The Real Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Specifications
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We’ve remained quiet on this issue until now because we wanted to be absolutely clear about the situation before weighing in. I love to use automotive metaphors, so I’m going to apply one here to describe this situation because I think it helps put the whole mess in perspective:
You’re a muscle-car buff and you decide to test drive the new 2015 Dodge Charger Hellcat. The car is advertised as a supercharged 8-cylinder, 6.2 Liter Hemi engine with 24 valves that produces 707 horsepower at 6,000 RPM. It’s one of the most powerful cars you can buy for the dollar, achieving 0-60 MPH in under three seconds and a quarter-mile in under 12 seconds. You take it for a test drive, you fall in love with the car, and you buy it. In the months to follow, you remain quite pleased with your purchase and the performance the car provides.
It later comes out that Dodge made a mistake on its marketing materials: the engine has 16 valves, not 24. It still produces 707 horsepower at 6,000 RPM though, and it still offers the same amazing road performance that it did the day you bought it. It’s still one of the fastest cars you could purchase for the dollar. But you can no longer say you own a 24-valve V8.
It’s upsetting. But does it make the Charger Hellcat a worse car that it was before you found out? Practically, no, as performance is unchanged. But it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. For Dodge, it would be a PR nightmare. Some Charger Hellcat owners would feel lied to, despite the fact that their car is every bit as fast as they expected it to be in the first place.
This is essentially the kind of misrepresentation scenario that Nvidia is dealing with. Introducing the actual GeForce GTX 970 specifications:
| GeForceGTX 980 | GeForce GTX 970 (actual) | GeForce GTX 970 (originally reported) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | GM204 (Maxwell) | GM204 (Maxwell) | GM204 (Maxwell) |
| Process | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
| Shader Units | 2048 | 1664 | 1664 |
| Texture Units | 128 | 104 | 104 |
| ROPs | 64 | 56 | 64 |
| L2 Cache | 2 MB | 1. 75 MB |
2 MB |
| Core CLock | 1126 MHz | 1050 MHz | 1050 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1750 MHz GDDR5 | 1750 MHz GDDR5 | 1750 MHz GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 224 GB/s | 196 GB/s (3.5 GB)28 GB/s (512MB) | 224 GB/s |
| Memory Capacity | 4GB | 4GB | 4GB |
| Max. TDP | 165 Watts | 145 Watts | 145 Watts |
| Aux. PowerConnectors | 2x Six-pin PCIe | 2x Six-pin PCIe | 2x Six-pin PCIe |
This issue reared its head when some users noted that in certain cases the GeForce GTX 970 reported 3.5GB of graphics memory despite being sold as a 4GB card. It turns out that this is a symptom of memory segmentation, as the card splits the 4GB into a 3.5GB high-priority segment and a 512MB low-priority segment.
Yes, the card has access to a full 4GB of RAM. It is accessed differently and with different theoretical bandwidth, but it’s all there and available. It remains to be seen if this technique causes any notable performance detriment in a real-world scenario, but from what we’ve seen so far, it does not.
But why is there an odd split in memory resources in the first place? It turns out, this is a clue that hints at the real issue: Nvidia’s incorrect reporting of the GeForce GTX 970’s technical specifications and GM204 GPU resources.
Note that one of the four ROP partitions is not fully enabled, but partially disabled. That partially disabled partition is responsible for the strange 3.5GB/512MB memory split, as memory controller resources are linked through them. With one-eighth of the ROP partitions disabled, one-eighth of the memory (512MB) must be accessed in a special way, through the working half of the partition. In this way, all 4 GB of RAM is usable, although segmented.
As a result the 3.5 GB portion can be accessed with 196 GB/s of bandwidth, while the 512 MB portion has 28 GB/s of bandwidth available. There are probably some particular situations that will expose this weakness, but it is surprisingly difficult to create this scenario. We will keep an eye out for it and be able to call it out now that we know the actual specifications, but none of this new information invalidates the benchmark results we’ve already collected.
In addition, an eighth of the L2 cache is not used. As a result, there are 56 functional ROPs in the GeForce GTX 970, and the chip has access to 1.75 MB of L2 cache. This is less than the 64 ROPs and 2 MB of L2 that Nvidia originally indicated in its press materials.
How Did This Happen?
The company claims this is the result of a misunderstanding on the part of the technical marketing team, which was not aware of the partially-enabled ROP cluster, and that the issue was not identified internally until this month when people began digging into the memory issue.
It’s times like these that conspiracy theories begin to fly. In this case it’s understandable: how does a highly technical team of GPU experts, one that works directly for the chipmaker, make such a huge mistake?
I’ve never been a conspiracy theorist: I believe human greed and stupidity are simple explanations for all that’s wrong in the world, and that we don’t need to concoct a shadowy Illuminati organization to take the blame. I also don’t see a lot of motive for Nvidia to open themselves up to this kind of PR nightmare in the first place. There is absolutely no advantage or benefit to have done so. Occam’s razor points to a screw-up, plain and simple.
It does surprise me that one of Nvidia’s engineers never spotted this major snafu after reading a few launch reviews. But if you were that guy, would you even want to report that a huge product launch suffered from flubbed specs? If you were made aware of this inconsistency, would you offer the information to the world after a successful launch was behind you, or keep it to yourself and hope that the press would never find out?
Does It Matter?
I’m not omniscient.
I don’t know if Nvidia knew about this and chose to keep it close to its chest, or if the company found out with the rest of us last Friday. But I have no good reason to believe the company is lying. To tell the truth, from a practical standpoint, I’m not sure if it matters.
That’s not to say I think it’s OK to be fed misinformation about GPU specifications. This is a subject I am patently passionate about. I think it’s important for the technical press to have the right information at its disposal when analyzing hardware and deciphering the repercussions of what goes on under the hood. Nvidia needs to work hard to make sure this kind of mistake never happens again.
