960 or 970?

[Daniel0898]

So I'm getting a new gpu, and I'm having trouble deciding if the extra money for the GTX 970 is worth it over the GTX 960. Just wanted some second opinions.

 

I run dual monitors, both at 1080p, and I like to play modern games like BF4, CS:GO, ARMA 3, etc. 

 

I'm leaning toward the 970 because I have the money to spend, but I'm not against saving the $100 and picking up another ssd.

 

Thanks for your time

[don_svetlio]

R9 380X if you want to save money for an SSD as it:

1 - has the power to drive games easily at 1080p as it's 25% more powerful than a 960
2 - has proper memory bandwidth to drive 4GB of VRAM
3 - has 4GB of VRAM rather than 3.5GB (970) or a 128-bit bus (960)

[Hlong]

970 hands down if you got the cash.

[Coaxialgamer]

R9 390 if you can. Otherwise 970. Ssd is nice to have, but an hdd is fine.

[Qwerty2323]

960 should give you 60+ fps with some settings disabled in some games.

If you want more future proof then buy 970 if you think you could upgrade after a awhile 960 is good choice.

And ignore those amd fan boys.

[don_svetlio]

960 should give you 60+ fps with some settings disabled in some games.

If you want more future proof then buy 970 if you think you could upgrade after a awhile 960 is good choice.

And ignore those amd fan boys.

Fanboys? What do you call a 380(non-X) beating the 960 by 15% if not superior performance?

[Daniel0898]

Not really an amd fan, probably just gonna go with a 970, thanks for the help though

[App4that]

970 all the way. Great deals on the MSI 4G and EVGA's right now.

[don_svetlio]

970 all the way. Great deals on the MSI 4G and EVGA's right now.

I rate 3.5/224

[don_svetlio]

Not really an amd fan, probably just gonna go with a 970, thanks for the help though

My suggestion is go for a 980 to at least get an actual 4GB card

[App4that]

My suggestion is go for a 980 to at least get an actual 4GB card

How many videos would you like me to post that show that to be meaningless? Jayz did an excellent video on it.

[Monarch]

Fanboys? What do you call a 380(non-X) beating the 960 by 15% if not superior performance?

 

I call it micro-stuttering in CPU-bound games. https://youtu.be/W0HzWW6mDno?t=2m54s

https://youtu.be/pBBw5nssai0?t=56s

 

This is why I've switched to Nvidia, and I immediately saw an improvement. AMD's driver overhead is still high.

[don_svetlio]

I call it micro-stuttering in CPU-bound games. https://youtu.be/W0HzWW6mDno?t=2m54s

https://youtu.be/pBBw5nssai0?t=56s

 

This is why I've switched to Nvidia, and I immediately saw an improvement. AMD's driver overhead is still high.

Never noticed microstutter - even when I was running a Athlon II X2 with a 6850

[Najuno]

Go get yourself a GTX970. It is a rock solid GPU and gives you in 1080p all the performance you need for quite a while. The GTX960 aims more for 1080p mainstream games, but with the 970 you´ll get in 1080p the eye candy settings. It is a worthy investment.

[App4that]

Never noticed microstutter - even when I was running a Athlon II X2 with a 6850

I've been saying it, I've been saying it. Micro stutters drive me nuts! Even Digital Foundry is on board now Don. AMD has an issue and it extends to all the cards.

[don_svetlio]

I've been saying it, I've been saying it. Micro stutters drive me nuts! Even Digital Foundry is on board now Don. AMD has an issue and it extends to all the cards.

I've experienced Micro Stutter, I know how annoying it is. It was on my older Laptop with the Athlon 64 X2 at 1.9GHz and ATI HD 3000 GPU. It was due to VRAM shortage back then.

[App4that]

I've experienced Micro Stutter, I know how annoying it is. It was on my older Laptop with the Athlon 64 X2 at 1.9GHz and ATI HD 3000 GPU. It was due to VRAM shortage back then.

