Updaying son's gpu

amermirg

Member
May 15, 2013
28
0
0
Upgrading son's GPU
Hello my son wants his gpu upgrading and in reality it was the old component that was left in his PC when I built him a new one (good deal on mobo and cpu , at the time)

We've narrowed it down to 2 choices:
1. Asus GTX970 4GB PCI-E TURBO
clock freq 1051MHz ....Turbo 1178 MHz


PLUS 2 games The Division och Far Cry: Primal ...which are of interest to him.
(NOTE I can't find any info on this on the net/Asus website....etc etc.
Store HAS confirmed it is a non-clocked card and Asus sweden couldn't help without a serial number..It appears on to be at this one store netonnet.se who are a reputable company).

2.ASUS GeForce GTX 970 4GB Turbo OC
clock freq 1088 MHz Turbo 1228 MHz


No games...
EVERYTHING else seem to be the same.
The OC is 400 kronor dearer approx $48 US.

Now my maths ain't great but I reckon that OC is approx a 4% increase.
That seems to be a minor OC or???

I think our best buy must be the UNcolocked version and then OC when necessary in the future...??? advice please...Am I missing something and GTX 970 are notoriously BAD overclockers?

Other components are fine in PC and suitable to for the card..
Thanks for the advice

Just don't get why ASUS would release this version unless these are chips that would not overclock to the OC edition BUT then again the OC version seems a very low Overclock and I always thought Nvidia were ok overclockers...been using AMD radeons of late.

AS I say no info on these anywhere ....and only found them here in sweden in netonnet.se
https://www.netonnet.se/art/komponen...b/229421.8989/

Asus trying to get rid of 970's without driving down the price of present overclock version out there?
 

ShintaiDK

Lifer
Apr 22, 2012
20,378
145
106
I would get the standard version as you write. 2 games he want and worth quite a bit at this moment (2x60€ aka 1115SEK).
 
Last edited:
Feb 25, 2011
16,777
1,466
126
Hard to say without knowing the rest of the system specs and what games he plays, but I don't think it's worth an extra $48.

As likely as not, the non-OC card can be easily OC'd to match the OC one, although it might not have as much headroom if you're going to maximum OC.

The cards will turbo up and/or throttle back depending on load and temps anyway, so clock speed isn't a fixed number anymore.
 

amermirg

Member
May 15, 2013
28
0
0
Sorry rest of spec is
PSU xfx 850w (believe seasonic)
MOBO Gigabyte z97x-gaming 5, i7 4770k (bought as a package the i7 was more or less same price as the i5)
8gb g skill ram.
radeon 7870 gpu
Noctua nh d15 heatsink.
Nzxt 440 case.

Just seems odd that I can't find the non-OC edition anywhere BUT netonnet.se and that the OC is a small OC anyway ...just wonder if they (ASUS/Nvidia) are getting rid of chips that would not OC..otherwise what's the point?

Blower type are great and he plays with headphones on...had plenty of double fan designs that have been crap, dumping all the heat in the case... Yes it is blower type as in "everything else is the same". Don't get your contribution?
Duhhh!!!!!

AND amd are crap with driver support . My previous card had no new drivers BUT all I had to do was change ONE figure in the .inf file to get them to work...great customer service from amd...think not...
 
Last edited:

MrTeal

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,554
1,658
136
Definitely go with the cheaper one, even if you just throw the games away. It might be different if the OC version had the DirectCU III cooler on it, but you can always just up clockrates yourself. With the free games it's a no brainer.
 

amermirg

Member
May 15, 2013
28
0
0
Cheers everyone...if there seems that their would be no ulterior motive why Asus would release such a card then I'll go with , as advised , the standard version.
Thanks all ...just needed reassuring that I wasn't missing some information.

