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Two 960's or a 970?

savagesam117

savagesam117

savagesam117

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So i'm looking to upgrade my cards and i've seen the new 960's. Is it worth getting two 960's in sli or a single 970? pricing works out a little more for the two 960's.

I don't really understand all the clock speeds and stuff of the GPU so any help would be great.

Or is there any other cards you recommend?
 
Get one 970 now, then perhaps later you can add a second when theyre cheaper and if you feel you need a bit more grunt. The higher vram count of the 970 will help too in newer more demanding games.
 
If the 960 were 4gb then they could prove to be another GTX 460. IE - two of them would beat the big card and work out slightly cheaper. If ATI weren't lying through their teeth the 5770 was another card of that ilk. IE - same VRAM (though admittedly lower bandwidth) as the 5870 and two are faster.... Had we not had the dropped runt frames debacle.

But Nvidia especially have grown wise to this. Many people opted for SLI 460s over a 480. They were actually far cooler and a ways faster, too.

Thing is 2gb is 1080p only. I've just read the review on HardwareCanucks and they had this to say...

While it doesn’t rewrite the performance book or provide any new competition to AMD’s price-cut rivals, it does deliver competent framerates and high efficiency for anyone playing their games at 1080P. However, if you are planning to take advantage of the plunging prices we’ve seen for 1440P displays or were expecting a card that would pick up and drastically improve framerates where the GTX 760 left off, there will be some understandable disappointment in what the GTX 960 offers.

So 970 every time IMO.
 
Id opt for the 970 mate! Really good cards for the money also you can always pop in another 970 at a later date! Then again running a corsair 450Watt PSU not sure if that will handle two 970s? It will probably peak at 430 watt system usage i guess which is quite high! Id still opt for a single card tho as one card in my experience feels better. But depends if you want that extra performance?
 
1080P and only 1080P then 960 is faster when there is a pair.

1440P or higher, 970 all the way, its a much quicker card than 960 full stop!

Me personally would buy a single 970 no matter what resolution, it still remains the best value for money card considering the performance levels it offers.
 
970,its not even a contest

Even if the 960's scale perfectly,they will choke due to Vram limitations if you try and push settings the 970 is capable of in newer games.

960's in sli would be a terrible investment
 
960's memory bus is way too nerfed for me to even be interested in it a viable option. I'd much rather spend a bit extra cash and have a 970 but I'm sure many 960's will sell
 
Total waste of money buying two 960's over a 970.

1. 4gb vram vs 2Gb vram. You DO need the vram for high textures even at 1080p!!
2. SLI issues, heat and noise.
 
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