Not all of it has been AMDs fault. There was a recent Windows 10 update that caused issues. Still haven't been able to fix it... Reason I'm here and not gaming more. But AMD has pulled some dick moves. Like not fixing the compass flicker on the 290 but doing so on the 390. Not only does that prove they use different drivers, but that AMD cares nothing for their customers with older cards. So those who buy 390s can expect to be ignored once the replacement hits in a year.

[don_svetlio]

Not all of it has been AMDs fault. There was a recent Windows 10 update that caused issues. Still haven't been able to fix it... Reason I'm here and not gaming more. But AMD has pulled some dick moves. Like not fixing the compass flicker on the 290 but doing so on the 390. Not only does that prove they use different drivers, but that AMD cares nothing for their customers with older cards. So those who buy 390s can expect to be ignored once the replacement hits in a year.

Still better than intentionally gimping performance. I don't know about you but if I have a 780 and see it getting outperformed by a 960 I'd be crying out loud.

[don_svetlio]

Not all of it has been AMDs fault. There was a recent Windows 10 update that caused issues. Still haven't been able to fix it... Reason I'm here and not gaming more. But AMD has pulled some dick moves. Like not fixing the compass flicker on the 290 but doing so on the 390. Not only does that prove they use different drivers, but that AMD cares nothing for their customers with older cards. So those who buy 390s can expect to be ignored once the replacement hits in a year.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

New driver.

[Not_Sean]

My suggestion is go for a 980 to at least get an actual 4GB card

 

You do know the 3.5/4Gb ONLY becomes a issue if you running at bigger resolutions like 1440 and 4K, even GTA V on highest won't break the 3.5gb wall. 

 

to OP. The 970 is a monster card for its value, yeah the new R9 3xx (Which I have a R9 380 in my GF's rig) series is amazing value of money I have no regrets buying a 970, and even less when I got the second one and went SLI 

[don_svetlio]

You do know the 3.5/4Gb ONLY becomes a issue if you running at bigger resolutions like 1440 and 4K, even GTA V on highest won't break the 3.5gb wall. 

 

to OP. The 970 is a monster card for its value, yeah the new R9 3xx (Which I have a R9 380 in my GF's rig) series is amazing value of money I have no regrets buying a 970, and even less when I got the second one and went SLI 

The issue is not going to be present today. It will, however, be a lot more pronounced with 2016's games considering that games are not going to stop being VRAM hogs - quite the opposite.

[Not_Sean]

The issue is not going to be present today. It will, however, be a lot more pronounced with 2016's games considering that games are not going to stop being VRAM hogs - quite the opposite.

Oh i'm very sorry I didn't realise I was talking to the head of Ubisoft and you know exactly what the gaming dev scene is going to do, Cause from everything I've read games are going to become way way more efficient as its easier to dev for the Consoles and do direct ports over.  

[don_svetlio]

Oh i'm very sorry I didn't realise I was talking to the head of Ubisoft and you know exactly what the gaming dev scene is going to do, Cause from everything I've read games are going to become way way more efficient as its easier to dev for the Consoles and do direct ports over.  

Not really. Games are efficient so long as work is put into making them efficient. Games like Witcher 3 which are optimized to the bone will barely touch 2GB

Games like Batman which are bricked beyond redemption will still need 6GB of VRAM, a fast SSD and 16 cores ._.

[Qyoon]

The issue is not going to be present today. It will, however, be a lot more pronounced with 2016's games considering that games are not going to stop being VRAM hogs - quite the opposite.

The gpu will be outdated before most games hit the 3,5Gb of Vram usage since most pc games are designed for consoles anyway...

[Not_Sean]

The gpu will be outdated before most games hit the 3,5Gb of Vram since most pc games are designed for consoles anyway...

This man knows whats up ! ! 

So sick of hearing don't buy a 970 cause of the 3.5Gb when it will only affect you if you running 4K and in honestly if you can afford a 4K screen what the hell are you doing with a 970 and not a TI or Titan. Back to topic. 

OP, get a 970 you will enjoy it