Buying a 970 help please.

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cibie01

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May 28, 2014
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Hi every one.
I have saved a budget of 300 pounds to upgrade to a new GPU and could i have some advice please as i am tempted by a 970 but so many different types and versions i am struggling to work out whats right for me.

i only game in 1080p on a single monitor and have no intent on changing any of that if that helps.

at the moment i am running i5 4690K OC to 4.4 + AMD R9 270x dual 4 gig.
PSU CX 600M (i might have to change this)
MB Asrock H97 Pro4
16 gig ram

basically i am not bothered about looks or street cred or anything like that i just want the best performing GPU up to 300 pounds to max my simulators and driving games out.
but i dont want to go AMD again i want to move away from AMD so please can you pick asus/gigabyte or some other manufacture.

could anybody give me a rough idea what the performance difference is between my present R9 270x and a new GTX 970 is it like wow what a difference or not a lot of difference i might be disappointed.

(thinking along the lines of this but is this the best performing/fastest 970 there is?)
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/20-pounds-cashback-asus-geforce-gtx-970-directcu-ii-oc-strix-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-352-as.html

thank you in advance for any help.

Mark :)
 
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In terms of performance, every GTX 970 you see in stores should be more or less the same. Nvidia manufactures the GTX 970 chip while the different companies slap their fans onto the card.

The difference between each card is essentially their cooling system. some may be quieter while some may keep the card cooler. Some cards are also factory overclocked but you could always do so by yourself. It's not difficult to OC GPUs.

So which card should you choose ? Choose the cheapest.


Benchmarks:
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You listed "AMD R9 270x dual 4 gig" in your specs. Were you referring to a Sapphire r9 270x dual-x ?!?

Regardless, if I were in your situation, here is what I would do:


* Buy the i7-4790 + GTX 970 for approximately £500; £200 over your budget.
* Sell the R9 270X on Ebay; even a basic R9 270X will fetch at least £80.
* Sell the i5-4690k on Ebay; it will fetch at least £120.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£245.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£265.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £511.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-28 07:04 GMT+0000


Ebay UK query: R9 270x (sold / completed)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=AMD+R9+270x&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.XR9+270x.TRS0&_nkw=R9+270x&_sacat=0

Ebay UK query: i5-4690k (sold / completed)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=i5+4690K&LH_ItemCondition=4&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC0.A0.H0.Xi5+4690K+-pc.TRS0&_nkw=i5+4690K+-pc&_sacat=0
 
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Thank you for all your feed back i have read and watched everything very interesting.

sorry yes its a Sapphire r9 270x dual-x 4 gig.

my main items are things like euro truck2/gta5/project cars/assetto corsa/kerbal space/train sim 2015/dirt rally/wreck fest/beam ng/ etc and soon American truck sim....
would love to have the fps to run things like project cars on ultra at 60 fps i can just manage that now with most of the details turned down or of.

thanks for telling me the major difference is the fan put on by the different companies, honestly i will be going for a quiet as possible version (maybe asus) as i hate the sound of my AMD R9 270x its all i can hear as i have a case full of notuas so annoying, and since i updated to crimson last week my card seems to run around 20c hotter even at tick over and i havn't touched nothing.

thanks again for the help lads very greatfull.
 
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all you need is a gtx 970, the asus strix is probably the best one yes

silly stuff selling your current cpu for an i7 for gaming


change the power supply when you can, as it is low quality
 
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Yes of coarse i will update once i have had the time to get out and grab myself one, i am looking forward to seeing the results.

on the subject Maxalge of the PSU just a quick question if you dont mind, if in the near future as games and software get more demanding the GTX 970 will of coarse become yesterdays news and will be beaten by far better GPU's on the market.
so would buying a 2nd in sli make much sense as in the performance gains do's it make much difference having that extra kick from the 2nd GPU but of coarse the memory stays as 4gig.
was thinking the price of 970's will fall by the time i need another update so is this a sensible option for the future to add another?.

if the answer is yes then what size PSU would you recommend to run both to future proof me kind of thing?.

thanks.

Mark.
 
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If you plan on SLI-ing I would go with the 390, 3.5gb of vram is not gonna cut it in 3 years.

The 970 is a better card in every possible aspect on 1080p today but down the road you will see the limitations of that memory .. my recommendation would be to get the 970 only if you are gonna sell it after 1-2 years and upgrade to something else, like the pascal lineup not yet announced (this is what I did).
 
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Ok thank you ael00 for that info you have a very good point there.

over my afternoon of reseaching the net i have kind of fallen in love with this 970.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-970-g1-gaming-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-147-gi.html

the performance on paper and the hundreds of reviews from customers i have just read seem to make this card stand out above the rest.
it has the quietness that i really want while having them mad speeds to give me my performance.

so your right it makes sense i guess to go for one of these and then when its starting to become out of date things like top end 980's etc will becoming sensible money and upgrade that way.

boy this has been so complicated why can't we just have say two 970's to chose from lol.

its saying 550w is needed so do's that mean my CX 600M is a defo no no or will i be ok using a single card with no sli.

thanks.

Mark.
 
