Pick my upgrade

[MERCENARY_TAO__]

About 2 months ago my old 650ti took a shit and I needed a new card. Being the loyal green team fanboy that I am, I went out and got me a 960 4gb from EVGA with the intent of getting a better card through the 90 day step up program thingy.. A month ago I got a 144hz monitor and now 60fps has become the new peasant mode. I need MOAR!!!! At 1080p I want to be able to play 100+ fps constant. Which leads me to my conundrum. 970, or 980?

 

My thoughts for the 970 being that it is the cheaper of the two, and performs from what I've heard pretty closely with the 980.

 

My thoughts on the 980 is that it has an 8 in the name, it performs better, and will probably last longer.

 

I honestly don't know what to get, I would like to just get a 970 and SLI them in like year, but my current mobo doesn't support SLI and I can't seem to find any z67 or z77 (2500k sandy bridge FTW) SLI capable mobos anywhere. So unless I either move to a whole new platform or find some mobo for cheap on ebay i'm stuck with a single card.

 

What say you, denizen of LTT forums? What say you?

 

 

THIS IS WHY I'M GOING WITH NVIDIA RIGHT NOW.

https://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

https://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

https://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

https://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

https://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

[Bob Jim]

Get an R9 390X. Mid way between the two. Beats the 970, trades blows with the 980. Also don't give me any crud about being an nvidia fanboy, if you really will only get nvidia products then you are kinda stupid.

[Prysin]

neither. Green team or not, you shuldnt waste money

R9 390 beats the 970, costs the same. problem is, neither is quick enough to guarantee 100+ FPS in all games

GTX 980 is inbetween the R9 390X and the R9 Fury, even then, its not guaranteed to do 100+ FPS at 1080p with settings maxed.

You my friend need a GTX980Ti...

And if that is too expensive, then R9 Fury (not Fury X) is yur best bet. Its 50 USD more expensive then the GTX980, but it is also 10-15% faster, the GTX 980 is 150 USD more then the GTX980, and 100 USD more then the R9 Fury, BUT, it is also 15-20% faster

Tests have shown that OCd Fury will beat or match OCd 980, which will tie a slightly over stock 980Ti... (think they used a EVGA SSC 980Ti in that test)

It all depends on your games though, CSgo will run at 150-200 FPS, GTA 5 will be like 80-110 at best, less with settigns cranked up.

EDIT: Dont use SLI, it has frame pacing issues and scaling issues. If you want to SLI/CF anything, use AMD. They do a better job at it and has done so for the past year or more.

EDITEDIT:

Sticking to one brand is stupid. Pick the one with the best price to performance, THE END. Staying with one brand only assures you that you will take it up the rear end way more often then not.

[Guest]

If you can afford the 980, get the 980.

[MERCENARY_TAO__]

Get an R9 390X. Mid way between the two. Beats the 970, trades blows with the 980. Also don't give me any crud about being an nvidia fanboy, if you really will only get nvidia products then you are kinda stupid.

 

neither. Green team or not, you shuldnt waste money

R9 390 beats the 970, costs the same. problem is, neither is quick enough to guarantee 100+ FPS in all games

GTX 980 is inbetween the R9 390X and the R9 Fury, even then, its not guaranteed to do 100+ FPS at 1080p with settings maxed.

You my friend need a GTX980Ti...

And if that is too expensive, then R9 Fury (not Fury X) is yur best bet. Its 50 USD more expensive then the GTX980, but it is also 10-15% faster, the GTX 980 is 150 USD more then the GTX980, and 100 USD more then the R9 Fury, BUT, it is also 15-20% faster

Tests have shown that OCd Fury will beat or match OCd 980, which will tie a slightly over stock 980Ti... (think they used a EVGA SSC 980Ti in that test)

It all depends on your games though, CSgo will run at 150-200 FPS, GTA 5 will be like 80-110 at best, less with settigns cranked up.

 

 

I don't believe you people seem to have read my comment. Yes the AMD series is nice and all, BUT I got an EVGA card specifically for the intent purpose of upgrading down the road. Basically I send in my old GPU, pay the difference between that one and the new one, and get a brand spanking new GPU.

 

 

To upgrade to the 970 will cost me ~$100-$150 and the 980 depending on model is about ~$200-$250

[Bob Jim]

Ohh.. Get the 980 if you can, but that still won't get you 100+ on everything maxed out... He'll even a 980Ti doesn't get 144fps on Witcher 3 Ultra.

[Prysin]

I don't believe you people seem to have read my comment. Yes the AMD series is nice and all, BUT I got an EVGA card specifically for the intent purpose of upgrading down the road. Basically I send in my old GPU, pay the difference between that one and the new one, and get a brand spanking new GPU.

