EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 4 GB

[W1zzard]

EVGA's brand-new GeForce GTX 970 SC ACX uses the company's latest ACX cooler, which promises to improve its noise and temperatures over the reference design. It is also overclocked out of the box for that little bit of extra performance it needs to beat the Radeon R9 290X.

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[Jack1n]

Will probably upgrade my 7970 vapor-x with a 970, possibly this one, great review.

 

[rcarlos243]

is this compatible with NZXT G10?

 

[Lionheart]

Holy shit that's an amazing card!

Do want

 

[Fluffmeister]

These GTX 970 are truly superb, amazing performance and efficiency and all for a great price, seem then selling for around £260.... amazing.

 

[bpgt64]

That's pretty f-ing impressive. More competition for AMD!?!

 

[Yellow&Nerdy?]

So AMD is pretty much boned. The GTX 970 is faster, uses much less power, and costs $350 vs. $450 compared to the R9 290X.

 

[burndtjamb]

With regard to fan noise, was there any attempt at tuning Precision X software values for the fan speeds vs. temperature? I have this video card on the way and I'm a bit nit-picky with fan noise (I'm aware of the ASUS STRIX 970 but I prefer EVGA's warranty). Thanks for the review!

 

[W1zzard]

With regard to fan noise, was there any attempt at tuning Precision X software values for the fan speeds vs. temperature? I have this video card on the way and I'm a bit nit-picky with fan noise (I'm aware of the ASUS STRIX 970 but I prefer EVGA's warranty). Thanks for the review!

You can use software to adjust the fan speed of course, but I have to review the cards like they are out of the box, not after I manually optimize them, in which case every card would be perfect. I'd hax the BIOS to up the temperature limit, up power limit, increase clocks on memory, increase GPU clock, increase GPU voltage, set fan to 0% at low temps and reduce fan speed so that load temps just edges the newly set temperature limit. Boom, perfect card.

 

[Air]

You can use software to adjust the fan speed of course, but I have to review the cards like they are out of the box, not after I manually optimize them, in which case every card would be perfect. I'd hax the BIOS to up the temperature limit, up power limit, increase clocks on memory, increase GPU clock, increase GPU voltage, set fan to 0% at low temps and reduce fan speed so that load temps just edges the newly set temperature limit. Boom, perfect card.

There are cases when that is not possible, arent there? Like, the evga GTX750 ti which fans cannot go bellow 40% max speed.

 

[ssdpro]

I am confused about the picture on the first page on this review (HERE). That GTX 970 makeup shows the old reference cooler design used in some of the 770's, 780's, TITAN Black, and new 980. EVGA looks to have gone with some ugly butt reference coolers on the 970. That grey metallic looking reference cooler is much better than the black plastic one. I personally prefer reference coolers but not so much the cheap black plastic one.

 

[64K]

This is the one for me. It's only 8% slower than a reference GTX 980 and $210 cheaper. As far as the noise goes, it's quieter than my GTX 680 which has never bothered me. When I'm immersed in a game I don't even notice the fan noise anyway. I will use this card for a year or so until big Maxwell comes out.

 

[possessed]

This is quite impressive. I think it's time to upgrade my 2 year old gtx670.

 

[Covert_Death]

just ordered this card! cannot wait for it to get here. Am I the only one that is most exited about the VR support?! arma3 in VR !!!!!

 

[64K]

This is quite impressive. I think it's time to upgrade my 2 year old gtx670.

Yeah, that will be a very good upgrade.

For anyone interested Newegg has the card for $340 and an $10 rebate from EVGA brings it down to $330. imo that's a hell of a lot of performance for $330. I will be ordering one when I get off work.

 

[Casecutter]

Have to say the GTX 970 is an amazing, proficient leap in performance & efficiency, all while an astonishing new level in price. This changes things more than I thought... for AMD, while it ceases any smart buyer from the consideration of any of the 770 (on up) of the product stack.

