960 VS 1080, worth it?

[ldelcarpio718]

Per the title, just curious if it is worth upgrading from a 960 to a reg. 1080. I was thinking about upgrading to a 1080 TI, but it is quite of bit a moolah. I want to play games like Destiny 2, doom, battlefield all while streaming it as well. I am new to this, so any and all information is greatly appreciated. Apologies in advance if this was a generic or dumb question, just trying to gain more knowledge. Thank you!

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Depends if your other hardware is up to the task with a 1080ti in it.

 

[spdragoo]

It's also going to depend on what resolution you're playing at. A 1080 is a big upgrade over a 960, but the 1080 (or even 1080TI) are meant for high resolution/high refresh rate monitors (i.e. 1440p/144Hz, 4K/60Hz). If you're looking to play at 1080p, you might want to consider instead the 1060 (for 60Hz) or 1070 (for 144Hz).

 

[doubletake]

A 1080 is 3 to 4 times faster than a 960. Of course it's worth it; you won't even know what you're missing out on compared to a 1080Ti because even a regular 1080 is just so much faster than your current card. You'll definitely be happy with the purchase.

One thing to note (and I bring this up because a surprising amount of people have this problem): Pascal GPUs (GTX 1000 series) do not have analog outputs, specifically no DVI-I, only digital outputs. This is in case you're currently on a VGA connected monitor with an adapter, which would no longer work on a new 1000 series GPU.

 

[ldelcarpio718]

Depends if your other hardware is up to the task with a 1080ti in it.

As of right now, all I know is that I have a i7-4790K processor, what other information would be needed? Thank you!

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

PSU?

 

[falconpunch3D]

The above answers are all great but even a couple more things to consider:

1) You said you'll be streaming games too- this makes more work for your CPU. So if you're going from just playing normally on a 960 to streaming and playing presumably a higher frame rate on the 1080, that's going to be a significant jump in CPU power needed. I don't know a ton about streaming but I'd guess for best performance you'd need a fast quad-core like, say an i5-6700 (others can correct me on this, but CPU load in a "powerful card + streaming" setup is definitely something to consider)

EDIT: You added you have an i7-4790K... CPU power shouldn't be much of an issue. Could be if you go over 100FPS while streaming in some games maybe?

2) spdragoo is correct in the general outline of cards with resolution/framerates but that's generally for well-optimized FPS games. Other situations can arise that throw that progression off, for example I wasn't happy with my RX480 (similar to 1060) performance in Mass Effect Andromeda at 1080p/60Hz (had to use Medium settings and still getting some frame drops), and wanted a 1070 but those prices were badly inflated at the time so I went with a 1080. While this is somewhat overkill at 1080p/60Hz (ultra+ settings), it isn't leaving as much GPU power on the table as I thought it would... usually sitting at high-80s utilization and jumping fairly frequently into the low-90s range. (this case is rarer obviously, as I'm going for max eye-candy in campaign-mode games, and ME:A is known as a pretty badly optimized game, but things aren't always totally cut and dry)

 

[geofelt]

Worth is something only YOU can determine.
Your I7-4790K, particularly with an overclock is going to handle anything well.

If your games tend to fast action and shooters, then graphics becomes very important.
If your budget and psu can handle a GTX1080 go for it.

I might think, though, that a less expensive GTX1070 or even GTX1070ti might be a very satisfying upgrade.

 

[ldelcarpio718]

A 1080 is 3 to 4 times faster than a 960. Of course it's worth it; you won't even know what you're missing out on compared to a 1080Ti because even a regular 1080 is just so much faster than your current card. You'll definitely be happy with the purchase.

One thing to note (and I bring this up because a surprising amount of people have this problem): Pascal GPUs (GTX 1000 series) do not have analog outputs, specifically no DVI-I, only digital outputs. This is in case you're currently on a VGA connected monitor with an adapter, which would no longer work on a new 1000 series GPU.

Awesome, good to know! I just want to make sure I'm getting opinions from everyone. Also, I did not realize that about the 1000 series as I currently use a DVI-I to run my BenQ XL2420Z at 144hz. does this mean I won't be able to run my monitor at 144hz if I upgrade to a 1080? Thank you so much!

 

[falconpunch3D]

A 1080 is 3 to 4 times faster than a 960. Of course it's worth it; you won't even know what you're missing out on compared to a 1080Ti because even a regular 1080 is just so much faster than your current card. You'll definitely be happy with the purchase.

