GTX 960 or GTX 970

[Bigrivriv]

So this is my first time building a custom PC and I have a budget that I'm iffy about going over. So i was wondering if I should spend the extra money on the GTX 970 or stay withe the GTX 960?

 

[LTC8K6]

Need to know what you will be doing with the computer.

 

[Keysplayr]

First, what is your budget?
What kind of gaming do you do?
Monitor resolution?

 

[sm625]

Keep in mind that a i3+970 combo with vastly outperform an i7+960 combo for the same price.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

If you can afford a GTX970 get one asap cause it is much stronger and faster then a 960.Plus 970 is 256bit vs. the 960 which is only 128bit. Both are awesome cards but are a bit pricey for me.now the reason I'm saying get one asap is you get a free batman game with your purchase if your in the USA..

 

[Piroko]

Vote for the 970. The 960 is very mediocre imho (easily bested by refurb 770 and hd380 at that price point).

 

[Silverforce11]

Keep in mind that a i3+970 combo with vastly outperform an i7+960 combo for the same price.

Why not an i5 + 970 combo? Best mix on a budget.

Quite a few recent games run very badly on i3s. GTA V for example gets 28 fps min and 42 fps average on an i3 with a Titan X. It's severely CPU/thread limited because the fps is 2-3x that when its driven by an i5.

CPU often last a lot longer than GPU as well. An i5 Haswell would probably last two more next-gen GPU cycles, whereas an i3 is already running out of steam now.

 

[TeknoBug]

Why not an i5 + 970 combo? Best mix on a budget.

Quite a few recent games run very badly on i3s. GTA V for example gets 28 fps min and 42 fps average on an i3 with a Titan X. It's severely CPU/thread limited because the fps is 2-3x that when its driven by an i5.

CPU often last a lot longer than GPU as well. An i5 Haswell would probably last two more next-gen GPU cycles, whereas an i3 is already running out of steam now.

lol an i3 with a Titan X (seriously, who the f does that?), GTA 5 runs fine on my i3 with a 960 4GB, albiet lower average fps but it doesn't spike like it does on a G3258.

And response to the thread, yes 970 would be the better choice.

 

[Silverforce11]

lol an i3 with a Titan X (seriously, who the f does that?), GTA 5 runs fine on my i3 with a 960 4GB, albiet lower average fps but it doesn't spike like it does on a G3258.

And response to the thread, yes 970 would be the better choice.

Benchmark sites did it for lolz, to test i3 performance in newer games. Point is CPU last a long time compared to GPU. Someone who builds a new rig now, put in an i3, in ~1 year when next-gen 14/16nm mid-range GPUs come out which Titan X performance, if they upgrade, they will be severely CPU limited. But if they have an i5, it will be fine!

As a gaming rig, I never skimp out and go for an i5 as a minimum.

 

[bononos]

Vote for the 970. The 960 is very mediocre imho (easily bested by refurb 770 and hd380 at that price point).

Isn't the 380 also the same price ($200) and a rebadge of the 285 which was right around the performance of a 960?

 

[stockwiz]

Neither if possible. Video cards are a bit overpriced right now and people have just decided to put up with it. 970 is still selling for ~$350 which is kind of silly. At $250 maybe I'll bite... I would have bought one of it had 4 GB of properly functioning RAM way back months ago... It's no surprise consoles are popular when the cost of one console is the same as one video card (or less)

With summer here I don't care about buying one now until October.

If you're going to build a rig, don't take the buying an i3 advice... buy the i7 and overclock to get bang for the buck and keep the system 5 years... a quad core haswell/skylake system built this summer/fall will be good for a long time... though so will a sandy bridge build from 2011 if you bought the i7 2500K or 2600K. In 2015 though I would prefer 6 cores without the integrated video which I'll never use and may wait for skylake-E

 

[Piroko]

Isn't the 380 also the same price ($200) and a rebadge of the 285 which was right around the performance of a 960?

Well, I'll take that back. Toms' shows the 380 leading the 960 by quite a lot, other sites show them much closer in performance. Still leaves 770 refurbs and the massive gap between the 960 and the 970.