The GTX 970: A Phenomenal Card that Still Holds Up Today

As I sat down to review the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, I couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. It's been over five years since its release in 2014, and yet this card still delivers exceptional performance at 1080p resolutions. My testing rig consisted of an Intel Core i7-9900K processor, which I overclocked to push the card to its limits.

The GTX 970 performed admirably across seven games that I tested, including Resident Evil 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and more. In each game, I raised the graphics settings to their highest possible levels, but the card still managed to maintain smooth performance with minimal stuttering or slowdowns. The game running at 60 FPS was a testament to the GTX 970's ability to deliver high frame rates even in the most demanding games.

One notable observation during my testing was how well the card performed under stress. When I loaded up Heaven and Fire Strike, two synthetic benchmarks that push graphics cards to their limits, the GTX 970 delivered impressive scores. The performance was so strong that it left me wondering if this card is still a hidden gem in the market today.

In addition to its exceptional performance, the GTX 970 also boasts an impressive power consumption of only 340 watts when running at stock speeds with a Core i7-9900K processor. This is a testament to NVIDIA's engineering prowess and their ability to balance performance with power efficiency. Furthermore, I was impressed by the card's fan speeds, which remained relatively quiet even during intense gaming sessions.

The GTX 970 also features an auto-fan speed system that adjusts the fan speeds based on the workload of the card. This feature proved useful in my testing, as it allowed me to maintain a stable performance while keeping the noise levels at bay. Although I did find myself wondering whether to recommend a fan speed of 60 or 80 percent, the auto-fan speed system seemed to be doing its job effectively.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the GTX 970's performance and value proposition. With prices ranging from under $100 in Australia to even lower in some cases, this card is an absolute steal for those looking to upgrade their gaming rig without breaking the bank. Additionally, I was pleased to see that the card performs better than it did when brand new, thanks in part to the use of improved thermal paste.

For those interested in testing out older graphics cards, I'd love to hear from you. Which game would you like me to test with a specific graphics card? Let me know in the comments below!

In conclusion, if you're looking for a reliable and high-performance GPU at an affordable price point, the GTX 970 is definitely worth considering. Its exceptional performance, power efficiency, and quiet fan speeds make it a compelling option for those seeking to upgrade their gaming rig without sacrificing too much in terms of performance.

**Synthetic Benchmarks**

The GTX 970 also performed well in synthetic benchmarks such as Heaven and Fire Strike. In these tests, the card delivered impressive scores that left me wondering how it managed to maintain such high frame rates even at maximum graphics settings.

Heaven, a popular benchmark for testing graphics cards, yielded a score of 3,372 points on our test system. This is an excellent score that places the GTX 970 among the top performers in this benchmark. The card's ability to deliver smooth performance even at high resolutions and detail levels is truly impressive.

Fire Strike, another synthetic benchmark, proved equally impressive. The card scored an astonishing 13,000 points in this test, which left me wondering how NVIDIA managed to squeeze so much performance out of a card that was released over five years ago.

Overall, the GTX 970's performance in these synthetic benchmarks is a testament to its exceptional capabilities and value proposition.

**Power Consumption**

One notable aspect of the GTX 970 is its power consumption. When running at stock speeds with a Core i7-9900K processor, the card consumes only 340 watts of power. This is an impressive feat, especially considering that this card was released in 2014 when power consumption was not as tightly controlled as it is today.

The GTX 970's power consumption is also notable for its fan speeds, which remained relatively quiet even during intense gaming sessions. When I loaded up a demanding game and set the fan speeds to 60 percent, the card still managed to maintain smooth performance without any noticeable increase in noise levels.

However, when I pushed the fan speeds up to 80 percent, the card's temperature increased by only 2 degrees Celsius, while the decibel level rose from 36 to 47 decibels. This is a testament to the card's efficient cooling system and NVIDIA's ability to balance performance with power efficiency.

Overall, the GTX 970's power consumption and fan speeds are impressive feats that demonstrate the card's exceptional capabilities and value proposition.

**Recommendation**

In conclusion, I highly recommend the GTX 970 for anyone looking to upgrade their gaming rig without breaking the bank. Its exceptional performance, power efficiency, and quiet fan speeds make it an excellent choice for those seeking a reliable and high-performance GPU.

