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Review of the gtx 970 gigabyte card. Another review of the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming video card

GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 differ primarily in the number of active computing units on the GM204 chip. In the dies dedicated to the GTX 970 model, 3 of the 16 MMXs are disabled. Consequently, out of 2048 CUDA cores and 128 texture units, only 1664 and 104 remained in service, respectively. The differences in the GPU front-end configuration are quite significant. In addition, the GTX 970 has lowered clock speeds: from 1126/1216 to 1050/1178 (base frequency and Boost Clock, respectively).

Block diagram of GM204 as part of GeForce GTX 970

But the back-end of the processor was not affected. 64 ROPs and four 64-bit memory controllers are still active. The effective RAM frequency according to reference specifications is 7 GHz, the volume is 4 GB.

Model

GPU

Video memory

Input bus/
output

TDP, W

Codename

Number of transistors, million

Technical process, nm

Clock frequency, MHz:
High State/Boost State

Number of shader stream processors

Number of texture units

ROP number

Bus width, bits

Chip type

Clock frequency: real (effective), MHz

Volume, MB

PCI-Express 3.0 x16

GeForce GTX 970

PCI-Express 3.0 x16

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming: specifications, package contents, price

The launch of the GeForce GTX 970 is not accompanied by the release of a reference device - NVIDIA farmed out the design directly to video card manufacturers. So, instead of a reference, which does not exist, we will get acquainted with a new position in the line of NVIDIA consumer video adapters using the example of GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming (GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD) - a card of the original design.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming: packaging and contents

The GPU in the device operates at an increased frequency, chosen in a curious way. If in the reference specifications the GTX 970 Boost Clock is 1178 MHz, then for the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming this is the base frequency, and the Boost Clock is 1329 MHz. The manufacturer did not overclock the graphics memory, leaving it to operate at a frequency of 7012 MHz. The standard volume is 4 GB.

A special feature of the GIGABYTE board is a large set of video outputs: three DisplayPort connectors, two DVI and one HDMI. But you can only use four monitors at a time.

It was not possible to find this model in Russian online stores, but on the American website newegg.com it costs $369 - more than the recommended price, but still specifications it is higher than the reference ones.

⇡ GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming: design

The device includes a board of original design, the components of which are cooled by a large open-design cooler - WINDFORCE 3X. The radiator is served by three fans with unusual a large number blades - 11. The elegant casing of the cooling system minimally obstructs the passage of air.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming: the design of the cooling system masks its impressive dimensions

The back surface of the PCB is covered with a thin protective plate with numerous slots. A glowing WINDFORCE logo is mounted at the end of the video card. The heatsink extends far beyond the board area, so the device is quite long, despite the compact PCB. However, due to the fact that the thickness of the cooler fits completely into two slots, as well as the openwork design of the CO, the video card does not look bulky, but, on the contrary, light and elegant.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming: Bottom reinforcement plate significantly extends the card

The radiator consists of three parts connected by heat pipes. In the block belonging to the GPU, the tubes are flattened, located close to each other and form a base that removes heat from the chip. Another block is used to cool powerful transistors in the power system. The third is a branch of the GPU unit, suspended on the same heat pipes above the edge of the printed circuit board.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming: three-section cooling system

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming: PCB is much shorter than the cooling system

⇡ Pay

Thanks to the 256-bit memory bus, the board has a fairly simple layout. 4 GB of DRAM are equipped with Samsung K4G41325FC-HC28 chips with an effective frequency of 7 GHz.

The power supply system is built according to a 6+1+1 scheme (the number of phases for powering the GPU, memory chips and PLL, respectively). Six- and eight-pin additional power connectors are used.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming: memory is soldered on both the front and rear surfaces of the board

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming: 4 empty spaces for DRAM crystals are visible, that is, in theory, the memory capacity could be increased to 8 GB

⇡ Test stand, testing methodology

Test bench configuration
CPU	Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4.6 GHz (100x46)	Intel Core i7-3970X @ 4.6 GHz (100x46)
Motherboard	ASUS P9X79 Pro
RAM	DDR3 Kingston HyperX 4x2 GB @ 1600 MHz, CL9
ROM	Intel SSD 520 240 GB
power unit	Corsair AX1200i, 1200 W	Seasonic Platinum-1000, 1000 W
CPU cooling	Thermalright Archon
Frame	CoolerMaster Test Bench V1.0
operating system	Windows 7 Ultimate X64 Service Pack 1
Software for AMD GPUs	AMD Catalyst 13.4
NVIDIA GPU software	344.07

To measure system power, a stand with a Corsair AX1200i power supply is used. Energy-saving CPU technologies are disabled in all tests. The PCI-Express bus operates in 3.0 mode. To activate PCI-E 3.0 on GeForce 600 and 700 series video cards in a system based on the X79 chipset, a patch from NVIDIA is used.

In the NVIDIA driver settings, the CPU is always selected as the processor for PhysX calculations. For AMD cards The Tesselation setting is always transferred from the AMD Optimized state to Use application settings. In CrossFire configurations, the Frame Pacing option remains enabled.

Benchmarks: synthetic
Program	API	Settings		Permission
3DMark 2011	DirectX 11	Extreme profile
3DMark	DirectX 11	Fire Strike test (not Extreme)
TessMark	DirectX 11	Set 4 (2048x2048), tessellation x8/x16/x32/x64	AF Off	1920x1080
Unigine Heaven 4	DirectX 11	DirectX 11, max. quality, tessellation in Extreme mode	AF 16x, MSAA 4x	2560x1440 / 3840x2160

Benchmarks: games
Program	API	Settings	Anisotropic filtering, full screen anti-aliasing	Permission
Far Cry 3 + FRAPS	DirectX 11	DirectX 11, max. quality, HDAO. Start of the Secure the Outpost mission	AF, MSAA 4x	2560x1440 / 3840x2160
Tomb Raider. Built-in benchmark	DirectX 11	Max. quality	AF 16x, SSAA 4x	2560x1440 / 3840x2160
Bioshock Infinite. Built-in benchmark	DirectX 11	Max. quality. Postprocessing: Normal	AF 16x, FXAA	2560x1440 / 3840x2160
Crysis 3 + FRAPS	DirectX 11	Max. quality. Start of the Post Human mission	AF 16x, MSAA 4x	2560x1440 / 3840x2160
Metro: Last Light. Built-in benchmark	DirectX 11	Max. quality	AF 16x, SSAA 4x	2560x1440 / 3840x2160
Company of Heroes 2. Built-in benchmark	DirectX 11	Max. quality	AF,SSAA 4x	2560x1440 / 3840x2160
Batman: Arkham Origins. Built-in benchmark	DirectX 11	Max. quality	AF, MSAA 4x	2560x1440 / 3840x2160
Battlefield 4 + FRAPS	DirectX 11	Max. quality. Beginning of the Tashgar mission	AF 16x, MSAA 4x + FXAA	2560x1440 / 3840x2160
Thief. Built-in benchmark	DirectX 11	Max. quality	AF 16x, SSAA 4x + FXAA	2560x1440 / 3840x2160

⇡ Test participants

The following video cards took part in performance testing:

AMD Radeon R9 280 (918/5500 MHz, 2 GB)
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming (1050/7012 MHz, 4 GB)

⇡ Clock speeds, power consumption, temperature, overclocking

Although the GTX 970 has a lower base frequency compared to the GTX 980, it actually has a higher operating range GPU Boost. In games, the GPU reaches frequencies up to 1213 MHz (163 MHz above the base), and, therefore, in this regard, it is not far behind the GTX 980 (1253 MHz). The GTX 970 is slightly voltage limited at 1.212V, while the GTX 980 goes up to 1.225V.

