It's probably a stupid question but I'm clueless and was wondering what kind of upgrade this will be. I went from a AMD 6850 to this 670GTX and it was almost like a different world, I can remember being able to mod Skyrim back in the day to the most ridiculous graphics levels and get good FPS while my 6850 would have died trying. Is that the kind of upgrade this will be?

Does anyone own a 970 and know what the card can do in comparison?

Thanks!

P.S Please no AMD salesmen telling me to go red or Saudi Arabian oil tycoons who're going to buy 2,000x SLI 1080 GTX telling me to grab a 1070 or a 1080, they are releasing at way more than I'd ever pay for a card.

I am not a salesman but with AMD/Nvidia soon to release there mid range then you would be stupid to buy now. Polaris from AMD should be a decent chunk faster and possibly cost less. You will probably get double the amount of Vram on Polaris as well as it being a proper dx12 card. Amd's current 390 already has double the vram and kicks the crap out of the gtx970 in what dx12 stuff we already have.

If you are set on going for a gtx970 it won't be as nice an upgrade as you had before but it will be a substantial one. The gtx970 should be around gtx670 sli speed.

TheRealDeal said:

I am not a salesman but with AMD/Nvidia soon to release there mid range then you would be stupid to buy now. Polaris from AMD should be a decent chunk faster and possibly cost less. You will probably get double the amount of Vram on Polaris as well as it being a proper dx12 card.

If you are set on going for a gtx970 it won't be as nice an upgrade as you had before but it will be a substantial one. The gtx970 should be around gtx670 sli speed.

Click to expand...

I understand what you're saying, I know AMD is very good for the money but the AMD cards I've had have given me nothing but grief with driver issues, games refusing to run or running poorly, I just want a cheap green card that I can chuck at anything for 1920x1200 gaming and that can run older games I play a lot like Diablo 3 at 500000000000p without issues. Plus these new AMD cards are coming out at the end of the year right? My 670 is already struggling in some games I love like ARK and Witcher.

Think the 970 will drop even lower with the 1xxx series coming out?

edit: My 670 is only 2GB so the 4GB from the 970 would be massive right? I know I'm running out of VRAM a lot.

Since you do not upgrade often and you stay on mid range cards while on budget, wait for the AMD Polaris cards to see their offerings.

As for the GTX970 right now, ain't worth even used. The R9 390/390X are much better cards. But again wait for Polaris, since they will consume significantly less power, and are more powerful.

As for DX12 AMD has better support and Async Compute.

Also the GTX970 has only 3.5GB as full speed. And spare bit the old histories about AMD drivers. These are fine the last 5 years.
Hell NV has more issues with those over the period, especially last year.

Omaeka said:

I understand what you're saying, I know AMD is very good for the money but the AMD cards I've had have given me nothing but grief with driver issues, games refusing to run or running poorly, I just want a cheap green card that I can chuck at anything for 1920x1200 gaming and that can run older games I play a lot like Diablo 3 at 500000000000p without issues. Plus these new AMD cards are coming out at the end of the year right? My 670 is already struggling in some games I love like ARK and Witcher.

Think the 970 will drop even lower with the 1xxx series coming out?

Click to expand...

No they are out at the end of June by the looks of it. Nvidia themselves should be coming in with a 1060 around the same time or not long after. The 1060 should beat out a gtx970 and hopefully cost around the same or less. Drivers on the AMD side have arguably been better than Nvidia's as off late where single card setups are concerned. Either way in a month or 2 you can probably grab a next gen faster card or pick up a bargain on what we have now.

i'll put it in simple terms for you.

The GTX 970 will politely hand a plate with your 670's arse on it.

AMD's Drivers these days are no worse than Nvidia's, and TBH with the way things are going i would not trust a 970's longevity.

With better DX12 compatibility and an 8GB buffer a 390 is a better long term GPU.
Or just wait a couple of months for the new GPU's at a more reasonable price.

I went from an MSI power edition 670 (one of the best models) to a crappy 970 and the 970 takes a massive dump all over the 670

but u might wanna wait for 1070 to come out...

780ti or a 290x, mite be better and would be cheaper.

