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The GTX 970 & 980 recommendation thread.

guitaristanime

guitaristanime

guitaristanime

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So I'm confused, I look at the list of 970s and 980s at the moment and the core and boost clock speed are very similar and in some cases the 970 is clocked faster.

Where is the merit in buying the 980? I game at 1440p, and the 970 seems perfectly capable but for some reason I still can't make up my mind on which to go for and even then which brand to go for? Sell me a graphics card, I'm leaning towards the 970 that's on the weekly deal as it seems to be faster than most 980s?

I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why I should buy a 980.

Please don't consider cost as I want an educated reason as to which is better and why.
 
guitaristanime said:
Please don't consider cost as I want an educated reason as to which is better and why.
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If money is taken out of the equation then the fastest option is the 980.

With graphics cards it is not just the clockspeeds that are important but how much silicon is pushing those speeds and the 980 has got quite a bit more than the 970.

The 980 comes with 2048 stream processors and the 970 with 1664. Bringing money back into the equation, the question you have to ask yourself is are the extra stream processors worth the extra money.

The 970 is considered better bang for buck but do you want the extra performance of the 980 ?
 
Do I need the extra performance of the 980 for playing games at 1440p that is the question I am trying to answer. Any ideas?

And thank you for your reasoning, that's pretty clear as to why the 980 costs more now.
 
id say for 1080 970 gtx is the best card to have for the money now.

1440 id go for a 980 gtx

4k 2/3 cards of choice
 
I had an EVGA 980 Superclocked (1500/7800 for gaming), sold that and went for a G1 Gaming 970 SLI (1500/7600 for gaming). Since I use DSR to game at 4k the switch has been more than worth it, 970 SLI blows the 980 out of the water in games that support SLI (which is most AAA titles). However when SLI isn't working the 980 will always be superior.
 
Given that a 970 will run anything VERY well right now, paying the extra for the 980 seems somewhat excessive IMO. Makes more sense to get a 970 now, and as and when you feel the need, get another... by which point any current SLI issues should be resolved with drivers. At the end of the day, I have to ask myself if there will ever be a day where a 980 will be capable of running a game well where a 970 won't?? If there is such a day it is far off in the future when we may have long sinced moved on to another card anyway.
 
Teabag_Terry2 said:
Single card is always better, and 1440p you will be wanting a 980!
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That's nonsense, I'm a fan of single GPU setups myself but there's many games where dual cards benefit massively with good scaling. You can actually achieve lower frametimes with dual cards in some scenarios as well.
 
Pulled the trigger on a Gigabyte G1 GTX 970. I took all advice into account and it makes more sense to me to get a second 970 later down the line if needed and if it has been sorted out with the drivers etc. :)
 
Ayahuasca said:
That's nonsense, I'm a fan of single GPU setups myself but there's many games where dual cards benefit massively with good scaling. You can actually achieve lower frametimes with dual cards in some scenarios as well.
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I will always take SLI over a single card as it looks less glitchy and more so as you add cards to the setup.

Teabag_Terry2 said:
I agree with what you said, but for me the issues with SLI just aren't worth the hassle.
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The secret with SLI is to use the fastest cards available and in the worst case senario where there is no SLI profile you just disable the other cards, net result nothing lost.

SLI with midrange cards is not good as the max/avg fps will increase but the minimums will stay where they are in a lot of games.
 
Best is just to read reviews and make a personal decision some are slightly faster some run cooler some are more loud so best bet is to make a decision based on a brand you like and trust and also reviews with a mainly positive outcome
 
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