Video Card Upgrade

[buklau]

I current have a sapphire radeon 7870 video card with a FSP aurum 400 watt 80+ gold power supply. Initially I was planning to wait till Nividia release gtx 960 and upgrade, but now they delay and push towards to Q1 2015. Should I wait till 20nm card come out next year or should I grab a gtx970 instead? Is 400 watt sufficient for it?

Thanks

 

[SickBeast]

You might be able to get by with that PSU but it's pushing it.

I think that the GTX 970 is an incredible value right now and it's very rare for nVidia to offer such a compelling card at a low price. If you prefer nVidia or you need a card now, I would buy one. I wouldn't pay more than MSRP though and it would probably be wise to wait until Black Friday at this point.

 

[RussianSensation]

You might be able to get by with that PSU but it's pushing it.

PSU wise he is fine. Cards like Asus Strix 970 with an i7 3820 are just 300W and an i7 3820 on X79 platform uses way more power than an i5 overclocked.

I would say the choice to upgrade depends on the games you play buklau. If some new game is pushing your GPU, and the experience in that game is not satisfactory for you, perhaps it's time to upgrade. Otherwise, the same rule applies: the longer you wait, the more value you'll get in GPUs as performance gets faster at similar prices or similar performance becomes available at lower price levels.