But from a purely practical standpoint, this doesn’t really change anything for the end user. The GeForce GTX 970 remains one of the best graphics card buys on the market. It performs the same way it did at launch — which is really good. As such, we will continue to recommend it until there is a better-performing option for the price.
We can empathize with buyers who feel betrayed, though. Nvidia definitely has some mind-share to earn back. But to us the price/performance ratio trumps everything else, and that is no different today than it has been since the GeForce GTX 970 was released.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
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Power, Temperature, & Noise — The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Review: Featuring EVGA
by Ryan Smithon September 26, 2014 10:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- GPUs
- EVGA
- GeForce
- NVIDIA
- Maxwell
155 Comments
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155 Comments
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Review: Featuring EVGAMeet The EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.
0The TestMetro: Last LightCompany of Heroes 2Bioshock InfiniteBattlefield 4Crysis 3Crysis: WarheadTotal War: Rome 2ThiefGRID 2SyntheticsComputePower, Temperature, & NoiseOverclockingFinal Words
As always, last but not least is our look at power, temperature, and noise. Next to price and performance of course, these are some of the most important aspects of a GPU, due in large part to the impact of noise. All things considered, a loud card is undesirable unless there’s a sufficiently good reason – or sufficiently good performance – to ignore the noise.
Having already seen GM204 in action with the GTX 980 series, we have a pretty solid foundation to base expectations on for the GTX 970. GTX 970 should offer reduced power consumption at reduced performance, and with EVGA’s open air cooler this card will never hit 80C, so if it is ever throttled it will be entirely by TDP and not by temperatures as was the case with GTX 980.
| GeForce GTX 900 Series Voltages | ||||
| EVGA GTX 970 Boost Voltage | EVGA GTX 970 Idle Voltage | GTX 980 Boost Voltage | ||
1. 218v |
0.856v | 1.225v | ||
We’ll start as always with voltages, which in this case are in-line with what we have already seen with GTX 980. At 1.218v for the card’s maximum boost bin, the GTX 970 is only a step below the GTX 980 in voltages. We sometimes see these cards binned to operate at lower voltages for power saving purposes, though with GM204’s already low power consumption I’m not sure how necessary that is from a product development standpoint.
Next up, let’s take a look at average clock speeds.
| GeForce GTX 900 Series Average Clockspeeds | |||||
| EVGA GTX 970 FTW | EVGA GTX 970 (Stock) | GTX 980 | |||
| Max Boost Clock | 1418MHz | 1252MHz | 1252MHz | ||
| Metro: LL |
1337MHz |
1222MHz |
1192MHz |
||
| Coh3 |
1265MHz |
1143MHz |
1177MHz |
||
| Bioshock |
1370MHz |
1221MHz |
1201MHz |
||
| Battlefield 4 |
1373MHz |
1227MHz |
1227MHz |
||
| Crysis 3 |
1354MHz |
1202MHz |
1227MHz |
||
| TW: Rome 2 |
1332MHz |
1177MHz |
1161MHz |
||
| Thief |
1329MHz |
1202MHz |
1190MHz |
||
| GRID 2 |
1340MHz |
1202MHz |
1151MHz |
||
| Furmark |
912MHz |
910MHz |
923MHz |
||
Despite not being temperature limited, what we can see right away is that regardless of the clock speed settings it uses, the GTX 970 FTW is TDP limited under all scenarios.
At no point in time are we able to maintain the card’s top boost bin, and instead the card spends its time fluctuating between the boost bins it can hold while maintaining power consumption of 145W. The actual drop off from the maximum boost bin depends heavily on the game; some games average clock speeds close to the maximum, while others have to pull way back.
Overall the GTX 970 FTW is a bit more TDP limited in its factory overclocked FTW configuration than its reference clocked configuration, as higher clock speeds draw greater power levels even though voltages are constant. Otherwise we find that in the FTW configuration the card is on average clocked 138MHz higher than the reference configuration, which isn’t quite as high as the 166-189MHz difference in their official specifications. In other words, the FTW’s performance advantage is equivalent to a 140MHz overclock.
Moving on to power and starting with idle power consumption, the GTX 970 FTW does not fare quite as well as the GTX 980.
Despite having fewer SMMs lit up, EVGA’s card draws a consistent 3W more at the wall. In lieu of other data it’s difficult to determine exactly whether this is due to chip-to-chip variation or EVGA’s board, but the latter explanation is more plausible at this moment.
Load power consumption for GTX 970 follows the same path as the GTX 980, almost down to the watt in this case. The GTX 970 FTW actually sees slightly higher power consumption at the wall, while reducing it to reference clocks brings down the power consumption to a flat 300W. Since we are underclocking a factory overclocked card I’m not going to read into the underclocked results too much, but for the FTW we’re looking at power consumption similar to GTX 980 but not quite the performance to match. This is likely thanks to the GTX 980 operating a bit under its TDP due to thermal throttling.
Still, GTX 970 FTW remains as one of the lower power consuming cards of anything in our lineup. Similarly performing cards such as the GTX 780 and Radeon R9 290XU (which is virtually tied on performance here) clearly draw more power, significantly so in the case of the latter.
The story is much the same with FurMark. Since this a purely TDP limited scenario the GTX 970 FTW configuration draws 284W at the wall regardless of the clock speed settings used. In this worst case scenario power consumption is 10W less than the GTX 980 at the wall and 71W less than AMD’s R9 290. Meanwhile since the GTX 970 is TDP limited under all gaming workloads, in this case this is not a bad proxy for overall power consumption while gaming.
While idle power consumption didn’t quite top the charts, idle temperatures do. At 28C the GTX 970 FTW is barely above room temperature.
Owing to its open air cooler, low TDP, and TDP throttling, the load temperature for the GTX 970 FTW tops out at 63C in all scenarios. Whether it’s gaming or FurMark, 100% TDP means the card finds its cooling/temperature equilibrium at nearly 20C less than its thermal throttling point.
In this case since this is one of the only open air coolers in this lineup – the only other card was the R9 280X – this means the GTX 970 FTW tops the charts thanks to its design.
