Gainward Readies GeForce GTX 970 Phantom, GTX 980 Reference

[btarunr]

Gainward will launch three graphics cards based on the GM204 silicon later this week, its GeForce GTX 980 board, which sticks to NVIDIA's reference board design, a slightly non-reference GTX 970 which comes with reference clock speeds, and a completely non-reference Phantom Edition board, featuring the company's iconic air-pulling concealed fans, which could ship with a factory-overclock. The GTX 970 Phantom could ship with some of the highest factory-overclocks in the lineup, with core clock speeds of 1152 MHz, GPU Boost speeds of 1304 MHz, and an untouched 7.00 GHz memory.



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[PLAfiller]

Always liked Gainward, don't seem them very often here. I like the "slightly non-reference one" a lot.

 

[Suka]

I like the "slightly non-reference one" a lot.

Same here.

 

[rtwjunkie]

With the lower TDP, there is absolutely no reason for a non-reference cooler other than appearance. The reference design used first showed on the Titan, then for the 780 and initial 770's, and finally the 780Ti. It really does a fantastic job already.

And with such a low heat output, there is heaps of overclocking room for the reference cooler to deal with excess heat. As a point of "reference", my 780 idles at 29-30, and doesn't get over 55 when gaming.

 

[raptori]

And with such a low heat output, there is heaps of overclocking room for the reference cooler to deal with excess heat. As a point of "reference", my 780 idles at 29-30, and doesn't get over 55 when gaming.

Taken from GTX780 review

How did you achieve 26c lower than the review ... I mean normally what's your room temp.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Taken from GTX780 review

How did you achieve 26c lower than the review ... I mean normally what's your room temp.

My house is 22.7 C (73F), and my rig is a Coolermaster Storm Sniper. Good case airflow is essential. Aside from that, though, the "Titan-like" reference cooler is a very good design. People hear "reference cooler" and immediately think the sky is falling.

 

[Sony Xperia S]

Taken from GTX780 review

How did you achieve 26c lower than the review ... I mean normally what's your room temp.

Hmm, it is not specifically cited how exactly they test but I'd guess they were with open stands which could dramatically worsen temperatures.

They don't state any case type in the test setup description.

 

[arterius2]

Taken from GTX780 review

How did you achieve 26c lower than the review ... I mean normally what's your room temp.

I'd call BS too, but to be fair, he did says "when gaming, and not under full load, which can be anything not excluding Farmville.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I'd call BS too, but to be fair, he did says "when gaming, and not under full load, which can be anything not excluding Farmville.

Really?! As if I would waste my hard earned money on my rig and play farmville. I believe I also busted in another thread earlier today on the future of gaming and hoping we arent stuck with mind-numbing flash-based browser games.

You can call BS if you want, but that doesn't change things. I'm sorry that your experience is apparently not as cool. It's very simple. Set up a very aggressive 8 point fan profile, and the temps get nipped in the bud long before they get out of control.

EDIT: Look, I'm not trying to be a jerk about defending myself, but everyone acts as if reviews are gospel, and nothing in the real world can differentiate from them. Conditions are always going to be different. Temps are going to be different. the quality of whatever piece of equipment you have is going to be different. Settings are going to be somewhat different.

And yes, I said while "gaming". It goes up to 63 on Valley and 65 on Heaven, but we all know games rarely put that kind of constant stress on a card like benchmarks do.

Review graphs are great, but we should never take them for more than a "rough idea" of what to expect. YMMV.

 

[64K]

I'd call BS too, but to be fair, he did says "when gaming, and not under full load, which can be anything not excluding Farmville.

You don't know what the fan profile is set at on either the reviewers test or rtwjunkie's 780.

 

[GhostRyder]

Guys...He can set his own fan profile and cause the temps to be much lower if he chooses.

On the note of the cooler, I really like the Gainward Phantom Coolers, those are really nice looking and seem to get the job done!

 

[Sony Xperia S]

Guys...He can set his own fan profile and cause the temps to be much lower if he chooses.

On the note of the cooler, I really like the Gainward Phantom Coolers, those are really nice looking and seem to get the job done!

It is in everyone's interest to keep their GPUs as cool as possible. It ensures lower power consumption and higher longevity.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Guys...He can set his own fan profile and cause the temps to be much lower if he chooses.

And that's exactly what I've done, because I too like my GPU to last. The reference titan cooler fan is not only effective with the heatsink, it's also amazingly quiet. It has to go above 60% before I can even pick it's sound out from the whooshing sound of my case's 200mm fans.