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Looking to buy GTX970, any deals going?

  • 24-01-2015 12:17pm
    #1
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Hey guys, im looking at ordering a GTX 970.
    After some research the following are supposed to be top notch.

    gigabyte G1
    gigabyte windforce
    asus strix
    zotac omega or extreme
    msi 100 million edition
    evga superclock

    Im just trying to find a decent seller, anywhere you guys would recommend apart from my usual haunts of scan and overclockers?


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,815 ✭✭✭Burgo


    I have been looking recently, they all appear to be selling for similar prices, the cheapest I found was the scan deals of the day.

    Also you might want to be aware of the memory issue if you arent already. http://www.techpowerup.com/209205/geforce-gtx-970-design-flaw-caps-video-memory-usage-to-3-3-gb-report.html


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    I wasnt aware of this, is it confirmed?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    I would probably hold off pending the outcome of that.

    In the meantime if you can't wait, prices on R9 290's have now dropped to about 270-280 delivered for quality models. Rock solid alternative option, unless you want to stick with Nvidia.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,181 ✭✭✭Serephucus


    It is. NVIDIA are investigating it, no word so far. Some people on forums have looked into it, etc. and it may or may not be fixable with a driver update. If yes, you're fine to order one. If not though, it could mean a recall of all affected cards (which seems to be all 970s).

    FYI, apparently the Windforce is the fastest, but loudest. The MSI G1 is the quietest, Strix is between the two. EVGA's ACX is between the G1 and the Strix, though the fan has no 0dB mode.


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Thanks guys, its a concern for sure.
    I like to stick with nvidia,i like the look of gsync and love shadowplay.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,767 ✭✭✭SterlingArcher


    Dcully wrote: »
    Thanks guys, its a concern for sure.
    I like to stick with nvidia,i like the look of gsync and love shadowplay.

    Shadow play is great, pissed myself laughing about this memory crap. Had enough hassle getting my card. Typical, meh **** happens.

    Have the g1 I don't know about the noise myself. I'd hear the pipes in the walls before I'd hear the card.


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Am i correct in thinking 1080 users wouldnt notice anything?
    Im currently running 1920x1200 but plan on going maybe a 2560x1080 in a few months.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,181 ✭✭✭Serephucus


    Depends what you're currently running GPU-wise. I'm on 1080 at the moment, but might jump to 1440 UW if the right monitor comes along. At my current res though my 780 is almost exactly the same performance-wise.


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Yeah that my thinking on it too.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,181 ✭✭✭Serephucus


    That said, I still want a 970 for that 0dB idle mode. (And quieter load lecels)

    But then there's talk of GM200

    But then there's talk of it being $1,350 MSRP. :eek:


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  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 7,423 Mod ✭✭✭✭pleasant Co.




  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Reading that it seems like a very minor issue that the average gamer wont even notice.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,929 ✭✭✭✭ShadowHearth


    Even with this issue 970 is still a very competitive card.

    Problem is, that March is so close and I want to see the new AMD breed.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,498 ✭✭✭Lu Tze


    Dcully wrote: »
    Reading that it seems like a very minor issue that the average gamer wont even notice.

    No it wont immediately bar modded skyrim et al, but games are slowly using more and more vram, and seems we are just starting a transition up to the next monitor resolutions which in a year or two these limitations could be, ah, limiting! :o

    Thats for those of us who aren't annual or biennial upgraders!


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    I think ill wait this out.
    I bought this instead,played on one over the weekend in a friends and holy **** it is a beast of a monitor.
    Ill grab a new GPU down the line a bit.

    http://www.dabs.ie/products/lg-electronics-29um65-p-29--2560x1080-5ms-dvi-hdmi-displayport-ips-led-monitor-9D5B.html?refs=58080000&src=2

    Im hoping the jump from 1920x1200 to 2560x1080 wont be too bad in terms of performance, according to reviews 30% from a standard 1920x1080 to the 2560x1080 so im guessing about 20% in my case.
    Considering i could run a catleap 2560x1440 last year with BF3 all ultra @ 60-90 fps i should be okay for a few months with todays games at medium/high.


  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 7,423 Mod ✭✭✭✭pleasant Co.




