The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Review: Featuring EVGA
by Ryan Smith on September 26, 2014 10:00 AM ESTTotal War: Rome 2
The second strategy game in our benchmark suite, Total War: Rome 2 is the latest game in the Total War franchise. Total War games have traditionally been a mix of CPU and GPU bottlenecks, so it takes a good system on both ends of the equation to do well here. In this case the game comes with a built-in benchmark that plays out over a forested area with a large number of units, definitely stressing the GPU in particular.
For this game in particular we’ve also gone and turned down the shadows to medium. Rome’s shadows are extremely CPU intensive (as opposed to GPU intensive), so this keeps us from CPU bottlenecking nearly as easily.
Yet again we have a situation where the winner and loser is effectively decided by the resolution in use. GTX 970 will trail at 4K, only to take a slight lead at 1440p. As we’ve stated before 1440p and 1080p are going to be the sweet spots for GTX 970 based on its $329 price tag, so for GTX 970 this means it’s winning or tying in the resolutions where it matters the most.
Of course if you factor in the FTW overclock then the point becomes moot. With the GTX 970 and R9 290XU tracking so close together, the higher clock speeds mean that a GTX 970 card can push ahead of R9 290XU on average.
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dibbademevos - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
hidibbademevos - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
hi
SkyBill40 - Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - link
Having always been an MSI guy, I've not really considered going with another vendor... until now. This looks like a nice card which also happens to conveniently match my color scheme whereas the red coloring of the MSI Gaming line sadly does not. Still, the overclocks are pretty much a wash and the only real differences seem to be in the cooling solution. The ACX 2.0 seems to be on par with the MSI, so I suppose I could go either way.Oxford Guy - Saturday, October 4, 2014 - link
Is it the case that the ACX card uses only 4 power phases which is why overclocking it beyond the factory setting isn't going to work very well? There is no mention of power phases in your article.Kanuj5678 - Sunday, October 5, 2014 - link
GTX 970 beats the shit out of everything and that too in style with lowest TDPCheers
Kanuj
ambientblue - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
Enthusiasts dont care about TDP that much. The 290x is held back by HSF cooling (Uber mode is actually stock advertised speeds) while the GTX 970 is not. Water-cool the 290x and OC it to 1200mhz and it will match a 980, surpassing it at 4K resolution easily.igyb - Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - link
Is the gtx 970 just an underclocked 980? i might just get that because i cant really afford a 980.Kimtastic - Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - link
Dear Ryan,I had a MSI GTX 970 and found that under heavy load the core clock was fluctuating and causing FPS drops. After having read this article, I now understand that its due to the TDP limit. Is this something that will/can be fixed or something permanent?
I would be grateful for your advice. Many thanks.
hoohoo - Thursday, October 23, 2014 - link
Thank you for including an HD7970 in the test!Shoiti2 - Monday, November 3, 2014 - link
Those price are damn cheap. I would say, buying a gtx980 in the U.S wouldnt even buy a gtx 970 in Brazil. I'm living in Brazil right now and ordered an evga gtx 970 sc. Ok, how much did i pay for the gtx 970!! Nothing less than $750USD.the Gtx 970 at $750USD still very cheap for us Brazilian, the world's most expensive country.
The evga gtx 980 is costing around $1100USD, not kidding, check for yourself.