Decision on gpu

[BlackHat2000]

My heart says 980ti, but ATM my wallet says 970. Is the 3.5/4gb gddr5 really an issue? Or should I just save for the 980ti Nd never worry again? 

 

I just want some opinions of my situation

[Bouzoo]

What are the rest of your specs? At what res you want to game? Or is it something except gaming? Do you want to get into VR? 

There is a big difference between them, both performance and money wise. 

[arniks8]

1 minute ago, BlackHat2000 said:

My heart says 980ti, but ATM my wallet says 970. Is the 3.5/4gb gddr5 really an issue? Or should I just save for the 980ti Nd never worry again? 

 

I just want some opinions of my situation

980ti will last longer. Vram thing is not an issue, but if you have 1440p, then you should also look into 980.

[App4that]

Just went through this. Got the 980ti. Well worth the investment. 

[Bananasplit_00]

id say save up, it will be well worth it, i have a G1 970 and its good and all but a 980TI would just smash it to pices

[BlackHat2000]

Just now, Bouzoo said:

What are the rest of your specs? At what res you want to game? Or is it something except gaming? Do you want to get into VR? 

There is a big difference between them, both performance and money wise. 

Well I don't plan on vr, only 1080 gaming at the moment

 

1 minute ago, arniks8 said:

980ti will last longer. Vram thing is not an issue, but if you have 1440p, then you should also look into 980.

I'm only gaming at 1080 right now

[DukeChocula]

970 is a great card, I'll tell you that. I got mine before the whole 3.5/4 deal, but I never find myself hitting that buffer anyway and still getting 60FPS. I get ~100 in BF4 1080p Ultra, even when I set the resolution scale to 150 I still get 50-60fps and don't hit the frame buffer.

 

I believe Shadow of Mordor is the only game to really hit the frame buffer on this card. And it's easy for that game to go back under 3.5GB with a few filter adjustments.

[Qwerty2323]

Even 960 4gb is great card. Really depends on what games you play and how many fps you consider normal.

With 980 ti you are getting the very best but new gen cards are so close that getting mid tier card and waiting for next gen is also option

[Rylie59]

The 970 is a great card. At 1080p you won't be hitting that 3.5 GB wall very often. If you really think VRAM will be an issue there's always the 390 as well

[Bouzoo]

Just now, BlackHat2000 said:

Well I don't plan on vr, only 1080 gaming at the moment

 

I'm only gaming at 1080 right now

 

For 1080p 970 is good enough, even though it looks like games like The Division are coming that can't be maxed at that res at steady 60 FPS, but that's in Beta, and Rise of the Tomb Raider is dipping below as well. If you can get the money and buy the 980Ti I'd personally do it, if it's too much of a problem I'd get the 970. Also depending on the price I'd look into a 390, unless you need NV's features. 

[DarkSmith2]

On 1080p you wont miss much performance with a GTX970. Only stuff you cant max out are some modded AAA titles, stuff like bad designed console ports like witcher3 or next next gen stuff like The Division maxed out were even the gtx980ti can struggle not dipping below 60fps @1080p

[Virtual01]

Obligatory "wait for pascal" post

 

JK get a 980ti and let it ride as long as you can. At 1080p you should be set for a long long time. You could even upgrade to 1440p without a second thought. Maybe get a 144Hz monitor so you can take advantage of the overkill.

[App4that]

1 minute ago, DarkSmith2 said:

On 1080p you wont miss much performance with a GTX970. Only stuff you cant max out are some modded AAA titles, stuff like bad designed console ports like witcher3 or next next gen stuff like The Division maxed out were even the gtx980ti can struggle not dipping below 60fps @1080p

Not entirely accurate.

 

The Division is not a problem for a 980ti, even a 970 can maintain 60fps with everything maxed if it's overclocked. 

 

The strength of the 989ti is being able to game worry free without having to overclock. And having the ability to use DSR to raise the resolution. 

[DarkSmith2]

1 minute ago, App4that said:

even a 970 can maintain 60fps with everything maxed if it's overclocked. 

prove it.

[App4that]

1 minute ago, DarkSmith2 said:

prove it.

Don't have to, Digital Foundry did it for me with their 970/390 comparison. Skip to the end for the overclocked 970 numbers.

