GTX 960 4GB worth it?

[Sam Z Man]

Oh really? Thats actually very interesting to know.

 

It's only around a 10 percent boost though so its not much.

[Shiro Hagane]

http://kotaku.com/geforce-gtx-960-review-sweet-spot-gpu-or-not-1681640697

 

R9 280 & 280X are both hardly any better than the GTX 960.  Yet both cards are more expensive, consumes more electricity and produces more heat.

 

Looks like Nvidia snuffed out that fire.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202099

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487128&cm_re=nvidia_gtx_960-_-14-487-128-_-Product

 

I'm sorry friend but I got to call you out on your fanboyism. The 280 may consume a bit more energy and probably get hotter. But it's still a concern on price to performance at 1080p. All GPU's get hot, still will make your room hot if not ventilated right.

 

It's only around a 10 percent boost though so its not much.

Hm, well, thats 40 dollars more, better off with the non X.

[othertomperson]

This is very true, AMD have admitted that up until now they have not bothered optimizing Vram usage in any way, but with the 390x/Free-titan/whatever its called they have now assigned a couple programmers to optimize drivers for Vram use. Whether there is a trickle-down effect across all AMD cards remains to be seen, but clearly that doesn't help any Nvidia cards like a 960. Nvidia will not likely be optimizing Vram usage with the 6/12GB GM200 buffer if they can help it.

 

And yeah. no one with any sense buys a card solely for the Amount of Ram, but it is the only variable with each generation that scales linearly in size, so there is that to consider.

 

You think that Nvidia are going to put all of their eggs in the Titan/980 Ti basket? That seems silly to me. Those products are only every going to be niche. The 960 (or AMD equivalent) is the product that most people will actually buy. Whether the 285 or the 960 is the better performing is massively more important to Nvidia than by how much the 970 is better than either.

 

It also seems crazy to me that AMD would develop a whole new memory technology with reportedly terrible yields before thinking to optimise where possible using the driver. Considering Nvidia have always used a smaller bus, whether it be 128 or 256 bit, than AMD with apparently little trade-off Nvidia almost certainly are making optimisations here.

[pomaranc]

I do not expect more performance now from the VRAM but later. =P

 

 

Exactly how is it obvious it wins in OpenGL? The 290 is a monster and should have crushed the 960... AMD even had a massive lead!

If 960 can't run current games at high enough settings to use 4GB it won't run future games at that settings.

[Nena Trinity]

If 960 can't run current games at high enough settings to use 4GB it won't run future games at that settings.

People get 60 fps in Witcher 3 and it is brand new... Also is it better to go for a 290 when the drivers are as ruined as they are? The 960 gets 3 to 4 times as high FPS in almost all OpenGL based games not to mention that some games it cant even render properly at all. =C

[dougdangger]

People get 60 fps in Witcher 3 and it is brand new... Also is it better to go for a 290 when the drivers are as ruined as they are? The 960 gets 3 to 4 times as high FPS in almost all OpenGL based games not to mention that some games it cant even render properly at all. =C

The 4gb gets an average 10% better frame rates than the 2gb on most benchmarks I've seen.  On games with hi res textures it does even better.

It really is geared towards 1080p gaming.

[pomaranc]

People get 60 fps in Witcher 3 and it is brand new... Also is it better to go for a 290 when the drivers are as ruined as they are? The 960 gets 3 to 4 times as high FPS in almost all OpenGL based games not to mention that some games it cant even render properly at all. =C

You will get 60FPS but not on settings high enough for it to use 4GB of VRAM.

[BestBOTEU]

Yeah I wonder how it is for just 1080p gaming. Also how future proof or how long will it be usable?

 

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Conclusion so far.

*960 4GB wont be usable that much...

*970 is costly and has less VRAM...

*AMD Catalyst OpenGL sucks...

 

What should I do?

*Buy 960 4GB?

*Buy 290 and pray they fix the drivers?

*Buy 970 and do with just 3.5GB Vram and avoid games like Far Cry? (that is gonna hurt my wallet...)

what are you talking about? amd's drivers are totally fine lol

[dougdangger]

what are you talking about? amd's drivers are totally fine lol

Apple does maps better than AMD does drivers.  LOL!

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Eh... Not really worth it... Your frame rate isn't gonna magically drop to 1 if a game is using alot of memory...

[Nena Trinity]

what are you talking about? amd's drivers are totally fine lol

No they suck a 290 cant even reach 60+ fps in both Bioshock and Metro...

But the 960 sure can no idea why, it get over 100+ fps in both games so the AMD drivers are NOT FINE!!!

 

Eh... Not really worth it... Your frame rate isn't gonna magically drop to 1 if a game is using alot of memory...

[Sam Z Man]

No they suck a 290 cant even reach 60+ fps in both Bioshock and Metro...

But the 960 sure can no idea why, it get over 100+ fps in both games so the AMD drivers are NOT FINE!!!

Oh 2 games are not optimized the best for AMD who cares.

[Nena Trinity]

Oh 2 games are not optimized the best for AMD who cares.

The problem is that AMD havnt optimized their drivers for OpenGL and to many games I play is in OpenGL and some of them is even in OpenGL even if I did go Windows only which then makes me see that the AMD cards are useless for me and many others until they fix this issue... OpenCL they actually did good somehow!

[dougdangger]

The problem is that AMD havnt optimized their drivers for OpenGL and to many games I play is in OpenGL and some of them is even in OpenGL even if I did go Windows only which then makes me see that the AMD cards are useless for me and many others until they fix this issue... OpenCL they actually did good somehow!

GTAV was optimized by Nvidia day one.

You don't really save money by going team red.  They cut corners on many things.  Drivers shouldn't be one of them.

[Sam Z Man]

The problem is that AMD havnt optimized their drivers for OpenGL and to many games I play is in OpenGL and some of them is even in OpenGL even if I did go Windows only which then makes me see that the AMD cards are useless for me and many others until they fix this issue... OpenCL they actually did good somehow!

Well that's common knowledge that AMD is best at open cl and nivida is best at open gl.

[Nena Trinity]

GTAV was optimized by Nvidia day one.

You don't really save money by going team red.  They cut corners on many things.  Drivers shouldn't be one of them.

Yeah GTA V was kinda unfair since Nvidia worked with Rockstar...

 

Well that's common knowledge that AMD is best at open cl and nivida is best at open gl.

Who uses OpenCL?

[Sam Z Man]

Who uses OpenCL?

Lots of people with and cards.

[Nena Trinity]

Lots of people with and cards.

Where?

[Sam Z Man]

Where?

Many programs take advantage of open cl.

And many people have them for that purpose.

[Shoob]

The short unbiased answer is that 960 is not worth it unless you have a weak PSU. Any good 500W+ PSU can run a 280x which is better in terms of performance.

[Nena Trinity]

The short unbiased answer is that 960 is not worth it unless you have a weak PSU. Any good 500W+ PSU can run a 280x which is better in terms of performance.

Moved to:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/375573-best-card-for-opengl-linux/