Home Gaming Nvidia’s GTX 970 specs (sort of) revealed

Nvidia’s GTX 970 specs (sort of) revealed

2 min read
28

tumblr_static_titan1

Earlier this week there was a massive performance leak of Nvidia’s new 900-series cards, which are expected to drop later this month. The closer we get, the more details find their way onto the internet. That’s why today there’s a pretty clear idea of what the smaller of the two cards, the GTX 970, might have under the fans.

As is with most GPU launches, there are usually two cards that hit the shelves; Reference and non-reference. Usually the latter comes out a bit later, but the leaked specifications for the GTX 970 show clear differences between the two already. Thanks to WCCFTech (who did a ton of translation) we have an idea on what memory, clock speeds and core the GTX 970 will ship with.

Looking at the reference card, the GTX 970 will have 1664 CUDA Cores on the die along with 32 ROPs and 138 TMUs. As expected, the card will also come standard with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, although only across a 256-bit memory interface clock at 1753 MHz.  The core and boost clock speeds sit at 1051 MHz and 1178 MHz respectively, which makes the card quite powerful when stacked up against its Kepler-based rivals.

As anyone would expect, the non-reference design just kicks things up a smidge in terms of memory and core clock speed. Here the memory sits at 1814 MHz, while the core and boost clocks each get bumps up to 1103 MHz and 1230 MHz. Non-reference designs will also probably have much better cooling solutions, considering the reference design might feature that nasty GTX 670 fan. A bit outdated, don’t you think?

The most interesting confirmation, and the reason why Maxwell cards are revolutionary in some way, is the power consumption. The GTX 970 delivers near Titan performance and yet the leaks seem to confirm that you’ll only need around 150 Watts of power. That’s insanely low for that type of performance, which somewhat accounts for the fact that there aren’t massive performance leaps.

These numbers will only be confirmed at the end of the month, but it really does seem likely that the GTX 970 will at least be very close to this. There might not be a reason to jump from the 700-series boat, but those on lower cards will find it hard not to upgrade, especially with suspected prices of only $399. Suck it, Titan.

Last Updated: September 11, 2014

28 Comments

  1. Well Erin is a Titan too so…..Header is not applicable HashBag JustSaying 😛

    Reply

  2. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    September 11, 2014 at 14:17

    Guess that will translate to about R6000 here… Probably a bit more.

    Things are looking good for the future of PC gaming! Will be excited to see how things are looking this time next year!

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      September 11, 2014 at 14:19

      Probably closer to R7k.

      Reply

      • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

        September 11, 2014 at 14:23

        I am sitting with this baby and paid R7k for it.

        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127754

        and I am just here to see if I didn’t make a mistake purchase and based on the stats and that mine runs 384-Bit I am still happy and do not feel like a complete moron xD

        Reply

        • Aries

          September 11, 2014 at 14:30

          the 770 and 780 are still good cards for me and with the eventual price drop will get me another 770 4gb

          Reply

          • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

            September 11, 2014 at 14:41

            I have thought about running SLI, but that needs a powersupply upgrade and another card for IMO not a very intense performance increase.

            I think I will probably just a full box overhaul in the next 3 years if life doesn’t give me other things to spend my money on xD

          • Aries

            September 11, 2014 at 14:57

            Guess there will always be other things to spend money on, but lucky for me i got a 800w PSU, got it on special so took it just in case i needed another GPU

          • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

            September 11, 2014 at 15:16

            lol! I have a 850, but I am so overcautious that I will only run SLI when I have over 1kW PSU. xD

          • Aries

            September 11, 2014 at 15:54

            850 enough, but a 1kw PSU good to have

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          September 11, 2014 at 14:36

          Not bad for green team 😉 I also want a card with 3GB memory when I upgrade, probably go with a R9 280 – should be good enough for 1080p for years to come, not interested in 4K.

          Reply

          • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

            September 11, 2014 at 14:40

            I must admit this card just runs anything on Ultra… I have never been this happy with a card before! o/

            I used to switch teams every now and then, but I settled on Green since Red gave me issues a few times with hardware and drivers. In the end we are talking BMW vs Merc though. Both awesome just minor differences IMO

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 11, 2014 at 14:47

            Yeah nothing wrong with either, but it’s more fun to pick a side hehe.

          • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

            September 11, 2014 at 14:53

            lol! Mercedes for me xD

            Also I must admit I haven’t used Radeon/AMD in years, but Nvidia’s software and drivers are just epic lately. They optimize game settings based on your system with Nvidia Experience and I am thoroughly impressed with how well that works.

            Does AMD have anything like that lately? I just haven’t read up on it in years.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            September 11, 2014 at 15:05

            AMD Gaming Evolved does the same thing I think. Been fortunate enough with my 6950 that I can just set everything to high & off I go, never bother with fiddling for an extra fps or 2. Have never had driver issues with AMD like so many other people say, last time I even used an Nvidia card was around 12 years ago.

        • Duffman! Formerly_known as_the

          September 11, 2014 at 16:07

          Did you actually buy from newegg or is that just reference? The prices they offer is just insane.

          Reply

          • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

            September 11, 2014 at 16:10

            Hahahaha! No, just a reference. I bought it locally.

            Importing electronics is a chore in SA, because of taxes and also the warranty isn’t local. =/

  3. Kikmi

    September 11, 2014 at 14:20

    *slow clap* for the header

    Reply

  4. Gareth L (That eXCheez Guy)

    September 11, 2014 at 15:02

    Will it have a fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor?

    Reply

  5. Sk3tz0

    September 11, 2014 at 15:09

    HEADER WIN.. ! Any1 know if season 2 has started??/

    Reply

  6. Pansyfaust

    September 11, 2014 at 15:10

    I’m a bit unsure that the card will need 150W of power. If it does why would they not simply have one 6 pin connector? Surely by the inclusion of a 2*6 pin power connectors it means the maximum theoretical load the PCB can draw is 225W ( more likely probably around 190 W). Also, the fact that the Galaxy variant has 6+8 power connector means that Galaxy are aiming for their non-reference desgn consume well over 150W of power, more likely around 225W. Regardless, very interesting times 🙂

    Reply

    • FSR

      September 12, 2014 at 08:37

      Maybe running stock it only needs 150w and more to OC?

      Reply

      • Pansyfaust

        September 12, 2014 at 08:54

        This is why I made mention of the Galaxy variant- if the reference card had a TDP of 150W and needed the extra juice for overclocking, i.e, have a theoretical power draw of 225W (75W from the Motherboard slot, and 75W per 6 pin connector) then why would the “overclocked” or enthusiast grade Galaxy card opt for 6+8 connectors with a theoretical power draw of 300W (8 pin = 150W). There is no way conventional air overclocking would allow for the amount of power draw you are suggesting based on the fact that Galaxy seem to be overcompensating by a massive margin then.

        Reply

  7. Sir Rants A Lot: On Pandora

    September 11, 2014 at 15:41

    Urm… wait a sec…. 150Watts? Is that the required power? That’s…. insanely low 0_o like crazy low.

    Reply

  8. Johan du Preez

    September 11, 2014 at 19:25

    Here is the Kicker its 1% faster than the 780

    Reply

    • chazwwe

      September 11, 2014 at 22:43

      Other sites have said its 30% faster than the 780TI.

      Reply

      • Johan du Preez

        September 12, 2014 at 08:11

        The claim thats its 30% faster, the first benchmarks shows its 1% faster.

        Here is the leaked benchmark and a link to the article. You will notice they claim 15% performance increase. But when you look at the graph its 1% faster than the 780ti.

        http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/gtx-980-benchmarks-leak-and-dont-disappoint/

        Reply

        • Andrew Bauman

          September 12, 2014 at 21:14

          If you look closely the 1% you are talking about is the overclocked 780ti, reference card is further down at 90%

          Reply

  9. Michael Matusowsky

    September 11, 2014 at 21:36

    Guys my eyes are kinda colourblind. Would the site owner mind darkening black text just a tad :)? Some words literally meld into the white background for my eyes.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Nvidia to finally stop support for Windows 7 and 8

It's hard to believe that the likes of Windows 7 and 8 are still being use by people, but …