As for the GIGABYTE video card, with standard settings the graphics processor operates at frequencies from 1178 MHz (Base Clock) to 1342 MHz (the maximum value observed under load).

The BIOS allows the power limit and GPU temperature to be increased to 112% and 91 °C, respectively. You can also raise the maximum voltage on the GPU to 1.256 V. At the same time, the frequency range increases by several steps. Our sample was overclocked to 1278 MHz base frequency, and in dynamics frequencies up to 1467 MHz were observed. The video memory increased its effective frequency by 1 GHz without any problems.

	Base Clock, MHz	Max. Boost Clock, MHz	Base Clock, MHz (overclocking)	Max. registered Boost Clock, MHz (overclocking)
GeForce GTX 980	1127	1253 (+126)	1387	1526 (+139)
GeForce GTX 970	1050	1213 (+163)	1278	1467 (+189)
GeForce GTX TITAN Black	889	1032 (+143)	1100	1262 (+162)
GeForce GTX TITAN	836	1006 (+145)	966	1150 (+184)
GeForce GTX 780 Ti	876	1020 (+144)	986	1130 (+144)
GeForce GTX 780	863	1006 (+143)	1053	1215 (+162)
GeForce GTX 770	1046	1176 (+130)	1190	1333 (+143)

At reference frequencies, the GeForce GTX 970 is practically no different in power from its flagship brother under load in games. The new product is also slightly more economical compared to the GeForce GTX 780, although the GTX 770 demonstrates less power. The GTX 970 also looks incomparably better compared to any AMD video card - from the R9 280X to the R9 290X.

Using FurMark, we were able to detect a slight difference between the GTX 970 and GTX 980, and the ratio of GTX 970 to GTX 770 shifted in favor of the new product. Top AMD video adapters are still much more power hungry, but the Radeon R9 280X paradoxically demonstrates more low power than in the gaming test.

The GIGABYTE board has overclocking power to spare. After increasing the frequencies, power consumption in both tests increased by about 30 W compared to the results of the card at the reference frequencies for the GTX 970.

The cooling system of the GIGABYTE card is so effective that the card took first place with the lowest GPU temperatures under load by a large advantage over the rest of the test participants. However, we cannot remain silent about the annoying drawback of the cooler: when idle, the fans constantly either accelerate to high speeds or die down. Apparently this annoying behavior is the result unsuccessful firmware our test sample. After all, this is one of the first samples of the board.

⇡ Performance: Synthetic Benchmarks

The gap between the flagship card, the GTX 980, and the GTX 970 is quite large.
However, the new product leaves behind both the GeForce GTX 780 and its main rival, the Radeon R9 290.

The GTX 970 is still far behind the GTX 980, but it's not all that different from the GeForce GTX 780 Ti.
AMD's top video adapters remained behind the GTX 970, although the R9 290X was defeated by a minimal advantage.

TessMark

Disabling three SMMs in GM204 coupled with a reduction clock frequencies The GPU impacted performance in predominantly geometric workloads. The GTX 970 is slightly slower compared to the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 780 Ti.
And yet, even in this form, the GTX 970 left behind all competing AMD video adapters along with the GeForce GTX 770.

Unigine Heaven 4

GTX 980 is again much faster than the second one according to the seniority of the video card.
The GTX 970 and Radeon R9 290 are almost equal in results.
The GTX 780 has a slight advantage over the GTX 970 at Ultra HD resolution, but the opposite is true in WQHD mode.

⇡ Performance: Gaming

Far Cry 3

The difference between the GTX 970 and GTX 980 is significant in WQHD mode, but not so noticeable in Ultra HD.
The GTX 970 is equal to AMD's flagship Radeon R9 290X at Ultra HD resolution and even slightly ahead of it at WQHD. The same applies to the GeForce GTX 780.

Tomb Raider

The gap between the GTX 970 and the GTX 980 is hard to miss at both resolutions.
The GTX 970 and GTX 780 are equivalent at Ultra HD resolution, but at WQHD the new product is significantly faster.
The GTX 970 also competes head to head with the R9 290X in Ultra HD and even scores slightly more FPS at lower resolutions.

Bioshock Infinite

The GTX 970 is again far from the GTX 980.
But you can record a confident victory of the new product over the GTX 780 and Radeon R9 290X.

Crysis 3

Due to the low frame rate, the difference between the GTX 980 and GTX 970 is not noticeable.
The new product is also practically no different in performance from the GTX 780 and Radeon R9 290X.

Metro: Last Light

As in the previous test, there is a difference between the GTX 970 and GTX 980, but from a practical point of view it is small.
The GTX 970 also beats the GTX 780 by a narrow margin and is hot on the heels of the Radeon R9 290X.

Company of Heroes 2

The GTX 980 is noticeably superior to the GTX 970 only at WHQD resolution; in Ultra HD mode the distance decreases.
The GTX 970 is also slightly faster compared to the GTX 780.
But two top AMD video cards have moved ahead, although the gap between the GTX 970 and R9 290 is minimal.

Batman: Arkham Origins

GeForce GTX 970 is significantly different from its older friend.
The GTX 780 has only a minimal advantage over the GTX 970, and only in WQHD mode.
The new product is almost as good as AMD's flagship.

Battlefield 4

There is a huge difference between the GTX 970 and GTX 980.
The GTX 970 isn't that much better than the GTX 780, but it's about the same amount behind the Radeon R9 290.

The advantage of NVIDIA's flagship over the GTX 970 is more pronounced at WQHD resolution. In 4K the difference is not as noticeable due to the low frame rate.

Sony Vegas Pro 13

The first places are held by AMD video adapters, including the Radeon R9 280X on a rather old Tahiti GPU.
The GTX 970, leaving the GTX 780 ahead by a minimal margin, ended up in second place from the bottom.

CompuBench CL: Ocean Surface Simulation

The GTX 970's success in this task is also poor. If even the GTX 980 cannot compete on equal terms with products based on GK110, then the GTX 970 is inferior even to the GeForce GTX 770.
The top tier of the Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X is completely out of reach for the GTX 970, with only the R9 280X offering comparable performance.

CompuBench CL: Particle Simulation

In the next test, the GM204 processor is in the lead. The GeForce GTX 970 is second only to its brother, leaving behind all GK110-based video adapters.
The AMD team ranked far down the chart.

conclusions

In its price niche, the GeForce GTX 970 is an even more impressive card than the GTX 980. The main merit of the latter is that it returned the price of NVIDIA's flagship gaming video adapter to the usual level - $549. The GTX 970, on the one hand, is very different from the flagship in terms of specifications and performance. On the other hand, the discount this time is unusually large for NVIDIA. If earlier for the second oldest video card you could expect a price in the region of $400, now you can get a top-end GPU of the Maxwell architecture, albeit in a fairly cut-up form, for only $329.

And the most remarkable thing in this situation is that - despite the loss of a good part of the GPU computing units and lower frequencies - the GeForce GTX 970 is generally not inferior in performance to the GeForce GTX 980 and, what is most offensive for AMD, not only successfully competes with the Radeon R9 290 , but is often not inferior to the Radeon R9 290X. At the same time, the power consumption of the GeForce GTX 970 is simply not comparable with the appetites of top-end AMD adapters.

