At what price point is a 970 or 980 the best choice?

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Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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Basing it on what is available with similar performance and price in new cards. I would take a 480 or 1060 over a 970 or 980. Especially a 970 with how reliant it is on drivers to function properly. Nvidia cards don't age well and DX12 is here now and more and more big titles are releasing that use it.

My sig is not updated, I only have one 980ti - sold one, I'd price a 980ti today at $300 given the 1070's price. I doubt I'll get much more than $400 CDN when I sell the remaining one. I sold the other one for $600 a couple weeks before 1080 released, that pays for half a Pascal Titan, lol. The new cards kill the value of the old pretty fast. 970/980 used aren't worth more than what I said, at least if I were buying one, which I wouldn't even at those prices.

The non-availability of the RX 480 makes valuing older cards a bit more complex.

I just had three bidders in 24 hours for my GTX 970 posted at $175, so clearly, there's demand for it at that price. You may not want a 970 at $100, but that's a good thing, because I can guarantee you no one in their right mind would sell you one for that much. ;)
 

poofyhairguy

Lifer
Nov 20, 2005
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A little extreme, don't you think? That would put your dual 980 Ti cards at about $200 each in the used market.

I realize a lot of folks are worked up about DX12, and yes, I can confirm Pascal runs DX12 about 10% better than Maxwell based on tests I've conducted, but the "sky is falling" routine on Maxwell is kind of out of hand.

The thing people miss is not all Maxwell is aging at the same rate. The 980 ti seems to be doing ok, as does the 980. But the 970 or 960? eeeeee.

When the 970 was released it was 10-15% behind the 980 depending on the review:

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But today in Directx 12 games? It turns into an 18-20% difference!

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GTX-1060-REVIEW-96.jpg


That gives a really clear indication how poorly the 970 will age. I would much rather have a 980 out of the two if I am keeping it for a year or more.
 

KevinH

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2000
3,110
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The non-availability of the RX 480 makes valuing older cards a bit more complex.

I just had three bidders in 24 hours for my GTX 970 posted at $175, so clearly, there's demand for it at that price. You may not want a 970 at $100, but that's a good thing, because I can guarantee you no one in their right mind would sell you one for that much. ;)

I don't think people are aware of the used market. 680's still sell for over 100 easily and if you have the right model, $150+. Nvidia cards hold their value like no one's business.
 

guachi

Senior member
Nov 16, 2010
761
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I understand the frustration in not getting a card when you really want to upgrade.

My suggestion is either pre-order something and wait a month for it to come in or stalk nowinstock.net and get something when it arrives (also, they have links to preorder cards as well).

It's how I got my 480 (eventually). Personally, I think the 480 is a better choice than the 1060 but both are fine. (My reasoning for AMD is Freesync is so much cheaper than Gsync)

Now, $150 is probably appropriate for a 970. But if you can wait a month (or less) you can get a modern, new 480.

We don't yet know how widespread the benefits of dx12 or Vulkan will be in future performance, but I'd rather wait and/or spend a few extra dollars to ensure I got that performance if it ends up happening.
 

poohbear

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2003
2,284
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I'd fairly value it at $50-$70 cheaper than a new rx480 or gtx 1060. Anything more than that and u got a great deal as they perform on par with those 2. But really, is it worth it to save $50-$70 for a legacy product? Just get a new card as they will support DX12 when those games get released in 2017 (no native DX12 games being released this year, aside from the patches which look more like marketing for AMD, cause Nvidia sure as hell ain't pushing for DX12.). Although, at your resolution a gtx 970 will be just fine. Anyone using 1080p is fine with 9× series card
 
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eddman

Senior member
Dec 28, 2010
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980: $230
970: $180-$200

They should still be able to hold their own for some time. Maxwell and Pascal are basically the same architecture, so newer games should still perform well in DX11/OpenGL.

As for DX12 and Vulkan, they'd most probably fall behind but I'd doubt we'd see any DX12/Vulkan-only games for a while, except for a few MS published titles, mainly on windows store.
 
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