We’ve already covered the pros and cons of open air coolers many times before, and when it comes to temperatures this is a definite pro.
If there is an Achilles heel for the GTX 970 FTW then it is idle noise levels. EVGA’s ACX 2.0 cooler just doesn’t idle very well; even at its minimum fan speed, it still pushes enough air to push the sound meter to 42.7 dB. At this noise level the GTX 970 FTW is not in terrible shape, but near-silent at idle it is not. As it currently stands this card is not going to be a great choice for users looking for a system that can idle with little noise, especially compared to some of the 38dB cards we’ve seen over the last year.
This I suspect is why EVGA is looking into changing their card over to using passive cooling at idle. If EVGA can successfully pull off that modification and turn off the fans when idling, then they will resolve the card’s one true weakness and go from the bottom of this chart to the top.
Truth be told, even load noise levels aren’t all that impressive here.
47.5dB is still near the top of our charts, but the GTX 980 of all things ended up being ever so slightly quieter. Which perhaps more than anything else goes to show just what that $550 price tag is paying for when it comes to cooling.
Without more GTX 970 cards it’s hard to place EVGA’s card among its true competition. But given what we’ve seen previous 150W cards do in the past, it’s safe to say that EVGA is running a bit loud at both idle and load for the amount of heat they have to remove. I suspect the ACX 2.0 cooler used here is a bit oversized for a 145W card, which is similarly reflected in the low temperature results. Given the kind of power they have at hand, EVGA could likely do better with a more conservative fan curve.
Looking at the broader picture, while EVGA may not do well against other open air coolers, they are going to do well against most other blowers here. Even the GTX 670 is louder, with a 2.5dB difference in EVGA’s favor.
When it comes to FurMark the GTX 970 FTW goes to the top of our charts, but it remains within a stone’s throw of the GTX 980.
Overall the GTX 970 FTW is a bit of a mixed bag. EVGA’s aggressive fan curve and ACX 2.0 cooler produce some amazing GPU temperatures, even for a 145W card. On the other hand EVGA’s noise levels are simply so-so for an open air cooler, with EVGA benefitting from most of the competition in our charts being louder blowers.
To be clear it’s still a solid performance and 47.5 dB for the second fastest single-GPU card on the planet is incredibly quiet. I don’t even have to throw in an R9 290XU comparison to make that point, though that card is AMD’s closest competitor from a gaming performance standpoint. Still, I only wonder how well other open air coolers could do in this situation given what we’ve seen from other cards in the past. If nothing else, perhaps we’ve been spoiled by the GTX 980 and its top-tier blower.
Update 9/26: Though EVGA missed the initial cut-off for this review, later in the day they turned in an beta/engineering version of their upcoming vBIOS with the zero fan speed idle changes worked in, along with a new fan curve.
We can confirm that the zero fan speed function is working in this BIOS, rendering the card silent at idle.
Overall EVGA is keeping the fans off until about 63C, at which point the fan controller starts ramping up the fans until it finally supplies enough power for them to kick in. Even under a max TDP load (FurMark) the fans are up and running by 67C.
At the same time EVGA’s new fan curve has adjusted their equilibrium point from 63C to 73C. At max TDP load our card now tops out at 73C, which corresponds to a fan duty cycle of 29%, or 42dB. This new curve places the fan load noise levels at less than the previous curve’s idle levels, and now makes this one of the quietest midrange enthusiast cards we have ever reviewed.
| EVGA ACX 2.0 Cooler Performance | ||||
| Shipping BIOS | Engineering BIOS | |||
| Idle Fan Speed | 30% | 0% | ||
| Load Fan Speed |
38% |
29% |
||
|
|
||||
| Idle Temperature |
28C |
33C |
||
| Load Temperature |
63C |
73C |
||
|
|
||||
| Idle Noise |
42. |
36.3dB |
||
| Load Noise |
47.5dB |
42.0dB |
||
7dBFor the time being this BIOS is still under development (and is subject to change), with EVGA telling us that their goal is to release it to users in the “coming weeks.” Since this BIOS is still in development and not available to the public we will not be changing our official results, but it certainly warrants a proper second look once EVGA ships this BIOS.
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The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Review: Featuring EVGA
by Ryan Smithon September 26, 2014 10:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- GPUs
- EVGA
- GeForce
- NVIDIA
- Maxwell
155 Comments
|
155 Comments
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Review: Featuring EVGAMeet The EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.
0The TestMetro: Last LightCompany of Heroes 2Bioshock InfiniteBattlefield 4Crysis 3Crysis: WarheadTotal War: Rome 2ThiefGRID 2SyntheticsComputePower, Temperature, & NoiseOverclockingFinal Words
Last week we took a look at NVIDIA’s newest consumer flagship video card, the GeForce GTX 980. Based on the company’s new GM204 GPU, GTX 980 further cemented NVIDIA’s ownership of the performance crown with a combination of performance improvements, new features, and power consumption reductions. Combined with a lower price than the now-dethroned GTX 780 Ti, GTX 980 is an impressive flagship with a mix of attributes that NVIDIA hopes to entice existing 600 and 500 series owners to upgrade to.
Of course even though GTX 980 was cheaper than the outgoing GTX 780 Ti, it is still a flagship card and at $549 is priced accordingly. But as in every GeForce product lineup there is a GeForce x70 right behind it, and for GTX 980 its lower-tier, lower priced counterpart is the GeForce GTX 970.
Based on the same GM204 but configured with fewer active SMMs, a slightly lower clock speed, and a lower TDP, GTX 970 fills the gap by providing a lower performance but much lower priced alternative to the flagship GTX 980. In fact at $329 it’s some 40% cheaper than GTX 980, one of the largest discounts for a second-tier GeForce card in recent memory.
