Temperature, Noise, Power and Observations
The biggest question was whether the Gigabyte card could remain composed when meting out solid framerates, and it seems that this is the case. The card has enviably lower power characteristics for a GTX 970, helped by having a conservative overclock and low-power plane, and this bodes well for temperatures and noise.
An under-load temperature of 65°C has historically meant a super-aggressive fan-speed profile that prioritises cooler running over noise, but this doesn't happen here - we were surprised, too. Logs show the fan spins at around 1,150RPM (33 per cent) when idling, rising to 1,900RPM (55 per cent) after sustained gaming load.
The upshot is a card that while it's certainly not quietest GTX 970 we've ever tested, doesn't offend the ears in a well-ventilated chassis.
Form factor considerations - Mini ITX
We also installed the test card into a Xigmatek Nebula case outfitted with an ASRock Z97 Mini-ITX motherboard and identical CPU. Running 3DMark showed that performance dipped by between 2-4 per cent, most likely due to the slightly lower maximum frequency achieved in the build. Though it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, the noise level increased to 42.8dB - not helped by a louder CPU cooler - and maximum card temperature to 74°C. Point is, this card can fit into chassis that most other premium ones can't.
General observations
Our sample exhibited average coil whine in the battery of tests, no better or worse than a slew of other GTX 970s. Overclocking, as expected, was less successful than on a full-size board - we managed a maximum boost core speed of 1,340MHz and maximum memory running at 7,800MHz.
