Your advice for two machines: Trade one GTX 970 for 2x 960/760?

[Blue_Max]

Weird situation; I have two purely 1080p gaming machines, one with an i5-2400 and GTX 970, and the other a dual-core 1155 processor with GTX 550TI.

I have the option to trade my GTX 970 card for a matched pair of video cards. Two offers on the table: My card plus ~$40 for 2x GTX 960 cards w/ backplates & 4GB (tempting!)

...or 2x GTX 760 cards + i5-2400 processor (to upgrade the G630) + $40

I guess the real question is the whole 2gb vs 4gb thing, 760 vs 960, backplate, significant tecnology, etc. Anything I might be missing that's not plainly obvious from mere benchmarks.

I'm leaning towards the 960's for the RAM, backplates (better overclocking) lower power usage and just plain better overall performance... but we are talking about over $100 difference between cash and CPU upgrade.

Your thoughts? :wub:

 

[happy medium]

Sell it all, have one gaming machine, and buy yourself a z170 board (140$),16gb ddr4 3000 (85$) ,i3 6100 (125$).

Your gtx970 should cover the cost of the board and cpu.

Your cpu's should cover the cost of the memory.

Your motherboards and ddr3 memory and gtx550ti, should give you a start with covering the cost of a new generation gpu ,like a gtx1060 or Polaris 10.

until then use the i3's integrated graphics.

 

[Blue_Max]

Not an option - I need two viable gaming machines, otherwise I'd have already done exactly what you suggested.

Of course, not trading at all and keeping the 970 + 550TI as they are is an option too... I can hold out with the 550TI in the second until I find a screamin' deal on a GTX 950 or better... I'll just have to temporarily shelve the titles that demand more hardware.

 

[happy medium]

Not an option - I need two viable gaming machines

In that case I'd go for the 2 4gb 960's.
And mabe sell your 550ti and G630 buy a better cpu for computer 2? i5 2400's go for about 65$. i3 2120's for about 50$

 

[moonbogg]

Nvidia has recently converted Kepler GPU's into 2D only graphics processors. The only choice for gaming is the 960's.

(insert sarcasm disclaimer here)

 

[Blue_Max]

In that case I'd go for the 2 4gb 960's.
And mabe sell your 550ti and G630 buy a better cpu for computer 2? i5 2400's go for about 65$.

The 970 is only about 50-60% faster than the 960 (the improved overclocking would narrow that a little) but a 960 just *crushes* the old 550TI... so it's very tempting.

From what I saw about DX12 liking more threads, it looks like I should try to snag an old i7-2600 non-K on the cheap (~$150) then both machines will be tasty.

The more I think of it, there's a reason those GTX 760's are cheaper... significantly older, have had a lot more power run through them over that time meaning more chance of failure.

Nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of.

 

[Blue_Max]

Made the switch to 2x 4GB 960's with the extra cooling plates. DAMN glad I did! I see very little difference in gameplay and now have two great gaming machines instead of one!

 

[Headfoot]

I use exclusively used parts in my guest gaming machine, it costs me way less and ive had no dealbreaking issues.

I would have suggested waiting. When the new cards drop you will see a flood of very inexpensive 970s, 290s, 390s, 960s, 380s, etc as people move to the new cards. I'll be selling off my 290s probably. I'll probably be selling them for $175 about

 

[happy medium]

Made the switch to 2x 4GB 960's with the extra cooling plates. DAMN glad I did! I see very little difference in gameplay and now have two great gaming machines instead of one!

Don't forget to overclock your 960's, especially the memory.
I see 15/20% gains in actual game performance with my overclock ,depending on the game.:thumbsup:

 

[Blue_Max]

Don't forget to overclock your 960's, especially the memory.
I see 15/20% gains in actual game performance with my overclock ,depending on the game.:thumbsup:

In Canadian dollars, I went from the cheapest $450 970 to the absolute best $300 GTX 960's with higher clocks, better RAM, cooling backplate, etc.

They overclock very well. I've very, very happy. :wub:

Yeah, I could wait... but then my 970 would be worth less as well.

I'm good. Thanks for the advice and opinions, all!