Graphic card upgrade from nothing to a GTX 970 or 980?

[thejedi]

So I finally am making an upgrade to a serious graphic card from the stock Intel HD series(which is basically nothing)

I've long planned for the GTX970 Strix. The card costs around 430$ in my country. And, on the other hand the 3.5GB issue, choke buzzing noises on the 970 make me think twice whether I'm putting my money on the right thing.

Secondly. Is it wise to go for a 980 over the 970?
The 980 being around 730$ here. Future proofing it for 3 years at-least, and gaming on a single 1080p with a second screen in a few months time.

 

[TechiCanadian]

If you're looking at the 980 i suggest you get 2 970 in SLI, it's cheaper and has more performance. Plus you could just buy 1 970 and see how games run on it and then if you want more performance you just buy another one and put them in sli. And not to mention that it will still be cheaper then the 980. Wait till next week. New AMD gpu's are being announced and prices might drop!

Hope I helped you

-Byron

 

[coozie7]

I think most of the coil whine issues have been sorted by now and the 3.5Gb issue is really not a problem, even on dual screens.
Agree with TechiCanadian about the GTX980, dual GTX970s offer a better all round solution but TBH even on dual 1080 screens a single GTX970 is a strong performer and either solution is going to be a 'WOW!' upgrade from integrated.
There's also the new R9 Fury from AMD to come, it's a top end part so it's likely to be expensive, but only time will tell about its price and actual performance, keep your eyes peeled on or around the 16th when it's due to be launched.
If Fury is as good as it looks from the leaked data and it's priced well, you could see Nvidia dropping the price of the GTX980, don't expect to see much happening with cards like the TitanX or GTX980Ti, though, TitanX is too much of a niche product and the '980Ti is still virtually unavailable.
If you're not adverse to their extra heat and cooling requirements the R9 290/290X may very well also drop in price as E-tailers try to shift their existing stocks once the R3XX cards get released along with Fury on the 16th. Maybe. 😉

 

[thejedi]

Thank you coozie7 & TechiCanadian.
Will be picking the gtx970 itself. It all makes sense; the 980 seems like a really bad choice in terms of price/performance ratio. Will probably SLI the 970 in the future if need be.