A few words about the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming video card. The device has a very effective open-type cooling system. Factory overclocking does not give it a practical advantage over the GeForce GTX 970 operating at reference frequencies, but using the good potential for further overclocking, more impressive results can be achieved.

We have already published, but later another video card arrived in our test laboratory - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1.Gaming. It is aimed at high performance, so the video card is equipped with a powerful WindForce cooler capable of dissipating up to 450 W of heat. In our review, we'll see whether Gigabyte's new product can be called the fastest video card, how efficiently the cooling system works, and whether the GPU's efficiency has been lost due to excessive overclocking.

Gigabyte today offers three GeForce GTX 970 video cards. In addition to the standard GeForce GTX 970 WindForce 3X model, you can purchase, which Gigabyte aims at compact enclosures. We tested the GeForce GTX 970 G1.Gaming, which has the highest clock speeds.

NVIDIA partners have received a fairly decent frequency headroom for video cards based on Maxwell GPUs, which made it possible to present models with significant factory overclocking. Theoretically, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1.Gaming video card is one of the fastest models. In our article, we'll look at whether this is enough to provide performance leadership in practice.

Architecture information

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1.Gaming (GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD)
Retail price	about 20.3 thousand rubles in Russia from 360 euros in Europe
Products webpage	Official page Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1.Gaming
Technical information
GPU	Maxwell (GM204)
Technical process	28 nm
Number of transistors	5.2 billion
GPU clock speed (base)	1.178 MHz
GPU clock speed (Boost)	1.329 MHz
Memory frequency	1.750 MHz
Memory type	GDDR5
Memory	4.096 MB
Memory bus width	256 bit
Memory Bandwidth	224.4 GB/s
DirectX version	12
Stream processors	1.664
Texture blocks	104
Raster Operation Pipelines (ROPs)	64
Pixel fill rate	75.4 Gpixel/s
SLI/CrossFire	SLI

For the reference video card GeForce GTX 970, NVIDIA set the base frequency to 1.050 MHz. Gigabyte increased it to 1.178 MHz. Boost frequency was increased from 1.178 MHz to 1.329 MHz. That is, Gigabyte for the GeForce GTX 970 G1.Gaming set the base frequency at a level that corresponds to the minimum Boost level of the reference video card. We got an overclock of almost 13 percent. Gigabyte decided not to change the memory frequencies, which operate at the previous 1,750 MHz.

Typical for the GeForce GTX 970, we get a memory configuration of 4.096 MB, it is connected via a 256-bit bus and runs at 1.750 MHz. Like all other GeForce GTX 970 video cards, we get 1,664 stream processors, 104 texture units and 64 raster operation pipelines.

The GPU-Z screenshot confirms the technical specifications and also lets you know additional characteristics video cards.

The Boost frequency of 1.329 MHz is only Gigabyte's minimum limit; if temperature and power consumption allow, the frequency in practice will be even higher. As our tests have shown, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1.Gaming frequency in practice is 1.418 MHz, which is much higher than the minimum level. This is partly due to the very low temperature of the GPU, which reached no higher than 56 °C. At least in our test configuration, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1.Gaming video card was able to reveal its potential.

I spent a long time thinking about what to write in my first review about a video card based on a chip that has been on the market for a year and a half, and has been written about more than once or twice. About the model that is Steam's leader among discrete video cards. About the map which is on this moment is the standard of the middle segment of graphics accelerators. It took me a long time to get ready, and I finally got ready. Greetings gentlemen! GTX970. And, perhaps, its best embodiment is the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming!

This is not my first experience with GTX970 series cards, but all hands did not reach one of the top representatives of the famous Taiwanese brand. But now that I have the first representative of the G1 Gaming gaming line in my hands, I suggest you take a closer look at it.

Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming greets us with a box in the classic Gigabyte style, black. On the front side we see a description of the techniques used and supported technologies. On the back side we are told about the advantages of the Windforce3X cooling system, the use of Flex display technology for displaying images on multiple monitors, two BIOS (GIGABYTE DualBIOS), the use of an ultra-reliable elementary base (Ultra Durable VGA), and, attention (!!!), manual selection of chips in quality for the G1 Gaming line. Those. This seems to promise us high-quality crystals inside and decent overclocking potential at the output... Well, we'll see!
Inside, again, there is a classic black box with a video card, under which there is a compartment with an additional kit. Which, it should be noted, is very modest for a top-end (at the time of release) card in the line. Two adapters for 6pin and 8pin, a disk with drivers and a manual. Why this kit did not include at least a DVI↔D-Sub adapter and a sticker is personally unclear to me. You expect something more interesting from a top gaming line from a top company!
Let's open!

Visually the map looks very nice! Windforce3X has updated the casing since the GTX 7XX series and has become so brutal, and the back plate gives off a premium product. The set of outputs is also classic for modern video adapters: 1 x DVI-I, 1 x DVI-D, 1 x HDMI, 3 x DisplayPort. Upon further examination, the following feature, length, attracts attention. The map is very long! Sooo! Occupying two slots in height, the length is stated to be within 312 mm! For comparison, the dual-chip(!) HD7990 and GTX690 were a maximum of 315mm in their longest versions. On the one hand, such a length of the card makes us think about the possibility of placing it inside its case, but on the other hand, it seems to indicate that the cooling of our chip will be up to par!

Separately, I would like to say about the so-called backplate, or back plate. This design element in its current design has the same brutal style as the cooling system casing. Moreover, in addition to the visual pleasure of contemplating such beauty in your system unit, this device has only one practical meaning: it prevents the card from bending in the PCI-e slot under the weight of the cooling system. There can be no talk of any cooling of the power and memory system elements, since there is a decent gap between the backplate and the graphics card’s printed circuit board.

The fans also underwent changes with the release of the 9th series. Now the fan design has been improved to reduce air flow turbulence, which should lead to improved cooling of the video card. I am always very cautious about such statements from manufacturers, preferring to check all this in practice.

Before starting gaming testing (we will not have benchmarks, due to their complete uselessness for ordinary users, and they have already been tested more than a dozen times), I would like to draw attention to the place of this video card in the GTX970 family from Gygabyte.

As you can see from the table, before the release of the Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming line, our card was the top one in the gtx970 series from Gigabyte, now in terms of GPU frequency at nominal/boost it is ahead of the Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming GTX 970. But everyone understands that +13 MHz on the core is purely digital superiority which will in no way affect the fact that these cards will be equal in games. And the actual difference between the Xtreme Gaming line is the increased number of heat pipes, reduced length and RGB lighting of the fans, which is certainly not small, but, as they say, does not affect the speed!

Now let's move on to gaming tests. And today we have a lot of them! The test is quite simple. A half-hour run with measurements of the minimum, maximum and average FPS and the maximum temperature of the video card. We will also check how one of the latest processors from Intel i5 6600 will work in tandem with the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming. Measurements will be made using the program MSI Afterburner.

Computer configuration:

I5 6600 + Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.C + 2X Noctua NF-P12
MSI B150 Night Elf
Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming
G.Skill 16 GB 2133MHz
Sea Sonic 460W Fanless Platinum
Crucial MX200 240GB
HGST 500Gb
Fractal Design Core 1500 + Lamptron FC2

As we can see, despite its size, the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming fits perfectly into a compact system and feels great in it!
GAMES:
Among the games we have today:

Battlefield 4,
World Of Tanks,
Witcher 3
Fallout 4,
Assassins creed: Syndicate,
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

All games were tested in 1920x1080 resolution.