I am confused about the picture on the first page on this review (HERE). That GTX 970 makeup shows the old reference cooler design used in some of the 770's, 780's, TITAN Black, and new 980. EVGA looks to have gone with some ugly butt reference coolers on the 970. That grey metallic looking reference cooler is much better than the black plastic one. I personally prefer reference coolers but not so much the cheap black plastic one.

Well, that's truly just an apparition... I’d buy a reference 970 with that grey metallic Titan style cooler. If that could be bought for the intended MSRP of $330, I'd snatch one up use it till it out-matched (should be a while), and then just keep it for posterity. But right, IF there’s a reference it will be with the black plastic’ie box with the generic radial blower.

I will be ordering one when I get off work.

I'll beat you won't, they'll be OoS. I can't say I've ever heard of a rebate "day one" especially EVGA, crazy aggressive!

 

[possessed]

From evga what I saw on EU's site was free backplate (quite nice) for boards registered until the 20th of October (they do refer while stocks last) and free warranty extension to 5 years.

 

[64K]

Nice perks.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Thanks for this review. It is what swayed me to buy the same card you reviewed; the EVGA GTX 970 SC

 

[Air]

I just noticed how horrible the ACX cooler is compared to the likes of asus/msi.

The ASUS card is quieter at load than EVGA at idle! And its 10 dBA louder under load (more than 700% more sound pressure!) for a diference of 2 °C. I dont think you can make up for that with custom fan profiles. Anyone who cares for silence should stay far away.

Asus GTX970 Load: 29 dBA @ 73 °C
EVGA GTX970 idle: 30 dBA
EVGA GTX970 idel: 39 dBA @ 71 °C

Even the titan/gtx 780ti reference cooler is quieter.

 

[64K]

I just noticed how horrible the ACX cooler is compared to the likes of asus/msi.

The ASUS card is quieter at load than EVGA at idle! And its 10 dBA louder under load (more than 700% more sound pressure!) for a diference of 2 °C. I dont think you can make up for that with custom fan profiles. Anyone who cares for silence should stay far away.

Asus GTX970 Load: 29 dBA @ 73 °C
EVGA GTX970 idle: 30 dBA
EVGA GTX970 idel: 39 dBA @ 71 °C

Even the titan/gtx 780ti reference cooler is quieter.

Yeah, if you want quieter then you would be better suited to the ASUS. For me it's not an issue since this card is even quieter than my GTX 680 which never bothered me at all.

 

[alexandru512]

The fan blades look strange. It looks like they are made for sucking air not pushing it, the curvature is all wrong. ACX v1 vs ACX v2, they look like they are upside down.

VS

 

[apoe]

I wonder when the ACX 2.0 cards will release? Currently I only see the ACX 1.0 variants.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Nice review.

With the sweet pricing of the gtx 970, you have to wonder what the performance of the gtx 960 will bring at a possible $249 sweet spot.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

The fan blades look strange. It looks like they are made for sucking air not pushing it, the curvature is all wrong. ACX v1 vs ACX v2, they look like they are upside down.

VS

Looks to me like the one on the top would be quieter but have less static pressure. The one on the bottom more static pressure, more pinpointed airflow, but probably louder.

Basically the one on bottom cupping the air, the one on top spreading it, but when you spread you lose cooling efficiency and dispel more warm air into the case.

As far as the ASUS goes, as always they are quiet, but idle temps are pretty high. That could be changed with a simple fan profile tweak though.

The way I look at it though, the EVGA is no louder than my 7970, pretty much equal, and the EVGA slightly outperforms the ASUS and is cheaper.

I've looked at all Wizz's benches and can't see any point to the 980. My only reason to get a higher end card would be in hopes to get better performance in extremely resource intense games, and in those you barely get any more frames. And for 4k gaming one 980 still fails to play those games at acceptable frame rates.

My only worry is the 970 after getting swamped with orders will shoot up in price, because I may wait until end of next year to just go ahead and get ALL my new platform parts, which may or may not be based on DDR4 depending on price and latency drops on the RAM, CPUs and MBs for it.

I tend to keep my core parts quite a while, but I'm skeptical whether hex core will be all that useful for gaming anytime soon.