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Review: Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phoenix

by Parm Mann on 28 September 2015, 16:45

Tags: Gainward, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacuwm

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Conclusion

...GTX 970 remains a solid choice almost a year after launch and there are plenty of high-quality partner cards to choose from.

Provided there are no more ghosts in Nvidia's closet, PC gamers now know everything there is to know about the mid-range GeForce GTX 970.

Currently available for under £250 and offering almost the full might of high-end GTX 980, the mid-range GTX 970 shaves a few processor cores here and a few texture units there to deliver a price-to-performance ratio that few other cards can match.

Perfectly suited to silky-smooth gameplay at a tasty QHD resolution, GTX 970 remains a solid choice almost a year after launch and the GPU's maturity is such that there are now plenty of high-quality partner cards to choose from.

Joining the custom-cooled and factory-overclocked fray is Gainward, whose GTX 970 Phoenix fits the bill with regards to performance but struggles to stand out in a competitive marketplace. Muddled outputs and a larger-than-necessary form factor work against an otherwise solid design, but the real sticking point here is that pricing isn't as competitive as the practically identical Palit GTX 970 JetStream.

The Good
  
The Bad
Ideal for high-quality QHD gaming
Silent when idle, quiet under load
Capable dual-fan cooler
Easy to overclock
  
No full-size DisplayPort
Fan profile could be smoother
Takes up almost three full slots
Costs more than a Palit JetStream



Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phoenix

HEXUS.where2buy*

The Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phoenix graphics card is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

HEXUS.right2reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.



*UK-based HEXUS community members are eligible for free delivery and priority customer service through the SCAN.care@HEXUS forum.


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HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Posted by Froggywoggy - Mon 28 Sep 2015 17:19
Testing results aside, the fan housing is one of the prettiest I have seen so far for the 9-series cards. Not really a factor that is relevant considering it will disappear inside the case, but it has really caught my eye!
Posted by azrael- - Mon 28 Sep 2015 20:23
If I check the local prices then nothing much has budged pricewise in the last year or so when looking at GTX970+ cards. And personally speaking, the memory issue has meant that I'm not even *considering* getting a GTX970. Coupled with the fact, that, at least around here, GTX980 cards start at the equivalent of around £400 (1 GBP = ~10 DKK), means that my trusty GTX670 still has a good way to go before being replaced.
Posted by nobodyspecial - Tue 29 Sep 2015 00:55
azrael-
If I check the local prices then nothing much has budged pricewise in the last year or so when looking at GTX970+ cards. And personally speaking, the memory issue has meant that I'm not even *considering* getting a GTX970. Coupled with the fact, that, at least around here, GTX980 cards start at the equivalent of around £400 (1 GBP = ~10 DKK), means that my trusty GTX670 still has a good way to go before being replaced.

What memory issue? People are still trying to find it a year later basically. The specs don't change the scores from everyone. The OC is pretty massive here too, which should be the case on any 970 now that manufacturing is very mature on these. The only game here with an issue is Mordor, and I wonder about those results when the ref card beat both Gigabyte and Gainward cards (odd?). Either way they mention it as having problems hitting 60, when well, so did many others ;) Simply OC it and it's a 980. Also if it was memory that was an issue in this game, why does a 3gb 780ti do so well? The 970 has an extra 1/2 gb of FAST memory before it hits the last 1/2 of that last GB of memory. At any rate, 42fps mins are plenty to play where they call it a problem in this article (and that before OCing it). It is still as good as when it launched, as Hexus notes.

Not saying you shouldn't wait (I am too, die shrink here I come), just saying mem crap is a bunk excuse at this point a year later with nothing found. You have to basically use synthetics or a perfect set up to force the issue, and in those cases 980 usually isn't playable either fluidly. It is very difficult to find a situation where you hit between 3.5.4GB. You always end up nailing both (IE, going over 4GB), thus the need for 6GB+ next year etc for mid-range probably (of course I'd hope HBM2 should get us there for mids). We won't start seeing lots of games made for >4GB until a large portion of the market have it (as show by all the games tested here).
Posted by kalniel - Tue 29 Sep 2015 09:37
I think most people are agreed that the memory isn't a problem in the real world outside a handful of margin cases, but they don't like the principal of nVidia's deception about the issue (though rewarding nVidia by going for a higher margin card instead perhaps isn't the best response).