980 ti still a good buy for a while?

Grandmaster Fap! · 12 Aug 2016 at 20:06

Have the chance to get a brand new EVGA 980 ti superclock for £345, would you jump for that at this price or is it worth waiting. I'll be upgrading from my trusty 780 which has served me well.

whiterabbit · 12 Aug 2016 at 20:19

Get it! The gap between an overclocked 980ti and a 1080 is very small.

nashathedog · 12 Aug 2016 at 20:25

Mileage may vary,

For example if you are considering VR in the near future even a 1070 will outperform the 980ti, This should also ring true for games using certain newer api techniques, You'll need to look into it more to decide if it's worth paying a little extra for a Pascal card that will sometimes show significant gains going forward.

If it was me I'd spend a little extra and get a 1070, While the 980ti edges it out at the moment I'd be willing to buy the 1070 on the strength of future driver tweaks improving things for Pascal and the truth is you'd be hard pressed to them apart in game anyway..

Poneros · 12 Aug 2016 at 21:25

There are no "future tweaks" for the 1070, what you see is what you get, that is how it has always been with Nvidia. Imo either way you can't go wrong, though I would say Pascal does look a bit better in DX12 (but not overly so compared to AMD), while the 980 ti EVGA is a far better card in terms of quality & warranty than anything close to it in price for 1070. Short term? 1070. Long term? 980 ti. Wait & long term? Let's see what Vega does.

nashathedog · 12 Aug 2016 at 21:33

Poneros said:
There are no "future tweaks" for the 1070, what you see is what you get, that is how it has always been with Nvidia.

What I meant is I think that although the 980ti currently has the edge over the 1070 this will likely change with new releases over the coming year. If that does turn out to be the case whatever reason you want to give it for happening is neither here nor there. I think that will be the end result but it's not a sure thing just an opinion.

Purgatory · 13 Aug 2016 at 06:38

whiterabbit said:
Get it! The gap between an overclocked 980ti and a 1080 is very small.

this

sieze2 · 13 Aug 2016 at 08:21

A 1070 is within 6% of a 980ti. The 1080 is about 20% faster but for the money I can't justify one.

DarrenM343 · 13 Aug 2016 at 09:11

At £345 which is only £55 cheaper than a new reference 1070 with all the new tech that brings I wouldn't buy the 980 Ti personally. 980 Ti design is now old and the 28nm process it's built on even older.
At £299 it would be tempting if you cared less for the new tech in the 1070 and mostly want DX11 performance with no VR capabilities and no multi monitor setups for gaming.......but personally I'd still prefer the new tech

passifid · 13 Aug 2016 at 11:26

If you want a card now and don't want vr get the ti, look for the tread of the guy who upgraded to a 1080.
It's all down to how they clock. If you get a 1500+ ti it will be faster than a 1070. Also you get evga warranty which you won't on the cheapest 1070

Grandmaster Fap! · 13 Aug 2016 at 11:30

Thanks for the advice guys, I doubt I'll be doing any VR for a couple years unless some massive push comes that makes it mainstream very soon. Also as tempting as the 1070 is I'd only be able to get one of the lower price ones with ref cooler and the pc sits in the living room so I'd rather get a quality cooler for quiet gaming. Unless someone has a good suggestion I think an evga 980 might be the winner?

~>Dg<~ · 13 Aug 2016 at 11:30

a cheap 980ti is a very good deal.id take one over a over expensive 1070 any day.

Kaapstad · 13 Aug 2016 at 11:41

When NVidia launch the next round of drivers one of the things I have got to try is benching my 1070 up against one of my 980 Ti's.

Should be an interesting exercise as my 980 Ti is very non reference and my 1070 is a FE.

nashathedog · 13 Aug 2016 at 13:29

As mentioned I'm in the 1070 camp and I'd get either this non reference model that costs £380 with a 3 year warranty

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inno...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-068-in.html

Or this Founders edition at £399 with a 5 year warranty

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/zota...s-graphics-card-zt-p10700a-10p-gx-100-zt.html

Both are pretty good deals and not much more while offering the same or longer warranties.

