i7-3520M @ 1080p; GTX 960 or 970?

EdgyVenison · March 25, 2015

I am currently using a 2012 Macbook Pro 13" with i7-3520M @ 2.9GHz.

I plan to buy and use an external GPU, but I have some doubts that I'd appreciate if anyone can help to clear them.

Will i7-3520M bottleneck the system performance when used with GTX 960/970?

I will be using a 1080p display, with no plan of upgrading anytime soon. I'd like play games like Guild Wars 2, XCOM:EU, with enough smoothness and quality( 55+ fps, high-max settings?). Should I grab GTX 970, or will GTX 960 be enough?

Badger906 · March 25, 2015

for the games you're looking to play a 970 would be a bit overkill.

that coupled with a dual core cpu with hyper threading it's not going to be the strongest of gpus. I'm not sure how well those games run on dual core/multi core setups.

I'd get the 960 personally