Battlefield 4

It would seem that more than one year has passed since the release of Battlefield 4, but it still loads the video card 100%! But on maximum settings FPS is the most playable. Minimum 60, Maximum about 120. Average about 80.

World Of Tanks

One of the most popular online games is famous for its demands on processors, but with an HD client, the requirements for the video card are set to the highest. But, strange as it may seem, at maximum graphics settings neither the processor nor the video card was fully loaded throughout the entire session, which means that the power of our system is more than enough for this game. Naturally, on different maps, due to the different number of objects to be drawn, we received different fps indicators. Minimum fps - 60, average - 90, maximum - 110.

Witcher 3

The Witcher is one of the best, if not Best game, 2015, was notable not only for its high-quality gameplay and exciting plot, but also for its demands on the components of the gaming system. At maximum graphics settings with high Nvidia settings Hairworks we get at least 45 fps in the hardest places for the video card. The average fps is 60, the maximum fps can be seen in confined spaces and a cave, where it exceeds 90.

Fallout 4

One of the latest big innovations in the gaming industry was also easily conquered by the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming. Also, at maximum settings, the card only gets full load in large open spaces. And even in such conditions, we have at least 55 fps at our disposal. Average fps – 75, maximum – 95.

Assassins creed: Syndicate

But the latest series of assassin adventures forced our card to capitulate at maximum settings with msaa x8 anti-aliasing. If fps did not drop below 40 indoors, then when I went outside, I saw sad numbers in the fps column, the minimum of which was 9. I had to return to those recommended by the msaa x2 system. In such conditions, fps did not fall below 45, on average it was 60, and did not rise above this mark.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

The last part of the famous franchise could be safely skipped, since at maximum settings the video card is at permanent basis produces a maximum of 60 fps. If it were not for one fact: the video memory load does not fall below 4000MB. Knowing the old scandalous problem of the gtx970 with 0.5 GB of slow memory, we had the right to expect any performance drops, but there are none. A 4GB card paired with 16GB of RAM handles the game with a bang. What will happen if the card has 2 GB of memory is anyone's guess.

P.S. As a bonus, we can mention the now popular game Armored Warfare, which, at maximum settings, conquered our card with the same constant, artificially limited system of 60 FPS.
Overclocking + cooling system:
Not the most necessary for regular user, but nevertheless, a very interesting function - overclocking!
We all remember the promise of manual selection of chips for this line, and a high ASIC of 72.% shows us that, most likely, some kind of selection is really underway. Previously, having 2 pieces of GTX970 from other ASIC vendors, I have not seen higher than 63%. As we can see from the picture, the tall ASIC promises us good overclocking with air cooling.

Having made several (about 10) unsuccessful runs in FurMark, the memory core frequency indicators froze at the following figures:

I would like to immediately note that raising the voltage on the core did not help me in this case. The card did not want to pass the benchmark above 1489 on boost.
Of course, 1489 is a very good result, previous cards started at a maximum of 1435, but I really wanted to overcome the 1500 mark.

At the same time, the card warmed up to a maximum of 68 degrees, the fans worked in normal mode, and their speed did not rise above 60%, which, despite the small size of the case, did not affect the background noise in any way, and the computer continued to remain almost silent. In games, the temperature did not exceed 65 degrees and the sound background also remained comfortable.
In games, this 15% overclock led to an approximately equal increase in frame rate; in The Witcher it was about +10%, from 45 to 49 under the same conditions. Very good in my opinion.

Conclusion:

And the conclusion is simple. With the GTX970 G1 Gaming, Gigabyte has launched one of the best and most balanced video cards for gaming in FullHD resolution at maximum graphics settings. Highest level factory overclocking, efficient and quiet cooling system, high manual overclocking, excellent gaming performance, all with it.
One of the things that may not suit the end user about this card is the length. Of course, 312 mm is a lot for modern video cards, especially in non-top series, but the cooling system justifies every centimeter of length with its quiet and efficient operation. In our example, you could also see that cards of this length can be placed in compact gaming systems.
Also in our review, we could see that the fresh, but not top-end Intel Skylake i5 6600 processor was more than enough to fully load our card where it was needed.
In total, even despite the release of Gigabyte’s new gaming line XtremeGaming and new card GTX970 series in it, the Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming also remains in the top segment of this series, and the absence of fan lighting, which is not necessary for everyone, and the absence of additional heat pipes make its retail price more attractive in relation to the new product.

Preface

Not having had time to fully taste all the delights of the flagship Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4 GB, we had to very quickly start testing the junior model of the original Gigabyte video card on the NVIDIA GM204 GPU – Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4 GB.

It’s not difficult to notice that the names of these video cards differ by only one digit, as well as the model markings: “GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD” versus “GV-N980G1 GAMING-4GD”. How many different differences between these video cards are hidden in just one number, and, most importantly, how big is the difference in performance?

1. Review of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4 GB video card (GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD)

technical specifications and recommended cost

The technical characteristics of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming video card are shown in the table in comparison with the older Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming and the reference versions of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 with AMD Radeon R9 290X.

* – according to Yandex Market data as of October 10, 2014.

packaging and equipment

The box of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming is exactly the same as the older video card, with the model and series indicated on the front side with a list of supported technologies.

The reverse side of the box is practically no different; some changes can only be found in the description of the design of the cooling system. The main characteristics of the video card are shown on one of the ends of the box in nine languages, including Russian.

Since the design is identical, try not to confuse these models when purchasing, you never know what the manager will tell you. In terms of packaging reliability, there is also no difference, because inside there is an additional box made of thick cardboard with a polyethylene foam backing inserted into it, in the center of which the video card is fixed.

The package is also extremely ascetic, including only two cables for connecting additional power.

But it is unlikely that serial video cards will be equipped as poorly as press samples.

The video card is produced in China and comes with a three-year warranty. Unlike the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming, the heroine of today's testing can already be purchased at Russian stores at a price of 18.8 thousand rubles, and abroad it is sold for 370 US dollars.

PCB design and features

If we compare the two original Gigabyte video cards visually, there are very few differences. Like the older Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming, the entire front side is covered with a cooling system, and a protective plate with shaped perforations is attached to the back. Even the dimensions of the video cards are identical to each other and amount to 298x106x40 mm.

However, there are still differences. First of all, this is the weight, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming is almost twice as light as the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming, although it would seem that this video card also claims a WINDFORCE 3X cooling system, although without “600W”. In addition, the connectors for additional power are different - the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming has six and eight-pin connectors, instead of two eight-pin ones. Accordingly, the power requirements here are more modest: a maximum of 145 watts for the video card and 550 watts for the system as a whole.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming also supports proprietary Flex Display technology, when the standard DVI-I, HDMI 2.0 and three DisplayPort 1.2 outputs are accompanied by another DVI-D (Dual Link) output, which expands the possibilities for owners of this video card in connection options monitors.

At the same time, the number of monitors simultaneously connected to the video card is still limited to four.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming uses an original printed circuit board with double-sided video memory chips.

For food GPU six phases of DrMOS power transistors are involved.

Like the older video card, the printed circuit board is built using Gigabyte's proprietary Ultra Durable VGA concept.

It accumulates double the thickness of copper layers of the printed circuit board, Japanese solid-state capacitors with an increased service life, chokes with ferrite cores and field-effect transistors with reduced resistance of the RDS(on) channel when switching states.

