GTX 780 Ti or GTX 970?

[LoufasGR]

Title says it all.
I can get the 780ti used for 320 euros and 970 used for 360 euros.

For gaming at 1080p with i5 4670k + 8gb ram.

 

[zqa20]

I'd go with the 970

 

[sizzling]

I'd go for the 970. I have a 780 and game at 1080p and have been hitting 3gb vram usage, my guess is this will be more common in future. Also some recent games perform really well on the 9xx series, better than some older but more powerful card, such as Project Cars

 

[RussellWilson]

I'd go with the 970

So you'd pay $40 more for a lesser card?

 

[LoufasGR]

Οr should I got for a 290x?

 

[XMorsX]

780ti is a bit stronger, but you probably take it second-hand. If 970 is brand new, I would rather have 970. Otherwise, 780ti, as long as you have a proper PSU.

 

[zqa20]

It's not a lesser card you will have +0.5 extra vram and after overclocking you will get (or get close) to a stock 980.

 

[Derza10]

The gtx 780 Ti is more powerful than the GTX 970 (~10%). And in your case its cheaper... I'd go with it.

 

[XMorsX]

Οr should I got for a 290x?

For 1080p, the other are better cards overall.

 

[LoufasGR]

Both cards are used.

 

[RussellWilson]

It's not a lesser card you will have +0.5 extra vram and after overclocking you will get (or get close) to a stock 980.

It is a lesser card than the 780ti, the 0.5+ vram is meaningless. The 780ti can overclock too, in fact... an overclocked 780ti is about equal to an overclocked 980.

 

[Tchota]

where do you live, that GTX 970 seems to be too expensive for a 2nd hand card.

The GTX 780 ti performs slightly better at older games, but in new games the difference disappears. So, since the GTX 970 have lower power consumption a more 523mb of vram, you should buy one GTX 970.

Tom's Hardware - Benchmark 28 Noise Idle
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1072?vs=1355
http://www.techspot.com/review/1006-the-witcher-3-benchmarks/page4.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/917-far-cry-4-benchmarks/page4.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/991-gta-5-pc-benchmarks/page3.html

 

[LoufasGR]

I live in Greece...G1 Gaming (the only that I have been offered fro 355 euros used) costs 400 new... 🙁

 

[sizzling]

In my opinion games are using more and more VRAM and that trend will only continue, I've already hit the 3gb VRAM on my card while at 1080p. If given this choice I would take the 970, I certainly wouldnt invest in a last gen card if I was looking for something to last a while

 

[sizzling]

That only a 11% saving, I wouldn't pay more than 70% for a used item.

 

[photonboy]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_970_STRIX_OC/25.html

1) *GTX970 and GTX780Ti are nearly IDENTICAL once overclocked as the 970 is only a bit behind at stock but overclocks better.

2) GTX970 runs much quieter (most models can turn fans off during light/medium usage)

3) GTX970 can run MFAA for supported titles (alternate to MSAA which can boost frame rate a bit)

4) GTX970 has a NEWER ARCHITECTURE which will begin to benefit newer titles more once they optimize towards it.

5) GTX970 has other features such as:
a) H.265 as well as H.264 encode
b) HDMI-> 60FPS @4K
c) HUD optimizations
d) Voxel lighting support (future games)

Summary:
On AVERAGE the cards are only 2% apart at 1080p/1440p and when overclocked the GTX970 will BEAT the GTX780Ti especially if we factor in MFAA supported titles.

And again, the lower noise, less heat, newer architecture and newer features all come together to create a more future-proofed card.

(I won't get into the "slow memory" discussion here as comparing 3.5G+.5G vs 3G is a bit confusing to the average person.)

 

[manmeetpaul]

780ti is way superior to 970. Dx11 bottlenecks it's performance. Anyways, I don't see 970 as a better card in any category but the power it requires. If you can get the 290x at a slightly lower price, it'll be a good bet.
But there's no world in which the 970 will outperform the 780ti.

 

[Derza10]

Here is a review comparing them both with max overclocks:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2401606

 

[photonboy]

Witcher 3 comparison: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/the_witcher_3_graphics_performance_review,6.html

The GTX970 got 42FPS and the GTX780Ti got 32FPS??

Just thought this was worth including. NVidia Gameworks is off so this is a bit baffling to me. Is it a mistake, or is it due to the newer architecture? I don't think it's a VRAM issue since Witcher 3 didn't use 3GB.

It will be interesting to see if future game and driver updates change this or not but as it stands now the GTX970 kicks ass in this game.

 

[Tchota]

the performance difference to GTX 970 change from game to game, but the R9 have high power consumption, so you should go with the GTX, since it will cost you less to have it.

 

[sizzling]

The big problem with the AMD option is the slow driver releases for the latest games, for that alone I am personally burnt by AMD and put off

 

[LoufasGR]

I don't really mind lowering some settings to have 50+ fps in most games...Anti aliasing isn't even noticable in most cases.

 

[photonboy]

780ti is way superior to 970. Dx11 bottlenecks it's performance. Anyways, I don't see 970 as a better card in any category but the power it requires. If you can get the 290x at a slightly lower price, it'll be a good bet.
But there's no world in which the 970 will outperform the 780ti.

Based on the TIME STAMP I doubt you read my above comment including the linked info, however your statement has been proven to be way off base. For example, you say the "780Ti is way superior to the 970" yet the link I have shows an average of 20 games showing a few percent difference and that's as I say BEFORE including any MFAA or superior overclocking benefits.

So the GTX970 on average has SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE or at the minimum the SAME if only comparing non-reference overclocked models (since the 970 overclocks better). We don't cherry pick a few games.

I also mention several NEW FEATURES which is far different than simply the power difference.

I really wish people would include BENCHMARKS especially ones like Techpowerup which use an average of 20 games instead of spouting ignorance (not insulting you, ignorance simply means you are misinformed not stupid).

If on a budget there are some great R9-290X cards like the ASUS DCII model which I saw after rebate for $240USD. Significantly lower price for roughly 90% of the performance though again like the GTX780Ti it's missing some features and the 970 would pull ahead with non-reference overclock + MFAA. It also pulls ahead with some current games and will tend to more in the future once it's newer architecture is better utilized.

The R9-290X does have the advantage of not having the "slow memory" issue which complicates things for the GTX970. It may be slightly slower but isn't going to stutter due to slow memory. Unfortunately the extent of the issue is unclear on the 970. Is it minor? Yes, now. Will it get worse in the future when games use more memory? Yes, unless some workaround is found.

(Games can use "pools" of memory and shift currently unused data to the slow portion though very few are intelligent enough currently to make this a non-issue on the GTX970. My recommended solution would be to DISABLE the slow memory for game usage and only allow it for Windows data unless a better solution is found.)

 

[LoufasGR]

I bought the 970 for 330 euros...I want to play games at 1080p maybe at 1200p in the near future..Will this card be enough?I can still refund it and get a 290x.

 

[manmeetpaul]

290x is better at higher resolutions. Period. Also, once dx12 comes, 290x will outperform 970