Plus I'd expect the 1070 to get better money on the secondhand market in a couple of years time.

Drollic · 13 Aug 2016 at 13:37

If the 970 vs 780ti is anything to go by, I'd buy the 1070.

Perfect_Chaos · 13 Aug 2016 at 13:45

Depends how long you want to keep it, no reason why it shouldn't still be performing well in most new games til new cards arrive next year IMO, it's less than a year. Maybe by then prices won't be so silly too.

Sasahara · 13 Aug 2016 at 13:57

Performance will be very similar between the 2, one of main advantages of the 1070 would be lower power use, if you pay the bills and use it a lot you may save the difference in initial cost over the life of the card 2-3 years (length of guarantee, it will last longer) if you use a it a decent amount every day with a lower electric usage.

Saving of 100 W per hour under load, 5 hour use a day will save £20 a year, 3 years = £60.

If you use it less it's not going to as much of a feature. If you use it more then it will become a major factor.

I'm not sure what the noise factor would be in the 980ti, but I suspect the fans operate all the time, where as most of the partner cards of the GTX 1070 will stop at temps below 60 - 50c depending on card. Which is very nice if you have the PC on a lot when your not gaming.

DarrenM343 · 13 Aug 2016 at 14:05

Sasahara said:
Saving of 100 W per hour under load, 5 hour use a day will save £20 a year, 3 years = £60.

If you use it less it's not going to as much of a feature. If you use it more then it will become a major factor.

That's a very good point, one which probably nobody considers, the running cost. It adds to the overall purchase price. ANother factor being likely resale value, although less predictable than the running cost.

Nobody cares about the running cost when only considering the highest performance product at the top end but is a factor to consider when there are options available (Ti vs 1070)

Grandmaster Fap! · 13 Aug 2016 at 14:23

Sasahara said:
Performance will be very similar between the 2, one of main advantages of the 1070 would be lower power use, if you pay the bills and use it a lot you may save the difference in initial cost over the life of the card 2-3 years (length of guarantee, it will last longer) if you use a it a decent amount every day with a lower electric usage.

Saving of 100 W per hour under load, 5 hour use a day will save £20 a year, 3 years = £60.

If you use it less it's not going to as much of a feature. If you use it more then it will become a major factor.

I'm not sure what the noise factor would be in the 980ti, but I suspect the fans operate all the time, where as most of the partner cards of the GTX 1070 will stop at temps below 60 - 50c depending on card. Which is very nice if you have the PC on a lot when your not gaming.

Thats a great point sasahara!

nashathedog said:
As mentioned I'm in the 1070 camp and I'd get either this non reference model that costs £380 with a 3 year warranty

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inno...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-068-in.html

Or this Founders edition at £399 with a 5 year warranty

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/zota...s-graphics-card-zt-p10700a-10p-gx-100-zt.html

Both are pretty good deals and not much more while offering the same or longer warranties.

Plus I'd expect the 1070 to get better money on the secondhand market in a couple of years time.

That inno3d looks nice, what are peoples experience with them as ive never had that brand?

nashathedog · 13 Aug 2016 at 14:30

Grandmaster Fap! said:
That inno3d looks nice, what are peoples experience with them as ive never had that brand?

I've only ever had one, an 8600gt that I still have in the cupboard today (I doubt it has the grunt to run much nowadays though) I've read that the coolers do a pretty good job but haven't had hands on experience with these newer ones.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 13 Aug 2016 at 14:30

Who plays games for 5 hours a day,365 days a year??

Also,look at some of the cheaper electricity tariffs:

https://www.ukpower.co.uk/home_energy/tariffs-per-unit-kwh

That is just under 10P a kWH.

Even at 100W difference,35 hours a week would be 35p extra a week. It would work out at £18.20 a year.

But 35 hours a week gaming would meaning 20% of the week gaming for 52 weeks a year??

Really??

Having said that,the GTX1070 probably makes more sense though,and that is down to the fact it will have performance updates for longer than a GTX980TI.