This guy did a youtube review on it:

 
Just keep in mind, that was done in December. So performance should be better than that now, since there have been a few driver releases since then.

Wouldn't blower style be better for a three way?

Clickalot
Wouldn't blower style be better for a three way?

Probably, but it's too late for that
 
With that being said, i was thinking... If i got the Thermaltake X9 case (?), or getting a case that has some side fans on the side to blow extra air on the cards to disipate heat, wouldn't that help?
Granted i already have a case that has a giant side fan, but it's a medium size case. It has a fan on back, 1 on top, and 1 in front.
 
 
would a blower style work with these cards?

I think it would be better to have the side fan for a exhaust since the cards exhaust out the side and all outer expect the back as intake worked best for me got good temps but when I switched to referece cards my gpu,cpu and system temps all went down and I was able to remove some case fans . I only get reference cards now got rid of all my acx cards. I have my 970's in 2 way now but I can but them back in 3 way and run some benchmarks if your interested

I'll run some benches tonight and post my results

I only have 2 970 FTW+s at the moment.  My plan is to go 3 way SLI with them later when needed, so I would like to know some results as well.  I'm not concerned about temps, I want to see the gains from a 3rd card, preferably in 1440p.
 
I just noticed that I have a very similar computer as you do stalinx.  Got a X79 Dark, i7 3820 with Corsair H100i, 2 eVGA 970 FTW+s, Corsair Vengeance Pro (2133mhz) 16GB, and a eVGA 1600 G2.  Would love to see your results if/when you go 3 way.

stalinx20
I like where you're going with that.

Great minds think alike right? 

stalinx20
I like your rig too
 
is your 3820 the partial unlock? Mine is, and i have it clocked to 4.0 exactly, no issues at all.

Thanks, got pics along with my full setup in my Mods Rigs page.  You should create a Mods Rigs page.
 
As to my 3820, yes.  My max multiplier is 44, which is what I have it set to, so my CPU is at 4.4GHz as its 24/7 OC.  I've taken it a little bit higher for 3D Mark Fire Strike runs.  Unfortunately, my memory controller for the 3820 went faulty.  It's in the process of a RMA and should be shipped back to me soon.  I'm having to game off my laptop right now, but thankfully I've got an Alienware 18 with 2 x 780Ms to hold me over till it gets back.

 I ran a  couple benchmarks with 2 then 3 cards didn't spend any time setting any thing up just put the third  card in and ran the benchmarks
tomb raider 2 way min 140 max 233 avg 185 vs  3 way 192 319 260 rome 112 vs 131 bf 4 157 vs 191 heaven benchmark not much difference. temps was pretty amazing never went over 64 c . two hours of bf4 and it was usually around 60 c seemed to stutter at fist but then smoothed out and I couldn't tell the difference between  2 and 3 way sli in bf4  all 3 cards ran at like 49 percent. gta5 ran good at max settings keep around 60-80 fps cards still only worked at around 60 percent .I  think I will put my old 670 in my other pc and keep this set up for some more testing. because of the pci slots I used I am probably only running at x16-x8-x8 

 I had 3x 970 reference from best buy. I am replaced it with 980 kpe in sli. IT IS SO MUCH smoother than 970 tri sli. 

talkischeap

nycx360
 I had 3x 970 reference from best buy. I am replaced it with 980 kpe in sli. IT IS SO MUCH smoother than 970 tri sli. 

My single 980 FTW is so much smoother than my 970 sli's i returned. The vram is for real.   Buy 980's for the love of god!

The VRAM should be nearly identical (Supossedly), but the CUDA cores and clock frequencys are a lot better in the 980's.

talkischeap

nycx360
 I had 3x 970 reference from best buy. I am replaced it with 980 kpe in sli. IT IS SO MUCH smoother than 970 tri sli. 

My single 980 FTW is so much smoother than my 970 sli's i returned. The vram is for real.   Buy 980's for the love of god!

My apologies, i should have made the subject line : "Does anyone have 3x 970 SLI?" However, Good! We're very happy for you. I Hope your single 980 works for years to come. BTW, I didn't ask the comparison between a 980 and a 970 or 980SLI vs 970SLI, I already know the difference between the 2. But Thanks though!(There are multiple threads regarding the 980's which you are more than welcome to join. Just Saying. And just for the record - I'm not being a Troll, but being realistic in the following statement, and it probably should be information that people should acquire, if they have the 970's. This is just what i believe though.) The 970's are more for those that are playing it smart and know how/when & where to put their graphic settings when it comes to graphic settings/programs. That's the bottom line, unfortunately. In other words, it is advisable to have a little more PC experience to get the 970's to function correctly and utilize more of the advanced graphical settings within the nvidia control panel. I don't know how else to explain itYou can't just max everything out in your game and expect the cards to work right while getting flawless FPS, unless you're on 1080p, but even with games like SOM or lords of the fallen, those games that require 6gb of vram (when the settings are maxed out), We're forgetting that's still a problem, even at 1080p. In short, LOWER SETTINGS......... You're right about the VRAM being "real", but obviously whatever you're doing is not designed for the 970's. Even with the 980's, your 980's is going to start crawing in a year or 2 anyways based on what you're doing, if you managed to make the 970's choke. In my eyes the 980's are a scapegoat for people that can't utilize the control panel that Nvidia offers to set their graphic settings. If you're making the 970's come to their knees, you're not doing something right. For starters, turn AA completely off. It's not needed. But I'm not going to try to convince anyone to continue to use the 970's if they're not "happy" with them in the first place. Go ahead and get the 980's if it solves your problem. just for the record i read all about this for months while everyone was battling each other about the VRAM in January, even thought about going AMD. BUt i gave the 970's a chance, knowing that i could step-up to the 980's if i didnt like the 970s, which i planned for, but turns out the 970's are F* awesome. Those that made their choice with the 980's, have at it.  There is a massive 420 page about the 970's on nvidia regarding this issue for those that wish to complain more about the 970's. it's not here.
 
WIth all that out of the way, The 970's are designed for 1080p/1440p (even though most us know that already). WIth that being said, I'm thinking about going with either of the 2 monitors that function at 144hz (hense the subject line). a 3rd 970 won't be a problem, i already know a work around for it. I'm only considering going 1080p, again, because the afformentioned 3440x1440 IPS monitor at 75hz sounded really nice, but obviously the 970's are not cut out for it. So i'll get my experience with this 1080p 144hz monitor for maybe a year, 2 at the most (being capped at 60hz on a 1080p has me pacing, lol), and then i'll jump to 3440x1440 when the 980ti's come out. Heat disipation won't be an issue with 3 970's. (Please don't compare an 8800 SLI setup to a 970's setup, please don't. not even a real comparison)
In a year or 2, i'll be getting the Pascal series, or 980ti's anyway. So these 970's will definately be a shortcoming, compared to 2 980's being a shortcoming as well

nycx360
Having had tri and quad sli every gen since 8800s. No and no and no. Buy 2 980s second hand for less. 
 
 
UNLESS all you play is Valley, Heaven, Firestrike, Crysis 3, and Tomb Raider.

Wouldnt shadows of mordor, of lords of the fallen be a better benchmark than tomb raider? Tomb raider, after all, doesn't take much to get solid FPS?