Power, Temperature and Noise
Given that Gainward's GeForce GTX 970 Phoenix gets close to GTX 980 in terms of performance, it's no surprise to see system-wide power consumption reaching a similar level. Looking at generational improvements, GTX 970 is quicker than GTX 780 Ti yet consumes far less power.
The dual-fan cooler has no problem taming the overclocked GPU. Wondering what's causing the higher-than-usual idle temperature? That can be attributed to the fact that both fans turns off when core temp falls below 55ºC.
Factory-overclocked and custom-cooled GTX 970s typically offer solid performance at their price point, but what we really like is the fact that partner cards can be seriously quiet. GTX 970 Phoenix is practically silent with the fans turned off, and they don't make a lot of noise under load, either.
Good news all-round? Well, not quite, as Gainward's fan profile could be a bit smoother. When the GPU warms up, we found that the fans would occasionally spin-up and then quickly turn back off. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does you notice the change in a quiet PC and we'd like to see a BIOS update that prevents the fans from switching states in rapid fashion.
