AESTHETICS AND
COOLING (GTX 970 | 980)
The GTX 970 uses a similar cooler
as the GTX 980, thus I will cover
both here. Both are built around
the familiar WINDFORCE design,
but the 970 makes use of the 3X
model cooler with some creative
metal moulding that make it ever
so pleasing to the eye. At least over
and above the previous generation
efforts, which in 2015 do look rather
bland. As is the norm with the G1
cards, GIGABYTE includes a back
plate much like with other
competitors and it’s as appreciated
here as it is on those graphics cards.
For the GTX 970, the primary selling
points are the four 6mm heat pipes
which make direct contact with the
GPU core and anti-turbulence fan
blades.
Given that both the GTX 970 and
980 have relatively low TDPs one
would have thought that GIGABYTE
would use the same cooler on both
cards, but the GTX 980 has an even
beefier cooler, which may be the
reason why it had near identical
operating temperatures to the GTX
970, even though it shouldn’t in
theory. The GTX 980 model uses the
600 WATT cooler as first introduced
with the GTX TITAN Black GHZ
edition. The cooler that was capable
of taming that beast is installed on
the GTX 980 and needless to say
that it is truly no challenge for it to
keep this GPU under control in all
circumstances. This model has
five 8mm heat pipes, an additional
6mm heat pipe and I believe a
denser fin distribution than the
WINDFORCE 3X cooler, all of which
result in measurably better cooling
capabilities. Both cards rarely
hit the 70’C mark (in an enclosed
case with the GPU operating at the
overclocked settings you see
represented) which is particularly
low considering that a GTX 760 in
the same chassis using a 3rd party
cooler re