(EVGA) GTX 960 or GTX 970?

[Joshe343]

Okay so here's the jazz. I am building a new PC because my current one was built on a budget (FX-8320, GTX 750 Ti, blablabla etc..). I found this EVGA GTX 960 and I think it's really worth the money for it's performance and if I ever wanted to get more performance out of it I can just get another one and SLI. I've been getting mixed responses about this and some people tell me to just buy a GTX 970. Not sure what I should do here. Save money and buy the 960 and some time down the road get another and SLI, or should I spend an extra $75-100 for a 970? From what I seen online the performance between the two isn't a whole lot different. I don't plan on running extremely high-end games and I probably won't toy with VR for another few years since it doesn't really interest me all that much. I am not the type of person that really cares about my FPS dropping below 60 so long as it doesn't drop below like 45.

 

Also something to note here is that the 960 I'm looking into is factory overclocked (superclocked) and has just as much VRAM as a 970. With that being said, what's the REAL difference there?

 

EDIT: Full system build here: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pkGD6h

EDIT2: Also, please note that I'm not going to play in anything higher than 1080p.

[shadowbyte]

the best 970 is the 390

[nskceaj]

Wait for Pascal.

[Citadelen]

You could either wait for Polaris buy now. If you want to buy now, see about getting an R9 390 from Sapphire, it'll perform better than a 970.

[OnekillWalter]

4 minutes ago, shadowbyte said:

the best 970 is the 390

the best 390 is the 390 with a 390

[PlayStation 2]

7 minutes ago, shadowbyte said:

the best 970 is the 390

hey fam y u stealin my jokes /jk

 

I'd go 970, but is a 390 possible? Look at my sig for a simple explanation to see which card would be better.

[Joshe343]

Thanks for the replies anyone, I've decided to go with a Sapphire R9 390. This works out well because I'll be able to crossfire with this card which is something I wouldn't have been able to do with the GTX 960 or 970 because my motherboard doesn't support SLI.

[David_K]

the power consumption of 2 390....

[Joshe343]

5 hours ago, David_K said:

the power consumption of 2 390....

Yeah, I know it's a lot but I am using a 1000w PSU (Corsair RM1000) so I think I'll be fine.

[David_K]

I am not talking about the question *if* your pc can run those 2, but you should think about your electricity bill and the hear it will generate into your room.. also funny but 2 of those is not a very green setup.. 

[Citadelen]

14 minutes ago, David_K said:

I am not talking about the question *if* your pc can run those 2, but you should think about your electricity bill and the hear it will generate into your room.. also funny but 2 of those is not a very green setup.. 

A 390 consumes around 50-100W more than a 970, and that's at stock.

[diapersarefullofshit]

21 hours ago, Joshe343 said:

Okay so here's the jazz. I am building a new PC because my current one was built on a budget (FX-8320, GTX 750 Ti, blablabla etc..). I found this EVGA GTX 960 and I think it's really worth the money for it's performance and if I ever wanted to get more performance out of it I can just get another one and SLI. I've been getting mixed responses about this and some people tell me to just buy a GTX 970. Not sure what I should do here. Save money and buy the 960 and some time down the road get another and SLI, or should I spend an extra $75-100 for a 970? From what I seen online the performance between the two isn't a whole lot different. I don't plan on running extremely high-end games and I probably won't toy with VR for another few years since it doesn't really interest me all that much. I am not the type of person that really cares about my FPS dropping below 60 so long as it doesn't drop below like 45.

 

Also something to note here is that the 960 I'm looking into is factory overclocked (superclocked) and has just as much VRAM as a 970. With that being said, what's the REAL difference there?

 

EDIT: Full system build here: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pkGD6h

EDIT2: Also, please note that I'm not going to play in anything higher than 1080p.

I own a 960 and my g3258 does not even throttle the gpu. If you get such a high end processor i think a 970 is a better fit. I would always get a 970 (or better) on that budget , even if it meant trading away the k-processor for a standard model.

[David_K]

17 minutes ago, Citadelen said:

A 390 consumes around 50-100W more than a 970, and that's at stock.

 

 

about 100W difference, binning can make this worse or better, whatever, "worst case scenario" 2 of these are ~500W alone, vs ~ 300W, that is a difference, overclocking the 390 will rise each cards consumption even more. total system would reach about what ? 750W overclocked. thats 750W of heat that is going to your small room, if you are living in the cold russian winter, than sure also add a FX 9 series and maybe a private nuclear power plunt to run this setup. 

 

Also note that I didn't say anything about the GTX970, you said it, and yes, 300W vs 500W is better, I would say that ~65% higher power consumption is "small". 

but thats not the question here, I was talking about the 390 alone, so why even bring the 970?

Also personally I am against SLI/CF, and definitely not with a 970/390, sure if you intend to run a triple 1440 monitor setup or a 4K screen at 60FPS with high settings you would go for a truely high end cards like the Fury X or the 980Ti in multi GPU setup, and not a 3 year old

390 or a "3.5GB" 970..

[Citadelen]

38 minutes ago, David_K said:

 

 

about 100W difference, binning can make this worse or better, whatever, "worst case scenario" 2 of these are ~500W alone, vs ~ 300W, that is a difference, overclocking the 390 will rise each cards consumption even more. total system would reach about what ? 750W overclocked. thats 750W of heat that is going to your small room, if you are living in the cold russian winter, than sure also add a FX 9 series and maybe a private nuclear power plunt to run this setup. 

 

Also note that I didn't say anything about the GTX970, you said it, and yes, 300W vs 500W is better, I would say that ~65% higher power consumption is "small". 

but thats not the question here, I was talking about the 390 alone, so why even bring the 970?

Also personally I am against SLI/CF, and definitely not with a 970/390, sure if you intend to run a triple 1440 monitor setup or a 4K screen at 60FPS with high settings you would go for a truely high end cards like the Fury X or the 980Ti in multi GPU setup, and not a 3 year old

390 or a "3.5GB" 970..

The 970 is the card that's comparable to a 390, I assumed you were advocating 970 SLI over 390 CrossFireX.