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OCUK 970 4GB or MSI 290X 8GB or wait...

HeX

HeX

HeX

Soldato
Joined
20 Jun 2004
Posts
12,023
Location
Huddersfield, UK
Tempted by a new GPU, my current Tri-X is on RMA and i'm bored of waiting so fancied grabbing something else in the mean time and just selling the Tri-X when it returns.

I run a mITX PC, and like my PC to be quiet.

I'm tempted by the OCUK 970 due to the fact it exhausts out the back, which would be great for my CM 130 case temps, plus I quite fancy a change of scenery and i've not had an nVidia card in a while.

But then for the same money I can get a MSI 290X 8GB, which should give identical performance, with double the memory, but will run hotter, use more power and doesn't exhaust.

Then there's talk of the 390X coming soon, but that appears to be June, and I can't be bothered waiting that long.

Choices choices! :o

TLDR; I've got that upgrade itch, and I can't decide if I want a 970, 290X, or just wait for my 290 to come back off RMA and hold out for the 390 series.
 
I would suggest avoiding the 970, as it just seem to be a failed experiment of Nvidia's attempt to cripple the memory design behind's people back.

If you want a Nvidia card, go for either a 980, or may be try to find a 2nd hand Titan for around £300~£350. Benchmark wise the Titan's frame rate will lose to the 970 and 980, but actual smoothless wise, I wouldn't be surprise if it is better than the latter two cards (also it has 2GB more vram in reserve).

For AMD side, it might worth holding out for the 390x, as most of us are waiting to see what the new HBM memory can do. If you can't wait that long and need something to tie you over, you could always considering trying to get a 2nd hand 7970 at under £100 as a stop gap, and once you upgrade to the 390x, sell the 7970 for may be £70-£90...so you essentually paying a little money to rent for the usage.
 
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As above. Nothing wrong with the 970 for 1080p, and the majority of 1440p ran games.

If temp/noise is a large factor especially.
 
I was going to take the plundge into a 290x but not happy about the heat or power, so im going to wait till later in the year and get a 980 when prices drop :-)
 
I'd wait, In fact I am waiting and this late in the game it's crazy not too. An 8 gb 290x is great but a matching 380x is a much smarter buy even if you need to wait a while and even though we haven't got the details.
 
dhallam said:
the 970 is a good card but for gaming at 1440p for me i would go for the 980 due to the memory issues.
Click to expand...

+1.

However I would say for GPU grunt purposes.

1080p - 1200p the 970 is a fantastic card.

Above this resolution and I would go 980 or dual gpu. The memory limitations is the only reason why a 970 SLI set up is not recommended.
 
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Dont forget there are 970's with an "ITX style form factor"

Asus GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £289

I think Gigabyte did one too.

One thing to remember about waiting for a 390x they may not come with reference blower coolers if AMD do what nvidia did with the 970's. You may have an even longer wait if they dont appear till much later..
 
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