Thinking about upgrading from my GTX 570 to a GTX 960/970

[HAAKo]

I have been thinking about upgrading for a long time, but i've not had enough money to  buy a high end card. The 570 does its job well, but i would quite fancy being able to play alot of the newer titles at settings maxed in 1080p. Also 1440p in counter strike global offensive. (maby some downsampling). Is it worth the upgrade now, or should i wait and grab one cheaper next year? I can afford something more expensive next year. Also, if you have any suggestions on other cards with great "bang for the buck" please tell me about them. Thanks for the help.

 

(This is my first forum post here at linus, so im sorry if i did something wrong)

 

System specs:

Nvidia GTX 570 gpu

AMD Athlon X4 860K Black edition overclocked to 4.1ghz (with cooler master hyper 212 evo cooler)

256GB SSD

1TB HDD

750W PSU

Cheap mobo i cant remember the name of. (Has all the newer bells and whistles pci 3.0, usb 3.0 etc.

8 Gb of ddr3 ram (1333mhz)

[Tim Drake]

Grab the 970 if you can afford it then either try to overclock more if possible to reduce bottleneck and save for an i3/i5 upgrade

[Senzelian]

I have been thinking about upgrading for a long time, but i've not had enough money to  buy a high end card. The 570 does its job well, but i would quite fancy being able to play alot of the newer titles at settings maxed in 1080p. Also 1440p in counter strike global offensive. (maby some downsampling). Is it worth the upgrade now, or should i wait and grab one cheaper next year? I can afford something more expensive next year. Also, if you have any suggestions on other cards with great "bang for the buck" please tell me about them. Thanks for the help.

 

(This is my first forum post here at linus, so im sorry if i did something wrong)

 

System specs:

Nvidia GTX 570 gpu

AMD Athlon X4 860K Black edition overclocked to 4.1ghz (with cooler master hyper 212 evo cooler)

256GB SSD

1TB HDD

750W PSU

Cheap mobo i cant remember the name of. (Has all the newer bells and whistles pci 3.0, usb 3.0 etc.

8 Gb of ddr3 ram (1333mhz)

 

Don't worry. You didn't do anything wrong

It doesn't seem like upgrading is really necessary in your case.

But if you really want to upgrade right now, then have a look at an R9 290 / 290X. Your PSU has definitly enough juice for it.

The GTX 970 is also a good choice obviously, but might me more expensive. Depends on where you live and shop.

[Agazed]

The 290x is the same price as a 970 right now

[HAAKo]

Don't worry. You didn't do anything wrong

It doesn't seem like upgrading is really necessary in your case.

But if you really want to upgrade right now, then have a look at an R9 290 / 290X. Your PSU has definitly enough juice for it.

The GTX 970 is also a good choice obviously, but might me more expensive. Depends on where you live and shop.

Yeah, the 290x has dropped alot in price! But i might wait untill next year for the upgrade. Good thing i didn't do anything wrong.

[HAAKo]

The 290x is the same price as a 970 right now

Yeah, i might go the AMD route on the gpu aswell.

[Majestic]

GTX 970 on a 860K is completely wasted. Unless you have plans to upgrade that within the span of a month or two, get a 270X instead.

[DotoreN]

970 please... 960 sounds close but isn't anywhere close to the 970 performance.

970 and you're set for years in 1080p gaming (will do fine on 144p aswell)

The 960 won't be able to handle 144.

 

Keep in mind that you should upgrade your cpu first over the gpu though.. or get like mentioned the r9 270x. AMD sucks in general for gaming, so especially if you want to max out / play on 144p please get rid of AMD and grab an i5 4th gen.

 

Your CPU will bottleneck the shit out of either the 960 and 970.

[hasnieking]

Wait first for the GTX 980 Ti to be released, the price will probably drop!

[Majestic]

The 960 won't be able to handle 144.

 

Depends on the settings. I recently upgraded to a 1440p screen, and if you don't use MSAA it's pretty OK. I can play Tomb Raider at 45ish fps on ultra settings (just no AA)

But if you get a 24/25" 1440p monitor you don't really need AA because the PPI is so big.

