# gtx 970 or go for gtx 980?



## karklinskarlis1993 (Dec 10, 2014)

for now, i am having enough money to buy gtx 970. i just wanted to know your opinions what to do. gtx 970 on my country cost about 350euros (gigabyte gaming 1 version) and gtx 980 (msi 4gaming) cost about 580euros. is there any need for saving money to afford gtx980? as i have seen these is a minor difference, about 10fps average on all games.

i dont have big res screen, only 1080p for now. buying nvidia for rendering purposes (3D rendering, bunch of poligons to hold,  texturing and stuff), not a big games fan, but still sometimes.

so if you suggest to go for 970, which version? i really dont mind spending more money to get a better item, than saving extra money for sandviches


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## GhostRyder (Dec 10, 2014)

karklinskarlis1993 said:


> for now, i am having enough money to buy gtx 970. i just wanted to know your opinions what to do. gtx 970 on my country cost about 350euros (gigabyte gaming 1 version) and gtx 980 (msi 4gaming) cost about 580euros. is there any need for saving money to afford gtx980? as i have seen these is a minor difference, about 10fps average on all games.
> 
> i dont have big res screen, only 1080p for now. buying nvidia for rendering purposes (3D rendering, bunch of poligons to hold,  texturing and stuff), not a big games fan, but still sometimes.
> 
> so if you suggest to go for 970, which version? i really dont mind spending more money to get a better item, than saving extra money for sandviches


GTX 970 is a much better value, if your looking for a version or a particular to pick I would say go for the Gigabyte G1 Gaming because of the stock clocks, the cooler, and the extra output options on it.  The card will overclock very well and stay cool and quiet with that cooler and its been getting a lot of praise.


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## MustSeeMelons (Dec 11, 2014)

Pretty much what @GhostRyder said. Buy a 980 only if you want the best possible and don't care for value so much. I bought the MSI 970 recently, great card, Far Cry 4 runs really well (except for the stutters while driving of course). One thing I don't like about the cards is that it sags, but rerouting the PCI-E power cables fixed that (the cable holds the card nice and straight, just like god intended). Make a spreadsheet listing pros/cons while googling, can't go wrong either way.


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## Random Murderer (Dec 11, 2014)

^ What these guys said.
Both the 970 and the 980 are great cards, but imho, the price premium on the 980 is just too much for what you get compared to a good 970.
I say go with the 970. The price you posted for that 980 is just a stone's throw from two 970s, and two 970s will undoubtedly beat out a single 980. Grab the 970, overclock it a bit if you need to(which I doubt you will at 1080p), and down the road you have the option of grabbing another.
Also worth reiterating is just how good the Gigabyte G1 Gaming is in terms of cooling, out-of-the-box clocks, and connectivity options. The reviews on the G1 Gaming 970 are stellar, too.

TL;DR: If I were in your shoes, I would pick up the Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 and have money left over for sandviches.


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## karklinskarlis1993 (Dec 11, 2014)

thanks a lot guys - gtx 970 is in my to-do list. hope i wont regret that, because soon the 980ti will come up and 980s price will drop. actually, when its about gaming, i am aiming to have max fps and all maxed out.. otherwise, i just dont see any point of gaming on medium or with low frames.., so i hope 970 will provide me maxed out.

another question, as i havent seen so far - does anyone have any issues with gigabyte 970? flickers? bad clocks? does this card will destroy 980 item stock when  970s overclocked a lot?


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## GhostRyder (Dec 11, 2014)

karklinskarlis1993 said:


> thanks a lot guys - gtx 970 is in my to-do list. hope i wont regret that, because soon the 980ti will come up and 980s price will drop. actually, when its about gaming, i am aiming to have max fps and all maxed out.. otherwise, i just dont see any point of gaming on medium or with low frames.., so i hope 970 will provide me maxed out.
> 
> another question, as i havent seen so far - does anyone have any issues with gigabyte 970? flickers? bad clocks? does this card will destroy 980 item stock when  970s overclocked a lot?


A couple of things:

1: It is unlikely a 980ti will come out because the 980 chip is fully unlocked unless I have missed something on a view of the die because the last ones I saw said it was a fully enabled chip.  More than likely the next chip that will best it will be the GTX Titan II (From Nvidia I mean).
2: 970 will provide Ultra and some MSAA in games at 1440p with very little exceptions so you should be good to go.
3:  The GTX 970 overclocks beyond a GTX 980 stock and will match it pretty easily.  Most of it is held back at a certain point due to Nvidia putting limits but you can achieve up to 1400mhz.


