Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Edition Review – The Faster GTX 970

Price and Availability

The Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Edition (ZT-90107-10P) is very much available. When it was first released, its manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $389.99. But at the time I published this review, retail prices are lower and you can get one for $369.99 USD, or £326.62 at Amazon UK here. You also get a limited 2-year warranty, plus 1 year extended warranty upon registering the graphics card in Zotac’s website.

Note: If you purchase a GeForce GTX 970 graphics card by May 31, 2015, you also get free The Witcher III and Batman Arkham Knights games.

Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Edition Review: Conclusion

The Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Edition performed remarkably well even with stock speeds. This is thanks to the higher factory overclock settings of the Extreme Core edition which has a higher base and boost clock speeds compared to your typical GTX 970 graphics card. It was able to drive most of the games at around 60 frames per second and above at maximum graphics settings, well except for the really demanding games like Crysis 3 and Ryse: Son of Rome. Overclocking the graphics card further can add more boost, but sometimes the gain isn’t that high already.

Put two of this graphics card and you can easily out perform a GTX 980. But there is one thing that you need to remember, at 1080p or 1440p resolution the 3.5GB (faster) memory is very much capable. However you may fall short of memory when driving higher resolutions like 4K Ultra HD and above. A single GTX 970 is not meant for 4K gaming since you will be needing more horsepower (and memory) to drive the game at ultra-high definition with maximum game settings. It was already having a hard time rendering the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme and even the Ultra benchmarks.

But if you are just going to play at 1080p or 1440p (with toned down settings on some demanding games), the Zotac GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Edition can pretty much handle most of the modern day games. Too bad the Witcher III is not available yet at the time I published this review.

At the time I have published this review, I have been playing with this card for around a couple of months already. I didn’t want to rush the review and I wanted to see how this card would perform, or if it would last more than a month of stress testing. Honestly, like I said earlier, I wasn’t such a fan of Zotac’s graphics cards before. They are simply unattractive, and I’m not sure if they are performance-wise competitive as well. But with the new Zotac GTX 900 series graphics card, it’s like Zotac was completely redesigned, and finally aligned their graphics card with what most PC gamers and PC enthusiasts want.

Overall, I am impressed with the performance of the Zotac GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Edition. It has raw power out of the box and the graphics card itself is very sturdy. It doesn’t have an “over-kill” flashy design like its predecessors, but it is not boring-looking as well. This card is a little bit more expensive compared to the other Zotac GTX 970s. But if you want a powerful GTX 970 out of the box, then you should definitely put this card on your list.

Finally, I think the Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Edition graphics is a fantastic card which may have been overlooked by the many. It’s definitely a faster GTX 970 and it didn’t disappoint me one bit. I find no reason why I should not recommend this card at all, plus I think it deserves The PC Enthusiast’s Editor’s Choice award.