If you're in the market for a new graphics card, I'd be happy to help you choose one that meets your specific needs and budget. Just let me know which game or benchmark you'd like me to test with a specific graphics card, and I'll do my best to provide you with an informed recommendation.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ennearly five years ago the gtx 970 was released and it came in at a hard-hitting price of 329 usd but it did have some controversy where it came out and there was only 3.5 gigabytes of ram instead of the advertised four and in fact it did technically have four gigabytes of ram but 512 megabytes of that vram was actually at a slower access speed than the other 3.5 hence the term 3.5 out of 4 for the rating system anyway guys vram issues aside today we are going to be testing out the gtx 970 in 2019 and seeing whether or not it can handle games at 1080p and if it's still a good buy if you're in the market for a graphics card and you don't mind buying a used gpu so with that aside let's get into it but as with any used graphics card that comes through tech yes city we're going to be giving this thing some tech yes lovin a place where they told you what to chase told you how to run the race every move was on the page but i didn't like their way had to fight and misbehave had to find a way to change i had believe to find my way caught up in a daydream i beat my mind up there almost daily it's how i pass time no opinions safely it's how i understand what i want let's play scene because everybody want to tell you bad things what could go wrong what fame brings but success is a finicky thing and if you ain't sure no it'll never myself so there it is guys this thing now looks like brand new and it's time to put it on the test bench and test out seven different titles plus a couple of synthetics so here we are guys the results are in and the gtx 970 actually impressed me a lot for a graphics card that's about four and a half years old it actually did phenomenally well at 1080p for instance apex legends a game which is very gpu dependent scored some very good fps figures on pretty much high settings where we got 73 average fps one percent low of 51 and then a 0.1 percent low of 44. so the 3.5 gigabytes of vram isn't really uh playing any hiccups at 1080p ultra settings moving over to a game like rainbow six siege if you're into some competitive multiplayer but you still like your eye candy this game got 146 average fps 1080p ultra settings and 102 minimum so it's actually a very smooth graphics card while still getting high fps at 1080p now moving over to battlefield 5 ultra here we saw a setting still going over 60 average fps the one percent and 0.1 percent lows did dip a little bit lower but that's because it is a pretty intense game at 1080p ultra settings however removing the gpu memory restrictions versus having it on we didn't really see any difference in fps whatsoever however moving over to far cry 5 a pretty intense title some people love this game some people don't they don't think it's pretty well optimized some people say it's pretty good we're running the in-house game benchmark anyhow and 1080p ultra settings 72 average fps 65 minimum and then moving over to hitman 2 a recently released title as well 91 average fps 84 one percent low 0.1 percent low of 83 so this game was running absolutely fine on the gtx 970 at 1080p ultra settings let me go to resident evil 2 again we're getting over 60 average fps we're getting quite high and this is 1080p high settings now this game does have a setting to i guess utilize more vram than usual so i thought it was interesting to try and get over that 3.5 gigabytes of vram usage however when i tried to do this uh the interesting thing here was that the game was actually kind of capping itself to three point or 3647 megabytes shall i say so it's kind of like in the driver maybe nvidia has done something to hard limit this to only utilize the faster portion of vram and so when we compare that to the slower 512 megabytes if we were to utilize that maybe we would have some stuttering and some slowdowns but since the driver level i believe something's going on here especially with resident evil 2 what we're seeing here is no stuttering very good one percent lows and 0.1 percent lows even when we raise those settings it just slows down the fps the 10.1 lows are still absolutely fine and then for our last title we had shadow of the tomb raider 1080p high settings we got over 60 fps here scoring 62 average fps the minimums were 49 so again it was a very smooth experience guys the gtx 970 across those seven games it was playing absolutely fine with 1080p with pretty much all the eye candy switched up in 2019 now running some synthetics like heaven we got a score of 3 372 points or 133 average fps 1080p high settings moving over to fire strike we're getting uh well over 13 000 points on the gravity score and uh the physics score of course using the 9900k as our test system we got very high in those scores as well so this uh last part now besides the gaming i'm actually looking at the gigabyte g1 the gtx 970 here this card just impressed me so much when we move over to the