MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G, an almost blank map – The Digital

On this first GeForce GTX 970 modified signed MSI, the manufacturer introduces a new Twin Frozr heatsink named V. This was particularly gifted as to cool silently as possible to achieve high frequencies.

Dimensions and noise

As to celebrate the arrival of the GeForce 900 series, MSI strenna here a new heatsink, the Twin Frozr V; -Ci generally uses the same construction as the version IV with a metal plate in contact with the GPU. This plate leaving four copper heat pipes that distribute the heat load on a radiator made of several aluminum fins. The power stage of the GPU, for its part, covered with a small heater while the rest of the components (memory, memory power stage …) benefits from metal plates.
But then, how is it new? Fans of course! A blade on two of these blowers has a special profile, while the Zero Frozr technology made its arrival. It is in fact to cut the fan when the load is low and the temperature is below 60 ° C. In short, a system similar to mode 0 dB Asus on its series Strix.
In addition, each fan can run at different speeds, depending on the temperature of the components that are righteous below. The scheme can be adjusted automatically or manually by the user. Incidentally, note that the height of the card is substantially less than “two slots”. For use in tri SLI, it can promote cooling.

A two blade enjoys a profile which, according to the manufacturer, would better direct the flow of air to the radiator.

In practice, it is necessarily effective because at rest the map makes no noise. Best of all, in games, the breath is certainly noticeable, but far from being disturbing; a simple hum at best. And if this is really a very discreet card, she can also keep the GPU cool, since the chip does not exceed 72 ° C after about an hour of intense heating.

Gaming Performance

In his series Gaming, MSI’s practice is to overclock the GPU and does not deprive here . The GM204-200 is thus pushed to 1140 MHz and default constructor advance GPU Boost frequency of 1279 MHz, an increase of 9% compared to the frequencies of non-overclocked models.
In practice The frequency was quickly proven to be extremely stable at 1304 MHz on our test. Enough to give average performance of 6.5 and 14% higher than the GeForce GTX 970 reference and thus exceed R9 Radeon 290x operating at clock rates. The GeForce GTX 980 non overclocked still remain inaccessible, since they preserve a lead of just under 9%.

In manual overclocking, we pushed the voltage of 33 mV and were able to stabilize the GPU to 1499 MHz and the graphics memory to 1775 MHz. A very high score that can really push a little further the average performance of the card (8% on average, up 15% from the 970 reference), but the limited memory bandwidth flange all slightly. Of course, overclocking is a very variable science and not all cards will hold these frequencies.

 

Consumption

The increase in frequency is not without impact on power consumption. With a value between 254 and 257 watts for each game, our test machine was pulling so much energy taking qu’équipée a GeForce GTX 980 This is not dramatic either, we remain in a report performance-consumer really correct.