Graphic card (gtx 970) upgrade question.

[videopho]

Hi All,
It has been a while since I posted anything around here.
Just upgraded from a pair of gtx 460 (sli) to a brand new eVGA 970 FTW version yesterday.
I ran 3dmark basic benchmark test and got the overall score just over 12k.
My mistake was that I should have run this test to the previous config so I had nothing to compare.
Is this score acceptable for my rig and is it welll worth the upgrade?
Play mostly FPS and flight sims.
Here is the link to the score.
Latest WHQL driver.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9199802

 

[thelead]

If you have no coil whine, be happy. That's a great card.

 

[therealnickdanger]

The average GPU score for all GTX 970 GPUs is 15,690 and yours scored 16,002. About 2% better than average. Good job!

The only way to improve your overall score would be to OC your CPU (and maybe your RAM).

 

[videopho]

It runs very quiet (even in the peak of the action) and cool (@60ish C load, 30ish C idle).
Great card thus far!

 

[dontsh00tmesanta]

If you have no coil whine, be happy. That's a great card.

Got the gigabyte mini itx version. What's coil whine

 

[Cerb]

Got the gigabyte mini itx version. What's coil whine

Search it on Youtube.

 

[dontsh00tmesanta]

Nope don't have it

 

[videopho]

If you have no coil whine, be happy. That's a great card.

Very quiet, sshh!

 

[RaistlinZ]

Your 970 should be immensely faster than your 460 SLI setup.

 

[videopho]

Your 970 should be immensely faster than your 460 SLI setup.

That's a very true statement.
At least 150% faster in BF4 gaming.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Yeah 460 sli to 970 is nothing but win.I think even a 2 year old 670 would have been a suitable upgrade if you did such a upgrade at that time lol.

Must be a very exciting upgrade for you Op

 

[RaistlinZ]

Yeah 460 sli to 970 is nothing but win.I think even a 2 year old 670 would have been a suitable upgrade if you did such a upgrade at that time lol.

Must be a very exciting upgrade for you Op

You're probably right. A single 670 is more than twice as fast as a single 460.

And a single 970 is almost twice as fast as a single 670.

970 is money. :biggrin:

 

[videopho]

I can get two 760s almost at the price of a single 970.
Would a pair of 760 (sli) be faster than a single 970?

 

[skipsneeky2]

I can get two 760s almost at the price of a single 970.
Would a pair of 760 (sli) be faster than a single 970?

Worst idea ever,2gb in sli is pretty much the biggest waste of money there could ever be.Grab the 970.

 

[psolord]

I can get two 760s almost at the price of a single 970.
Would a pair of 760 (sli) be faster than a single 970?

I am an avid supported of dual gpu systems (look at my signature), but when it comes to getting 2 more GBs of vram on the single card, only to get a little more performance from the two cards, I will choose the single card with the more vram any time of the day.

Also don't forget, that dual gpus bring an unfortunate cpu overhead, so in essence they limit the framerate your system can produce, in cpu limited situations.

I am an active Youtuber and I have recently benchmarked Assassin's Creed Unity on my i5 2500k and 7950s. Allow me to post the benchmarks if you want to watch. (sorry for the camera quality-will go digital soon-also spicy wallpaper alert )

[omega] ASSASSIN'S CREED UNITY 1920X1080 CUSTOM ULTRA 7950 @1.1Ghz core i5 2500k@4.8Ghz - 58fps

[omega] ASSASSIN'S CREED UNITY 1920X1080 CUSTOM ULTRA Crossfire 7950 @1.1Ghz core i5 2500k@4.8Ghz - 58fps

Now as you can see, the framerate result was the same and the reason for that is the cpu overhead of the dual gpus.

You can see a 7950 vs 7950cfx side by side run through, which is somewhat at sync after a while, that clearly shows the much higher cpu usage on the top right OSD.

Now I know Nvidia has much lower cpu overhead than AMD, but I am not really sure how much that extends to the kepler family, but I would not risk it. I have not seen it on my fermis.