The four-channel NCP 81174 controller manufactured by ON Semiconductor and the three-channel INA3221 controller manufactured by Texas Instruments are responsible for managing the power of the video card.

The GM204 GPU crystal of our copy of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming video card belongs to revision A1 and was released in Taiwan in the 30th week of this year (mid-July).

It is equipped with 1664 shader processors versus 2048 on the GeForce GTX 980, 104 texture units versus 128, and 64 raster operation units (ROPs), the same as on the GTX 980. Fortunately, there is also a special program for selecting Gigabyte GPU graphics processor crystals. Gauntlet, which allowed engineers to raise the base GPU frequency in 3D mode from the nominal 1050 MHz for the reference GeForce GTX 970 to 1178 MHz, and in boost mode it can automatically increase to 1329 MHz. By the way, the last value is identical to the boost frequency of the GPU of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming video card, the more interesting the comparison in this pair will be. Note that the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming video card we previously tested had a GPU frequency of 1140-1279 MHz, so Gigabyte outperformed its competitor in this regard.

When switching to 2D mode, the GPU frequency drops to 100 MHz, and the quality of the ASIC graphics processor of our video card instance turned out to be 60.1%.

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming is equipped with four gigabytes of GDDR5 video memory, located in eight chips manufactured by Samsung Semiconductor on the front and back sides of the printed circuit board. The chip marking is K4G41325FC-HC28, that is, exactly the same as the memory of the older video card.

There is no factory overclocking here either, so the effective memory operating frequency is 7012 MHz, and the 256-bit memory bus can provide a bandwidth of up to 224.4 GB/s at this frequency. In 2D mode, the memory frequency is reduced to 648 MHz.

At the end of the review of the design and PCB, the GPU-Z utility will tell us about the specifications of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming.

And we move on to get acquainted with the cooling system.

cooling systems - efficiency and noise level

Unlike the flagship video card equipped with a WINDFORCE 3X 600W cooler, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming is equipped with a WINDFORCE 3X cooling system.

The cooling system consists of a three-section aluminum radiator with patented “Triangle Cool” technology on four six-millimeter heat pipes, an aluminum radiator for VRM elements, three fans in a metal frame, and a protective plate on the back of the board.

The heat pipes pass through the central aluminum heatsink and penetrate two sections of different sizes.

Each section is penetrated by four heat pipes, but the larger section is in contact with the VRM circuit elements through an additional aluminum plate and a thick thermal pad.

The description of the cooling system does not say whether composite tubes are used here or not, but they are also soldered to the radiator plates, like the older WINDFORCE 3X 600W system.

The base of the cooler is made using direct contact technology (GIGABYTE Direct Heat Pipe Touch), and the heat pipes are not only closely connected to each other without gaps, but also the total contact area is ideal for the GM204 crystal.

To cool the radiator, three 77 mm fans manufactured by Power Logic (model PLD08010S12H) are used, mounted in a metal frame.

The original impeller blades with notches on the outer surface and an additional “fin” on the front end are designed to increase the volume of air flow and reduce the noise level.

Fan rotation speed is adjusted via PWM modulation in the range from 1500 to 3200 rpm. The service life of the improved plain bearing is not specified in the specifications. Like the older model, the cooling system of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming is equipped with blue lighting on the upper edge of the fan casing.

To check the temperature conditions of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming video card, we used five test cycles of the very resource-intensive game Aliens vs. Predator (2010) with maximum graphics quality in a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels with 16x anisotropic filtering and 4x MSAA anti-aliasing.

To monitor temperatures and all other parameters, MSI Afterburner version 4.0.0 and GPU-Z utility version 0.7.9 were used. All tests were carried out in a closed enclosure system unit, the configuration of which you can see in the next section of the article, at an average room temperature of 20 degrees Celsius.

First of all, let's look at the performance of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming cooling system when automatically adjusting the fan speed.

Auto mode

Despite a noticeable simplification compared to the WINDFORCE 3X 600W, Gigabyte WINDFORCE 3X is quite efficient on this video card, because the GPU temperature did not exceed 61 degrees Celsius, and the fan speed increased only to 1940 rpm or 61% of power. We especially note that the GPU frequency was constantly kept at 1342 MHz, and this is slightly higher than the boost frequency stated in the characteristics of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming.

Unfortunately, on this video card model you cannot use software to reduce the fan speed below 1500 rpm; you will have to wait for a new BIOS or edit it yourself. But still, we conducted an additional temperature test at this minimum possible fan speed, fixing them at approximately 1500 rpm.

3x1500 rpm

The maximum GPU temperature increased by only 4 degrees Celsius, ultimately reaching 65 degrees Celsius, which is also an excellent indicator for the new 1342 MHz GPU.

At maximum speed of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming cooling fans, the peak GPU temperature reached 56 degrees Celsius, which is only 5 degrees Celsius better than with automatic adjustment.

Maximum speed

It turns out that the efficiency of this cooler is not very dependent on the fan speed, and in order to minimize the noise level it is enough to simply set the fan speed to a minimum, because even in this mode the cooling efficiency will remain quite high.

The noise level of video card cooling systems was measured using an electronic sound level meter CENTER-321 after one in the morning in a completely closed room of about 20 m² with double-glazed windows. The noise level was measured outside the system case, when the only source of noise in the room was the cooling system and its fans. The sound level meter, fixed on a tripod, was always located strictly at one point at a distance of exactly 150 mm from the fan rotor/cooler turbine. The motherboard, into which a video card was inserted with a cooling system installed on it, was placed at the very corner of the table on a polyurethane foam backing. The lower measurement limit of the sound level meter is 29.8 dBA, and the subjectively comfortable (not to be confused with low) noise level when measured from such a distance is around 36 dBA. The fan rotation speed was varied over the entire range of their operation using a special precision controller by changing the supply voltage in 0.5 V steps.

We will evaluate the noise level of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming video card with the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming, the reference NVIDIA video cards GeForce GTX TITAN Black and AMD Radeon R9 290X, as well as the original MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti Gaming video card with Twin Frozr IV Advanced cooler. Let us add that vertical dotted lines of the corresponding color mark the upper limits of the speed of cooling systems during their automatic PWM adjustment.

Despite the external similarity of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming and Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming coolers, they make different noise. In general, the noise level of the younger Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming is slightly lower with automatic speed adjustment, but the sound of the WINDFORCE 3X cooler increases more unevenly as the fan speed increases than on the WINDFORCE 3X 600W. Most likely, this is caused not only by different fan markings (in terms of power), but also by the design of the radiator itself. On the WINDFORCE 3X it is lighter and has greater spacing between fins and sections, so theoretically the noise level could be higher. However, overall, it was the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming that became the quietest video card when automatically adjusting fan speed. The only pity is that the lower limit of this very speed turned out to be so high (1500 rpm). Adjustment Video card BIOS in this regard, it is simply necessary.

overclocking potential

The overclocking potential of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming video card turned out to be somewhat more modest than that of a similar MSI model. We managed to raise the GPU frequency from the base 1178 MHz by only 135 MHz or 11.4%, and we increased the effective memory frequency by 1200 MHz or 17.1%.

Thus, without loss of stability and the appearance of image defects, the final frequencies of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming were 1313-1464/8212 MHz.

After overclocking the video card, according to monitoring data, the frequency of the graphics processor reached 1477 MHz, and its maximum temperature was 65 degrees Celsius.

