Building a PC for someone, R9 270x or wait longer for a GTX 970?

[GodSpoon]

Any suggestions? I know that the 970 is just killer in price/performance but is it really worth waiting a good deal longer than I would if I just got a 270x?

[Katsu-K1L]

Worth it.

[Shaqo_Wyn]

If you want ultra and min. 60 fps on 1080p a probably 1440p too for pretty much all current games. Then 970.

 

If you're willing to compromise on graphics quality and/or fps, 270.

[Geekazoid]

I think the answer is obvious. Just remember —> Patience is a virtue!

[GodSpoon]

Thanks guys, just going to skim a few more of my checks and save up for it! 

 

I think the answer is obvious. Just remember —> Patience is a virtue!

 

 

Ive just waited so long as it is started to question my morals there

[Geekazoid]

I've just waited so long as it is started to question my morals there

Yep, well it's true, we all don't like waiting. But waiting can often reap great rewards .

Haha, well...that's probably a good thing.

[Daniel91]

I would recommend a GTX 970 but if you're on a tight budget MSI has a good value price for performace GTX 970 in it's line if you don't mind the blue/Black themed fans.

 

MSI GTX970 ARMOR 4GB GDDR5

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/255208-msi-gtx970-armor-4gb-gddr5-sgd-48900performance-wise/

[SteveGrabowski]

You haven't told us anything about the friend you're building it for nor the rest of the system. 

 

1. What CPU are you using? G3258? i3? FX-6300? i5? i7? That's going to make a big difference as to which graphics card to recommend, as a 970 will bottleneck the hell out of a Pentium, should be a decent choice with an i3, and is a killer choice with i5 or better. But if we're talking Pentium then the R9 270 is the way to go to get a quality gaming system that's balanced and at a great price for performance.

 

2. Does your friend have a 1080p or 1440p monitor? If his monitor is 1600x900 or less and he's not buying a new one as part of the build then a GTX 970 is a huge waste of money. Assuming a strong enough CPU, even a GTX 750Ti can play Battlefield 4 High at a mostly 60FPS locked at 900p (in SP at least), and an R9 270x is a significantly more powerful card than that.

 

 

3. How big of a gamer is your friend? If he is an occasional gamer than it probably doesn't make sense to spend the extra $200 even if it is a crazy good deal to those of us who are really into gaming. Conversely, as long as you have a strong enough processor in the system, if your friend is a big gamer of course the 970 is the card he's likely to want.

[BrandedUpontheGrave]

Why only the two cards? A 970 is a damn fair bit of a jump up from the 270X... Have you consider getting a 290? Their pretty close to the 970 performance wise and can be had in some cases as low as 200 bucks on sale. (nothing that good right now, unfortunate)

[typographie]

Why only the two cards? A 970 is a damn fair bit of a jump up from the 270X... Have you consider getting a 290? Their pretty close to the 970 performance wise and can be had in some cases as low as 200 bucks on sale. (nothing that good right now, unfortunate)

 

^^ This.

 

If your friend/family member/client wants the speed of a GTX 970, then the R9 270X is going to be a poor substitute. If they can only afford the 270X, the 970 will be out of their budget. So it's a pretty strange pair of cards to have to choose between. As said above, the 290 is a much more practical comparison.

[GodSpoon]

Well its not that he needs the speed of a 970 in his specific scenario, most of his gaming is on League of Legends and Crysis 2, but he just wanted the best he could get for his money, and I gave him two budget ideas.

One with a 270x and one with a 970, he didn't know which he should get as there was a big jump between the two and he has to wait for the 970. 

 

 

 

 

Both are going to have an overlocked g3258 on air,  and he can upgrade that whenever he wants to.

 

 

This is a rather odd comparison, sorry for no context provided haha

[SteveGrabowski]

Well its not that he needs the speed of a 970 in his specific scenario, most of his gaming is on League of Legends and Crysis 2, but he just wanted the best he could get for his money, and I gave him two budget ideas.

One with a 270x and one with a 970, he didn't know which he should get as there was a big jump between the two and he has to wait for the 970. 

 

 

 

Both are going to have an overlocked g3258 on air,  and he can upgrade that whenever he wants to.

 

This is a rather odd comparison, sorry for no context provided haha

 

A GTX 970 with a G3258 would be a crazy waste of money, unless your friend is upgrading to an i5, i7, or Xeon E3-1230v3 or better within the next few months. Otherwise, the 270x makes a lot more sense here, since if your friend waits a year to upgrade his CPU to i5 or better he can use the $200 saved now to put towards getting next year's 70 series Nvidia card. Makes no sense to spend $330 now and then by the time he gets a CPU capable of pushing the 970 it won't be the high end value leader anymore. If your friend wants to jump up to Crysis 3 he will be severely CPU bottlenecked, to the point the only way it will be playable is with a 30 FPS framecap if he wants to play on high system spec (very high is out of the question with a G3258, while high @ 30FPS is possible if you can get an overclock to near 4.5GHz or so).

 

But Crysis 2 should be awesome on an overclocked G3258.