- Date:
- Monday , September 29, 2014
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Share:

MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G Video Card Review
The MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G video card is making the GeForce GTX 780 and AMD Radeon R9 290 obsolete. This $349 video card puts up a fight and punches in a win at this price. The overclock alone is somewhat staggering. If you are about to spend money on a GPU, don't miss this one.
Summary
The GeForce GTX 970 has an MSRP of $329, which is priced right in the way to blow the GeForce GTX 770 (which is being discontinued) and the AMD Radeon 280X out of the water at these prices. In terms of performance though the GeForce GTX 970 is performing in competition with, and beating, the GeForce GTX 780 and AMD Radeon R9 290 which are priced even higher.
The MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G will be available at $349 plus $6 shipping, about $20 over MSRP. It is available from Amazon for $359.99 with Prime Shipping. We have been watching these cards go in and out of stock.
Gaming Summary
We were surprised how well the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING did in comparison to the higher priced GeForce GTX 780 and AMD Radeon R9 290. In every game the GTX 970 either beat these in performance, or gameplay experience. Battlefield 4 was truly impressive by allowing a playable 4X MSAA at 1440p with maximum game settings. The GTX 780 and AMD R9 290 could come anywhere near that level of performance.
Watch Dogs is a newer game that also showed a big improvement on the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING compared to the GTX 780 and R9 290. We were able to play at 1440p with ultra textures, hbao+ and temporal SMAA which all greatly improved the gameplay experience. This video card gives us a high-end experience in this new game, whereas the R9 290 and GTX 780 had to make many sacrifices, and even then these were slower.
In Far Cry 3 there was also a performance and gameplay advantage by allowing 4X MSAA at 1440p. We even saw a gameplay performance in Tomb Raider by allowing TressFX which the GTX 780 could not do.
GTX 970 an upgrade over GTX 780?
One of the questions we've seen in the forums are people wondering if the GeForce GTX 970 could be an upgrade for GTX 780 and AMD R9 290. As far as the GTX 780 goes the GTX 970 is actually a performance and gameplay experience upgrade. In every game we tested performance was faster and allowed a better gameplay experience. In fact, the difference in performance was greater between the GTX 970 and GTX 780 than it was the R9 290. The R9 290 is faster at times compared to the GTX 780.
The GeForce GTX 780 was launched at $649 originally, and then a price cut came a while later and dropped the pricing to around $499. Here comes the GeForce GTX 970 at $329 and it is thoroughly trashing the GeForce GTX 780.
If you currently have a GTX 780, the 970 would give you an upgrade if you chose a highly overclocked factory card, or overclock it yourself. Do keep in mind though that we are not talking a huge upgrade, but there would be noticeably better performance. If you chose to overclock a custom GTX 970 it will be even better.
GTX 970 an upgrade over R9 290?
This one is a little more trickier. The AMD Radeon R9 290 is faster than the GeForce GTX 780 most of the time. Therefore, the difference between it and the GeForce GTX 970 is lessened. However, there does still exist a performance difference, and that performance difference is proven to be better with the GeForce GTX 970. A highly overclocked GTX 970 could be a performance upgrade.
If you chose to manually overclock to 1.5GHz the 970 will definitely be faster than an AMD Radeon R9 290. However, the 290 can be overclocked as well. If you bought a highly factory overclocked 290 the difference will again be lessened. The better upgrade, to get a more substantial boost, would be to the GeForce GTX 980.
The AMD Radeon R9 290 was launched at $399 and thus the GeForce GTX 970 is definitely the better value at $329. With the GeForce GTX 970 there is no point to buy an AMD Radeon R9 290 now if it is more than $350.
