GTX 970 vs 980 and in SLI

[Thomas13524]

hello! i scrapped the idea of getting a 295x2 and im going for nvidia. now what im wondering is would it be better to get a 970 now and SLI it in a couple months, or do the same with the 980. i can get the 970 for around 325-350. and the 980 is around 500-550. is it worth the extra 200$ to get a 980 and sli later or am i better off with 2 970s. Thank you in advance!

 

[HumdrumPenguin]

Haven't you heard any of the problems with the 970 lately? Go for the 980, specially if you wanna SLI later, due to less fast vram on the 970.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Just do two gtx 970s. Gtx 980s only have 14% more performance increase while paying a whole lot more for it.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Haven't you heard any of the problems with the 970 lately? Go for the 980, specially if you wanna SLI later, due to less fast vram on the 970.

That doesn't matter. even if you do max out the vram, it's only gona give you very few FPS lower than normal.

 

[Robertwhyte]

2 970's... the $400 that you would other wise spend on 2 980's could go towards a 4K monitor.

 

[Robertwhyte]

Haven't you heard any of the problems with the 970 lately? Go for the 980, specially if you wanna SLI later, due to less fast vram on the 970.

the performance loss is completely negligible, please stop giving bad advice.

 

[Thomas13524]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yeah ill be gaming on a 1440p monitor so im not sure how hard ill have to push those 970s to max out the vram.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yeah ill be gaming on a 1440p monitor so im not sure how hard ill have to push those 970s to max out the vram.

4GB is a lot, so you should be fine.

 

[Thomas13524]

and they say its only like 1-3% drop in speeds compared to a 980 running the same thing. thanks again cleared any doubts i had.

 

[bob2004]

I'll just drop this here http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/2tu86z/discussion_i_benchmarked_gtx_970s_in_sli_at_1440p/

Unless they fix the 970's with a driver or hardware update go with the 980 or 290x, 290x2.

 

[Thomas13524]

I'll just drop this here http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/2tu86z/discussion_i_benchmarked_gtx_970s_in_sli_at_1440p/

Unless they fix the 970's with a driver or hardware update go with the 980 or 290x, 290x2.

I dont play watch dogs or BF4 and such 😛 crysis 3 maybe, tomb raider, and definitely assassins creed unity.. im okay with high instead of ultra on 1440P lol.

 

[bob2004]

That isn't the point, any modern game that will fill up you're ram over 3.5gb will cause stuttering esp in sli.

"The GTX 970 is a 3.5gb card. It will perform horribly once 3.5gb of Vram is used and is a deal breaker to many high resolution enthusiasts.

However, if you don't run into the Vram cap (1080p, not a AAA fan), then the card is a very strong performer. Extremely well optimized games like Battlefield 4 will run like butter, but I don't see this card holding its value with texture modded games such as Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto, etc.

Overall, I think the 970 still makes sense for 1080p 144hz users and casual 1440p gamers. As for it being an enthusiast class GPU.. well, I guess it will depend on the game. Since you can't see what future games will bring, I wouldn't pick this card up if I were looking for longevity above 1080p. "

 

[Thomas13524]

That isn't the point, any modern game that will fill up you're ram over 3.5gb will cause stuttering esp in sli.

"The GTX 970 is a 3.5gb card. It will perform horribly once 3.5gb of Vram is used and is a deal breaker to many high resolution enthusiasts.

However, if you don't run into the Vram cap (1080p, not a AAA fan), then the card is a very strong performer. Extremely well optimized games like Battlefield 4 will run like butter, but I don't see this card holding its value with texture modded games such as Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto, etc.


Overall, I think the 970 still makes sense for 1080p 144hz users and casual 1440p gamers. As for it being an enthusiast class GPU.. well, I guess it will depend on the game. Since you can't see what future games will bring, I wouldn't pick this card up if I were looking for longevity above 1080p. "

I read the article. i know what im getting into lol. when my 970 comes in. ill be running on ONE 1440p monitor. and i have no problem playing on 1080p if need lol. im not a hardcore gamer. i just want to get smooth framerates at 1080p or 1440p. like i said i can always turn down the settings it not a problem for me. i dont plan on playing on 3 4k monitors and expecting 100000 fps with 970s..and if i was planning on playing 4k maximum and 1440p maximum on aaa titles i wouldnt be planning on getting a 970.

 

[Thomas13524]

and as the guy who did the benchmarks just said "overall i think the 970 still makes sense for 1080p 144hz users and casual 1440p gamers.." i fall directly into that category.

 

[Xrues2715]

Haven't you heard any of the problems with the 970 lately? Go for the 980, specially if you wanna SLI later, due to less fast vram on the 970.

Nvidia fixed that "disabled" ram error with their latest driver. My gtx 970 now runs with 4GB of vram

 

[curaven]

Haven't you heard any of the problems with the 970 lately? Go for the 980, specially if you wanna SLI later, due to less fast vram on the 970.

Nvidia fixed that "disabled" ram error with their latest driver. My gtx 970 now runs with 4GB of vram

source?

 

[chenw]

I run SLI 970's on 1440p and haven't seen any major problems with the games I have played. Granted, my most recent memory hog game is AC:U (no Watch Dogs, SoM, etc).

But I can say with almost certainty that a single 980 most likely won't be able to handle the settings I currently have for the 970's.