MSI 960 or MSI 970?

[Headfoot]

~50% faster in gaming.

If you're buying expensive PCs and Graphics cards and you already play games, theres an extremely high likelihood you're going to game on it. I dont buy that he wont game on this thing now that he has the capability, and its a lot lot faster than the Xbox One. There's no reason to continue playing on an Xbox One for non-exclusive titles when your PC is vastly faster and you can plug in a Xbox One controller and/or stream the PC image out to your Xbox/Steam Sink at your TV in the living room. Games end up being cheaper on Steam most the time anyways.

I know its the vogue thing to craft increasingly narrow and contorted use cases that favor one small feature advantage on the 960, but it's really pretty self apparent why the 970 is better when the OP has said he's got an open budget.

 

[MoInSTL]

~50% faster in gaming.

If you're buying expensive PCs and Graphics cards and you already play games, theres an extremely high likelihood you're going to game on it. I dont buy that he wont game on this thing now that he has the capability, and its a lot lot faster than the Xbox One. There's no reason to continue playing on an Xbox One for non-exclusive titles when your PC is vastly faster and you can plug in a Xbox One controller and/or stream the PC image out to your Xbox/Steam Sink at your TV in the living room. Games end up being cheaper on Steam most the time anyways.

I know its the vogue thing to craft increasingly narrow and contorted use cases that favor one small feature advantage on the 960, but it's really pretty self apparent why the 970 is better when the OP has said he's got an open budget.

Whatever. I don't buy PCs, I build them, Don't assume all PC builders are guys. I'm not a guy. I already have an Xbox controller for PC. I got one when I played Skyrim. I prefer the big TV and the reclining couch to game from. My prerogative . That "one small feature" is precisely why I got the 960. I also like a very quiet PC.

 

[lehtv]

Don't assume all PC builders are guys. I'm not a guy.

To be fair, "he" is often used in place of "he or she" because typically, when you don't know for certain the gender of the person you're referring to, you can't be bothered to highlight that uncertainty every single time. Instead, you shorten it to "he".

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/he
"2. anyone (without reference to sex); that person"

 

[tential]

Whatever. I don't buy PCs, I build them, Don't assume all PC builders are guys. I'm not a guy. I already have an Xbox controller for PC. I got one when I played Skyrim. I prefer the big TV and the reclining couch to game from. My prerogative . That "one small feature" is precisely why I got the 960. I also like a very quiet PC.

This is how I game as well and most of this forum won't understand that. I'll update my post after skimming the thread with more though.
Just excited when I see other couch pc gamers.

From a quick skim I just do think a 960 is enough on a big screen you want something stronger imo. I use the 7950 and play on upgrade something at least as strong as the 970. But that's my 2 cents even if you stream from your Xbox always nice to have gpu horsepower for gaming on pc.

 

[krumme]

I have a pretty quiet system and the last thing to add to recent May build is the GPU. So far, it appears MSI is the quietest.

I currently game on my Xbox One. Last PC game was Skyrim.

The only thing holding me back on a MSI 970 is possibly introducing coil whine. My system is very quiet so this is a big consideration. The only thing holding me back on the 960 or the 2GB 960 is the 128 memory bus. Can someone please help clarify if this is a big deal?

Budget is open and $100 price difference does not matter. Will be getting at local Microcenter store so I can easily exchange.

I want start doing some video editing later this summer as a new project. So don't know what software I will be using yet.

i7-5820K
Asus X99-A
16GB DDR4
EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2
27" 2560X1440
Fractal R5
Windows 10 Pro

My EVGA 560 ti is the last to be upgraded.

I am hysterical about noise and my msi 970 is excellent for that without coil whine.
I wouldnt go below 970 for gaming. The cripple 256 bus is barely enough.
Oc to 1540 or so mem 8 btw.

Edit: i think the 960 is way to expensive as RS also points out so unless you need 265 hardware decoding its imo a bad choice.

Edit edit ohh congrats on the new card

 

[MoInSTL]

This is how I game as well and most of this forum won't understand that. I'll update my post after skimming the thread with more though.
Just excited when I see other couch pc gamers.