[DarkSmith2]

1 minute ago, App4that said:

Don't have to, Digital Foundry did it for me with their 970/390 comparison. Skip to the end for the overclocked 970 numbers.

Yea, this was on High Preset settings with low Shadows, you should listen to the commentary.

[App4that]

Just now, DarkSmith2 said:

Yea, this was on High Settings with low Shadows, you should listen to the commentary.

No, watch it again. They say you could hold 60fps with the 390 by doing that. Their tests are done with ultra settings. 

[Bouzoo]

7 minutes ago, App4that said:

No, watch it again. They say you could hold 60fps with the 390 by doing that. Their tests are done with ultra settings. 

Quote

However, our chosen stress test - the street shoot-out when seizing your base of operations - sees a significant performance drop on AMD, where it only narrowly outperforms the GTX 970. It's an interesting example of how benchmarking specific games can see performance differentials between the two vendors change significantly according to context. Regardless, 1080p60 on ultra is off the table for both cards - we got closer by dropping down to high settings with medium shadow resolution. This improved in-game fluidity no end, but it required a meaty +200MHz core overclock along with +400MHz to the memory in order to get the GTX 970 to more consistently hit the target. Generally speaking, we don't recommend overclocking the R9 390 beyond the 1050-1070MHz territory seen in factory-overclocked cards - power consumption and heat generation rise enormously.

Sadly, right now both of them can't max the game at steady 60. I think that might improve when the game is released. Maybe... 

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-the-division-pc-tech-analysis

[DarkSmith2]

6 minutes ago, App4that said:

No, watch it again. They say you could hold 60fps with the 390 by doing that. Their tests are done with ultra settings. 

Yea you should watch it again, first they tested on ULTRA PRESET, which isnt even close to maxed out.

Then they changed the test to High Preset with low shadows while testing with the GTX970 OC. 

You just havnt followed this video correctly

 

EDIT: OK medium shadows, my fault.

[App4that]

3 minutes ago, DarkSmith2 said:

Yea you should watch it again, first they tested on ULTRA PRESET, which isnt even close to maxed out.

Then they changed the test to High Preset with low shadows while testing with the GTX970 OC. 

You just havnt followed this video correctly

 

Nope, I stand corrected. 

 

But on the topic of the 980ti I stand firmly by you being incorrect that it wouldn't be able to hold 60fps. 

[DarkSmith2]

2 minutes ago, App4that said:

But it one the topic of the 980ti I stand firmly by you being incorrect that it wouldn't be able to hold 60fps. 

Yea, it can dip below 60fps. Its rare but it happens. However with VSYNC enabled chances that this influences any gameplay is really low.

The reason for this is that in some combats and some scenes there isnt any real headroom. Maybe with overclocking its a different picture on the wall.

[Bouzoo]

3 minutes ago, DarkSmith2 said:

Yea, it can dip below 60fps. Its rare but it happens. However with VSYNC enabled chances that this influences any gameplay is really low.

The reason for this is that in some combats and some scenes there isnt any real headroom. Maybe with overclocking its a different picture on the wall.

I'd like to see your source where the 980Ti dips below 60 on 1080p. Lowest I've seen it dip on 1440p is 37 with a non OC'd card, and that's a huge difference.

[App4that]

2 minutes ago, DarkSmith2 said:

Yea, it can dip below 60fps. Its rare but it happens. However with VSYNC enabled chances that this influences any gameplay is really low.

The reason for this is that in some combats and some scenes there isnt any real headroom. Maybe with overclocking its a different picture on the wall.

Is this from a comparison video, or your experience? Because the 980ti absolutely crushes The Division at 1080p. 

[DarkSmith2]

7 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

I'd like to see your source where the 980Ti dips below 60 on 1080p. Lowest I've seen it dip on 1440p is 37 with a non OC'd card, and that's a huge difference.

oh man, i saw so many video's and stuff about the Division inlcuding streamers with gtx980ti's. One thing is on the Ultra Preset you wont dip below 60fps. I never said that.

But if you manually select every setting to maximum you can see dips while after while.

This is an example video i googled very fast:

 

 

[Bouzoo]

Just now, DarkSmith2 said:

-snip-

Was just writing the comment when you replied. Decided to google a bit and there are many people having issues with 1080p on a 980 Ti. The card in that video o is a non OC'd card which would give 5-10 FPS but still it's horrible.