Worth going from a 770 4GB to a 970?

[RadiclDreamer]

Im mulling over the idea of moving from my 1.5 year old 770 4GB windforce edition and going to an EVGA 970 4GB SC and then giving my son my 770 to upgrade him from his 650 vanilla. Is it worth it? Hes on a 3570k and im on a 4670k, I play anything and everything sans sports, he on the other hand plays Garden Warfare and minecraft for the most part.

Also, since ive seen prices all over the map, what should i be paying for a 970?

 

[ColonelBlimp]

I would say yes, if you need the extra performance and your son may get into more high powered games as he gets older.

Here in the UK you can pick up 970's from about £260 quid, maybe cheaper in the US though.

The EVGA SC version is £288 over here.

 

[Termie]

There's a lot of hoopla about this card, but remember this would just be a 30% performance boost for you. Also the fact that you have a 4GB 770 makes a big difference for future games.

Probably not a great upgrade, unless your son can't play his games with a 650.

That being said, it's a better upgrade than others here who "upgraded" from a 780.

 

[96Firebird]

Also, since ive seen prices all over the map, what should i be paying for a 970?

$330-$380, depending on the cooler and OC clocks.

 

[BrightCandle]

I don't think so, its not quite at the 2x standard of performance and I suspect we'll see a new process next year that will make the moderate improvements with the 970 small.

How about I ask a different question for you to think about. Was your issue with the 780 purely based on its price and had it been cheaper then you would have bought it?

Because the 900 series is almost exclusively that issue, similar performance at a cheaper price. The other features of it aren't worth much at this point so it really does mostly come down to price/performance.

 

[guskline]

RadiclDreamer: Here's the link to the Anandtech benchmark compairason of the GTX770 vs GTX970:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1037?vs=1355

Obviously you will see more performance AND your son will get a big upgrade. Price? @$350.00

 

[guskline]

BrightCandle he's talking about a GTX770 not a GTX780.

 

[Majcric]

I think he is using the 780 as a reference point. In others words would the OP of upgraded the 770 to a 780 had the price been around the 970.

This is something I've been asking myself as well about my 680. Not worth it just yet.

 

[Carfax83]

I think it's worth it. I made the jump myself when I sold my Gigabyte GTX 770 4GB cards for my present Gigabyte G1 GTX 970s..

The GTX 970 is just a much better card overall, and not just from a performance perspective. It also uses significantly less power and runs cooler. My G1 GTX 970s auto boost all the way to 1380 mhz and don't even break 70c.

But speaking of performance, the GTX 970 solves one problem that affected the GK104; lack of bandwidth. The GTX 680 and 770 were both bandwidth limited, hence why overclocking the memory yielded higher performance gains than overclocking the core.

The 970 on the other hand isn't bandwidth limited as far as I can tell, due to it's much larger L2 cache, and better color compression..

 

[BrightCandle]

BrightCandle he's talking about a GTX770 not a GTX780.

The 970 is in and around the same performance. I am making the analogy that a 970 is a 780 with its price cut and not a lot else. Its not a perfect analogy but its also not far wrong. For me that frames the question, was my issue with the card just about price or not, because if it was then getting a 970 makes sense, if I felt the 780 wasn't sufficient extra performance then the price drop 1.5 years later isn't all that impressive and while it makes the upgrade better than it was its not as revolutionary as I might think if I wasn't wowed by the low price.

 

[Carfax83]

The GTX 970 is faster than the GTX 780 though; especially the aftermarket ones with higher clock speeds.. And performance will likely increase even more once the drivers become more optimized for Maxwell..

 

[KaRLiToS]

The GTX 970 is faster than the GTX 780 though; especially the aftermarket ones with higher clock speeds.. And performance will likely increase even more once the drivers become more optimized for Maxwell..

Do you honestly think there is more optimization to do out of 28nm? Because I don't.

 

[Carfax83]

Do you honestly think there is more optimization to do out of 28nm? Because I don't.

Driver optimization has nothing to do with the size of the transistors. This is about architecture and Nvidia always optimizes their drivers for their new architectures.

Case in point, when the GTX 680 was first released, it was about 30% faster than the GTX 580. By the time the GTX 770 came out the following year, the performance had grown till it was closer to 40%, and even over 40% in a few titles..

 

[Keysplayr]

Do you honestly think there is more optimization to do out of 28nm? Because I don't.

Neither do I. But I do think the architecture could benefit from driver optimization though.

 

[SimianR]

Im mulling over the idea of moving from my 1.5 year old 770 4GB windforce edition and going to an EVGA 970 4GB SC and then giving my son my 770 to upgrade him from his 650 vanilla. Is it worth it? Hes on a 3570k and im on a 4670k, I play anything and everything sans sports, he on the other hand plays Garden Warfare and minecraft for the most part.

