Graphics card advice GTX 970 vs GTX 960

[andyhern900@yahoo.com]

Hello everyone, I'm very much a novice at PC hardware and I bought a PC about two years ago and I'm looking to upgrade my GPU, without spending a whole lot of money
Current Specs
Processor: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor 

GPU: GeForce GT 640

Memory: 16.00 GB RAM

Power Supply: 450W

Case: Cooler Master Elite 430

 

I've been told by some friends that the 970 would be the best way to go, and from reviews and videos i've seen, its a lot better than the 960, but also more expensive.

I wont be doing and 4k gaming on it, or even multiple monitors (for the foreseeable future)

and most likely will just be playing games at 1080p and 60fps or more, so would I be fine with the 960 at 1080p? 

 

Again, i'm very new to all of this, so if anyone can help me out, that would be greatly appreciated 

 

(also, would I need to upgrade power supply or cpu cooling? if so, are there any you recommend that would fit my case?)

Thanks 

 

[JamesX]

I think you'll be fine with the 960.

[CrazyCaluz]

The GTX 960 can manage GTA 5 high settings at around 60fps. Its a great card and will give you great performance for the foreseeable future

[ADZ_123_!"£]

Hello everyone, I'm very much a novice at PC hardware and I bought a PC about two years ago and I'm looking to upgrade my GPU, without spending a whole lot of money

Current Specs

Processor: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor 

GPU: GeForce GT 640

Memory: 16.00 GB RAM

Power Supply: 450W

Case: Cooler Master Elite 430

 

I've been told by some friends that the 970 would be the best way to go, and from reviews and videos i've seen, its a lot better than the 960, but also more expensive.

I wont be doing and 4k gaming on it, or even multiple monitors (for the foreseeable future)

and most likely will just be playing games at 1080p and 60fps or more, so would I be fine with the 960 at 1080p? 

 

Again, i'm very new to all of this, so if anyone can help me out, that would be greatly appreciated 

 

(also, would I need to upgrade power supply or cpu cooling? if so, are there any you recommend that would fit my case?)

Thanks 

Ok the 970 is better than the 960 in games at 1080p and is the ultimate 1080p card but if you want a card the price of 960 then go with the R9 280 as it's better. 

[MrChavelo]

The 960 is fine, however you are better off buying an R9 280x for some extra bucks.

[Viper9]

You can go with the R9 280X instead, you'll have more performance for your money. 

 

But if you want a Nvidia card, the GTX 960 is a good choice too. 

[AlexWJD]

Ok the 970 is better than the 960 in games at 1080p and is the ultimate 1080p card but if you want a card the price of 960 then go with the R9 280 as it's better. 

 

No.

 

As for OP, you'll want a 960 or R9 285 as a 970/290X will be massively bottlenecked by your CPU. 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($178.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card  ($314.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $565.97

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-28 16:36 EDT-0400

 

This would be an upgrade list you want if you were to upgrade your CPU. You could also sacrifice performance for price and get an R9 290 instead. 

[CalebTheEternal]

Just spend the extra bill and get the 970. It will last longer.

[vembutech]

I would say GTX 960 is pretty good choice.

[andyhern900@yahoo.com]

Thanks everyone for the help!

[Ollof]

Normally I wouldn't recommend a 960 as they are the same price as the R9 280x at the moment (in the UK, can't speak for the rest of the world) however pre-built PCs usually come with cheap power supplies, and 450 is cutting it fine for an amd card especially if the psu is not quality.

 

Also the FX line of processors are bad for gaming on, to sum it up their cores are much weaker than the newer intel haswell this is pretty much because they are significantly older chips. What this means in reality is that the minimum frame rates you get in some games can be low enough to cause jerky game play. Also because directx11 only uses one core to communicate with your gpu the FX chips sadly bottleneck high-end graphics cards like the 290(x)/970.

 

The 960 is probably your best option without having to buy other components or spend too much money. The FX 6300 shouldn't bottleneck it, and you can always get a cheap aftermarket cooler and overclock it. You will be ok at 1080p for a while yet but don't expect to run some games on high/ultra, especially the latest titles.

 

You should think about going for an i5 system in the future, it will be worth the money. If you can afford to upgrade sooner then the 970 will still work but you wont be getting the best out of it until you do.

[IateMApoo]

FX 6300 will work great with GTX 960, 970 is bit too powerful to handle for that budget CPU.

[AskMrJake]

I run a GTX 970 on an overclocked FX-6350. I can play all games, even brand new ones like shadow of Mordor or GTA at max settings at 1080p easily with fps exceeding 60 at all times. I can usually up the res and use DSR as well and get 60+ Framerates. So posts about the 6000 series FX processors bottle necking a 970 are true, but not many games at this point are going to utilize all of your processor. Well, they might on a 6300 with a stock clock. I would recommend the 970 because a cpu upgrade to a FX8350 is going to be cheaper upgrade in the future if you decide you want more performance. Then you even have more expandability if you decide to switch to Intel and get an i5 or i7 that will really unlock the 970s full potential. At this time, a lot of games aren't going to cause cpu bottlenecks with a 6300 and a 970. (Aside from Ubisoft games, but 4790k and a Titan have tough times with those. Not the hardware's fault. Ubisoft couldn't optimize pc games if it bit them in the ass.)

[han_han08]

i vote 960 just because of your psu