Colorful iGame GTX 970 4 GB

[W1zzard]

With a base clock of 1203 MHz, Colorful's iGame GTX 970 is one of the highest-clocked GTX 970 cards available on the market. Its triple-fan, dual-slot cooler achieves excellent temperatures and contributes to its overclocking potential, which is higher than with any other GTX 970 we have tested thus far.

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[荷兰大母猪]

tpu居然出七彩虹的评测了…感天动地… I mean, I am so surprised tpu got review of colorful... I don't think guys here can understand the word 玩家定制 lol

 

[davcc22]

wizzard there is a typo on the fist page
"Their iGame GTX 970 is a highly overclocked version of the GTX 970, with a large dual-fan cooler that should provide excellent temperatures"

 

[W1zzard]

wizzard there is a typo on the fist page
"Their iGame GTX 970 is a highly overclocked version of the GTX 970, with a large dual-fan cooler that should provide excellent temperatures"

fixed, thanks

 

[buildzoid]

So is colorful considering expanding or is TPU popular in Asia?

 

[mroofie]

fixed, thanks

Hi W1zzard is there any chance you will be reviewing any 970 itx builds ?

 

[Shou Miko]

Hi W1zzard is there any chance you will be reviewing any 970 itx builds ?

i am sure they will come if Asus or Gigabyte offers em to W1zzard or dunno if he can fill a request for the models ^^

 

[mroofie]

i am sure they will come if Asus or Gigabyte offers em to W1zzard or dunno if he can fill a request for the models ^^

lol hopefully they will send him at least one
Sorry about your Cat (lived long)

 

[GhostRyder]

I saw the title being an iGame card and I immediately jumped for joy as to see what it was. I am a little saddened its not something super crazy other than it having a massive 3 fan cooler but the performance and specs do not disappoint!

It looks like an awesome card, great review!

 

[The Quim Reaper]

The GTX 970, much like its predecessors, the GTX 770 and GTX 670, is destined to be an underrated card decking out lower shelves under the GTX 980's shadow

Sorry, but this is absolute nonsense, the 970 has been selling out from the start, it's had rave reviews from just about everyone and is the recommended GPU of the moment.

There is nothing about this card that is underrated or living in the 'shadow' of the 980.

Very strange thing to say TBH.

 

[the54thvoid]

Sorry, but this is absolute nonsense, the 970 has been selling out from the start

Because it's £200 cheaper.

it's had rave reviews from just about everyone and is the recommended GPU of the moment.

Because of it's price point.

There is nothing about this card that is underrated or living in the 'shadow' of the 980.

Very strange thing to say TBH.

It's semantic. It's still not as good a performer as a GTX 980, therefore it doesn't get the performance crown. It also loses out more to the 290x than the 980 (in the few benches that it does). It's under rated due to it's 2nd place in Nvidia's stack (technically 3rd behind 780ti). That's why it's 'underrated.' It's not bashing it, it's stating a fact. People wouldn't buy it if it was only £/$ 30-50 cheaper than a 980.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Like my 670 before, the X70 cards just offer such massive bang for buck, and like the 680 wasn't worth £100+ more than the 670, the 980 doesn't really warrant the £150+ price premium either, certainly not for the average joe anyway. It's no surprise cards like the ASUS GTX 670 DCUII got the first perfect 10 ever from Wizz, and equally cards like the 970 Strix score massively high too.

I'm a patient person and many others don't upgrade that often, but I can't help but smile as my GTX 970 easily mixes it with cards that were massively expensive not long ago, whilst bringing new features on board, being extremely frugal on power consumption, cool running and near silent the whole time. It's no surprise the card is selling so well.

I know I'm not getting the fastest card, but it's well up there and I'm happy with that.

 

[koma]

This card looks very similar to the Galax 970 HOF, dual bios and even the turbo button on the backside...I was wondering if they share parts of the pcb too

 

[RealNeil]

This card looks good to me. Hope that they begin to sell in the US soon.

