EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 4 GB

[log1c76]

Just canceled my r9 290 order and ordered this instead. I usually buy amd, due to price, but there's no way I'm passing up this performance at 339!

 

[frag06]

None of EVGA's cards available at the moment are ACX 2.0. So that may or may not be a plus for you.

@W1zzard Was there any coil whine or anything like that when you tested the card? At idle or load? I ask because the one other review I found of the EVGA SC 970 says there was a little coil whine. I ordered a SC 970 and it should be here tomorrow, but I will not tolerate any coil whine.

Thanks.

 

[apoe]

ACX 2.0 versions now on newegg, but priced significantly higher ($390 for SC version)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487071

If the prices stay at those levels, maybe review should be updated..

 

[CapoCuba]

when will be the model 970 FTW? will be worth waiting for this model (P4-2978-04G-KR) or buy now Superclocked (P4-0974-04G-KR)?

 

[refillable]

That is such an amazing card... What is more amazing is that 2 and a half years ago the 7870 was priced the same as this... But I won't be tempted to buy anything right now though, as the AMD 300 series are also around the corner and perhaps will rock as well. Great evolution...

 

[Lagittaja]

The GTX 970 is such an amazing card that I'm at a loss for words. I'll definitely be looking into getting one of these.

Also W1zzard, I have a question regarding one of the games you use for testing. That would be Grid 2.
1) I suppose 4xAA = 4xMSAA?
2) "The game also includes a separate binary (which we used) with support for the AVX instruction set found on modern CPUs."
How exactly does that work? What changes? I've tried both of the executables (normal and AVX) but I've seen no difference between them and for both of those the two Intel options (Advanced Blending and Smoke Shadows) remain greyed out and OFF since they're meant for used with iGPU and not dGPU afaik. I also have a 3770K.

Also I did bench my OC'd GTX 670 in Grid 2 just for the heck of it to compare to the GTX 970.
I used the same settings (although my drivers were 344.11) which would be 1920x1080 with everything maxed out and 4xMSAA. And I tried both of the executables.
Using the normal executable I got 70.99/91.25 min/avg
Using the AVX executable I got 70.68/90.67
So roughly 91fps average on a 670 OC'd to 1267 on the core and 1750 mem (7000 effective) compared to the 128.1fps of the 970 (or 137.3fps of the 970 SC ACX).
That's 40-50% more perf in Grid 2. That's quite nice And I'm pulling more power also, custom bios with raised power limits and so on..

 

[W1zzard]

1) Yes
2) I'm not 100% sure either. I think the AVX binary uses AVX instructions which helps in CPU limited situations, which probably never occur on a 4770K.

 

[kiddo]

I just hope a Vapor-X model will come...

 

[seanmac]

Just canceled my r9 290 order and ordered this instead. I usually buy amd, due to price, but there's no way I'm passing up this performance at 339!

Yeh smart cookie ! Better performance than the R9 290X and the GTX 970 card is a great overclocker !

 

[Harbear]

1) Yes
2) I'm not 100% sure either. I think the AVX binary uses AVX instructions which helps in CPU limited situations, which probably never occur on a 4770K.

Hey I am wondering if the logo on the top of the card glows ? I saw on the AXC 2.0 demo video that it does, which is really cool. But the video was showing a GTX 980 FTW.

 

[Delta6326]

Do you think this card is lacking cooling performance due to reusing a old heatsink? Thus making it louder. You can tell that it only touch's 2 of the heat pipes.

 

[frag06]

Do you think this card is lacking cooling performance due to reusing a old heatsink? Thus making it louder. You can tell that it only touch's 2 of the heat pipes.

Originally Posted by TEAMEVGA
Hello everyone,

The way the EVGA GTX 970 ACX heat sink was designed is based on the GTX 970 wattage plus an additional 40% cooling headroom on top of it.

There are 3 heat pipes on the heatsink – 2 x 8mm major heat pipes to distribute the majority of the heat from the GPU to the heatsink, and a 3rd 6mm heatpipe is used as a supplement to the design to reduce another 2-3 degrees Celsius.

Also we would like to mention that the cooler passed NVIDIA Greenlight specifications.