Cards Being Wiped Out Left and Right
What the GeForce GTX 970 is really doing is knocking cards out of the ring left and right. The GeForce GTX 780 is knocked out, yes it is being discontinued, but even if it wasn't its $400 price tag makes it irrelevant with the $329 GeForce GTX 970. The AMD Radeon R9 290 is also irrelevant, unless AMD comes out with a price cut. At $399 it is also outmatched by the cheaper and faster GTX 970. The only thing that will save the AMD R9 290 at this point is going to be a price cut. AMD has to get the price honestly to $299 for the AMD R9 290 to remain competitive in our opinion.
A couple of other cards we haven't talked much about are also in danger. The GeForce GTX 770 (being discontinued) and AMD's Radeon R9 280X. AMD Radeon R9 280X cards are in that price range where the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 now exists. The AMD R9 280X is no competition for GTX 970, much slower than R9 290, and based on Tahiti GPU technology, (remember this used to be the Radeon HD 7970) it is far away from GTX 970 performance. The GeForce GTX 970 renders the AMD Radeon R9 280X completely obsolete. There is no point in buying the AMD Radeon R9 280X. The GeForce GTX 970 is ridiculously faster. AMD has a lot of catching up to do for the GeForce GTX 970. The big question everyone is asking is the bigger version of AMD Tonga (Radeon R9 285's potential "XT" cousin R9 285X?
up to the job to compete with GTX 970.
Overclocking
Let's make this very clear, there is more headroom for overclocking the GeForce GTX 970 GPU on our MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING video card than the power limit allows. We believe that 1600MHz (maybe even more) would be playable out of this GPU if the power limit allowed us to go above 110%.
The reason we say this is that we achieved 1592MHz without even upping the voltage before the power limiter hit the TDP and throttled the clock speed. If we can hit 1592MHz without changing the voltage, then with voltage clock speeds in excess of 1600MHz should be possible. That is insane headroom. BIOS modders who do away with the TDP power limit are going to have a field day with GTX 970 cards. We expect to see some insane clock speeds with exotic cooling and power delivery systems.
That said, even with the 110% power limit in place we still managed to overclock from 1366MHz to 1542MHz which is a very high overclock. Can you believe we are talking about 1.5GHz GPU clock speeds all the sudden on 28nm GPUs? It is absolutely insane, and we love it.
Don't let the GPU steal the show though, the memory also went through the roof by allowing us to overclock from 7GHz to a huge 8GHz, and there was still even some more room for overclocking if the power limit for TDP wasn't there, or higher. The MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING is an overclocker’s dream. The overclock made real differences, averaging about 12% faster with the overclock. This could mean the GTX 970 could rival GTX 980 stock performance!
The Bottom Line
Standard pricing on GeForce GTX 970 video cards is $329, this is a perfect price for GeForce GTX 970. As we mentioned it kicks many cards to the curb, the GeForce GTX 770 and GeForce GTX 780 are going away. The GTX 970 pushes the AMD Radeon R9 280X and AMD Radeon R9 290 down and then steals their lunch money. If AMD doesn't price cut the AMD R9 290, it is done for. We don't know what can be done about the AMD Radeon R9 280X as it really has no hope left with educated buyers. We look forward to seeing if AMD has anything up its sleeve with higher-end Tonga SKUs. The GeForce GTX 970 claims the throne in this price bracket.
The MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING is priced a bit higher at $349 with $6 shipping, or at $359.99 with Prime Shipping. For that price you get a custom PCB, the new Twin Frozr V custom cooling, high-end components and a factory overclock that runs very fast at 1366MHz while gaming. There is also that little deal about the overclocking potential, which is actually greater than the power limit allows.
We very much enjoyed gaming on the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING video card. Temperatures were cool with almost no sound from the fans while gaming. Temperature was not holding back the overclock with maximum voltage. MSI did a great job with the new Twin Frozr V and the cooling abilities on this video card. That $20 over MSRP buys you a lot, and we think the price is justified. Even at $349 this video cards is still an incredible deal for performance and pricing.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 GPUs truly are this generations sweet spot for performance and price. GTX 970 video cards are going to be popular solutions for gamers and hardware enthusiasts alike.

