Question Gtx 970 to 980, or is this pointless?

[okjak808]

The market of GPU’s today is so screwed. 1050 non ti or ti versions being sold at least 150 dollars. 1060’s being sold 180 dollars or 200 even just for the 3gb version. 1070’s costing over 200 while the cheapest 250 dollars.

I’m about to sell my 970 as someone on craigs wants to buy it for 80 dollars because it’s a reasonable price then trying to rip off someone selling a RX 580 for 150 dollars. Yesterday someone was selling an Asus 1060 6gb for 100 dollars on Craigslist which was a REALLY good deal but it sold it out less than an hour dammit...

While I’m trying to contact this person selling a 1070 for 225 dollars but after he left me on read on IMessage he deleted his post so I assumed it was sold but come at least tell me in advance then leaving me on read.

I’m guessing COVID is ruining the market or idk, I have 140 dollars at hand and if I sell my 970 I would at least get 220 dollars while being so close to buying that 1070 I mentioned earlier but ram out of luck.

My only choice is a 980 since it’s being sold at reasonable price I guess, it has 4Gb of VRAM unlike the 1060 3gb which is a bit slower than the 980 and the 970 by like 20 percent. Most being sold on eBay at least 180 dollars or straight 200.

I’m really desperate right now and it’s really hard to find good deals and whoever I do they’re gone by the time I even try getting it. Should I gets 980 or wait I understand that performance increase isn’t a lot but I wanna hear what you guys think.

Also I can’t buy off of others that requires a credit card or debit because I don’t have sort of payments like that, something like Amazon or eBay gift cards is what I can use, or meet up with people from Craigslist.

Get the 980?
Wait for a better deal again?

Edit: I understand the 980 is a bit old and newer cards like the 1060 3gb would be better cause of newer architecture and more efficient. Thought tbh I don’t care about that as I’m sure most don’t because all they want is the performance.

 

[Colif]

why do you want to upgrade? the difference isn't really worth it. its such a tiny jump. Better stick with what you have and see if market becomes less crazy than it is now.

 

[madmatt30]

So how much are you getting for the 970?

How much could you get a 980 for?

Its worth maybe throwing an extra $50 in for a 970 to 980 upgrade at the absolute max.

Any more than that and it's absolutely not worth it.

The 980 is showing its age as much as the 970 now, the performance inrease isn't substantial enough to drop a lot of money on it.

 

[Gam3r01]

Well, you nailed the current state of the GPU market, but there is one important aspect missing.

Do you need an upgrade? What for?

Unless its vital that you need a marginally better card, I would save your money until the market settles.

 

[okjak808]

So how much are you getting for the 970?

How much could you get a 980 for?

Its worth maybe throwing an extra $50 in for a 970 to 980 upgrade at the absolute max.

Any more than that and it's absolutely not worth it.

The 980 is showing its age as much as the 970 now, the performance inrease isn't substantial enough to drop a lot of money on it.

That is true I just thought maybe extra frames would benefit me cause I like to play games with reasonable frames while looking good. I’m thinking about playing COD MW with a 1440p monitor and I’m not sure if it’ll be enough, and I’m trying run gta 5 with shaders mod but I’m getting like 40-50 frames and it stutters. (970 being fully utilized while CPU not so much at least 30%)

I play a bit of PUBG on the lowest to get smoother frame rates but again it stutters too much like yeah PUBG isn’t optimized very well though.
(Again 970 being fully utilized)

I have no bottleneck as my GPU always utilizes at a 100 percent, even with my old i7-3770 it’s still holding up, long ago I had a i5-3570 which was a little bottleneck but it wasn’t noticeable.

Games in the future I might be thinking of playing in the future.

Cod Cold War (not maxed out but at least have some good graphical settings with reasonable frames)

Cyberpunk 2077 (if bugs are fixed since many say that it’s really bugged, but of course no RTX but just like Cold War at least have decent graphical settings)

Minecraft shaders (sues, or BSL with some textures having reflections, my 970 struggles whenever I add textures like that.

BF1 maxed out at 1440p (I’m a bit late but I’m
Thinking about getting this game mainly for the story mode and not multiplayer.)

 

[okjak808]

why do you want to upgrade? the difference isn't really worth it. its such a tiny jump. Better stick with what you have and see if market becomes less crazy than it is now.

