Dragon Tomb Bones‧Toxic Dragon MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME Green Dragon Graphics Card Finishing Unboxing

The MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME graphics card that debuted at CES 2015 was a special model to celebrate NVIDIA GeForce reaching 100 million units shipped at that time, and now eight years later, what kind of color and value does this special edition card have?

MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME Specification:
Graphics Core: NVIDIA GeForce GTX970
Bus Specification: PCI Express 3.0 x16
Memory Size: 4GB GDDR5
Memory clock: 7010
Memory Interface: 256-bit
3GPU clock: 1279 MHz (OC Mode), 1253 MHz (Gaming Mode), 1178 MHz (Silent Mode)
Multi-GPU Tandem Technology: SLI 4-way
Display output: DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2
Multi-screen output limit: 4
Dimensions: 277 x 140 x 45 mm
Recommended Wattage: 400W
Power Supply Interface: 8+6 PCIe Pins
Occupied Slot: 2 Slot

MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME Graphics Card Unboxing

In fact, I've had this MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME (commonly known as the Green Dragon) in my collection for quite some time now, but I was actually aiming at the lower GTX 960 GAMING 100ME at first because it was cheaper, and I was only buying it for display, so I didn't really care about the core specs, and I just happened to see a couple of days ago that someone was selling the GTX 970 GAMING 100ME in a full box with the thermal paste intact, and for only 1.5 pcs of cooler. The other day I saw a GTX 970 GAMING 100ME in a full box with no thermal paste, and it was only 1.5 kids, so I took it back without saying a word.

Earlier in this card's history, in 2014, MSI launched the GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G Golden Edition with a pure copper cooler, commonly known as the GTX 970 Golden Edition, which is a graphics card with a reddish-bronze color scheme, and is also a graphics card that I would like to have in my collection, and within a couple of months, the GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME was launched at the 2015 CES. The GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME was introduced at CES 2015 a few months later, and at the time, the all-new product was said to be around 13,000 NTD, while the GTX 960 GAMING 100ME was 7,990 NTD.

The "ME" in MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME stands for Magic Entertainment...no, it stands for Million Edition, and 100 Million Edition is the English word for one hundred million, celebrating the success of the NVIDIA GeForce cards that were shipped at the time. The 100 Million Edition is a celebration of the success of NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards at that time, which had reached a shipment of 100 million.

∆ Complete GTX 970 GAMING 100ME boxed set.

∆ Back of box.

The green color of the GTX 970 GAMING 100ME actually looks a bit darker than the GTX 960 GAMING 100ME version in the photos, maybe it's the way the photos are presented or the lighting effect that causes the difference, to the naked eye the color of the heat sink molds tends to be more of a toxic green color, which is why the author tends to call it a poisonous dragon after seeing it in real life.

The cooling module uses two Ø10cm diameter TORX FAN fans, combined with the "SuperSU" heat-pipe architecture and Zero Frozr intelligent fan shutdown, the Twin Frozr V cooling architecture provides sufficient cooling performance for the GTX 970 GAMING 100ME. After eight years, MSI has updated the design of the RTX 40 GAMING series with TORX FAN 5.0 fans and TRI FROZR 3 cooling architecture. After eight years, MSI has updated the NVIDIA RTX 40 GAMING series with the TORX FAN 5.0 fan and TRI FROZR 3 cooling architecture design.

MSI didn't add RGB dragon claw marks on the GTX 900 Dragon series cards, but only started to get the more awesome RGB dragon claw mark look on the GTX 10 series, so the green line on the cooling module itself is opaque and non-glowing.

∆ MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME exterior display.

On the back, a metal reinforced backplate provides additional physical strength to the PCB to prevent it from bending due to the weight of the heat sink module after prolonged use, and the metal material with thermal pads and heat sink holes can help dissipate heat from the PCB in a passive manner.

The SLI (NVLink) multi-GPU technology slot is located underneath the dragon mark. This SLI gold finger slot was still present on 70-class graphics cards back in the day, but as of now it has been removed from the NVIDIA RTX 40 series. After all, spending a lot of money on another graphics card doesn't bring much of a performance boost, so this feature has been removed over time.

∆Dragon print metal-reinforced back panel.

The card itself is only 45mm thick, which is already 2_Slot PCIe mounting thickness, and it's not uncommon to see 3_Slots on 70-class graphics cards these days, with nickel-plated heatpipes inserted into the cooling fins on the side.

∆ Goldfinger mounting side.

∆ The card is inserted directly into the viewing angle.

The official power consumption is 145W, powered by PCIe 8+6 pins, and the recommended power supply is 400W, but in Furmark tests it actually burns around 200W.

∆ PCIe 8+6 Pin powered slot.

The MSI GTX 970 GAMING 100ME provides DVI-I, DVI-D, DisplayPort 1.2, and HDMI 1.4a/2.0 for up to four simultaneous displays, as well as 4K resolution (4096×2160) output. A green screen protector is also provided by the factory, but it seems that the previous user lost a few of them.