From a quick skim I just do think a 960 is enough on a big screen you want something stronger imo. I use the 7950 and play on upgrade something at least as strong as the 970. But that's my 2 cents even if you stream from your Xbox always nice to have gpu horsepower for gaming on pc.

lol, big TV screen, Xbox One, couch. Not PC.

 

[MoInSTL]

To be fair, "he" is often used in place of "he or she" because typically, when you don't know for certain the gender of the person you're referring to, you can't be bothered to highlight that uncertainty every single time. Instead, you shorten it to "he".

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/he
"2. anyone (without reference to sex); that person"

Oh my, you're in a pedantic mood this evening.

Shortening it to he every single time is part of the problem. But that's for another topic.

 

[MoInSTL]

Okay folks. My OP was about which one. Got very little feedback. Since I did get it you all seem to be coming out of the woodwork to tell me how bad it is and how a 970 would be better. Seems easier to knock it rather than recommend.

I bought it, installed it and like it very much. No regrets.

 

[tential]

lol, big TV screen, Xbox One, couch. Not PC.

Oh, I thought you used your PC with your TV Screen. My PC replaced my Xbox 360. Once I heard the Xbox One wasn't native 1080p for every single game that was a deal breaker. I can't do below native resolution on a 70 inch screen (at the time). Now on an 80 inch it'd be even worse. But putting a PC behind a big TV screen is super easy lol..... But now that I use a projector, it sits right next to me. My Wii U right on top of it lol. It's not a good setup. It's very easy to lay in bed and play wiiu/pc/post on forums all day.

Edit:
I highly doubt h265 will be widespread in 2018. I hope, I have been following it for a long time now, it's amazing for those of us with servers for the future on storage space. But meh, it's not going to be widespread in 3 years. Even among piraters/internet users it won't be widespread.

 

[shady28]

~50% faster in gaming.

If you're buying expensive PCs and Graphics cards and you already play games, theres an extremely high likelihood you're going to game on it. I dont buy that he wont game on this thing now that he has the capability, and its a lot lot faster than the Xbox One. There's no reason to continue playing on an Xbox One for non-exclusive titles when your PC is vastly faster and you can plug in a Xbox One controller and/or stream the PC image out to your Xbox/Steam Sink at your TV in the living room. Games end up being cheaper on Steam most the time anyways.

I know its the vogue thing to craft increasingly narrow and contorted use cases that favor one small feature advantage on the 960, but it's really pretty self apparent why the 970 is better when the OP has said he's got an open budget.

It was pointed out in the first response that if the use was for PC gaming, the 970 was better, and for streaming from PC to TV.

But for streaming some games to PC, even a 960 is overkill. That's why a 950 and the 750/750Ti were brought up. The caveat is that one use case of doing encoding / decoding / video editing, where the 960 excels.

As for prices - might want to check on that. I am regularly seeing console games far cheaper than PC versions.

Some examples :

Call of Duty Ghosts : PC is 59.99, Gamestop XBoxOne is $15.99

Elder Scrolls Online : PC Steam is 59.99, Gamestop XBoxOne is 15.99

Dead Rising 3 : PC Steam 49.99, Gamestop XBone is 19.99

Watch Dogs : PC Steam 39.99, Gamestop XBone 29.99 new / 17.99 used

Assasin's Creed IV Black Flag : PC Steam 39.99, Gamestop XBone 29.99 / 14.99 used

I could go on and on. Console games seem to become very cheap a few months after release, but PC games tend to hang on to high prices. So as long as you aren't a launch day type, the console games offer terrific deals.

The streaming Xbox games on Win 10 is going to hit those PC gamers who insist on true 'PC gaming' from behind. People keep talking about Win 10 and DX 12 reviving PC gaming, but from what I'm seeing there are way more people interested in streaming from XBox One. In fact, I'm pretty interested in it. It means I can play an Xbox One game on my PC while my wife watches TV.

And you can plug an Xbox 360 controller (USB) into a PC and use it for the XBox One games.