 

[halim360]

Hi Wizzard, i want to ask you about, did you use that extra heatsink to check the temperature? is that extra heatsink really helpfull?
because i still dont know what is excatly that extra heatsink use for? what happend if we use the extra heatsink, and what if we dont use it?
i think you miss to give the review about the extra heatsink. thanks!

(because i already bought this card, so happy to have it, but i still dont get it, about that features, and about the BIOS button at the back card, when to use it or else. because the manual book is at chinese language, i dont understand. please help me. thanks)

 

[NightOfChrist]

Hi Wizzard, i want to ask you about, did you use that extra heatsink to check the temperature? is that extra heatsink really helpfull?
because i still dont know what is excatly that extra heatsink use for? what happend if we use the extra heatsink, and what if we dont use it?
i think you miss to give the review about the extra heatsink. thanks!

(because i already bought this card, so happy to have it, but i still dont get it, about that features, and about the BIOS button at the back card, when to use it or else. because the manual book is at chinese language, i dont understand. please help me. thanks)

I am not W1zzard, but I think I can explain. A close friend returned from a business trip to Hong Kong yesterday and brought some of these cards to sell to our friends. He uses one as his current graphics card and shows me one.

The VRM heatsink you asked is provided for VRM cooler which can be found underneath the card heatsink and fan shroud. You can insert the heat pipes into the cooler which is easy to do. Now look at one of W1zzard's photos.

I cannot edit the photo because I do not have permission, but I believe you can notice the VRM cooler at the right part of the card, the one near the 8-pin power connectors? That is where you are going to install the VRM heatsink into. Just... what is the word, insert? Sorry if I chose the wrong word, English is not my native language. Just insert the heatpipes of the VRM heatsink into that black VRM cooler.

As for whether the VRM heatsink is useful, it depends on how hot the card can be or whether you overclock it. It might be able to reduce the VRM temperature because that is what it was built for but I cannot tell for sure, I did not do any test with my friend. I think a friend of mine in Sapporo, Hokkaido would never need the VRM heatsink but perhaps people with warmer or rather hotter room temperature would need it?

As for the BIOS button, you can use it as a switch. If pressed, the card will run at reference clock. If released, the card will run the Turbo BIOS and overclocks automatically. But please remember that you can only press the switch to change the BIOS from reference to Turbo and vice versa when the system is shut down/turn off. Please do not do it when the system is running. I am afraid you will damage the card and probably your motherboard as well.

By the way, since you are a customer, would you mind to share your thoughts about this card? Perhaps a few photos when you are using it? If it is really good then I will buy one for my girlfriend. She could use a GTX 970 to replace her GTX 650 Ti.

 

[W1zzard]

heatpipes go in the red marked area

it is safe to switch the bios switch while running, but it wont have any effect until reboot. the switching can be useful though to flash to a bios that you cant boot from anymore (boot from one bios, switch bios via button, flash to it, without restart in between)

 

[halim360]

I am not W1zzard, but I think I can explain. A close friend returned from a business trip to Hong Kong yesterday and brought some of these cards to sell to our friends. He uses one as his current graphics card and shows me one.

The VRM heatsink you asked is provided for VRM cooler which can be found underneath the card heatsink and fan shroud. You can insert the heat pipes into the cooler which is easy to do. Now look at one of W1zzard's photos.



I cannot edit the photo because I do not have permission, but I believe you can notice the VRM cooler at the right part of the card, the one near the 8-pin power connectors? That is where you are going to install the VRM heatsink into. Just... what is the word, insert? Sorry if I chose the wrong word, English is not my native language. Just insert the heatpipes of the VRM heatsink into that black VRM cooler.

As for whether the VRM heatsink is useful, it depends on how hot the card can be or whether you overclock it. It might be able to reduce the VRM temperature because that is what it was built for but I cannot tell for sure, I did not do any test with my friend. I think a friend of mine in Sapporo, Hokkaido would never need the VRM heatsink but perhaps people with warmer or rather hotter room temperature would need it?

