GeForce GTX 970 

Released September, 2014
  • 1.1 GHz
  • 4 GB GDDR5
7.6 Out of 10

Explore 30 desktops with the GeForce GTX 970
MSI's GTX 970 Gaming is available online for $350, which is a $20 price premium for the overclock out of the box and the improved cooler.
by techPowerUp!
Temperatures are excellent, even with the card cooling itself passively in idle.
by techPowerUp!

GPUBoss Review Our evaluation of the GeForce GTX 970 among GPUs between $200 and $400

Gaming

GeForce GTX 970
8.2
Radeon R9 390
7.1
Radeon R9 290X
8.1
Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Bioshock Infinite and 21 more

Graphics

GeForce GTX 970
6.6
Radeon R9 390
9.1
Radeon R9 290X
9.2
T-Rex, Manhattan, Sky Diver Factor and Fire Strike Factor

Computing

GeForce GTX 970
7.7
Radeon R9 390
9.2
Radeon R9 290X
8.6
Face Detection, Ocean Surface Simulation and 3 more

Performance per Watt

GeForce GTX 970
7.1
Radeon R9 390
6.0
Radeon R9 290X
5.8
Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Bioshock Infinite and 31 more

Value

GeForce GTX 970
7.9
Radeon R9 390
7.0
Radeon R9 290X
7.6
Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Bioshock Infinite and 31 more

Noise and Power

GeForce GTX 970
7.8
Radeon R9 390
5.5
Radeon R9 290X
5.0
TDP, Idle Power Consumption, Load Power Consumption and 2 more
7.6

Overall Score

GeForce GTX 970
7.6
Radeon R9 390
8.0
Radeon R9 290X
8.2

Benchmarks Real world tests of the GeForce GTX 970

Bitcoin mining Data courtesy CompuBench

GeForce GTX 970
485.85 mHash/s
Radeon R9 290X
624.45 mHash/s
Radeon R9 390
607.43 mHash/s

Face detection Data courtesy CompuBench

GeForce GTX 970
102.43 mPixels/s
Radeon R9 390
120.27 mPixels/s
Radeon R9 290X
105.88 mPixels/s

T-Rex (GFXBench 3.0) Data courtesy CompuBench

GeForce GTX 970
3,358.68
Radeon R9 390
n.d.
Radeon R9 290X
n.d.

Manhattan (GFXBench 3.0) Data courtesy CompuBench

GeForce GTX 970
3,714.62
Radeon R9 390
n.d.
Radeon R9 290X
n.d.

Fire Strike Factor Data courtesy FutureMark

GeForce GTX 970
72.7
Radeon R9 290X
73.87
Radeon R9 390
72.81

Sky Diver Factor Data courtesy FutureMark

GeForce GTX 970
428.4
Radeon R9 390
418.55
Radeon R9 290X
432.93

Unigine: Heaven 4.0

GeForce GTX 970
60
Radeon R9 390
n.d.
Radeon R9 290X
n.d.

Thief

GeForce GTX 970
75
Radeon R9 290X
64
Radeon R9 390
n.d.

Reviews Word on the street for the GeForce GTX 970

9.7
read review
Today, we're reviewing the EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SuperClocked ACX, a non-reference design, factory-overclocked GTX 970 graphics card, which comes with a custom-design PCB, and the company's signature ACX cooler, which features an aluminium stack heatsink that uses a trio of copper heat pipes, to draw heat directly from the GPU die, and dissipate it under the airflow of two 80 mm fans.

What People Are Saying Give it to me straight

Performance

In several modern AAA games that can make high-end single-GPU cards sweat at higher resolutions, the GTX 970 SLI offers upscaling in excess of 70 percent, in some scenarios even scraping 100 percent!
by techPowerUp!
NVIDIA did not provide a GTX 970 reference board, so we did our best to simulate its performance properly, for a baseline comparison.
by techPowerUp!
NVIDIA did not provide a GTX 970 reference board, so we did our best to simulate its performance properly for a baseline comparison.
by techPowerUp!

