970 VS 480

[androthemofo]

GTX 970 for $175 worth?? or push for 480 4gb for $199

 

?? Should I go for the cheaper 970 3.5gb and get that extra cash for a game instead

or go for the 480 4gb and get all that sweet performance

[Morgan MLGman]

24$ difference? Get the 480. Will last you longer and perform better than a 970

[Droidbot]

480 = 980 tier

Definitely 480, you get not just a newer card but a proper warranty and a proper 4GB framebuffer

[stealth80]

4 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

480 = 980 tier

Definitely 480, you get not just a newer card but a proper warranty and a proper 4GB framebuffer

please not this shit again it took extreme circumstances to expose the "slower 0.5gb" vram. I had 2 in SLI and never saw it

[Morgan MLGman]

7 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

please not this shit again it took extreme circumstances to expose the "slower 0.5gb" vram. I had 2 in SLI and never saw it

Shit or not, the last 512MB part of GTX 970's "4GB" memory is as slow as Intel HD Graphics 4600 memory which uses system RAM as its VRAM so... It's way too slow and might cause issues in memory intensive applications.

Proof:

Intel HD Graphics 4600 has memory bandwidth of 25,6GB/s and HD 560 (Skylake) has more than the last 512MB part of the 970's memory, 34,1MB/s.

 

 

Just because you didn't see issues, doesn't mean other people won't. I also had a 970 btw.

[Droidbot]

3 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

please not this shit again it took extreme circumstances to expose the "slower 0.5gb" vram. I had 2 in SLI and never saw it

I'm being a snarky cunt, calm down. 

[samcool55]

RX 480 is imo the way to go, the price difference is very small and you will get longer support for it.

Also performance is better and with DX12 and Vulkan slowly getting more common i'm expecting the performance gap will only get bigger when time moves on.

[Lord Nicoll]

1 hour ago, stealth80 said:

please not this shit again it took extreme circumstances to expose the "slower 0.5gb" vram. I had 2 in SLI and never saw it

But it is still there, Nvidia was found by a count to have deceived the public about it, and it did cause slowdowns, it wasn't an issue purely because for the most part that 512MB was locked out, the drivers ignored it, making the effective memory 3.5GB, not that detracted from the value, as much users never got near the full frame buffer, and at that point unless you had an overclocking god card it wouldn't have benefited from the extra half gig that much.

 

1 hour ago, androthemofo said:

GTX 970 for $175 worth?? or push for 480 4gb for $199

 

?? Should I go for the cheaper 970 3.5gb and get that extra cash for a game instead

or go for the 480 4gb and get all that sweet performance

I'd say go for the RX 480, it's newer and has much better DX12 support, which could be much more relevant in the new year or so, as well as being more power efficient, never though I'd say that lol. 

[stealth80]

1 hour ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Shit or not, the last 512MB part of GTX 970's "4GB" memory is as slow as Intel HD Graphics 4600 memory which uses system RAM as its VRAM so... It's way too slow and might cause issues in memory intensive applications.

Proof:

Intel HD Graphics 4600 has memory bandwidth of 25,6GB/s and HD 560 (Skylake) has more than the last 512MB part of the 970's memory, 34,1MB/s.

 

Just because you didn't see issues, doesn't mean other people won't. I also had a 970 btw.

 

12 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

But it is still there, Nvidia was found by a count to have deceived the public about it, and it did cause slowdowns, it wasn't an issue purely because for the most part that 512MB was locked out, the drivers ignored it, making the effective memory 3.5GB, not that detracted from the value, as much users never got near the full frame buffer, and at that point unless you had an overclocking god card it wouldn't have benefited from the extra half gig that much.

 

I'd say go for the RX 480, it's newer and has much better DX12 support, which could be much more relevant in the new year or so, as well as being more power efficient, never though I'd say that lol. 

I'm not saying it wasn't there, and I know about the court case. My point is that the average consumer WILL NEVER see it occur due to the strict circumstances that were needed to find it in the first place. Not recommending a 970 based purely on that (not saying that happened here, but it reminded me of the 390 vs 970 days) is delusional

 

As for the OP. The 480 for sure, not because of some vram debate, but purely because its based on range a rank above, aka 980. Its also getting faster with driver updates and performs much better in Vulkan and DX12. I would save a little more though and try and grab an 8gb

 

[androthemofo]

1 hour ago, stealth80 said:

 

I'm not saying it wasn't there, and I know about the court case. My point is that the average consumer WILL NEVER see it occur due to the strict circumstances that were needed to find it in the first place. Not recommending a 970 based purely on that (not saying that happened here, but it reminded me of the 390 vs 970 days) is delusional

 

As for the OP. The 480 for sure, not because of some vram debate, but purely because its based on range a rank above, aka 980. Its also getting faster with driver updates and performs much better in Vulkan and DX12. I would save a little more though and try and grab an 8gb

 

 I plan to do that secret unlocking thing on getting the 8gb from a 4gb model

[Droidbot]

6 minutes ago, androthemofo said:

 I plan to do that secret unlocking thing on getting the 8gb from a 4gb model

Doesn't work, only on ref cards from the early days 

[androthemofo]

Just now, Droidbot said:

Doesn't work, only on ref cards from the early days 

Oh.... but I am on a tight budget..  

[Droidbot]

8 minutes ago, androthemofo said:

Oh.... but I am on a tight budget..  

4Gb is fine, especially for the next couple years