Auto mode

Fan rotation speed in automatic mode their work also increased slightly and amounted to 2060 rpm. Let us add that even at the minimum possible 1500 rpm, the WINDFORCE 3X cooling system coped with cooling the overclocked video card, not allowing the GPU temperature to rise above 69 degrees Celsius.

2. Test configuration, tools and testing methodology

Video card performance testing was carried out in a closed system unit case on a system with the following configuration:

Motherboard: Intel Siler DX79SR (Intel X79 Express, LGA 2011, BIOS 0594 dated 08/06/2013);
CPU: Intel Core i7-3970X Extreme Edition 3.5/4.0 GHz(Sandy Bridge-E, C2, 1.1 V, 6x256 KB L2, 15 MB L3);
CPU cooling system: Phanteks PH-TC14PE (2xCorsair AF140, 900 rpm);
Thermal interface: ARCTIC MX-4;
Video cards:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4 GB 1228-1329/7012 MHz;
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4 GB 1127-1216/7012 MHz;
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4 GB 1178-1329/7012 MHz;
MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4 GB 1140-1279/7012 MHz;
AMD Radeon R9 290X 4 GB 1000/5000 MHz;

RAM: DDR3 4x8 GB G.SKILL TridentX F3-2133C9Q-32GTX(XMP 2133 MHz, 9-11-11-31, 1.6 V);
System disk: Intel SSD 730 480GB (SATA-III, BIOS vL2010400);
Disk for programs and games: Western Digital VelociRaptor (SATA-II, 300 GB, 10000 rpm, 16 MB, NCQ) in a Scythe Quiet Drive 3.5" box;
Archive disk: Samsung Ecogreen F4 HD204UI (SATA-II, 2 TB, 5400 rpm, 32 MB, NCQ);
Sound card: Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD;
Case: Antec Twelve Hundred (front wall - three Noiseblocker NB-BlackSilentPRO PL-1 at 1020 rpm; top – standard 200 mm fan at 400 rpm);
Control and monitoring panel: Zalman ZM-MFC3;
Power supply: Corsair AX1200i (1200 W), 120 mm fan;
Monitor: Samsung S27A850D (DVI-I, 2560x1440, 60 Hz).

Today will be our fourth test of a video card on the new NVIDIA GM204 processor, so in order not to repeat the same results and to make the article more interesting, we have included two new video cards among the participants. But, according to tradition, starting with more expensive products, first let’s talk about participating in testing such video cards as the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 at their nominal frequencies.

The MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming will compete directly with the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming, since we do not have a reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970.

And to the reference AMD Radeon R9 290X was added the same reference AMD Radeon R9 290 at nominal frequencies and without manually adjusting the fan speed.

Let us add that the “Power Limit” value on all video cards was set to maximum.

As usual, to reduce the dependence of video card performance on the platform speed, the 32 nm six-core processor with a multiplier of 48, a reference frequency of 100 MHz and the Load-Line Calibration function activated was overclocked to 4.8 GHz with an increase in voltage in the BIOS motherboard up to 1.380 V.

Hyper-Threading technology is activated. At the same time, 32 GB of RAM operated at a frequency of 2.133 GHz with timings 9-11-11-20_CR1 at a voltage of 1.6125 V.

Testing of video cards, which took place from September 20 to October 8, 2014, was carried out under the Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 operating system with all critical updates as of the specified date and with the installation of the following drivers:

motherboard chipset Intel Chipset Drivers – 10.0.22 WHQL from 08/05/2014;
DirectX End-User Runtimes libraries, release date: November 30, 2010;
video card drivers for graphics NVIDIA processors– GeForce 344.11 WHQL from 09/18/2014 and 344.16 for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980.
Video card drivers for AMD GPUs – AMD Catalyst 14.9.1 Beta (14.301.1004.0) from 06.10.2014.

The performance of video cards was tested in two resolutions: 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 pixels. For the tests, two graphics quality modes were used: “Quality + AF16x” – texture quality in the drivers by default with 16x level anisotropic filtering enabled, and “Quality + AF16x + MSAA 4x (8x)” with 16x level anisotropic filtering and full-screen anti-aliasing enabled 4x or 8x, in cases where the average number of frames per second remained high enough for comfortable gameplay. In some games, due to the specifics of game engines, other anti-aliasing algorithms were used, which will be indicated further in the methodology and in the diagrams. Anisotropic filtering and full-screen anti-aliasing were enabled directly in the game settings. If these settings were not available in games, then the parameters were changed in the control panel of the Catalyst or GeForce drivers. Vertical synchronization (V-Sync) was also forcibly disabled there. Apart from the above, no additional changes were made to the driver settings.

The video cards were tested in two graphics tests and fourteen games, updated to latest versions on the date of commencement of preparation of the material. Here's what the list of test applications looks like (the games are listed in order of their official release):

3DMark (2013)(DirectX 9/11) – version 1.3.708, tested in the “Cloud Gate”, “Fire Strike” and “Fire Strike Extreme” scenes;
Unigine Valley Bench(DirectX 11) – version 1.0, maximum quality settings, AF16x and/or MSAA 4x, resolution 1920x1080;
(DirectX 11) – version 1.1.0, built-in test (Battle of Sekigahara) at maximum graphics quality settings and used in one of the MSAA 8x modes;
Sniper Elite V2 Benchmark(DirectX 11) – version 1.05, used Adrenaline Sniper Elite V2 Benchmark Tool v1.0.0.2 BETA maximum graphics quality settings (“Ultra”), Advanced Shadows: HIGH, Ambient Occlusion: ON, Stereo 3D: OFF, Supersampling: OFF, double sequential test run;
Sleeping Dogs(DirectX 11) – version 1.5, used Adrenaline Action Benchmark Tool v1.0.2.1, maximum graphics quality settings for all points, Hi-Res Textures pack installed, FPS Limiter and V-Sync disabled, double sequential test run with total anti-aliasing at the “Normal” level and at the “Extreme” level;
Hitman: Absolution(DirectX 11) – version 1.0.447.0, built-in test with graphics quality settings at “Ultra”, tessellation, FXAA and global illumination enabled.
Crysis 3(DirectX 11) – version 1.2.0.1000, all graphics quality settings to maximum, blur level – medium, glare on, modes with FXAA and MSAA4x anti-aliasing, double sequential pass of a scripted scene from the beginning of the “Swamp” mission lasting 110 seconds;
Tomb Raider (2013)(DirectX 11) – version 1.1.748.0, used Adrenaline Action Benchmark Tool, quality settings at “Ultra” level, V-Sync disabled, modes with FXAA and 2xSSAA anti-aliasing, TressFX technology activated, double sequential pass of the test built into the game;
BioShock Infinite(DirectX 11) – version 1.1.25.5165, used Adrenaline Action Benchmark Tool with quality settings “Ultra” and “Ultra+DOF”, double run of the test built into the game;
Metro: Last Light(DirectX 11) – version 1.0.0.15, used the built-in test, graphics quality and tessellation settings at the “Very High” level, Advanced PhysX technology enabled, tests with and without SSAA anti-aliasing, double sequential pass of the “D6” scene.
Company of Heroes 2(DirectX 11) – version 3.0.0.15370, double sequential run of the test built into the game with maximum graphics quality and physical effects settings;
Total War: Rome II(DirectX 11) – version 2.0.0.0, quality settings at “Extreme” level, V-Sync disabled, SSAA anti-aliasing activated, double sequential pass of the test built into the game;
Batman: Arkham Origins(DirectX 11) – version 1.0 (update 8), quality settings at “Ultra” level, V-Sync disabled, all effects activated, all “DX11 Enhanced” functions enabled, Hardware Accelerated PhysX = Normal, double sequential pass of the test built into the game ;
Battlefield 4(DirectX 11) – version 111433, all graphics quality settings are set to “Ultra”, double sequential playthrough of a scripted scene from the beginning of the mission “TASHGAR” lasting 110 seconds (for video cards on AMD GPUs, the Mantle API was used);
Thief(DirectX 11) – version 1.6 build 4158.14, graphics quality settings to the maximum level, “Paralax Occlusion Mapping” and “Tessellation” technologies activated, double sequential pass of the benchmark built into the game (for video cards on AMD GPUs, the Mantle API was used);
GRID Autosport(DirectX 11) – version 1.101.7026, used the built-in game test on the San Francisco highway (ten cars), graphics quality settings to the maximum level for all points, tests with and without MSAA8x anti-aliasing.