Yeah that should be a good idea I should at least sell my card though cause I really feel bad if I were to cancel it, plus it’ll do me good at least if there were to be another good deal I can immediately buy it. I won’t have a card anymore but the wait will be with it at least.

 

[okjak808]

Yeah that should be a good idea I should at least ask my card though cause I really feel bad if I were to cancel it, plus it’ll do me good at least if there were to be another good deal I can immediately buy it.

Well, you nailed the current state of the GPU market, but there is one important aspect missing.

Do you need an upgrade? What for?

Unless its vital that you need a marginally better card, I would save your money until the market settles.

I’ve been really wanting to upgrade my GPU for soo long but I never had the chance, and this is pretty much the highest GPU I’ve ever gotten, while the worst was the gt 710 cause I was a newbie. Also as I said earlier I’m thinking about playing a few games in the future at 1440p with good graphical settings but reasonable frames.

 

[Gam3r01]

I’ve been really wanting to upgrade my GPU for soo long but I never had the chance, and this is pretty much the highest GPU I’ve ever gotten, while the worst was the gt 710 cause I was a newbie. Also as I said earlier I’m thinking about playing a few games in the future at 1440p with good graphical settings but reasonable frames.

The upgrade to a 980 most likely wouldnt allow you to do what youd want anyway, so saving your money until things settle would be a good plan. You would get more out of your money that way.
I also know that pain, started on a 5450 and im still running a 290.

 

[Colif]

what CPU are you using?

I wouldn't sell my only GPU if I needed it myself to still use PC.

you are doing it backwards, you should buy new card and then sell the old one, not this way. This way you might not have anything.

define reasonable frames. I had a GTX 980 before, it was okay at running 4k at 60 with not the greatest effects settings, but I don't know how much faster it could run 1440p, as I didn't get a 1440p 144hz monitor until 2 months ago.

 

[madmatt30]

The issue here is that the 9** series are really showing their age now.

I've always said that AMD cards age better and the irrefutable fact is that the amd rx 580 matches or beats a 980ti in a lot of modern titles.

Thats a card that you're stating is a ripoff at $150 but you're looking at probably paying more out for a 980 non ti.

Keep your 970 for a while, letting it go for $80 is madness in the current gpu climate - not surprised you'd get your hand snatched off for that.

Yes it's a medium setting card at best now on newer titles but it at least plays them with decent fps if you tinker with settings.

The benefits of configurable pc gaming!

I know it's infuriating at the minute, prices are crazy but you're better holding off while you actually have a card you can game on.

 

[okjak808]

The upgrade to a 980 most likely wouldnt allow you to do what youd want anyway, so saving your money until things settle would be a good plan. You would get more out of your money that way.
I also know that pain, started on a 5450 and im still running a 290.

Not knowing much about amd cards but I’ve thought the 290 was better than the 970 but I was wrong.

I was about to get a RX5500XT for 205 dollars in eBay but it sold out really quick and now they’re at the 300 hundreds.

 

[okjak808]

what CPU are you using?

I wouldn't sell my only GPU if I needed it myself to still use PC.

you are doing it backwards, you should buy new card and then sell the old one, not this way. This way you might not have anything.

define reasonable frames. I had a GTX 980 before, it was okay at running 4k at 60 with not the greatest effects settings, but I don't know how much faster it could run 1440p, as I didn't get a 1440p 144hz monitor until 2 months ago.

Frames at least 50 or higher. I also heard that the 980 is good at 4K just not at high settings or depends on the games.

I know as I said earlier I was so close to getter a 1060 6gb which should be a good upgrade since it’s newer and with the extra vram, but it sold out soo fast, it would’ve been nice to keep my 970 if the 1060 wasn’t sold out.

Also I had another 970 which was a gigabyte G1 but it died. During that time I was in a really tight on budget and the 970 I have rn is a replacement. I was really thinking of upgrading during that time but not being able to work, and it’s really hard to earn money since I earn cash by selling what I don’t need.
(During this time I did not work with my grandpa)

Should I wait and get the 1080, someone on Craigslist is selling a FTW 1080 for 300 dollars do you think it’s worth it?

If I sell my 970 I get 220 in total, plus another 70 dollars if I work with my grandpa on sundays (not an actual job just there to help him and his friends and I get paid) though I’ve just started doing this recently and it’s not going to last.

Also I have a i7-3770 if I were to go to a higher resolution my CPU bottleneck will decrease since the GPU would have to work harder.

