Wednesday, September 10th 2014

Galaxy GeForce GTX 970 Pictured, Specs Confirmed, Early Benchmarks Surface

by
btarunr
 Discuss (69 Comments)
Here are some of the first pictures of an AIC partner branded NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, the Galaxy GTX 970 GC. Spotted across Chinese PC enthusiast forums and social networks, the latest set of leaks cover not just pictures of what the GTX 970 looks like, but also what's under its hood. To begin with, Galaxy's card appears to be built for the high-end market segment. A meaty twin-fan aluminium fin-stack heatsink, coupled by a spacey backplate cover a signature Galaxy blue PCB, holding NVIDIA's new GTX 970 GPU, and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. The card appears to feature a high-grade VRM that draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors.
There's also a selection of pictures of a purported reference-design GeForce GTX 970 graphics card. It may look drab, but that's because NVIDIA will not ship reference-design cards. The GTX 970 will likely be an AIC-exclusive, meaning that you'll only find custom-design cards based on the chip. We wonder if that's the same with the GTX 980. Straightaway, you'll notice that the GTX 970 reference PCB bears an uncanny resemblance to the one NVIDIA used for the GTX 670, GTX 660 Ti, and GTX 760. That's probably because the GK104 and new GM204 are pin-identical. Such a thing isn't new. The "Pitcairn" silicon (Radeon HD 7870, HD 7850) and its predecessor, "Barts" (HD 6870 and HD 6850) are similarly pin-identical, differing with the die. The similarity in PCB design, if nothing, shows that the GTX 970 will be as energy-efficient as the GTX 670.
Moving on to the actual-specs, and some users with access to GeForce GTX 970 managed to pull these specs off a TechPowerUp GPU-Z screenshot. Some parts of the screenshot look blurry, probably due to a failed attempt at blurring out the BIOS string. GPU-Z has preliminary support for GM204 since version 0.7.9. This is what it could make out:
  • GPU identified as "1C32"
  • 1,664 CUDA cores
  • 138 TMUs
  • 32 ROPs
  • 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface
  • 4 GB standard memory amount
  • 1051 MHz core, 1178 MHz GPU Boost, and 7012 MHz (GDDR5-effective) memory clocks
  • 224 GB/s memory bandwidth
The sample was put through a quick run of 3DMark 11 Extreme Preset. It scored X3963 points, which if you factor in the dual-core Core i3-4130 used in the bench, puts the GTX 970 somewhere between the GTX 780 and GTX 780 Ti, in terms of performance.
Source: VideoCardz

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69 Comments on Galaxy GeForce GTX 970 Pictured, Specs Confirmed, Early Benchmarks Surface

#51
HumanSmoke
CoolZoneWill this card feature HDMI 2.0?
Apparently yes.
Posted on Reply
#52
ensabrenoir
.... new #2 (970) card allways matches or slightly surpasses last gen #1(780). Most times new #2 is last gen's #1 tweeked and rebadged. So this is all good. The real story will be the new number 1(980).
Posted on Reply
#53
Diverge
Axaion>wanting HDMI
>any year
>not displayport

Jesus christ just get a mac
I'm not sure what about my post makes you suggest I buy an Apple product... I don't own anything from Apple, and never will. Although the trashbin shaped mac pro is very interesting from a design and engineering point of view.
Posted on Reply
#54
z1tu
ensabrenoir.... new #2 (970) card allways matches or slightly surpasses last gen #1(780 ti). Most times new #2 is last gen's #1 tweeked and rebadged. So this is all good. The real story will be the new number 1(980).
Doesn't seem like the 970 will match or surpass the 780ti
Posted on Reply
#55
ensabrenoir
z1tuDoesn't seem like the 970 will match or surpass the 780ti
Oops should have said 780.....
Posted on Reply
#56
Yellow&Nerdy?
Considering that 16nm FINFET products might possibly be out as early as Q1 2015, these cards seem a little pointless. Waiting for the "true" next-gen cards will most likely net you a healthy boost in both performance and efficiency.

If these leaks are true, the GTX 970 seems like a decent card though. I'm just hoping the pricing is going to be on point as well.
Posted on Reply
#57
Casecutter
Huum, a Core i3-4130 on 32-bit... while notice what Fudzilla found, "One odd detail is the date displayed in 3Dmark. It is January 17th 2014, which suggests one of two things. While this could be an elaborate hoax, that would not explain the photos of the actual card. It could just mean someone was lazy and did not set the right time on the test rig."