Wait a month or so and 970's will be going cheap. Overclockers recently had an R9 390 in their clearance for £180 so prices are coming down slowly.

Hold off for a bit if you can. AMD said they are trying to increase value for money with Polaris and Nvidia will also have to launch their sub £300 cards.

I would get one of these,as they will have proper game optimisations for the next few years.

Thanks for the feedback, I respect AMD but I feel Nvidia is more idiot-proof which is perfect for me. Does anyone know what the 970 will be doing in 3-4 years? My 670 is still handling itself 3.5 years after I bought it and it was cheap, same price as the 970 is now. Which is why I'm looking to upgrade.

@darket, ShakeNBake; what kind of frames do you pull in games? Not sure what you play but have you any experience with Witcher 3? Currently sitting at 30fps on ultra/high at 1200p with reShade. 60fps is unlikely on a 970 or? Feel like a lot of the 30fps comes from resShade, resolution and textures eating VRAM.

edit: I was planning to wait a month-ish anyway, a 390 for £180 is insane

@Cat do you know what the sub £300 cards will be called?

It's a huge upgrade going from a 670 to a 970.

I went from SLI 670's to a single 970 and that was an upgrade.

Are you buying this card second hand?

opethdisciple said:

It's a huge upgrade going from a 670 to a 970.

I went from SLI 670's to a single 970 and that was an upgrade.

Are you buying this card second hand?

Click to expand...

I would be buying brand new and most likely

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...graphics-card-gv-n970wf3oc-4gd-gx-149-gi.html

Same model as as my 670, I have a special place in my heart for the windforce cards now

A 970 is ~ 2x the performance of a 670. It's still a very good card for 1080p, struggles on it's own at 1440p (but good in SLI).

Omaeka said:

Thanks for the feedback, I respect AMD but I feel Nvidia is more idiot-proof which is perfect for me. Does anyone know what the 970 will be doing in 3-4 years? My 670 is still handling itself 3.5 years after I bought it and it was cheap, same price as the 970 is now. Which is why I'm looking to upgrade.

@darket, ShakeNBake; what kind of frames do you pull in games? Not sure what you play but have you any experience with Witcher 3? Currently sitting at 30fps on ultra/high at 1200p with reShade. 60fps is unlikely on a 970 or? Feel like a lot of the 30fps comes from resShade, resolution and textures eating VRAM.

edit: I was planning to wait a month-ish anyway, a 390 for £180 is insane

@CAT do you know what the sub £300 cards will be called?

Click to expand...

I expect either the GTX1060TI or GTX1060.

I would probably not buy a GTX970 if you intend to have it for three to four years - you have started to see the R9 290/R9 390 series cards catch up ground despite being much older in terms of GPU design,especially in DX12.

Sadly,both my GTX660 and GTX960 seemed to have aged worse than the HD7870 and R9 380,and I get the feeling maybe the Nvidia cards might be more dependent on software optimisations at times,whilst AMD brute forces it.

You might have to wait a few months,but going for the newer cards will mean you have at least probably will have some guaranteed game optimisations on the Nvidia side for the next two years or so,IMHO OFC.

Plus if Polaris 10 is even remotely competitive with a GTX1070 and cheaper it might also drop prices a bit on the GTX1070 too. Not saying it will though,but it might.

Omaeka said:

Thanks for the feedback, I respect AMD but I feel Nvidia is more idiot-proof which is perfect for me. Does anyone know what the 970 will be doing in 3-4 years? My 670 is still handling itself 3.5 years after I bought it and it was cheap, same price as the 970 is now. Which is why I'm looking to upgrade.

@darket, ShakeNBake; what kind of frames do you pull in games? Not sure what you play but have you any experience with Witcher 3? Currently sitting at 30fps on ultra/high at 1200p with reShade. 60fps is unlikely on a 970 or? Feel like a lot of the 30fps comes from resShade, resolution and textures eating VRAM.

edit: I was planning to wait a month-ish anyway, a 390 for £180 is insane

@CAT do you know what the sub £300 cards will be called?

Click to expand...

At Sub £300 on the Nvidia side you should have variants of a 1060 and on the AMD side something along the lines of RX480x/480.

