WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:07.600 as usual NVIDIA's recent graphics card launch was dominated by coverage of 00:00:04.319 --> 00:00:09.760 their new flagship gtx 980 and we were 00:00:07.600 --> 00:00:15.759 guilty of focusing on it too but i think in some ways the lower price gtx 970 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:20.320 could actually be much more interesting from a regular gamer's perspective 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:25.920 especially if its performance is similar enough to its beast of a big brother 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:35.040 welcome to our gtx 970 review featuring the strix direct co2 from ASUS 00:00:35.040 --> 00:00:41.680 cooler master neptune series CPU coolers are available in a variety of radiator 00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:45.280 sizes to perfectly suit your next build click now to learn more 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:50.399 we'll start with a brief overview of how the reference gtx 970 stacks up against 00:00:47.680 --> 00:00:54.879 the gtx 980. the memory config is identical it's got the same 256 bit 00:00:53.039 --> 00:01:00.160 memory bus with the same four gigs of vram clocked at the same seven gigahertz 00:00:57.440 --> 00:01:06.080 but the core is where NVIDIA has opted to cut their second tier card down this 00:01:02.559 --> 00:01:08.400 time around the gtx 970 gets 13 sms 00:01:06.080 --> 00:01:13.200 compared to 16 on the 980 giving it about 80 percent as many cuda cores and 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:17.600 texture units and it comes with a lower clock speed out of the box but that's 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:21.119 about it and ASUS takes care of one of these things right off the bat by 00:01:19.119 --> 00:01:25.520 delivering their non-reference card with a factory increased boost clock of 1253 00:01:23.759 --> 00:01:29.600 megahertz actually higher than a reference 980. of course as usual we 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:33.680 aren't going to be running the card at factory speeds anyway so we're more 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:38.479 interested in how the rest of ASUS's alterations including that their latest 00:01:36.479 --> 00:01:43.200 version of GPU tweak their overclocking utility supports automatic GPU BIOS 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:47.759 updates on certain cards now are going to affect the performance we'll start 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:51.840 with a general physical overview ASUS has increased the height of the card 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:55.759 especially near the sli connector that supports up to three-way sli 00:01:53.360 --> 00:02:00.880 configurations they've changed out the dual 6-pin PCIe connectors for a single 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:05.920 8-pin connector they've changed the stylized back plate to a sexy brushed 00:02:03.360 --> 00:02:12.640 aluminum jobby they've swapped out the in my opinion much better i o config for 00:02:09.119 --> 00:02:16.400 a more conventional one with dvid dvii 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:18.879 HDMI 2.0 and displayport 1.2 ports of 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:23.520 which you can use all four at the same time in a three surround and then one 00:02:20.959 --> 00:02:27.920 auxiliary configuration and finally they've increased the length of the card 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:31.680 slightly to 11 inches to accommodate the much larger heat sink design and the 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:36.720 cooler probably deserves its own little overview here ASUS is using a dual 92 00:02:34.160 --> 00:02:41.120 millimeter triple heat pipe direct cu type cooler that means the heat pipes 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:47.599 make direct contact with the GPU core with an open-air design ASUS quotes 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:49.599 220 percent as much overall surface area 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:54.239 compared to reference so this should give us better card temps compared to a 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:59.040 reference cooler at the cost of internal system temps if you're not using a case 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:02.959 with solid airflow pulling the cooler off the card by removing the four screws 00:03:00.959 --> 00:03:06.400 around the core at the back reveals one large 10 millimeter diameter heat pipe 00:03:04.959 --> 00:03:10.879 flanked by a couple of eight millimeter ones and this also gives us a better 00:03:08.480 --> 00:03:15.760 look at the pcb for the card revealing the final advantage that non-reference 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:20.080 cards often have over normal ones ASUS six phase super alloy power and digital 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:24.800 vrm design is made to increase the lifespan and efficiency of the card and 00:03:22.640 --> 00:03:28.480 lower random electrical noise and while it's difficult for us to observe the 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:32.799 first two directly especially without a reference 970 to compare against our 00:03:30.799 --> 00:03:36.879 experience with ASUS direct cu cards lately including this one has been that 00:03:34.720 --> 00:03:41.200 they are extremely quiet with no observable coil whine which leads us to 00:03:39.440 --> 00:03:47.360 what i think is the coolest feature of this card and presumably the one that 00:03:43.200 --> 00:03:49.920 led to the owl logo for it the 976 has a 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:54.239 zero decibel idle fan mode so the fan doesn't spin at all 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:58.879 with the system powered on and it can actually stay 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:03.519 off even in games as long as they aren't very demanding so games like league of 00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:07.439 legends are perfect candidates for this of course it'll ramp up like any other 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:11.680 card when overclocking or pushing it hard but it speaks volumes about the 00:04:09.760 --> 00:04:16.479 efficiency of the cooler and the efficiency of the maxwell-based gm204 00:04:13.920 --> 00:04:21.199 GPU that this card is equipped with that it can do this at all 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:24.720 so along with GeForce experience shadow play game recording game stream 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:28.320 network gaming on shield devices and automatic game optimization and driver 00:04:26.400 --> 00:04:32.720 updates NVIDIA has added some very interesting new