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,929 ✭✭✭✭ShadowHearth


    Dcully wrote: »
    I think ill wait this out.
    I bought this instead,played on one over the weekend in a friends and holy **** it is a beast of a monitor.
    Ill grab a new GPU down the line a bit.

    http://www.dabs.ie/products/lg-electronics-29um65-p-29--2560x1080-5ms-dvi-hdmi-displayport-ips-led-monitor-9D5B.html?refs=58080000&src=2

    Im hoping the jump from 1920x1200 to 2560x1080 wont be too bad in terms of performance, according to reviews 30% from a standard 1920x1080 to the 2560x1080 so im guessing about 20% in my case.
    Considering i could run a catleap 2560x1440 last year with BF3 all ultra @ 60-90 fps i should be okay for a few months with todays games at medium/high.

    Nice one m8. Those 21:9 are just lovely yokes. If I would not be full time playing on TV in my bed, I would go for 21:9 myself now!


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Im satisfied with nvidias response and the fact ill be runnning @ 2560x1080 i decided to go ahead and order the EVGA GTX970 SC ATX.
    Should be a sweet combo with the monitor :)
    Im thinking my i5 2500 k @ 4.3ghz is good for a while yet.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,929 ✭✭✭✭ShadowHearth


    Dcully wrote: »
    Im satisfied with nvidias response and the fact ill be runnning @ 2560x1080 i decided to go ahead and order the EVGA GTX970 SC ATX.
    Should be a sweet combo with the monitor :)
    Im thinking my i5 2500 k @ 4.3ghz is good for a while yet.

    2500k is still a cracker of a cpu and I really fail to see why would any gamer upgrade from it. Slap overclock on it and it's cpu which just does not give a single ****.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,140 ✭✭✭✭TheDoc


    Dcully wrote: »
    Im satisfied with nvidias response and the fact ill be runnning @ 2560x1080 i decided to go ahead and order the EVGA GTX970 SC ATX.
    Should be a sweet combo with the monitor :)
    Im thinking my i5 2500 k @ 4.3ghz is good for a while yet.

    Why did you go EVGA in the end?

    In testing they seemed to consistently be a meh performer. And don't know if it's resolved, but up until recently batches were being shipped with a fan that was too big, and not all heatpipes were making contact.

    Considering their is barely noticable price difference in models wondering why you went with that one?

    There is a brilliant 970 users thread on overclockers, where the main recommendations are Gigabyte G1, MSI, or the Strix.


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  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    TheDoc wrote: »
    Why did you go EVGA in the end?

    In testing they seemed to consistently be a meh performer. And don't know if it's resolved, but up until recently batches were being shipped with a fan that was too big, and not all heatpipes were making contact.

    Considering their is barely noticable price difference in models wondering why you went with that one?

    There is a brilliant 970 users thread on overclockers, where the main recommendations are Gigabyte G1, MSI, or the Strix.

    My research has it up with the G1 and strix, plus it was on this week only deal on overclockers and was €45 cheaper than the others there where as last week it was of similar price.

    Havet heard of a fan issue but i note the version i bought is ver 2.0 , EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card to be exact maybe the ver 1.o had that issue?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,767 ✭✭✭SterlingArcher


    Dcully wrote: »
    My research has it up with the G1 and strix, plus it was on this week only deal on overclockers and was €45 cheaper than the others there where as last week it was of similar price.

    Havet heard of a fan issue but i note the version i bought is ver 2.0 , EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card to be exact maybe the ver 1.o had that issue?

    Be aware skully, overclokers have a not so good customer care. From reviews I checked. Was going to go with them getting my own 970. Consider it when saving a few.


  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 7,423 Mod ✭✭✭✭pleasant Co.


    Be aware skully, overclokers have a not so good customer care. From reviews I checked. Was going to go with them getting my own 970. Consider it when saving a few.

    I dunno dude, they've been doing well by their 970 customers anyway: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18651061&page=170


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,767 ✭✭✭SterlingArcher


    I dunno dude, they've been doing well by their 970 customers anyway: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18651061&page=170

    Cool cool, was only going off reviews I read about general issues. I went amazon mysely 20 dearer at time.