To upgrade to the 970 will cost me ~$100-$150 and the 980 depending on model is about ~$200-$250

i read your post, told you to drop the 980 and get a 980Ti. Because the 980 is a terrible purchase with the R9 390X being cheaper and almost as fast, and the R9 fury being slightly more expensive, but still Notably faster.

980Ti or go home mate.... 970 and 980 wont get you 100+ FPS in the more recent titles without turning settings to rock bottom.

That being said. Whats the rest of your system specs, other then a outdated sandybridge that could use a upgrade???

You could also return your 960 to get your money back, since it seems youve havent had it for very long....

[MERCENARY_TAO__]

Ohh.. Get the 980 if you can, but that still won't get you 100+ on everything maxed out... He'll even a 980Ti doesn't get 144fps on Witcher 3 Ultra.

 

Meh, not going to play Witcher 3 anyway. RPGs aint my thing. And really, only in very few games do I ever notice a difference between high and max settings- except AA, I need that shit cranked.

[MERCENARY_TAO__]

i read your post, told you to drop the 980 and get a 980Ti. Because the 980 is a terrible purchase with the R9 390X being cheaper and almost as fast, and the R9 fury being slightly more expensive, but still Notably faster.

980Ti or go home mate.... 970 and 980 wont get you 100+ FPS in the more recent titles without turning settings to rock bottom.

That being said. Whats the rest of your system specs???

 

Won't at 1080p? I thought that this generation was moving towards 1440p becoming the norm with 4k being the extravagant new fangled thing. As long as I get around 100 i'll be happy. I don't want to go over the refresh rate, I've seen csgo do some interesting things when I do.

 

Anyways, specs are:

CPU: i5 2500k @4.5GHz

Cooler: Corsair h60 (going to get an h80i gtx 360 MLG noscope whateverthefucktheycallitnow soon)

MOBO: ga-z77-hd4

Boot Drive: Kingston ssdnow 120gb

Storage Drive: 1TB hdd, I think its seagate... I can remember...

GPU: EVGA GTX 960 4gb ssc

PSU: cx600m

 

Not the best build, but not the worst.

[Prysin]

Won't at 1080p? I thought that this generation was moving towards 1440p becoming the norm with 4k being the extravagant new fangled thing. As long as I get around 100 i'll be happy. I don't want to go over the refresh rate, I've seen csgo do some interesting things when I do.

 

Anyways, specs are:

CPU: i5 2500k @4.5GHz

Cooler: Corsair h60 (going to get an h80i gtx 360 MLG noscope whateverthefucktheycallitnow soon)

MOBO: ga-z77-hd4

Boot Drive: Kingston ssdnow 120gb

Storage Drive: 1TB hdd, I think its seagate... I can remember...

GPU: EVGA GTX 960 4gb ssc

PSU: cx600m

 

Not the best build, but not the worst.

the generation is moving, not there yet.

You said you neeeded AA cranked, and that is what you cannot crank with a 970 or 980. You also said you didnt play RPG, that means you are most likely a FPS, so BF4, GTA 5, Far Cry 4 type of guy, i wont judge, but that just raises the performance bar higher.

Take AMD, they claim the R9 380 is a 1440p card. Sure, it can power a game in 1440p at 30FPS... because both AMD and Nvidia, although Nvidia usually is a bit more careful aiming their product at any sort of lofty standard, they go by the absolute rock bottom acceptable performance, and that is CONSOLE PERFORMANCE.

The R9 380 is a solid 1080 60FPS card, just like your 960.

The 970 can achieve 100FPS, but not with AA, that is what kills most GPUs

The 980 will most likely get 100FPS, but you will probably have FPS dips, which is annoying.

The next Tier is R9 Fury. Which is the most sensible for you i guess. But since you are hellbent on Nvidia and trying to utilize that upgrade program, then the 980Ti is the only thing i can promise will produce 100FPS+ in most if not all games today, and for probably a couple of years too.

The 970 and 980 suffers from memory bandwidth constraints. AMD is usually generous here, so that is why AMD surgest past at higher resolutions. Same is to be said with higher AA. Since more AA requires more horsepower and MORE VRAM, something Nvidia is really shitty about. 4GB will be enough this year, and the next, but by 2017, we will most likely need 6 to 8GB of GPU RAM... And having to spend another 4-600 USD then, well that just gonna hurt instead, get a 980Ti, Overclock it a little. And enjoy life for a couple of years, or more before needing something better.

look at benchmarks, most of them is made WITHOUT AA, or max 2-4x AA... If you need it cranked, like as high as it goes and you wont settle for less, then sorry. 980 wont do it.

If you can live with less AA, then 980 will do for now, but you will need a new GPU in a year or two for newer titles.