The GTX970 idles like many cards until under load. Start CPU-Z You will see Card is running at 3.0x1 start a video in window and it will jump to 3.0x16 and stay there. GTX970 is a brilliant card @ 1920 run DRS 2.25, looks pretty well flawless to me and runs lovely Stock i5 and 8GB of ram. This 3.5GB vram is a joke, making a issue of it I mean. 1. If you run single screen 1920 will never use the vram in any games. 2. If you run higher resolutions , triple or 4K you would be stupid for buying one ! ? lol Intel 6600@3.9GHz - H170 - 8GB 2133 - GTX970 Supreme bang for buck You can build a system with above specs and a GTX980 cheaper then a 6700K - Z170Pro - 8GB 3000 - GTX970 Overclocked i7 is great for encoding and 3DMax does very little for games with todays GPU. http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/luke-hill/intel-core-i7-6700k-i5-6600k-skylake-cpu-review/8/ Mind you that test is also with only 8GB of RAM and a GTX980 Ti ......... and the lil' stock 6600 still stands her ground, no bottlenecks there..... ie: The Stock 6600K @3.9GHz in tests is nothing more then a Stock 6600@3.9GHz and as you can clearly see all the overclock in the world does very little. Sure other games are different............then show me the money ? Fact is in most of the titles that got big gains are earlier gen and today would run well at stock clocks no matter. P.S. In Oz a 6600 is - 325 and a 6700K - 513 That alone saves enough to upgrade to a GTX980 from GTX970 which gives you MORE guaranteed increases every game you run then overclocking a i7 ever will !
