Test Systems and Procedures
Before we delve into any testing we would like to take this opportunity to overview our test system and thank those sponsors who kindly provided us with test equipment to make our work possible. We offer our thanks to:
Intel for supplying us with a Core i7 4960X processor, which we reviewed here.
ASUS for supplying us with a Rampage IV Extreme motherboard, which we reviewed here.
Be Quiet for supplying us with a Power Zone 1000W modular power supply.
Kingston for supplying us with a Hyper X 240GB SSD, which we reviewed here.
AMD for supplying us with a Dell U2711 Ultra Sharp monitor.
Corsair for supplying us with a Hydro Series H100i liquid CPU cooler, which we reviewed here, and the Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 1866MHz 16GB memory kit, which we reviewed here.
Lian Li for supplying us with a PC-T60A test bench.
Noctua for supplying us with NT-H1 thermal compound.
Test System
- Motherboard – ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 LGA 2011 Motherboard
- Processor – Intel Core i7 4960X at Stock 3.6GHz with Turbo Mode disabled
- RAM – 16GB (2 X 8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 1866MHz at 9-10-9-27
- CPU Cooler – Corsair H100i with Quiet Fan Profile with Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound
- Power Supply – Be Quiet Power Zone 1000W
- Main Storage Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
- Chassis – Lian Li T60 Test Bench
- Displays – Dell U2711 Ultra Sharp
- Operating System – Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Driver Details
Performance Summary
To formulate our performance metric we use a weighted average method and each benchmark test gets a weight of 1 out of a total calculation with 9 weights (meaning all resolutions and variations of the same test are only ever one weight). Compute tests, power consumption, temperatures and acoustics are not included in the weighted calculation. The 9 weights are 1 for each test we so that means 6 games (listed below) and 3 benchmarks (also listed below). We calculate the relative score for each card in each test by dividing the cumulative average frame rate or score of each card by the average cumulative average frame rate/score from all the graphics cards in group. We then take those 9 relative scores and average those for each card, before dividing those averages by the average of the card being reviewed in the test so that the value of the card being reviewed is 1 and every other card’s performance metric is in relation to it. The end result are numbers that vary around 1 with 0.5 being half the performance of the tested card and 2 being double the performance of the tested card. We then convert those numbers into percentages to make them more readable so 1 becomes 100% and 0.5 becomes 50%.
Hardware Used
- “Killawatt” style electricity usage meter wall plug
- Benetech GM1351 decibel meter
Games Used
- Batman Arkham Origins
- Battlefield 4
- Bioshock Infinite
- Hitman Absolution
- Metro Last Light
- Tomb Raider
Benchmarks Used
- 3DMark
- 3DMark 11
- Unigine Valley
Other Software Used
- Unigine Heaven
- Furmark
- CPU-ID HWMonitor
- TechPowerUp GPU-Z
- Computemark
- Luxmark
It may be an effective and quiet cooler but it is one butt ugly appendage.
I love how this is not in stock anywhere
None of the 970 are, I’m looking to buy one at the moment but can only find vendors with out of stock or way too expensive ones.
Same problem here
super quiet and cool at 40% fan speed, noisy since 50% xd , kinda huge card, my previous palit 770 with 3 fans is the same length, very efficient card, goes up to 1316mhz on core boost. one webshop told me it’s hard to get these ones, they ordered 20 asuses 3 months ago, but they have got only 8, 6 of them already sold
i wonder how the evga 780 sc would fair up in that benchmark. The evga has a good 10/12 fps boost over vanilla 780’s. couldn’t be far behind they 970’s. My 780 stays very very cool.
i wonder how the evga 780 sc would fair up in that benchmark. The evga
has a good 10/12 fps boost over vanilla 780’s. couldn’t be far behind
they 970’s. My 780 stays very very cool as.
why isn’t anybody telling us about the backplate problem? why everywhere you look search about gtx 970 thay say it’s the coolest? i bought the other day the gtx 970 strix. why? well my 7870 saphire can’t handle games on ultra, it’s an old card that is going hard at it even now, but most of the AA titles require more powerfull gpus so i decided to upgrade. i had to choose between gygabite g1 gaming, msi and asus strix all 970s. i started searching the web for reviews and benchmarks. everywhere they said, that the strix has the less performance but it runs the coolest. so i sayd to myself, ok i will buy the strix because i don’t give a fuck about oc and 10 more fps. i want a card that runs cool. i bought it (300 pounds including delivery) i got the card the other day, swapped my 7870 with the 970 installed everything, entered gta v cranked up all the settings to ultra played for about 10 15 minutes, everything nice and dandy, i opened my cased to touch the gpu, to see how hot it is. guess what, that piece of shit backplate was 100 degrees celsius hot! it acts like a fucking insulator . in gpu tweek it says my gpu runs at 68 degrees but i can tell you that is bullshit, because i can’t touch my backplate for 1 minute because it burns. my 7870 when i play games it gets to 66 degrees and i can keep my hand on it without feeling like i’m getting burned. i am not a fanboy! i just told you my story ! do whatever the fuck you wanna do ! but keep in mind: buy from a retailer who has a good customer service so if what i said happens to you, you can return the card and get a refund. when you buy it be careful to open the box and not to damage it. buy it->test it-> touch it-> if it feels ok to you keep it if not->return it! again i am not a fanboy, i am trying to help others! i searched the web and everybody speaks about the good things nobody says anything about the shitty things! search on google: asus strix 970 backplate hot and you will see.my advice don’t buy it! get another card g1 gaming 970 or i don;t know