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What would you have done?

Liamz51

Liamz51

Liamz51

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Joined
19 Jan 2012
Posts
147
My current PC was/is getting a little long in the tooth, i5 2500k, 8GB DDR 3 and a R9 280x - so I decided to go for a small upgrade ahead of doing a full rebuild next year (just bought a new kitchen, cash is tight at the moment) - I decided to pick up a EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 as a refresh for £200 (after cashback) - now I'm wondering if I should have just got a 1060.

The 1060 is more expensive, but not by much, and it's faster, but only slightly (from the benches I've seen), but then I'm hoping to replace the whole system within the next 7 months with something else (i7 and a 1080 (Ti?) perhaps). But then I might be getting a HTC Vive before I can upgrade the PC and I'd like that to work well and who knows what might get in the way of my proposed timescale for upgrading. Lots of uncertainties.

Not quite having buyers regret (the 970 seemed like a bargain at the time) but not sure if I made the right decision, interested in your views.
 
hahaha you shouldn't of upgraded to a 970. A 280x is a very capable card i would have went for a second hand 980 ti or 390-x or higher to see real difference. I wouldn't recommend going for the 1060 unless you have a Gsync monitor as the freesync ones are cheaper.
 
Not really worth upgrading considering you building a whole new pc in a few months, 970 isn't even that much of an upgrade. I would've save a bit more and got a 1070 and used it in the future build ;)
 
I think the thought process at the time was to get a card that could run VR as an interim measure - Steam's VR performance test listed the R9 280x as 'capable' whereas the 970 now returns 'Ready' so in that regard I'm happy as this is only (hopefully) a temporary build.

I want to get a HTC Vive and may get one before I'm in a position to do a full upgrade.

What I'm debating at the moment is whether for the next 6/7 months or so I should have paid the extra for a 1060
 
If you're going to replace it in only 7 months time, then it doesn't really matter.

The 1060 though is straight up better than the 970, and destroys it in VR.
 
Could be worse, 4GB 960's were £200 new not too long ago, but yeah you should have really got a 1060. The thing that let the 970 down was NVIDIA's decision to give it a segmented memory bus. It would also have kept it's value better than the 970 imo, so reselling in less than a year would make the slight extra upfront cost of the 1060 irrelevant.
 
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Thanks for the input all. I think I saw the discounts on the 970s and thought that for the price they were a better interim measure.

I suppose one of the benefits of having my own separate credit card is that if I decide to remedy this error anytime soon I can always pretend to the SO that there has been no change.

You live and learn. Thanks all.
 
I went from a 7970 to a Fury. Wouldn't have considered anything else to be a real upgrade tbh. Depends on price I guess but £200 for 20% or so. Not for me.

Saying that now you have it just overclock it and it will be decent.
 
biuro74 said:
I always recommend to people like you to fire up own computer business and get as much returns (open box, used items) as possible :-)
Click to expand...

That doesn't make much sense, but returns are a natural part of online businesses (Or any retailer for that matter). I worked in ecommerce for a number of years and the amount of returned goods was only a small percentage from what goes out. No one should be put off from returning something they're not happy with, including the OP!
 
I think most people are missing the point really. You bought a card for £200. You dont really want to spend more than that because you are going to do an upgrade. So question is sticking at £200 what were your alternatives.

1070 nope
1060 nope £249 nearest in stock as of this post
AMD 480 hmm nearly

else you are looking at second hand cards. You aint gonna get a 2nd hand 980ti for £200 unless you are lucky.

Suddenly £200 for the GTX 970 to tide you over isnt that bad to level out the arguement a bit.

Personally with your spec and the big build looming I would have stuck with what you had. Dont get a Vive before the big build that is a bit silly. Really you want your VR experience to be the best you can get so buy after the big build or factor it in with the big build. Might have come down in price a tad by then and also there is speculation over a slight new variation coming out which is comfier.
 
I just upgraded from a 960 to a 970 for my HTC Vive, I got £120 for the old card and paid £180 for the new one (Used) so the upgrade cost me £60. Not sure if I done a good deal but this was just before the 1070 or RX480 release so I think it will be a bit of a stop gap before getting a 1070 or maybe a 980Ti.
 
millermilla said:
I just upgraded from a 960 to a 970 for my HTC Vive, I got £120 for the old card and paid £180 for the new one (Used) so the upgrade cost me £60. Not sure if I done a good deal but this was just before the 1070 or RX480 release so I think it will be a bit of a stop gap before getting a 1070 or maybe a 980Ti.
Click to expand...

Thats an acceptable deal but you should have went for something higher if you had the budget the 970 is a bad place to be in this new price bracket NVIDIA have set out.
 
I would send the 970 back if you can. Not worth the upgrade.

If you are upgrading the PC totally in a few months time, either wait..... or get the card you want now.
 
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