer does not disclose the TDP level of their product, only emphasizing the need to use a power supply unit with a power of at least 500 W.