Omaeka said:

Thanks for the feedback, I respect AMD but I feel Nvidia is more idiot-proof which is perfect for me. Does anyone know what the 970 will be doing in 3-4 years? My 670 is still handling itself 3.5 years after I bought it and it was cheap, same price as the 970 is now. Which is why I'm looking to upgrade.

@darket, ShakeNBake; what kind of frames do you pull in games? Not sure what you play but have you any experience with Witcher 3? Currently sitting at 30fps on ultra/high at 1200p with reShade. 60fps is unlikely on a 970 or? Feel like a lot of the 30fps comes from resShade, resolution and textures eating VRAM.

edit: I was planning to wait a month-ish anyway, a 390 for £180 is insane

@CAT do you know what the sub £300 cards will be called?

Click to expand...

The 970 won't cut it in 3 years, it doesn't have enough vram and Nvidia's track record for older cards is not stellar lately.
Wait for the AMD reveal in a month.

HazardO said:

A 970 is ~ 2x the performance of a 670. It's still a very good card for 1080p, struggles on it's own at 1440p (but good in SLI).

Click to expand...

I ran my Gigabyte 970 Xtreme on a Asus G-Sync 1440p it ran all games just fine. It rarely struggled.

970 is still amazing card and good upgrade from your 670. If you can get one cheap or on sale it would be a good purchase.

HazardO said:

A 970 is ~ 2x the performance of a 670. It's still a very good card for 1080p, struggles on it's own at 1440p (but good in SLI).

Click to expand...

Seriously 2x? So Witcher 3 as I have it now would stick at 60fps instead of 30fps?

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:

I expect either the GTX1060TI or GTX1060.

I would probably not buy a GTX970 if you intend to have it for three to four years - you have started to see the R9 290/R9 390 series cards catch up ground despite being much older in terms of GPU design,especially in DX12.

Sadly,both my GTX660 and GTX960 seemed to have aged worse than the HD7870 and R9 380,and I get the feeling maybe the Nvidia cards might be more dependent on software optimisations at times,whilst AMD brute forces it.

You might have to wait a few months,but going for the newer cards will mean you have at least probably will have some guaranteed game optimisations on the Nvidia side for the next two years or so,IMHO OFC.

Plus if Polaris 10 is even remotely competitive with a GTX1070 and cheaper it might also drop prices a bit on the GTX1070 too. Not saying it will though,but it might.

Click to expand...

AMD usually force Nvidia to drop their prices a little, it didn't happen with the 9xx cards but I don't think AMD really had much that could challenge them, but only for that generation. The 670 still gets regular driver updates with all the new games and I see the increases. Played Dark Souls 3 on an outdated driver and when the Dark Souls 3 driver was released the performance gain was pretty big. 670 is nearly 4 years old.

Are the 60 cards not inferior to the 70s of the previous GTX series? Always thought the 670 beat the 760 for example.

Zethor said:

The 970 won't cut it in 3 years, it doesn't have enough vram and Nvidia's track record for older cards is not stellar lately.
Wait for the AMD reveal in a month.

Click to expand...

What makes you say that? I'm sure people said the same about the 670 and TBH from personal experience the card is amazing even today, it doesn't struggle on any game if I don't aim for ultra settings, ran DOOM on sub-insanity settings (or whatever they were called). It's like a featherweight that can KO the heavyweights, what's to say the 970 won't be doing the same, they just not making cards like they used to anymore?

TheRealDeal said:

At Sub £300 on the Nvidia side you should have variants of a 1060 and on the AMD side something along the lines of RX480x/480.

Click to expand...

Do you know if the 1060 will have a Windforce edition? Stupid question probably sorry.

Simon Belmont said:

I ran my Gigabyte 970 Xtreme on a Asus G-Sync 1440p it ran all games just fine. It rarely struggled.

Click to expand...

It's hard to not click the buy now button with posts like these so good to hear.

Always get anxious when it comes to an upgrade though, getting mixed messages in here which is kinda what I want, you need balanced opinions but it seems everyone with a 970 is loving it. If you don't have experience with a card, benchmarks, hearsay and reviews aren't always completely accurate. I bet the 670 is getting crapped on everywhere in comparison to the new cards and it's still got fight left in it from personal experience.