Upgrade: 970 or 980 (1080p/60fps/high-ultra)

[Rukia]

Hey.

So it's time to upgrade my 670 to either a 970 or 980 and I'm having a hard time choosing. My budget is $500 AUD which is about what the 970 costs in Australia, the 980 is about $750 AUD which is what I'm willing to stretch it out to as a one off.

Naturally the 970 sounds perfect for my needs but I'm just not sold on the 3.5GB VRAM issue. I don't want my new GPU to get outdated quickly which sounds like it might happen with the 970 since it has 3.5GB VRAM and new games are using more and more, the 980 sounds more future proof with the 4GB VRAM. On the other hand the $250 AUD difference is significant.

If anyone could help me decide it would be great.

Thanks.

 

[Silverforce11]

970/980 are incredibly overpriced here in AUS.

Good 980s are often >$800 and good 970s are $500.

Compared to one of the best R290s, the Tri-X variant:

$369
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1575&products_id=31273

That model is equivalent to a R290X on most benchmark (reference models throttle) charts due to its superb cooling to maintain 1ghz stable.

If you're set on going with NV, then go with a 970. The premium for the 980 is not worth the extra $250-300.

Either way, wait for AMD's launch next month, it may cause some major price changes across the lineups.

Performance wise, in two of the most recent AAA and most popular titles:

R290X performance is incredibly competitive, especially for $369 compared to $500 or $800.

Power wise, it averages ~220W in games, less than reference R290/X models:

 

[Rukia]

Either way, wait for AMD's launch next month, it may cause some major price changes across the lineups.

Thanks for the reply - how much difference do you think there'd be?

970/980 come with The Witcher 3 codes atm that can be sold for $40-50 so it would have to be more than that to be worthwhile.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Can you wait a month? The 980ti might be released by then to compete with the new Radeon cards. You might not want those cards, but the regular 980 may see a nice price drop.

If I needed a card today I'd probably get the 980, because I just don't trust nvidia to offer good support for the 970's quirky 3.5 + 5 RAM in 2-3 years.

 

[Silverforce11]

Thanks for the reply - how much difference do you think there'd be?

970/980 come with The Witcher 3 codes atm that can be sold for $40-50 so it would have to be more than that to be worthwhile.

I think for the 980 level, depending on how the 980ti and AMDs Fiji Pro/XT lands, you could see major price drops.

There'll be other bundles later, so its a question of your needs. Because what if the 980Ti is $699 USD and its 30% faster than the 980? Buying either 970/980 at current prices would be a major fail if that's coming in a few weeks.

 

[guskline]

Rukia, if you stay with a 1080p monitor the GTX970's memory allocation issue won't be as much as a factor.

I've opted for Sapphire Tri-X OC R9 290s and been very happy.

Since we are so close to Nvidia's GTX980TI release, I would wait to see if it send the price down on the GTX980.

I owned a Gigabyte G1 game GTX970 but sent it back when Nvidia's claim of "4G" vram really meant 3.5G at full speed and the last .5 G at some different or slower speed.

All the Nvidia PR wonks and testing etc won't change my mind that Nvida turned a blind eye to just telling us how this 3.5+.5 vs 4 memory sytem worked before releasing it. The box said 4G and no asterisk to explain what that meant.

That's just me. If you have your heart set on Nvidia go that way.

Good luck.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

If you want either the 970 or 980 now I'd get a 970, much cheaper and not that far behind in performance.

The new amd gpu's and the 980Ti's will probably drive the 980 price down soon though. If you can wait a few weeks I'd do that.

 

[flexy]

I say it again and again and again:

No one will give a rat's a$$ about cards with only 4GB in a few months time.
So if you assume that a 4GB GTX 980 is "worth it" and would be an investment for a some time to come you'd be wrong.

RIGHT NOW, the GTX 970 is "more than sufficient" and I personally don't have any issues whatsoever with the 3.5GB "issue" since it doesn't show up in any of the current games, including GTA V, The Witcher, BF4 whatever.

In fact I would likely not see any performance increase even with a GTX 980 (at least not at those resolutions I play at). I play GTA V, BF4 etc. at Vsync on, mostly on Ultra settings capped at 60hz/Vsync. All the games run smooth and stutter-free. So a GTX 980 even with fully performant 4GB wouldn't have any real advantage beside possibly "in my mind". Comes the time that 3.5GB or 4GB video memory are becoming really tight, then as said above, no-one will give a darn about those cards anyway any longer, then we will have 6GB++ cards out and 4GB will be a thing of the past anyway.

It think it is smarter to get a GTX 970 (possibly even a used one) for less money rather than spend on a GTX 980 "for the next 3 years". Whether AMD is an alternative "because they have real 4GB of memory", you have to decide. It's as easy as looking over a bunch of benchmarks/performance in games and then look at prices and then come to a decision what the smartest buy us.

 

[lehtv]

I say it again and again and again:

No one will give a rat's a$$ about cards with only 4GB in a few months time.

What now? 4GB will be fine for 1080p gaming for years IMO

 

[Ranulf]

Given recent history I don't think you'll see big price changes until July, possibly August.

