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[thequickandthedead]

Most people I know have told me that a 970 is much better value for money but to be honest I want something that is a much higher jump from what I have now (a 760). I've been considering the original Titan as well but it's clock speed isn't as good as a 980.

Any recommendations?

 

[Tenebrous]

Yes it is. There's always going to be a card that's better performance per buck, but outside the Titan and twin-chip AMD cards, both of which are a lot more costly, you're not beating the 980 for single card power.

(770 was great for the money last time around, but I went with 780s).

 

[Ryne]

Can you wait about a month or two? New cards from AMD look to be releasing soon, which will probably be better than the 980 - however if your heart is set on the 980, waiting may save you some bucks as the price for that card will drop on the release of the new AMD cards.

 

[diamount]

Depends on your circumstances. What resolution do you play at and the refresh rate? I would wait on AMD's offerings.

 

[Phawx]

Wait for AMD to release the 390X and Nvidia to release the 980Ti.

Looking at a 3 month timeline for what is surely going to bring price cuts to the 980.

 

[secretanchitman]

Wait for AMD to release the 390X and Nvidia to release the 980Ti.

Looking at a 3 month timeline for what is surely going to bring price cuts to the 980.

This is what I would do just so prices can come down and you'll get an even better bang for your buck.

 

[ciddative]

980Ti this summer is gonna be a monster. I heard it from top men. Top.... men.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Isnt AMD with HBM coming in a month?

No matter which side you pick, its always good to have a new entry so that prices drop.

 

[LiK]

doesn't matter to me whether it's AMD or the new 980Ti, gonna wait for them to come out just to see a price drops for the 970/980s

 

[digitalrelic]

6 months ago, yes... But right now would be a bad time to buy one IMO. AMD is literally right around the corner with their new line of cards, and nVidia is sure to follow. At the very least this would mean a price drop is imminent for the 980. Of course, this is all speculation, so who knows. Also, if you were planning to buy Arkham Knight and The Witcher 3 anyway, the 980 might be a good deal even at full price today.

I'd say I love mine, but I'd also say that I wish I had a little more performance today. I'm hoping the 980TI is announced with at least ~30% performance gains.

 

[Glass Shark]

I went from a 770 to a 970 and got a HUGE jump in performance. I think you'll be very happy going from a 760 to a 970, and you don't really need to spring the for the 980. If you find yourself unhappy in a year, buy another 970 for SLI.

 

[Josman]

Wait for AMD to announce their line-up, possibly at E3? They will either beat maxwell or force Nvidia to drop prices.
Whatever the case the biggest jump will be next year with Pascal and 14nm, If I were you I'd just hold to that 760 until then, specially if you're interested in VR. But I'm a very patient man.

 

[UnrealEck]

I reccomend you save your money because there's a lot of rumours of a new Maxwell GPU coming out fairly soon to combat AMD's 300 series.
By that time you might also have a bit more money too if you add a little per week.

 

[thequickandthedead]

If I make the jump to AMD will I lose access to stuff like Physx, Game/Hairworks, SLI, downsampling?

 

[digitalrelic]

If I make the jump to AMD will I lose access to stuff like Physx, Game/Hairworks, SLI, downsampling?

Yes, Yes, ATI has Crossfire but the support is really bad compared to nVidia, no.

 

[LiK]

If I make the jump to AMD will I lose access to stuff like Physx, Game/Hairworks, SLI, downsampling?

pretty much

 

[The Llama]

If I make the jump to AMD will I lose access to stuff like Physx, Game/Hairworks, SLI, downsampling?

Depends. PhysX doesn't work on AMD cards. Some gameworks features (like Hairworks and HBAO+) work on AMD cards. Other things (Adaptive V Sync, and some other things I can't think of) don't. AMD has equivalents to SLI (CrossFire) and DSR (VSR).

 

[digitalrelic]

Oh and also, the 980 is only about ~15-20% faster than the 970, so it's not like it's some monumental leap in performance. If you want a massive jump in performance from the 970, you're either going to have to drop $1000 on the Titan X or wait a few months for the new cards to arrive.

 

[cackhyena]

Never going back to AMD. Might jump on the 980 when it goes down after the new AMD cards release.

 

[dmr87]

Wait for AMDs new cards/GTX980ti, prices will change around etc. Only a month or two away.

 

[diamount]

Yes, Yes, ATI has Crossfire but the support is really bad compared to nVidia, no.

That is a myth, performance is roughly the same, you will generally just wait longer for drivers.

 

[AJLma]

Not in my opinion. The 980 is a mid-range card with a big card price. Anything a 980 can do a 970 can do only slightly slower. The 970 is a much better value. That extra 500MB of memory isn't going to go very far in practice either.

Also, if you're willing to spend 980 money, the 390 and 980 ti are coming. It would be well worth it to wait about 2 months.

 

[digitalrelic]

That is a myth, performance is roughly the same, you will generally just wait longer for drivers.

What exactly is a myth?

 

[DocSeuss]

What exactly is a myth?

Some people believe AMD drivers weren't spawned in an alternate dimensions where bad drivers are the pinnacle of human achievement.

 

[UnrealEck]

ATI has Crossfire

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

If you are able and willing to spend the money for it, it's worth it. I would personally wait until next month to see how AMD's 390X turns out, or buy a 970 and overclock it. But, it's obviously a great fucking card.

 

[diamount]

What exactly is a myth?

That AMD drivers are bad, it's a myth from a bygone age when they were quite bad. But that is not largely the case now.

 

[digitalrelic]

That AMD drivers are bad, it's a myth from a bygone age when they were quite bad. But that is not largely the case now.

I didn't say the drivers were quite bad. I said Crossfire has poor support compared to nVidia's SLI solution. Which is absolutely true.

 

[Piggus]

Huge waste of money compared to the GTX 970, which can be overclocked easily to match the 980. The only benefit the 980 has is 4 "full" GBs of GDDR5 instead of 3.5. But is that worth an additional $200? If you're going to spend that much, why not spend a little more an have 2 GTX 970s in SLI, which absolutely thrashes a single 980?

 

[mkenyon]

This:

mkenyon's guide to buying video cards in the modern and stagnant age:

Step 1: Just fucking buy it already.

Step 2: Wait for the next thing that you need to upgrade to.

Step 3: Sell your card for a good chunk of cash.

Step 4: Purchase new card.

Then you're on top of the game and only out a few hundos each time, rather than needing to plop down $300-500+.

mkenyon's alternative guide to buying video cards in the modern and stagnant age:

Step 1: Wait for people who do the above to sell their cards on GAF B/S/T.



For real though, warranties are based on serial # and last three years if you buy from one of the big AIBs - ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA, Sapphire.

As a general rule of thumb, always buy the best single card you can afford. Avoid SLI/Crossfire, or planning around "adding a second card later on".

Huge waste of money compared to the GTX 970, which can be overclocked easily to match the 980. The only benefit the 980 has is 4 "full" GBs of GDDR5 instead of 3.5. But is that worth an additional $200?

I honestly think this sentence needs to stop being used unless it's actually appropriate, in the case of comparing something that CAN be overclocked to something that CAN NOT be.

Because you can OC the 980 too.

 

[Afro]

980Ti this summer is gonna be a monster. I heard it from top men. Top.... men.

Yup. Wait for that at this point.

 

[thequickandthedead]

btw how do you guys sell off old cards? Do you just put a listing up on ebay/amazon/bst and hope someone takes interest?

 

[Piggus]

This:



As a general rule of thumb, always buy the best single card you can afford. Avoid SLI/Crossfire, or planning around "adding a second card later on".

I honestly think this sentence needs to stop being used unless it's actually appropriate, in the case of comparing something that CAN be overclocked to something that CAN NOT be.

Because you can OC the 980 too.

Sure. But even still, the difference between the two isn't that big.

 

[digitalrelic]

Huge waste of money compared to the GTX 970, which can be overclocked easily to match the 980. The only benefit the 980 has is 4 "full" GBs of GDDR5 instead of 3.5. But is that worth an additional $200? If you're going to spend that much, why not spend a little more an have 2 GTX 970s in SLI, which absolutely thrashes a single 980?

This kind of grates on me, reading this all the time. It's as if people like to pretend that the 980 somehow magically cannot be overclocked.

 

[DonMigs85]

I would wait a bit longer but this is one of the best 28nm cards you can get right now.

 

[paskowitz]

Considering AMD's new offerings and the 980ti are going to come out in a month or two, I would wait until then. 980 will likely get a (minor) price drop. If you can snag one used for like $400, then I would say it is worth it. I have an MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G. Don't recommend it. Fans have issues. Go with EVGA.

If there is an EVGA 980 ti Hybrid (AIO GPU cooler solution) that would be the model to get. The 980 Hybrid hits 1600Ghz with ease and stays below 55c. AMD's top cars will also be water cooled, so expect big numbers from them as well.

 

[digitalrelic]

Sure. But even still, the difference between the two isn't that big.

Depends on what you need it for. I play on a vsynced 60FPS. Meaning if I was hitting 53FPS in a game, I'd be forced to run the game at a vsynced 30FPS. Buying a card that brings up me to, say 62 FPS would hold all the value in the world as I'd be able to play at 60FPS vsynced, doubling the performance in real world usage. It's all about perspective.

btw how do you guys sell off old cards? Do you just put a listing up on ebay/amazon/bst and hope someone takes interest?

Yep! I've never had any trouble reselling my old gaming hardware.

 

[Piggus]

This kind of grates on me, reading this all the time. It's as if people like to pretend that the 980 somehow magically cannot be overclocked.

All I said was if you want GTX 980 performance, you can achieve that that with a GTX 970. Never said you couldn't OC the 980.

 

[Skyzard]

Personally I'm looking to go from my 780ti sc to a 970 (being allowed to return it) then going to try and live with it until a 980ti or something. It's half the price for similar performance...I can't do double for 10-15%.

Maybe I can, but I shouldn't atm.

 

[SliChillax]

That AMD drivers are bad, it's a myth from a bygone age when they were quite bad. But that is not largely the case now.

