GeForce GTX 960, 970 or 980?

[SisXtian]

Greetings. I'm about to shell out some money for a new graphics card, and I have done some research, but I'm seeing a lot of problems and I don't know if I'm just being paranoid or what. First of all, I currently have a GeForce GTX 480 that I purchased 4 years ago. It's plagued with heat problems and I get the BSOD when I push it. It hasn't been overclocked or anything. And I want to make sure I upgrade to something that is not going to be as annoying as the 480 has been.

This is NOT for a gaming system. I work on video graphics (After Effects, Maya, and other 3D applications). I just want something I can render graphics on and have it be fast, and not worry about the computer crashing all the time.

So... I'm looking into the GTX 970. I've read the 960 is okay, but the 970 is WAY better. It's also pricier. I've also read that the 970 has a problem when it accesses memory over 3.5GB, and slows down the card considerably. I will probably be pushing it into that range with the graphics programs, and I don't want my computer to suddenly be hella slow. Otherwise, I think I'd be sold on a 970. The 960 only has 2GB of memory, so I feel like that may not be enough of an upgrade from the 480. Then I was looking at the 980 cards, and they also seem to have problems with noise (whine). And they are even pricier. I would absolutely not want to spend that much on a card and have ANY problems whatsoever.

So does anyone have experience and knowledge about these cards? Am I reading old info about them, and most of these problems have been fixed in the latest generations of the cards? All help will be appreciated.

 

[Coolboy951]

the 970 and 980 will be the best option for you

 

[17seconds]

I wouldn't worry about the overhyped memory controversy regarding the GTX 970. To date I haven't seen a single review that has shown any significant depreciation of performance. When they have identified problems, it has been while creating unrealistic gaming scenarios, specifically designed to exploit the issue.

 

[SisXtian]

Thank you for the responses. Though for some reason I am still a bit unsure about the memory controversy. Like you, I felt there was some hype about people maxing out their games and exploiting some unrealistic scenario. But I wasn't able to find anything about anyone who uses their system for 3D rendering, and how quickly that type of scenario might run into an issue. I render large scenes with 4k textures, and often render long animations. I guess maybe the best way to go is to get a 970 card that I can run through some tests and return it if some issue arises during the testing period.

I realized I forgot to mention that I'm running dual Asus monitors, each at 2560x1440 resolution. My system has 24GB of RAM. A Corsair 750W PSU. And an Intel Core i7-980X CPU. It'd probably make one hell of a gaming system. But my priority is a stable workstation.

 

[Coolboy951]

Honestly people made a very big deal out of that whole 500 mb, like the same youtubers who didnt know about it were praising the card and after finding out and they started reporting that the game play wasnt that great and all. but the 980 is a better choice for you right now.

 

[SisXtian]

Thanks. I guess I realize the 980 is a better choice, but I guess I'm having trouble justifying HOW much better it would be, and if it's worth the extra cash. It's a bit of a jump in price to go from the 970 to 980. And I'm not sure if the price is worth whatever speed increase it'll have over the 970. As you can tell, I think I'm leaning towards the 970 at this point. It's more in the price range I was expecting. And I think I'm still sore over shelling out so much cash for the 480 a while back, and its heat problems and crashing all the time.

 

[17seconds]

I like your idea to test and return the 970 if necessary. It shouldn't take more than a day or two, with Afterburner running in the background, to determine if it's meeting your high VRAM demands.

Make sure you know the store's return policy. I've been able to return cards to Best Buy, basically no questions asked, so hopefully that's the case here.

 

[DbDBlackJack]

Couldn't he run the 960's on SLI and not have to worry about the speed down while utilizing a full 4GB of VRAM? Or does it not work that way? Plus it'd be around the same $400 mark.

 

[17seconds]

Couldn't he run the 960's on SLI and not have to worry about the speed down while utilizing a full 4GB of VRAM? Or does it not work that way? Plus it'd be around the same $400 mark.

The VRAM doesn't add up, so it's only 2GB for each GPU. There are now 4GB GTX 960s though.

 

[TakeshiKudo]

970 is fine but like others have point out the memory. You'll be fine for now, but it wont be future proof. IF you dont think you will cap the 3.5GB of memory, then go with the 970. If you think 3.5GB memory isnt enough then go with the 980.

As good as the 970 and 980 are, its still manufactured on the 28nm process, instead of the 20nm like it was suppose to be. So you can expect better GPU to come out which will be real next gen 20nm or even 16nm. Rumors has it that Nvidia might skip the 20nm and go directly to 16nm. So you can expect better performance and cheaper price.