THE GEFORCE GTX 970 WINDFORCE 3X OC

The GeForce GTX 970 WindForce 3X OC is a dual slot model that measures roughly 295mm long and 110mm tall and so it should fit in most cases currently in the market.

GIGABYTE has been using the WindForce 600W system for quite some time now and although the WindForce 3X is actually a slightly cut-down version of that it still has a similar number of fins and of course three high-RPM 60mm fans.

The WindForce logo is placed at the top of the black shroud but although we expected it to have a LED beneath it actually doesn't (perhaps that applies with other WindForce models).

Unlike the G1 model again by GIGABYTE the rear of the 3X OC is "naked" and although this means better cooling in some cases still a rear plate provides better stability.

Both SLI connectors feature rubber protective caps.

The card is powered by both a 8pin and a 6pin PCI-E connectors.

The PCI-E slot is also covered with a rubber protective cap.

GIGABYTE has placed two DVI ports, three DisplayPorts and one HDMI v2.0 port on the GeForce GTX 970 WindForce 3X OC (all are protected with rubber caps) and thanks to their FLEX display technology you can use both DVI ports, one DisplayPort and the HDMI at the same time (or all three DisplayPorts, one DVI and the HDMI port).

Since we basically started testing graphics cards from scratch i had to go out and "borrow" as many models as i could from friends (much faster that way) and in the end i was only able to get two GTX 960 cards (ASUS STRIX 2GB/MSI Gaming 2GB), another GTX 970 card (EVGA FTW ACX 2.0 4GB) and a single Radeon R9 280X card (ASUS DirectCU II 3GB). Of course we still have a GTX 670 and a GTX 650 in the lab (and a 590 which stopped working a few days ago) so this should be somewhat interesting.