GTX 970 not as great as I thought :-(

[SkilledRebuilds]

Wont the drivers give the 970 the edge, down the road?

I'd say yes, although they have had plenty of time already with them..

750TI being the first released Maxwell ages ago, already tuned and fast out of the box.

No surprises they will get faster, little to a lot,.. maybe even up to 25-30% faster, however that will be over the lifetime of the product as most driver updates usually are 3-15% at a time per game optimization profile they managed to tweak and update per month.

 

But still.. we all know this.

IMO its simple as hell, if you have a 280x or lower, or the 770 or lower, then the 290 or above or the 970 and above will suffice as a reasonable and nice upgrade furthermore..dependent of YOUR PROvsCON preferences for these cards, which all previous user posts have obviously stated, these are the obvious defining factors.

[eLucid]

Typical I/O being I/O. Ignore the troll/amd fanboy.

[grimmjow660]

Typical I/O being I/O. Ignore the troll/amd fanboy.

Lel.

[I/O]

Typical I/O being I/O. Ignore the troll/amd fanboy.

Please just stop. I am just being realistic in my expectations whereas you are now trolling.

[SlaughterSmurf]

Please just stop. I am just being realistic in my expectations whereas you are now trolling.

You're saying a card that costs the same or less, consumes less power, is quieter, outputs less heat overall, has a worse IO, performs better and arguably has a superior feature set than it's competition is disappointing! If that isn't fanboyism at it's finest then I have no clue what is!

[I/O]

You're saying a card that costs the same or less, consumes less power, is quieter, outputs less heat overall, has a worse IO, performs better and arguably has a superior feature set than it's competition is disappointing! If that isn't fanboyism at it's finest then I have no clue what is!

Just saying that OC for OC they are equal. I was under the impression that the 970 would vastly outperom the R9 290 but as indicated the sad fact of reality is that it's is just on par. At leased nvidia did not try and command $499 I guess.

[winningsince1337]

If you refuse to believe that the 970 is better than the 290 in more ways than one then get a 290 and be done with it. Arguing with people that power consumption does not matter when you're looking at the best price to performance ratio is really stupid if you're the one paying the electric bill. At the end of the day it's your money and if you want to spend it on an inferior product then go ahead.

 

LOL, another power bill comment. The difference is negligible. Too many other people have done the math and it makes almost no difference over a year (we're talking less than $2). The difference is literally the same as having a light bulb on or off. GG Power bill

[pdv789]

Its not just the power draw from the wall. More power means more heat, meaning your air conditioning has to offset the difference. Some people use small rooms like an office where a computer can heat it up easily, especially with multi monitor set ups. Unless you live in Canada or the Arctic where its cooler year round than say Nevada or Arizona in the united states ...there are days where its as hot as 130.

[jollander]

I don't see the point with power and heat LOL as long as the game runs good.

 

The point is that you can OC a cooler card a lot more than a hotter card. You get what that means in terms of performance, right?

[SlaughterSmurf]

Just saying that OC for OC they are equal. I was under the impression that the 970 would vastly outperom the R9 290 but as indicated the sad fact of reality is that it's is just on par. At leased nvidia did not try and command $499 I guess.

It outperforms it by around %10 from what I've seen. And with power consumption and heat, they are a big deal because A) some people don't have super strong power supplies and I know from first hand experience that a GPU can raise the ambient temperature in a case or even a freaking room if ran long enough. Additionally with more power consumption comes more heat which causes fans to spin faster which usually means it will be louder.

 

Edit: Also thermal throttling is an issue in CF solutions with 290 (Even with non-reference designes) unless Linus is full of crap. 

[Guest]

It outperforms it by around %10 from what I've seen. And with power consumption and heat, they are a big deal because A) some people don't have super strong power supplies and I know from first hand experience that a GPU can raise the ambient temperature in a case or even a freaking room if ran long enough. Additionally with more power consumption comes more heat which causes fans to spin faster which usually means it will be louder.

 

Edit: Also thermal throttling is an issue in CF solutions with 290 (Even with non-reference designes) unless Linus is full of crap. 

yep, and the 970 also costs ~100 dollars less than the 290. the main reason the 970 was 'hyped' was the price-performance ratio + power usage, not because it vastly outperforms these existing cards.

