Price / Where to Buy:
US – US$379 – GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME GAMING
PH – Approx. Php18500
- WINDFORCE 3X cooling system
- Powered by NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 970 GPU
- Integrated with 4GB GDDR5 memory and 256-bit memory interface
- Boost:1367 MHz/ Base: 1215 MHz in OC Mode
Boost:1342 MHz/ Base: 1190 MHz in Gaming Mode - Features Dual-link DVI-I / HDMI / DisplayPort*3
- Recommended system power supply requirement: 600W(with two 8-pin external power connectors)
About the GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME
The GIGABYTE XTREME GAMING brand is an evolution of sorts of the G1 Series but both series will stand side-by-side with the XTREME GAMING series serving as the de-facto flagship for GIGABYTE’s graphics cards and gaming division. For the GTX 900 series, GIGABYTE has went with some design changes for each and every card they have but mostly are cosmetic in nature and take over the existing G1 GAMING stack at the moment. EDIT: This changes dramatically with the launch of the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 with the XTREME GAMING series now taking the flagship crown and features a heavily different design than the G1 series.
For the GTX 970 XTREME, GIGABYTE ships the card with OC clocks up to 1367Mhz Boost frequency and 1215Mhz base clock. Out of the box it will at 1190Mhz base with a 1342Mhz boost. You can change this via the OC GURU II software from GIGABYTE. Cooling the card is the new design for the Windforce cooler featuring a new backplate style and fully-RGB illuminated fan rings.
Product Gallery – GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME
Lights On
Overclocking the GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME
Overclocking any graphics card is pretty straightforward nowadays provided you know what to do and given that most companies also have their own overclocking software, makes it so much more approachable. We use the latest GIGABYTE OC GURU II for this test.
As with all our cards, we immediately try and find the maximum clocks we can get from our sample. As results may vary from card to card, these are merely references and you experience may entirely be different. In our method, we find the most game-stable clocks we can find. By default, GIGABYTE ships the GTX 970 XTREME with an OC mode accessible via the OC GURU II software with a preset clock boost of 1216Mhz base clock and a frequency bump of 25mhz for the memory at 1774Mhz.
We managed to bring the card to a stable 1340Mhz base clock OC, I didn’t manage to get a screenshot together with our memory OC but on the memory side we bumped the clocks to 1930Mhz. This may not be a lot but considering we’re near 1500Mhz on Boost, its a really impressive feat especially that we’re not pushing any extra voltages in this OC.
PERFORMANCE
Test Setup
Processor: Intel Core i7 4790K
Motherboard: MSI Z77 Mpower
Memory: Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3-2400 16GB
Storage: Kingston HyperX FURY 240GB
PSU: Seasonic P1000
Cooling: Custom loop (XSPC Raystorm block, XSPC D5 Dual Bayres, BlackIce Stealth GT 240 rad)
Monitor: LG 42UB820T UltraHD TV
VGA: GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME 4GB
For a full-hardware workout, visit http://www.futuremark.com for our benchmarks of choice.
We test our graphics card with a full-level playthrough of our selected game or the games’ built-in benchmark tool. We record the run with Fraps. Game settings are indicated in the charts. Resolutions are shown in the charts. Unlike our standard benchmarks. For this tests, we’ve changed a few things so some of games that we follow built-in options we’ve retained results from other results but for those other games that we’ve changed options, we’ve provided newer results and indicated settings also.
We basically run two configurations for our reviews: for high-end cards (980/Titan X/290X/780Ti) we run maximum in-game settings, for mainstream (GTX 960/970) and last generation cards we run default presets. AA is turned off in all 4K HD results unless defined by settings or indicated in graph. We will start including The Witcher 3 starting with our launch day review of the GTX 980 Ti so please bear with us as we grow that chart. Results may vary due to driver optimizations for newer releases.
FullHD (1920×1080)
The most visually intense game to ever been made. Prophet is back to take on the Ceph and Cell after a long sleep and the world isn’t what it was when before he got frozen. CryEngine 3 is behind this beautiful beast that will put a lot of systems to their knees. The opening level shows off the particle and water rendering of the engine.
The reboot of the gaming phenomenon Tomb Raider puts players in Lara Croft’s hiking boots as she explores the ruin of Yamatai in this origins game. Powered by a modified Crystal Engine, the game features TressFX which creates beautifully rendered hair animation.
The most popular game on Steam and the biggest competition in eSports; DOTA 2 is powered by the Source engine. The game is fairly light on low to medium settings but maxed out with heavy action on screen especially during clashes can really stress some systsems.
We use the built-in timedemo and benchmarking tool. DOTA2 only shows average FPS so we will be reflecting that in this test. Our timedemo features a heavy clash in the bottom lane for the maximum real-world system load the game can generate. With the recent visual update, DOTA2 has received some graphic makeover that adds a bit of hit for the system and all our datas are updated to reflect this. Driver optimization may cause results to vary.
Ubisoft’s hacker action puts you in the shoes of Aiden Pearce as you piece together a crime that has been haunting you since its occurrence. Rage through Chicago as presented by Ubisoft with its Disrupt engine utilizing vast video memory for high-resolution textures for visually stunning graphics.
CD Projekt Red’s latest installment in the Witcher saga features one of the most graphically intense offering the company has to date. As Geralt of Rivia, slay monsters, beasts and men as you unravel the mysteries of your past. Vast worlds and lush sceneries make this game a visual feast and promises to make any system crawl at its highest settings.
