Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core review - Product Showcase

Product Showcase: GeForce GTX 970

Let's start with our photo-shoot. Two pages worth of photos then and all of them from our own photo-shoot.

So as you can see, the Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme version (keep in mind that this is the CORE edition of the AMP! Extreme series), which comes with an even faster GPU base and core clock frequency. They overhauled their board from the reference design. You will spot a custom PCB with two 6-pin power header for a little more overclocking headroom. The PCB is matte black in color and of course a dual-slot cooler is being used. 

The card is huge, like 30 cm man! All due to the cooler extending at the rear, very lengthy. This is the CORE and thus OC edition of the AMP! Extreme series, meaning it has higher factory clocks, let me rephrase that to VERY HIGH. The GPU core base clock is ticking over at 1,228 MHz, while there is boost allowance up-to 1,380 MHz. The graphics memory used comes from Samsung and is clocked at 7.2 GHz (effective data-rate) tied towards a 256-bit wide memory bus of 4 GB GDDR5 memory, well 3.5 GB (let's just stick to that).

The card is based on a nice dual-slot solution, it is heat-pipe based. The air flow is split through a fan edge and is guided through the fans with the special curve design.

The reference cards will have a maximum power design of roughly 160 Watts, but due to the higher clocks and the extra voltage needed that goes along with that, please allow for more. In combo with component selection this should still be plenty for a nice tweak, even on such a small form factor. The card has a truly lovely backplate, done right with plenty of gaps for the GPU and VRM area to vent with enough clearance inbetween the PCB and backplate as well.
 

The card will offer you five display connectors, you'll spot three full size Display Port connectors, one full size HDMI 2.0 connector and one DVI connectors (dual-link). HDMI is 2.0 compatible meaning that compatible monitors and tellys can do UHD at 60 Hz, DP is 1.2 but has support for eDP 1.4. Your maximum resolution can be 5120 x 3200 pixels at 60 Hz. You can combine these connectors to set up a surround view (multi-monitor) setup.