ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 4GB ZT-90101-10P

Initially I bought a Zotac GTX980 AMP and was super happy with it. After I did more research it turns out that card is only about 5% faster than the 970 but 33% more expensive. I returned it to Amazon and picked up 2 of these and I couldn't be more happy. This card is FAR shorter than the GTX 980 and the 780TI which I had previously. After plugging them into my 750 watt Silverstone power supply everything came right back up.LUCKILY my motherboard came with an SLI bridge as it looks like these cards no longer come with a free SLI bridge. I ran GTAV with just about everything but AA (you dont need it at 4k) and everything was framelocked at 60 fps.I have played the following games at all 4k and framelocked at 60FPS (60hz @4k)Farcry 4GTA VDragon Age: InquisitionBoth cards combined came out to about $614 ($307) each. At this price they are a steal. The cards running in SLI completely destroy the $1000 dollar TitanX at every resolution and in every game and we are not just talking about a few frames.. it's considerable.Everything fits great in my micro atx case (pictured) The case is a Silverstone Fortress FT03.I don't think there is a better deal out there right now. The cards together are nearly silent and I was even ale to install another case fun below them (not shown in the photo).For only about 80 dollars more than a single GTX980 I got 2 GTX970s!I have never been more impressed with video cards before and I have pretty much owned every generation of Nvida cards since the RIVA TNT

I typically never write a product review on any computer parts. However I must say that this is by far the best video card I've purchased in at least 10 years. I actually upgraded from a stock eVGA 780 Ti. Yes the eVGA card was more powerful, and has a better bus (256-bit vs 384-bit) but the reference design is far to hot running idle and also the fan was too loud. I've never owned a Zotac card before. I was pleasantly surprised about the build quality of the fans, and the cooling unit. I am also very happy with the length of the card, nearly half the length of the eVGA 780 Ti. Out of the box, the card runs idle at 35C withou little to no fan noise even though I can see it operating via my clear glass window on my case. Firestorm app that comes with the card is MUST install. I think it's even better than eVGA PrecisionX 16. Better tweaking and it allows the user to unlock voltage as well. I haven't even attempted to overclock the card yet because it runs all the games and apps just fine in dual monitor 1080p resolution. I used to have a 29 inch 4K monitor but it was not worth keeping and the 780Ti was a great video card for that monitor. I've since gone back to my 24 Inch monitors that are far better in quality and both (and a 3rd one) support only 1080p.Performance wise, the card never gets beyond 50C when playing games like Batman Arkham Knight or Crysis 3. I can play games on ultra settings with the onboard 4GB GDDR5 which I couldn't even do with the 780Ti due to it's 3GB GDDR5. Make no mistake though the games can only use up to 3.5 GB GDDR5. There is some kind of reserved memory block on this card at 512 K GDDR5. The best thing, I still can't hear the fans. I can actually leave the volume low on playing games. I could never do that with the eVGA stock reference cooler design used on the 780 Ti. Very awesome card. I don't think I ever need SLI since the majority of AAA titles don't support SLI until quite a few patches later. But from initial testing I can overclock the card to perform 15-20% better on FPS in Crysis 3 (this is my benchmark game) which gets right into 980 performance without having to spend $140 more.

I am loving this card right now, in terms of outperforming my older gtx 660 in frame rate, resolution, and maxing, playing games at higher settings and frame rate such as Metro Last Light, GTA V, Ryse Son of Rome, Crysis 3, BF4, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, etc.However, there is one downside, at least for me: the card right out the box. The card had heat issues and noisy fans, going over 80c when only 10-20 minutes in gaming, which you would definitely want to be cooler. So I had to look up some workarounds, luckily to find EVGA Precision to monitor and tune the fan speeds and GPU Temperature target, AND unscrewing the GPU itself to apply newer thermal paste. It still can be noisy at times, and run a little warm, but it definitely is not as bad as it was right out the box.I am now running more demanding games at a more consistent 60-70+c with not much or as bad fan noise as beforeI would give it 5 stars due to the nice price point and performance supplied (not to mention smaller than I thought), but the issues I had the first time around using it almost made me want to return it, only to figure it out by searching around with worry that there won't be a fix/solution. However, so far so good.ANOTHER thing to note, from what I heard, you could lock games at a vsync and the GPU won't work as hard due to the FPS being consistent and staying put to where it is most the time. I am not a huge PC gamer with knowledge, but I think this is another thing to look into as well.So keep an eye on something like this, and buy with confidence!