The GTX 970 - Why would you NOT buy this card?

[Freddie1980]

The majority of people will use these cards to actually play games and let's face it there will be little difference in playability between a 290/290X/970 so this whole this is faster then that is a bit pointless.

Exactly you would buy whatever card offers the best value. An XFX 290 with it's fancy looking HSF to me would be more appealing then a stock GTX970 which retail at the same prince (£260ish) especially when you add in AMD game bundle (if I weren't looking to slap a waterblock on it).

 

[Rusty0611]

I think you need to stop using 3DMark to compare cards.... There's these little programs called GAMES that run on these things too!

Err it was you who brought it up. That's like 3 threads now where you've made a black and white statement saying 290 faster than 970 when clocked up and used benchmarks as an example of this. If you don't want to talk benchmarks don't bring them up in the first place.

Have you posted your scores in the benchmark threads yet when you're beating all the 970s?

Sold two of my 290s and currently using my only 290 before I switch to a 970.

Why?

Mantle is broken for me, has been for months with BF4 and since that's the only mantle game I play it's worthless.

Lower power consumption and less heat while giving the same performance.

Never had an issue with Nvidia drivers

I wish I had kept my 780 and sold up and gone to a 970. Could have satisfied my new toy craving and I wouldn't be in a sweat box while gaming . That said my 290 is actually a good one so I can't complain too much.

 

[Ayahuasca]

Your 290 is excellent Rusty, I came 1 point behind you in Heaven

 

[Rusty0611]

Ha ha I just saw that when checking for motor mouths score!

My 290 is quicker than all but 3 290Xs and the quickest 290 by a fair bit! Used Heaven because I CBA with clocking my CPU up for 3D Mark. I should stop looking at 970s really.

 

[Ayahuasca]

Be interesting seeing scores if they release lightning or classified 970's that are binned. Someone is eventually going to get a score up at 1700mhz core. In fact there's probably a few MSI and Gigabyte cards that can do it when voltage and power is unlocked.

 

[stuie]

My 670s sli runs most stuff maxed at 1080, I will however be keeping close eye on the 970s if they become silly cheap with 20/16nm releases especially as I can drop my 670 blocks on them

 

[ubersonic]

Because looking at the 3DMark threads and such clocked 780's are on par or beating 970's.

Maybe a few days ago when the was only a couple of 970's, now the is only one 780 higher than the top 970 and by 21 points, probably due to the higher CPU clock on the 780 system and the fact the GPU is running insane clocks whereas the 970 is only running slightly above average clocks.

My reference 970 is just over 20% better in Valley than my 780 was at reference clocks and when moderately over-clocked it beats my 780 @1.2GHz by over 30%!

100w is nothing... Play your machine with the light bulb turned off.

What type of light bulb you have doesn't dictate how much you need to spend on the PSU/radiators when you build the rig >.>

 

[Marine-RX179]

One of my GTX970's scored just over 12% higher than my GTX780 in Valley, I think your comparing after market clocked up cards to base clock 970's there.

I wasn't refering to stock vs stock as the 970 has a higher stock clock to beginning with, I was referring to when the cards are pushed on overclocking- there's not much difference between the the 970 and the 780 when both were overclocked. Someone has posted the Heaven results of his GTX780 at 1241MHz vs his GTX970 at 1500MHz and his 780 was 9 points ahead of his 970. I suspect this is probably because while the Maxwell/970 can overclock by "big number" on the MHz, the real-world performance increase probably is not as much as overclocking the 780...possibly due to its narrow bus-size/lower memory bandwidth.

 

[ubersonic]

I wasn't refering to stock vs stock as the 970 has a higher stock clock to beginning with, I was referring to when the cards are pushed on overclocking- there's not much difference between the the 970 and the 780 when both were overclocked. Someone has posted the Heaven results of his GTX780 at 1241MHz vs his GTX970 at 1500MHz and his 780 was 9 points ahead of his 970. I suspect this is probably because while the Maxwell/970 can overclock by "big number" on the MHz, the real-world performance increase probably is not as much as overclocking the 780...possibly due to its narrow bus-size/lower memory bandwidth.