For this reason GTX 970 is an interesting card on its own, if not more interesting overall than its bigger sibling. The performance decrease from the reduced clock speeds and fewer SMMs is going to be tangible, but then so is a $220 savings to the pocketbook. With GTX 980 already topping our charts, if GTX 970 can stay relatively close then it would be a very tantalizing value proposition for enthusiast gamers who want to buy in to GM204 at a lower price.
| NVIDIA GPU Specification Comparison | ||||||
| GTX 980 | GTX 970 (CorrecteD) | GTX 780 | GTX 770 | |||
| CUDA Cores | 2048 | 1664 | 2304 | 1536 | ||
| Texture Units | 128 | 104 | 192 | 128 | ||
| ROPs | 64 | 56 | 48 | 32 | ||
| Core Clock | 1126MHz | 1050MHz | 863MHz | 1046MHz | ||
| Boost Clock | 1216MHz | 1178MHz | 900Mhz | 1085MHz | ||
| Memory Clock | 7GHz GDDR5 | 7GHz GDDR5 | 6GHz GDDR5 | 7GHz GDDR5 | ||
| Memory Bus Width | 256-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | ||
| VRAM | 4GB | 4GB | 3GB | 2GB | ||
| FP64 | 1/32 FP32 | 1/32 FP32 | 1/24 FP32 | 1/24 FP32 | ||
| TDP | 165W | 145W | 250W | 230W | ||
| GPU | GM204 | GM204 | GK110 | GK104 | ||
| Transistor Count | 5. 2B |
5.2B | 7.1B | 3.5B | ||
| Manufacturing Process | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm | ||
| Launch Date | 09/18/14 | 09/18/14 | 05/23/13 | 05/30/13 | ||
| Launch Price | $549 | $329 | $649 | $399 | ||
Compared to GTX 980 and its full-fledged GM204 GPU, GTX 970 takes a harvested GM204 that drops 3 of the SMMs, reducing its final count to 13 SMMs or 1664 CUDA cores.
It also sheds part of a ROP/L2 cache partition while retaining the 256-bit memory bus of its bigger sibling, bringing the ROP count down to 56 ROPs and the L2 cache down to 1.75MB, a configuration option new to Maxwell
Along with the reduction in SMMs clock speed is also reduced slightly for GTX 970. It ships at a base clock speed of 1050MHz and a boost clock speed of 1178MHz. This puts the theoretical performance difference between it and the GTX 980 at about 85% of the ROP performance or about 79% of the shading/texturing/geometry performance. Given that the GTX 970 is unlikely to be ROP bound with so many ROPs, the real world performance difference should much more closely track the 79% value, meaning there is still potentially a significant performance delta between the GTX 980 and GTX 970.
Elsewhere the memory configuration is unchanged from GTX 980. This means we’re looking at 4GB of GDDR5 clocked at 7GHz, all on a 256-bit bus. Compared to the GTX 770 that the GTX 970 replaces, this is a welcome and much needed upgrade from what has been the 2GB VRAM standard that NVIDIA has held to for the last two and a half years.
GTX 970’s TDP meanwhile is lower than GTX 980’s thanks to the reduced clock speeds and SMM count. The stock GTX 970 will be shipping with a TDP of just 145W, some 80W less than GTX 770’s official TDP of 225W. NVIDIA’s official designs still include 2 6-pin PCIe power sockets despite the fact that the card should technically be able to operate on just one; it is not clear at this time whether this is for overclocking purposes (150W would leave almost no power headroom) or for safety purposes since NVIDIA would be so close to going over PCIe specifications.
Like the GTX 980, NVIDIA’s target market for the GTX 970 will be owners of GTX 600/500/400 series cards and their AMD equivalents. GTX 970 is faster than GTX 770 but not immensely so, and as a result NVIDIA does not expect GTX 770 owners to want to upgrade so soon. Meanwhile GTX 670 owners and beyond are looking at 65%+ improved performance for cards at the same tier, while power consumption will remain roughly consistent from the GTX 670’s 140W GPU Boost 1.
0-based power target.
Furthermore, as we mentioned in our GTX 980 review, GTX 970 has been a pure virtual (no reference card) launch, which means all of NVIDIA’s partners are launching their custom cards right out of the gate. A lot of these have been recycled or otherwise only slightly modified GTX 700/600 series designs, owing to the fact that GM204’s memory bus has been held at 256-bits and its power requirements are so low.
Meanwhile since NVIDIA did not produce reference cards, for GTX 970 reviewers are being sampled directly by NVIDIA’s partners. For our review today we will be looking at EVGA’s GeForce GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0, the company’s highest performance GTX 970 card. Accordingly, we will be taking a look at both it’s out of the box performance and performance when reconfigured as a stock card to showcase both performance profiles.
With the discontinuation of the GTX 780 series and GTX 770, competition for the GTX 970 will be split between the GTX 760 and GTX 980 on the NVIDIA side.
On the AMD side things will be even more spread out; AMD’s closest cards from a pricing perspective are the R9 280X and R9 290 priced below and above the $329 GTX 970 respectively, but as we’ll see even R9 290X is not necessarily out of the picture thanks to GM204’s strong performance.
Surprisingly even a week after the launch of the GTX 900 series, AMD has yet to officially respond to the GTX 900 series launch with any further price cuts or additional incentives beyond their existing Never Settle Forever bundle. In lieu of that some retailers have been running their own promotions; our pricing benchmark retailer Newegg has been offering 15% discounts on some of their PowerColor R9 290 series cards, meanwhile some other cards qualify for a $40 Newegg gift card (which cannot be applied retroactively to the purchase). Since the bulk of these cards don’t qualify for the price discount we’re holding our reference prices at $500 for the R9 290X and $400 for the R9 290, however the very cheapest of these PowerColor cards with the discount in play can go for as little as $450 and $340 respectively.
