Best GTX 970 to pair with Intel 6600k and Asus Z170 Pro Gaming

[Quelux]

I am looking for advice on the best model GTX 970 to pair with and Intel 6600k CPU and Asus Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard. Thank you in advance. 

[Najuno]

Well you can go with the EVGA GTX970 SSC ACX2.0, very fast card. But the R9 390 is pretty much the same in price and it´s faster and features more RAM, if you´re not set just exclusively on nVidia your could take a look into that GPU as well. It might be the better choice.

[themctipers]

Get a R9 390. It's better I think. 

[Sportiva]

Or you could get a R9 390 which is cheaper and performs better than the 970,

 

[HrutkayMods]

Any 970 from EVGA, Gigabyte, ASUS, or MSI would be great. PNY I've had problems with, just keep in mind ASUS's track record of customer support lately has sucked. Also EVGA makes the quietest and smallest card with some of the best overclocking and customer support but make sure you get the ACX 2.0+ model with the 1 DVI port, the one with 2 DVI ports may have the older cooler which caused problems early in the life of the 970. I like EVGA though

[TheRandomness]

2 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Get a R9 390. It's better I think. 

It is.

[McHox]

4 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Get a R9 390. It's better I think. 

2 minutes ago, Sportiva said:

Or you could get a R9 390 which is cheaper and performs better than the 970,

 

1 minute ago, TheRandomness said:

It is.

 

don't start this again,he asked about which 970 is good,not if the 390 is better or not...

 

[HrutkayMods]

1 minute ago, TheRandomness said:

It is.

True but like me some people like team green better so if he's asking for a 970 he probably wants a 970

[Sportiva]

Just now, McHox said:

 

don't start this again,he asked about which 970 is good,not if the 390 is better or not...

 

We were just telling the OP that he will get better price to performance than the 970 with a 390,

[manofsteel]

3 minutes ago, Sportiva said:

We were just telling the OP that he will get better price to performance than the 970 with a 390,

well i got same problem now with this cards since i dont know much about rads drivers now are they safe to lets "use"? because i dont want to make a wrong choice and regret not takin 970 with better stability but less horse power (and i am 100% aware of fact that you stated but you know..)?

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Sportiva said:

We were just telling the OP that he will get better price to performance than the 970 with a 390,

if you insist on doing that, at least *try* to help the dude out with his question as well.

 

even if he'd switch to picking a 390 he'd still be stuck at choosing a model. why not recommend some models on both sides and compare overall differences so OP can make a decision for himself rather than blindly following the fannboiiz on the interwebz.

 

on topic:

for nvidia cards, i generally recommend evga or MSI, and in a lesser extent asus. if you have an asus motherboard that supports AI suiite, their GPUs will hook into that as well, if you're into that kind of thing. evga and msi generally have (slightly) better coolers.

 

for amd cards, if you want the price/performance of the R9 390 like before mentioned, sapphire seems to be a pretty good choice, as well as MSI, i've heard mixed things about gigabute. once again the asus ai suite hook is a thing for asus cards, if you're into that.

[Sportiva]

1 minute ago, manofsteel said:

well i got same problem now with this cards since i dont know much about rads drivers now are they safe to lets "use"? because i dont want to make a wrong choice and regret not takin 970 with better stability but less horse power (and i am 100% aware of fact that you stated but you know..)?

I have had multiple computers with AMD cards and not one of them have bricked due to a GPU driver update, My friends computer with a 970 has bricked 2 times due to a Nvidia driver update and he has had the computer for less that 6 months,

[Quelux]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

if you insist on doing that, at least *try* to help the dude out with his question as well.

 

even if he'd switch to picking a 390 he'd still be stuck at choosing a model. why not recommend some models on both sides and compare overall differences so OP can make a decision for himself rather than blindly following the fannboiiz on the interwebz.

 

on topic:

for nvidia cards, i generally recommend evga or MSI, and in a lesser extent asus. if you have an asus motherboard that supports AI suiite, their GPUs will hook into that as well, if you're into that kind of thing. evga and msi generally have (slightly) better coolers.

 

for amd cards, if you want the price/performance of the R9 390 like before mentioned, sapphire seems to be a pretty good choice, as well as MSI, i've heard mixed things about gigabute. once again the asus ai suite hook is a thing for asus cards, if you're into that.

Thank you for the great reply. For both sides of the card battle, do you have a 390 and 970 specific model that you think is superior to them all? 

[manikyath]

Just now, Quelux said:

Thank you for the great reply. For both sides of the card battle, do you have a 390 and 970 specific model that you think is superior to them all? 

if one was superior, the rest would be out of buisiness. they all have their advantages and disadvantages, you pick based on the things you want, and the things you dont want to encounter.