 

[shady28]

...
Edit:
I highly doubt h265 will be widespread in 2018. I hope, I have been following it for a long time now, it's amazing for those of us with servers for the future on storage space. But meh, it's not going to be widespread in 3 years. Even among piraters/internet users it won't be widespread.

Ahh, but think out of the PC space for a moment.

Go here, look at the list of TVs.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/4ktv

Then click 'inbuilt HEVC decoder'. The list is... mostly the same.

Look at this list of Samsung's 2015 TVs.

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/article.php?subaction=showfull&id=1428310162

Notice - all of the 4k TVs support HEVC aka h.265, and that's about 75% of their lineup.

And HEVC is not just for 4k.


"New Xbox One update fixes multiplayer issues, adds HEVC 10-bit Codec and more"

http://www.winbeta.org/news/new-xbo...player-issues-adds-hevc-10-bit-codec-and-more

10-bit HD High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) platform support added

10-bit HD HEVC enables video streaming apps, like NetFlix, to use lower bandwidth to deliver HD quality video streams. 10-bit Ultra color increases the video color precision from 8-bits to 10-bits - with 8-bits you only get 16 million colors, but with 10-bit Ultra color precision you get 1 billion life-like colors that makes your video more vibrant.

PCs are great and all, but the rest of the world is moving on to smart TVs and consoles.

 

[nenforcer]

Don't be overly concerned with the 128-bit GDDR5 bus interface of the 960 when compared to your older 256-bit interface on the 560Ti. nVidia has made some improvements regarding lossless delta compression of the frame buffer which has allowed them to shrink the bus with equal or better performance.

 

[tential]

Ahh, but think out of the PC space for a moment.

Go here, look at the list of TVs.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/4ktv

Then click 'inbuilt HEVC decoder'. The list is... mostly the same.

Look at this list of Samsung's 2015 TVs.

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/article.php?subaction=showfull&id=1428310162

Notice - all of the 4k TVs support HEVC aka h.265, and that's about 75% of their lineup.

And HEVC is not just for 4k.


"New Xbox One update fixes multiplayer issues, adds HEVC 10-bit Codec and more"

http://www.winbeta.org/news/new-xbo...player-issues-adds-hevc-10-bit-codec-and-more



PCs are great and all, but the rest of the world is moving on to smart TVs and consoles.

So you believe 4K HEVC capable TVs will be widespread in consumer homes by 2018?
Or an Xbox One?

 

[shady28]

So you believe 4K HEVC capable TVs will be widespread in consumer homes by 2018?
Or an Xbox One?

That's 2 1/2 years from now. About 230M TVs will be sold this year and right now about 30M will be 4K. Thing is there are billions of TVs out there.

But that's 4k, and HEVC is not just about 4k. It's about lower bandwidth use and storage space.

HEVC capable devices are already widespread.

Snapdragon 801 released 2 years ago did 1080p HEVC decode in hardware, and all subsequent models do 4k HEVC decode in hardware. The 810 even has an HEVC hardware encoder. Pretty much every phone for the last year has the ability to decode HEVC streaming video, along with most tablets.

Alas, Apple didn't put it into their phones until the iPhone 6. They're a tad bit behind. But that too is a 1 year old phone.

Netflix and Amazon UHD streaming is - guess what - HEVC. And has been for a year.

In 2 1/2 years (2018) I think any media focused networked/streaming device that can't do HEVC is going to become a PITA to use, regularly running into content that it has to decode via software.

That doesn't necessarily mean everyone will have a 4k TV though.

 

[Headfoot]

Whatever. I don't buy PCs, I build them, Don't assume all PC builders are guys. I'm not a guy.

You want a trophy? This is completely irrelevant information. Way to find something to be offended about.

Also Steam sales. Who buys things at full price on Steam???

This thread is full of people who disagree for the sake of disagreeing and people getting offended for the sake of getting offended. In short, yet another pointless circular thread. Im out.

 

[lehtv]

Oh my, you're in a pedantic mood this evening.

I was not being pedantic, I simply corrected what appeared to be a misinterpretation on your part. If you don't like it, that's your problem.

Shortening it to he every single time is part of the problem. But that's for another topic.

It would not be a problem if you just went with the commonly accepted definition that I posted.