[Hardware Unboxed] Is the GTX 970 still worth it for modern games?

[Insomniator]

The for sale/trade forum on this site is quite lackluster these days compared to other places. $130 was a horrible price to buy a 970 at in the current market. Especially since RX 480 4GB cards have been as low as $140 new and cheaper than that for open/refurbs.

https://slickdeals.net/f/9742828-po...d-140-after-20-rebate-free-s-h?src=SiteSearch

The above link was a previous deal for a $140 used rx 480 4GB card from newegg. Open box and refurbs have been seen for $130 and under. Which is like buying used in my opinion. so buying a used 970 for $130 is just plain stupid of the person that did so from this forum. Again you can search other sites with more active for sale/trade forums and they have better prices sometimes.

Agreed about the FS forums here, I don't know why people think 5% under retail + shipping is worth it for their used crap.

 

[4K_shmoorK]

Used 980 Ti @ $300 still the best deal right now IMO. Not sure I'd buy anything new right now for 1440p and under.

I peruse r/hardwareswap always before buying new hardware, always deals to be had.

 

[w3rd]

Today..?

Heck, the 980 isn't even worth buying. Unless you have 1080p and like to game/use old software.
Because at 1440 the 980 is just a stop gap for the 1080ti.

Wait a year, chances are someone with a 970 will give you one... DX12 is the future.

 

[Leyawiin]

The for sale/trade forum on this site is quite lackluster these days compared to other places. $130 was a horrible price to buy a 970 at in the current market

I know, I'm just saying you won't find a GTX 970 "that works" for less than that. I wouldn't buy one used - people want too much (and yes, the RX 470 4GB or RX 480 4GB are much better buys than a used GTX 970).

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Used 980 Ti @ $300 still the best deal right now IMO. Not sure I'd buy anything new right now for 1440p and under.
I peruse r/hardwareswap always before buying new hardware, always deals to be had.

Maybe I should pickup that pair of eVGA SC 1070s on CL for $580...

 

[PhonakV30]

I bought XFX 290 double dissipation and It was Cheapest card ( and strongest card ) that I could get it and even a cheapest used GTX 970 was more expensive than mine.

 

[nathanddrews]

I bought both my GTX 970s for $120 each while they were still retailing for $329. Whether it was a website fluke, b-stock, or RMA returns, I got lucky and they still work great to this day, OC and all.

 

[Madpacket]

I recently sold off an Asus ITX 970 card. It was a solid 1080P performer for the HTPC and TBH I can't really tell the difference between it and my 480's unless I shoot for Ultra details. Due to heat/size limits of my HTPC case I swapped it with a 1050 Ti and noticed a pretty big drop in performance in some games (Witcher 3, Deus Ex). 1050Ti at medium to high details will keep most modern games around 60 FPS but with the 970 I could just set everything to high and mostly hit 60 FPS. Of course the 1050Ti sips energy. The entire HTPC with a Xeon 1231v3, 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD under full load uses less energy than the 970 alone so the trade-off was worth it.

tldr;

There's no compelling reason to buy a 970 new but if you already have one there's no compelling reason to sell it for a 470/480 or even a 1060 if you want better performance at 1080P. The next step up would be a 1070 or Fury.

 

[ElFenix]

The reviews of that game show 4GB cards (any/all) having difficultly with VRAM demands. If the person I quoted is using that particular game as a basis to warn against buying a GTX 970 he needs to include anything from 4GB on down (3.5+.5 or not).

well, he did that, so i don't know what you're on about.

Hence cards like 970, rx480 4gb etc have no longevity.

 

[96Firebird]

And for the fury the super fast memory somewhat helps with the memory capacity bottleneck.

I'd like to hear your explanation on how this works.

 

[bigboxes]

The title of the video is LITERALLY: "Nvidia 970 - is it still worth buying?"
Stop it! Stop trolling! Stop posting spam!

Fail.

 

[Thinker_145]

The title of the video is LITERALLY: "Nvidia 970 - is it still worth buying?"
Stop it! Stop trolling! Stop posting spam!

Trolling and threadcrapping is not allowed.
YOU are the one trolling, no one said anything about buying
Markfw
Anandtech Moderator

Easy there....

 

[SPBHM]

why would anyone be questioning the 970 now? until less than a year ago it was the main choice for gaming, and the current $200 cards are not that much better than it.

 

[whm1974]

why would anyone be questioning the 970 now? until less than a year ago it was the main choice for gaming, and the current $200 cards are not that much better than it.

No kidding. I play games in Linux with my 970 @2560x1600p just fine, and I'm not looking to upgrade anytime soon.

 

[crisium]

It was certainly the mainstream choice, but there was plenty of questioning over the 3.5 + 0.5 GB design back then. And the 390 and discount 290X were recommended too lest we forget. The better question is to revisit those cards vs 970.