Is it worth buying a 970 2nd hand for sli

[DarrenM343]

because its cheaper? And a 980Ti is just as fast as a 1070. In fact mine in my sig is faster.

Most just aren't cheap considering they're used, old tech and possibly abused with little if any warranty.

No way would I recommend selling a used 970 just to pick up a used 980 ti. The risks alone make it not worth it (being ripped off, picking up a bad one etc)
Sell 970 and save pennies and get the more future proofed and better all round 1070 - new

 

[BinnsY]

I'm surprised the issue of VRAM hasn't come up. Although SLI 970s' have as much raw grunt as the other cards being mentioned you dont get the same increase in VRAM. I'm expecting my 1070 to arrive today to replace my single 970 and I've done this purely because several new games are now hitting the 4GB VRAM limit. In the new mirrors edge I'm having to drop a good couple of steps on texture quality to actually keep it playable.

Although the 970's combined might have enough processing power for the next 12-18 months, realistically yours still going to have to drop texture / aa settings immediately and even more so within the next 6 months as VRAM requirements keep increasing.

 

[r7slayer]

Most just aren't cheap considering they're used, old tech and possibly abused with little if any warranty.

No way would I recommend selling a used 970 just to pick up a used 980 ti. The risks alone make it not worth it (being ripped off, picking up a bad one etc)
Sell 970 and save pennies and get the more future proofed and better all round 1070 - new

Are you kidding me right ? Abused with little if any warranty??
ive bought loads of second hand GPUs not one has failed on me. That's why you buy from MM too and how many people do you know get ripped off from there?

Yea it would be worth selling the 970 and getting a 1070 but it will cost OP more that route.

 

[r7slayer]

For now yes, but not on newer titles and when drivers get updated. Plus if you get a new 1070 you'd get 5 years warranty.

Ive got 5 years warranty with mine. Well its more like 4 years n what ever months are left. And ive seen benches where a 1422Mhz 980Ti is faster than a 1070 MSI gaming X at Mhz1860. Mine runs quite comfortably at 1542 so 120Mhz faster. Had it higher than this tbh to bench at 1600 with added volts but it ran quite warm and made the fans more audible than i liked at 75%


Doubt its going to get much quicker anytime soon. Only a 1080 and P Titan X is faster atm. Waiting for 1080Ti to see what that does.

 

[DarrenM343]

Are you kidding me right ? Abused with little if any warranty??
ive bought loads of second hand GPUs not one has failed on me. That's why you buy from MM too and how many people do you know get ripped off from there?

Yea it would be worth selling the 970 and getting a 1070 but it will cost OP more that route.

Thing is, you never know of good or valid the warranty is until you try to claim. First hand warranty, no problem, second, third hand cards where the seller says "I'll help with the warranty", no so good.

Sure, it may be alright but has to be considered as one of the risks, your x amount spent on second hand goods may be completely lost of it fails. How much is that worth vs an iron clad new card warranty?
Abused may be a little harsh but many sellers seem to think their card is worth as much as a slightly used second hand card. A 2 year old Ti is not worth as much as a 3 month old card. A 2 year old heavily OC'd card, no thanks, but you may never know how it's been used

Weighing all the pro's and con's up of buying second hand cards, they'd have to be priced right for me to ever consider but they never are IMO. Sellers expect too much so I'd rather pick one up brand spanking new and would advised others to do the same. THink I saw a 1080 or 1070 on here fairly recently that was already being sold to a third owner and I think was priced only £30 less than a new one.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I'm surprised the issue of VRAM hasn't come up....

I wouldn't, because if nothing else the Vram won't be able to keep up with the grunt (particularly at 1440p). There's also been issues reported by people using 970s for SLI if they aren't the exact same model.

 

[r7slayer]

Thing is, you never know of good or valid the warranty is until you try to claim. First hand warranty, no problem, second, third hand cards where the seller says "I'll help with the warranty", no so good.

Sure, it may be alright but has to be considered as one of the risks, your x amount spent on second hand goods may be completely lost of it fails. How much is that worth vs an iron clad new card warranty?
Abused may be a little harsh but many sellers seem to think their card is worth as much as a slightly used second hand card. A 2 year old Ti is not worth as much as a 3 month old card. A 2 year old heavily OC'd card, no thanks, but you may never know how it's been used

Weighing all the pro's and con's up of buying second hand cards, they'd have to be priced right for me to ever consider but they never are IMO. Sellers expect too much so I'd rather pick one up brand spanking new and would advised others to do the same. THink I saw a 1080 or 1070 on here fairly recently that was already being sold to a third owner and I think was priced only £30 less than a new one.

