You can sign up to get a daily email of our articles, see the Mailing List page.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

The Palit GeForce GTX970 Jetstream 4GB Is A Monster

By - | Views: 15,950
I finally decided what graphics card to upgrade with, and my choice was the Palit GeForce GTX970 Jetstream 4GB, and wow what a card performance wise.

I rarely update my PC, but with the increasing amount of AAA games it was becoming needed. Especially as my 560ti has been getting lower frame-rates in games than I have been wanting for a smooth experience. Unity games especially are quite resource hungry, so this should do me for quite some time I hope.

A shot of the new beast sitting in the box:
image

Here's a look at different frame-rates across a few select games, these are the FPS (lowest-highest) I seem to get at different scenes.

Not 'official benchmarks' here, but a general look at just how good the card is in my real-world testing of it. These are not really automated benchmarks, just proper use of the card to see how it performs for a gamer.

Tested together with an Intel i5 4670K 3.4GHZ, 8GB DDR3 RAM and Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.1 64bit. This is with the 346.35 Nvidia driver.

Borderlands 2
1920x1080, High settings, 4X AF

560ti: 37-51
970: 38 for a split second, and then mostly lowest of ~55 - 130

Metro 2033 Redux
Detail level set to High.

560ti: 30-40
970: 113-160

The Witcher 2
1920x1080, High Settings, V-Sync Off

560ti: 23-37FPS (Noticeably sluggish too)
970: 53-99 (HOORAY! I can finally play it!)

Unigine Heaven
This was only tested on the 970 due to time and impatience on my part (I want to play games!).

On Ultra settings, Extreme tesellation, and 8X AA it managed a minimum of 30.5 and a max of 79.5, I think that's amazing for something so demanding, and again shows how good the card really is.

Annoyingly, I had to buy a new power supply unit to go with it, as the 970 made my original 500w Cooler Master squeal like a pig on helium (coil whine), and it was extremely annoying. So, this became a rather expensive upgrade, but it should make my Livestreams and game-play video's much smoother. I thought it was the new graphics card making all the noise, but after careful listening when taking the PSU out of the case I found out that it was creating the noise.

It also seems to have lights on it, so that's something. Not sure why anyone wants fancy lights and stuff like that, but it was an interesting surprise:
image
Yes, I know my cables are a mess, and I'm okay with that.

Verdict: Bloody buy it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
0 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
24 comments
Page: 1/3»
  Go to:

olbi Jan 18, 2015
No more Linux, as a platform for games and bussiness. I was trying to using it 3 years but that's enaugh.

For graphics cards I prefer now Zotac because of 5 years extended warranty :)
Supay Jan 18, 2015
I have the exact same problem. An old Core 2 Quad and 560ti which have been fine till now as most games I've played under Linux aren't very demanding. Now AAA recent titles have started appearing, I have been forced to realise how outdated my poor old rig is.

Looking at upgrading to an i5 4690K, Asrock Extreme 6 motherboard, 16GB DDR3 and a 970 as the core of the system. Just need to decide on an SSD, case/PSU and cooling, and make sure all the parts operate under Linux correctly.
lave Jan 18, 2015
sitting on my Q6600 + AMD5770 until 14nm CPU and 14/20nm GPUs become available, even tho these get delayed over and over again. i just cba to buy new hardware that is just a refresh of 1-2year old equipment
GoCorinthians Jan 18, 2015
Welcome to 970 club!

New generation of console always pushes new stantard to GPU minimum requirements. Thats completly fine as most people didnt have reason to upgrade theirs rigs for years...

Last just hope that SteamOS become a huge sucess and of course linux will show its true power...
tmtvl Jan 18, 2015
So, that's with the open-source driver, right? [/troll]

TBH, though that's some pretty cool specs for gaming hardware.
Avehicle7887 Jan 18, 2015
Great choice Liam, I'm on a 760 atm but aiming for a 970 for the future. Do you mind telling me which driver version are you using? Version 346.35 was released a couple of days ago.
Liam Dawe Jan 18, 2015
I am using the 346.35 driver.
Avehicle7887 Jan 18, 2015
Quoting: liamdaweI am using the 346.35 driver.

Thanks :-) I'll update right away.
gojul Jan 18, 2015
I have a Zotac GeForce 970 on my Linux box and it works fine.

I had previously on another box a Gainward GTX 460 which ran out of order because the mosfets did not have a heatsink... Then on that box I went with a Zotac 660 Ti and all the issues were gone.

The only issue with my 970 is that I need to use a PPA for drivers on my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. I hope this will be fixed with the next HWE.
Hamish Jan 18, 2015
And here I am still thinking of my recently acquired Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 as a massive monster, but then of course my demands are much smaller than yours... ;)

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?pid=1270
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.