Meanwhile GTX 900 series sales have been brisk, and while the cards are still in supply not all models are available or are regularly available. At the very least everything from reference clocked cards to significantly overclocked cards are available at Newegg, so there is still a range of options. Though they are coincidentally all EVGA cards as of publication time.
| Fall 2014 GPU Pricing Comparison | |||||
| AMD | Price | NVIDIA | |||
| Radeon R9 295X2 | $1000 | ||||
| $550 | GeForce GTX 980 | ||||
| Radeon R9 290X | $500 | ||||
| Radeon R9 290 | $400 | ||||
| $330 | GeForce GTX 970 | ||||
| Radeon R9 280X | $280 | ||||
| Radeon R9 285 | $250 | ||||
| Radeon R9 280 | $220 | GeForce GTX 760 | |||
Meet The EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.
0
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Review: Featuring EVGAMeet The EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0The TestMetro: Last LightCompany of Heroes 2Bioshock InfiniteBattlefield 4Crysis 3Crysis: WarheadTotal War: Rome 2ThiefGRID 2SyntheticsComputePower, Temperature, & NoiseOverclockingFinal Words
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Review and test of MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G — i2HARD
Ruslan
January 12, 2016
The video accelerator NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 can hardly claim the title of «people’s video card». But the fact that this video card from different manufacturers enjoys increased …
The video accelerator NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 can hardly claim the title of «people’s video card». But the fact that this video card from various manufacturers is in high demand among more or less wealthy gamers cannot be denied. Neither the well-known scandal with 0.5 GB of slow video memory, nor the increased dollar exchange rate prevented NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 to become the optimal gaming graphics accelerator among video cards of the upper price range, which gives quite definite reasons to consider this product again.
In this review, we will introduce you to the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G video card, which is quite popular among the entire set of GeForce GTX 970 graphics accelerators. The most important features of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G are, of course, solid factory overclocking and a proprietary air cooling TWIN FROZR V with semi-passive operation.
Specifications
- GPU — NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
- GPU code name — GM204
- Process technology — 28 nm
- Number of monitors supported — 4
- Maximum resolution — 4096×2160
- GPU frequency — 1140 MHz
- Video memory size — 4096 MB
- Video memory type — GDDR5
- Video memory frequency — 7010 MHz
- Video memory bus width — 256 bits
- SLI/CrossFire support — yes
- Connectors — DVI x2, HDCP support, HDMI, DisplayPort
- Number of universal processors — 1664
- Shader version — 5.
0 - Number of texture units — 104
- Number of rasterization blocks — 56
- Standards support — DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5
- Need additional power — yes, 8 pin + 6 pin
- TDP — 145W
- Number of fans — 2
- Dimensions — 269×141 mm
Packaging and contents
The black and red colors of MSI Gaming series products have long become familiar and recognizable, so the color of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G box is fully consistent with this design. The front panel of the package contains the name of the video card, its main key characteristics, and the supported technologies.
Already on the back of the package, the new TWIN FROZR V air cooling system is described in detail, as well as a brief specification of the video card.
Inside the box, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card is packed in a translucent anti-static bag, and placed in a molded polypropylene bath.
With this level of protection, the user can definitely not worry about the integrity of the video card during transportation.
The delivery package of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G is modest, and consists only of a user manual, a CD with software and drivers, a DVI-VGA adapter, and a 6-pin to 8-pin power adapter.
Product view
MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G is a graphics card with an open cooling system. The game of black and red plastic in the design of the cooling system made it possible to give the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G video card an expressive appearance.
Despite the massive cooling system, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card occupies only two slots when installed in the system unit case. In many ways, this is the merit of the new cooling system, in which the manufacturer made several subtle, but important engineering decisions. Primarily MSI GeForce GTX 9 Cooling Shroud70 Gaming 4G is somewhat recessed behind the metal rear connector bar, and secondly, low-profile fans with a 100 mm impeller diameter are used here.
These seemingly unimportant decisions made it possible to make the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G more compact in thickness, which can make it possible to install two such video cards in adjacent PCI-E x16 expansion slots.
From the connectors on the rear panel there are HDMI, DVI-I, DVI-D and DisplayPort.
Like all modern video accelerators, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G video card has a PCI-E version 3.0 slot. However, work in old motherboards with PCI-E 2.0 slots is also supported by this video card.
The end part of the video card is not devoid of useful elements — here, according to the manufacturer’s idea, backlit corporate symbols are implemented.
It works in automatic mode, however, you can also configure its operation in the proprietary MSI Gaming App utility.
Also on the front side you can find two additional power connectors for the video card 6 + 8 pin.
And on the other hand, a couple of connectors for SLI bridges.
The MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card supports multi-GPU bundles of both two and three video cards at the same time.
To control and monitor the cooling system, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G uses a 6-pin connection connector, five of the six pins of which are used.
The back side of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card does not have any reinforcing metal plate on the outside, and the elements of the board are available for detailed inspection.
From this side of the printed circuit board, you can see four memory chips, soldered in an L-shaped circuit. This is only half of the entire on-board memory of the video card, the rest of it is located on the other side of the video card and is hidden under the cooling system.
PCB
The TWIN FROZR V cooling system is mounted on the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G with four screws, by unscrewing which you can see the graphics card circuit board in more detail.
A reinforcing metal plate with a heatsink for powering the power supply of the GPU immediately catches the eye.
Removing the reinforcing plate is also easy, after which you can already see the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G PCB in all its glory.
A detailed examination of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G PCB shows that this graphics accelerator is not a super complex device and is not overloaded with a dense arrangement of elements on the board. Figuratively speaking, MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G could be made more compact in PCB size, if desired.
The heart of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card is the NVIDIA GM204 graphics chip, made using a 28 nm process technology. Unlike the reference GeForce GTX 970, where the graphics chip runs at 1050 MHz and increases its frequency to 1178 MHz using Boost Clock technology, on the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card, the graphics chip runs at 1140 and 1279 MHz, respectively.
Such a solid factory overclock allows not only to increase the overall performance of the video card, but also to become a strong argument in favor of choosing this particular video card.
The power system on the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G is made according to the (3 + 2 + 2) scheme, where the phases are distributed between the GPU, MEM and PLL, respectively.