Yea you get that with new tech though. People will sell anything that is new close to what they bought originally cos who wants to sell something which was new to them not long ago for half the price. Sounds like you've had bad luck with second hand goods. Ive not got any sour taste to buy second hand goods. Obviously i take price into consideration but i trust most sellers from MM when i see they have a few trusts.

 

[DarrenM343]

Yea you get that with new tech though. People will sell anything that is new close to what they bought originally cos who wants to sell something which was new to them not long ago for half the price. Sounds like you've had bad luck with second hand goods. Ive not got any sour taste to buy second hand goods. Obviously i take price into consideration but i trust most sellers from MM when i see they have a few trusts.

Nope, never bought any second hand cards or any goods but aware of the risks.
I don't blame the sellers really but the buyers who pay the daft prices some ask for second hand.
I've sold second hand before and price accordingly - happy I've got my use out of it and happy someone buys it for a fair price second hand. I don't care what I paid for it - expecting someone to pay close to that is kinda selfish. Many who do that would not pay the same to buy the part second hand so why expect others to.

 

[fenchu]

been there done that wasted money sold cards within a month. In theory yeh you should have plenty of grunt but the vram essentially gimps you at higher res , so ends up pointless. And thats even if sli works for the games you intend to play

 

[DONOHUE07]

You won't get much for a 970 now considering there selling for about £160 new. I'm in a similar boat with my r9 290. I'm just lowing the setting in my games and waiting the next latest and greatest GPU

 

[nomadd]

You won't get much for a 970 now considering there selling for about £160 new. I'm in a similar boat with my r9 290. I'm just lowing the setting in my games and waiting the next latest and greatest GPU

This^

Love my 970, and not so impressed with the 1070 or 1080 - and certainly not at the prices.

Will carry on with the 970 until something comes along with similar price/performance on the day of purchase that the 970 was.

And let's not even get into the fact that most PC games these days are just consolised garbage anyway...

 

[nashathedog]

This^

Love my 970, and not so impressed with the 1070 or 1080 - and certainly not at the prices.

Will carry on with the 970 until something comes along with similar price/performance on the day of purchase that the 970 was.

And let's not even get into the fact that most PC games these days are just consolised garbage anyway...

Not impressed by the 1070? It's offering the last gens Titan X performance in a -70 level card. That's impressive. Price sure, but even then you need to consider that the Titan X was double what a 1070 costs.

 

[nomadd]

Not impressed by the 1070? It's offering the last gens Titan X performance in a -70 level card. That's impressive. Price sure, but even then you need to consider that the Titan X was double what a 1070 costs.

Sure, but it still seems that DX12 is a bit iffy on the Pascal cards. And, as I'm a predominately Nvidia buyer, I think I'd rather wait for Volta to see if they've fixed that aspect.

And for 4k, the 1070/80 are woefully underpowered. Same probably for higher-end next gen. VR systems (another fence I'm happy to wait on. )

I know people's opinions will differ, but for me at least, the current cards all seem like overpriced "in between" stuff.

 

[Ian Evey]

Not impressed by the 1070? It's offering the last gens Titan X performance in a -70 level card. That's impressive. Price sure, but even then you need to consider that the Titan X was double what a 1070 costs.

Nvidia are very good at making you believe your getting a Bargain price for the performance of the last gens best card, overpriced for a -70 class card imo.

It's working very well on most people though!

 

[~>Dg<~]

1070 are still 100 quid over priced. 970 still plays 1080 maxxed so if at that res save money and keep card.

 

[Nasher]

A 3.5gb card is probably not going to be very future proof. I think Doom and Hitman already use more than that at 1080 if you crank everything right up. Also DX12 runs horrible on my 970 :/

 

[nomadd]

A 3.5gb card is probably not going to be very future proof. I think Doom and Hitman already use more than that at 1080 if you crank everything right up. Also DX12 runs horrible on my 970 :/

I'm on Win7 and plan to stay there, so DX12 not a problem. And nothing is "future proof."

At 1920x1200, by the time I've switched off the stuff in-game I don't like - God Rays, Motion Blur, Depth-of-field, Ultra Shadows, Film Grain - and other such nonsense, and toned down the AA a bit, I haven't found the 970 struggling with anything, tbh. GTA5, Tomb Raider, Witcher 3, Doom, etc., etc. all seem to run silky smooth.

Remember, the 970 is still mighty powerful compared to PS4/XBONE, and that's what most devs are targeting. Maybe Scorpio will change this, but that's a long way off. Hence I'm happy to sit things out with the 970 for another year.

 

[P.B]

no much better selling up and going 980ti or 1070