As for the BIOS button, you can use it as a switch. If pressed, the card will run at reference clock. If released, the card will run the Turbo BIOS and overclocks automatically. But please remember that you can only press the switch to change the BIOS from reference to Turbo and vice versa when the system is shut down/turn off. Please do not do it when the system is running. I am afraid you will damage the card and probably your motherboard as well.

By the way, since you are a customer, would you mind to share your thoughts about this card? Perhaps a few photos when you are using it? If it is really good then I will buy one for my girlfriend. She could use a GTX 970 to replace her GTX 650 Ti.

heatpipes go in the red marked area

it is safe to switch the bios switch while running, but it wont have any effect until reboot. the switching can be useful though to flash to a bios that you cant boot from anymore (boot from one bios, switch bios via button, flash to it, without restart in between)

Woow,, thanks for the explanation guys!. Very appreciate it!. Thanks a lot!
I will put that extra heatsink on my GPU to reduce heat. because i live at tropical country. and i will use normal bios for now.
======================================================================

@NightOfChrist : yea, im a customer of this graphic card. For me, its awesome card. its powerful. And i think its worth to buy. because it has cheaper prize than other premium GPU product. (At least in my country, this GPU is cheaper than other premium GPU product).

i will give my review about this card, but sorry cant give you any photo of it for now

I use it to play Battlefield 4, Battlefield 3, Call of Duy : Advanced Warfare, Titanfall, Final Fantasy XIV : A Realm Reborn, CS : GO, and many more.
Everyday, I use standard BIOS / Normal BIOS from this GPU, haven't try Turbo BIOS so far. And i use GeForce Experience to optimize the game (with auto-optimized to ultra setting). Some of them can run smootly with that maximum setting at 60 FPS, 1080p. (like BF3, BF4, BFH, FF XIV : ARR).
But, some of them also sometimes cant run smooth at 60 FPS with that optimized setting. Like FF XIV: ARR, sometimes i only got about 20-30 FPS when i enter town with so many people online there. so crowd there. But it back to normal when i leave that crowd area, back to 50-60FPS.
One problem i found is, on Titanfall. I use GFE to optimized it, and it automaticly sets to ultra setting. but the problem is when i play it, i cant get 60FPS on it. maybe only 20-40 FPS. SO i have to adjust it manualy, so i get the best performance with 60FPS, but its not at ultra setting.
I dont know about this problem i got. Why my GTX970 cant perform as described like the review. Even the review said that some games can run above 60FPS with max setting on Normal BIOS, like shadow of mordor with 80FPS on 1080p. And i tried COD : AW, sometimes the FPS is not stable, but in the review above, it said that it can reach 126 FPS on 1080p. Why i have a different result than from the review? The question is.......Is that Titanfall requirement specification more hardcore than Shadow Mordor? So it makes my GTX970 only runs below 60 fps at max setting? Or maybe because i only use Normal BIOS?? or maybe i got bottleneck PC specification??? (My pc spec is : i7 950, RAM 8GB).. I dont know, maybe some of you can help me to solve this problem.

Is it save/allowed if i use TURBO BIOS everyday? will it damage my card / motherboard if i use Turbo Bios for a long term?

Okay thats my review about this card. Overall its a great card, cheaper from other premium product, and its Powerfull for most games (based on my experience). worth to buy!

 

[NightOfChrist]

@W1zzard
I did not know about that. It is a nice trick. It will make things easier should the BIOS upgrade process go wrong.

@halim360
Bottleneck, perhaps? W1zzard uses i7 4770 and 16GB RAM. His test system and yours are completely different, with yours being a much older platform than his, even older than Sandy Bridge. Perhaps you could borrow your friend's i7 4790K and Z97 motherboard if available to see if result improves?