Cheers :)
 

caswow

Senior member
Sep 18, 2013
525
136
116
the amd bad driver comment is gold while wanting to buy a 970 "4g" :D

dont forget to install nvidias newest whql with its tdr feature D:
 

xthetenth

Golden Member
Oct 14, 2014
1,800
529
106
the amd bad driver comment is gold while wanting to buy a 970 "4g" :D

dont forget to install nvidias newest whql with its tdr feature D:

Yeah, that'd be the third major issue I'd had with my 970 if I'd still kept it, because my multiple monitor setup is right in the at-risk demographic. There's driver problems to be had with both sides of the fence, hopefully OP doesn't get any.
 

amermirg

Member
May 15, 2013
28
0
0
hi... wasn't a driver issue as such it was just that they stopped releasing drivers for that card...but all it needed for the newest drivers to be installable and usable was to edit ONE digit in the .inf file. WHY they did this I do not know . The only reply I got was that they no longer made updated drivers for the card I had. The card wasn't that old either.

Just checked on Nvidia site who still have the drivers for the very old 260x that in a draw somewhere.

the 7870 does but in my prior build I had the 5770 ...driver support was dropped for this in the windows edition I was running...as I say all that was need was to change ONE digit in the .inf file...why amd couldn.t do that I don't know?

Oh and sorry LCT8K6...I notice the "no offense, but does he have some sort of mental dissability? -nick1985" is a general comment..thought earlier you were having a go at my son
 
Last edited:

LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
28,520
1,575
126
Not sure what happened with your 7870, but it's a GCN DX12 card and it is fully supported by AMD with the latest drivers.

I believe it also supports DX12 better than a GTX970 card will.
 

Bacon1

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2016
3,430
1,018
91

kawi6rr

Senior member
Oct 17, 2013
567
156
116
While I believe an AMD 390/290 would have better longevity given AMD's driver support for their older cards and the fact that the 970 does not actually have 4gigs of ram. It's clear that OP has his heart set on a 970.
 

amermirg

Member
May 15, 2013
28
0
0
OK I hold my hands up...I'd left the research for this to my son...I can now see there are a lot of issues with win 10 and Nvidia drivers...( also the 4770k cpu)...

Are there any issue with the r380/390 or 280/290 ??
Thanks
 

Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
2,331
1,139
136
The Division beta was quite playable on my 7870 video card (with amd 8350 cpu) at 1080p.
 

crisium

Platinum Member
Aug 19, 2001
2,643
615
136
I think you overrate the driver issues from both camps. Your 7870 should have full support and plenty of people here have Nvidia and Windows 10.

If you want a performance boost, get whichever is cheapest of Radeon 290, 390, or GTX 970 that you can find. You specifically mentioned The Division and Far Cry P, and FWIW those games have higher performance with AMD.
 

tential

Diamond Member
May 13, 2008
7,355
642
121
You can get the best R9 390 possible for even cheaper OP.

It's a NO brainer.

https://www.netonnet.se/art/fyndvar...adeon-r9-390-nitro-8gb-fyndvara/X223079.7282/

That's the Sapphire Nitro.

The GTX 970 you linked is literally a joke compared to this.

Edit: I don't know what shops are available to you OP so I'm sticking with the one linked in the OP.

To compare to the AMD card I linked OP, you would need to get this card.

It's a 10% increase in price, but if it's worth it to you to have Nvidia then get it. The cooler on the card you have linked is not ideal.

https://www.netonnet.se/art/fyndvar...e-gtx-970-g1-gaming-4g-fyndvara/X210180.7282/

Edit2: While nvidia just did have a massive driver issue (my friend is on his second reinstall fixing it), both drivers are fine. Don't factor drivers in. OCing is a wash too. Both cards when OCed are about as fast as each other. Only difference is, Maxwell does better at 1080p while AMD does better at 1440p and higher. Personally, I set my R9 290 to 1440p resolution and play that way (the extra resolution improves the image quality a lot to my eye). A lot of nvidia users stick with the 1080p, and only go up to 1440p if they have a GTX 980ti.

Just my obs.
 
Last edited: