EJ993

Even it it may work, its like holding an electric fan out of the window to make your ferrary go faster.

thanks! report later how it went

In terms of overall performance you're looking at roughly a 15%-20% gain over the 970 with the 980, and the difference is more apparent at resolutions like 1440p and 4k where more VRAM is used. Regardless of people being able to match the 980's performance by overclocking their 970's, when you overclock the 980 it pulls ahead again, showing the strength of a fully unlocked GM204 chip and 4GB of VRAM at full speed. Price wise the 390(x) is technically a better option, but you said programs you use benefit from Cuda, so we'll throw those out the door.
 
$150 is a lot of money for the majority of people, and stepping up to the 980Ti, however great a value it is per dollar, is still a $650 purchase over a $500 (and sometimes less with rebates) purchase. At higher resolution the 980 will be the better buy over the 970, simply because there isn't an in-between option currently from Nvidia that meets your needs.
 
I very much enjoy Jayztwocents' advice in this regard: Buy the best card you can afford right now, and regret nothing.

Ok then, I see things more clearly now, and I have to thank you all for that. You guys have an incredible community ! :-)
 
So I think my choice is done : I will go for a 980. It is more future proof, which is a good thing for me. On top of that, I am currently using a crappy laptop which makes gaming impossible (well it is possible if I don't mind temperatures around 150 °C and 2 fps...). I've been using this computer for several years and I can't take it anymore. So, even if a 980 doesn't have the best value, and could be a bit overkill, consider this me doing myself a little treat after enduring bad performances for a long time ;-)
 
It all comes down to the choice of the card now. I think I'll go with this :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127834
 
It raises other questions though : will the 600W PSU I selected be enough with such a monster ? Is a Core i5 good enough, or am I better off with a Core i7 ? I will look into that.
 
I really want to thank you all for your help. I will order the components for my new computer in a month or two when money is here, so feel free to add more to the debate, I'd be glad to read what you have to say ;-)

I have never overclocked anything before. I would be interested in that, but I would have to take serious lessons before, to avoid damaging a 970 or a 980. I'd say that I would like a card that will allow me to play games on high, maybe ultra, right out of the box, and only in a few years maybe, when it starts to be limited, consider overclocking.
 
I will play various games : GTA 5, BF4, Arma III, Skyrim, Far Cry 4, F1 2015, Minecraft... There isn't just one type of game I will be playing.
 
I'm surprised to hear that an OCed 980 won't be enough for GTA 5 in maw settings. I know these kinds of games are very demanding, but GTA 5 in max settings would be a thrill for me.
 
I'm gonna try and sum up what has been said so far, even if some of you don't agree on certain things : a 970 hardly matches a 980, but would be enough to play the best games out there, even though it might mean a small loss in performance. It also represents the best bang for the buck. A 980 would be more powerful, but on a 1080p monitor, and without overclocking, wouldn't give a much noticeable difference, at least not enough to pay the extra price. On the AMD side, a 390 or 390x would be in between a 970 and a 980, though some of you may not agree with this.
 
I hope I made a good summary, it's hard to get a clear answer.
 
So far, here is what I can say then : a 970 would be good enough if I don't mind losing a bit of performance. But my guess is this : with a 980 I would have a longer time ahead of me before I need to upgrade my system, whether it is by overclocking the card or by changing it completely.
 
In other words, a 970 is good enough for current games, while a 980 will be better for games to come in a few years. Does what I just said make any sense ?
 
Considering that I probably won't change my system for quite a while, a 980, despite its price, might be a better fit in the long run then.
 
EDIT : Thanks Typographie for the explanaition. I knew there was a difference between GB and Gb, I just didn't knew which one was what.
 
Thanks for the links Monarch. I will look into that ;-)

Actually the 980 and 980ti have practically identical price vs performance ratios. They will overclock to pretty similar clockspeeds (though the 980 is slightly higher anyways, proving my point even more), so the main thing you need to look at is cuda core count. If you divide the number of cuda cores by the price of a card, the 980 is 4.24 and the 980ti is 4.27. Thats a difference of just 0.6%. The 980ti does have a little more ram, but that isn't that important at the moment. So is the 980ti better than the 980? yes. Is the 980ti actually a better value than the 980? also yes. But does the 980ti make the 980 pointless? Not even close.

I appreciate the comments about the 980tis/fury x but, with all due respect, that is not what I am asking for advice on. Thank you for understanding

I have the same situation in my college. We are using old 3:4 aspect ratio monitors for graphic design. I rather bring in my laptop for that

Im still worried what causes the problem. I googled and couldnt find anything similar to my problem. I suppose I'm just gonna wait for final release of windows 10 and nvidia drivers.

Yeah, I mean when do gaming or anything it works without any problems, its just that login screen where you have to enter your password, and anyways its like 1/5 times when it happens.

how to drool on yourself 101

Just the reference cards of: GTX 780, GTX 780ti, GTX 980, GTX 690, GTX TITAN, GTX TITAN Black, GTX 980ti, GTX TITAN X and the overclockersuk version of the GTX 970

I have the same situation in my college. We are using old 3:4 aspect ratio monitors for graphic design. I rather bring in my laptop for that

Change the dual 970s to a Dual 980s and change the CPU to an i5 4690k.
 
Or swap the dual 970s for a 980ti

I got 980 which oc like a beast. Got 3714 on firestrike ultra which is only 200poins away from stock 980ti.

I traded my 780 ti Classified + $150 for a binned 980 Classified & EK waterblock a few days ago, it just showed up a few hours ago.
 
It runs so much cooler than my 780 ti did, and I'm gaining some performance since my 780 ti didn't like to OC very well on stock cooling, and this thing OC's like a boss

Na you're not hurting anything, it's all good.  If you increase the fan speed more, it should help keep your overclock stable at higher speeds.  GPU's really like to overclock well when they're colder in my experience.
 
 
I just got my 980 today, I been playing with it a bit and overclocking some.  I got a waterblock with it but I need to get a few more parts before I can watercool it.

no matter how much I overclock temps stay at 84-85degrees max, only fan speed changes. I have fan curve set to stock.

Yeah, as I said, right now I have 1 stick of 8gb ram, soon I will be adding another. So I will have 2x8gb. 
 
Thanks for reply!