As for the onboard memory, it communicates with the graphics processor via a 256-bit bus. The total memory capacity of 4 GB is dialed using eight Elpida W4030BABG-70-F chips.
Cooling system
We would like to touch upon the issue of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G cooling system, starting with a reinforcing metal platinum. This engineering solution not only stiffens the printed circuit board of the video card, but also serves as a kind of heat sink from the RAM chips and some power cells of the processor and memory. Heat transfer from appropriate heat sources is carried out through special thermal pads.
The main pride and asset of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G is its proprietary TWIN FROZR V cooling system, which is capable of operating in both active and passive fan modes. This design is based on a massive radiator with two heat pipes with a diameter of 6 mm and two heat pipes with a diameter of 8 mm. This metal construction allows heat to be quickly removed from the GPU and dissipated throughout the heatsink.
Active heat dissipation from the radiator part is carried out by two 100-mm fans with a multi-stage operation mode, controlled fully automatically. Including supported on the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G full stop of the fans. This usually happens in the absence of load, and according to the manufacturer, the fans on the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G do not show activity until the GPU temperature threshold reaches 64 degrees Celsius. However, we will check this issue in the course of practical testing.
The plastic casing of the cooling system carries not only an aesthetic function, but also a backlit logo area.
Therefore, the shroud is connected to the printed circuit board of the video card using a separate 2-pin backlight power connector.
A pair of branded fans with fourteen-bladed impellers are fixed to the radiator structure with three screws each.
Both fans have a modified shape of the blades, the design of which is referred to by the manufacturer as Torx Fan.
The fan model is designated 10010S12HH with operating characteristics of 0.4 A and 12 V. The manufacturer of these fans is Power Logic.
Test bench configuration
|
CPU |
Intel Core i5-6600k 3.5GHz LGA 1151 (TurboBoost on) |
|
Cooling system |
Thermalright Silver Arrow IB-E |
|
RAM |
G.Skill DDR4-2666 16Gb (8Gb*2) |
|
video card |
MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G |
|
Power Supply |
Corsair HX750i |
|
HDD |
SATA-3 1Tb Seagate 7200 Barracuda (ST1000DM003) |
|
Monitor |
ASUS PB298Q 29″ (2560×1080) |
|
Motherboard |
ASUS Maximus VIII Hero |
|
Thermal interface |
Gelid GC-Extreme |
|
Operating system |
Windows 7 x64 SP1 |
|
Other software |
CPU-Z ROG 1. |
74, Aida64
At the heart of the test platform, we used a combination of an Intel Core i5-6600k processor and an ASUS Maximus VIII Hero motherboard.
For the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G graphics card, the latest ForceWare driver version 361.43 was installed at the time of testing. Testing was carried out in the operating system Windows 7 x64.
Performance rating
To reveal the issue of evaluating the performance of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G, such synthetic test packages as 3D Mark13, Valley Benchmark and Heaven Benchmark were called upon, in which the tested graphics accelerator showed quite good results.
The issue of gaming performance has been brought to justice by such popular games as Far Cry 4, Dying Light, Wolfenstein The New Order, Battlefiled 3 and Batman Arkham Origins. All of these games were used at the highest possible graphics settings and resolution of 1920×1080 dots.
Analyzing the results, it is worth noting that the performance of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G video card at a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels is enough for any of the games tested at maximum graphics settings. This state of affairs allows us to say that this graphics accelerator is more than enough for a modern gaming computer with a FullHD monitor.
Temperature and energy consumption
The Maxwell architecture and video cards based on it have already taught us low heat and power consumption. The MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G video card is once again a vivid confirmation of this. Featuring the excellent TWIN FROZR V cooling system, this graphics accelerator runs in passive mode without load and heats up to only 33 degrees Celsius. Of course, when the fans are stopped, the noise from the computer does not come at all.
With the advent of 100% load on the video card, the temperature of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G graphics chip rises in the passive mode of the cooling system to 64 degrees Celsius, after which the cooling system fans start according to a given algorithm.
As a result, in a well-ventilated case, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G video card does not heat up above 64 degrees Celsius in games, and throughout the entire load, even despite the fans running at about 1000 rpm, the noise from the graphics accelerator is also not heard at all.
The MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G video card also performs well in terms of power consumption of the gaming system. With a low appetite, an Intel Core i5-6600k-based system and MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G graphics cards consume less than 300 watts in load. Such modest numbers allow you not to worry about the power of the power supply when using such a video card.
Conclusion
You can characterize the participant in this review exactly like this: if you use a GeForce GTX 9 video card for games70 is already good, but if MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G is great! With an absolutely excellent combination of positive features and the absence of significant drawbacks, this graphics accelerator can quite claim to be one of the best graphics cards among the GeForce GTX 970.
Of course, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G is not the only example of an excellent video card of this kind, but what this video card It turned out great, there’s no denying it. The strengths of the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G will be a proprietary cooling system with a semi-passive mode of operation, high energy efficiency, excellent performance and a bright appearance.
Pros:
- 3 year warranty;
- beautifully designed appearance of the cooling system;
- high factory overclock;
- high efficiency cooling system;
- almost silent operation of the video card due to the semi-passive operation of the cooling system;
- GPU low heat;
- low power consumption;
- high performance in modern games.
Cons:
- Higher price than other GeForce GTX 970 cooling cards.
For excellent consumer qualities, the graphics accelerator MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G receives a fair assessment from our editors — gold!
Review and testing of the video card ASUS GeForce GTX 970 TURBO OC GECID.
com. Page 1
::>Video cards
>2016
> ASUS TURBO-GTX970-OC-4GD5
23-04-2016
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ASUS is one of the market leaders in computer components, not only because of the excellent quality of its products and the diversity of the model range, but also because of the attention paid to small groups of users. These include professional overclockers, gamers, as well as fans of modding and original design solutions.
And it was for the latter group that the ASUS GeForce GTX 970 TURBO OC (TURBO-GTX970-OC-4GD5) video card was introduced — a modification of the already well-known and quite popular NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, which combines excellent performance and energy efficiency , good overclocking potential and not the highest cost, especially compared to older NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti.