 

[Colif]

i don't know, i have watched enough videos to know I wouldn't buy anything from Craigslist. I like to buy things from stores that exist a few days or years after I purchase goods... though I guess its better than Wish.com.

Is 980 new or 2nd hand? You wouldn't have any idea if its going to last another few months... I have a broken 980 right now, in PC at bottom of my bed, unscrupulous people would sell that online as its actually a 980, I might even have its box still (its got my 960 in it) (980 replaced 960 when I got a 4k monitor). hard to fake the videos of it in game but I am sure there is a way. I am not going to though as I am honest, and I like having a spare gpu to put in my spare PC if I need it.

You better off with the card you have now and wait.

 

[okjak808]

The issue here is that the 9** series are really showing their age now.

I've always said that AMD cards age better and the irrefutable fact is that the amd rx 580 matches or beats a 980ti in a lot of modern titles.

Thats a card that you're stating is a ripoff at $150 but you're looking at probably paying more out for a 980 non ti.

Keep your 970 for a while, letting it go for $80 is madness in the current gpu climate - not surprised you'd get your hand snatched off for that.

Yes it's a medium setting card at best now on newer titles but it at least plays them with decent fps if you tinker with settings.

The benefits of configurable pc gaming!

I know it's infuriating at the minute, prices are crazy but you're better holding off while you actually have a card you can game on.

Yeah I’ve seen videos with the 580 vs 970 and even with the 980. While the 980 beats both of them but pairs with the 580 in some cases only because of support and if it were the 8gb version of the 580 it would beat it because of higher vram count but in some cases it still pairs with the 980 as I saw in the video.

But I also heard that the 580 runs hot and has a high power consumption I think 220 watts under load idk, while the 980 165 (did research).

Also there’s a post on Craigslist where a guy is selling an RX 570 for 120 dollars with a broken fan...

I remember buying a 1050 for 70 dollars during 2019, and now they cost as much as a 970 (mid 100 dollars)

1060 6gb versions sold out pretty quick when being priced the same as the 3gb version I’m so confused, while just 2 months ago eBay was flooded with 1070’s being at 190 dollars plus 20 for shipping or straight 200 dollars with free shipping. Now they cost over 250 dollars or 300, damn I guess It’s a bad time to find a better GPU.

My dream card was at least a 1070 or a 1080 and i don’t really care about RTX cards, or the new 16 series. I wanna make this happen before I graduate high school and head to the Air Force because I only have a few months left...

 

[Krotow]

Keep in mind that RTX 2xxx and 3xxx and AMD 5xxx and 6xxx require adequate case size (they usually are "long" cards), proper PSU and cooling. If the rest of your system came from era when GTX 970 was designed then you may require different PSU and case too.

 

[okjak808]

Keep in mind that RTX 2xxx and 3xxx and AMD 5xxx and 6xxx require adequate case size (they usually are "long" cards), proper PSU and cooling. If the rest of your system came from era when GTX 970 was designed then you may require different PSU and case too.

My rm750 should be enough for a long time as for my NZXT case not too sure besides that I’m not really into RTX or XT series cards.

 

[Adam65]

Currently have a gtx980 gigabyte g1, here is my FPS scores;
Cyberpunk 2077: all ultra, 25-35(Currently held by CPU, gpu usage is at %80-%95-cpu -%100
Rocket league:ultra 130-160 fps
Apex legends: x16 all ultra 100-130 fps
2018 Tomb raider : Ultimate 100-140 fps
Haven't tried the shadow of the tomb raider but i will get it today
Theese scores were on 1920x1080
Hope it helps
also i dont think a 8gb rx 580 can compete with this, it might be versions but i think gtx 980 is a beast

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgE_cMnz_0w&feature=youtu.be

Here's the cyberpunk video i made, sadly the nvidia benchmark didn't show up, it was getting around 25-35

 

[okjak808]

Currently have a gtx980 gigabyte g1, here is my FPS scores;
Cyberpunk 2077: all ultra, 25-35(Currently held by CPU, gpu usage is at %80-%95-cpu -%100
Rocket league:ultra 130-160 fps
Apex legends: x16 all ultra 100-130 fps
2018 Tomb raider : Ultimate 100-140 fps
Haven't tried the shadow of the tomb raider but i will get it today
Theese scores were on 1920x1080
Hope it helps
also i dont think a 8gb rx 580 can compete with this, it might be versions but i think gtx 980 is a beast

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgE_cMnz_0w&feature=youtu.be

Here's the cyberpunk video i made, sadly the nvidia benchmark didn't show up, it was getting around 25-35

Well with the 980 that’s not bad actually, but someone is selling me a gtx 980 ti for 220 dollars do you think it’s worth it?

