Review: Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phoenix

by Parm Mann on 28 September 2015, 16:45

Tags: Gainward, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacuwm

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Test Methodology

Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phoenix Specification


GPU Comparisons

Graphics Card GPU Cores Base Clock
(MHz)
Boost Clock
(MHz)
Memory Size
(MB)
Memory Clock
(MHz)
Memory Bus
(bits)
Graphics Driver
Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X 3,072 1,000 1,076 12,288 7,012 384 353.06
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti 2,816 1,000 1,076 6,144 7,012 384 353.06
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 2,048 1,127 1,216 4,096 7,012 256 353.06
Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phoenix 1,664 1,152 1,304 4,096 7,012 256 355.98
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 OC ITX 1,664 1,076 1,216 4,096 7,012 256 355.85
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 1,664 1,050 1,178 4,096 7,012 256 353.06
Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti 2,880 876 928 3,072 7,012 384 353.06
Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 1,536 1,006 1,058 2,048 6,008 256 353.06
AMD Radeon R9 Fury X 4,096 N/A 1,050 4,096 1,000 4,096 15.15 beta
AMD Radeon R9 Nano 4,096 N/A 1,000 4,096 1,000 4,096 15.201 beta
Sapphire Radeon R9 Fury Tri-X 3,584 N/A 1,040 4,096 1,000 4,096 15.15 beta
Sapphire Radeon R9 390X Tri-X 2,816 N/A 1,055 8,192 6,000 512 15.15 beta
AMD Radeon R9 290X 2,816 N/A 1,000 4,096 5,000 512 15.5 beta
AMD Radeon R9 290 2,560 N/A 947 4,096 5,000 512 15.5 beta
AMD Radeon HD 7970 2,048 925 N/A 3,072 5,500 384 15.5 beta

HEXUS Graphics Test Bench

Hardware Components HEXUS Review Product Page
Processor Intel Core i7-4770K (quad-core, overclocked up to 4.40GHz) June 2013 Intel.com
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D15 April 2014 Noctua.at
Motherboard Asus Z97-A May 2014 Asus.co.uk
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1,866MHz - Corsair.com
Power Supply Corsair AX760i - Corsair.com
Primary Storage Device Crucial M500 240GB SSD July 2013 Crucial.com
Secondary Storage Device SK hynix Canvas SC300 512GB SSD June 2015 SKhynix.com
Chassis Corsair Graphite Series 600T October 2010 Corsair.com
Monitor Philips Brilliance 4K Ultra HD LED (288P6LJEB/00) - Philips.co.uk
Operating system Windows 10 (64-bit) - Microsoft.com

Benchmark Suite

Synthetic Benchmarks
3DMark Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme and Fire Strike Ultra
Gaming Benchmarks and Settings
Alien: Isolation SMAA-T2x, Maximum Quality
BioShock Infinite AA Enabled, Ultra Preset inc. Depth of Field
Grand Theft Auto V FXAA, 16xAF, Very High Quality
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Ultra Quality Preset
Tomb Raider FXAA, Ultra Quality Preset
Total War: Rome II Extreme Preset
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt High Quality Preset
General Benchmarks
Power Consumption To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record system-wide mains power draw both when idle and while playing Grand Theft Auto V.
Temperature To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and while playing Grand Theft Auto V.
Noise A PCE-318 meter is used to record noise levels when idle and while playing Grand Theft Auto V.
Overclocking Maintaining out-the-box voltage, we increase the card's power target and aim for an optimal balance of core and memory overclock. With the heightened frequencies in place, the 3DMark, Grand Theft Auto V and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt tests are re-run at 4K UHD settings.

Notes

To minimise the impact of any CPU bottlenecks, our test platform is configured with a quad-core Intel Core i7-4770K processor overclocked at up to 4.4GHz and 16GB of Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 memory set to run at 1,866MHz using the built-in XMP profile.

For our high-end benchmark suite, we have an array of games tested at FHD (1,920x1,080), QHD (2,560x1,440) and 4K UHD (3,840x2,160) resolutions. Where applicable, any vendor-specific enhancements such as PhysX and TressFX are disabled to help even the playing field. In-game benchmark results are recorded as minimum and average frames per second.

The Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phoenix has been tested on the latest available driver to provide a better idea of current performance, and we are aware that price-comparable Radeon R9 390 is missing from our line-up. Fear not, we have an overclocked R9 390 heading our way for an upcoming review.