If games implemented the ability to record a minimum number of frames per second, then this was also reflected in the diagrams. Each test was carried out twice; the best of the two values obtained was taken as the final result, but only if the difference between them did not exceed 1%. If the deviations of the test runs exceeded 1%, then the testing was repeated at least once more to obtain a reliable result.

3. Performance test results

In the diagrams, the results of all video cards on NVIDIA GPUs, with the exception of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming, are reflected in a light green gamma, and on AMD GPUs - in red. To highlight the results of the heroine of today’s article, we marked them in dark turquoise. The results of testing video cards in each quality mode are sorted from top to bottom in descending order of their cost.

According to established tradition, we will begin the study and analysis of the results with semi-synthetic benchmarks.

3DMark (2013)

The results of the first semi-synthetic test look quite natural. Thanks to a slightly higher GPU clock, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming is several points faster than the MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming. The lag behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 ranges from 4 to 13%, depending on the test scene and its quality settings. As we have already seen from tests of the original MSI video card, it is not difficult to compensate for this difference by overclocking the GeForce GTX 970. Let's add that both video cards on AMD GPUs, although they take last places in 3DMark (2013), lose quite a bit.

Unigine Valley Bench

In the semi-synthetic Unigine Valley benchmark, the difference between the video cards is more noticeable.

First of all, this concerns the mode without using anti-aliasing, but does not apply to the two original GeForce GTX 970, which still go together as a “collapsed” pair, inferior to the reference GeForce GTX 980 from 14 to 16%. Both AMD Radeon R9s are noticeably slower than all video cards based on NVIDIA GPUs in modes without anti-aliasing and are worthy competitors when it is activated.

Total War: SHOGUN 2 – Fall of the Samurai

In Total War: SHOGUN 2 – Fall of the Samurai, we note the minimal difference between the two original GeForce GTX 970 video cards, as well as a very slight lag between the AMD Radeon R9 290 and the older Radeon R9 290X. The new Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming lags behind the reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 by 9-12%, and its sister Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming already loses 12-17%, which, however, is significantly less than the difference in the cost of these video cards.

Sniper Elite V2 Benchmark

We can observe the same picture in the Sniper Elite V2 test.

True, here the gap between AMD and NVIDIA video cards is more noticeable than in Total War: SHOGUN 2 – Fall of the Samurai.

Sleeping Dogs

The balance of power in the game Sleeping Dogs does not change either.

Hitman: Absolution

A distinctive feature of the Hitman: Absolution test was the worthy competition from video cards on AMD GPUs, the difference between which is negligible. In the NVIDIA “camp” everything is the same.

Crysis 3

AMD video cards also look good in the Crysis 3 game test.

In turn, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming is slightly faster than the MSI video card of the same model, 11-13% slower than the reference version NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and 15-19% behind the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming.

Tomb Raider (2013)

We can observe the same balance of power in the game Tomb Raider, with the only difference being that the performance differs more significantly between video cards on AMD GPUs.

BioShock Infinite

There are no major changes in BioShock Infinite.

Due to the slightly higher core frequency, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming outperforms the original MSI video card by 1 frame per second in each quality mode. The gap from older models remains the same as in previous games.

Metro: Last Light

With Advanced PhysX technology activated, video cards based on AMD GPUs have nothing to compete with NVIDIA products, the balance of power between them does not change.

But without the use of additional physical effects, the reference AMD Radeon R9 290X is quite ready to compete with the original GeForce GTX 970.

We note the minimal difference between the Gigabyte and MSI video cards, as well as the 8-9% lag between the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and 13-14% behind the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming.

Company of Heroes 2

There are no major changes to the balance of power in Company of Heroes 2.

Total War: Rome II

Total War: Rome II also lacked originality.

Batman: Arkham Origins

Batman: Arkham Origins traditionally stands out for the difference in results between modes without anti-aliasing and when it is activated.

As for the performance of the testing heroine - the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming video card - no special features were noticed here in comparison with previous results.

Battlefield 4

So Battlefield 4 demonstrates the classic balance of power between the tested video cards.

Thief

Mantle support doesn't help AMD GPU cards win Thief.

But, if we take into account the most resource-intensive mode, then the advantage of the same original GeForce GTX 970 is quite small.

GRID Autosport

Mantle technology is not supported in GRID Autosport, however, we can see a balance of power that is largely similar to Thief.

Let's supplement the constructed diagrams with a final table with test results with the final average and minimum FPS value for each video card.

Next we move on to summary charts.

4. Pivot charts

First of all, let's compare the performance of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming with the reference NVIDIA version GeForce GTX 980.

There is a fairly uniform and slight lag behind the original Gigabyte video card in all tests, with the exception of one mode, Company of Heroes 2. On average, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming is slower by 7-10% at a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and by 10-12% at a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels.

Since the older Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming is even faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming lags behind it further.

We got from 12 to 15% at 1920x1080 and 15-16% at 2560x1440 pixels. However, taking into account the difference in the cost of these video cards, which is about 45-50% in favor of the older model, it is the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming that looks like a better buy, especially since the difference of 12-16% can be almost completely minimized by a good overclocking the video card.

At the time of writing this article, prices for video cards were such that for the same price you can purchase both the original GeForce GTX 970 and the original Radeon R9 290X. So in the next couple of summary diagrams we will pit two such models against each other (the R9 290X in the reference version, unfortunately).

Overall, the victory goes to the new Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming, but there are some tests and modes where the AMD Radeon R9 290X manages to win a little or maintain parity. Also, don't forget about the recent reduction in recommended prices for AMD's two older graphics cards, with the Radeon R9 290X set to cost just $399.

Finally, let's compare the performance of the reference AMD Radeon R9 290X and Radeon R9 290 - the advantage of the older video card seemed very small to us during the tests. Indeed it is.

The maximum difference between these video cards reaches 12.8%, and on average for all tests it was only 5.6-6% in favor of the Radeon R9 290X. Considering that, according to AMD's plans, the Radeon R9 290 should now cost from $300, this particular model in its original design may become a real bestseller on the market for some time.

5. Power consumption

The energy consumption of the system with various video cards was measured using the Zalman ZM-MFC3 multifunctional panel, which shows the system consumption “from the outlet” as a whole (excluding the monitor). The measurement was carried out in 2D mode, during normal operation in Microsoft Word or “Internet surfing”, as well as in 3D mode. In the latter case, the load was created using four consecutive cycles of the introductory scene of the “Swamp” level from the game Crysis 3 in a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels with maximum graphics quality settings, but without using MSAA anti-aliasing.