[HrutkayMods]

970: EVGA FTW or SSC

390: I hear the ASUS Strix is pretty nice

[manofsteel]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

if you insist on doing that, at least *try* to help the dude out with his question as well.

 

even if he'd switch to picking a 390 he'd still be stuck at choosing a model. why not recommend some models on both sides and compare overall differences so OP can make a decision for himself rather than blindly following the fannboiiz on the interwebz.

 

on topic:

for nvidia cards, i generally recommend evga or MSI, and in a lesser extent asus. if you have an asus motherboard that supports AI suiite, their GPUs will hook into that as well, if you're into that kind of thing. evga and msi generally have (slightly) better coolers.

 

for amd cards, if you want the price/performance of the R9 390 like before mentioned, sapphire seems to be a pretty good choice, as well as MSI, i've heard mixed things about gigabute. once again the asus ai suite hook is a thing for asus cards, if you're into that.

quick note on nvidia side, if op has nice bugdet he can go gigabyte extreme edition which is more swag but have same clock speed as evga, bigger cooler and more power delivery apart from rest of cards but there is hatch, the cost of it higher than evga ones .

[Sportiva]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

if you insist on doing that, at least *try* to help the dude out with his question as well.

 

even if he'd switch to picking a 390 he'd still be stuck at choosing a model. why not recommend some models on both sides and compare overall differences so OP can make a decision for himself rather than blindly following the fannboiiz on the interwebz.

I suppose that you are right,

 

OP, If you go with a 970 i would recommend something from EVGA like the SSC variant,

And if you go with a 390 i would get one from Sapphire or MSI

 

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, HrutkayMods said:

970: EVGA FTW or SSC

390: I hear the ASUS Strix is pretty nice

i actually heard the same thing about the 390 strix actually.

[manofsteel]

2 minutes ago, Sportiva said:

I have had multiple computers with AMD cards and not one of them have bricked due to a GPU driver update, My friends computer with a 970 has bricked 2 times due to a Nvidia driver update and he has had the computer for less that 6 months,

well i got ati 3850 hd for some time and i got some issue that card didint display correctly (no signal ) but it could be that the connectors were damaged back then (i mean that for cable screws no pins in slot itself) so the cable wasnt hold good;p

[manofsteel]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

i actually heard the same thing about the 390 strix actually.

aside my question about drivers, i heard that asus on AMD is rly bad thing (and some of answers were from fanboiz of AMD so there must be something in it) so i wouldnt recommend it on either side thou. But asus boards another story thou.

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, manofsteel said:

aside my question about drivers, i heard that asus on AMD is rly bad thing (and some of answers were from fanboiz of AMD so there must be something in it) so i wouldnt recommend it on either side thou. But asus boards another story thou.

i hear very mixed things about asus cards, but strangely most positive things come from satisfied owners, and most negative things come from people who havent had asus cards for at least the last few generations.

 

if we go by that standard, stay away from gigabyte because my HD5770 fell apart during gaming.

[Vellinious]

Do you plan on overclocking? What resolution do you plan on gaming at?

For overclocking?  970
For 1080?  Both of them will work well, even at stock clocks
For 1440+?  390

There ya go.  The specific model of card to get, would ALSO, greatly depend on how you answer the above questions.

[manofsteel]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

i hear very mixed things about asus cards, but strangely most positive things come from satisfied owners, and most negative things come from people who havent had asus cards for at least the last few generations.

 

if we go by that standard, stay away from gigabyte because my HD5770 fell apart during gaming.

I didint say about gigabyte on rads side but nvidia one  but srsly asus are the cheapest cards but expensive boards so yea kinda fishy here... atleast for me . Anyway i would atleast stay away from asus on rads side and go for MSI or Sapphire (depending mostly on color theme ;P)

[Quelux]

20 minutes ago, manikyath said:

 

9 minutes ago, Vellinious said:

Do you plan on overclocking? What resolution do you plan on gaming at?

For overclocking?  970
For 1080?  Both of them will work well, even at stock clocks
For 1440+?  390

There ya go.  The specific model of card to get, would ALSO, greatly depend on how you answer the above questions.

I do plan on overclocking my CPU, thus the 6600k, and would also like a small bit of future proofing to get me by for a while. 

[Vellinious]

The 970s have a lot more headroom for overclocking, and end up passing up the 390s.  The 3XX series just aren't very good overclockers.  If you plan on overclocking the GPU, the 970s overclock like a dream and are easy as hell to bios mod for additional power.

If you just want to throw a mild overclock on the GPU, then, for 1080 gaming, again...either the 390 or the 970 will work just fine.

If you go with the 970, go with the Gigabyte, MSI or EVGA cards.  With EVGA, make sure it's the ACX 2.0+ version, and not the ACX 2.0 version.  For the 390, XFX and Sapphire both make excellent GPUs.