Gaming at 4K with Gainward's GeForce GTX 970 SLI Graphics Cards

When Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 970 last month it was positioned as the ideal candidate for multi-GPU 4K gaming rigs, offering 16% more operation than the Radeon R9 290 at high resolutions while costing twenty% less.

Afterwards such a strong launch, AMD was forced to cut prices. The Radeon R9 290 was dropped from $399 to $299 (10% cheaper than the GTX 970), the R9 290X moved from $549 to $399 and the R9 285 is now effectually for as depression as $229.

Folks looking to game at 4K now accept some pretty capable multi-GPU options for equally little every bit $600. Because not even the GTX 980 can handle 4K gaming in the most enervating titles, that'south groovy news.

For a slight premium over the GTX 980, the R9 290 or GTX 970 could be doubled upwardly for $600 or $660 -- either should outperform a lone GTX 980, though we bet the GTX 970 will outdo the R9 290 in 4K performance and in power consumption.

Test Organization Specs

As usual, we tested each card with Fraps to record its boilerplate frame charge per unit in seconds over a prepare amount of fourth dimension. Nosotros typically run tests for 60 seconds. Reporting the boilerplate frames per second is how things have been done for... well, forever. It's a fantastic metric in the sense that it's easy to record and easy to understand just it doesn't tell the whole story.

To become a fuller picture yous need to factor in a carte's frame latency, which looks at how speedily each frame is delivered. Regardless of how many frames a graphics card produces on boilerplate in lx seconds, if it tin can't deliver them all at roughly the same speed, you lot might see more cursory jittery points with one GPU over some other -- something nosotros've witnessed but didn't fully empathise.

Bold two cards deliver equal boilerplate frame rates, the one with lowest stable frame latency is going to offer the smoothest pic, and that'due south a pretty important detail to consider if you're about to drop a wad of cash. Every bit such, we'll be including this data from now on past measuring how long in milliseconds information technology takes cards to return each frame individually and and then graphing that in a digestible way.

Examination System Specs