Another gpu question
#1
Hey everyone! First time posting! =)

I have a quick question that hopefully someone could help me with. I have been getting parts to build a relatively affordable pc, and I have been trying to decide on a gpu. I would like to use hashcat a bit, and I have read plenty of posts highly recommending to use reference design graphics cards.


So here is the question, I have found this card:

http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-geforce-...101999.htm

Which as you can see has reference in the name, however it does not look like the reference design blower. I am wondering, is it reference? or what is going on here? Am I mistaken, and there actually isn't a reference blower for the gtx 970?

Hopefully some can help. =P


Thank you so much!
#2
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.asp...P4-1970-KR

"EVGA GeForce GTX 970 GAMING"

Looks kinda "reference", has "GAMING" in the product title so, no, it isn't a pure reference dessign. However, it is a blower design which is the reason reference cards are preferred.

Even the reviews on that link are at odds so maybe it'll work out great for you, maybe not (one review says it runs hot and so it's noisy due to fans ramping up, the other says "quiet as a mouse"...)
#3
(12-03-2015, 03:27 PM)rico Wrote: t is a blower design which is the reason reference cards are preferred.

It's not "the" reason, it's "a" reason. Reference design cards also use higher quality components.
#4
Was going to write stuff, but epixoip already covered that :

https://hashcat.net/forum/thread-3949-po...l#pid22449
https://hashcat.net/forum/thread-3949-po...l#pid22844

All the info is here.
#5
I kind of figured it probably wasn't, not sure why they say it is then. Maybe it's a reference pcb but custom blower, I am not sure. From what I have seen, a reference gtx 970 is kind of hard to find.

 I also noticed a gtx 980 (which I assume is actually reference) also by evga:
 http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-geforce-gtx-980-4gb-5e-102001.htm
 It also has "gaming" in the name. From what I read it's best to go by the reference design pictures from nvidia.
 
Oh yeah totally read those posts by epixoip, I was searching through his posts a bit ago trying to find more information on this.
 
Thank you guys for your answers. =)
#6
Correct, it is not a reference card, it is an OEM design based on the old GTX 670 reference design. Furthermore, the old "if it has 'GAMING' in the title it's not reference design" line really applies mostly to AMD, not Nvidia.

Yes, the GTX 970 reference design is difficult to obtain.