As for the overclocked card, or in your term: Turbo, it is safe. You bought a factory overclocked card so please use it. I agree with @W1zzard that power consumption and thermal is negligible so I do not see the point in running the reference BIOS. Perhaps you can consider the reference BIOS as your card's Safe Mode, as in Windows' Safe Mode? You can always switch back to it later in case of certain version of driver refuses to run properly with your overclocked BIOS.

And from the sound of it, you seem like a very happy customer. Please enjoy your new card then.

 

[halim360]

@W1zzard
I did not know about that. It is a nice trick. It will make things easier should the BIOS upgrade process go wrong.

@halim360
Bottleneck, perhaps? W1zzard uses i7 4770 and 16GB RAM. His test system and yours are completely different, with yours being a much older platform than his, even older than Sandy Bridge. Perhaps you could borrow your friend's i7 4790K and Z97 motherboard if available to see if result improves?

As for the overclocked card, or in your term: Turbo, it is safe. You bought a factory overclocked card so please use it. I agree with @W1zzard that power consumption and thermal is negligible so I do not see the point in running the reference BIOS. Perhaps you can consider the reference BIOS as your card's Safe Mode, as in Windows' Safe Mode? You can always switch back to it later in case of certain version of driver refuses to run properly with your overclocked BIOS.

And from the sound of it, you seem like a very happy customer. Please enjoy your new card then.

yes, my first tought when i got this problem is really confused me. Between my card i bought is some of fail product, or my PC rig is out to date, even i have an I7 proc.
But yes, after i saw your explanation above, maybe its because of my old rig, so my card can't perform as how it should be.
looks like i have to buy a new proc and RAM.

 

[NightOfChrist]

@halim360
I think the card is not a fail product, despite being a Chinese market exclusive. Colorful may not be available in many markets, Japan included, but it is a well known brand exclusive to Chinese market, at least until now, and it has good reputation.

If you are tight on budget, I think a good combination would be a Core i7 4790K, since you are a Core i7 user, and Asus Z97 Pro Gamer. If you are using DDR3 1600MHz now then I think you can use it and do not need to buy additional RAM, unless you are working in productivity such as a photo editor or 3d modeler or animator. The processor might be expensive the first time you buy it, but it will last a very long time, probably longer than your i7 950. Not to mention it is also a great processor for productivity oriented works. Think of it as a long time investment.

The motherboard itself is built to cater bugdet oriented customers' need, but do not let the price and simple design fool you, it is a ROG class motherboard for budget oriented customers. Also it comes in black and red and will be a great pair for your Colorful card. I do not know however if it is available in your region or wherever you are. We have Z97 Pro Gamer for quite some time here, and from I read it is still unavailable in many countries. But please try to find and consider one if you can.

 

[halim360]

@halim360
I think the card is not a fail product, despite being a Chinese market exclusive. Colorful may not be available in many markets, Japan included, but it is a well known brand exclusive to Chinese market, at least until now, and it has good reputation.

If you are tight on budget, I think a good combination would be a Core i7 4790K, since you are a Core i7 user, and Asus Z97 Pro Gamer. If you are using DDR3 1600MHz now then I think you can use it and do not need to buy additional RAM, unless you are working in productivity such as a photo editor or 3d modeler or animator. The processor might be expensive the first time you buy it, but it will last a very long time, probably longer than your i7 950. Not to mention it is also a great processor for productivity oriented works. Think of it as a long time investment.

The motherboard itself is built to cater bugdet oriented customers' need, but do not let the price and simple design fool you, it is a ROG class motherboard for budget oriented customers. Also it comes in black and red and will be a great pair for your Colorful card. I do not know however if it is available in your region or wherever you are. We have Z97 Pro Gamer for quite some time here, and from I read it is still unavailable in many countries. But please try to find and consider one if you can.

yes, i am a 3d animator. And until now, my rig still runs great to help me to do some work like for rendering, animating, simulating, etc.
And, it works fine with most games (with my new card's help, of course ).
But I'll reconsider your suggestion to buy thoose item as you mentioned above, to improve my working productivity and for gaming experience.
Thanks!