Due to the GPU small die size, we intended for the GPU to contact two major heat pipes with direct touch to make the best heat dissipation without any other material in between.

We all know the Maxwell GPU is an extremely power efficient GPU, our SC cooler was overbuilt for it and allowed us to provide cards with boost clocks at over 1300MHz.

EVGA also has an “FTW” version for those users who want even higher clocks.


Regarding fan noise, we understand that some have expressed concerns over the fan noise on the EVGA GTX 970 cards, this is not a fan noise issue but it is more of an aggressive fan curve set by the default BIOS.

The fan curve can be easily adjusted in EVGA PrecisionX or any other overclocking software.

Regardless, we have heard the concerns and will provide a BIOS update to reduce the fan noise during idle.

Thanks, EVGA

 

[Air]

Touching heat pipes or not, what must really make a diference in this card are the smaller fans and heatsink. The card is a lot smaller in return to more noise.

 

[jabbadap]

As gm204 being pin compatible with gk104, whis card seems to use same pcb as gtx760.

Spoiler

evga gtx760 acx sc:

evga gtx970 acx sc:

There seems to be lot of gtx970 cards out there which are using gk104 pcb:s, might be actually good thing for price point of view. But of course not, if one is buying one for surround gsync.

 

[Lagittaja]

What? This GTX 970 uses the same cooler* and same PCB as the EVGA GTX 760 SC ACX did.
When the 760 came out with the same cooler I asked EVGA the same question and got a similar bullshit answer. They know it's a shit design (and it still is) and they're talking their way out of things.
All they did for this card was tweak a little this and that and drop in GM204 instead of GK104. Voila. Low cost design for them.

Pondering about purchasing GTX 970 but this time around I won't be going with EVGA.

*the fans aren't exactly the same but they're the same size

 

[Armagg3don]

Hello there, first of all I congratulate you for your excellent reviews. I always take as a reference point for my purchases and my perspectives.

I would also like to make a query: I saw a user asked 4x AA used for tests of Grid 2.
My question is this: what is the 4x AA that you use each and every one of the tests and games?

And may I suggest that if possible would be a good idea to specify which type of AA used in each test and game.

AA is the most suitable for quality is the MSAA, but many novice users could be confused with the omission of that information.

Thanks again and congratulations for your reviews.

 

[rooivalk]

When the lowest score is 7 (which is minority), scoring 9++ doesn't seem much lol

 

[jonathan1107]

So how much better is the ACX 2.0 new cooler?

 

[Boeing707]

So how much better is the ACX 2.0 new cooler?

It is worse than the old one. The third heat pipe is not even sealed, rendering it useless.

 

[jonathan1107]

It is worse than the old one. The third heat pipe is not even sealed, rendering it useless.

good to know

 

[W1zzard]

It is worse than the old one. The third heat pipe is not even sealed, rendering it useless.

Oh wow, that's a nice find.

 

[OneCool]

It is worse than the old one. The third heat pipe is not even sealed, rendering it useless.

First of all WTF!!!!!!!! Thats crazy.

Second. it looks like I can replace my 7850 1gb with this and not have to upgrade my PSU............hmmmmmmmmm I wonder

 

[OtherSyde]

Well I just ordered one of these, so hopefully it still stands up decently 5-6 months after this review. Ifnothing else, it looks like I made the best possible choice as far as the 970 chipset offerings.

 

[Casecutter]

It is worse than the old one. The third heat pipe is not even sealed, rendering it useless.

WTF...FTW! Simply Amazing! Just there as a place holder to perhaps provides some structural rigidity. Seems EVGA has picked up from Nvidia how engineering and marketing communicate.

EVGA _ There are 3 heat pipes on the heatsink – 2 x 8mm major heat pipes to distribute the majority of the heat from the GPU to the heatsink, and a 3rd 6mm heatpipe is used as a supplement to the design to reduce another 2-3 degrees Celsius.

I want to see how that tube would assist transferring this additional 2-3 degrees Celsius!

 

[irazer]

sorry for bad english
I have evga 970 acx2 with reference clocks and yesterday change thermal compound. The pipe is sealed, but yes - dont make contact with gpu. You must view from right angle...
My card also have coil whine I hope will disappear.