[SlaughterSmurf]

and the 970 also costs a whopping 100 dollars less than the 290. the 970 wasn't hyped because it vastly outperforms these cards, it was hyped because it performs slightly better, while using less power, and being significantly cheaper.

In Canada they are around the same, only like $20 cheaper for a 970.

[I/O]

In Canada they are around the same, only like $20 cheaper for a 970.

Actually the 290s are goign for good prices right now. Like the Gigabyte for only $349 plus three free games ;-) http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-radeon-r9-290-windforce-db-99167-1342.htm or the Club3D RoyalAce.

[SlaughterSmurf]

Actually the 290s are goign for good prices right now. Like the Gigabyte for only $349 plus three free games ;-) http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-radeon-r9-290-windforce-db-99167-1342.htm or the Club3D RoyalAce.

Oh yeah and you also have to remember than the 970 is running release drivers while the 290 is running very refined drivers. I bet if you compared the 970 to the 290 in a year the 970 would win a lot more convincingly. 

[Razzaa]

Actually the 290s are goign for good prices right now. Like the Gigabyte for only $349 plus three free games ;-) http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-radeon-r9-290-windforce-db-99167-1342.htm or the Club3D RoyalAce.

Then whats stopping ya? Why is this thread not marked as solved?

 

Edit: Also, that is a sale price. They regularly go for 400$ +.

[I/O]

Oh yeah and you also have to remember than the 970 is running release drivers while the 290 is running very refined drivers. I bet if you compared the 970 to the 290 in a year the 970 would win a lot more convincingly. 

Ya I just might wait and see how AMD counters. In a year there will be lots of other choices. From Linus video the 970 is just a side grade for people like me that don't place a whole lot of value on efficiency and such. At any rate if I wait a bit longer the 970 might actually drop to the bloody price it was supposed to retail for in Canada. Still choked about the video I really wanted the 970 to be everything I had hopped ;-(

[daemonowner]

I don't care about power consumption just performance for money. There are low noise R9 290 cards as well and I also could care less about heat I mean it's not like you have to hold the card in you lap while you play LOL.

Power consumption impacts the "money" part of "performance for money".

[Sintezza]

it depends allot on the resolution you are playing.

Allot of those test online, are done with 290 (x) reference cards.

However, in most benchmarks sources i have seen, the GTX970, especialy the G1 from Gigabyte seems to win 8 out of 10 times.

Its only a few fps under a GTX780Ti. 3/4.

 

Concidering the price of both cards are on the same level, i think you cannot deny the Gigabyte GTX970

[I/O]

Power consumption impacts the "money" part of "performance for money".

This has been proven erroneous time and time again. My power bill also reflects this fact.

[Lancer14711]

Still choked about the video I really wanted the 970 to be everything I had hopped ;-(

Never get your hopes up about anything, otherwise it will never live up to your expectations.

[I/O]

it depends allot on the resolution you are playing.

Allot of those test online, are done with 290 (x) reference cards.

However, in most benchmarks sources i have seen, the GTX970, especialy the G1 from Gigabyte seems to win 8 out of 10 times.

Its only a few fps under a GTX780Ti. 3/4

The G1 is 2 or 3fps faster at best than the other 970s OCed for OCed. It's not a magic card LOL.

[I/O]

Never get your hopes up about anything, otherwise it will never live up to your expectations.

No it did have my hopes up legitimately at stocks clocks. Then when some logical review came out in the form of LTT STRIX benchmark I see the reality that the 970 is tangibly faster than 290 stock clock for stock clock but only ties it when both are OCed.

[Sintezza]

No it did have my hopes up legitimately at stocks clocks. Then when some logical review came out in the form of LTT STRIX benchmark I see the reality that the 970 is tangibly faster than 290 stock clock for stock clock but only ties it when both are OCed.

 

 

Do you have a decent source fo this?

[Lancer14711]

No it did have my hopes up legitimately at stocks clocks. Then when some logical review came out in the form of LTT STRIX benchmark I see the reality that the 970 is tangibly faster than 290 stock clock for stock clock but only ties it when both are OCed.

 

As has probably already been stated, there is more to a comparison than just all dem fps's

[I/O]

Do you have a decent source fo this?

Uh the OP in this thread LOL.