How big is the improvement from GTX960 to GTX970

[lolipedofin]

Hi, first post here and trying to build my very own first rig....

I initially planned to build a budget rig with mid end capability, using Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell and Zotac GTX 750 as the main components, but then quickly decided for a GTX 760 AMP instead.

In the end I upped the processor to i5 4690, since I will be using the PC for work as well.

Problem is, turns out I can no longer find GTX 760 AMP where I lived, and noticing that the 900 series is out, I decided to go for Zotac GTX 960 AMP, I later find out however that the 960's memory bus is only 128 bit.

So back to my question, is it that worth it to go for GTX 970? How good is GTX 960 really is? I gave the background to illustrate that even with GTX 960, I am already stretching my budget... I can afford 970, but I really wish that I can just stick with 960 if it is good enough. Please advise, thanks guys.

BTW, I am not a hardcore gamer. I will play games from time to time of course, and I do love pretty graphic, but I will mostly use my PC to:

1. Play Poker
2. Watch HD anime/TV series films.
3. Play games
4. Work

In that order. again, thanks guys.

EDIT: Based on my typical PC gaming pattern, I will most likely binge on RTS and any Strategy Games like Civilization, Europe Universalis, C&C, etc. I will also play the newer COD games, Japanese RPG (if any), Bioshock, and basically any games that strike my fancy. The only genre that I disliked are GTA-esque Open World games, Diablo-esque Western RPG and Futuristic Shooters like Unreal Tournament and Halo. Oh, I will also play tons of Visual Novels, but I doubt these are GPU intensive games... ^^;

 

[coolcole01]

at 1080p the 960 is gonna be very decent if your not trying to play seriously high fps with ultra settings the 960 wilol be more then enough. But the 970 is substantially better

 

[cst1992]

According to techpowerup.com, the 970 is 50% faster than the 960 at 1080p. If you play casual games, it may be overkill for you. But it should allow fairly demanding games to be maxed out too.
Hard to recommend it to you as I don't know what games you want to play, but if it's within your budget, get it.

 

[coozie7]

Don't be TOO worried about that 128 bit memory bus, Nvidia use some clever compression within the card that helps to overcome that, just check out the many, many reviews.

 

[cst1992]

I agree, reviews and benchmarks speak louder than theoretical specifications.

 

[bishopi5]

970 is MUCH quicker then 960