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    From Gibbo @ overclockers.

    Hi there


    I now have a final update on all brands:

    YES BRANDS! (Supporting OcUK)

    OcUK Brand: We support these ourselves as customer is king.
    KFA2 (Formerly Galax): Supporting OcUK to keep our cost minimal.
    Inno3D: Supporting OcUK to keep our cost minimal.
    EVGA: Supporting OcUK to keep our cost minimal and offering step up for customers contacting them directly.
    Asus: No decision but their support in past has being legendary so we are confident they will have our backs.
    Zotac: Looking into it but want to support but need final decision to come form big boss, looking good though!
    Palit: Now supporting OcUK with our returns!
    MSI: MSI are covering OcUK for all our returns!

    NO BRANDS! (Refusing to support as still waiting for a decision)

    - Gigabyte: Will not accept returns yet, but have not come to a final decision. As such OcUK shall still take them back and cover all the cost ourselves should Gigabyte decide not to support.




    I am really hopeful the NO brands decisions next week will be to support us and I am sure they will as Gigabyte are a great company.

    In short OcUK will now accept returns on all brands should you be unhappy with your purchase, the window for returning a 970 is between now and end of February.

    I must inform customers that 970 performance is absolutely mind blowing and is the best all round performance card sub £300, the only faster single GPU card is the 980, but cost a lot more and the extra performance does not justify the extra cost. This makes the 970 still the performance bargain at sub £300! The stuttering some customers are experiencing, some customers are not experiencing or are also experiencing on other GPU's, so this does mean that issues some are experiencing are simply down to drivers/system configuration, so do try different drivers and updates first. Then some games simply run poor on all GPU platforms. So please bear in mind as 970 is the card everyone was raving about only a week ago, nothing has changed, it is still the same awesome product it was previously and still is. But if you are truly unhappy then please contact OcUK returns in regards to your 970 purchase (all brands).

    Here are some performance stats:
    BUT guys before just saying here have your money back you should be talking the customer through the following to try and prevent the refund in the first place:
    • There is no issue with the 970 product, this is by design from NVIDIA in the 970 GPU
    • There is a $220 delta in the price of the 970 vs. the 980
    • There is only a 3% performance delta of the 970 vs. the 980
    • If Direct Customer has an irate customer that wants to return the board, let the customer return it.

    In order to try and assist further we have included some performance data below so that you can see actual testing results between the GTX 970 and the GTX 980.

    Shadows of Mordor: GTX 980 GTX970
    <3.5GB settings: 2688x1512 Very High 72FPS 60FPS
    >3.5GB settings: 3456x1944 Very High 55FPS (24%) 45FPS (-25%)
    Relative performance difference: 1%

    Battlefield 4:
    <3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 2xMSAA 36FS 30FPS
    >3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 135% res. 19FPS (-47%) 15FPS (-50%)
    Relative performance difference: 3%

    Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare:
    <3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 FSMAA T2x, SS off 82FPS 71FPS
    >3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 FSMAA T2x, SS on 48FPS (-41%) 40FPS (-44%)

    As you can see above the relative performance difference varies from 1% in Shadows of Mordor, to 3% in Battlefield 4 or Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The performance differences between a 970 and 980 in the above examples remain a constant 15-19%, regardless of memory usage.

    I hope that the above information helps clarify the performance from the GTX 970. Please let us know if you do want to continue with a step-up on your product for the higher performing GTX 980 card, and we'll get that option opened up for you.


    OcUK & Caseking believes customer is King!

    OcUK believes the customer is king and this is why we are offering this to ONLY our customers on all brands even though some of the brands have not yet made decisions.

    I hope this will go a long way in securing in peoples minds that OcUK has changed since several years ago when it comes to customer service and now we truly are the best in the industry and without a doubt the Kings of graphics card. We offer the largest range, we have the most exclusives and our prices are competitive if not the best. You then get so much more with OcUK also, these forums with staff around the clock monitoring and helping out and our legendary customer service.

    We are not a faceless company and the customer truly is King in our opinion!

    Have a great weekend and those who are 100% returning cards please don't all ring or email at once and give it some real thought if an RMA is what you really wish to do because as I say this issue is blown hugely out of proportion, the 970 is still simply epic and will remain the great card it is.

