Water cooling has been gaining a lot of traction in the enthusiast PC market over the course of the last couple years. The advent of the closed loop water cooler really changed the game, and now we’re seeing the technology applied to more and more products. Less than a year ago it was only the most expensive GPUs that were equipped with liquid cooling solutions, but it appears that is no longer the case. Although not the first to offer liquid cooling on a lower-tier product than the flagship, EVGA just broke the mold with the announcement of the GeForce GTX 970 Hybrid Gaming.
EVGA’s GeForce GTX 970 Hybrid is a liquid-cooled version of the company’s GeForce GTX 970 SC with the blower cooler. EVGA offers a wide range of different GTX 970 cards with varying clock speeds, but curiously, it opted to use its lowest-clocked offering as the base for the liquid-cooled rendition despite clearly having the thermal headroom for much more aggressive settings. EVGA claimed the Hybrid cooler keeps the GPU 40 degrees Celsius cooler than the standard blower cooler.
| EVGA GeForce GTX 970 HYBRID GAMING | |
|---|---|
| Part Number | 04G-P4-1976-KR |
| Base Clock: | 1140 MHz |
| Boost Clock: | 1279 MHz |
| Texture Fill Rate: | GT/s |
| Memory: | 4096 MB |
| Memory Clock: | 7010 MHz |
| Memory Bandwidth: | 224.3 GB/s |
| Warranty: | 3 Years |
The Hybrid liquid cooling solution, with its prefilled loop and 120 mm radiator, has been used on a number of EVGA’s previous products before, but it’s never been offered on a product at this price point. EVGA’s website has the GTX 970 Hybrid Gaking in stock and available for $399.99, which is only a $60 premium over the card equipped with the blower fan.
