GTX 960 or GTX 970?

[ed4546]

Hi guys, at the moment I have a decent PC build rocking a GTX 750Ti and an AMD X4 860K. It delivers 60FPS on most games at max possible settings. I recently have been getting into Farcry 3 and Rocket League which only reaches high 30's in terms of fps. So, I'm in a bit of a pickle at the moment. Do I buy a GTX 960 a GTX 970 with a bit of saving to max out games at 1080p? Can someone post benchmarks with my CPU please, will my CPU be a bottleneck with a GTX 970 if so, by how much? I may be purchasing GTA 5 soon, how will each perform with my CPU? Is the 970 worth the extra £100 price tag? Thanks in advance!

[scobie56]

960 with that cpu 

[epicsmeat]

Not sure if your cpu would bottleneck but instead of a 970 or 960 go for a r9 390.

[SeanAngelo]

Hi guys, at the moment I have a decent PC build rocking a GTX 750Ti and an AMD X4 860K. It delivers 60FPS on most games at max possible settings. I recently have been getting into Farcry 3 and Rocket League which only reaches high 30's in terms of fps. So, I'm in a bit of a pickle at the moment. Do I buy a GTX 960 or buy a GTX 970 with a bit of saving to max out games at 1080p? Can someone post benchmarks with my CPU please, will my CPU be a bottleneck with a GTX 970 if so, by how much? I may be purchasing GTA 5 soon, how will each perform with my CPU? Thanks in advance!

I would get a new CPU if I was you....

 

But with that CPU, a 960 as the 970 will be bottlenecked.

[ThinkWithPortals]

970 will bottleneck pretty hardcore, a 960 less so. A CPU upgrade may be in order soon though

Though I think the question should be "R9 380 vs R9 390" (far better price to performance)

[Opeth747]

380 > 960
390 > 970

[Castdeath97]

I would get a r9 380 with this CPU.

[Majestic]

380 > 960

390 > 970

 

Not with lowend CPU's... With something like a 860K, you'd get more fps with a 960 than a 380. Due to the driver overhead.

[ed4546]

I would get a r9 380 with this CPU.

Eugh AMD GPU's

[Castdeath97]

Eugh AMD GPU's

Apparently the ugh AMD GPU outperforms the 960

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESeFXwGfBsI

[ed4546]

I would get a new CPU if I was you....

But with that CPU, a 960 as the 970 will be bottlenecked.

I will eventually get a new one

[Opeth747]

Eugh AMD GPU's

Oh, sorry. You should have specified you'd rather have an under-performing GPU for your money.

[don_svetlio]

Eugh AMD GPU's

[ed4546]

Oh, sorry, you should have specified you'd rather have an under-performing GPU for your money.

I prefer Nvidia because of adaptive sync and Geforce Experience...

[don_svetlio]

I prefer Nvidia because of adaptive sync and Geforce Experience...

G-sync costs 200$ more than Free-sync. Raptr is a thing you know

[Egad]

GeForce Experience:  While nice, I've found it does not always deliver the optimal settings for my games.  I've found it to be somewhat conservative and I can get more by tweaking my settings.  Preferring one manufacturer over another for giving you a rough cheat sheet on in game settings is stupid.

 

Now if you've bought in to the nVidia ecosystem via a Shield, G-Sync, etc then just say that and most folks will happily restrict their answers to nVidia products.  Low information posts such as "ugh BRAND" are useless and frankly just waste the time of people trying to help you.

[Mikjul]

Sorry but come back when you have a better CPU... Go grab a GTX 660 or Radeon 7850.

[don_svetlio]

GeForce Experience:  While nice, I've found it does not always deliver the optimal settings for my games.  I've found it to be somewhat conservative and I can get more by tweaking my settings.  Preferring one manufacturer over another for giving you a rough cheat sheet on in game settings is stupid.

 

Now if you've bought in to the nVidia ecosystem via a Shield, G-Sync, etc then just say that and most folks will happily restrict their answers to nVida products.  Low information posts such as "ugh BRAND" are useless and frankly just waste the time of people trying to help you.

Even if he does have G-sync he won't need it with a 380 as unlike a 960 that gets 45 fps in Battlefront Ultra, the 380 can manage 60 fps in that game effectively removing the need for G-sync.

[Egad]

@don_svetlio, well if his next post was how he has a G-Sync monitor, I was going to castigate him for dropping money on that instead of upgrading his rig first.  If he is purely on about Adaptive Sync, a precursor to G-Sync/Free-Sync type things, then I was going to point what you said in terms of FPS being key, not the ability to sync your monitor up to them at this stage.

[don_svetlio]

@don_svetlio, well if his next post was how he has a G-Sync monitor, I was going to castigate him for dropping money on that instead of upgrading his right first.  If he is purely on about Adaptive Sync, a precursor to G-Sync/Free-Sync type things, then I was going to point what you said in terms of FPS being keep, not the ability to sync your monitor up to them at this stage.

Exactly - I don't have such a feature and I either set my fps to 55 via FRTC so I don't get tearing if I can't hold 60 fps constantly (like Witcher 3) or I just lower from Ultra to High-Medium and use V-sync. In most games there is not a noticeable difference between High and Ultra - hell - in Witcher 3 the only thing that goes up is the amount of vegetation and characters really. I am more than happy with Medium 55 fps .

Adaptive sync is fun to have but ultimately not a necessity. I'd gladly take 15 more fps rather than that.

[ed4546]

Sorry but come back when you have a better CPU... Go grab a GTX 660 or Radeon 7850.

I'm sorry, I hardly think you are correct, as my friend has an overclocked X4 860k to 4.3GHz with an EVGA GTX 960 and he can run Farcry 3 at 60FPS max settings (I don't know what it's like on other games) but the 860k is a very capable CPU for those on a budget.

[don_svetlio]

I'm sorry, I hardly think you are correct, as my friend has an overclocked X4 860k to 4.3GHz with an EVGA GTX 960 and he can run Farcry 3 at 60FPS max settings (I don't know what it's like on other games) but the 860k is a very capable CPU for those on a budget.

Yep - the 860K is a decent chip and it's more than fine with a 380. I don't understand why you want to get a lesser card that will be obsolete before the year is up.

[Mikjul]

Try running something that demands more from the CPU.

I'm sorry, I hardly think you are correct, as my friend has an overclocked X4 860k to 4.3GHz with an EVGA GTX 960 and he can run Farcry 3 at 60FPS max settings (I don't know what it's like on other games) but the 860k is a very capable CPU for those on a budget.

Point is the 960 & 380 are the outer limit of what this CPU can handle.

970/390 when you have an i5.

[ed4546]

Yep - the 860K is a decent chip and it's more than fine with a 380. I don't understand why you want to get a lesser card that will be obsolete before the year is up.

Sorry, I just didn't know that these AMD GPU's are more powerful than the Nvidia ones I mentioned. Well, now just to wait until I can afford it

[ed4546]

Try running something that demands more from the CPU.

Point is the 960 & 380 are the outer limit of what this CPU can handle.

970/390 when you have an i5.

Yeah that's what I was asking, is the CPU a bottleneck when it comes to a 970 and obviously it is according to everyone here.