upgrading from a gtx 970? Not worth it?

[ljt]

[rant]
So let me get this straight.

The GTX 970 was about 40% faster in most games compared to its predecessor the GTX 770 and priced slightly cheaper on release too.

Now, if you are currently using an Nvidia GTX970 and looking for an upgrade to current generation around the same price as you paid for the 970 - in my case £270, but lets include the Brexit currency crash rate, so around £300 equivalent with todays circumstances.

There is nothing at £300 that offers around 40% faster performance in games than a 970??

Its replacement the GTX 1070 is about £100 dearer on release (both pre and post brexit) than its predecessor so that's out of the question

The rumours for the GTX 1060 is its looking to be about £270 - £300 but only offers around 15-20% faster than a GTX 970, but means dropping from a *70 card to a *60 card but paying the same and getting half the performance jump than from the 770 to 970.

There is nothing from AMD in their current gen line up either.

So my upgrade path for my 970 seems a really expensive prospect now

[/rant]

 

[ljt]

A few people have mentioned this. Simply put. This time around we simply aren't getting more performance for our money. performance has basically stagnated. Hence why I had no issues just buying a last gen card. It outperforms the new gen card at only fractionally more expensive (maybe even the same price as the AIB cards). (390x at £250)

Sad times.

sad times indeed.

I've had a couple of friends ask me to price up systems for them. Having to tell them that in regards to gpu (and the same with cpus really) if they pay what I paid when I bought mine, they are only looking at about 20% faster than my current gpu from nearly 2 years ago now, and they'll be looking at the tier lower than mine but still paying the same price

well you have a few choices the way I see it.

1. go for a 1080 and skip the next one or 2 generations.
2. wait and get the 1080Ti and then skip one or 2 gens.
3. keep the 970, get 1080, sell it just before Ti gets released, buy a Zotac Ti, enjoy it for the next 5 years.

I decided to go with option 3 myself.

those options don't sound very good value to me i'm afraid. The 1080 price is a lot higher than the 980 launch price (about the same ratio as the 970 to 1070) so that's a definite no.

The 1080Ti, going by current trends means it will be proportionately higher priced again than the 980Ti was.

This shift in price tiers has now made upgrading for significant performance a hell of a lot more expensive and far far less value for money than previous generation

I think i'll just keep lowering the settings in game to maintain 60fps for now and see what happens. If nothing comes in at 40% performance boost for the same sort of money I paid for my 970 then I'll finally be saying goodbye to pc gaming

 

[ljt]

LOL,just wait - AMD and Nvidia will release more cards in the next 6 months to 12 months,and unless the pound crashes massively,it will put some downward pressure on prices. Remember when your GTX970 was launched the pound was around 20% stronger than it is today!!

Well we'll just have to wait and see. Even with the difference in pound value though, this generation still launched higher than last by a fair margin even comparing the US $ launch prices

are you gaming 1080p or 1440p?

Thankfully only 1080p, but 144Hz. Ideally I like to keep frames at a minimum of 60fps

 

[ljt]

Still think the 1070 is fine price-performance wise, if it wasn't for Brexit and the terrible supply issues (which are almost over) it'd be perfect.
Got one for 409 and still feel pretty happy about it (couldn't justify a 1080 at 1440p-60Hz either).

That's fair enough if you think that, but I'm afraid I just can't.

The 970 traded blows with its previous generation 780Ti card just like the 1070does with 980Ti but now its £100 more for that same privilege, that's just what I can't get my head around (it was even £100 more before the brexit so I can't even use that as an excuse)

I'd hang fire with the 970 as it's still a VERY capable card. Possibly sell it and see if a second hand 980TI is an option. I wwent from 970 to a second hand 980 as a free upgrade. Sold 970 card for same as I got the 980 for.

Free upgrades are always good

I'm a little hesitant about upgrading to a card in the same generation though as I remember what NVidia did by nerfing the 7 series etc with a driver update. I just have a feeling they'll do the same again with the 9 series.

I guess the only real reassurance is that if you bought your 970 back when it first released like I did, it's proving to be possibly the greatest bang-for-buck enthusiast card of the modern era.

Indeed it is. The cards I've had previous to this as well have all been regarded as the best bang for buck too back in the days of the ATi 9700pro, HD5850 etc.

 

[ljt]

Only on the NV side. The RX480 launch at the same $229 price as the 380x and is way faster.

Sorry that is what I meant (on the NVidia side)

The 480 is quite good if you factor out the £/$ fall, as you say its priced at its predecessors price but with a decent performance increase over it.

If they had released a RX 490 that beat the 970 by the same margin for £300 I'd have gone for that, but alas they haven't

 

[ljt]

first question is, do you even need an upgrade or just fancying a switch to something new and shiny?

You get far more performance by skipping upgrade generations, there's no point upgrading just for the sake of it. Put the money you'd spend on a Pascal upgrade into a Pascal V2.0 upgrade whatever that may be and just get full use out of the price of the 970.

I wouldn't say I desperately need to upgrade right this minute. The new and shiny syndrome was definitely there prior to the launch of the 1080/1070 - that was until I saw the prices, then that soon disappeared

I'll probably just wait it out. My PC savings pot will be ridiculous by then lol I've been saving since I last bought the 970 haha.

It's the same, if not worse with the CPU side, i'm still on a 3570k and I just can't bring myself to upgrade that to a 6700k as the price just doesn't warrant the pitiful performance increase there either.

 

[ljt]

Buy now and enjoy, or join the list of people who wait and wait lol

I normally do buy at release, and that's what I've done in the past, but the price rise this gen pretty much stopped me in my tracks. There's only so far I will go before I say enough is enough

When I saw the prices for the 1070/1080 I was literally gobsmacked. It was a "WTF" moment. I hate spending money at the best of times so when I can see that the price doesn't justify the product I don't buy it, whether I have the actual cash or not. Until the 1070 comes down to £320 then I'll never even consider buying it.