One thing to note (and I bring this up because a surprising amount of people have this problem): Pascal GPUs (GTX 1000 series) do not have analog outputs, specifically no DVI-I, only digital outputs. This is in case you're currently on a VGA connected monitor with an adapter, which would no longer work on a new 1000 series GPU.

Awesome, good to know! I just want to make sure I'm getting opinions from everyone. Also, I did not realize that about the 1000 series as I currently use a DVI-I to run my BenQ XL2420Z at 144hz. does this mean I won't be able to run my monitor at 144hz if I upgrade to a 1080? Thank you so much!

Looks like that has both HDMI and DP. You may have to get a new cable but ultimately compatibility won't be an issue.

 

[ldelcarpio718]

PSU?

Corsair 750W

 

[ldelcarpio718]

It's also going to depend on what resolution you're playing at. A 1080 is a big upgrade over a 960, but the 1080 (or even 1080TI) are meant for high resolution/high refresh rate monitors (i.e. 1440p/144Hz, 4K/60Hz). If you're looking to play at 1080p, you might want to consider instead the 1060 (for 60Hz) or 1070 (for 144Hz).

I have a BenQ XL2420Z. I'm not looking to play at 4k/60Hz as of right now. maybe in the future but who knows when that is lol.I assumed that maybe I should be getting the regular 1080 since I will be streaming the mentioned games.

 

[ldelcarpio718]

A 1080 is 3 to 4 times faster than a 960. Of course it's worth it; you won't even know what you're missing out on compared to a 1080Ti because even a regular 1080 is just so much faster than your current card. You'll definitely be happy with the purchase.

One thing to note (and I bring this up because a surprising amount of people have this problem): Pascal GPUs (GTX 1000 series) do not have analog outputs, specifically no DVI-I, only digital outputs. This is in case you're currently on a VGA connected monitor with an adapter, which would no longer work on a new 1000 series GPU.

Awesome, good to know! I just want to make sure I'm getting opinions from everyone. Also, I did not realize that about the 1000 series as I currently use a DVI-I to run my BenQ XL2420Z at 144hz. does this mean I won't be able to run my monitor at 144hz if I upgrade to a 1080? Thank you so much!

Looks like that has both HDMI and DP. You may have to get a new cable but ultimately compatibility won't be an issue.

Good to know! I don't mind purchasing another cable if I don't already have it

 

[falconpunch3D]

It's also going to depend on what resolution you're playing at. A 1080 is a big upgrade over a 960, but the 1080 (or even 1080TI) are meant for high resolution/high refresh rate monitors (i.e. 1440p/144Hz, 4K/60Hz). If you're looking to play at 1080p, you might want to consider instead the 1060 (for 60Hz) or 1070 (for 144Hz).

I have a BenQ XL2420Z. I'm not looking to play at 4k/60Hz as of right now. maybe in the future but who knows when that is lol.I assumed that maybe I should be getting the regular 1080 since I will be streaming the mentioned games.

Well I don't think the streaming part of the equation would impact what GPU to get (at least not significantly). Maybe I wasn't clear on that haha.

But yes personally I would say there's definitely room to notice a difference in 1080 over 1070 when gaming at 1080p/144Hz, i.e. you wouldn't be likely to "waste" some GPU performance the way I am in my setup. I would say going for the stronger GPU is always a good idea if you have a monitor you like and you aren't planning to upgrade to an expensive adaptive-sync one... the idea being that you can dial in settings where you use all of a 1080's power and get pretty consistent 144Hz, and not worry about frame dropping or any of the things adaptive-sync is meant to address. You can do the same thing with a 1070 of course but the graphics quality settings will be lower for the same frame-rate.

 

[doubletake]

Also, I did not realize that about the 1000 series as I currently use a DVI-I to run my BenQ XL2420Z at 144hz. does this mean I won't be able to run my monitor at 144hz if I upgrade to a 1080?

DVI-I is the combo port that carries both digital and analog signals. You are using DVI-D DL(digital, dual link), which Pascal cards do still have only up to the 1080 (not on the 1080Ti or the Titan Xp). However, your monitor also has DisplayPort, so you have 2 ports capaable of 1080@144Hz, so you're fine. I only brought up the first thing because I've seen many people posting on here that they can no longer use their old VGA connected displays when they purchase a current gen card, but that's a non-issue for you since your display is still pretty modern.