Applications

I find the EVGA's GTX 970 SC ACX quite noisy in both idle and load, other board partners are doing much better here, offering completely passive operation in idle, and a very quiet gaming experience.
by techPowerUp!
During full-load gaming, the card is almost inaudible, which is amazing!
by techPowerUp!
It is also a good investment if future-proofing 1080p or G-Sync gaming beyond 60 Hz is your intent.
by techPowerUp!

Gaming

Once a more demanding game is launched, the fans will spin up, but they will always be extremely quiet, barely audible.
by techPowerUp!
Together with the ASUS GTX 970 STRIX, the MSI GTX 970 Gaming is the best GTX 970 on the market; honestly, I couldn't decide which to pick.
by techPowerUp!
9.9The MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming is one of the best, if not the best GTX 970s I've tested so far, and I've tested most of them.
by techPowerUp!

Memory

Memory overclock almost breaches the magical 2 GHz barrier because of the well-clocking Samsung memory chips used.
by techPowerUp!
We did so using a custom-design card with NVIDIA's original reference BIOS, since it uses the proper voltages, memory frequency, GPU base and boost clock.
by techPowerUp!
The heatsink does not cool the memory chips with the baseplate, but uses the fans' airflow instead, an approach that works quite well.
by techPowerUp!

Power

Power consumption is similar to other GTX 970 cards; still outstanding, just like on all other Maxwell-based boards and almost twice as efficient as AMD's products.
by techPowerUp!
The card is fast, yet super power efficient at the same time.
by techPowerUp!
The card is fast yet incredibly power efficient at the same time.
by techPowerUp!

Specifications Full list of technical specs

gpu

GPU brand Nvidia
GPU name GM204
Market Desktop
Clock speed 1,050 MHz
Turbo clock speed 1,178 MHz
Is dual GPU No
Reference card None

raw performance

Shading units 1,664
Texture mapping units 104
Render output processors 56
Pixel rate 58.8 GPixel/s
Texture rate 109.2 GTexel/s
Floating-point performance 3,494 GFLOPS

memory

Memory clock speed 1,753 MHz
Effective memory clock speed 7,012 MHz
Memory bus 256 bit
Memory 4,096 MB
Memory type GDDR5
Memory bandwidth 224.4 GB/s