One of the key advantages of this modification is its original cooling system, which we have already seen in ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 (TURBO-GTX960-OC-2GD5). It differs not only in stylish design in white color, but also in the principle of operation. In fact, we have a video card with a «turbine» type cooler, as it is customary to call a CO with a centrifugal (radial) fan among users.
According to the manufacturer’s statements, this cooler is capable of providing 10% more efficient cooling compared to the reference CO and 7% more efficient cooling when using a pair of video cards. A similar effect is achieved due to the intake of cold air from both sides and the output of the heated flow outside the case through the interface panel.
Let’s take a closer look at the novelty:
|
Model |
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 TURBO OC ( ASUS TURBO-GTX970-OC-4GD5) |
|
Graphics core |
NVIDIA GM204-200 (Maxwell) |
|
Number of CUDA cores |
1664 |
|
Base / dynamic frequency of the graphics core, MHz |
1089 / 1228 |
|
Memory frequency (effective), MHz |
1753 (7012) |
|
Memory size, GB |
4 |
|
Memory type |
GDDR5 |
|
Memory bus width, bit |
256 |
|
Memory bandwidth, GB/s |
224. |
|
Tire type |
PCI Express 3.0 x16 |
|
Image output interfaces |
1 x DVI-I 1 x DVI-D 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort |
|
Minimum power supply unit, W |
500 |
|
Dimensions from the official website (measurement results in our test laboratory), mm |
264 x 121 x 37 (276 x 122) |
|
Drivers |
Latest drivers can be downloaded from the ASUS website or the GPU manufacturer’s website |
|
Manufacturer website |
ASUS |
4 As you can see, the nominal and dynamic clock frequencies of the GPU have been increased in the factory from 1050/1178 MHz to 1089/ 1228 MHz respectively. This guarantees an additional performance boost.
But the video memory works at the reference speed.
Packing and contents
ASUS TURBO-GTX970-OC-4GD5 video card comes in a fairly large box made of thick cardboard with excellent design and information content. On the front side, the presence in the kit of an invite code (only for new players) to receive gifts in World of Warships is especially emphasized: the armored cruiser Diana and 15 days of premium access.
The list of system requirements for the computer in which this graphics adapter is planned to be installed is located on one of the sides of the box. Based on the recommendations, the power supply should be at least 500W and support one 8-pin PCIe cable. However, we recall that the TDP of the ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 970 is 145 W, which means that in many cases it will be possible to get by with a less powerful (but necessarily high-quality) power supply, especially if you do not use 220-watt processors and do not subject the system to additional overclocking.
Included with the novelty, we found only the standard documentation and software CD.
To display images on ASUS Turbo GTX 970, the following set of interfaces is used:
- 1 x DVI-D;
- 1 x DVI-I;
- 1 x HDMI;
- 1 x DisplayPort.
Note that such a set of video outputs is quite typical for modern video cards and will allow you to connect not only digital monitors with a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160, but also an analog display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536. True, this will require an adapter, which you will have to take care of on one’s own. Also recall that the reference version involves a slightly different set of interfaces: 1 x DVI-I, 1 x HDMI and 3 x DisplayPort.
Appearance and element base
As we have already said, one of the indisputable advantages of this model is its stylish design, which will definitely please the owners of white cases with a transparent side panel.
We were not allowed to look inside, but the element base used corresponds to the Super Alloy Power proprietary concept. It included solid-state and tantalum-polymer capacitors (which are clearly visible on the reverse side of the textolite), as well as ferrite chokes.
In addition to the PCI Express x16 slot, the adapter is powered by one additional 8-pin connector, which, thanks to its good location, makes it easy to connect and disconnect the power cable. There is one more difference between the ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 970 and the reference version, in which it is proposed to supply additional power via two 6-pin PCIe connectors. Surely many will like this option: there will be fewer additional wires in the case and it will be easier to organize the connection of two video accelerators.
To ensure the operation of NVIDIA SLI technology on ASUS TURBO-GTX970-OC-4GD5, two connectors are used to connect the corresponding bridges. They allow you to combine from two to four video accelerators for the joint calculation of graphic effects.
As you can see, unlike modifications from the ASUS STRIX series, ASUS GeForce GTX 970 TURBO OC lacks a base plate, which is primarily due to the low weight of the installed cooling system. Also noteworthy is the compact dimensions of the printed circuit board, which looks like a modified ASUS GTX960-MOC-2GD5.
Internal view of ASUS TURBO-GTX960-OC-2GD5
on the elements of the power subsystem. We saw exactly the same picture in the ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 (TURBO-GTX960-OC-2GD5) model with a similar cooler.
Based on ASUS Turbo GTX 970 is the graphics chip NVIDIA GM204-200 (Maxwell), manufactured using a 28-nm process technology. It includes 1664 CUDA cores, 56 raster units and 104 texture units. As we have already said, the video card is distinguished by factory overclocking of the graphics core, the operating frequencies of which were 1089 and 1228 MHz for nominal and dynamic modes, respectively.
As for the video memory subsystem, it is made up of Elpida chips with a total capacity of 4 GB, which operate at an effective frequency of 7012 MHz.
The exchange of data between the GPU and memory is carried out through a 256-bit bus, which is capable of passing 224.4 GB of information per second.
Cooling system
The video card with CO installed occupies two expansion slots and has a total length of 264mm according to the official website (276mm as measured by our test lab). The cooler supposedly consists of two radiators, as well as a radial fan with a diameter of 73 mm, mounted on a plastic casing.
With automatic regulation of the fan blades speed, in the maximum load mode, the graphics core heated up to 77°C, and the cooler, judging by the monitoring readings, worked at 56% of its maximum power. The noise level according to subjective sensations can be described as tangible, but not too intrusive.
For comparison, the branded DirectCU II cooler in the ASUS GeForce GTX 970 STRIX DirectCU II OC model in a similar mode of operation is able to keep the GPU temperature at 64°C, although the GPU itself operates at even higher frequencies.