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## erixx (Dec 11, 2014)

The 980 is also overclockable 

stock:
METRO REDUX BENCHMARK RESULTS
Resolution: 1920 x 1080; Quality: Very High; SSAA: Off; Texture filtering: AF 4X; Motion Blur: Off; Tesselation: Off; VSync: Off; Advanced PhysX: Off;  
•Average Framerate: 54.19
•Max. Framerate: 201.33
•Min. Framerate: 17.80 

@1390Mhz
METRO REDUX BENCHMARK RESULTS
Resolution: 1920 x 1080; Quality: Very High; SSAA: Off; Texture filtering: AF 4X; Motion Blur: Off; Tesselation: Off; VSync: Off; Advanced PhysX: Off;  
•Average Framerate: 120.17
•Max. Framerate: 224.92 
• Min. Framerate: 27.38


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## karklinskarlis1993 (Dec 13, 2014)

erixx said:


> The 980 is also overclockable
> 
> stock:
> METRO REDUX BENCHMARK RESULTS
> ...


i just wanted to know, if overclocked 970 could beat up stock 980, as i already knew all cards are clockable, but just hoping for best descision.


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## karklinskarlis1993 (Dec 13, 2014)

does anyone could help me with this struggle, i have been trying to solve all around the stores in my country. all websites provides graphic cards in aprrox same price range. so could you help me to grab the best deal in this site? i would be happy to spend max 420 euros (523 bucks), no more.

http://datori.dataleks.lv/lv/items/video-cards-karte/
here, as you can see, on page 13, there are lot of cards. some are cheaper, some more expensive. gtx970 gigabyte oc version Core Clock Base / Boost clock：1178 / 1329 MHz; costs exact 350 euros, but still there are this card http://datori.dataleks.lv/lv/item/video-cards-karte:94554 for 420euros, so 70extra euros. even stock 780 is 427euros, and 780ti version is even more expensive - 432euros. which one to grab, really want to figure this out, to get best for the money, and best oc possiblities. as i surfed through the net, i saw 970 will be better than 780 a lot and close to 780ti. but why so different pricing? more money - worse expierance? really confused, as i have lost a bunch of money, wasted for grabbing the wrong ones.


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## Frag_Maniac (Dec 13, 2014)

I say go 970. Two reasons, it's plenty for 1080p, and I wouldn't spend any more than you have to on this gen because Nvidia's next gen, which is just a year and a half away, is going to make it look like a wet nosed puppy.

In fact the unified memory of Pascal alone may be the beginning of the end of PC games stuttering.


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## Jborg (Dec 13, 2014)

The 970 G1 Gaming has been a great card for me, no coil whine or anything, plays nearly everything I have thrown at it maxed out or very near to it . I currently run it at 1328mhz GPU (Stock is 1178Mhz), Memory 1878Mhz(7510Mhz)(Stock 1753, 7010Mhz) Boost 1479Mhz (Stock 1329) And I think it still has more room, haven't had to mess with voltages or nothing. -

Edit:Forgot to mention the great cooling as well, I haven't had this card go above 65c, and that was with the stock fan speed, it stays in the 50s even if you set a custom fan profile in OC guru. 

If price doesn't matter, then grab a 980, but the 970 is better value.


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## Fluffmeister (Dec 13, 2014)

Loooove my GTX 970 (MSI G4 Gaming), still can't get over how cool and quiet it runs. 

No doubt the full GM204 in the guise of the GTX 980 is superb, but when it comes down to all round performance/efficiency/price, the 970 is a no brainer.


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## xLegendary (Dec 14, 2014)

Just go for the 970 m8! And guess what, once you need more performance (unlikely soon) you can get yourself another one much cheaper in 6-12 months and SLI with your current one


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## Blue-Knight (Dec 14, 2014)

karklinskarlis1993 said:


> is there any need for saving money to afford gtx980? as i have seen these is a minor difference, about 10fps average on all games.


If you can afford (money is not problem), then GTX 980 because it is faster.

If you want a better deal for the $, then GTX 970. That's what I'd do.


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## FireFox (Dec 14, 2014)

Jborg said:


> i haven't had this card go above 65c,


It's a long time I haven't seen one of my cards with such temperatures.
Of course we can't compare Water and Air.


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## 64K (Dec 15, 2014)

imo the GTX 980 isn't worth the extra $200 for a small gain in performance. My MSI GTX 970 Gaming can handle most games at max settings at 1440p.


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## Jborg (Dec 15, 2014)

Knoxx29 said:


> It's a long time I haven't seen one of my cards with such temperatures.
> Of course we can't compare Water and Air.


 
Yeah, most of the time when I am running the custom fan profile I won't even hit 60c.

That was just stock fan speeds with an OC.


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