noise and power

TDP 148W
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Comments

Showing 12 comments.
shadowcrown (11:03 AM, September 7, 2016)
the only thing that they did wrong here is about one of the most common joke....they have written "memory-4096 MB" and not 3.5 GB LoL
Jardel Karybe (06:51 PM, August 18, 2016)
sem especificações de resolução? nice!
Frank Daniel Boguszewski (12:21 AM, June 21, 2016)
Guaranteed to be a calculated, jew reaction to another card being released. Perhaps new Nvidia, perhaps AMD. They will jack the prices up, if it makes them more money. LIke.... gas price gouging. I'm not sure what was going on 7 months ago, but let's say they released a new card with about %75 of the performance of the 970, for the same amount. Nvidia would say "well damn... they are selling something 3/4's as good for the same price... we can get more money!" that's likely it. BTW, I'm anti-crushing of free speech. Nothing against jews..... Nothing against homosexuals either, i'll still call AMD gpu's "gay", because they suck. I won't be calling your homosexual friend, gay.
Frank Daniel Boguszewski (12:19 AM, June 21, 2016)
That's excellent, man. I have the stupid 4g5t 970, it's 1102 core/ 1241 boost with no special memory. 7010 MHz I believe, which is what i'm seeing on most 970's. Bro, it works great, I have a full tower with 9 case fans dude, and a water cooler with maximum fans, and i'm going into the 60's on normal stuff...... I likely won't be able to check back here :( if you feel like chatting a bit, perhaps you can help me. I understand computers, at this point i'd buy a 1070 vs any other type of 970, but i'm amendable to whatever can make the thing work like I know it should with a 5820k and all these fans, playing 2014-2015 AAA games like Ass creed syndicate and the witcher 3.... it should beast those titles. It plays them, but.... CPU like 75 (68 is the max desired for 5820k) and gpu into the high 60's.
Frank Daniel Boguszewski (12:15 AM, June 21, 2016)
yes. When you take the slightly better ones, or less quality ones, and you look at pricing...... the 970 was so king. With the new release of the 1070, the 1070 is taking that spot. As of today, your best bet is the 1070. It's twice as good (almost,) and it cost like $30 more..... the 970 has died as of a few weeks ago.
Frank Daniel Boguszewski (12:14 AM, June 21, 2016)
agreed. I AGRESSIVELY game on my 860m..... It's supposed to be UNDER minimum for Shadows of mordor, I play that shit on OC for 10 hours.... it peaks at 75 degrees and stays there. perfect. CPU and GPU. I got a desktop and laptop from cyberpower PC, the laptop made in CHINA was PERFECT, the desktop assembled in the USA.... they seated my (at the time) $500 i7 5820k like morons, and ALL of the TIM (thermal interface material--- I'm sure we all know that, just... if you're casual) was spread ALL over the Motherboard and shit dudes. It took me over a dozen attempts at re-applying the paste to get it working with decent temps, because the copper block of the watercooler was damaged when they tried to SLEDGE it in, spreading the TIM all over things it should be on, and not even touching the processor, EXCEPT for the out parts of the package that it shouldn't be on.
Frank Daniel Boguszewski (12:11 AM, June 21, 2016)
yes.... that 1070, tho. I bought a 5820k/970 on 3-2015. I haven't been able to use until now due to horrible manufacturing (cyberpowerpc) they fucked the entire thing up, it took forever to fix. NOW, I can get double FPS for the same price. Had I waited until now, the ACTUAL TIME I can use the F***ing thing, I could have put a 1070 in it, and got so much more. the 1070 is the new 970. The 970 is a great card, though. It's unfortunate, it came out in 2014, I bought it early 2015, it's now mid 2016.... I can JUST NOW use it, and some games are already recommending 970 as minimum. How long until a gtx 970 isn't good enough for recommended? How long until it's not even good enough for minimum? I bet in 2017,many games will want a 1070 minimum. I like to play single player AAA games. LOTS of them. I have NO interest in all of the very, very, very popular Dota 2 , Lol, overwatch type games that will work great with a 970. doom 4 sucks, I play games that are generally reviewed 9/10 or better..... but doom 4 recommends a 970. I paid nearly 2 grand, and I'm just now able to use it (I feel cyberpower owes me....) and it's already fading. It's the nature of the beast.... but, as a guy old enough to remember buying a GeForce 4 when it was the mad notes, YES.... THE GTX 970 WILL LIKELY HOLD A PLACE IN HISTORY FOR BEING BAD ASS. IT WAS KING FOR OVER A YEAR.... THE 980 WAS OUT, THE TITAN WAS OUT, SURE... YOU HAD YOUR R9 290, R9 380.... BUT THE 970 WAS BETTER THAN MOST, ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE R9 380, CERTAINLY NOT AS GOOD AS THE 980 OR TITAN, BUT BEST FOR THE PRICE WITHOUT A DOUBT. I'M SURE WHEN "i15" PROCESSORS ARE OUT, WITH THE GTX 2070, I'LL STILL REMEMBER THE GOOD OLE' 970.
Anthony Pierson (08:15 PM, January 1, 2016)
I have the $310 970 overclocked to 1520 MHz and 2100 MHZ memory (8400 MHz effective). it's a golden overclocker, and with the ASUS STRIX cooler, I can run the fans at %50 all the time to keep the max temperature at 55C. Also, there was no need to overvolt as the card is very efficient with its use of energy.
Bámbeleki Bikefin (08:46 PM, November 26, 2015)
Anyone knows, why the prices are jacked up beyond their real price in November? Almost every price category features cards $40-50 even $100 more, than this (or tomshardware) suggest. How come, these cards cost more right now?
GamerTYS (04:29 AM, November 23, 2015)
It save budget if compare getting 690, 980, Titan X or Z
nw (10:36 AM, August 18, 2015)
THE BEST "BUDGET" GPU. hyperoc/sli could possibly beat 980. maybe lol btw hyperoc is what i do lol, oc a gpu till the drivers even crash. keep it like that. gpu gone in 4/5 months. gtx 760 burned out like that. GPU WHICH LASTED longest on hyperoc was GT 630M LOL the gtx series didn't last as long.
Yaseth (02:38 AM, July 15, 2015)
The best GPU ever.
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