 

[Ichigo]

I wouldn't expect to sell a W3 key for more than 25-30 dollars honestly. You can already find it for cheaper on certain sites and regardless of how sketchy you think those sites are it's definitely no more sketchy than trusting a random person on the internet.

 

[RussianSensation]

Wait 1 more month for 980Ti and R9 300 series to drop to see what happens to prices of new cards. I have a feeling NV will be officially dropping the price of a 980 by $50-100 because I just don't see it competing well at $550 USD against R9 380X/390/390X $399-549 cards. Every single generation AMD released new cards, it established new price/performance levels. This has been true since HD4850/4870 days. If you must choose now and don't want to wait 1 month, I would grab an after-market 290 or a 970. 980 is simply not worth the money. Better to save $250-300 and upgrade again in 2-2.5 years. 980 won't outlast a 970.

 

[desprado]

Wait 1 more month for 980Ti and R9 300 series to drop to see what happens to prices of new cards. I have a feeling NV will be officially dropping the price of a 980 by $50-100 because I just don't see it competing well at $550 USD against R9 380X/390/390X $399-549 cards. Every single generation AMD released new cards, it established new price/performance levels. This has been true since HD4850/4870 days. If you must choose now and don't want to wait 1 month, I would grab an after-market 290 or a 970. 980 is simply not worth the money. Better to save $250-300 and upgrade again in 2-2.5 years. 980 won't outlast a 970.

All R9 3xx series are rebrands according to this
http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-r9-3...radeon-r9-380-tonga-r9-370-pitcairn-rebrands/

AMD will have only 2 new gpu.

 

[AnandThenMan]

Wait 1 more month for 980Ti and R9 300 series to drop to see what happens to prices of new cards.

This. Buying a GPU right now is not the best idea.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

970 isn't worth the premium for you. Get a 290 and call it a day. It will age better anyway.

 

[RussianSensation]

All R9 3xx series are rebrands according to this
http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-r9-3...radeon-r9-380-tonga-r9-370-pitcairn-rebrands/

AMD will have only 2 new gpu.

I am not sure what your point is. Even if AMD ups the clocks on Hawaii XT by 5-10%, doubles the VRAM and prices it at $349-379, then adds FIJI PRO in the $499-549 price bracket, and NV will have no choice but to drop the price on a 980.

Secondly, every time AMD launches new generation of cards, they force price drops for the entire industry, and establish new price/performance levels. Did you forget 7950/7970, then 290/290X, then 270/270X/280/280X? Each time, new price/performance levels.

Also, your post doesn't at all account for FIJI PRO cards which are bound to slap 980 around and could easily be priced at $549. Or do you believe AMD will have a gap between a 2816 shader card and a 4096 shader card? It never worked this way and this generation should be no different. AMD always has a 2nd tier powerhouse card that is the absolute sweet spot for high end price performance. 5850/6950/7950/R9 290 all slapped NV's competition around. 980 right now stands right in the way of Fiji Pro -.

 

[Prefix-NA]

Thanks for the reply - how much difference do you think there'd be?

970/980 come with The Witcher 3 codes atm that can be sold for $40-50 so it would have to be more than that to be worthwhile.

You cannot sell a code for 40-50 lol the game is worth 40-50 buying on steam any time you get free codes selling them you won't get as much as steam also AMD cards come with free games as well right now.

 

[showb1z]

980 is in no-man's land right now. It's not worth the huge premium over a 970.
New cards should launch very soon now, wait till then to decide.

 

[Headfoot]

The 980 is a colossal waste of money. You can get 2x R9 290 for the same price as a 980, and the 2x 290 is going to be significantly faster. Even 1 R9 290 is very inexpensive for the performance and enough for 1080p. Wait for the new cards and see how it shakes out.

 

[Johnmcl7]

980 is in no-man's land right now. It's not worth the huge premium over a 970.
New cards should launch very soon now, wait till then to decide.

That's what I find odd, I expected the 980's to have dropped in price a bit by now but they're still largely around double the price of a 970. Although the 290's have plummeted in price the lack of a decent blower option I think rules them out for me as space in my case is tight so I think a pair tight against each other wouldn't work well (originally a pair of 6950's, now just a single card after the other died)

John

 

[flexy]

970 isn't worth the premium for you. Get a 290 and call it a day. It will age better anyway.

"Premium" for me means spending an unreasonable amount of mount of money in relation to what I get back.

The 970 I would not see that way, in fact it is priced "right", however the 980 is not.

 

[Rukia]

I've decided to get a 970 but I'm not sure if I should wait for the AMD cards.

Is there likely to be a card better than the 970 for a similar price?

 

[xthetenth]

It's close enough it's very likely worth the wait.

 

[Headfoot]

I've decided to get a 970 but I'm not sure if I should wait for the AMD cards.

Is there likely to be a card better than the 970 for a similar price?

The 290 is 0-10% slower but a lot cheaper. 290x is as fast or faster, and its about the same price.

Rumor is there will be hawaii respins that might have better clocks and more RAM for similar prices. I'd still wait until the rest of the line up drops which will be very very soon.