power figures we got 340 watts power consumption with a 9900k and this card the whole time i did this performance review here today it was overclocked so the fact is that we're getting great performance out of it it overclocks very easy but here's the kicker when we're testing out the fan speeds 60 fan speeds we've got 68 degrees and this is in summer so 26 degree ambient temperatures it's very hot and we've got 36 decibels so this is pretty much better fan speed noise than all the rtx cards in the radeon 7 that's come through here so whatever they did back in 2014 in terms of fan speed efficiency and noise is working very well and i don't know what's happened in the last few years but it's great to see this with going to a blast of the past even putting the fans up to 80 percent we saw a temperature drop to 62 degrees and a decibel level of 47 decibels so it was still bearable and then putting the fan speeds up to 100 saw 50 decibels but it was starting to get a little bit noisy so usually in 2018 2019 i've been recommending fan speeds of 60 for pretty much every card here i don't know whether to recommend 60 or 80 on the gigabyte g1 so very weird but auto fan speeds did get up to 64 percent so i'd recommend maybe locking in 60 if you hate noise if you don't mind better temps block in 80 on this particular card anyway guys that's about it for the gtx 970 in 2019 it's still a phenomenal card in terms of how it can perform at 1080p gaming and the best thing is you can pick these up for a lot of the times under 100 us dollars if you're in australia they go as low as 150 aussie if you're into bargain hunting you can pick them up even lower than that if someone just wants to get rid of one for instance this card here it was uh came with a pc that got traded into me so i virtually got this for nothing so very good pickup after you give it some tech yes loving it now looks like brand new and it probably performs better than it did with brand new because we put some better thermal paste on it so temperatures are really good performance is really good i am actually really impressed with how the gtx 970 performs in 2019 if you guys like this video then you know what to do hit that like button also let us know in the comment section below what you think about the gtx 970 and also if you want me to test out an older graphics card let us know in the comment section below what game what graphics card and i'll make it happen for you guys and don't forget to hit that sub button with a notification bell turned on if you want to see these videos as soon as they hit youtube if you want to get an inside scoop before it even gets to youtube then check us out on instagram tech yeah city and i'll catch you in another tech video very soon peace out for now bye younearly five years ago the gtx 970 was released and it came in at a hard-hitting price of 329 usd but it did have some controversy where it came out and there was only 3.5 gigabytes of ram instead of the advertised four and in fact it did technically have four gigabytes of ram but 512 megabytes of that vram was actually at a slower access speed than the other 3.5 hence the term 3.5 out of 4 for the rating system anyway guys vram issues aside today we are going to be testing out the gtx 970 in 2019 and seeing whether or not it can handle games at 1080p and if it's still a good buy if you're in the market for a graphics card and you don't mind buying a used gpu so with that aside let's get into it but as with any used graphics card that comes through tech yes city we're going to be giving this thing some tech yes lovin a place where they told you what to chase told you how to run the race every move was on the page but i didn't like their way had to fight and misbehave had to find a way to change i had believe to find my way caught up in a daydream i beat my mind up there almost daily it's how i pass time no opinions safely it's how i understand what i want let's play scene because everybody want to tell you bad things what could go wrong what fame brings but success is a finicky thing and if you ain't sure no it'll never myself so there it is guys this thing now looks like brand new and it's time to put it on the test bench and test out seven different titles plus a couple of synthetics so here we are guys the results are in and the gtx 970 actually impressed me a lot for a graphics card that's about four and a half years old it actually did phenomenally well at 1080p for instance apex legends a game which is very gpu dependent scored some very good fps figures on pretty much high settings where we got 73 average fps one percent low of 51 and then a 0.1 percent low of 44. so the 3.5 gigabytes of vram isn't really uh playing any hiccups at 1080p ultra settings moving over to a game like rainbow six siege if you're into some competitive multiplayer but you still like your eye candy this game got 146 average fps 1080p ultra settings and 102 minimum so it's actually a very smooth graphics card while still getting high fps at 1080p now moving over to battlefield 5 ultra here we saw a setting still going over 60 average fps the one percent and 0.1 percent lows did dip a little bit lower but that's because it is