But there two fans help him in this, a massive radiator with three nickel-plated copper heat pipes and a stiffening plate on the back. As a result, the noise level of DirectCU II is lower.
In the maximum fan speed mode, the GPU temperature dropped to 63°C. At the same time, quite logically, the noise level increased, which exceeded the average mark and was uncomfortable for constant use.
Continuing the comparison with the ASUS GeForce GTX 970 STRIX DirectCU II OC, we will notice that in this mode it also has an uncomfortable noise level, but the GPU temperature is only 43°C. That is, for significant overclocking experiments, it is the model of the ASUS STRIX series that is better suited.
When there is no load, the graphics core and memory frequencies are automatically reduced to reduce the power consumption and heat dissipation of the graphics core. In this mode, the GPU temperature does not exceed 36 ° C, and the fan runs at 28% of the maximum.
That is, it does not switch to a completely passive mode of operation, as is implemented in the ASUS STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5.
In general, the cooler of the tested model copes with its immediate duties, because the critical temperature of the graphics processor is 98°C. It should also perform well in compact cases or when components are densely installed inside, because it does not require a lot of space to capture air and pushes the heated flow out of the case. However, if you are planning to install only one video card, but at the same time you are thinking about its significant overclocking, then it is better to turn your attention to the ASUS GeForce GTX 9 model.70 STRIX DirectCU II OC.
gtx 690 vs gtx 970
Contents
- Why is Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 better than Nvidia GeForce GTX 690?
- What are the most popular comparisons?
- General Information
- Intro
- Benchmarks
- 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score
- Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks
- Power Consumption (Max TDP )
- Memory Bandwidth
- Texel Rate
- Pixel Rate
- GeForce GTX 970
- Geforce GTX 690
Why is Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 better than Nvidia GeForce GTX 970?
- 2.
22 TFLOPS over FLOPS
Why is Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 better than Nvidia GeForce GTX 690?
- GPU frequency 135MHz over
What are the most popular comparisons?
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
Nvidia GeForce GT 530 (OEM)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 580 Gaming OC
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
Gigabyte Aorus Radeon RX 5700003
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti Xtreme Gaming WindForce
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
AMD Radeon RX 580
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
AMD Radeon RX 580
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
AMD Radeon RX 560X
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
Nvidia GeForce GTX 770
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
Manli GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
MSI Radeon RX 580
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
AMD Radeon Vega 8
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti
A higher transistor count usually indicates a newer, more powerful processor.
Nvidia Quadro GV100
The heat dissipation requirement (TDP) is the maximum amount of energy that the cooling system will have to dissipate. A lower TDP also usually means less power consumption.
A smaller size indicates a newer chip creation process.
AMD Radeon RX 570
PCI Express (PCIe) is a high speed expansion card standard that is used to connect a computer to its peripherals. Newer versions support higher throughput and provide better performance.
Intro
Compare all that to the Geforce GTX 690, which has a clock frequency of 915 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1502 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1536 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.
Benchmarks
3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score
| Geforce GTX 690 | 13111 points | |
| GeForce GTX 970 | 10867 points | |
| Difference: 2244 (21%) |
Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks
Power Consumption (Max
TDP )
Memory Bandwidth
As far as performance goes, the Geforce GTX 690 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GTX 970 overall.
(explain)
| Geforce GTX 690 | 384512 MB/sec | |
| GeForce GTX 970 | 224000 MB/sec | |
| Difference: 160512 (72%) |
Texel Rate
| Geforce GTX 690 | 234240 Mtexels/sec | |
| GeForce GTX 970 | 109200 Mtexels/sec | |
| Difference: 125040 (115%) |
Pixel Rate
| GeForce GTX 970 | 67200 Mpixels/sec | |
| Geforce GTX 690 | 58560 Mpixels/sec | |
| Difference: 8640 (15%) |
Please note that the above ‘benchmarks’ are all just theoretical — the results were calculated based on the card’s specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.
One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled — this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it’s capable of.
GeForce GTX 970
Check prices at:
Geforce GTX 690
0002 Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords — sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.
| Model | GeForce GTX 970 | Geforce GTX 690 |
|---|---|---|
| nVidia | nVidia | |
| September 2014 | ||
| Code Name | GM204-200 | GK104 |
| Memory | 4096MB | 2048MB (x2) |
| Core Speed | 1050MHz | 915 MHz (x2) |
| Memory Speed | 7000MHz | 6008 MHz (x2) |
| Power (Max TDP) | 145 watts | 300 watts |
| Bandwidth | 224000 MB/sec | 384512 MB/sec |
| Texel Rate | 109200 Mtexels/sec | 234240 Mtexels/sec |
| Pixel Rate | 67200 Mpixels/sec | 58560 Mpixels/sec |
| Unified Shaders | 1664 | 1536 (x2) |
| Texture Mapping Units | 104 | 128 (x2) |
| Render Output Units | 64 | 32 (x2) |
| Bus Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Bus Width | 256-bit | 256-bit (x2) |
| Fab Process | 28nm | 28nm |
| Transistors | 5200 million | 3540 million |
| bus | PCIe 3. 0 x16 |
PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| DirectX version | DirectX 11.2 | DirectX 11.0 |
| OpenGL Version | OpenGL 4.5 | OpenGL 4.2 |
Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It’s worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card’s memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.
Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering — AF).
It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.
Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second — measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines — also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependent on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandw > Display Prices
Selling in good condition, not overclocked. I don’t do mining, I check the video card at my place.
See the review of this video card on the Internet, and also watch the video on the tube gtx690 vs gtx980, 690 is inferior in tests only to gtx 980ti
GPU-2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690
Interface PCI-E 16x 3.0
GPU codename-GK104
Process technology-28 nm
Number of monitors supported4
Maximum resolution-2560×1600 9Ol000 ConnectorsDVI x3, HDCP support, Mini DisplayPort HDMI1.