    Over and out!

    H'onwards
    H'upwards


    Gibbo


    P.S. To make it clear OcUK & Caseking will accept all brands back if you truly are unhappy, our companies are the best in customer service throughout UK/Europe, we are no.1 !!!!

    P.S.2 To return a card you must contact RMA department first and then post the card back to us or bring it in person, but you must obtain an RMA first!


  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    Ill be keeping mine, the card is an absolute beast.
    Games never looked or played better for me with it alongside my new monitor.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 243 ✭✭TheTacticsGuy


    The EVGA FTW edition of the 970 is coming in at over €400 from scan & overclockers, is that really worth it?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,318 ✭✭✭deceit


    Be aware skully, overclokers have a not so good customer care. From reviews I checked. Was going to go with them getting my own 970. Consider it when saving a few.
    Every return I've had with overclockers.co.uk has been painless. They manage my impatience really well :P. With the last rma I was able to purchase a new board and get a refund for the old one when it came back even though was over the returns time for a refund just so I could get a new board quicker.
    Edit:
    Saying that my house mate is having terrible issues with dabs.ie in getting a replacement. He's dealing with them a few months now.
    Every time he thinks he has it sorted the push the goal posts back :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,930 ✭✭✭✭challengemaster


    deceit wrote: »
    Every return I've had with overclockers.co.uk has been painless.

    They have a very bad rep from about 7-10 years ago, where there customer care was practically non-existent. It was nearly so bad you were essentially conceding your warranty by buying from them.

    Looks like they've upped their game in recent times though.


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  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 14,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dcully


    deceit wrote: »
    Every return I've had with overclockers.co.uk has been painless. They manage my impatience really well :P. With the last rma I was able to purchase a new board and get a refund for the old one when it came back even though was over the returns time for a refund just so I could get a new board quicker.
    Edit:
    Saying that my house mate is having terrible issues with dabs.ie in getting a replacement. He's dealing with them a few months now.
    Every time he thinks he has it sorted the push the goal posts back :(

    Dont get me started about dabs.ie
    My monitor has a stuck pixel, im trying to contact dabs since Friday last but they havent replied to my email.
    In fairness i barely notice it now but its hardly the point, i want to at the very least let them know.


  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 7,423 Mod ✭✭✭✭pleasant Co.


    Just in case anyone bought the 970 recently through amazon UK, ya might wanna have a look at this: http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/2uzjh6/discussion_gtx_970_amazon_uk_closure_for_me/


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,929 ✭✭✭✭ShadowHearth


    Just in case anyone bought the 970 recently through amazon UK, ya might wanna have a look at this: http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/2uzjh6/discussion_gtx_970_amazon_uk_closure_for_me/

    He sent card back and got a refund. Or am I missing something? His first post is a bit confusing and later down in comments he says that he had to send card back too. If I remember right amazon is always fantastic when it comes to refunds.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,583 ✭✭✭EoinHef


    Saw this on oc.net the other day,seems amazon in some cases are willing to give a partial refund of up to 20% and you get to keep the card. If you want a full refund the card has to go back. Thats my understanding of it anyway,fair play to amazon.

    Cant see hardwareversand doing the same!!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 878 ✭✭✭Luck100


    EoinHef wrote: »
    Saw this on oc.net the other day,seems amazon in some cases are willing to give a partial refund of up to 20% and you get to keep the card. If you want a full refund the card has to go back. Thats my understanding of it anyway,fair play to amazon.

    Cant see hardwareversand doing the same!!

    Yes, I've heard of both happening with Amazon (20% refund or return for full refund). But it's not a universal policy - more like case-by-case treatment for unhappy customers. I think the customer services reps have some discretion to offer service beyond Amazon's explicit policies, but it would likely depend on the customer's transaction and returns history with Amazon.


  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 7,423 Mod ✭✭✭✭pleasant Co.


    He sent card back and got a refund. Or am I missing something? His first post is a bit confusing and later down in comments he says that he had to send card back too. If I remember right amazon is always fantastic when it comes to refunds.

    There's a screengrab of his amazon chat in the linked post, it explains what happened :)


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