technologies to 900 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:36.560 series cards including third generation delta color compression to make better 00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:40.720 use of memory bandwidth dynamic super resolution a way of running less 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:46.320 demanding or older games at higher res than down sampling for better visuals 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:48.400 mfaa a less demanding anti-aliasing mode 00:04:46.320 --> 00:04:53.520 with pretty much the same visual quality as msaa and auto-asynchronous warp a vr 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:57.680 feature that should improve the experience for users of the oculus rift 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:01.520 or similar head tracking head mounted displays who are prone to motion 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:06.800 sickness you can get more in-depth explanations of these technologies in my 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:08.880 gtx 980 video linked here 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:14.080 for now the big thing we want to know is how the gtx 970 stacks up against the 00:05:11.840 --> 00:05:18.240 competition from a price to performance standpoint as well as from an efficiency 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:21.440 standpoint take it away luke all right guys just a reminder that we're running 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:25.120 all of our benchmarks overclocked and that our per graphics card overclocking 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:28.560 settings are laid out in the graphics card overclocking dock in the 00:05:26.479 --> 00:05:33.120 description below this video speaking of which first up we have overclocking do 00:05:30.880 --> 00:05:38.240 the 970 not being equipped with the auto balancing power rails that bless the 780 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:40.639 ti and 980 the overclocking of this card is 00:05:39.039 --> 00:05:44.880 fairly straightforward apply some voltage increase the power level 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:49.600 allowance jack up the core and memory clock speeds set a temp target and voila 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:55.039 you're hopefully running at a range of 1403 to 1459 or above when it finally 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:58.560 came to running actual numbers i was happy with how well it performed in 00:05:56.880 --> 00:06:03.039 essentially every test it slotted itself snugly between the 770 and 780 which is 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:08.960 good considering it cost pretty much the same as a 770. but just like the gtx 980 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:12.400 before it the 970 isn't exactly earth shattering in terms of raw performance 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:16.560 when compared to the already existing big dogs but what it is is a much better 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:19.840 value the price per performance of these cards is much stronger than the previous 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:23.199 generation of heavy hitters and this is especially true when talking about 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:28.080 wattage coming in at a full system wattage of 305 the 970 is an extremely 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:31.120 low power overhead card which might actually make a noticeable difference on 00:06:29.440 --> 00:06:35.120 your power bill depending on what you're running i'm looking at you gtx 480 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:39.039 owners and that's not all this card is running at a temperature of only 71 00:06:37.039 --> 00:06:43.280 degrees while under load while overclocked not bad at all if you ask me 00:06:41.520 --> 00:06:48.960 back to you Linus alright so with that out of the way it looks like the gtx 970 00:06:46.880 --> 00:06:53.840 is everything we hoped it would be the 980 is interesting to folks who have 500 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:57.520 plus dollars to spend on a GPU but if you're on a tighter budget or upgrading 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:01.599 an older system both the power efficiency even you might not want to 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:06.800 upgrade to a new power supply and the frankly stunning performance of the 970 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:12.240 strix make it a compelling choice for two and a half k or even light 4k gaming 00:07:10.080 --> 00:07:16.400 at a much lower price than its bigger brother 00:07:13.280 --> 00:07:19.360 speaking of much lower prices nothing is 00:07:16.400 --> 00:07:24.319 lower than two weeks for free so try out hulu plus they are the only streaming 00:07:21.599 --> 00:07:29.039 service that streams new current season episodes of popular shows from abc fox 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:33.599 nbc and other major networks with shows like modern family brooklyn nine-nine 00:07:31.039 --> 00:07:37.520 and once upon a time with hulu plus you aren't tied to your computer so you can 00:07:35.280 --> 00:07:42.479 use your phone tablet smart tv roku or game console to watch every episode of 00:07:40.080 --> 00:07:46.639 shows like south park and family guy you guys have heard me talk about fooloo 00:07:43.840 --> 00:07:50.319 plus fuloplus hulu plus quite a bit already and they've been a 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:54.560 great supporter of the show so if you haven't already why not give it a try if 00:07:52.960 --> 00:07:58.240 you use our code you get a two week trial instead of the standard single 00:07:56.400 --> 00:08:02.560 week trial and then you can decide if 7.99 a month is in your budget for hours 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:06.479 of on-demand content guys thanks for watching our video today 00:08:05.039 --> 00:08:10.160 like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment letting me know if you have suggestions 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:15.199 for future videos or other comments that are just much more complicated than this or this you can also find a link in the 00:08:13.599 --> 00:08:20.080 video description to support us if you want to buy a cool t-shirt like this one give us a monthly contribution or change 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:25.440 your amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so we get a small kickback whenever you buy 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:29.039 i don't know gtx 970s or whatever else the case may be thanks again for 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:41.509 watching and as always don't forget to subscribe