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GTX 960: Less heat/power than a Radeon 6870?

TheVoice

TheVoice

TheVoice

Soldato
Joined
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Hi all, looking for a bit of help. Currently contemplating a GPU upgrade in the next few weeks, and the 960 seems about right for what I want to spend. Currently I'm on a 6870 which still performs surprisingly well for what it is, but my main concern is down to heat and power. My PC is a Dell XPS 8300 with the standard OEM 400W PSU, so ideally any new GPU needs to use the same (or less) power than the 6870 otherwise I fear I'll be putting the PSU quite close to its limits. Anyone know if the 960 would fit this criteria? Reviews of the 960 unsurprisingly don't seem to compare it to older cards.

I did look at the R9 285 but its at-load power usage is higher than the 6870 so I'm not too comfortable with that. The cooler running of the 960 appeals too, seeing as I don't have much in the way of case cooling.

Cheers for any help.
 
A setup like yours is what the 960s is made for. It does tend to perform same or slightly worse than a 285 and costs more but it is still a huge step up from a 6970 let alone your 6870. More than double performance anyway.

An overclocked model 960 will have similar load power use to a typical 6870 and 50W less than a 285. The 960s are well known for being quite cool running too and they (and the 285) seem to like the really new games in particular.
 
960 draws about 120 watts gaming that's 70 less than the 285, you should run it fine.

GV-N960IXOC-2GD uses 1 power cconnector.
 
GTX 960 runs cool and quiet and uses little power. Would be a great upgrade from an HD 6870. Only downside is I think you might have missed the included Witcher 3 game bundle if you're buying now.
 
6870 draws about 150W so is more power than the 960.

Despite generally bring pro-nVidia I'm not a fan of the 960 and feel the 285 is a much better card, but that would certainly mean a new PSU.
 
Good stuff, thanks all. Sounds like it should be an ideal upgrade, just need to decide on which specific one to go for now. Bit of a shame about missing out on Witcher 3 but I'll keep an eye out for a decent deal in the meantime, I'm in no mad rush.
 
wasnt there meant to be a 960ti coming?
or is that a myth? :)
from the leaked "benchmarks" it looked pretty good!
 
Might as well wait for AMDs new cards to release. Even if they aren't any good and you won't buy them, you aren't exactly loosing anything but a week of waiting time. Or if Nvidia is ballsy and wants to push AMD around, they might reduce prices so you could buy your 960 a bit cheaper. Worst case scenario: nothing happens and you could have had your 960 a bit earlier.

I'm in a similar boat, was looking to buy a 970, now waiting for AMD. All the parts of my new PC are here and I'm itching to put it together, but I'd rather wait till I have the graphics card too.
 
ubersonic said:
Not really, his system is running fine with the HD6870 and power usage on the GTX960 is specified as 31w lower.

For reference a lot of Dell systems use good quality PSU's anyway.
Click to expand...

I know and it'll probably work but it's important that people know the risks involved with using cheap psus.

If they are good quality I stand corrected, but I doubt it.
 
mahius said:
Might as well wait for AMDs new cards to release. Even if they aren't any good and you won't buy them, you aren't exactly loosing anything but a week of waiting time. Or if Nvidia is ballsy and wants to push AMD around, they might reduce prices so you could buy your 960 a bit cheaper. Worst case scenario: nothing happens and you could have had your 960 a bit earlier.

I'm in a similar boat, was looking to buy a 970, now waiting for AMD. All the parts of my new PC are here and I'm itching to put it together, but I'd rather wait till I have the graphics card too.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good plan, I wasn't intending to make an immediate purchase anyway (unless a particularly good deal appeared) so I'm quite happy to wait a while.

pandem0nium said:
I know and it'll probably work but it's important that people know the risks involved with using cheap psus.

If they are good quality I stand corrected, but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

It probably is a fairly cheap one, but it's worked fine for the better part of 4 years and there's not much point upgrading when the new GPU will use the same (if not less) power than my current card anyway.
 
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