# New GPU for a Core i7 4790K build. Preferable GTX 970.



## Vap0rX (Jan 6, 2015)

Hey guys, I build a gaming rig but I am left out with GPU. Want to buy nVidia GTX 970 but not able to decide which one(Company) should I go with. Will be using for 1080p gaming.

Specs:
Intel Core i7 - 4790K
Asus Maximus Hero VII
Corsair H100i front intake + 120mm Rear Exhaust + 140mm Top Exhaust
Crucial MX100-512GB
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-4GBx2
SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W
NZXT S340-B1


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## puma99dk| (Jan 6, 2015)

i will say when u go Asus mobo go Asus Strix GTX 970, bcs if u need to update the gfx one day it may cause problems bcs it's not in a Asus mobo.

Plus they should be compatible better then another brand and u will could see it fully witten the mobo bios, which u can't really with another vendor.


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## BarbaricSoul (Jan 6, 2015)

puma99dk| said:


> i will say when u go Asus mobo go Asus Strix GTX 970, bcs if u need to update the gfx one day it may cause problems bcs it's not in a Asus mobo.
> 
> Plus they should be compatible better then another brand and u will could see it fully witten the mobo bios, which u can't really with another vendor.



  GPU brand name does not matter in reference to what brand motherboard is being used. 

Personally, I'm very happy with my EVGA 780ti, so given a choice, I'd probably go for the EVGA GTX 970 ACX. If that isn't available, I'd probably choose the ASUS Strix GTX 970.

edit: fixed typos


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## GhostRyder (Jan 6, 2015)

sneddenraj said:


> Hey guys, I build a gaming rig but I am left out with GPU. Want to buy nVidia GTX 970 but not able to decide which one(Company) should I go with. Will be using for 1080p gaming.
> 
> Specs:
> Intel Core i7 - 4790K
> ...


Well it depends on what you want to spend honestly.

My personal favorite GTX 970 that I have heard lots of praises and praised it myself is the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970 which has a very nice cooler, lots of output choices like the GTX 980, and comes with great clocks out of the box.


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## BUCK NASTY (Jan 6, 2015)

Love the 4 Asus Strix GTX970's that I have. Looking to try a couple of the MSI Gaming GTX 970 as well.


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## puma99dk| (Jan 6, 2015)

BarbaricSoul said:


> GPU brand name does not matter in reference to what brand motherboard is being used.
> 
> Personally, I'm very happy with my EVGA 780ti, so given a choice, I'd probably go for the EVGA GTX 970 ACX. If that isn't available, I'd probably choose the ASUS Strix GTX 970.
> 
> edit: fixed typos



well i have had this trouble with my Asus GTX 670 4gb i wasn't able to update the bios bcs it wanted a Asus motherboard to let me do so, that's why i say it.

i dunno about the GTX 9x0 series haven't tried a bios update yet on my MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4gb.


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## xvi (Jan 7, 2015)

Subscribing for related reasons. I've been looking at a 970 as well, but I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger due to not only the 290/290x's advantage at higher resolutions, but on the off chance that a 290 can be unlocked. If rolling the dice on unlocking ends up successful, that ends up being rather good per dollar performance.

Also, there are rumors of AMD's next GPUs coming out soon-ish which should nVidia a bit of competition in the $350+ price bracket. I would imagine prices would go down then.


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## erocker (Jan 7, 2015)

BarbaricSoul said:


> GPU brand name does not matter in reference to what brand motherboard is being used.
> 
> Personally, I'm very happy with my EVGA 780ti, so given a choice, I'd probably go for the EVGA GTX 970 ACX. If that isn't available, I'd probably choose the ASUS Strix GTX 970.
> 
> edit: fixed typos



I've heard differently.. With some MSI setups. Not sure about Asus.


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## WhiteLotus (Jan 7, 2015)

I am also interested in this thread.

Any one had any experience with MSI offerings?


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## puma99dk| (Jan 8, 2015)

WhiteLotus said:


> I am also interested in this thread.
> 
> Any one had any experience with MSI offerings?



ino the GTX 970 has 2 modes with AB:

1140MHz Core (Boost Clock:1279MHz) (OC Mode)
1114MHz Core (Boost Clock:1253MHz) (Gaming Mode)

but i haven't touched mine and it do boosting up to 1328mhz on the gpu while gaming Aion in Window mode


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## MxPhenom 216 (Jan 8, 2015)

Honestly a 970 = 970. Find one with features you want, color scheme that you like, warranty that's desirable, and you cant really go wrong.


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## 64K (Jan 8, 2015)

WhiteLotus said:


> I am also interested in this thread.
> 
> Any one had any experience with MSI offerings?



Yeah, I had it narrowed down to the Asus GTX 970 Strix and the MSI GTX 970 Gaming and decided to go with MSI. Some people are complaining about coil whine but mine doesn't have any.


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## BarbaricSoul (Jan 8, 2015)

erocker said:


> I've heard differently.. With some MSI setups. Not sure about Asus.



So now we need to use the same vendor for our MB's as we use for our GPUs? When did this happen?


