09-20-2015, 05:22 AM
It's not a reference design card. As I said before, not all cards with closed shrouds and centrifugal blowers are reference design cards. It's definitely an OEM design card, IIRC the design is based off of the old GTX 760.
But as undeath said the actual reference design GTX 970 is incredibly rare, especially in the US. If you're lucky to find the reference design, then definitely get it. Otherwise you kind of have to go with an OEM design. The one you've linked to is not bad and should work well for you, but there are better (MSI GTX 970 4GD5 OC, ASUS TURBO-GTX970-OC-4GD5.)
But as undeath said the actual reference design GTX 970 is incredibly rare, especially in the US. If you're lucky to find the reference design, then definitely get it. Otherwise you kind of have to go with an OEM design. The one you've linked to is not bad and should work well for you, but there are better (MSI GTX 970 4GD5 OC, ASUS TURBO-GTX970-OC-4GD5.)