Not to sound like a dick or fanboy but then why do I always see AMD users that have the most performance problems when it comes to new games or some particular games in general?

 

[DonMigs85]

Not to sound like a dick or fanboy but then why do I always see AMD users that have the most performance problems when it comes to new games or some particular games in general?

Seems to be mostly because AMD drivers aren't really multithreaded so you need greater single-thread performance to match an equivalent Nvidia card

 

[mkenyon]

Not to sound like a dick or fanboy but then why do I always see AMD users that have the most performance problems when it comes to new games or some particular games in general?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Seems to be mostly because AMD drivers aren't really multithreaded so you need greater single-thread performance to match an equivalent Nvidia card

wut

link?

 

[TSM]

Eh, nevermind.

 

[Deadstar]

Yes it's worth it if you have the money however I might just let you in on some advice. I will give it freely. I always buy evga because they have a stepup program where you can upgrade to a new card while just paying the difference and I think a shipping cost. I've only one it once but it was a good experience for me. Though one downside is you can't get any superclocked versions, it has to be a standard card.

 

[SliChillax]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

I'm looking into getting an AMD card next time I upgrade if they offer a better price to performance than Nvidia. It has nothing to do with that and I keep seeing people having issues with games, these people mostly having AMD cards with Project Cars being the most recent example and if I took 5 minute to research I can link you to other games that had many issues at launch for AMD users. Whether that's AMD's fault or Nvidia being a dick about making their features cripple AMD cards is another story. As a consumer I am not tied to any company but it simply worries me that most people complaining in the PC performance threads are AMD users not getting up to par performance with their competitive Nvidia cards.

 

[The Llama]

Seems to be mostly because AMD drivers aren't really multithreaded so you need greater single-thread performance to match an equivalent Nvidia card

It's basically that nVidia's DX11 drivers are more efficient at CPU usage than AMD's are (draw calls mostly, IIRC). AMD developed Mantle to help combat this, which is why Mantle generally helps more when you have a slower CPU. It's really not something most people need to worry about, but if you had a situation where you had an older slower CPU and were buying a high end GPU, you might be better off with an nVidia card than an AMD one.

 

[120v]

i'm personally holding off until the next x70 card, as it'll probably be a smaller, more energy efficient version of the 980

but if i was going from a 760 i'd go ahead and make the jump to 980, sure. 970 is a beast but why not go the extra mile

 

[ZOONAMI]

If you're alright with overpaying, sure it's a worthwhile purchase. Upon release the 980 was a midrange maxwell priced for the high end market because it slightly outperformed amds 290x that is aging at 18+ months old, and thus, was the best card money could buy. Soon, that will not be the case as the 390x is imminent. If you have to buy something now the 290x is a much better value than both the 970 or 980, unless you are really concerned about 50 watts of extra power consumption under load.

 

[mkenyon]

i'm personally holding off until the next x70 card, as it'll probably be a smaller, more energy efficient version of the 980

but if i was going from a 760 i'd go ahead and make the jump to 980, sure. 970 is a beast but why not go the extra mile

So you understand what you're looking for, the 970 and the 980 are the same GPU, the 970 just has bits of it turned off through the binning process.

The 970 and 980 are the mid-tier Maxwell product, with the Titan X/(possible 980 Ti or 1080, whatever they call it) as the high end Maxwell product.

You won't see something that consumes less power until their next architecture drops, which will be about 1.5-3 years from now. Again, they'll likely release the mid tier GPU as the 1070/1170 and 1080/1180 - depending on what they decide to do with naming the 980 Ti/1080 card.

I'm looking into getting an AMD card next time I upgrade if they offer a better price to performance than Nvidia. It has nothing to do with that and I keep seeing people having issues with games, these people mostly having AMD cards with Project Cars being the most recent example and if I took 5 minute to research I can link you to other games that had many issues at launch for AMD users. Whether that's AMD's fault or Nvidia being a dick about making their features cripple AMD cards is another story. As a consumer I am not tied to any company but it simply worries me that most people complaining in the PC performance threads are AMD users not getting up to par performance with their competitive Nvidia cards.

AMD is certainly behind the ball in terms of releasing crossfire profiles.

One of the less talked about facts when it comes to AMD drivers, is that since almost all their cards share the same general architecture, they constantly get tweaked for new games and engines, giving increased performance on cards as old as the 7970/7950. When NVIDIA releases a new architecture, they pretty much stop tweaks and performance increases on their last architecture. So while people who bought a 7970 get extended life out of their product with new updates and tweaks, people who bought a Kepler card are now seeing AMD products that were half the price outpacing them in a lot of new and current games.

At this point, the 7970 GHz/280X is almost on par with the 780/780 Ti/Titan.

I can think of a lot of instances where both have dropped the ball in day 1 type situations. AMD certainly far more looking back 2 years or more through the ATI days. Lately though, they seem to be pretty much the same, with speedier fixes delivered by NVIDIA as a general rule of thumb.

 

[bomblord1]

If you would have asked when it first came out I might have said yes. However the new line is right around the corner.