ZOTAC GTX 970 AMP! EXTREME & CORE Review

👤by Richard Weatherstone Comments 📅28-03-15
Closer Look (Core)


The heatsink has been redesigned slightly from the older card. While both cards make use of 5 heatpipes, the Core edition does not nickel coat the copper and the orientation is also slightly different. the same twin aluminium finned arrays are in place but this time the memory modules do not receive direct cooling from the heatsink. Instead a separate brace is used which is screwed through the card to the backplate making the card much more rigid.


The PCB design is much more regular and more akin to a reference design than the older Extreme version.


Perhaps the most striking omission is in the VRM area. This time around we see a 4+1+2 setup which is just over half the amount of power phases we saw with the AMP! Extreme. Hopefully this will not equate to a loss in performance and is simply testament to the power efficiencies made in this latest design!


Much has been said regarding NVIDIA's poor marketing strategy. Some would say it was an oversight, others would say it was a devious tactic. Whichever camp you find yourself in, one thing is clear: NVIDIA won't be doing that again in a hurry. Unsure what we're talking about here? Very briefly, the specs of the GTX970 read as 4096MB. While this remains true, what NVIDIA failed to tell us was that the card has been segmented into a 3.5GB section and a 0.5GB section. Previously (and we were guilty of this too), media assumed the GTX970 had the same memory sub-system as the GTX980 however the lower number of ROPs on the 970 should have not added up. We missed it, and so did everyone else until questions started being raised about the memory allocation of the GTX970 by multiple users forcing NVIDIA to release a press statement.

In short, the GTX970 still has its 4GB but will only use 3.5GB for most games. The extra 0.5GB segment will only come into play when required and it does not appear that the extra 0.5GB performs as well as a full 'priority access' to 4GB ala GTX980.


The GM204 GTX970 Maxwell core in all its nakedness!

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