Hmm, that's different to what I saw, my GTX780 Hydrocopper at 1220 got beat in valley by my ref GTX970 with nothing but +200 core and 110% power. I'll have a look at heaven and see what's what.

 

[DLD]

Ha ha I just saw that when checking for motor mouths score!

My 290 is quicker than all but 3 290Xs and the quickest 290 by a fair bit! Used Heaven because I CBA with clocking my CPU up for 3D Mark. I should stop looking at 970s really.

Hey! You are only ahead of the 290p I had by 13 points.

Which I think was only a .7 fps difference if I remember correctly.

 

[Ayahuasca]

Someone has posted the Heaven results of his GTX780 at 1241MHz vs his GTX970 at 1500MHz and his 780 was 9 points ahead of his 970.

What number in the table are these results? Can't seem to find them. There's only two 970's in the single card Heaven table.

 

[Gregster]

Because looking at the 3DMark threads and such clocked 780's are on par or beating 970's.

One guy posted his old 780 beating his new 970.

100w is nothing... Play your machine with the light bulb turned off.

I think you need to stop using 3DMark to compare cards.... There's these little programs called GAMES that run on these things too!

 

[TGReaper]

I just want to get rid of the heat blasting into my case and a second 290 would probably melt my leg lol

 

[ViperVenom]

I guess the only reason to not get one is the whole already having a 290 and going for a second.

I was looking for anything under £300 that would be cooler/quieter than my 7950 and was all for getting a 290 but fairly pleased I held fire and picked up a 970, the free games with the AMD wasn't enough.

I'll go to whoever has better price/performance, I'd been with AMD since my 8800 days (or did I have a GTX 275...)

I'll quite happy go back to AMD when its upgrade time if it makes more sense to but for now it seems nvidia haven't done a bad job with these current cards..

 

[rolypolyman]

Sorry but if I was buying a new card around £260-£280 I honestly believe I would go for the 290. 512bit, backplate, mantle, trueHD, free games, cheaper. Done deal really. Oh sorry I have one and IT DOESN'T RUN HOT

This or This

 

[555BUK]

Sorry but if I was buying a new card around £260-£280 I honestly believe I would go for the 290.

This or This

The 970 will be marginally faster at stock and when overlocked, it will also consume less power, create less heat and have much better resale value. There are too many used and abused (mined) 290's about and this affects prices.

The puny 256bit is the one thing that puts me off of the 970, but somehow NVidia have bent the normal laws of bandwidth bottle-necking and this doesn't appear to slow performance (even at 4K). The 9x0's are seriously impressive cards, having 2M less transistors and half the memory bus width of AMD's top cards yet still beating them within most benchmarks.

 

[Wizzfizz]

Sorry but if I was buying a new card around £260-£280 I honestly believe I would go for the 290. 512bit, backplate, mantle, trueHD, free games, cheaper. Done deal really. Oh sorry I have one and IT DOESN'T RUN HOT

This or This

Bitter much?

 

[rolypolyman]

The 970 will be marginally faster at stock and when overlocked, it will also consume less power, create less heat and have much better resale value. There are too many used and abused (mined) 290's about and this affects prices.

All fair points and I like the look of the 970 BUT £20 cheaper and the games, power difference is irrevelent, I have no heat issues, never have and find the constant mention of it very irritating. I think they are very comparable cards performance wise but prefer what the 290 offers, this is a 1 year old card remember so I don't get whats so exciting about the 970, really.

 

[nitram100]

All fair points and I like the look of the 970 BUT £20 cheaper and the games, power difference is irrevelent, I have no heat issues, never have and find the constant mention of it very irritating. I think they are very comparable cards performance wise but prefer what the 290 offers, this is a 1 year old card remember so I don't get whats so exciting about the 970, really.

Agreed. My PCS+ runs cooler than most 970's from what I've seen and power draw is the least of my worries. Plus I need mantle for Star Citizen and all of the Frostbite engine games.

 

[rolypolyman]

Bitter much?

Insulting comment to be honest as I don't get involved in all that nonsense. I've put up two very similar cards for comparison and comment and given my opinion, not bitter at all, trying to be realistic tbh and not get too hyped up by a new card.