Let's compare the power consumption of systems with video cards tested today.

With a slight difference in the frequencies of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming and MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming video cards, the slightly higher power consumption of the system with the video card from today’s review is quite natural. At the same time, the entire new line based on NVIDIA GM204 GPUs is noticeably more economical than two AMD Hawaii video cards, including in 2D mode. Moreover, in the diagram we always show the peak power consumption recorded during repeated runs of a resource-intensive test, and even in a system with an overclocked six-core processor. In most other games, including Battlefield 4 or Sniper Elite III, the typical power consumption of configurations with any of the Maxwell 2.0 graphics cards was around 450 watts. So we can say with confidence that for such systems a high-quality power supply with a capacity of 500-550 watts will be sufficient.

Conclusion

As we found out today, there were very few differences in one number in the model name. Following the eldest Gigabyte model GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming, the new Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming holds its own, but still has one problem in the form of high fan speeds at their lower limit, when even without load in 2D mode they do not drop below 1500 rpm. Therefore, even without 3D load, we cannot talk about a low noise level, unfortunately. Let's hope that the manufacturer will correct this issue as quickly as possible, because it is unlikely that anything more than a simple BIOS update will be required. In all other respects, the video card has no shortcomings and, in our opinion, is a more advantageous model in terms of price and performance ratio than the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming. Its cooling system is sufficiently effective to ensure stability of the video card even at higher frequencies. An enhanced power system based on high-quality and durable components is required to provide the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming with a stable and long life, and proprietary Flex Display technology expands the ability to connect multiple displays to the video card. Economical in terms of power consumption, completely cool, with already increased GPU frequencies and excellent overclocking potential, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming will be an excellent choice for a gaming system unit.

Thanks to Gigabyte
and personally Natalia Lagunenko (IT Labs)
for the video card provided for testing.

Test results

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

The hero of the review outperforms the GeForce GTX 780 Ti Assassin's Creed when comparing participants at factory frequencies. The old man has a negligible advantage in overclocking. Among all the participants, Gigabyte is second only to the GeForce GTX 980. The gap between AMD solutions is colossal.

Battlefield 4

In Battlefield 4, Gigabyte has a 7% advantage over the regular GeForce GTX 970. The results are initially at the level of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti. The lag behind the GeForce GTX 980 is less than 10%. Radeon R9 290X is 10-11% weaker. The increase from overclocking is 13-16%.

BioShock Infinite

At face value, there's a minuscule difference between the Gigabyte and the GeForce GTX 780 Ti in BioShock Infinite. The modest gap from the leader GeForce GTX 980 is easily covered by overclocking.

Crysis 3

Gigabyte is 10% faster than the reference in Crysis 3. Same minimum fps with GeForce GTX 780 Ti with a lag of 3% on average. Radeon R9 290X is weaker in terms of minimum fps with the closest average fps value. Overclocking speeds up Gigabyte by 13%.

Dead Rising 3 Apocalypse Edition

In Dead Rising 3, the video adapter in question is nominally more productive than the GeForce GTX 780 Ti and is only 4-5% weaker than the leading GeForce GTX 980 and Radeon R9 290X. The difference with the reference is 10%, about the same increase from overclocking.

Far Cry 3

In Far Cry 3, the review hero is 7-12% better than the reference, an advantage over MSI Gaming is 3-6%. The difference with the GeForce GTX 780 is 14-22%. The gain for the older Radeon is 1-3%. The gap from older NVIDIA representatives is small, especially in terms of minimum fps.

Hitman: Absolution

The latest game in the Hitman series high resolutions with anti-aliasing is critical to memory bandwidth. Here, NVIDIA's new products are sharply losing ground under the pressure of AMD video adapters. There is little difference between all GeForce GTX 970, because the potential is limited by the identical memory frequency. For the same reason, there is a minuscule difference between MSI and Gigabyte in overclocking. The increase in frequencies itself provides the hero of the review with an increase of 13-14% relative to the initial frequencies. This allows you to slightly overtake the GeForce GTX 980 in nominal terms, but it is not possible to reach the level of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti.

Metro: Last Light

Based on the results of testing at the Ashes level in Metro: Last Light, the Gigabyte in question at factory frequencies turns out to be identical to the GeForce GTX 980 and Radeon R9 290X. The difference with the reference is 10%. The increase from overclocking is 10%.

In the built-in benchmark, Gigabyte initially has a stronger position relative to the older Radeon. Increasing frequencies provides a 22% performance advantage over the 1051-1210/7012 MHz frequency configuration.

Murdered: Soul Suspect

Tomb Raider
Here the regular version of the GeForce GTX 970 is slightly inferior to the GeForce GTX 780, but this is not a problem for Gigabyte - the G1 Gaming confidently outperforms the old man. With the minimum fps as close as possible, the review hero loses to the AMD flagship in terms of average frame rate.

Watch Dogs

In nominal terms, Gigabyte has the second position after the GeForce GTX 980 in Watch Dogs. The difference with the leader is 4%, the advantage over the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is 1-3%, the gain relative to the older Radeon is 5%. When overclocked, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti manages to outperform Gigabyte, and the lead of the GeForce GTX 980 increases. Gigabyte itself, due to overclocking, brings the advantage over the GeForce GTX 970 with a frequency configuration of 1051-1210/7012 MHz to 22-23%.

And again second place after the GeForce GTX 980 with a difference of 7%. The advantage over the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is less than 5%; the old man is slightly faster in overclocking. Gigabyte is almost 14% better than the regular version of the GeForce GTX 970 and 17% more productive than the Radeon R9 290X.

Here AMD’s position is stronger, but still the Radeon R9 290X loses by up to 8%. The results of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti are 7% lower than those of Gigabyte. The gap from the leader, GeForce GTX 980, is the same. The difference with the reference GeForce GTX 970 is almost 12%, overclocking provides an additional performance increase of 11%.

Energy consumption

Gigabyte consumes noticeably more compared to the regular versions of the GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980. Even MSI Gaming is more economical at its factory frequencies. But Gigabyte also has the highest initial frequencies. In overclocking, it again has the highest performance in comparison with its counterparts, but lower compared to older GeForces. The results of AMD representatives do not need any special comments; they are outsiders in terms of energy efficiency.

conclusions

The Gigabyte GV-N970G1 Gaming-4GD video card demonstrated good performance, which is ensured by an extremely high factory overclock. If the regular version of the GeForce GTX 970 is weaker than the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, then Gigabyte in most cases is a full replacement for the old flagship. At the same time, Gigabyte is cooler and quieter than the leader of the old generation. For comparison, you can refer to the review of Gigabyte GV-N780OC-3GD - this is not yet the top product of the previous series, but it is noticeably noisier and hotter. The success of the new product is to a certain extent due to the characteristics of the GM204 graphics processor, and to some extent to the modification of the cooler - an updated design, new design fans. Thanks to this, Gigabyte can maintain low operating temperatures with low noise. Printed circuit board made according to a non-reference design with a reinforced power subsystem. Record acceleration. So far, not a single representative of the new generation of NVIDIA has been able to demonstrate similar frequencies. Operation in this mode is possible at the initial fan speed or at a very slight increase. If you need maximum frequencies with air cooling from the GeForce GTX 970, your choice is the Gigabyte GV-N970G1. If you are extremely sensitive to noise levels, you can look for alternative options. Gigabyte does not create acoustic discomfort, but there are models that are completely inaudible during operation.