∆ Screen output connector One each of DVI-I, DVI-D, DisplayPort 1.2, and HDMI 1.4a/2.0.

MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME Graphics Card Basic Organization

After all, this Poison Dragon card is more than eight years old, and I want to get an "unopened" used card, just to see how it will look after eight years of use.

From the stickers on the reinforced back panel, this card was manufactured in 2015/1, and the cooling fins underneath the fan are stacked with a bit of dust. Honestly speaking, eight years of use and still in this condition is quite good, and it's not a bad idea to take the card apart to take a look at the thermal pads, the reinforced bracket, and the PCB for a little while to see if there's any sign of age, and the thermal paste is naturally drying out.

∆ Dust accumulates under the fan.

∆ Eight years.

∆ Thermal paste is dried to crumbs.

∆Nickel-plated heating plates have also lost their mirror finish due to oxidation.

∆ Thermal module at a glance.

∆ 28nm Maxwell architecture GM204-200-A1 core, Hynix H5GQ4H24MFR graphics memory die.

        
Testing Platform
Processor: Intel Core i9 12900K
Cooler: darkFlash TWISTER DX 360 Ver2.6
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z790 CARBON WIFI
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade RGB 6000 MT/s 16GBx2
Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME
Power : MONTECH TITAN GOLD 1200W
System Drive: WD BLUE 3D NAND SATA M.2 2280 SSD 500GB
Operating System: Windows 11 Home Edition 21H2
Case: STREACOM BC1 Benchtable V2
Graphics driver: GeForce Game Ready 531.18

First up, check out the GTX 970 GAMING 100ME graphics card specs from GPU-Z. The 28nm GM204 core, 4096MB GDDR5 (Hynix) 256bit graphics memory, and a GPU default clock of 1114 Mhz / Boost 1253 Mhz.

∆ GPU-Z.

However, before taking apart the thermal paste again, I have to measure the temperature and performance of the "stock" state. Furmark was used for the extreme temperature test, and HWiFO64 was used for data collection to collect and record the highest temperature GPU temperature. The test environment was a bare platform in a 24°C air-conditioned room with no additional fan blowing directly on the platform. The test environment was a bare platform in a 24°C air-conditioned room with no additional fan blowing directly on the platform.

∆ Furmark up to 86°C in stock, unassembled condition.

∆ DirectX11 Fire Strike graphics card score 11883, total score 11138.

Temperatures in the ∆ DirectX11 Fire Strike test topped out at around 81°C. The temperature of the ∆ DirectX11 Fire Strike test was around 2.5°F.

Then I removed some dust and replaced the thermal paste. I wanted to clean the card thoroughly, including polishing and so on, but I didn't have a suitable screwdriver on hand... So the card was only half disassembled and the project was scrapped, and the GPU core was re-coated with MX-4 thermal paste.

∆ Reapply the heat dissipating cream.

Running 3DMark Fire Strike again The program uses the DirectX11 GPU API and consists of two tests, a physical test and a combined CPU and GPU test for gaming performance at 1080p, Extreme_1440p and Ultra_2160p respectively, with the GTX 970 GAMING 100ME scoring 11957/11182 points at 1080p and Fire Strike Extreme scoring 11957/11182 points at 2K 1440p. 970 GAMING 100ME scored 11957/11182, 2K 1440p Fire Strike Extreme scored 5472/5468, and Fire Strike Ultra for the more demanding 4K 2160p scored 2605/2717. 2717 points.

∆ DirectX11 Fire Strike.

∆ DirectX11 Fire Strike Extreme.

∆ DirectX11 Fire Strike Ultra.

3DMark Time Spy for DirectX 12 GPU API is also a benchmark test for gaming, the resolution not only provides 2K 1440p, but also 4K 2160p Time Spy Extreme program for gaming performance test, in the test Time Spy program gained the graphics card score/total score: 3608/4110 points; The Time Spy Extreme program scored 1,637/1,866 points.

∆ DirectX 12 Time Spy.

∆ DirectX 12 Time Spy Extreme.

Then we re-ran the Furmark burn-in test and the maximum temperature was reduced from 86°C to 71°C. The temperature was reduced to 71°C.

∆ Furmark after reapplying thermal paste to 71.3°C, 15°C lower.

Conclusion

After eight years, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME graphics card is basically only used as an entry level position card, and the GTX 970 was later revealed to have only 3.5GB of graphics card memory, mainly because one of the four ROPs / Memory Control Sections was actually disabled, so it only had 56 units of ROPs and 1.75MB of L2 instead of 2MB. The main reason is that one of the four ROP/memory control partitions is actually disabled, so it only has 56 actual ROPs, and the L2 is 1.75MB instead of the 2MB that was said at first.

In 2023, with only 3.5GB of graphics memory, it's hard to play AAA games with all the special effects on, and there are estimated game performance FPS in 3DMark tests for your reference, so I won't run any special game tests here.

The sub-flagship graphics card of the year, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME, can be used for light gaming or clerical purposes nowadays, but in the eyes of us PC DIYers, it's just a collector's item, and a special edition card anyway.