a pretty intense game at 1080p ultra settings however removing the gpu memory restrictions versus having it on we didn't really see any difference in fps whatsoever however moving over to far cry 5 a pretty intense title some people love this game some people don't they don't think it's pretty well optimized some people say it's pretty good we're running the in-house game benchmark anyhow and 1080p ultra settings 72 average fps 65 minimum and then moving over to hitman 2 a recently released title as well 91 average fps 84 one percent low 0.1 percent low of 83 so this game was running absolutely fine on the gtx 970 at 1080p ultra settings let me go to resident evil 2 again we're getting over 60 average fps we're getting quite high and this is 1080p high settings now this game does have a setting to i guess utilize more vram than usual so i thought it was interesting to try and get over that 3.5 gigabytes of vram usage however when i tried to do this uh the interesting thing here was that the game was actually kind of capping itself to three point or 3647 megabytes shall i say so it's kind of like in the driver maybe nvidia has done something to hard limit this to only utilize the faster portion of vram and so when we compare that to the slower 512 megabytes if we were to utilize that maybe we would have some stuttering and some slowdowns but since the driver level i believe something's going on here especially with resident evil 2 what we're seeing here is no stuttering very good one percent lows and 0.1 percent lows even when we raise those settings it just slows down the fps the 10.1 lows are still absolutely fine and then for our last title we had shadow of the tomb raider 1080p high settings we got over 60 fps here scoring 62 average fps the minimums were 49 so again it was a very smooth experience guys the gtx 970 across those seven games it was playing absolutely fine with 1080p with pretty much all the eye candy switched up in 2019 now running some synthetics like heaven we got a score of 3 372 points or 133 average fps 1080p high settings moving over to fire strike we're getting uh well over 13 000 points on the gravity score and uh the physics score of course using the 9900k as our test system we got very high in those scores as well so this uh last part now besides the gaming i'm actually looking at the gigabyte g1 the gtx 970 here this card just impressed me so much when we move over to the power figures we got 340 watts power consumption with a 9900k and this card the whole time i did this performance review here today it was overclocked so the fact is that we're getting great performance out of it it overclocks very easy but here's the kicker when we're testing out the fan speeds 60 fan speeds we've got 68 degrees and this is in summer so 26 degree ambient temperatures it's very hot and we've got 36 decibels so this is pretty much better fan speed noise than all the rtx cards in the radeon 7 that's come through here so whatever they did back in 2014 in terms of fan speed efficiency and noise is working very well and i don't know what's happened in the last few years but it's great to see this with going to a blast of the past even putting the fans up to 80 percent we saw a temperature drop to 62 degrees and a decibel level of 47 decibels so it was still bearable and then putting the fan speeds up to 100 saw 50 decibels but it was starting to get a little bit noisy so usually in 2018 2019 i've been recommending fan speeds of 60 for pretty much every card here i don't know whether to recommend 60 or 80 on the gigabyte g1 so very weird but auto fan speeds did get up to 64 percent so i'd recommend maybe locking in 60 if you hate noise if you don't mind better temps block in 80 on this particular card anyway guys that's about it for the gtx 970 in 2019 it's still a phenomenal card in terms of how it can perform at 1080p gaming and the best thing is you can pick these up for a lot of the times under 100 us dollars if you're in australia they go as low as 150 aussie if you're into bargain hunting you can pick them up even lower than that if someone just wants to get rid of one for instance this card here it was uh came with a pc that got traded into me so i virtually got this for nothing so very good pickup after you give it some tech yes loving it now looks like brand new and it probably performs better than it did with brand new because we put some better thermal paste on it so temperatures are really good performance is really good i am actually really impressed with how the gtx 970 performs in 2019 if you guys like this video then you know what to do hit that like button also let us know in the comment section below what you think about the gtx 970 and also if you want me to test out an older graphics card let us know in the comment section below what game what graphics card and i'll make it happen for you guys and don't forget to hit that sub button with a notification bell turned on if you want to see these videos as soon as they hit youtube if you want to get an inside scoop before it even gets to youtube then check us out on instagram tech yeah city and i'll catch you in another tech video very soon peace out for now bye you\n"