 

[Adam65]

https://imgur.com/Eng5ygv

View: https://imgur.com/Eng5ygv

Benchmark at 4k, and i bought my gtx 980 for $200(I know its too high but at theese times its impossible to get cheaper cards for me)

I mean I'm happy with my 1080p monitor with this card, ran everything on ultra, 980 Ti would even be more beast

Also beware 980 ti uses 3 total cables(I think 8+8+6) Thats why i couldnt buy it
And perhaps if you get the gigabyte g1 edition of 980 Ti or the zotac 980 Ti AMP(This one i love) You can beat gtx 1070 easily with the high overclocks

 

[okjak808]

https://imgur.com/Eng5ygv

View: https://imgur.com/Eng5ygv

Benchmark at 4k, and i bought my gtx 980 for $200(I know its too high but at theese times its impossible to get cheaper cards for me)

I mean I'm happy with my 1080p monitor with this card, ran everything on ultra, 980 Ti would even be more beast

Also beware 980 ti uses 3 total cables(I think 8+8+6) Thats why i couldnt buy it
And perhaps if you get the gigabyte g1 edition of 980 Ti or the zotac 980 Ti AMP(This one i love) You can beat gtx 1070 easily with the high overclocks

Yes I heard that overcooking the 980 ti would pair up with the 1070. Thought the 1070 has more vram and it’s more efficient.

I’m about to get the MSI’s version of the 980 TI for 220 dollars, so it has 2+8 pins and I have a rm750 so it should be enough.

 

[Adam65]

You won't regret! Enjoy, that's a pretty good deal in my eyes

 

[okjak808]

You won't regret! Enjoy, that's a pretty good deal in my eyes

Once again bad luck strikes me...

It turns out the person who posted the 980 ti was trying to scam me. So he posted a photo of the fans side of GPU which is a MSI GTX 9XX card. At first it looked like a 980 ti while not a non ti or 970 because they both have white sticker logos on the fan.

So I then searched up the GTX 960 MSI’s version, and what do you know it has the same red logo stickers on the fan like the 980 ti, although since the person who posted the GPU on Craig’s only took a photo of the fan side of the card so I couldn’t tell if it had a backplate or not.

So instead I closely inspected the heat pipes of the 960 and compared the Craigslist so called 980 ti card, and you guessed it they looked similar.

Damn I was really excited and I guess I would say this is my fault as well for not asking him to take pictures, though I did but he said he was busy playing a game. At the last minute he then looked at the back of the card and told me it was a 960...

More so if a newbie were to come across this post he would’ve gotten scammed 250 dollars for a 960 so it’s a good thing I came across it first.

Although I do have other options, a 1070 for 250 dollars, or a 1080 for 300 I understand the 1080 is a better but is it with waiting extra for the 1080, and since I have a i7-3770 will it bottleneck, I do have a 1080p 75hz and 1440p 144hz but I plan on using the 1440p, so will it bottleneck if I were to get one of the cards?

I could also go for a 980 ti hybrid in eBay for 250?

 

[Adam65]

The higher the resolution the less bottlenecking, if you can get a 1080 for $300 Get that, GTX 1080 beats 980Ti in every ways

Also look for a person that accepts what you offer(Furmark test, meetup in his home)

 

[spentshells]

980 from 970 isn't worth it, get the rx 580 if ya can. They are pretty great still for 1080P

 

[okjak808]

The higher the resolution the less bottlenecking, if you can get a 1080 for $300 Get that, GTX 1080 beats 980Ti in every ways

Also look for a person that accepts what you offer(Furmark test, meetup in his home)

The 1080 would be nice but it sold out pretty quick. On eBay I saw a 1070 8gb hybrid water cooled on auction, and it was 4 hours from ending. No one was bidding so I instead took my chance to offer the seller 260 dollars and went to bed.

After waking up I surprisingly get the notification telling me that the seller accepted my offer, looks like luck finally strikes me.

Though the payment has to wait till Sunday, or Monday since not having a debit or credit card I would have to get a gift card.