Also, since ive seen prices all over the map, what should i be paying for a 970?

It really depends on what your expectations are. The performance jump won't be huge, the real benefit would be some power savings. I personally don't think it's worth it. A 770 4GB will do quite well in most games for some time. I think once 20nm GPU's are available it would be worth reevaluating at that point whether an upgrade is in order or not.

 

[RussianSensation]

For the games you listed I am not sure your son needs an upgrade. What you can do is sell your 770 4GB while it still has some value. There will be users looking to SLI 770 4GB and it's a good time to sell it for that reason. You can then pick up a 970 or if you want a stop-gap cheap upgrade, MSI Gaming R9 290 is only $251. I bet after reselling your 770 4GB, this will be a $50 upgrade for you at most and you'll get 20-25% boost from an after-market 290.

Then next year, you can do a real upgrade as cards 30-50% faster than R9 290/970 should become available, and then you'll pass on the 290/970 to your son.

 

[DigDog]

i would say no. is the 770 struggling? i doubt it.

i mean seriously, garden warfare? you could play that on a 7750 (i did).

even "moar powarful gaems" will probably get tamed by the 770; and if they don't, *then* you upgrade.
besides that said games haven't even come out yet ...

 

[KaRLiToS]

Neither do I. But I do think the architecture could benefit from driver optimization though.

We'll see . :sneaky:

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Well, thanks for the replies, this certainly gives me some things to think about. Is there a rumored time frame for the lower process parts to drop next year?

I'm not dying for performance, and neither is he, so far hes content playing on med settings.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Well, thanks for the replies, this certainly gives me some things to think about. Is there a rumored time frame for the lower process parts to drop next year?

I'm not dying for performance, and neither is he, so far hes content playing on med settings.

If you could wait for Nvidia next 20nm cards, I don't think you will be disapointed. The GTX 770 is still an acceptable card compared to the GTX 970. But probably that next cards will be a much bigger leap in performance.

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm not dying for performance, and neither is he, so far hes content playing on med settings.

If you don't want to do a side-step to R9 290 for $250 or $330 970 while reselling the 770 4GB, might as well wait longer if your and your son's cards are satisfactory. NV/AMD might or might not move to 20nm next year but in 12 months from now there will be faster GPUs than 980 at $550-600 or alternatively 980's level of performance will come down to $350-400. My rule of thumb is if you miss the optimal time to resell (i.e., your card has dropped way too much in value to make sense reselling - which for you hasn't happened yet), then might as well wait until next gen games push your card to the limit where you have to upgrade to not downgrade IQ too much. Look at how $700 780Ti's performance is 90% available in the 970 at $330 just 11 months later. For that reason the longer you wait, the more performance you'll be able to buy at a certain price level.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

If you don't want to do a side-step to R9 290 for $250 or $330 970 while reselling the 770 4GB, might as well wait longer if your and your son's cards are satisfactory. NV/AMD might or might not move to 20nm next year but in 12 months from now there will be faster GPUs than 980 at $550-600 or alternatively 980's level of performance will come down to $350-400. My rule of thumb is if you miss the optimal time to resell (i.e., your card has dropped way too much in value to make sense reselling - which for you hasn't happened yet), then might as well wait until next gen games push your card to the limit where you have to upgrade to not downgrade IQ too much. Look at how $700 780Ti's performance is 90% available in the 970 at $330 just 11 months later. For that reason the longer you wait, the more performance you'll be able to buy at a certain price level.

Im sure the AMD line are fine cards, but I've just had too many issues over the years with drivers to give them a second glance anymore. Most recent was a 5870 and it was a disaster. Would really prefer to stick with nvidia.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Im sure the AMD line are fine cards, but I've just had too many issues over the years with drivers to give them a second glance anymore. Most recent was a 5870 and it was a disaster. Would really prefer to stick with nvidia.

I also had HD 5870 and then I had HD 6970, followed by HD 7970 and now R9 290x.

It was always multi-GPU setups (3 or more)

And I can tell you right now: AMD drivers are VERY VERY good like they were never before. :awe:

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I also had HD 5870 and then I had HD 6970, followed by HD 7970 and now R9 290x.

It was always multi-GPU setups (3 or more)

And I can tell you right now: AMD drivers are VERY VERY good like they were never before. :awe:

The grey screen of death issue was the last straw for me, so no offense and im glad youve had good luck, but the three times ive given them a go its been awful for me.

 

[jacktesterson]

The grey screen of death issue was the last straw for me, so no offense and im glad youve had good luck, but the three times ive given them a go its been awful for me.

AMD drivers are great these days. All power to you though.