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## RCoon (Jan 8, 2015)

BarbaricSoul said:


> So now we need to use the same vendor for our MB's as we use for our GPUs? When did this happen?



You don't _have_ to, but there are minimal certain features which become available if you use MSI MB with an MSI GPU. Dave can probably elaborate on the details. Last I checked it was just MSI and Gigabyte that did that sort of thing, but it could be Asus too.

EDIT: Just as an example, my MSI GTX 970 4G boosts to 1500mhz+ on my MSI MoBo without me touching any overclocking software. It's all running at stock settings.


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## mstenholm (Jan 8, 2015)

puma99dk| said:


> well i have had this trouble with my Asus GTX 670 4gb i wasn't able to update the bios bcs it wanted a Asus motherboard to let me do so, that's why i say it.
> 
> i dunno about the GTX 9x0 series haven't tried a bios update yet on my MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4gb.


There is two different bios version for that GPU. I know since I have both. I failed to update the older version but I'm ot sure if I really want it. It has a lower Vmax......

I use them in a Asus and a Giga MB.


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## Vap0rX (Jan 9, 2015)

xvi said:


> Subscribing for related reasons. I've been looking at a 970 as well, but I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger due to not only the 290/290x's advantage at higher resolutions, but on the off chance that a 290 can be unlocked. If rolling the dice on unlocking ends up successful, that ends up being rather good per dollar performance.
> 
> Also, there are rumors of AMD's next GPUs coming out soon-ish which should nVidia a bit of competition in the $350+ price bracket. I would imagine prices would go down then.



Even I am waiting for AMD's offering in that price range so eventually due to competition, we can have lower prices.
Also post CES 2015, rumors on the release of 960 can give a clear picture.


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## Vap0rX (Jan 9, 2015)

RCoon said:


> You don't _have_ to, but there are minimal certain features which become available if you use MSI MB with an MSI GPU. Dave can probably elaborate on the details. Last I checked it was just MSI and Gigabyte that did that sort of thing, but it could be Asus too.
> 
> EDIT: Just as an example, my MSI GTX 970 4G boosts to 1500mhz+ on my MSI MoBo without me touching any overclocking software. It's all running at stock settings.



So basically going with same vendor will give more compatibility in OC compared to going with different vendor even though performance on different vendor offering is good? I am looking at Gigabyte G1.


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## GhostRyder (Jan 9, 2015)

sneddenraj said:


> So basically going with same vendor will give more compatibility in OC compared to going with different vendor even though performance on different vendor offering is good? I am looking at Gigabyte G1.


It all depends on the card in all honesty.  MSI and MSI work together if you have the right board and GPU (For instance gaming boards and gaming edition cards) which can cause them to know they can do more than rated (software pairing) but again its also coming down to the card itself as a luck of the draw.

I would say most of the time (Near all) a card will overclock the same amount on one board to another except in situations of quality differences that "Could" effect things but that is a rare case in this day and age and honestly something I do not hear of anymore.  I would say if you had an Asus Z97 board and you paired it with a GTX 970 that you could max overclock to say 1500mhz, if you put it on an MSI Z97 board you would still be able to do the same thing.

If your wanting an opinion on what card to get as the "Best", well my favorite GTX 970 is the Gigabyte G1 gaming if you love the fact it has the really nice choice in outputs (3 DPs, 2 DVIs, HDMI) and its got a nice cooler.  Though I have heard that the MSI give some of the best overall overclocks around in terms of both GPU and memory and the cooler looks real nice (and works great).  It really just comes down to preference on looks in the end because all the cards (Asus STRIX, MSI Gaming, Gigabyte G1, etc) all perform very well and overclock very similarly with only major differences on the output selections and the coolers themselves.

Since you have an Asus board, if you want to keep with the theme it might be best to look at the Asus STRIX variant as its also excellent.


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## Law-II (Jan 9, 2015)

Hi



BarbaricSoul said:


> When did this happen?


When UEFI-GOP became a standard, around the release of Windows 8 [Asus would only allow GPU Vbios updates with compatible Asus motherboards that they were able to test in-house]

_Note:_ this is a non-issue with vga cards that support UEFI-GOP out of the box

atb

Law-II


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## Vap0rX (Jan 9, 2015)

GhostRyder said:


> It all depends on the card in all honesty.  MSI and MSI work together if you have the right board and GPU (For instance gaming boards and gaming edition cards) which can cause them to know they can do more than rated (software pairing) but again its also coming down to the card itself as a luck of the draw.
> 
> I would say most of the time (Near all) a card will overclock the same amount on one board to another except in situations of quality differences that "Could" effect things but that is a rare case in this day and age and honestly something I do not hear of anymore.  I would say if you had an Asus Z97 board and you paired it with a GTX 970 that you could max overclock to say 1500mhz, if you put it on an MSI Z97 board you would still be able to do the same thing.
> 
> ...



Thank you for the input. I will probably stick with the red theme so will eventually go with Asus STRIX or MSI. But need to wait for a while for the prices to go down a bit. Canadian retailers are hovering around $400 on these variants.


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