I'd take this with... salt.
Posted on Reply
#58
v12dock
Block Caption of Rainey Street
x3828 on my r9 280x
Posted on Reply
#59
rtwjunkie
PC Gaming Enthusiast
Yellow&Nerdy?Considering that 16nm FINFET products might possibly be out as early as Q1 2015, these cards seem a little pointless. Waiting for the "true" next-gen cards will most likely net you a healthy boost in both performance and efficiency.

If these leaks are true, the GTX 970 seems like a decent card though. I'm just hoping the pricing is going to be on point as well.
Yep, I'm awaiting GM210, which is likely the true next generation on the smaller die. But the 970 on GM204 should be a decent enough card anyway, for those that need the upgrade, which is most people on 6-series and below.
Posted on Reply
#60
Sony Xperia S
Yellow&Nerdy?Considering that 16nm FINFET products might possibly be out as early as Q1 2015, these cards seem a little pointless.
These cards are good only because they bring somehow lower power consumption, of course, they do not bring anything new on the table regarding performance improvements but I hope they will put good pricing because this is what really counts and is vital.


About 16 nm, I am afraid you are overly optimistic. I guess that even if technically there are no obstacles, from marketing persepctive they will do their "best" to postpone the launch at least for 2Q 2015.

Or even in 2016.
Posted on Reply
#61
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
thebluebumblebeeBummer. There goes the hope for a lower power middle weight. That's good for up to 300 watts. I was looking for something around the GTX 780's performance while using 125-150 watts. I do see that the other board shots show 2x6 pin.
btarunrThe similarity in PCB design, if nothing, shows that the GTX 970 will be as energy-efficient as the GTX 670.
;)
thebluebumblebeeBut it's obvious that Galaxy thinks that it can use more than the 225 watts that 2x6 pin (75 watts from the PCI-e bus) can provide.
Nope, they just like to stick an 8-pin on there to make consumers think the card is more powerful than it really is. If the chip is pin compatible with GK104, and the 970 is using the same amount of power as a 670, then I'm willing to bet the 980 will be using roughly the same amount of power as a 680.
Posted on Reply
#62
thebluebumblebee
It's one big conspiracy to get us to buy bigger PSU's than we need. A person would not need a PSU larger than 500 watts to run one of these cards in a normal desktop, but the 8+6 pin requirement will push the PSU to the 650 watt range.:shadedshu:
Posted on Reply
#63
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
CoolZoneWill this card feature HDMI 2.0?
Yes. Ultra HD @ 60 Hz over HDMI. You will need an HDMI 2.0 compatible monitor, though.
Posted on Reply
#64
newconroer
LAN_deRf_HAWithout a die shrink never expect much. Always hate it when this happens because you don't get as much performance jump and then when the die shrunk cards do comes its another small jump.
What's worse is that naive and uninformed consumers will buy these unnecessary cars, and then sell their old ones which aren't that much different to begin with. Nvidia could release nothing until Pascal and the market would be better off.
Posted on Reply
#65
RealNeil
GhostRyderits between the 780 and 780ti and its a X70 counterpart which is very good and could confirm that the 980 is going to be better than the 780ti even if it is not by an extreme amount.
A 980Ti with 6GB of RAM would be nice to see. (in my PC)
Posted on Reply
#66
bubbleawsome
thebluebumblebeeIt's one big conspiracy to get us to buy bigger PSU's than we need. A person would not need a PSU larger than 500 watts to run one of these cards in a normal desktop, but the 8+6 pin requirement will push the PSU to the 650 watt range.:shadedshu:
Agreed. I'm lucky my 550w has 2x8pin. It powers the fastest 7970 I can find perfectly, but the requirement page says 650w. (The entire thing pulls maybe 300w.)
Posted on Reply
#67
RealNeil
They always ask for more power than they really need. (to account for low quality PSUs that do not deliver what they claim to)
Posted on Reply
#68
natr0n
Dude holding the card needs a nail clipper asap.
Posted on Reply
#69
Prima.Vera
bubbleawsomeI'm happy because 4GB vRAM
Indeed. :)
That will give you a 200% increase in performance on your Samsung SyncMaster 940BF 1280x1024 monitor. :) :) :)
Posted on Reply
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