2560×1440
The most visually intense game to ever been made. Prophet is back to take on the Ceph and Cell after a long sleep and the world isn’t what it was when before he got frozen. CryEngine 3 is behind this beautiful beast that will put a lot of systems to their knees. The opening level shows off the particle and water rendering of the engine.
The reboot of the gaming phenomenon Tomb Raider puts players in Lara Croft’s hiking boots as she explores the ruin of Yamatai in this origins game. Powered by a modified Crystal Engine, the game features TressFX which creates beautifully rendered hair animation.
The most popular game on Steam and the biggest competition in eSports; DOTA 2 is powered by the Source engine. The game is fairly light on low to medium settings but maxed out with heavy action on screen especially during clashes can really stress some systsems.
We use the built-in timedemo and benchmarking tool. DOTA2 only shows average FPS so we will be reflecting that in this test. Our timedemo features a heavy clash in the bottom lane for the maximum real-world system load the game can generate.
Ubisoft’s hacker action puts you in the shoes of Aiden Pearce as you piece together a crime that has been haunting you since its occurrence. Rage through Chicago as presented by Ubisoft with its Disrupt engine utilizing vast video memory for high-resolution textures for visually stunning graphics.
CD Projekt Red’s latest installment in the Witcher saga features one of the most graphically intense offering the company has to date. As Geralt of Rivia, slay monsters, beasts and men as you unravel the mysteries of your past. Vast worlds and lush sceneries make this game a visual feast and promises to make any system crawl at its highest settings.
4K UltraHD
The most visually intense game to ever been made. Prophet is back to take on the Ceph and Cell after a long sleep and the world isn’t what it was when before he got frozen. CryEngine 3 is behind this beautiful beast that will put a lot of systems to their knees. The opening level shows off the particle and water rendering of the engine.
The reboot of the gaming phenomenon Tomb Raider puts players in Lara Croft’s hiking boots as she explores the ruin of Yamatai in this origins game. Powered by a modified Crystal Engine, the game features TressFX which creates beautifully rendered hair animation.
The most popular game on Steam and the biggest competition in eSports; DOTA 2 is powered by the Source engine. The game is fairly light on low to medium settings but maxed out with heavy action on screen especially during clashes can really stress some systsems.
We use the built-in timedemo and benchmarking tool. DOTA2 only shows average FPS so we will be reflecting that in this test. Our timedemo features a heavy clash in the bottom lane for the maximum real-world system load the game can generate.
Ubisoft’s hacker action puts you in the shoes of Aiden Pearce as you piece together a crime that has been haunting you since its occurrence. Rage through Chicago as presented by Ubisoft with its Disrupt engine utilizing vast video memory for high-resolution textures for visually stunning graphics.
CD Projekt Red’s latest installment in the Witcher saga features one of the most graphically intense offering the company has to date. As Geralt of Rivia, slay monsters, beasts and men as you unravel the mysteries of your past. Vast worlds and lush sceneries make this game a visual feast and promises to make any system crawl at its highest settings.
TEMPERATURE & POWER CONSUMPTION
To measure both power consumption and heat, we stress the video card and record the peak values for heat and wattage. We use default values on the cards and stress test them using a Kombustor 3’s Lake of Titans X64 test at 1080p fullscreen.
At a glance: The cooling performance on this card is quite excellent and while consumption is average, we did expect a bit of increase due to the relatively bright LED lighting that engulfs the GPU. Overall, the GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME GAMING has decent cooling which should equate to better performance from Boost clock increase.
CONCLUSION
Let’s break down the verdict:
Performance. As an overclocked card, this GTX 970 performs above the reference card and allows further increase via overclocking. GIGABYTE cherry picks the chips used for these cards so chances are high you’ll get decent overclocks but that still depends on how much the chip can do. Ultimately, out of the box it performs really well and thanks to the good cooling, we’re getting more due to the boost frequency.
Build Quality. GIGABYTE really did a good job on improving on the currently excellent Windforce cooler. While the design itself is nice, the overall build quality and addition of RGB LED lighting makes this GPU an excellent card both in looks and in overall build.
Functionality. While the performance of the card may be best suited for 1080p gaming, there’s plenty of function that this card can do outside of that and if you mostly play eSports titles, the GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME can handle those titles farely well even in 4K but we prefer to put this card at most at a 1440p setting. SLI would help but the VRAM limitation will be a factor, but still this card does well.
Bundle. Depending on when you bought this card, you might have a GeForce promotion going on where you’re entitled to a free game. Our card wasn’t but we’re not ruling this out and give NVIDIA some props for it.
Value. At $379, this card is priced above most GTX 970s especially mainstream ones. GIGABYTE has put a lot into the design of this card though and ultimately performance and build already justifies the premium. During this writing, some holiday promos may be active or in case of a new pending release, prices are expected to drop and while NVIDIA may hold on to their next GPU for a while, its only going to delay the replacement for the GTX 970 which is still makes this card a competitive option for the 1080p market.
The GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME GAMING showcases GIGABYTE’s new design idea for their GPU family and while performance isn’t anything revolutionary, the new XTREME GAMING line of cards is a peek at what we can see in the future for the new GIGABYTE VGAs. As for the GTX 970 XTREME GAMING, its an excellent GTX 970 and performs well in our benchmarks living up to our expectations.
If you’re looking for a great-looking GTX 970 for 1080p gaming, the GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME GAMING is an excellent choice if you’re into LED RGB lighting. It’s got a premium but its well-justified for the premium build of this card.
GIGABYTE backs the GTX 970 XTREME a 3-year warranty. We give it our B2G Silver Award!
Price / Where to Buy:
US – US$379 – GIGABYTE GTX 970 XTREME GAMING
PH – Approx. Php18500