 

I agree though, it's not meant for 1440p and not very futureproof on that resolution. I just only play old games so it doesn't matter for me and I needed the screenspace more.

 

Wait first for the GTX 980 Ti to be released, the price will probably drop!

 

This never happens, I don't know why people keep saying this will happen. It won't. Nvidia will never compromise their own pricing with a new product.

[Senzelian]

GTX 970 on a 860K is completely wasted. Unless you have plans to upgrade that within the span of a month or two, get a 270X instead.

Isn't the 960k similar in performance to a lower 2nd gen i5?

[QtrSkills]

Athlon will bottleneck the 970

[DotoreN]

 

Depends on the settings. I recently upgraded to a 1440p screen, and if you don't use MSAA it's pretty OK. I can play Tomb Raider at 45ish fps on ultra settings (just no AA)

But if you get a 24/25" 1440p monitor you don't really need AA because the PPI is so big.

 

True, but that goes for a lot of GPU's. A lot of people say battlefield 4 'needs' 3.5gb vram to play, but yet my r9 270x 2gb worked perfectly fine on battlefield 4 without stuttering/fps lag. 

 

GTX 970 should be fine on 144p aswell, but you might consider something stronger especially with 2015-2016 titles coming out in the future. Games nowadays go way to quick and demand too much for the market to keep up it seems like.. The 970 is basically required if you want to play titles on proper settings in 2015 (Shadow of mordor, AC: Unity, bf4/hardline, dragon age) to mention a few.

 

All that while the 970 is still the 3rd best card of nividia....

 

Retarded game developers also are really lazy and don't polish their games before releasing it, ending up with bad optimized games.. (not to mention all the early-acces/alpha games) lol.

 

Go r9 270x, or gtx 970 if you're upgrading your CPU within the next 1 or 2 months!

[Majestic]

Isn't the 960k similar in performance to a lower 2nd gen i5?

 

No, it's similar to a Q9650 with a small overclock. MAYBE in some games a i5-750. It's nowhere near Sandy.

 

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1200?vs=109

 

7850K = 860K with an iGPU.

 

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1200?vs=49

 

Quadcore performance is within 8% of a 7 year old quadcore.

[Senzelian]

No, it's similar to a Q9650 with a small overclock. MAYBE in some games a i5-750. It's nowhere near Sandy.

 

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1200?vs=109

 

7850K = 860K with an iGPU.

Cause I've seen this and wonder now if I'm simply too stupid to understand benchmarks...

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=793&cmp[]=2362

[Majestic]

Cause I've seen this and wonder now if I'm simply too stupid to understand benchmarks...

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=793&cmp[]=2362

 

Passmark is really bad, it's data is derrived of the community testing so it's open to a lot of variables like overclocking and user competence. 

 

@ your member title, I know right. They used them in my Straight power 10 power supply and they're so awesome

[Senzelian]

Passmark is really bad, it's data is derrived of the community testing so it's open to a lot of variables like overclocking and user competence. 

 

@ your member title, I know right. They used them in my Straight power 10 power supply and they're so awesome

Oh okay. Thanks!

Yeah, I want them so bad. be Quiet has to save us from the brown and beige wave of Noctua fans.

[Elapo]

The 290x is the same price as a 970 right now

 

...in the US. 

[HAAKo]

970 please... 960 sounds close but isn't anywhere close to the 970 performance.

970 and you're set for years in 1080p gaming (will do fine on 144p aswell)

The 960 won't be able to handle 144.

 

Keep in mind that you should upgrade your cpu first over the gpu though.. or get like mentioned the r9 270x. AMD sucks in general for gaming, so especially if you want to max out / play on 144p please get rid of AMD and grab an i5 4th gen.

 

Your CPU will bottleneck the shit out of either the 960 and 970.

Yeah, i was thinking about upgrading the cpu, but im wondering wich cpu to go for. I would prefer FM2/FM2+ socet, since that is what i have on my mobo.

[Agazed]

Yeah, i might go the AMD route on the gpu aswell.

 

The 970 is better than the 290x by a longshot