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As I'm running dual 970's with a ten year old 620w PSU I reckon you'll have no problems running a single 970 on your current PSU.
 
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600W is more than enough, 970s are quite efficient. I own the g1 aswell and can confirm it is very quiet, I can't hear it besides my case fans, mostly sits at 40-50% fan speed while gaming @50-65C, with a mild overclock, nothing crazy. Probably the most silent of the 970s, it is also one of the priciest though but the clock speed is huge on them which is awesome.
 
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A CX 600 will run any 970 fine mate.
The g1 is a good card but I wouldn't buy one at that price point.
The exoc black Infinit8 is as fast , better built & £20 cheaper - it would be my first choice because I own one myself.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/kfa2-geforce-gtx-970-oc-silent-infin8-black-edition-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-world-gx-010-gx.html

As a second choice it would be the strix because at that price & with cash back bringing it down to £237 its a bonafide bargain.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/20-pounds-cashback-asus-geforce-gtx-970-directcu-ii-oc-strix-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-352-as.html

As I said nothing against the gigabyte but its simply not good value at £280 - that's a fact.
 
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Thanks lads for the PSU info, i will look in to changing for a better quality very soon.

well i have hit the sales and found myself a GTX 970 G1 gaming for 250 so was very happy with that and now a proud owner.
before i install this in to my gaming rig i have been reading how your suppose to boot up in safe mode and run a program to remove all old drivers.
is that really the case can i just do the normal control panel/uninstall programs and remove any AMD stuff like Crimson/gaming app etc and then install my 970?.

thanks again for the help with the PSU and everything else.

Mark.
 
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TBH I don't bother with any of that I just install the card and drivers but if it makes you feel better going through all that then do so.
 
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Great advice worked a treat thank you matt :).

Well the 970 is now in i am over the moon with it a very good quality bit of kit in every way indeed.
i am amazed at how cool it runs and so quiet some thing i was really wanting, i did experience terrible coil whine when i first tested it but i remember reading it only whines if its working over your refresh rate for your monitor so once G sync was turned on not a sound out of it no matter how much you push it and rock solid 60 fps just brilliant.

one thing i am baffled by though.
i read that it comes stock at around 1330 GPU clock on boost and 7000 memory and can be OC as high as 1500.
well i just run mine in Heaven to benchmark it and its reading GPU clock 1530 and memory 3550?.
so why is my card already OC'ed to the max and my memory at half speed and a swear i have not touched a thing i dont even know what software i am suppose to use with this card to OC i always had AMD before.

some quick results out of heaven for you.

AMD R9 270x GPU 1150 memory 1450 average fps 38.7 score 973 min fps 21 max fps 87.1
GTX970 G1 GPU 1530 memory 3550 average fps 56.7 score 1437 min fps 27.9 max fps 120.7

benchmark on dirt rally

R9 total frames 8480 average fps 41.29 min fps 32.74 max fps 61.03
GTX 970 total frames 12.323 average fps 60.00 min fps 57.58 max fps 61.84 (Gsync on)

very very happy with this thank you to every one who has posted there help above.

Mark.
 
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Welcome to the g1 club mate. :) hope it servers you well!

heaven reports false clock speeds. try using MSI afterburner, although that overestimates for me a bit aswell. The only correct reading I can get is from nvidia's inspector and GPUz.

As for the memory clock in the case of GDDR5 memory maxwell uses you have to muliply the clock by 2, meaning 3500 memory clock = 7000 mhz. Cpmsequently if you choose to OC the card further a +200 mhz offset gets you an actual 400 mhz speed. Maybe someone more qualified can explain why exactly that is.

 
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G1 club feel great thanks 😉
I have just down loaded afterburner so will give that a try soon (i am on my none gaming rig at the moment).
thanks for the info on maxwell and the memory i did not know that i have to get used to all this but it was so good to delete crimson earlyer bye bye lol.

you know what i am so impressed with this card from the performance down to the looks just stunning , i think the only thing i would change is the position of the power plugs from the front to the very end but its no big deal just looks a bit untidy as it is through the window.

will report back with my afterburner findings when i get them done.

happy new year to everyone hope 2016 brings you all many many Gigs of happiness lol.

Mark.
 
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Hi, as promised i am reporting back after owning my 970 for a few weeks now.

have to say i love this GPU everything i wanted and more.
its running so quiet even under heavy load and the temps are topping out around 55 just crazy realy.

as for the performance it just blows my old R9270 away and its still running at stock speeds i have no need to OC it yet but in the future its nice to know i have the extra power when/if i should need it.

as for the looks i would say just beautiful, the windforce logo looks great as my case is an all blue theme and the build quality with that back plate is very impressive indeed well worth the month for that version of the cooler.

so in short very quiet, very cool running, looks great and i cant thank every one enough who took the time to help me out picking this 970 version.

oh i am so happy with the way my rig looks these days i just treated my self to a Corsair air 540 case now thats put the finishing touches to everything.

thanks again.

Mark. :)
 
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In my opinion, the best GTX 970 is definitely the MSI GTX 970 (Which I personally have.) as for such a lower price, it's performance is only 10% less than the GTX 980 and only slightly bit more than GTX 970s by other manufacturers.

 
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